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With the competitive DBSCG Masters season starting next week, new players looking to get into the game are probably wondering where to even start? With Fusion World being prohibitively expensive to a solid portion of the playerbase, is Masters a cheaper alternative? Well, yes, Masters is dirt cheap and today we're taking a look at some budget decks to get you going!
Introduction
First thing that we need to get out of the way is that NA and EU prices different greatly, it is like day and night! Therefore, I've decided to set a budget of about 60$ per deck, which I believe to be a fair number. If you're from Europe, however, you'd pay about 50% less, so for us Europeans a lot of these decks are really affordable. It is important to note that Deckplanet take the highest price point for some of these cards so the displayed price might be wrong. I will mention that when the time comes!
Second, I haven't touched any of the BT24 cards! The reason for this is because we still don't have established prices for those but I will be mentioning them as upgrade possibilities. There's a solid amount of very good BT24 cards which are worth a mention.
Finally, all of these decks have a reasonable success rate in the upcoming meta. None of them are meta decks, those are more expensive, but these ones will get you started with a reasonable winrate. Alright, with that out of the way, lets' go!
Bardock's Crew - BT18
Oh boy, this guy! This guy right here! What an insane deck!
Out of all the budget decks, this one gets you the most bang for your buck!
Bardock's Crew is an absurdly consistent deck which filters through the deck lightning fast while pressuring the opponent with cheap 20k attackers (one has double strike, the other is a dual attacker)! Furthermore, it generates Z-energy like mad and it has built in removal with both leader and Z-leader! Let's go over some cards!
The leader
First we have to go over the leader. On the front side, he draws a card once per turn when you play a Bardock's Crew card. The awakened side has the same auto. It is important to note that this is happens on EACH player's turn, so if you play a Bardock's Crew card during your opponent's turn, you will get to draw a card! Attacking with your leader allows you to combo with a card from the drop, which you will just send to your Z-energy. The other gimmick comes from the activate:main ability. Once per turn, rest one of your Bardock's Crew cards (usually great apes) and KO one of your opponent's battle cards in rest mode!
The Z-leader just ups these abilities! Now your leader is a 20k double striker, the auto goes from playing a card to comboing with it, and the activate:main KOs two cards + negates all of their skills beforehand. As if that wasn't enough, you also get an activate:battle ability which gives your leader +3000 power for the battle for each Bardock's Crew card, with a different character name, in your Z-energy. That's up to 15k power, turning your leader into a 35k double strike attacker or defender!
Tutors
Bardock and Fasha are your main tutors! Both cards have the same effect, except that Bardock's is an auto (on play for Fusion World players) while Fasha's is activate:main. Upon triggering, both effects look at the top 5 cards of your deck and grab you either a unison or, more importantly, a Bardock's Crew battle card with a cost of 4 or less, which is the majority of your deck! That's amazing!
Attackers
The great apes are your main attackers! Both of these cost only a single energy to play, are big enough to threaten any leader in the game, even Z-leaders, and gain keywords when you have 3 or more energy! Borgos is your dual attacker, Shugesh is your double striker. The best part is their auto which switches them back to Active Mode once you've rested them with your leader, giving you a free KO on any card!
Unison Package
These two are a bit of an unorthodox inclusion but they work well in this build. Some players have already experimented with Gine in their builds and she does put in a ton of work, drawing you a card whenever you use your leader's activate:main. If your opponent doesn't focus on Gine, you can replace her with Gohan to close the game! Gohan gets 3 markers from Gine, going up to 7 in total, which turns him into a small boardwhipe and a triple attacker to close out the game!
Upgrades
Normally, you would just include yellow goodstuff staples in the deck but there's one card which stands out! The newest Bardock super rare from BT24, Beyond Generations. Behold, Bardock, Heritage of a Legend!
