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Blazing Aura (FB02) releases on May 10, 2024, and we now have all the cards available. The community is naturally buzzing about which of the new four Leaders will shake up the Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World meta the most.
In my opinion, FB02-001 is bound to be excellent, as the Leader just received a full deck to work with immediately, while FB02-036 also got very cool cards to build around. I'm a little less optimistic about FB02-070 and FB02-105, as building a cohesive deck around each proved more difficult than anticipated.
In this guide, I would like to offer a starting point for each of those Leaders, alongside an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses heading in this second set of Fusion World. Another guide based on the most improved Leaders from Awakened Pulse (FB01) is also in the works to make sure we cover everything Blazing Aura has to offer.
Ready to dive into this new set and start talking about which Leader is best to invest into?
Son Goku
The Tournament of Power synergy got everything, immediately.
The scariest part of the new Red build is how simple it is to get to 51 cards, while using almost exclusively new cards from the new set. Indeed, except for both Super Rare powerhouses, FB01-015 and FB01-021, every other card is new. Then, even if the perfect balance will change once we tailor the deck to the metagame, it is crazy to think the Tournament of Power synergy will position itself as a contender from day one. It isn't far-fetched to imagine it will challenge the Universe 7 deck to be the aggressive build of choice for Son Goku.
Speaking of the Universe 7 build, this deck should look fairly similar in how it operates, looking to dominate the early portion of the match to build a large board, Awaken, and pressure the opponent for the rest of the match.
We can see a few differences, though, which make the Tournament of Power so special. First, we have quite a lot of card draw for an aggressive build, with FB02-022, FB02-020, FB02-012 and the future superstar FB02-013.
These 16 cards, combined with the 12 cards we have to help us Awaken, should make sure we don't run out of gas anytime soon, a particularly important part of the deck in order to leverage FB02-001's Awakened ability.
The second difference, and what separates this one from the already existing Red decks, is the lower curve, topping at 4 Energy. Here, instead of playing a big finisher such as FS01-08, our fifth turn will be dedicated to using our Leader's ability for 1, plus 4 Energy to play cards. Then, we should often look to summon multiple Battle cards per turn once Awakened, instead of trying to land one big hit.
This leads to the part of the deck most up for debate. In this one, I went with FB02-034 as a finisher, boosting all our cards to throw multiple big hits at our opponent, either devouring their health, or their Combo cards. Yet, with FB02-031 and FP-013 also in the set, we could function without the Extra card, and rely on heavy hitters instead. This is probably an adjustment we will make based on our preferred way to play the deck, alongside the defensive tools we need to play around in the metagame.
Zamasu : Fused
Zamasu : Fused is Blue's long awaited control build.
Similarly to what Red got, Blue is able to build almost entirely around the new set, looking to leverage the new Leader FB02-036. Compared to FB02-001, we don't necessarily need to run this Leader for this deck, as the ability isn't directly tied to the Zamasu : Fused's Battle cards. However, the ability to gain health when in the danger zone, alongside the 25,000 base Power, both look great in a deck aimed at leveraging late game synergies.
Those late game synergies are based around summoning FB02-046, either because we got to six Energy, or through FB02-045's ability. Once in play, the card should serve as another layer of protection, as the opponent won't be able to get us at one health without care. As such, if they decide to keep us at two and rely on a Double Striker, we have our Leader's ability to go back to three. On the other hand, one health forces them to expand a Battle card to trigger FB02-046 before they can play their big threat.
The rest of the build is centered around card draw to find FB02-046, FB02-045, FB02-044, and FB02-055 in every match. We'll pair those with control tools, mostly bouncing opposing cards back in hand or at the bottom of the deck. Lastly, we have the Earthling synergy with FB01-056, in charge of fetching us Combo cards to use through the whole match.
Overall, this deck is in line with the Blue color - technical, maybe too synergistic to be consistent, but based around great concepts. I doubt it will be very powerful in the coming set, although it should be playable. I see Blue relying on FS02-01-vegeta and FB01-035-goku-black more looking at the support cards they got, which we will discuss in the article about most improved Leaders from FB01.
FB02-036 is for sure the Leader I'm eager to test, just because it looks unique in the concepts it uses. However, with the need to acquire so many cards from the new expansion, it might be a little expensive to acquire, especially if you are on a budget to prepare your next tournament.
