Dragon Ball Z: Collectible Card Game Strategy Guide

DRAGON BALL Z: COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME GUIDE

Stop "dragon" those cards around and get into card-crazy Dragon Ball Z for the GBA. Dragon Ball Z: Collectible Card Game is the latest craze with the youngsters these days, so it's only appropriate that Infogrames brings this craze to the Game Boy Advance. Coupled with Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku for the Game Boy Advance, now's a great time to be an owner of Nintendo's handy little portable supermachine.

How To Play The basic premise of Dragon Ball Z: Collectible Card Game is simple. Each player starts off with a certain amount of "life deck points" (the number you get depends on the type of deck you start off with). When you first start playing the game, you have the option assuming the identity of Goku, Gohan, Garlic Jr. or Freiza. You can use each character's unique Starter Deck or build your own deck (which we'll get into later). If you aren't into building your own card deck right now, the best choices are either Freiza or Goku.

Phase Four There are a total of four phases in Dragonball Z: Collectible Card Game: Draw, Non-Combat, Combat and Discard. Players take a turn to go through all three of these phases while their opponent has the ability to counterattack during the Combat phase.

Draw: Before you do anything else in your turn, you'll have to draw cards. During this phase, the active player (you) will draw three cards from the life deck. Although you'll only have three cards in your hand at the beginning of the game, later on you can hold four or more cards at a time.

Non-Combat: The Non-Combat phase is a prelude to the actual combat itself. During this phase you can set down Drill, Dragonball, Ally, Battleground and Location cards from your hand and put them into play. This phase is the only time when you can use your Non-Combat cards (unless it's stated on the card itself that it can be used at another time).

Combat: After the Non-Combat phase has taken place, you can decide whether you want to fight like a man, or forfeit your turn You will take more damage if you are not prepared. over to your opponent. Unless you're asking for a loss, it's best to just select Attack and go to the next phase of battle. When you have chosen to Attack, you can select the card that you want to attack with. Once this is done, your opponent will draw three cards and select one to use to defend against your attack (if they are able to), and then it will be your turn to defend. Your opponent will have the opportunity to play one of their three cards to attack you, so make sure you can defend against it. Keep in mind that you don't have to defend against all of your opponent's attacks. f an incoming attack won't hurt you too much, it would be best to let it go and save your card for the next attack.

Discard: Discard is the final phase of combat. In most situations, both players will discard all of their cards except for one; however, there are certain cards in the game that will end the combat phase early and allow a player to keep all of their cards for the next phase of combat (we'll discuss this again later on).

Attack Types There are two types of attacks in the game: Physical and Energy attacks. This is an extremely important thing to remember when you are facing computer-controlled opponents as well as your friends.

Another thing to keep in mind is your character's "Anger" level. Many cards in your deck will raise your character's Anger level, which will also raise his power level, giving him the ability to inflict more damage.

There are a total of three ways you can win in Dragonball Z: CCG: Obtain a Survival Victory (where you deplete your opponent's life deck to zero); Capture all seven types of Dragonball cards; Or achieve the top power level in your game. Although Survival Victory is by far the most common way of winning a game, you shouldn't rule out using the other methods.

Tips for building your first custom Deck When you first start off with deck building, you're able to access 156 of the 300 or so cards in the game. What you'll want to do first is decide what you want your playing style to be. Do you want to be Your Deck pays off on the character selection screen. the ultra-defensive player that will hold your ground until the right opportunity comes along, or do you want to be the type of player that goes with a full out offense and thinks of defense as something for wimps?

Early on, the best way to get through your first computer-controlled opponents is to constantly fine-tune your deck to focus on defending against their strengths. You should try to focus on using either physical attack cards or energy attack cards. Using a healthy mixture of both can be rewarding, but not with the type of cards you start off with. Save it for later opponents.

The most important thing to remember is how all of the elemental colors react with each other. A Red card is usually good at raising your anger level, while a White card is great for defensive purposes. Keep this in mind when building your own life deck.

Goku's Red 'n' white deck If you want to go with heavy doses of physical attacks, try the deck listed below.

Main Personality: Level 1 Goku, The Leader Level 2 Goku, The Defender Level 3 Goku, The Protector

Allies: Level 1 Gohan The Furious

Physical Combat: 3 Red Reverse Punch 3 Red Knife Hand 3 Red Palm Heel Strike 2 Gohan's Ready 2 Red Power Rush 2 Red Face Upheaval 2 Red Lightning Slash 3 Gohan's Energy Defense 3 Red Knee Strike 1 Trunks Sword Position 2 2 Trunks High Strike 1 Saiyan Truce Card 2 Black Turning Kick

Energy Combat: 3 Red Energy Blast 1 Red Eye Laser Assault 3 Black Turning Kick 1 Vegeta's Jolting Slash

Combat: 2 Yamcha's Skillful Defense 2 Mother's Touch 1 Black Defensive Aura 1 Trunk's Energy Sphere

Non-Combat: 1 Baba's Energy Blast 1 Black Stamina Energy Drill 1 Burning Rage! 1 A Hospital Stay 1 Gohan Spots the Imposter Drill 1 Goku's Ready 3 Power Up The Most! 1 Hero Enraged!

