Introduction

First thing that we need to get out of the way is that NA and EU prices different greatly, it is like day and night! Therefore, I've decided to set a budget of about 60$ per deck, which I believe to be a fair number. If you're from Europe, however, you'd pay about 50% less, so for us Europeans a lot of these decks are really affordable. It is important to note that Deckplanet take the highest price point for some of these cards so the displayed price might be wrong. I will mention that when the time comes!

Second, I haven't touched any of the BT24 cards! The reason for this is because we still don't have established prices for those but I will be mentioning them as upgrade possibilities. There's a solid amount of very good BT24 cards which are worth a mention.

Finally, all of these decks have a reasonable success rate in the upcoming meta. None of them are meta decks, those are more expensive, but these ones will get you started with a reasonable winrate. Alright, with that out of the way, lets' go!

Bardock's Crew - BT18

Oh boy, this guy! This guy right here! What an insane deck!

Out of all the budget decks, this one gets you the most bang for your buck!

Bardock's Crew is an absurdly consistent deck which filters through the deck lightning fast while pressuring the opponent with cheap 20k attackers (one has double strike, the other is a dual attacker)! Furthermore, it generates Z-energy like mad and it has built in removal with both leader and Z-leader! Let's go over some cards!

The leader

First we have to go over the leader. On the front side, he draws a card once per turn when you play a Bardock's Crew card. The awakened side has the same auto. It is important to note that this is happens on EACH player's turn, so if you play a Bardock's Crew card during your opponent's turn, you will get to draw a card! Attacking with your leader allows you to combo with a card from the drop, which you will just send to your Z-energy. The other gimmick comes from the activate:main ability. Once per turn, rest one of your Bardock's Crew cards (usually great apes) and KO one of your opponent's battle cards in rest mode!

The Z-leader just ups these abilities! Now your leader is a 20k double striker, the auto goes from playing a card to comboing with it, and the activate:main KOs two cards + negates all of their skills beforehand. As if that wasn't enough, you also get an activate:battle ability which gives your leader +3000 power for the battle for each Bardock's Crew card, with a different character name, in your Z-energy. That's up to 15k power, turning your leader into a 35k double strike attacker or defender!

Tutors

Bardock and Fasha are your main tutors! Both cards have the same effect, except that Bardock's is an auto (on play for Fusion World players) while Fasha's is activate:main. Upon triggering, both effects look at the top 5 cards of your deck and grab you either a unison or, more importantly, a Bardock's Crew battle card with a cost of 4 or less, which is the majority of your deck! That's amazing!

Attackers

The great apes are your main attackers! Both of these cost only a single energy to play, are big enough to threaten any leader in the game, even Z-leaders, and gain keywords when you have 3 or more energy! Borgos is your dual attacker, Shugesh is your double striker. The best part is their auto which switches them back to Active Mode once you've rested them with your leader, giving you a free KO on any card!

Unison Package

These two are a bit of an unorthodox inclusion but they work well in this build. Some players have already experimented with Gine in their builds and she does put in a ton of work, drawing you a card whenever you use your leader's activate:main. If your opponent doesn't focus on Gine, you can replace her with Gohan to close the game! Gohan gets 3 markers from Gine, going up to 7 in total, which turns him into a small boardwhipe and a triple attacker to close out the game!

Upgrades

Normally, you would just include yellow goodstuff staples in the deck but there's one card which stands out! The newest Bardock super rare from BT24, Beyond Generations. Behold, Bardock, Heritage of a Legend!

Designed by the former World Champion (and a good friend), Philip Tarpini, this card is bound to take the deck to a new level! Essentially, you get to tax your opponent's attacking, forcing your opponent to sacrifice a card in rest mode whenever he wishes to attack with anything! When timed correctly, this card can shut down entire turns! However, that's not even the best part! It is a 4 cost Bardock's Crew card, which means that you can tutor for it with Bardock and Fasha! Yes, it is a floodgate that you can tutor for (and you'll also get to draw from your leader when you play this card), that's absolutely insane! If you're planning on running this deck in BT24, you should absolutely prioritize getting a playset of this card.

