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Cell
Games Overview
IQ’s Crew Cell Games, the newest expansion of the Dragonball Z CCG, was
released this April. The set has had a profound effect
on the playing environment thus far, and will only
continue to dominate as players become more familiar
with the cards. Introduced in this 125 card set were : 2
New Game Mechanics, 2 New Victory Conditions, and 6
Preview cards for the World Games set releasing this
summer. Let’s take a look at the best stuff from Cell
Games. ENDURANCE:
Endurance is the 1st new game mechanic. Its
purpose in the game is to reduce massive damage from
attacks like Villain’s True Power and Raditz Flying
Kick. Some cards have endurance values, which means the
card counts as 1 + the endurance value for damage. If
you wish to use endurance in your decks, you must
declare a Tokui-Waza, and remove the card from the game
when you discard it during damage (if you wish to use it
for that attack). The card with the most endurance
(aside from TF10 “Are You Tuff Enuff???”) is
Namekian Restoration, with 10 endurance, meaning you can
take a hit from a Villains True Power and suffer no
damage at the cost of removing this from the game (if
luck has it that it is on the top of your life deck).
Endurance gives Dragonball Decks and decks like Red with
low block count a chance to survive and not be hampered
by hyper-offensive decks like Black and Saiyan. FOCUSED ATTACKS: Focused attacks are perhaps the most popular of the new items
in Cell Games. These attacks might not seem to hit for a
lot of damage, but they often will hit, and some have
amazing “if successful” effects. The rule behind
focused attacks is, they cannot be stopped by
multi-blocks (Time is a Warrior’s Tool, Mommy’s
Coming Dear, etc) or Defense Shields. Some to note are
Blue Energy Arrow (#43) which only does 3 life cards of
damage, but if it connects, you get to remove your
opponent’s top 10 discards, and Orange Aggressive
Tecnique (#75), a focused physical attack doing +2 power
stages of damage, but if successful all of your energy
attacks will do +2 life cards for the rest of the
combat! Focused attacks can’t be stopped by the evil
Blue Style Mastery either, so expect to see a lot of
vengeance in upcoming tournaments ^_^ NEW VICTORY CONDITIONS: Dragon’s Victory : This is quite the interesting card. Only
useable when you have 4 anger, this card allows you to
either raise your opponent’s anger 1 or keep it at its
current level—but if he’s got 4 anger too, you win
the game! This will take advantage of decks that lack
anger control, and also bring back older personalities
such as Raditz from Saiyan Saga who happen to have a
particular nuance with this victory condition. Cosmic
Backlash: Perhaps the most controversial card in Cell
Games, Cosmic Backlash can easily win 1st
turn. It’s a simple physical attack, and it allows
your opponent to draw 5 cards into their hand. This
EASILY garners a first turn win, because the odds are
not in the defender’s favor to draw a block, unless
they’re playing Blue Mastery. Evil combos with this
card are : Krillin’s Solar Flare to disable physical
combat blocks, or even worse, Stunned, to make this a
guaranteed victory vs. Trunks, Piccolo, and Krillin.
