Raging Roar (FB03) Leaders Guide and Decks

With a new color entering the game, there are fewer cards available to push new leaders in each color, and it kind of shows. The new synergies are nice, but the excessive reuse of FB01-132's ability (FB03-082 and FB03-002) alongside the need to also give something to the already existing leaders limited how exciting the newcomers were.

I adore the Satan City synergy, and have high hopes for it. Out of the four new leaders, I definitely believe FB03-027 has that fresh feeling, and a shot at being really good as well. When it comes to the other three, It is a little harder to be excited, as there is that "déja-vu" feeling. It can be in the cards they have to use (FB03-001 is bound to rely on the existing Tournament of Power core a ton) or the synergies they are built around (FB03-078 feels awfully similar to FB01-104 with its gameplan centered around swarming the board with 20.000 power cards).

I'm done killing the mood, we have some decks we need to discuss, as less novelty doesn't necessarily equal weaker leaders. Let's explore!

Babidi

One amazing card surrounded by a mildly exciting synergy.

I don't like to start with bad news, but FB03-078 is by far the least exciting leader of Raging Roar in my opinion, and I'd rather test the new cards FB02-105 got instead. This isn't a blow to the deck's power level, although I'm also not super confident in that regard. Instead, I'm more concerned about FB03-078 looking like a FB01-104 reboot, with the same goal of spamming the board with 20,000 power cards. Thankfully, the deck will be able to count on FB03-093 for resilience this time around, but this is about the only exciting new card in the deck.

FB03-083 got a lot of players talking, and I believe it will be a good one too. However, the lack of 4-cost cards with the Wicked Soul trait makes FB03-100 hardly playable for now. We have the excellent FB03-089 as a target, but that's about it. As such, the deck simply feels incomplete in the synergies it is pushing for now, and needs to rely on strong standalone cards like FB02-133 or FS04-03. This is the main reason I'm doubtful about this deck : Whenever you start using the same leverages as FS04-01, you typically end up living in its shadow.

Overall, I like the direction they gave to Babidi, but I want to see it go further, which probably has to wait for the next set. There are plenty of positive notes already, such as the solid draw engine or the resiliency through the Barrier keyword. Unfortunately, this doesn't feel like enough to compete with the more explosive archetypes in the game.

Until more support comes out, FB03-093 and FB03-089 will be great additions in other decks, those able to use FB01-109, still the best tempo card in the yellow color.

Piccolo

Leader attacks have never been so good!

Green already has four leaders looking to gain energy in order to dominate their opponent, so I was hoping for a different direction in this set. Sadly, FB03-053 will join its green counterparts in looking to ramp to five or six energy quickly, before taking over with its expensive cards.

This time around, the emphasis will be on the leader himself, which we will buff to get another attack per turn once we reach eight energy. Honestly, this feels like an unnecessary condition when considering most green decks get retreated against when they managed to stabilize at eight energy, as FB01-078 or FS03-10 already bring tons of pressure.
Why should we play FB03-053 then, and not expect the new leader to follow in FB02-070 footsteps as a disappointing new addition?

Resiliency.

Through FB03-077 and, more importantly, FB03-070, the new leader got some interesting defensive tools, giving it all its flavor inside the green team. Plus, FB03-63 is a great complement to this defensive arsenal, strengthening the deck's draw ability, while giving the Saiyan trait another reason to see play.

I'm a bit intrigued as to why they didn't make the 6-cost battle card the FB03-053 only card instead of FB03-075. Sure, another ramp card could be scary in a FS03-01 build, but more health could be equally strong, especially health with some free extra cards attached to it.

Overall, I like the kit they build around the new leader, but am a little worried it might end up with a different one instead. Indeed, the ability to get another hit once you reach 8 energy doesn't speak much to me, and I would rather have the ability to stay alive during the midgame instead. Sure, this aggressive late game potential should be strong against other green leaders, forced to defend heavy blows to prevent another coming their way. Yet, this would limit FB03-053 to a niche role, only good when the green color is dominant, and maybe too slow to go against FB01-070 still.

Son Goku

Satan City gives the blue color a new explosive synergy to build around!

A reliable deck, able to constantly have a decent amount of cards in hand, is about the best you can ask for in Dragon Ball Fusion World. However, if you can't develop enough tempo to force cards out of your opponent's hand, you will run out of gas eventually.

Blue never had a problem to keep drawing, or recuperate cards from its drop since the beginning of the game, but apart from FB01-035, always struggled in the tempo department. Blazing Aura helped a lot in that regard, but wasn't enough to push any of the blue leaders to be a tier 1 contender. Will Satan City finally be able to make blue the best color in the game ? I believe it might.

