Goku Black Blue Deck Guide

Regarded as the best Blue leader so far in Dragon Ball Super Card game Fusion World, FB01-035's signature synergy made it fairly simple to build compared to FB01-036, leading to a solid deck faster than its Blue counterpart. In the current metagame, FS02-01 remains the most popular leader for Blue, largely thanks to hitting Green leaders like a truck. However, Goku Black is getting to convince more players every day, as its explosive potential is catching the eyes of many.

There are two ways to play Goku Black currently. Either building almost exclusively around the core synergy of the deck, with the various Zamasu cards and strong standalones to round out the list. Or you can include the FS02-03 synergy, with some Trunks and Son Goten cards added for more flexibility.

So far, both lists have shared the spotlight, so feel free to pick one based on your preference and play style. The first list is more aggressive, looking to develop and focus on the opposing leader, with FB01-051 and FB01-054 to push damage. The second one has more gas, able to play for a couple more turns thanks to FS02-03 feeding us some extra counter cards to use in battle.

Gameplan

Play FB01-039 and harass your opponent's leader with two big attacks per turn for the win would be the simple way to put it. Plus, you only really need to awaken, which FB01-062 is perfect for, while have a Zamasu card to sacrifice in order to get the reduction so FB01-039 comes out early. Then, simply leverage FB01-056 to keep using combo cards for pressure, while FB01-050 throw the big cards your opponent will play back in their hand for tempo.

On paper, this sounds like completing a quest, as you will focus mostly on yourself during this first portion of the match. Yet, you still need to stay afloat until this happens, and preferably limit how much your opponent can develop their board, as they could punish you for trying to awaken as fast as possible. Indeed, while you will develop a lot of pressure once you have your 6-cost in play, you still need to respect your opponent's ability to pressure you back.

To handle this part of the battle, you use your leader, which attacks for 20,000 even before awakened, a great way to deal with early drops from your opponent. Also, both FB01-050 and FB01-051 should help with midgame threats. As for the early ones, you can always accept to lose FB01-042 to get the ability, as red or yellow leader will typically KO it.

Overall, Goku Black is a leader tailor-made for a midrange, pressure oriented play-style, as it combines a great punch with its signature FB01-039, and tons of draws to find it and make sure we have combo cards to use during the whole match.

The greatest challenge with this leader is to handle the pressure, and not fall too far behind by the time you can bring on the heat. This is fairly doable against Green leaders, but Red and Yellow might require you to be more cautious, we'll get into that in the matchup section.

The Early Starters

Awaken, limit your opponent's development, and find your important cards are the three areas you want to focus on. FS02-06 can also fit both your first and second category if you play it in your deck. However, you need to be ready to defend it from opposing leader attacks, as you are forced to attack with the 15,000 power cards.

Apart from your leader, you don't have that many high power cards to take care of opposing battle cards early on. Then, accepting to sacrifice FB01-044 at times will go a long way in limiting your opponent's ability to develop too much, even if that means your opponent's leader won't attack you, delaying your awakening at times.

The Heavy Hitters

Obviously, your 6-cost is at the helm of your strategy, but the 4-cost cards it summons are just as important. Indeed, without a target for its "When attacking" ability, FB01-039 is just a blank 40,000 power card.

In most situations, FB01-051/card] is the better target, as the minus 5,000 power is largely compensated with both abilities. However, when going for the kill, or if you would need the combo power in the future, [card]FB01-038 can have its upsides. Plus, this will force more combo power out of your opponent's hand if you know they have to defend the incoming hit anyway. Plus, keep in mind you can also reduce the cost of that one with your leader ability.

Situational Cards

These two have two uses in the deck, the obvious one and the more situational purpose. When it comes to FB01-062, she will mostly be a turbo awakener early in the match. Yet, later on, you can play her for the draw ability, as she will pair nicely with FB01-050 and FB01-051.

As for FB01-043, it clearly is the weaker of the Zamasu, and the one you would cut if you wanted to include something else in the deck (such as FS02-06 we discussed earlier). However, once we reach the later stages of the match, and both players are actively trying to close the deal, the blocker ability can have its merit. Indeed, in addition to preventing an attack to your leader in a dangerous situation, you can also use it to protect FB01-039, so your make sure it gets to live another turn.

Extra Cards

Blue has plenty of solid Extra Cards, but we unfortunately can't play too many of those in the deck, as we won't be able to save energy until late in the match. As such, because we still enjoy hitting our opponent with a 40,000 power card, one copy of FB01-069 is a nice tool to help close some contested matches.

FB01-064 makes sense in regard to the synergies we are running, plus, it can help in that early part of the match if we are under pressure. FS02-16 isn't needed once we have FB01-050 available, but can have its use before.

Techs and Options

If you were facing a lot of aggressive decks, these two could help with controlling the flow of damage coming in to your leader. FB01-047 in particular, is great against Ginyu, or other decks with mostly 20,000 power attackers.

These two can be solid options to pack more pressure, in case you would be facing a lot of Green leaders. Against those, you typically will need less defensive tools, therefore can pack a little more offensive options, making your deck a bit greedier in the process.

Yellow decks tend to rely on very strong 4-cost cards, such as FB01-113 or FB01-129. If those were a problem for you, this extra card can be a way to help with handling those cards.

