Meta Watch #1 - Alien Invasion
Updated: Oct 23, 2019
Another day, another article!
Since Nats are coming up, we thought we'd do a series on Meta/Fringe/Rogue decks. I'm going to start this out with a deck that has been on the fringe for a while, but with new support for the draft box, may be worth a look as a rogue option.
Here's the list:
Now I can hear your thoughts "this is just Shenron Veggies with a worse leader" and I get why you'd think that, but there's one other difference. Champa, Destruction Augmented. This guy is the new alien/god support from Draft Box 4, and he can really push this deck up a notch.
This guy can be brought out of the drop for free with your leaders ultimate ability, so the idea is to play it on your kill turn, after you've spammed the board with Veggies. When one of your cards attacks, during battle you can tap one energy, drop two cards from hand, then all of your veggies get +10k and double strike, making even the free kale blocker a worthy hitter.
I'm getting ahead of myself here, so lets go through the plays from the beginning. Keep in mind this is assuming you have the ideal hand.
Turn 1:
Mulligan for Assembling the Squad (as many copies as you can), and obviously dragon balls. The energy you charge doesn't matter in this deck, as we generally won't be hard casting anything if we can help it. Leader skill to find our One Star Ball and another Dragon Ball. Dragon balls to draw, then One star ball with your energy to drop Champa if you have it or Squad if you are close to awakening, and neg your opponents hand by one.
Turn 2:
Leader skill to find balls, draw. Hopefully you have 7, but that's in ideal circumstances. Hard cast Squad to play Saiyan Teamwork Cabba into Caulifla. You have a few to choose from. If your opponent has 2 energy up, then you can go into one of the tap down Cauliflas to stunt them. If not, and you see Bold Super Saiyan 2 Caulifla then that is your preferred target. Caulifla then searches again and can play a few different targets in the deck, the best of which is generally the 3 Impeccable Super Saiyan Cabba.
Now Wish if you can and grab that Assembling the Squad from the drop. You can then use it again for free with the leader ability, and go through the motions as above to swarm the board even more. Generally we don't attack yet, but it always depends on what your opponent is playing. If they are self awakening and already on low life, you can try and go the conventional Veggies route and kill them here and now, but it's usually better to wait until next turn.
Turn 3:
Now ideally here you still have most if not all of your board, and it's go time. If you have another Assemble the Squad then you want to try and hit another Saiyan Teamwork Cabba with it by had casting the card. Now that you have multitudes of aliens on the board, you want to use your leaders ultimate to play Champa, Destruction Augmented from the drop area for free. The fun begins. Play any free blockers you happen to have in hand, then attack with one of your cards. During the combo phase, tap one energy to use Champa's Activate: Battle and buff all your battle cards (including Champa himself) by 10k and grant them double strike. If you have an Impeccable Saiyan Cabba or two then they are now 25k double strikers than can't have counters activated on their attacks. Swing until you overwhelm your opponent.
That is the ideal line of play for the deck. Now that won't always happen. There are a few counters to the deck that will really throw you off balance. A well timed Flying Nimbus or Toppo Righteous Aid shuts down your strategy completely for a turn. Son Goku, Striving to be the Best stops most of your battle cards from being able to attack, as does Supreme Kai of Time, Time Disruptor.
So let's look at the reasons for some of the choices in the deck.
As an alternate wincon, we have the well known Mira double strike combo, but instead of using Furthering Destruction Champa, we are using Hidden Power East Supreme Kai because he's cheaper to cast in a pinch, and still get's the buff from Champa, Destruction Augmented.
We play 4 of the 2 drop Yellow Caulifla and only 3 of the 4 drop Yellow, because the 2 drop gives us resources by letting us take a life, and it still has double strike once you get the champa doing his thing.
In testing, this deck comes out strong and generally takes game one against most decks we tested against due to a mix of the opponent not expecting it, and the sheer overwhelming number of double strikers on board.
Game 2/3 are a bit more difficult because the opponent can prepare and make sure they have energy up for defense, but it's still hard for them to overcome unless they have removal or counter plays for your desires.
Let us know what you think about this deck! We'll be back with more volumes of Meta Watch soon!
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Australians, jump on The Midian Guard for all your DBS singles! They will be adding Set 8 upon release!
~ Sam