This card is flat out stupid if you run Gine and it will quickly replace the Gohan unison! Because it is a Z card, which goes into your Z-deck, it is basically in your hand for the entire game until you choose to play it! Furthermore, is is a boardwhipe, which unlike Gohan doesn't have any conditions, it just doesn't hit cards with barrier. Pay two energy to remove your opponent's board...and you have access to up to 4 copies of the card for the duration of the game?! That's insane value! As if that wasn't enough, once per turn it can remove all skills from any of your opponent's attacking cards. Double strike? Gone! Triple attack? Gone! Amazing card, a must include if you run a unison!

Deck profile

If you wish to learn how to play this deck, check out the deck profile that we did with Harvey ''Porg'', one of the best Bardock's Crew pilots in the world!

Alternative - Yellow Majin Vegeta

I want to give a very brief mention to Majin Vegeta because it is a starter deck leader which is still strong and relatively cheap to build! Here's the decklist! (the written price is wrong because the site pulls prices from the highest rarity print)

Majin Vegeta is an amazing yellow saiyan goodstuff deck! Your leader can become 20k in defense and is his own self-awakener. Your Z-leader can whipe the board at any point as long as you have 2 or more lives, and your newest promo card can now do the same! The Roshi/Shen combo (also known by the name Polish Spice) will ensure that you have most of the deck in your hand. Other than that, you just run a bunch of good yellow cards and look for openings!

Is this the deck for you as a new player? Check out our review to find out!

BLUE BABY - BT21

For the blue budget deck, I've decided to go with blue Baby from BT21! Here's the decklist!

''Why blue Baby?'' and experienced Masters player might ask. Well, it is mostly because blue, as a color, is extremely expensive to get into at the moment! Blue Baby is one of those rare blue decks which is strong, budget friendly and has a shot in the upcoming meta. Let's break it down!

The leader

Baby is a huge value engine! The front side just draws you 2 cards on attack and puts one Brainwashed or a 1 cost blue Vegeta under your field card. The awakened side has the overlord keyword which we'll get to in a bit, has built in removal on attack and can buff one of your battle cards while self-awakning to go into the Z-leader! The Z-leader is just a solid defensive tool which can play one of the cards that you stole from your opponent and placed under your field card. Overall, solid leaders!

How servant/overlord works?

Before I continue, you need to learn how servant and overlord keywords work! Servant gives a battle card permanent +10k power BUT it can't switch back to Active Mode. Overlord allows you to bottom deck your servant card and draw a card. That's what Baby is all about, playing servant beaters and then bottom decking them with your leader's overlord skill to draw!

Brainwashed cards

There's a handful of Brainwashed cards in the archetype, most of which don't do much, but these two stand out among the crowd! Trunks is a 1 cost negate which you can play from under your field card, so you just keep it there for safekeeping until you need it. Gohan is a big beater, a 20k double striker (when played from hand) which can, with your leader's ability, become a 25k attacker! Afterwards, you just bottom deck him to draw a card.

Baby and golden ape

Although we play another Baby 8 cost, that one isn't really worth talking about, he is just a big body. The 4 cost Baby is going to be absurd in the upcoming metagame! If this card is in your drop and you pay when when you overlord a card, you can remove this card from the game to bottom deck a unison. BT24 meta will be unison heavy so this is your answer to Z-unisons! The best part of it is that you don't need to go out of your way to trigger the effect, it happens naturally!

The golden ape is a great cheap beater which can remove two cards, one ignoring barrier, board you a servant from underneath your field card and then swing for 35k double strike. What's not to love here? 🙂

Learn to play this deck

Are you interested in giving this deck a go? Then check out our detailed ''How to play'' guide!

RED JIREN - BT14

The canonical winner of Tournament of Power takes the red spot! Let's start with the decklist!

Jiren is a very aggressive, very consistent red aggro deck. The amount of pressure that this deck can put out in the first few turns of the game is insane! The gameplan is simple, board your 1 cost Jiren's and then play the 4 cost Jiren's on top of them for free. Then, proceed to swing!

The leader

Jiren's whole thing is using the evolve mechanic to play your 4 cost Jiren's on top of your 1 cost Jiren's. On the front side, you get to take a life and then search the top 7 cards for a 1 cost Universe 11 card and play it in Rest Mode. That's going to be a Jiren most of the time. On the awakened side, twice per turn, whenever you evolve a Jiren during your turn, your leader gets +5k power, going up to 25k power in total, which is massive! Finally, on both sides, you get to evolve during your opponent's turn by removing a marker from your unison!

Draw engine

The big thing that Jiren does is card draw...oh so much card draw!

