Red Jiren (FB03) Deck Guide

FB03-001-jiren is one of our newest Leaders in FB03, bringing a new playstyle to Red color. This deck focuses on two things: controlling the opponent's board and setting up powerful attacks on their Leader.

The red Jiren deck is a popular choice in the competitive scene, already proving its strength and winning a couple of tournaments.

Gameplan

Unlike most Leaders, FB03-001-jiren needs to drop to 3 health to Awaken, which means we're already falling in the danger zone when we're this low. However, FB03-001-jiren becomes a 25,000 Power Leader, threatening heavier attacks that force more Combo plays from the opponent, but also offers a stronger defensive turn that can be difficult for opponents to get their attacks through.

An Awakened Jiren does not draw a card when he attacks, so you are losing on resources, which means we aren't always rushing to level up. Other than the +10,000 Power boost on your Leader when Awakened, Jiren has two abilities on level-up. If there's a 30,000 Power Battle Card on your side of the board, you only take 1 damage in each battle, this means if the opponent is attacking with a Double Attack Battle Card, you'll only take 1 damage if you have a 30,000 Power Character. This is useful because you won't have to worry as much when falling to two Life Cards, and the opponent will have to remove your 30,000+ Power Battle Card first before they try to set up the winning play with a Double Attack attacker.

Additionally, every time an Awakened FB03-001-jiren takes damage, you draw a card from your deck, compensating for the lack of card draw when Leader attacks.

Early Turns

FB01-004-whis is the best turn 1 play, having him on the board giving -5,000 to the opponent's Battle Cards every turn. This is useful to remove 5,000 Power Battle Cards so they're not used as combo plays or to weaken a rested Battle Card so it's more vulnerable when you attack it.

FS01-03-master-roshi and FB02-022-piccolo draw you a card and can later be used for the Combo Power. They're useful throughout the game as they can increase your late-game Combo Power if you're setting up the finisher.

Both FB02-007-caulifla and FB01-021-hit are 20,000 Power Battle cards that find more use when they go for the attack. However, in most cases, we'll avoid attacking with them immediately since it gives the opponent a target for them to attack instead of your Leader.

FB02-007-caulifla is a critical attacker, forcing players to counter out of her attack if they don't want to discard one of their cards. As for FB01-021-hit, he's doing two things when he attacks, self-awakening your Leader and reducing the Power of one of the opponent's Battle Cards by 5,000, acting similarly to Whis' Power reduction.

Mid-game Control

FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence is a great play on turn 3, offering a -15,000 Power reduction on one of the opponent's Battle Cards when FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence attacks. This weakens one of the opponent's Battle Cards, making it exceptionally easy for you to KO it. FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence is also self-damaging your Leader, getting you a step closer to Awaken.

If Leader Awakens, FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence gains a +5,000 Power boost on the attack, forcing more Combo play from the opponent if they want to defend from the attack.

In most cases, FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence is the best play on turn 3 and opponents will put a lot of their resources into KOing him. If possible, try to protect him as that -15,000 can be devastating if you get to activate it a second time.

The FB01-015-son-goku play depends on what the opponent has on the board. If they have a 20,000 Active Battle Card, then FB01-015-son-goku is a great play to KO it. He's also a self-awakener, perfect to speed up your Leader's Awakening. You could KO higher-power Battle Cards if you combo FB01-015-son-goku with FB01-004-whis, putting a 25,000 Power Battle Card in range for removal.

This can be a board swinger, putting you ahead of the opponent on aggression, especially with FB01-015-son-goku being a 25,000 Power attacker.

We do have FB02-004-katopesla as another option to play for 3 Energy. However, it's weaker than the other options. It's giving -5,000 Power twice, which is useful if we're trying to KO a rested Character. Additionally, if it gets KO'd, it can give one of the opponent's Battle Cards -5,000, weakening their aggressive turn a bit. However, I haven't found it too useful defensively, especially if the opponent is playing around it. FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence feels like the better option and the self awaken on top adds to his value.