General Tips

• At first, focus on the different phases of your deck, and learning how fast you can bring the pressure onto your opponent. For example, it can be scary to use FB01-062 to awaken on turn two or three, but if that means dropping two bombs on turn four, the lost health is more than worth it. Once you are more comfortable with those timings, you will be able to incorporate your opponent's developing phases into your thought process as well.
• Pay attention to how your opponent reacts to FB01-039. If they try to KO it, it means they are fine with a card advantage battle. If they focus on your leader instead, it indicates they can't take many hits from your big cards, and want to end the match sooner rather than later.
• During your first matches with this deck, focus your "throw a card into its owner's hand" ability on your opponent's card. This will build tempo and limit their aggressive potential. Once you are more comfortable controlling your opponent's aggressive potential, you could try to get some cheeky plays such as throwing FS02-03 back in hand after attacking, so you get the "On Play" ability again next turn and keep pulling cards to combo from your drop.

Mulligan

FB01-062, FB01-042, and FB01-040 are the big three you want to see early in your hand. FB01-055 and other draw options are good as well, as it will help with finding your important cards as well.

FS02-06 is great to have as well if you run it, two when going second is a treat.

Basically, you want some draw and tools to awaken early on. The other cards in the hand aren't that essential to decide whether you should keep your hand or not.

Important Matchups

Green

• You clearly want to go into a Green matchup with an aggressive mindset. Awaken as early as possible, shoot for having FB01-039 on board as early as possible, and draw a ton to support your assault once you built your lead. In that sense, you can use your Super Combos to defend important battle cards in those matchups.
• Awakening both Broly and Son Gohan leads to their leader being much more resilient, and able to attack for a lot, particularly if FB01-087-son-goku is on board, or they are close to five energy. The card is a premium target for FB01-050 ability, as you force them to pay another five to replay it.
• FB01-069 can be particularly effective in those match-ups, as this is as close to a race as it gets.
• They have access to double strike with FB01-078-android-17android-18 so don't let your health drop too low once awakened unless you know you can handle the 40,000 power, or more, attack.
• An Awakened Broly will Ramp. This means on your attack turn, you want to avoid attacking their leader when at 4 health, unless you intend to attack multiple times, which could force cards or deal more damage to them. This is particularly true if you are attacking with a 25,000 power card they can easily defend against, and then give their leader a great target to attack into next turn.

Red

• Red in general wants to awaken as fast as possible, as all three leaders possess strong abilities. Universe 7 becomes a beat down machine once awakened, and we have access to zero AoE, in addition to limited defensive tools. Then, you could consider playing this match up like an attrition war, not attacking their leader so they can't Awaken.
• Their battle cards are much more important to remove rather than health on their leader, as they will likely win the race if you both go for the kill.
• If you decide to go for an attrition war, your combo cards are better used on defense, while you want to pick attacks based on which are the most likely to get cards out of your opponent's hand.
• Going for a fast awaken is only good if you can race them afterwards. You will have to be able to defend yourself from a potential beating at some point in the match. Sometimes, gaining the ability to draw cards when attacking is worth the awaken though.
• Throwing cards back in hand is good to slow them down, but we want to focus cards they can't use as combo, or without strong on play abilities.

• Beerus focuses on afflicting negative power to build card advantage on the long run. This means most of our Zamasu won't stay on the board for long. As such, keep one in hand to trigger your leader ability and discount FB01-039 before Beerus can take it out.
• Although the critical ability is pretty useful, 25,000 power is something Beerus can reduce to 0 fairly well once awakened. Then, this is a match where FB01-038 might have more upsides.
• FB01-050 is great against their 5-costs as they will take their whole turn to replay, and hold no combo power in their hand. This is a huge tempo swing once you are trying to focus on their leader.
• Except if you find multiple copies of FB01-039, I'd say Beerus probably will beat you in a card advantage battle. Then, once you feel you have built some sort of lead, start turning to their leader for most of your attacks.

Yellow

• Tips for the Universe 7 match-up could also go for playing against FB01-104-ginyu, another aggressive opponent you can't really race down.
• Their Awakening isn't as scary as FB01-001-son-goku, yet, they are more explosive onto the board, able to get plenty of 20,000 power cards in play which is probably worse as we are not Broly with 25,000 base power.
• It is reasonable not to deal any damage to yourself in this matchup, as your opponent will likely do it for you. However, because you aren't drawing with your leader attack until awakened, it can be worth accepting some hits in order to get more cards.
• They could be playing a few copies of FS04-03, meaning 2 health already is the danger zone. Plus, they can stop your FB01-039 from switching back to active mode. This is really a nightmare of a card for you.

• Frieza will look to lock down the board, and stop your signature card with FS04-03 later in the match. Often, this is a situation you can't really get out of. As such, even if you take it a little slower and emphasize on the draw more, once you decide to go after their leader, don't stop.
• FB01-069 can be clutch in the matchup, and you could even consider running multiple copies if you see Frieza a lot.
• Similarly to red, yellow is really good at controling your cheap cards early in the match, turning them into rest mode to attack into them. As such, don't play a card you aren't willing to lose, or protect in battle.
• Yellow often has access to a few blockers, which they use to prevent the big hits from forcing them to use multiple cards to defend from. These are premium targets to send back in hand, especially if you planned on attacking with FB01-069 or another heavy hitter.

Closing Words

So far in Fusion World, Blue clearly is considered the weaker color. Vegeta is slowly gaining momentum amongst players with a limited collection. However, for those who decided to invest in the game, I have seen a ton of positive feedback once they gave Goku Black a real shot. As such, I would definitely go into this one with a learning mindset, aiming to understand its intricacies before hazarding an estimation of the leader's true power level.

I hope this guide helped you in your mastery of Goku Black. Feel free to join me on Twitter if you are interested in my free to play experience on the game, or simply would like to get in touch, and remember to have some fun.

Good Game Everyone!