There are two things I love about the new set for blue leaders : It is simple to build and understand, and it doesn't stop you from playing strong standalone cards on the side. I'm not saying this will be the next FB02-001 deck, but there are a few similarities with the Tournament of Power:

• A powerhouse 4-cost card in FB03-039
• Plenty of card draw to constantly refill your hand with FB03-052 or FB03-042
• The ability to create bursts of tempo through FB03-050

These three factors, combined with the synergy around FB02-054 for tempo, FB01-056 for refill or FB02-139 as the late game enforcer creates a very promising mix. Obviously, this is just an early draft, but just like the Tournament of Power deck, it was pretty simple to build and we can already picture the synergies we want to focus on.

I'm excited for blue in Raging Roar!

Jiren

Could Beerus lose its spot as red go-to control leader?

25,000 power leaders didn't really shine during Blazing Aura, as FB02-036 never managed to be dominant, although it found a few great match-ups to leverage. In the green color, FS03-01 was outshone by the Android synergy. The ban list made the metagame a little better for these, but FB03-001 comes in the targeted red color, one only FB01-002 managed to keep afloat lately.

This will arguably be FB03-001's biggest challenge, take FB01-002 spot as the default control leader in the color. I'm a bit skeptic about this scenario happening for a few reasons, most of them around the way Beerus should be more efficient at creating card advantage.

• FB03-001 stops drawing once awakened, and only does so when it takes a damage, leaving only 2 cards to be drawn outside abuses with FB03-009.
• FB01-002 naturally limits the cards in the opponent's hand through its Critical keyword, which also entices the opponent to awaken him to stop those annoying attacks. Jiren can't really force the opponent to awaken them, and we didn't get any new cards to help damage our leader either.
• FB01-002' leader ability once awakened stills works towards creating some card advantage. Jiren should force the opponent to use combo cards due to its base 25,000 power, but we have FB02-015 available to reciprocate a similar scenario with the God of Destruction.

It's an uphill battle for the new leader to make it so we don't end up with just FB03-004 slotted in the current best red deck and call it a day.

I know I sounded pretty pessimistic in the first part, but the new leader has one synergy carrying plenty of promises: FB03-009. With the card on the board, FB03-001 is a completely different beast. First, it will draw a card for free once per turn when attacked through the ability of FB03-009. Then, due to its passive ability of not taking more than one damage per battle if a 30,000 power battle card is on the board, the incoming attacked is nullified, as FB03-001 took a damage already.

This card alone made me consider the entire Pride Troopers synergy, just to run FB03-003 so we'd get the 4-cost more often. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew didn't convince me at all, especially when compared to the already existing Tournament of Power cards.
Then, the battle to be the best red leader will mostly rely on the shoulders of FB03-009, as it should be the only difference from a FB01-002 or a FB03-001 deck.

Son Goku : GT

The energy marker has never been so important!

Play to develop as much tempo as possible, and create the energy marker regularly to both trigger your important synergies (FB03-114, FB03-125, FB03-137, FB03-140...) or simply have one more energy than your opponent on most turns. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that FB03-111 on turn two, followed by FB03-140 on three and FS05-11 on four will be a nightmare for our opponent to deal with.

When this kind of curve happens, I have no issue placing the black color as a top tier contender, able to bring immense pressure, while it also has some cheap control tools to limit the opposing development in FB03-137, FB03-125 or FB03-114 when needed. If this deck can get ahead early in a match, the opponent might never catch up, or will be so far behind in the card advantage, that they would have just bought extra time until their inevitable defeat arrives.

Arguably, the hardest part with this deck will be to fine tune our use of the energy marker to keep triggering our synergies turn after turn. When we manage to do so, I already shared my view of the deck, and its ability to develop too much for the opponent to be able to keep up. The question is : how reliably can we recreate the energy marker. Honestly, it is a bit scary of many cards we have to do it already.

FB03-140 and FB03-111 are no brainers four copies of, while FS05-03 gives us the marker when going first, and FP-022 gets fetched by FB03-124.

FB03-108 is the only flexible card in the deck really, competing with FB03-118 for the last spot in the deck. I was looking for more 10,000 combo cards, which tilted the balance in favor of the 1-cost, but this opens any 10,000 combo card to be played in this slot.

Obviously, this deck isn't fully refined, and the amount we want for each card will vary once we can play the deck. Still, this gives me a slight feeling of the Tournament of Power before Blazing Aura, when we all slammed four copies of all the best cards and it magically turned into a deck that took the entire game hostage for a month.

Closing Words

I'm a blue player at heart, so Raging Roar is a set I'm eager to get my hands on, just to try the new Satan City deck. Otherwise, I have to admit the other three original colors don't have much I look forward to, at least when it comes to their new leaders. Fear not, as we still have to discuss the best cards to release, which will give us a chance to discuss the already existing leaders and the reinforcements they are getting.

Plus, the new color might be enough to make the game feel completely fresh, as it will bring not only new synergies to explore, but also new match-ups, and cards to consider under a different light. Naturally, I expect the black leader to see a lot of play early on, and dictate what is good or not in the metagame. Not only is it normal for a new color to see plenty of play due to the excitement around it, FB03-104 also looks pretty damn strong !

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Good Game Everyone!