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The new Blazing Aura (FB02) expansion has the community buzzing about the new Leaders, obviously. Yet, Awakened Pulse (FB01) was quite uneven from a Leader to another. The entire Blue color felt weaker than the rest for most of the expansion, alongside FB01-070 in Green, who had to look FS03-01 and FB01-071 from the sidelines. Then, in addition to exploring new leader abilities, FB02 is also a chance at reinvigorating certain synergies who lacked a couple of cards to feel competitive.
Did we get those cards? I believe so!
Goku Black is now relentless!
When it drops the 40,000 Power FB01-039 on turn four, the initial deck was able to bring a lot of pressure, but unfortunately tends to fall short in every other scenario. With the support of Blazing Aura, not only is FB01-035 better at summoning its signature card, it should also be much harder to stop once installed on the board. Indeed, the new set brings a ton of card draw, with FB02-042 and FB02-043 able to help find our key card, while FB02-044 represents the perfect 4-cost to summon with the "When Attacking" ability.
With those additions, I expect the Goku Black deck to become more solitary in the way it plays the game, but almost impossible to stop once it gets going. There is just so much card draw available in the list, I just can't picture it running out of gas before its opponent. As for the solitary part, it just seems that FB02-061 joining FB01-050 forms a nice duo to bounce cheap or expensive cards back to our opponent, opening the way for our heavy hitters to focus on the opposing leader.
FB02-040 is a consideration as well obviously, but I value the extra 5,000 Combo Power of FB01-038 more, mostly because I expect to summon FB02-044 with FB01-039 rather than another Goku Black in most situations. You could also look at FP-015 if you see some worthy earthling targets to throw back in your opponent's hand, and manage to get your hand on the card as well.
Overall, the Goku Black synergy feels better at what it does at almost every level, except when it comes to awakening, but it had that part under control already.
Beerus adds a ton of new weapons!
Red leaders already had tons of options to chose from, which makes those decks particularly difficult to set on a specific 51 card list. Yet, considering we should have two pressure oriented decks available with The Tournament of Power synergy joining the Universe 7 deck, I expect Beerus to fully embrace its control inclinations.
As such, I built the new deck with board dominance in mind, looking to constantly stay on top of what our opponent could develop. Even when narrowing down the deck building to this specific direction, Beerus has a lot of options to pick from.
In the 3-cost slot, I have little doubt FB02-015 and FB02-018 will become staples in every red deck, joining forces with FB01-015 to form an incredible trio to anchor the mid-game. The tougher choices are what to play in the 5-cost slot, alongside the early cards.
Early on, I think FB02-029 is a great option, as it looks much more flexible than FS01-08 or FB01-023, largely thanks to its 10,000 Combo Power. I don't expect the deck to play four copies for long, but it is the most suited to support a solid early game, with the board would quickly turn in our favor. Then, we could use the card as a combo to protect our 3-cost instead of scaling to our fives. Plus, we already have FB01-139 to act as a finisher, so maybe go to a 2-2 spread with the double striker, or cut cards from other packages to go to a 3-2 spread. Still, FB02-029 feels like the first 5-cost to include.
As for the early portion of the match, awakening and dealing with opposing early cards should remain the priority with a FB01-002 deck. As such, the current popular core feels appropriate, with only FB02-008 joining in on the fun, ready to synergize with FB01-004, FB01-021 and F101-02 to take care of most opposing 20,000 power cards.
I'm not dismissing the possibility of cutting FB01-005 for another card, such as FB02-007 to keep the awakening help intact, while removing FB01-032 to play something else. It would likely have a more aggressive look to it, here's an example:
Android 17 feels like a threat!
Cell is the iconic new character added in Fusion World with Blazing Aura, and most of the attention should naturally be around how strong the new green leader will be. However, I wouldn't dismiss Android 17 as another great leader to explore in this second set, as the weaker of the original Green gang got multiple new insane cards.
FB02-074 and FB02-077 are the two big ones in the set, and a big reason I'm confident FB01-070 could be a menace as the tempo oriented Green Leader going forwards. This belief is also what led me to prefer FS03-10 over the new FB02-084, which feels more control oriented, I expect the deck to try to look for the kill once we reach the point of playing our 8-cost card.
