Red Son Goku ToP (ToPKu) Deck Guide

Hey everyone! The new Red Son Goku leader (ToPKu) from the FB02 expansion is dominating the early tournament meta. This aggressive deck focuses on the Tournament of Power cards, swarming the board, and putting constant pressure on opponents until you can finish the game.

Given its early success, it's crucial to understand the deck and its strategies. This guide should help you get started!

Gameplan

Leader

Unlike other leaders, FB02-001-son-goku needs to drop to 3 health to awaken. To speed this up, we use self-awaken cards. When awakened, for 1 energy, FB02-001-son-goku can discard a card to play a 20,000 Power {Tournament of Power} Battle Card from your hand. This shapes our deck to prioritize {Tournament of Power} cards.

This deck is all about aggression, using multiple cards to self-damage our leader. With the leader's ability and FB02-013-kefla's help, we can set up a wide board in the mid-game, threatening multiple attacks that bleed out the opponent's Combo plays and set the stage to win the game.

Although swarming the board and discarding cards might deplete our resources, FB02-012-kefla and FB02-013-kefla's draw ability ensure we don't run out of plays and get to keep the pressure going.

Self Awakeners

Since we need to drop to 3 health to awaken our leader, self-awaken cards are essential to awaken leader consistently. Staying at 15,000 Power, while opponent's Leader is at 20,000 Power means they're able to get a breather, giving them more time to control the board and win in the late game.

These cards don't only serve as self-awakeners but also have unique skills that this deck takes advantage of. I'll talk more about their effects throughout the article.

FB01-005-master-roshi is an early self-damage Battle Card. He doesn't pose any offensive threat but will serve as a +10,000 Combo play. If we're running Extra cards in the list, the cost reduction to Red Extra cards can come in handy. His effect can be activated once per turn, so if opponent doesn't have an immediate answer, FB01-005-master-roshi can pretty much get you to awaken your leader early into the game on his own.

FB01-021-hit and FB02-007-caulifla are powerful self-awaken cards with 20,000 Power, meaning they'll still pose a threat in the late-game once opponent's Leader is awakened. FB02-007-caulifla's Critical means opponent can't afford to take the hit and will likely combo out of it.

The 20,000 Power means an unawakened Leader can't freely attack and KO them, the opponent has to commit a Combo play if they're trying to KO them with a Leader attack early into the game.

As for FB01-021-hit, he's damaging our Leader when he goes for the attack, but also, FB01-021-hit is reducing the Power of one of the opponent's Battle Cards by 5,000. This helps you remove potential 5,000 Power Battle Cards that can be used as Combo plays, or drop the Power of rested characters low enough for your attackers to KO easily.

FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence is another self-awakener when he attacks. However, FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence is doing a lot for us to control the board as we continue the pressure on the opponent. The -15,000 Power can either remove a Battle Card entirely or put it low enough for us to KO with ease. Since we're able to awaken our leader easily in this deck, FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence will get to take advantage of the +5000 Power he gains during your turn, adding to that aggression and forcing out more Combo plays from the opponent.

Our last self-awaken, FB01-015-son-goku, puts our cost-reduction cards to use. On play, FB01-015-son-goku can KO a 20,000 Power Battle Card, on its own this effect will find a lot of use to remove a threat. However, when we combo it with one of our cost-reduction cards, FB01-015-son-goku is able to KO even higher Power characters and disrupt the opponent's plans.

Other Power Reduction

FB01-004-whis is one of the strongest cards you want to see in the early game. His -5,000 Power ability means no low-power Battle Card will be safe on the board and can drop higher Power Battle Cards to make it easier for you to KO them. Since his ability can be activated once every turn, we'll avoid resting Whis, leaving him on the board to be a nuisance and force the opponent to find an answer.