The late-game control card, FB02-029-rumsshi is usually the best play to slow down an opponent's aggression. You can KO a 30,000 Power Battle Card with his ability and still have FB02-029-rumsshi as a heavy attacker. The control aspect of this deck weakens the opponent's upcoming turn, giving us more time to set up our win condition.

FB01-023-beerus is more of a meta-dependent inclusion. FB01-023-beerus can be a nightmare for decks that can go wide on the board. You have to discard one card from your hand to activate FB01-023-beerus's ability, but KOing all opponent's 25,000 Power or less Battle Cards can destroy their game plan. Additionally, FB01-023-beerus remains on the board as a 35,000 Power attacker, difficult to Combo out of his attacks, and the Critical keyword will put the opponent in an awkward spot.

Carry Cards

FB03-009-jiren isn't a carry card in the sense of creating opportunities to close out the game, but more so he synergizes with your Leader's ability, offering insane resource value that can put you ahead of the opponent. We want him on the board on turn 4, and we need to attack with him, making sure he's in Rest mode during the opponent's turn.

Now what FB03-009-jiren does is he waits for the opponent to attack us, activating his ability, self-damaging our Leader, and adding the top card in our deck to our Life. So what we did here, is we drew a Life card without actually damaging our Leader. This already looks good, however, if we're activating FB03-009-jiren's ability when Leader FB03-001-jiren is awakened, we're now drawing a card from the deck as well through Leader ability! A huge resource value if you manage to keep FB03-009-jiren on the board for multiple turns.

Speaking of keeping FB03-009-jiren on the board, opponents need to KO him twice thanks to his ability. So it can be tough to KO him, forcing more resources from the opponent to deal with him. You're mainly worried if opponent can remove Jiren through other means, like dropping his Power down to 0 or returning him to your hand or deck.

As for FS01-08-son-goku, he's your strongest late-game play, immediately reducing the power of one of the opponent's Battle Cards by 20,000, either removing it from play or making it easier for one of your attackers to KO it. FS01-08-son-goku's Double Attack makes him the perfect game finisher. The goal is to drop the opponent down to two Life cards and use FS01-08-son-goku to win the game.

If we see the winning line, we'll try to boost his Power with Combo plays in an attempt to close out the game. FB03-022-marcarita is a perfect Power booster, giving one of your Battle Cards +10,000 through her On Play ability and can give another +10,000 Power by using her as a Combo play.

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Techs and Options

FB03-016-toppo is a control card that can KO a 25,000 Power Character but has to discard a card from your hand. It is a fair trade-off as you maintain your control of the board, however, the neat thing about FB03-016-toppo is that if he ends up getting KO'd, he'll draw you two cards, offering resource value to put you ahead of the opponent.

FB03-020-vegeta has to discard two cards to activate his "When Attacking" effect, gaining a +30,000 Power boost and a "can't be KO'd" until the opponent's next turn. So you're creating a finisher play that can't be removed easily off the board. Additionally, FB03-020-vegeta can KO a Battle card with 25,000 Power or less, but has to KO himself afterward. However, if we've discarded two cards and activated his "KO immunity" we won't lose Vegeta.

A defensive card to protect your Leader or one of your Battle Cards from an attacker. The +20,000 Power boost can shut down an attack, and it gives immunity from KO to the boosted Battle Card until the end of the turn.

A control Extra to KO a 25,000 Power Battle Card. Since it only costs 2 Energy, we can easily combo it with one of our cost reduction cards like FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence or FB01-026-fuwa to KO higher Power threats. It can also damage the opponent's Leader if they're at 4 Life or more, but it's still worth it without the damage effect.