Back to the two cards mentioned above, and how they should anchor our early to mid-game. FB02-074 doesn't have any Combo Power, but this is the only weakness the card has. For the price of no combo, we get a 20,000 card, perfect to attack into opposing 2-cost cards and limit their pressure. Plus, we get a tutored draw to arguably the strongest cards in our deck, FB01-078 and FB02-077.
Speaking of it, the other new addition is similar to FB02-074, a 20,000 Power card with a great ability, except this one also gets to have the maximum combo power. I fully expect the card to be the go-to play in the deck, which will entice us to throw Android cards in our drop purposefully just to activate it, so we can play FB01-078 the next turn. This curve of FB02-074 into any 3-cost or FB01-102, followed by FB02-077 and FB01-078 on turn five is bound to pressure a lot of opponents, or serve as a great way to answer a proactive strategy.
For a first build, I kept it pretty simple outside the inclusions of those powerful new cards. We still have the ability to get a lot of Energy through FB01-102 so FB02-104 can be mixed in with FS03-15 so we could have some extra card draw late in the match.
Otherwise, I have a soft spot for the new FB02-080, the potential secret weapon for this deck to bring on the heat with FB01-078. Let's remember this is a game where most leaders will purposefully go to 4 health remaining, already a danger zone when, big Double Strikers are gunning for you. I only included one in the deck for now, but this is clearly a card I would monitor to know the right amount, as the deck looks able to find its 6-cost fairly reliably with FB02-074.
Vegeta feels complete now!
If I think Goku Black received the most support amongst the existing Blue Leader, Vegeta got a few nice additions as well. FB02-041 is the obvious one, strengthening the synergy around FS02-03. While I don't think summoning the 4-cost a turn early will be particularly strong, the huge upside is the ability to play another 4-cost with our energy the following turn, looking at you FB02-077.
Indeed, the new 4-cost is about everything Vegeta wants, as both ability are tailor-made for the Saiyan leader. First, drawing cards is never, as it will translate to using more combo cards at worst. Then, the resiliency provided by the "When KO'd" ability is great to keep pressuring the opponent, and force resources out of their hand, perfect to play FS02-013 in ideal conditions the following turn.
In this scenario, we should be able to bring much more pressure, while sustaining this offensive more effectively. Cherry on top, FB02-056 is another addition to that offensive arsenal, which should make our double striker much scarier. Not only is the new 1-cost a bonus 20,000 Power you can grab back with FB01-056, we will always have a target for it as we are playing Vegeta as our leader. With this in mind, three copies of the card feels reasonable to start, with the possibility to go up to four in Green dominated metagame, or to two to invest in more board control tools for red or Yellow opponents.
Last on the list of promising cards in the deck, FB02-052 just looks better than FS02-05 overall. Sure, he won't ever pressure the opposing Leader due to its 5,000 Power. Yet, it should be much more effective once the opponent is Awakened, limiting their tempo through sending cards back in their hand, allowing to focus on their Leader with our heavy hitters. 2-cost targets should be good enough early on, but we could target much larger Battle cards with FB02-061 later on in the match.
Closing Words
Overall, every Leader in the game will improve with Blazing Aura, as there is something for everyone, even if it is just a new staple. Yet, I feel like the new set brought more help to those in need, particularly FB01-070 and the Blue crew.
FB01-002 is also getting a lot of love, which the Red Leader might have not needed, as it already is a great Leader at the end of the Awakened Pulse era. Yet, I would argue a lot of Beerus' momentum is due to Yellow, FS04-01 particularly, being so good. If the metagame was to return to more green, Red and Blue decks, Beerus would lose a lot of relative power level, explaining the help it is receiving in Blazing Aura.
I have no doubt some Leaders will separate themselves from the pack once we get our hands on the cards, and the ability to put those synergies to the test. Until then, I really love the look of this expansion, as there is a lot of leader I want to try, both in the new, or the old ones.
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