Table of Contents
Fusion World set 1, Awakened Pulse (FB01), has been out for a few weeks now and the Digital client is now released along with Season 1 - so this is a perfect opportunity to make a tier list! What's good? What's horrible? Let's find out!
Introduction
Before we dive into the list itself, we need to briefly go over our methodology!
First, the tier list isn't based on the Japan lists at all! Due to the Fusion World being new in Japan and the playerbase there not being familiar with the gameplay system, those early Japanese lists aren't considered viable data. The players are still learning the game and thus the lists and results are all over the place. This is normal, it is a completely new system for them and I'm sure that their lists and the meta will improve a lot in the following weeks.
Second, we're also not looking too deep into Celebration results. Similar to the Japan results, the Celebration events data is skewed due to the lack of product allocation. A good rule of thumb is that the the top two spots can be considered valuable data as those lists are more optimized, but a lot of the players at these events still ran the basic starter decks + random cards.
So, what CAN we do? We've teamed up with a Masters veteran, one of the best players in the world, Cody Vojtech, who ran about 600 games against other top tier Masters players and random untap opponents. The list is the results of this extended testing!
Finally, you can find our extended opinions on the list in the video below!
Meta Tier List
Here's the tier list! Let's go over it!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | • Son Gohan : Childhood - FB01-071 • Broly - FS03-01 • Beerus - FB01-002 • Son Goku - FS01-01 • Cooler - FB01-105 |
| Tier 2 | • Android 17 - FB01-070 • Frieza - FS04-01 • Trunks : Future • Son Goku - FB01-001 |
| Tier 3 | • Vegeta - FS02-01 • Ginyu - FB01-104 |
| Tier 4 | • Goku Black - FB01-035 |
Tier 0
There are no tier 0 decks in the game! No, Gohan isn't tier 0 because Gohan gets hard stopped by yellow aggro, especially Cooler and Ginyu! For a deck to be considered tier 0, it would have to be unrivaled and warp the meta in such a way that only the decks which can beat it consistently can even compete at events. Gohan just isn't there.
Tier 1
Tier 1 belongs to THE BEST decks in the format. These will be winning events the most, they have a good matchup into other tier 1 decks and they are very favored in matchups against tier 2 or below decks.
Son Gohan : Childhood - FB01-071
Gohan sits at the very top of tier 1! He runs almost the same engine as Broly, minus some archetype cards. However, what makes this leader stand out is his amazing activate:battle ability! Being able to become a 35k leader on BOTH attack and defense is extremely diverse! More importantly, it gives Gohan the edge vs Broly, as your leader can become big enough to attack into Broly without dumping cards from hand.
This leader's weakness, however, is his poor matchup into yellow. Unlike Broly, he is a standard 20k awakened leader, putting him in the danger zone against yellow aggro. When I say yellow aggro, I mean the Ginyu package, a two card combo which every yellow deck should run! All of these Ginyu cards are 20k and can rush Gohan very early in the game!
Broly - FS03-01
Broly deals with yellow aggro exceptionally well! Unlike Gohan, he has two matchups in which he really shines: U7 Goku and Ginyu! As a 25k leader, he is way too big to get hit by almost anything that those decks run without forcing them to combo from hand. However, Broly's big weakness is his clunky card draw.
Here's a pro tip when you play Broly! ALWAYS awaken on your opponent's turn! This will give you an extra energy in active mode at the start of your turn. If you opponent forces you to awaken on your turn, you're losing all of ramp value, and then Broly becomes even worse!
Beerus - FB01-002
Beerus has THE BEST removal in the game! I've talked a LOT about thresholds in my guides but the tldr is that red needs either a setup or a followup power reduction to remove most cards in the game. Beerus gives you that FOR FREE! One of your power reduction effects, each turn, now gets buffed by -10k
What is also unique to Beerus is his ability to remove the Broly 8 drop SR. Every other red deck in the game struggles against that Broly card as red doesn't have a removal for a 45k power card! Beerus, however, can answer Broly with his leader ability + time skip! Not only that, you will also have open energy so you can follow up the removal with a battle card. That's amazing!
Another way to use Beerus is forcing your opponent to waste resources from hand. Here's a pro tip: minus your opponent's 30k card and attack into it, EVEN IF you can remove it with an extra card. In the best case scenario, your opponent will spend cards from hand to defend his battle card and THEN you remove it with an extra card. You force your opponent to waste resources, which is huge! Worst case, you will get rid of a 30k card in one swing and save the removal for something else.