Designed by the former World Champion (and a good friend), Philip Tarpini, this card is bound to take the deck to a new level! Essentially, you get to tax your opponent's attacking, forcing your opponent to sacrifice a card in rest mode whenever he wishes to attack with anything! When timed correctly, this card can shut down entire turns! However, that's not even the best part! It is a 4 cost Bardock's Crew card, which means that you can tutor for it with Bardock and Fasha! Yes, it is a floodgate that you can tutor for (and you'll also get to draw from your leader when you play this card), that's absolutely insane! If you're planning on running this deck in BT24, you should absolutely prioritize getting a playset of this card.
This card is flat out stupid if you run Gine and it will quickly replace the Gohan unison! Because it is a Z card, which goes into your Z-deck, it is basically in your hand for the entire game until you choose to play it! Furthermore, is is a boardwhipe, which unlike Gohan doesn't have any conditions, it just doesn't hit cards with barrier. Pay two energy to remove your opponent's board...and you have access to up to 4 copies of the card for the duration of the game?! That's insane value! As if that wasn't enough, once per turn it can remove all skills from any of your opponent's attacking cards. Double strike? Gone! Triple attack? Gone! Amazing card, a must include if you run a unison!
Deck profile
If you wish to learn how to play this deck, check out the deck profile that we did with Harvey ''Porg'', one of the best Bardock's Crew pilots in the world!
Alternative - Yellow Majin Vegeta
I want to give a very brief mention to Majin Vegeta because it is a starter deck leader which is still strong and relatively cheap to build! Here's the decklist! (the written price is wrong because the site pulls prices from the highest rarity print)
Majin Vegeta is an amazing yellow saiyan goodstuff deck! Your leader can become 20k in defense and is his own self-awakener. Your Z-leader can whipe the board at any point as long as you have 2 or more lives, and your newest promo card can now do the same! The Roshi/Shen combo (also known by the name Polish Spice) will ensure that you have most of the deck in your hand. Other than that, you just run a bunch of good yellow cards and look for openings!
Is this the deck for you as a new player? Check out our review to find out!
BLUE BABY - BT21
For the blue budget deck, I've decided to go with blue Baby from BT21! Here's the decklist!
''Why blue Baby?'' and experienced Masters player might ask. Well, it is mostly because blue, as a color, is extremely expensive to get into at the moment! Blue Baby is one of those rare blue decks which is strong, budget friendly and has a shot in the upcoming meta. Let's break it down!
The leader
Baby is a huge value engine! The front side just draws you 2 cards on attack and puts one Brainwashed or a 1 cost blue Vegeta under your field card. The awakened side has the overlord keyword which we'll get to in a bit, has built in removal on attack and can buff one of your battle cards while self-awakning to go into the Z-leader! The Z-leader is just a solid defensive tool which can play one of the cards that you stole from your opponent and placed under your field card. Overall, solid leaders!
How servant/overlord works?
Before I continue, you need to learn how servant and overlord keywords work! Servant gives a battle card permanent +10k power BUT it can't switch back to Active Mode. Overlord allows you to bottom deck your servant card and draw a card. That's what Baby is all about, playing servant beaters and then bottom decking them with your leader's overlord skill to draw!
Brainwashed cards
There's a handful of Brainwashed cards in the archetype, most of which don't do much, but these two stand out among the crowd! Trunks is a 1 cost negate which you can play from under your field card, so you just keep it there for safekeeping until you need it. Gohan is a big beater, a 20k double striker (when played from hand) which can, with your leader's ability, become a 25k attacker! Afterwards, you just bottom deck him to draw a card.
Baby and golden ape
Although we play another Baby 8 cost, that one isn't really worth talking about, he is just a big body. The 4 cost Baby is going to be absurd in the upcoming metagame! If this card is in your drop and you pay when when you overlord a card, you can remove this card from the game to bottom deck a unison. BT24 meta will be unison heavy so this is your answer to Z-unisons! The best part of it is that you don't need to go out of your way to trigger the effect, it happens naturally!