Some other tips you should remember when building your Deck Keep in mind that every deck that you build must have a minimum of 50 cards and maximum of 75 cards, including all the levels of the Main Personality cards you have.

Make sure you stick to one or two primary element colors. Balancing your deck with every color might be a tempting thing to do, but in the end your overall game will be weaker because you don't possess that many strengths. At the very most use three element colors, with the third one being a secondary element (2 – 5 cards in your deck). If you're building a deck with mainly physical attack cards, make sure to beef up your defense with energy defense cards, and vice versa. Many of your combat cards (such as the Black Turn Kick) can actually be used to stop physical attacks as well.

First Strike Now that you've completed your very own decks, it's time to put them to good use in the 1 Player mode. The first three opponents you'll face are Krillan, Nail and Guldo, and they will all push you to the absolute limit, especially when you only have a limited selection of cards to start off with to build your deck.

Guldo 46 Life Deck Points Profile: Guldo is a short, four-eyed member of the elite mercenary group known as the Ginyu Force. He has the ability to freeze time for those around him by holding his breath. Guldo almost destroys Krillin Guldo Attacks! and Gohan with his time freeze, but Vegeta steps in and saves them both. Like all of the Ginyu Force, Guldo takes posing very seriously. He is the first member of the Ginyu Force to be eliminated.

Make no mistake about it, Guldo is all about the physical attacks, and nothing more. The most important thing to remember about fighting Guldo is that every single card that he throws at you will be a physical attack. He'll even go so far as to use his Drill cards as a Final Physical Attack to inflict that little smidge of damage to you if need be. When Guldo is the active player, make it a point to do any type of life deck damage to him, or else he'll use his Guldo personality card against you at the end of the round to recall the last two cards he has played. Because he usually throws out a lot of attacking cards, the odds that he'll recall two more attack cards are very high.

If you need to, fine-tune your deck to ward off these deadly physical attacks while focusing on energy attacks and you should do just fine. Cards such as A Mother's Touch and Yamcha's Skillful Defense are great to use because if they are successful in deflecting one physical attack, they'll do the same for each subsequent physical attack for the entire turn. Guldo has the lowest amount of life deck points out of the first three opponents you'll face, so he shouldn't be too much of a challenge if you play smart.

Nail 58 Life Deck Points Profile: The strongest Namekian warrior on the planet Namek, he is the personal guardian of the Great Elder (Guru). When he was defeated by Freiza on the planet Namek, Nail and Piccolo merge together to in order to battle their common foe. While Piccolo retains his appearance, Nail shows up a couple of times in critical situations. While he may have been the strongest warrior on Namek, the fusion between him and Piccolo has created an even more powerful warrior. Nail is a hybrid character, capable of using both physical and energy attacks, so you'll have to prepare for him accordingly. His deck consists mainly of Black and White element cards, with his Black cards used for attacks and his White cards for attacks and defense. A Red or Blue deck will do a fairly good job here.

Like Guldo, make sure you're able to do at least one life deck point of damage against him, or else Nail will call out his personality card and hit you hard. Nail's personality card is an energy attack card, so if you haven't inflicted any damage on him early on and you have an energy defense card handy, save it for when he pulls out this card.

Because of Nail's hybrid nature, this battle will probably be the longest out of the three you'll face in the first level, but if you've tuned your deck properly, you shouldn't be in any grave danger at any point during the match.

Krillan 64 Life Deck Points Profile: Krillin first meets Goku in Dragonball, where they are rivals who both seek the training of Master Roshi. Krillin is a smart-aleck and often very sarcastic. He is considered by many to be the The Krillan card! most comical character of DBZ (although some argue for Buu) because of his wise-cracks and usually terrible luck. Krillin is also arguably the strongest human in DBZ.

Krillan is by far the most powerful opponent in this trio of opponents, and worst of all he uses a lot of energy attacks, so you might have a tough time against him if you haven't fine-tuned your deck after your battles with Guldo and Nail. Watch out for the Orange Energy Dan Drill card that he'll most likely use in either Turn 1 or 2. This bad boy will knock off an additional life deck point from you if Krillan lands any attack on you. If you have a card that will discard Drill cards (such as the Red Lightning Slash card), make sure to use it as soon as possible.

While Krillan might seem intimidating right now, the best thing to do is to have a lot of energy defense cards coupled with physical attack cards. Krillan has some cards that can stop physical attacks (such as Yamcha's Skillful Defense), but for the most part physical attacks are his biggest weakness. Make sure to take advantage of it!

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ZD Games.