As for FB02-004-katopesla, he's able to activate his -5,000 Power reduction twice on the turn he's played. This lets you drop one Battle Card by -10,000, or use the effect on two different cards. It's a strong effect if we're looking to pick off opponent's Battle Cards. When KO'd, FB02-004-katopesla activates his effect again, letting you drop the Power of one of the opponent's cards, which can lower their aggression.

Adding Pressure

We want to keep the pressure going in the later stages of the game and FB02-015-android-17 is one of the best cards to do that! As long as he's on the board, your Leader gains a Permanent +5,000 Power. This adds more Power to your Leader attacks and makes it challenging for opponent to damage your Leader during defensive turns. You're pretty much forcing opponent to commit more Combo resources offensively to threaten your Leader for as long as FB02-015-android-17 is on the board.

This is extremely good since we're dropping down to 3 health quickly, and we'll need that protection layer to keep us safe from a lethal attack. In a lot of cases, we'll avoid attacking with FB02-015-android-17, ensuring opponent can't attack and KO him. When Leader is leveled, FB02-015-android-17 will be more of a nuisance since KO skills from Battle Cards will not work on him anymore.

FB02-031-ribrianne is a finisher play once opponent drops down to two Life Cards. The Double attack will threaten to win the game if they don't have enough Combo plays to protect their Leader. A 4-cost 20,000 Power Battle Card isn't appealing to play, but if we play her through Leader ability, we'll be spending only 1 Energy, leaving room to play other cards alongside her.

We're usually going for FB02-031-ribrianne on turn 5/6, saving 4 Energy to play out Extra cards and boost her Power to end the game.

Going Wide

With Awakened FB02-001-son-goku and FB02-013-kefla, we're able to start going wide on the board as early as turn 4.

For 1 Energy, we're able to activate Leader ability, discarding one card and play a 20,000 Power or less Battle Card. We're usually aiming to play the highest-cost 20,000 Power Battle Card through Leader ability, which means it'll either be FB02-013-kefla or FB02-031-ribrianne.

In most cases. we'll prioritize playing FB02-013-kefla since she's putting more threats on the board with her ability to play a 3-cost {Tournament of Power} Battle Card. So cards like FB02-015-android-17, FB02-004-katopesla, FB02-012-kefla, and FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence are targets for FB02-013-kefla to play. The choice of which card you'll play will depend on the state of the game, but sequencing is important!

For instance, if we're aiming to use FB01-015-son-goku to KO a high-power battle card, we should first activate Leader skill, play FB02-013-kefla, and through her, we play one of our power-reduction cards like FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence or FB02-004-katopesla, which we can follow up with FB01-015-son-goku to KO the now power reduced Battle card.

On top of that, FB02-013-kefla is technically a 25,000 Power when she joins the battle and Leader is awakened, so she is packing a punch when she goes for the attack. Both FB02-012-kefla and FB02-013-kefla are offering card draw when they're played, so although FB02-001-son-goku is discarding a card to activate his skill, we're not dropping low on resources.

Extra

An offensive Extra card to give a boost of 25,000 Power to your Leader or a Battle Card. You want to boost the Power of one of your Battle Cards over your Leader to push them over that 30,000 Power mark. This turns FB02-035-glimpse-of-a-hidden-arrogance into a value card as well, allowing you to add 1 Battle Card with a cost of 3 or less from your Drop to your hand.

Ideally, you want to play FB02-035-glimpse-of-a-hidden-arrogance on FB02-031-ribrianne, setting up the lethal turn with her Double Attack.

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Techs and Options

FS01-16-god-kamehameha: A removal tool to KO a 30,000 Power or less Battle Card. It can be comboed with your cost reducers to KO higher-power threats.

FB02-022-piccolo: A {Tournament of Power} card draw that can be used as a 5,000 Combo later on.

FP-013-son-gohan-adolescence: A {Tournament of Power} card that can be played through Leader skill. The 20,000 Power will turn into 40,000 Power during your turn, setting up one powerful attack that can be difficult to combo out of.