The golden ape is a great cheap beater which can remove two cards, one ignoring barrier, board you a servant from underneath your field card and then swing for 35k double strike. What's not to love here? 🙂
Learn to play this deck
Are you interested in giving this deck a go? Then check out our detailed ''How to play'' guide!
RED JIREN - BT14
The canonical winner of Tournament of Power takes the red spot! Let's start with the decklist!
Jiren is a very aggressive, very consistent red aggro deck. The amount of pressure that this deck can put out in the first few turns of the game is insane! The gameplan is simple, board your 1 cost Jiren's and then play the 4 cost Jiren's on top of them for free. Then, proceed to swing!
The leader
Jiren's whole thing is using the evolve mechanic to play your 4 cost Jiren's on top of your 1 cost Jiren's. On the front side, you get to take a life and then search the top 7 cards for a 1 cost Universe 11 card and play it in Rest Mode. That's going to be a Jiren most of the time. On the awakened side, twice per turn, whenever you evolve a Jiren during your turn, your leader gets +5k power, going up to 25k power in total, which is massive! Finally, on both sides, you get to evolve during your opponent's turn by removing a marker from your unison!
Draw engine
The big thing that Jiren does is card draw...oh so much card draw!
All of your 4 cost Jiren's draw when you play them. Then if Dyspo is on the field, his auto triggets, drawing you a card, so you draw 2 from playing a Jiren, and adding 2 markers to the Toppo unison. Because Toppo gains a marker when you evolve a Jiren, he gets an additional marker, making that 3 markers in total! Yes, whenever you evolve a Jiren, once per turn, on EACH player's turn, you draw 2 cards and Toppo gains 3 markers! Crazy value!
Jiren Restand
The very scary thing about Jiren is how many times you can restand your leader or battle cards! Your big boss monster restands himself naturally, so that is two 35k double strike swings at your opponent. The Z-battle card Jiren removes itself from under ANY Jiren to restand ANY Jiren battle card. Now your boss monster attacks THREE TIMES! In case that your opponent floodgates you, use Vegeta to re-stand your leader and give him +5k for the turn. Now your leader is a 30k attacker! Yes, Jiren is savage lol
Learn to play Jiren
As with most of these decks, we have a video on how to play it so check it out!
MASTER ROSHI - BT18
Roshi is my absolute favorite deck on this list...because I've built it to be a hand destruction deck, the best, healthiest, fun friendly mechanic in the game! As always, here's the decklist!
Roshi is a midrange green goodstuff deck but he has hand destruction elements so I've had to lean very heavily into that direction.
The leader
What's so cool about Roshi? The hat, of course!
But other than that, Roshi has one very unique thing going for it. He has a bunch of traits, some more relevant than others, such as saiyan trait which will allow you to use Uneasing Awakened Rage. The whole gimmick it playing your 1 drops on both your and your opponent's side of the field, KOing them in battle and then cheating out your big Goku or Krillin!
Goku and Krillin
These two are the reason why we lean so heavily into hand destruction! Both of them have the same play condition, KO one of your opponent's battle cards, pay 1 energy and play the chosen card on top of its corresponding 1 drop. Pretty simple!
Goku draws you a card and has a very neat ability. When it attacks and KOs a battle card, switch him to active mode and your opponent discard 1 from their hand. You will use your field card to give your opponent a 1 drop in rest mode, then swing into it to make sure that this effect goes off!
Krillin is amazing! You don't get to draw when you play him, but he is a 20k critical dual attacker, who also punishes your opponent for using counters by forcing them to discard a card! If you set up both of these and then first swing with Goku, you're taxing your opponent even if they use a counter to stop Goku's attack. On top of everything, Krillin is a critical attacker which swings twice, allowing you to safely deal damage to your opponent without filling their hand!
Fated Rivals
We have a few big cards in the deck but this pair is iconic!
Goku is your cheap barrier removal, on top of being a 30k double striker with barrier. His main purpose is to clear barrier cards and set up Piccolo!
