A Look Back at 19… finally!

I started writing these reviews of the Android personalities back at the end of 2017 with Android 17 in what would become a yearly tradition that lasted exactly one year with the Android 18 retrospective. And then life kind of got in the way and I never got around to writing one for Android 19, a personality I carried an active deck of for many years.

So rather than wait 100 years for my next opportunity to look back at 19, let’s go ahead and take a look at the short-lived Android’s impact on the game through his MP stack and named cards.

Let’s start with his Level 1, the only personality level that gives you a choice (and there is indeed a wrong choice).

So, yeah… The Androids Saga Lv. 1 leaves a lot to be desired and I’ve never heard of anyone using it as MP or Ally. There’s just little point to shuffling power stages from one ally to another, especially when the recipient has nothing to use those power stages for. As an MP, it’s just not a useful power in any meaningful situation.

Now the Cell Saga Lv.1 on the other hand while not very flashy is a pretty solid personality, sporting a hefty twelve power stages above 0. A built in block is never not useful, with so few personalities having access to one on their first level. Also you’ll notice here that Android 19 soft locks himself into the Orange Style with secondary effects. While he can be deployed in other styles, the extra benefits he gets with Orange makes him all but exclusive to that Tokui-Waza.

Android 19’s Level 2 is also pretty solid and (unlike a lot of personalities from this era) has synergy with his previous and next levels. With a card like Orange Fist Catch, this personality could stave off quite a few attacks from physical beats decks while Android 20 Absorbing Drill could protect you from being flanked by energy attacks.

Getting to Android 19’s Level 3 rewarded you with arguably the best attack in the game, adding two free cards to your hand. Honestly this was a difficult feat in Retro DBZ and especially in the Orange Style. A personality like this would do well in the Panini DBZ with its many paths to jump levels and the personality stack did see a slight resurgence in the DBGT Expanded format that allowed for some quick leveling up.

So Android 19 did receive a Level 4 in the form of a promo, though it’s barely worth mentioning. No real synergy with its lower levels, so unless you feared getting 1-2-3’d or wanted to have a slight MPPV opportunity there really was no reason to run this guy in your stack.

Now let’s take a look at his named cards, which surprisingly contain some of the best in the game.

Ok, obviously not this one.

Here we go, I would call this card a staple in Villain decks and the synergy it has with Orange Android 19 makes it surprisingly relevant to its namesake. It’s cards like this that made Villain decks much more appealing than Hero decks.

Eh… I mean it’s hard to scoff at an omni block with an okay secondary effect, but we can do better. With Orange Uppercut, cards like Yamcha’s Skillful Defense and Goku’s Super Saiyan Blast! were much more appealing options in Orange and their lack of vulnerability to Trunks Energy Sphere made Android 19 is Stoic a niche choice.

While not for every deck, this card definitely saw some play back in the day. Rejuvenating four cards is never a bad thing and powering up to full is just icing on the cake. This is one of those cards that’s hard to talk about because it was rarely a pivotal or clutch part of any deck it was a part of, but at the end of the day it has the most important trait of any card in your deck: reliability.

Quite possibly the best character exclusive named card in the game. Stop an attack and grab what you need depending on the situation. I’m hard pressed to name a better effect than that outside cards you build a deck around like Piccolo’s Multiform, or whatever dumb cards they kept giving Broly for some reason.

And one bonus GT card! Normally I don’t cover all the GT cards an Android got, but this is literally the only direct support that Android 19 received in all of GT. It’s okay, a better Android 19’s Energy Burst for sure but the power creep in GT and being locked to two Expanded format only characters that were largely outclassed at this point made this card more of a junk pull.

GT rules benefitted Android 19 in allowing him to jump to Level 3 pretty quickly, which made him playable at the very least but stuck in the lower tiers.

That’s all for this late entry. Expect the Android 20 write-up at some point in the next 365 days. That just leaves Androids 13, 16 and… 15? Yeah, I forgot he was even playable as a Main Personality. That’ll be a short article.

Do you remember using any of these cards? Let us know in the comments, in our Facebook group or on social media (links below).

Later BroZ!

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