Son Goku - FS01-01
This is probably the most unusual pick unless you've spent time practicing the deck and learning his various lines of play. Starter Goku is AMAZING! While on surface he looks like a worse U7 Goku, he is a much better choice. Not convinced? Ok, let's break it down! 😉
First, you're not constricted to a single trait! U7 Goku absolutely must run U7 cards otherwise it loses his past aspect, the free +5k buff. Starter Goku can use any red card in the game, which is huge! The big difference comes in how U7 and non-U7 cards are designed. U7 cards are smaller and their effects are weaker because they are made to profit from the leader buff. Non-U7 red cards are much better as they aren't balanced around a leader effect. Instead they are just generically good!
The biggest difference comes in incremental value. U7 Goku has to go wide, he HAS TO play a bunch of low to the ground cards and tap out every turn or else he is losing in value. Starter Goku doesn't have this issue. He can go tall, he can save energy for removal, and most importantly, he can combo out of attacks without spending a card from hand! One deck heavily depends on the board, the other doesn't and the one which doesn't also doesn't lose value from his leader effect!
Starter Goku can buff cards on your opponent's turn! This part is massive! Your battle cards get one free +5k combo, once per turn, but this combo saves you cards from hand while forcing your opponent to, sometimes, combo more to remove your battle card! Starter Goku also has access to a 30k attacker/defender for only 2 energy (the promo Goku card). Amazing leader!
Cooler - FB01-105
Cooler is the best aggro deck in the game! Yes, Ginyu has the potential to make most attacks, but Cooler has a better matchup into green!
I will go over a Cooler decklist in another article, but to give you a general idea, the energy restand ability is amazing! If you play Cooler with the Ginyu package, it is the most aggressive deck in the game.
Examples:
Recoome -> Ginyu SR -> restand 2 energy -> restand with the leader's effect -> Recoome -> Burter
Recoome -> Ginyu SR -> restand 2 energy -> Jaice -> Jaice -> restand with the leader's effect -> Bonds
You can also combine this with the Frieza SR or you can drop your boss monster and buff it with Bonds. No other deck comes close in consistent aggro.
What makes Cooler better than Ginyu?
Ginyu depends on his board. If he loses the board, he folds. Cooler doesn't need a board to threaten you. He can drop a Frieza 40k card on an empty board and swing twice with it! Cooler beats Gohan easily 9/10 times is played properly. You also have a better matchup into Broly as you run big attackers which can swing twice! The leader is amazing, we'll go over it more in the future.
Tier 2
The decks in tier 2 are the ones that you will see topping big events but not as consistently as the one in tier 1. They struggle vs most tier 1 decks despite having good matchups into other. They are all very viable picks to bring to a competitive event!
Android 17 - FB01-070
The least exciting green deck is, ironically, the best green deck at fighting other green decks. Once your leader becomes 30k, he is big enough to threaten both Broly and Gohan without having to combo on the offense. A consistent flow of 30k attacks will force Broly to waste cards from his already diminishing hand. Gohan will be forced to use his leader's ability in defense on top of having to combo a card from hand!
Despite being good into other green decks, Android 17 has a very lackluster engine! The androids are just not good enough to play. The best part of the deck is the Lab card! Beerus will easily take away your board! Cooler will just aggro you lighting fast! Starter Goku's cards are amazing at fighting small droids! Ultimately, despite being good into green, Android 17 struggles against red and yellow, especially tier 1 decks!
Frieza - FS04-01
In a world where Cooler is tier 1 and Ginyu is the worst yellow deck, Frieza sits comfortably in tier 2. The deck lacks Cooler's aggression but compensates for it with a solid defensive package. It is also better suited for late game than Ginyu is because it packs several bigger battle cards! Most importantly, unlike Ginyu, Frieza can attempt to contest Broly and actually win more often that Ginyu can. It will still struggle fighting green and red tier 1 decks, however!
Trunks : Future
Blue is the worst color and Trunks is the king sitting on top of the garbage pile! While not tier 1, he is still a lot better than the other two leaders: Vegeta and Goku Black. Trust me, this deck is exceptionally rewarding once you learn how to pilot it properly but the skill ceiling is really high.
One thing that you can only do with Trunks, and a thing which is exceptionally annoying, is keeping your opponent's leader on the unawakened side while still drawing without having to attack with your leader. Yes, there is a way to do this! Instead of swinging with your leader, you just play a cantrip, draw and then bounce it back into your hand. Do this over and over not to lose on your draw and watch your opponent get increasingly frustrated!
Besides that cute interaction, Trunks packs a huge punch. He hits harder then Vegeta, being able to get to 40k easily, and he isn't crippled by the low hand size, allowing him to actually defend himself. He has free blocker removal, he awakens lightning fast thanks to Mai SR and he has access to all good blue cards. Amazing leader!