FB01-023-beerus: This is more of a tech card against the mirror matchup or decks that can go wide with low-power Battle Cards. Beerus can board wipe Battle Cards with 25,000 Power and threaten a Critical attack.

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General Tips

• Sequencing is important when setting up your Leader ability and FB02-013-kefla. You want to play your cost reducers through Leader skill + FB02-013-kefla first before playing a removal card.
• It's crucial for our game plan to drop down to 3 health as fast as possible. We might avoid attacking with our 2-cost Battle Card at least once to force opponents to attack our Leader if they want to draw a card.
• Since we're dropping pretty low fast, we need to go full defense on the last 3 Life Cards. We want to avoid falling down to two health early on and putting ourselves at risk of losing to a Double Attack Battle Card.
• Usually, we're attacking with Leader first to draw a card before committing to our plays. However, if we have FB02-015-android-17 we'll prefer setting him up on the board to get that 5,000 Power boost on Leader and force a stronger Combo play from opponent.

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Mulligan Tips

• We need early self-damage Battle Cards like FB01-005-master-roshi and FB02-007-caulifla to ensure we Awaken our Leader. FB02-020-basil is another early card to have, which can look for a Tournament of Power card, and 4c Kefla is usually the card we're looking for.
• We're happy to see FB02-013-kefla in early hand, ensuring we can go wide on the board with her help.

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Important Matchups

Red Beerus

• We're up against a 20,000 Leader with Critical. Yes, we want to take those Critical hits to our Leader, don't Combo out of them, the plan is to drop to 3 Health as fast as possible.
• With Leader Beerus skill and their cost-reducers, opponent can remove our cards without having to attack them or at least drop them low enough so that it's near impossible for us to protect them. Their main target will be FB02-015-android-17 to shut down the +5,000 Power.
• Similarly, we want to put our resources into KOing their FB02-015-android-17 on the spot. This is where a cost reducer + FB01-015-son-goku will play perfectly to shut their Power boost.
• Most Beerus lists also include FB02-013-kefla, but they can't go as wide on the board as us.

Green Broly

• We're playing an aggressive game plan here, looking to close out the game before opponent manages to stabilize the board with cards like FB01-078-android-17android-18 and FS03-10-broly-br-981.
• If we drop opponent down to 4 health, we can hold off any attacks and pass the turn. This prevents them from Awakening on your turn and gaining extra Energy, which will delay their FS03-10-broly-br-981p/card] play. However, if you're board is wide enough and you're confident your attacks will force out a lot of Combo plays, it can be worth it to go for a full-on attack.
• If opponent runs [card]FB01-087-son-goku, we want to KO it immediately to prevent them from getting too much value from it. A cost reducer like FB01-004-whis can put it in range for FB01-015-son-goku to KO on the spot.
• The 5,000 Power we gain from FB02-015-android-17 allows us to attack an Awakened Leader Broly without relying on Combo cards.

Blue Vegeta

• We want to overwhelm them with a barrage of attacks, trying to close out the game as fast as possible.
• The Blue Vegeta deck has the tools that help them control the board. Cards like FB01-068-sinister-sickle and FB02-061-vegito can slow down your aggression. You're likely not keeping Android 17 on the board for too long.
• We want to KO FB02-061-vegito the first chance we get since he's enabling stronger removal plays with cards like FB01-042-zamasu and FS02-06-son-goten.
• Avoid dropping to 2 Health. FS02-13-vegeta can threaten to win the game with his Double attack. Cards like FS02-15-galick-gun and FB02-056-bulma can buff up FS02-13-vegeta's attack to a point where it's difficult for you to Combo out of.

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Closing Words

Red Goku Tournament of Power is crushing the competitive scene early in the FB02 expansions. The deck's ability to swarm the board and not run out of steam thanks to the draw ability on some of its cards makes it difficult to keep up with. It seems players will be forced to pick up the deck or find strategies to counter it, since it will have a dominating presence on the digital client.

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