All of your 4 cost Jiren's draw when you play them. Then if Dyspo is on the field, his auto triggets, drawing you a card, so you draw 2 from playing a Jiren, and adding 2 markers to the Toppo unison. Because Toppo gains a marker when you evolve a Jiren, he gets an additional marker, making that 3 markers in total! Yes, whenever you evolve a Jiren, once per turn, on EACH player's turn, you draw 2 cards and Toppo gains 3 markers! Crazy value!

Jiren Restand

The very scary thing about Jiren is how many times you can restand your leader or battle cards! Your big boss monster restands himself naturally, so that is two 35k double strike swings at your opponent. The Z-battle card Jiren removes itself from under ANY Jiren to restand ANY Jiren battle card. Now your boss monster attacks THREE TIMES! In case that your opponent floodgates you, use Vegeta to re-stand your leader and give him +5k for the turn. Now your leader is a 30k attacker! Yes, Jiren is savage lol

Learn to play Jiren

As with most of these decks, we have a video on how to play it so check it out!

MASTER ROSHI - BT18

Roshi is my absolute favorite deck on this list...because I've built it to be a hand destruction deck, the best, healthiest, fun friendly mechanic in the game! As always, here's the decklist!

Roshi is a midrange green goodstuff deck but he has hand destruction elements so I've had to lean very heavily into that direction.

The leader

What's so cool about Roshi? The hat, of course!

But other than that, Roshi has one very unique thing going for it. He has a bunch of traits, some more relevant than others, such as saiyan trait which will allow you to use Uneasing Awakened Rage. The whole gimmick it playing your 1 drops on both your and your opponent's side of the field, KOing them in battle and then cheating out your big Goku or Krillin!

Goku and Krillin

These two are the reason why we lean so heavily into hand destruction! Both of them have the same play condition, KO one of your opponent's battle cards, pay 1 energy and play the chosen card on top of its corresponding 1 drop. Pretty simple!

Goku draws you a card and has a very neat ability. When it attacks and KOs a battle card, switch him to active mode and your opponent discard 1 from their hand. You will use your field card to give your opponent a 1 drop in rest mode, then swing into it to make sure that this effect goes off!

Krillin is amazing! You don't get to draw when you play him, but he is a 20k critical dual attacker, who also punishes your opponent for using counters by forcing them to discard a card! If you set up both of these and then first swing with Goku, you're taxing your opponent even if they use a counter to stop Goku's attack. On top of everything, Krillin is a critical attacker which swings twice, allowing you to safely deal damage to your opponent without filling their hand!

Fated Rivals

We have a few big cards in the deck but this pair is iconic!

Goku is your cheap barrier removal, on top of being a 30k double striker with barrier. His main purpose is to clear barrier cards and set up Piccolo!

Piccolo is our hand destruction tool! He is a 25k dual attacker for 1 energy, which is decent. What makes him so great at hand destruction is that he discards a card from your opponent's hand whenever he attacks, which happens twice! So for one energy you get a 25k body which will clear the board (you will never swing face with him) and discards 2 cards from your opponent's hand! Is your opponent's hand now empty? Great, swing for face with Goku!

Main defensive tools

In this budget build we're focusing on more affordable defensive tools! Because we have a field card an Z-extras, both of these work great in the deck!

King Cold is our floodgate and he costs only 1 energy 99% of the time. For 1 energy you stop the attack completely and tax your opponent. Now, for the turn, your opponent needs to discard 1 card whenever he swings into your leader. Most of the time this just ends the turn! The main reason why we don't run a unison is so that we can abuse King Cold to shut down turns!

Cooler is an amazing counter:play! He requires a bit more setup (1 extra card in the drop) but then he can send one battle card, cost 4 or less, into the drop instead of it being played. Even better, if your opponent is drawing a lot, Cooler forces him to discard 1 if there are 8 or more cards in his hand. See, everything here does hand destruction!

More hand destruction

You know what this deck needs? MORE HAND DESTRUCTION!

Feet Kamehameha is great in this deck because our leader is Son Goku (on top of a few others)! This might seem a bit excessive but for 1 energy our leader gains +15k and critical. This allows us to swing into our opponent's leader with ours without having to worry about adding lives to their hand. It is also a great game close because we can, once per game, give our leader double strike and +5k, turning him into a 35k double striker with critical!