Son Goku - FB01-001
Yes, U7 Goku isn't as good as he appears to be!
I've went over most of U7 Goku's problems while discussing Starter Goku, but I'll briefly mention them here as well. You are forced to play small cards which profit from your buff. U7 Goku relies on having a big board of attackers otherwise he loses a lot of power. Think of it like this: Giving +5k to one card is worse than giving +5k to four cards. This is why you run a lot of cheap U7 beaters!
However, all of those cheap beaters are flat out horrible on defense. The buff doesn't carry over into your opponent's turn so, on defense, you'll have a field of 10k-20k power cards which will be easily obliterated by your opponent's bigger attacks, unless you commit to dropping cards from hand to save a 1 drop...which if you don't save you're losing an attacker on the following turn, making Goku's buff worse!
Red U7 cards are weaker by design! If you run this deck, you're losing a lot of generic red cards, and if you're running generic non-U7 red cards you're playing the deck wrong as your leader doesn't do work with them! The final nail in the coffin is that a smart opponent will never, ever, ever swing into your leader, even at a cost of a card from hand. Now you're stuck on the front side, with a bunch of miniature cards in hand, and you won't awaken until turn 4 at best!
However, it is still U7 Goku! It will see a ton of play, even if it isn't top tier, and it will top events for that reason alone.
Tier 3
This tier belongs to rogue decks, the ones which might top an event here and there but generally aren't good enough to consistently beat tier 2 decks and fold to the majority (if not all) of the tier 1 decks!
Vegeta - FS02-01
This one is a bit rough. Vegeta isn't bad, but he isn't good either, so he kindda falls in the middle ground and becomes just ok. Goku Black is strictly worse, Trunks is somewhat better! While we've seen some decent aggro Vegeta builds recently at Celebration events, the prince of all saiyans struggles to maintain relevant (just like in the show lol).
The main problem? Poor hand size! While the leader can become really, really big, both his ability and his best card require that he keeps a very low hand size, which results in week defense. He can punch really hard, but Trunks punches harder while having more cards in hand!
Not all is bad, though. Vegeta does one job better than any other blue deck, and that job is beating green! This is the deck which you take to an event if you're aiming to specifically beat green decks. He can easily become bigger than Broly and start threatening damage with his leader swings! Vegeta fills this niche in blue which makes him perfectly fit the definition of a rogue deck.
Ginyu - FB01-104
Ah, the weakest of the three yellow decks! Now, hear me out, while Ginyu has the potential for an uncontested amount of aggro, he also heavily depends on both your draws and your board state. Once you learn that the secret to beating Ginyu is to simply not attack into his unawakened leader and just keep clearing the board, the deck will crumble (ofc depends on the matchup)! If you stall Ginyu out, he'll start struggling in the late game, especially if he finds it too difficult to keep putting out 3+ bodies each turn. Lastly, the engine is just massive, leaving you with little space for tech options! You also fold to Frost most of the time.
What Ginyu is really, really good at is beating Gohan! He shines the brightest in that one specific scenario where he just out aggros Gohan into oblivion, but then folds hard to Broly. However, Cooler is better against Gohan and Broly, so Ginyu loses that too! In fact, Cooler is better at being Ginyu than Ginyu is! In fact, both Cooler and Frieza can run Ginyu's strongest combos and do better in the late game! For those reasons, Ginyu falls into rogue tier.
Tier 4
Goku Black - FB01-035
There is only one deck here, let's not beat around the bush. Tier 4 is for the worst of the worst, the absolute horrendous decks, and the king of this turd mountain is Goku Black, who reigns alone!
Goku Black is horrifying bad! There is NOTHING redeemable about this deck!
The engine is just bad. No, you will never consistently get the 6 drop on turn 4 because those Zamasu cards get removed by anything under the sun. If you're playing Goku Black on turn 5, why aren't you just playing him in Vegeta? You'll play him a turn later but you at least won't be playing the worst leader in the game for the first 5 turns.
The Pilaf Loop is only good IF you get to actually see it and you can't do that consistently.
The entire engine is held back by both bad Goku Black cards and the lack of Zamasu 1 drops which draw. If the deck got a single Zamasu which draws or is a play (under some heavy conditions) it would instantly jump from tier 4 into tier 3, but right now it is just awful!
Conclusion
That wraps up our first tier list! Now that the Digital client is out we'll see some more diversity among builds and I'm excited to see how the meta develops. Do keep in mind that we won't be seeing the first really competitive lists until the first regionals events in May, and by then we'll be in set 2. Anyway, let me know what do you think of the tier list? I'll happily answer any of your questions!
See you next time! 😉
