Bardock Black Starter Deck (FS05) Guide

FS05-01 enters Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World as the offensive Leader for the Black color, attacking for 25,000 Power in addition to possibly adding a "Bardock's Crew" card as a combo on top.

Honestly, I'm a bit scared about the other Black Leader, FB03-104 being the best of the two, and the Black Starter Deck not seeing much play as a result. This isn't a jab to the Leader's strength as a card, rather one to the Bardock's Crew synergy. Indeed, apart from FS05-10 allowing us to get more of the gang on the board, there isn't much incentive to running a lot of that special trait, especially when the Energy Marker synergy got so many strong cards.

With this in mind, I feel like FS05-01 will be a great entry point into the black color, as a proactive deck is always easier to learn at first. However, its signature synergy might quickly be overshadowed by the strength of a deck built around the Energy Marker. Plus, there are plenty of strong cards to pick in this starter deck, such as FS05-03 or FS05-11.

Overall, the starter deck is great to play with friends, and get a first feel of how the black color might play. For the more competitive players, they still need to pick it up to collect certain key cards in the black color, but will certainly turn to the booster cards in order to build their refined deck.

Decklist & Card Breakdown

As always, Starter Decks should be considered a way to test certain synergy and collect important card. When it comes to being competitive, the deck needs to be refined, at least with a second starter deck to get four copies of the stronger cards, which we only get two offs.

Let's move on to what we can build around FS05-01 if we had all cards available.

Key Synergies

Although I believe the energy marker synergy is the stronger one, FS05-01 makes no sense if we don't surround him with its crew. Then, we have a significant portion of the deck taken already, which will represent how we develop pressure early in the match. Honestly, the Bardock's Crew cards aren't bad ones. We've seen how a flurry of 20k attackers can be a problem for certain leaders. Plus, FS05-12 and FP-21 have 10,000 combo attached to them, giving them solid utility if we can't find FS05-10 to get that part of our deck going. Also, considering we have several key cards in the 3-cost slot, FS05-06 will be great to help us fetch one of them.

When it comes to bringing pressure later in the match, we have to go for the Energy Marker crew, especially the Son Goku : GT crew. Not only these are the best attackers in the black arsenal alongside FS05-11 or FB03-121, gaining the energy marker means more energy to work with, always a positive for a pressure oriented deck. Playing those cards also makes FB03-124 good to run, adding another 1-cost draw instead of FS05-07 which would only be good to combo most of the time.

The extra cards are up for debate. With the energy marker crew, I really like FB03-127. The card has the potential to remove two 3-cost cards and let us pressure the opposing leader a ton. I wouldn't be shocked to see FS05-15 either, as regaining the energy marker lets us have the card as a possible defensive tool.

What to Use as Energy?

We have 10 cards with no combo power attached to them in the deck, so should naturally look at those first when considering what to use as energy. FS05-11, FB03-140 and FB03-137 all have tremendous potential, but only if we can play them. If you can't picture playing those in the near future, they might be better in your energy area, especially in a deck looking to combo its cards to trigger certain abilities.

Past this consideration, I would decide based on which part of my deck I value the most: Either the smaller, swarm based Bardock Crew cards, or the bigger energy marker ones. With only two cards at 10,000 combo, I probably want to keep FS05-12 and FP-21 available in hand. As for the other cards, the game situation will prevail.

Alternate Cards to Consider

This is basically a slightly more demanding FS02-15, which is a great extra card. Plus, with the energy marker synergy in the deck, you should often have a way to use it defensively if needed.

A good alternate if you are missing a Son Goku : GT card and want to keep a certain amount of them in your deck for FB03-124[/card. [card]FB03-118 might also function, but I like a cheap 20,000 power card to go with the aggressively minded Bardock's Crew.

This one is not included for lack of space available, but we could consider running no Extra cards and instead use this as our removal. This is even better if we want to awaken very fast and feel like we don't have enough self awakener in the deck.

We already have plenty of 3-cost cards in the deck and no way to create the energy marker early on if we were going first. Still, a 10,000 combo attached to a strong ability can be a fine replacement to a card you wouldn't have available.

I don't like the high roll nature of the card. Yet, considering we can throw it as energy if the combo isn't there, maybe we can cut the energy marker synergy to run the entire Bardock's Crew and this card to cheat FS05-11 a turn early.

Our 3-cost cards are so good, we might be fine ditching one from our hand to get FS05-10 out on turn two, even when going first. If you liked the idea of building solely around the Bardock's Crew and FB03-135, FS05-03 comes in as a great support card to develop a ton of tempo early on.

How to Play the Deck

At its core, I feel the black color wants to play a tempo based game, snowballing the board around turn three and up to turn five. First, the Bardock's Crew clearly is a pressure oriented synergy, with FS05-01 attacking for 25,000 when awakened, alongside the flurry of 20,000 Battle cards we can develop. With this in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if the early game for this deck would resemble what yellow has been doing during the first two sets with FB01-109 and FB01-132.

Once we captured the early lead, the deck can either keep its foot on the gas, and already start thinking about getting the opponent low for a future FS05-11 attack. Or it can transfer to a more midrange play style, leveraging the energy marker to play with one more energy than its opponent on most turns. In this second idea, we probably wouldn't help the opponent awaken, instead focusing on developing a large board to attack them with a lot of cards at once.

With FB03-140 and FB03-121 feeding us cards, I wouldn't expect this deck to run out of gas soon. Plus, we have FB03-137 or FS05-11's ability to take care of opposing midrange cards. Then, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the preferred scenario against other tempo oriented decks. Against a green opponent, however, we might want to pick the faster way to operate, as even the energy marker won't compensate the multiple extra energies they have.

Mulligan Guide

I believe finding the Bardock's Crew signature card is key to get a solid early game. Then, I want to see FS05-10 in my hand as often as possible to get the pressure going. FS05-06 is second on my list, as it helps with both awakening, or filtering my next draw.
On top of that, a 1-cost to draw on the first turn would be ideal, and a great way to have a cheap to combo for FS05-10 later on.

The rest of the mulligan will be based on the opponent most of the time. For example, finding FB03-111 alongside FB03-137 should be great against another pressure deck to stop their development.

Closing Words

I really like the design of FS05-01 as the black starter. Although I'm not a fan of the Bardock's Crew, mostly because it feels a bit like a reboot of the Ginyu Force, it is a great synergy to start with. Through the leader and both FS05-10 or FB03-121 if you can get your hands on it, we are enticed to give much more importance to combo cards, as this mechanic will represent how we develop tempo.

My regret for FS05-01 is the fact the energy marker synergy got so many incredible cards, with two Super Rares and the Secret Rare from this set at the very least. Then, I expect it to be the focus of the black color in Raging Roar, but I believe a hybrid deck like the one we covered in this guide is possible.

Overall, even if FS05-01 might take the role of the default leader we ditch once we get all the cards we wanted in booster packs. I believe its design and signature synergy have some merit, and the starter deck is a worthy purchase.

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Good Game Everyone!