Cell's Kamehameha is my favorite card in the game! For just one energy we give something +15k and our opponent discards 1 card...AT RANDOM! Yes, we get to pick 1 card at random! I've seen this card discard super combos, secret rares, negates, all kinds of useful stuff. We run 3 in this build, I'd bump it up to 4!

Dark Temptation Towa is my favorite overrealm card in the game! Why? Because it is free hand destruction! Yes, we get to play her for free, buff our leader by +5k and have our opponent discard 1! Follow that up with a Feet Kamehameha and our leader is now 35k critical attacker! Amazing!

Upgrades

Besides fixing various ratios, there's just one card that you REALLY want to add, and that is the SCR!

Cell:Xeno is my favorite SCR in the game! He is dirt cheap to buy! Furthermore, he is dirt cheap to play...actually, he is free!

Once you get to 5 energy and you sacrifice a total cost of 12 from among your battle cards, your opponent discards 3 cards from their hand, which is usually his entire hand, and you get to swing for 4 damage...TWICE!!! You usually swing only once, of course!

Deck profile

Here's an old deck profile! It is a bit outdated but it goes over the basics! 🙂

SUPER FU - BT22

The very last deck in this long article is Super Fu! Here's the list!

Fu is a low to the ground black aggro deck where you swing with a lot of cheap/free attackers and try to aggro your opponent to death very early on! The main gimmick revolves around manipulating our Z-deck and playing cards for free!

The leader

Fu is very cool! He is one of the rare leaders which don't mind remaining on the front side a bit longer because then he gets to tutor for Fu's and Cumber's a bit longer. On the awakened side, he is pretty decent! He draws without attacking, which is great, and he sets up your Cumber plays. A very cool thing is that he can re-direct an attack, as activate:battle, meaning that after your opponent had combo'd, you can get our of the attack for free! It won't happen often but it is a neat trick!

Cumbers

We have 3 different Cumbers, each with their own unique effect!

Thriving Darkness is a 25k attacker that charges a Z-energy to help us get our Z cards out faster!

Jet Black Hostility is by far the best one! He is a 20k attacker that forces our opponent to warp 1 card from their hand. HAND DESTRUCTION!

Overwhelming Fight is pretty solid, a 20k attacker that warps a card. That's not bad!

Each one of these can be played for free with their activate:main ability, allowing us to swarm the field very early on and start swinging!

Learn to play

I'm not really an expert on Fu, which is why this last recommendation is so short, but I do have an in-depth tutorial on the basics so, if Fu interests you, check it out!

Conclusion

That's it! The massive budget decks article is over!

Next week we will have our first competitive events, which means that we'll have breakdowns, so make sure to check out the livestream on the 23rd on our Twitch and come back afterwards for a breakdown article! See you then!

The post Dragon Ball Super Card Game Masters Best Budget Decks appeared first on DotGG.

Introduction

Today we're taking a bit of a different approach. While I'd usually turn this into a tier list, DBSCG Masters has about 40-ish leaders, out of 200+, which can be considered viable so I'll just stick to the meta ones and we'll do one leader for each color!

We just recently got the newest banlist, the rules update and now that we know everything, we can judge accordingly! If you wish to see my actual tier list, check out the video below!

Future Gohan

The title of the best deck in the upcoming meta goes to Future Gohan! This deck had taken the previous meta by storm and now that yellow has been nerfed, there is little opposition left! What does the deck do? Great, question, let's check it out!

Above is Ivan's, my team mate's, top 16 list from the European Finals 2023! Going into the next meta, we can expect Future Gohan to look something like this!

Alright, what does the leader do? What's the gimmick?

Future Gohan puts cards from hand under his z-extra card, which you can think of as a field card in Fusion World, and he later gets to combo with them. Even better, he draws 2 cards when he puts one under the z-extra with his own effect AND he draws 1 more card when he uses the z-extra's effect! That's 3 new cards in hand for doing nothing! Just by existing, he keeps drawing like mad!

The main gimmick comes from Trunk's activate:battle effects. Each Trunks, on combo and as activate:battle, can give your Gohan or Trunks cards keyword skill: barrier, double strike or critical! Basically, unexpected keywords mid-battle!

Exceptional card draw, tons of combat tricks, access to the best floodgate in the game (Explosive Dance) and a strong unison to serve as a backbone, all of these turn Gohan into an actual monster of a deck! If you wish to learn more about how to play the deck, check out our video below!