Definetly be prepared to face at least one or two of
these decks at a tournament. CARD HIGHLIGHTS: In every set, there are certain cards that stand out. Score
has worked hard to ensure a sense of balance within the
styles, giving each a few “power cards” in every
set. Let’s take a look at my picks for best cards from
Cell Games. Black Style : 3 Cards stand out here. Black Face Slap is my top pick,
because it provides the manipulation of the underused
Cell Saga mastery along with a hard to stop attack that
is greatly enhanced by the Trunks Saga Mastery. If it
hits, it does +4 stages and +2 life cards of damage,
plus your opponent has to randomly discard a card. Then
there’s Black Double Attack Drill, which enhances all
of your physical attacks with a nice +2 power stage
bonus, with the evil effect of not allowing your
opponent’s allies to take damage from your physical
attacks. Finally, there’s Black Wrist Block, which is
a non-removed after use Physical/Energy Stopper, but
only if you declared a Tokui-Waza. Blue Style: Blue didn’t improve that much with Cell Games. The one card
that stands out is Blue Windup Blast, an energy attack
doing +1 life cards of damage for every uncommon card in
your discard pile, to a max of 10. This card can bust a
game wide open, but if it’s stopped, pretty much does
nothing. Namekian Style: Namekian got a lot more new cards in this set, most with high
endurance values and the concept of recycling. The best
one in my opinion is Namekian Quick Blast, the strongest
Focused Energy Attack in the game (along with the
equally powerful Orange Focused Attack). Doing 5 life
cards of damage, you can shuffle any 2 discards back
into your life deck, after you remove 2 other discards
from the game (if the attack hits). This allows for
great discard manipulation. Orange Style: Orange took the offensive in Cell Games, as shown with cards
like Orange Focused Attack. It’s a Focused Energy
Attack doing 5 life. If successful, all damage (life
cards and power stages) from any physical attack for
your opponent’s next attack. While orange normally
doesn’t have a problem with physical attacks, the best
part of this card is its high chance of connecting. Red Style: Red style has conflicting high points in Cell Games. For the
red beatdown deck, there’s Red Flying Attack, a nice
physical doing +5 as long as you declare a Tokui-Waza.
On the anger side of thing, there are 2 nice focused
attacks - Red Overhand Slash and Red Energy Surprise -
that both do minimal damage, but if they hit they’ll
gain you 2 anger. Red Overhand Slash has the advantage
over Energy Surprise, mostly because it can do +4 power
stages easily with the Red Mastery from Cell Saga, which
is no laughing matter. Saiyan Style: Saiyan got a few interesting cards in Cell Games. The best
one is most likely Saiyan Face Smash, a physical doing
+3 power stages of damage. The secondary effect is great
here, making your opponent discard a life card from the
top of his deck every time he wants to use ANY physical
combat card - even to block this attack. Freestyle: Most will agree that perhaps the best cards from Cell Games
hold no affiliation to any particular fighting style. My
top picks were Brothers In Training, Aura Clash, The
Power of The Dragon, Caught Off Guard Drill, and
Goku’s Farewell. Brothers In Training has a nice
endurance value of 3, plus lets you search your deck for
any single drill and place it in play immediately. This
card will be abused in many, many decks. Aura Clash is
your one-stop Vinegar, #18, Trunks, and Piccolo The
Trained solution, forcing every player to gain 6 anger.
This also gives nice drill removal in the form of
leveling up. Just be careful—while you can’t win by
Most Powerful Personality Victory, your opponent still
can! The Power of The Dragon is perhaps the best anti-dragonball
card short of Fades. Although it is restricted, it is
not removed from the game after use and can be used more
than once with ease. It gets around those nasty
Capturing Drills, shuffling all of your opponent’s
Dragonballs back into his life deck. Don’t forget that
if he wants to put them back into play, he has to use
their powers again! The card also grabs any ally from
the discards or life deck, and having multiple uses is
always good. Caught Off Guard Drill is a current
favorite of Hero decks. This card allows the user to
name any single non-Dragonball card in the game, and
makes it not exist as long as the drill itself remains
in play—no player can play or use the named card, no
matter what kind of tricks they try to pull ^_^ Finally,
Goku’s Farewell has opened up many new decktypes from
the second players laid their eyes on it. Allowing you
to instantly advance to either your level 3, 4, or 5
personality level (whichever is your maximum), the card
opens up the possibility of using the insanely good
level 5 powers. Only problem is, once you reach 5 anger
after you use this, you lose the game. This can be done
in 1 shot by Aura Clash or Straining Jump Kick Move.
Plus, you gain 1 anger at the start of each of your
turns, so move fast—or else! Cell Games has brought about many new cards and ideas for
decks --- what else will surface for Nationals and
Worlds?
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