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General Tips

• Taking Early hits is fine. We might avoid attacking with our turn 2 Battle Card to force our opponent to attack our Leader. This makes it easier for us to Awaken.
• Make sure to use your cost reduction first. We want to drop the Power of a certain Battle card first before we attack it, this makes it easier for us to KO and forces more Combo plays from the opponent if they want to keep it alive.
• We mustn't drop to 1 Life. We have to preserve our Leader's life at 2 or 3 for as long as possible, this enables us to get more out of FB03-009-jiren's ability. We can't self-damage with FB03-009-jiren if we're at 1 Life, we'll automatically lose the game.
• Keep pressure on their Leader. Thanks to our Power reduction cards, we can deal with their board more easily, giving us opportunities to target their Leader more often and force out Combo plays if they're at the risk of dropping to two Life cards.

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Mulligan

• We want our key cards like FB02-018-son-gohan-adolescence and FB03-009-jiren in our early hand to ensure a powerful mid-game.
• Avoid keeping Super Combos as they'll be dead cards in the early/mid-game.

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Important Matchups

Blue Vegeta

• Blue is a tough matchup since they can return FB03-009-jiren to our hand or deck, shutting us down from activating his ability.
• This will end up a battle for resources. Blue had the draw power to keep up with your late-game, and will eventually run you out of resources.
• Will be difficult to aggro them down, and focusing on removing their threats in the hopes they don't have a carry card might be the best option. However, an Awakened Vegeta gains 10,000 Power during their attack turn, allowing them to attack your Leader and forcing a Combo play.
• The cost-reduction enables them to remove our 5-cost Battle Card more easily, so we can't allow FB02-061-vegito to stick on the board for long.
• FB02-139-vegito and FS02-13-vegeta are carries for the Blue Vegeta, which we'll want to KO them with FB02-029-rumsshi.

Red Beerus

• Beerus is the king of Power reduction and controlling the board, but as the game stretches out, they'll struggle to create a lethal attack.
• Don't be scared of his Critical attacks, it's fine if you're damaged and lose on resources as long as you're getting closer to Awaken. Also, Beerus won't draw cards when attacking until he's Awakened.
• Leader Beerus won't be able to damage your Leader once you Awaken. This will force them to use Combo plays to get their attack through.
• Once they fall to 2 Life cards, FS01-08-son-goku + FB03-022-marcarita and Combo cards can be exceptionally difficult for them to survive.

Green Android 17

• We're against a ramp deck that wants to take things to the late game. They'll drop high-power Battle Cards that can be difficult for us to remove.
• The opponent will use FB01-079-android-18 in the late game for the draw value. If we can't close out the game, we want to KO it immediately.
• Once they hit 6 Energy, we're expecting them to play FB01-078-android-17android-18. They can KO two of your 3-cost or less Characters, so it's important to have attacked and gained value from them. FB01-078-android-17android-18 can't remove your 4-cost Jiren, but we want to protect Jiren if they attack him.
• FS03-10-broly-br is this deck's strongest play, capable of KOing one of your Battle Cards and attacking twice. At this point of the game, it can be difficult to remove FS03-10-broly-br and we'll probably focus our aggression on their Leader to close out the game.
• Keep in mind that your opponent can gain a massive Power boost with FS03-15-gigantic-meteor, which can be used both offensively or defensively.

Black Son Goku : GT

• We can keep up with their card value. The fact that their Leader is forced to commit a Combo card to damage us gives us the upper hand.
• FB03-125-pan-gt makes things extremely rough for you. When she attacks, she can return your 4-cost Jiren back to your hand, shutting you down from activating his effect. You need to KO her on your upcoming turn or she'll continue to do it.
• They can set up an aggressive turn with FB03-121-bardock ability to attack twice and Leader's Power boost.
• KOing their threats goes a long way to slowing down their aggression.
• FB02-029-rumsshi will play an important role in controlling the board and KOing opponent's threats.

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Closing Words

Red Jiren is a powerful deck in the new Dragon Ball meta and has proven its consistency in tournaments. It's weak against Blue decks that can remove your FB03-009-jiren without having to KO him. The Leader having 25,000 Power forces many decks in the meta to play Combo cards proactively if they want to push damage on your Leader.