Cell
Cell changes the way we build a Green deck.
Cell probably is the most talked about Leader, alongside Son Goku, heading into Blazing Aura. Not only is he an iconic Dragon Ball character, its Battle card was reminiscent of FS03-10, arguably a big reason why Green was so good during Awakened Pulse.
Then, I went into building around Cell with a lot of expectations, thinking I would get a deck as promising as the current builds around FS03-01 or FB01-071. I won't say I'm disappointed in the deck, because I believe Cell has the ability to be a solid Leader in the near future. Yet, building the deck was much more challenging than I thought.
First, the need to balance the various synergies isn't simple with only 51 cards available:
- We need some Earthling cards to leverage FP-011, the new FS03-16 with power and removal potential attached. I couldn't find room for FB02-101 for now, but I'm not dismissing the possibility of a deck just trying to gain two or three Energy on turn three, so we can get FB01-078 in play by turn four.
- FB02-074 is a nice draw with the Earthling tag, but we need to play FB01-079 in the deck as well then for reliability. Same logic for FB01-088 which forces us to find some Saiyan cards. FB01-093 is perfect in the role, and we have the Extra cards with the tag as well. With so many 2-costs, I could definitely see FB01-089 or FB02-089 make its way in the deck instead of the 2-cost.
With all those requirements, I had to make some cuts, such as FB02-085 or FB01-087, two cards I was sure would be four-ofs when I started working with Cell. Amongst the four decks we discussed in this piece, this is the one I'm most open to changing cards, and working on the overall balance once the cards will be available.
One thing is certain, FB02-102 is a great card to build around, providing either ramp, or card draw headed into the late game. Paired with FB02-095 to discard it once we have one in play, we have a nice foundation to work around for the new green leader.
Vegeta
Another yellow leader Frieza can outshine.
The more I built around Vegeta, and the more I thought: "I can just do it better with FS04-01-frieza". Indeed, apart from FB02-137 which looks like a great card, and FB02-136 to use our awakened ability, there isn't much Vegeta will do that Frieza can't in a better way.
Just like Awakened Pulse, Blazing Aura will focus around turning our opponent's card into rest mode, or preventing them from returning to active mode at the start of the turn. Yet, the game still allows a card to be used the turn it gets into play, meaning the opponent will get to use it before we can try to lock it down. As such, Frieza's ability of turning our own cards back to active mode to protect them feels much better than Vegeta's ability to untap energies in order to use FB02-137 and get the same result with extra steps.
The deck doesn't look so bad, as FB02-116, FB02-117, and FB02-123 represent a nice backbone of an annoying deck to go against. Yet, building around those plus using the powerhouses from the previous set atop the curve limits our ability to draw, or Awaken.
Indeed, we aren't running enough Frieza cards to run FB01-116, nor have enough space for the synergy around FB01-132. Then, it might be me just being too used to the current Frieza deck, and how it ruled the FB01 metagame. I could also have missed the mark with this deck, and there is another way to build around the new leader which would be more efficient. Yet, I have a hard time picturing this Vegeta becoming the next big thing for the yellow color.
Maybe the deck needs to be more aggressive early on, seize the board, and just leverage the new trio of FB02-116, FB02-117, and FB02-123 to lock the opponent while we keep pushing damage onto their Leader. I still feel like Frieza would do it better as it protects those cards with its ability, but that would at least give Vegeta a more unique look.
Closing Words
Overall, only Yellow feels a bit underwhelming heading into Blazing Aura, which could be explained with the color arguably being the strongest at the end of Awakened Pulse, so it didn't need as much support. It still got a nice secret in FB02-140 but there isn't enough to support Vegeta in my opinion, while we only got the same mechanic of resting cards to work with.
The other three colors aren't reinventing the wheel either. Red will be on the proactive side of things, Green will ramp, and Blue is trying to bounce cards back while pulling off specific synergies. However, they at least get new abilities which should change their play-patterns, and give a sense of novelty inside their color established strategies.
I hope this breakdown of the four new Leaders were helpful! Let me know which you are most eager to try in the comments. I'm personally a big fan of Zamasu : Fused from a synergy standpoint, while the Tournament of Power feels like it got everything it needs to function on day 1, so I want to compare it with the Universe 7 deck to see what's best.
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Good Game Everyone!