U7 Yellow Goku

Yellow U7 Goku was the big boogeyman of the previous format! Since then, it got obliterated on the banlist but, just like Goku himself, the deck refused to give up and now is coming back even stronger!

The biggest change was the loss of the Z-leader win condition, the loss of un-interactive burn and, finally, the loss of Swift Retaliation Cooler, which was used to secure that your last attack doesn't get negated! At first, it looked like the deck was done for, but the newest Bardock SR and Porunga SCR are going to bring it back in a big way!

Here is the blueprint for the upcoming U7 Goku builds!

The whole gimmick is that the deck draws like crazy! Whenever we combo with more than 1 card, we draw 1 (most of the time tbh). The first time that we combo with a U7 card, we draw a card! At this rate, we will go through most of our deck lightning fast!

Our wincon is the 6 cost Goku SR! Due to his ability to restand a billion times and attack again, once your opponent is fully tapped out you can go for the game! Granted, your opponent will never fully tap out knowing that a Goku is on his way, but that's where you will use the Porunga SCR to switch up to 3 of your opponent's energy to rest mode!

This is what SCRs look like in Masters! Pay to energy, rest up to 3 of your opponent's energy! In fact, if that doesn't seem optimal you can just discard 3 cards from their hand...and draw 3! Going forward, Porunga will be securing U7 Goku's spot in the meta!

Green Gohan

Green Gohan just refuses to die! This deck has been hit on the banlist so many times and it still keeps going! Gohan is best described as a green deck which does everything: card draw, free plays, critical attackers, hand destruction and borderline infinite aggro!

Here's what a modern Green Gohan build looks like! You can check the full list here!

Basically, you hide behind infinite floodgates, shutting down each of your opponent's turn. Then, on your turn, you swarm the field with attackers! If your opponent tries to clap you back on their turn, play Cooler to send his card into drop (if it costs 4 or less). At this rate, your deck will truly go off by turn 3, when you can start using Cell's Kamehameha do randomly discard cards from your opponent's hand. Afterwards, you just wrap it up by spamming Father-Son Solidarity, the best boss monster in the game!

Simple, isn't it? That's basically green Gohan in a nutshell!

Aegis Gogeta

The blue representative on this list is non other but Aegis Gogeta!

Aegis is a skill which triggers when your opponent attacks you. If you want, you can warp 2 cards from your drop (only Gogeta can use it like this), one blue and one yellow, to switch 2 of your energies to active mode! Yes, for free, restand 2 energies in defense!

Not crazy enough? Aegis Gogeta is also a blue/yellow deck, the combination of two strongest control colors in the game! The deck itself plays very passively, you mostly defend until turn 4 when you start dropping down big Gogeta boss monsters! What's the wincon? Give your Z-leader, a 20,000 power baseline leader, +30,000 power AND triple strike (deal 3 damage), turning him into a huge 50,000 power triple strike attacker BEFORE you event start to combo cards from hand! Wow!

With yellow being neutered on the latest banlist and Android 21 dropping down in power, Aegis Gogeta positions himself as the only blue representative among the meta decks!

SS4 Vegito:Xeno

Black finally has a meta deck! It only took about 6 sets but it is here now! SS4 Vegito:Xeno, the new leader that will carry black to greatness!

This deck is an insane value engine! You spam big beaters for dirt cheap or, sometimes, for completely free and you hide behind your boss monster and Z-unison! Vegito can, as activate:battle, combo with his potara piece from underneath one of his battle cards or Z-unison, giving any card +10k combo power for free! Then, there is the big beater!

This absolute monster of a card is a 30k power double striker, with barrier and blocker, which can restand itself at the end of your turn to defend you from incoming attacks! That is insane value for just 1 energy! In addition, it fills your drop with cards, making it easier to use Over Realm for free play on the following turn! This, combined with one of the best counter:plays in the game and a monster of a Z-unison, makes SS4 Vegito:Xeno one of the top dogs in the upcoming meta!

Conclusion

The top end of the upcoming Masters metagame is mostly filled with familiar faces, with one new addition! However, there is a long list of competitively viable leaders, even budget ones, which are expected to see a lot of play in the near future. The first regional events are happening on the 23rd of March, you can watch them on our Twitch channel, so soon we'll know which other decks will rise to the top! That's it for this article, I'll see you in the next one with the best budget decks for the upcoming meta!

The post Dragon Ball Super Card Game Masters Best Meta Decks appeared first on DotGG.