Piccolo is our hand destruction tool! He is a 25k dual attacker for 1 energy, which is decent. What makes him so great at hand destruction is that he discards a card from your opponent's hand whenever he attacks, which happens twice! So for one energy you get a 25k body which will clear the board (you will never swing face with him) and discards 2 cards from your opponent's hand! Is your opponent's hand now empty? Great, swing for face with Goku!
Main defensive tools
In this budget build we're focusing on more affordable defensive tools! Because we have a field card an Z-extras, both of these work great in the deck!
King Cold is our floodgate and he costs only 1 energy 99% of the time. For 1 energy you stop the attack completely and tax your opponent. Now, for the turn, your opponent needs to discard 1 card whenever he swings into your leader. Most of the time this just ends the turn! The main reason why we don't run a unison is so that we can abuse King Cold to shut down turns!
Cooler is an amazing counter:play! He requires a bit more setup (1 extra card in the drop) but then he can send one battle card, cost 4 or less, into the drop instead of it being played. Even better, if your opponent is drawing a lot, Cooler forces him to discard 1 if there are 8 or more cards in his hand. See, everything here does hand destruction!
More hand destruction
You know what this deck needs? MORE HAND DESTRUCTION!
Feet Kamehameha is great in this deck because our leader is Son Goku (on top of a few others)! This might seem a bit excessive but for 1 energy our leader gains +15k and critical. This allows us to swing into our opponent's leader with ours without having to worry about adding lives to their hand. It is also a great game close because we can, once per game, give our leader double strike and +5k, turning him into a 35k double striker with critical!
Cell's Kamehameha is my favorite card in the game! For just one energy we give something +15k and our opponent discards 1 card...AT RANDOM! Yes, we get to pick 1 card at random! I've seen this card discard super combos, secret rares, negates, all kinds of useful stuff. We run 3 in this build, I'd bump it up to 4!
Dark Temptation Towa is my favorite overrealm card in the game! Why? Because it is free hand destruction! Yes, we get to play her for free, buff our leader by +5k and have our opponent discard 1! Follow that up with a Feet Kamehameha and our leader is now 35k critical attacker! Amazing!
Upgrades
Besides fixing various ratios, there's just one card that you REALLY want to add, and that is the SCR!
Cell:Xeno is my favorite SCR in the game! He is dirt cheap to buy! Furthermore, he is dirt cheap to play...actually, he is free!
Once you get to 5 energy and you sacrifice a total cost of 12 from among your battle cards, your opponent discards 3 cards from their hand, which is usually his entire hand, and you get to swing for 4 damage...TWICE!!! You usually swing only once, of course!
Deck profile
Here's an old deck profile! It is a bit outdated but it goes over the basics! 🙂
SUPER FU - BT22
The very last deck in this long article is Super Fu! Here's the list!
Fu is a low to the ground black aggro deck where you swing with a lot of cheap/free attackers and try to aggro your opponent to death very early on! The main gimmick revolves around manipulating our Z-deck and playing cards for free!
The leader
Fu is very cool! He is one of the rare leaders which don't mind remaining on the front side a bit longer because then he gets to tutor for Fu's and Cumber's a bit longer. On the awakened side, he is pretty decent! He draws without attacking, which is great, and he sets up your Cumber plays. A very cool thing is that he can re-direct an attack, as activate:battle, meaning that after your opponent had combo'd, you can get our of the attack for free! It won't happen often but it is a neat trick!
Cumbers
We have 3 different Cumbers, each with their own unique effect!
Thriving Darkness is a 25k attacker that charges a Z-energy to help us get our Z cards out faster!
Jet Black Hostility is by far the best one! He is a 20k attacker that forces our opponent to warp 1 card from their hand. HAND DESTRUCTION!
Overwhelming Fight is pretty solid, a 20k attacker that warps a card. That's not bad!
Each one of these can be played for free with their activate:main ability, allowing us to swarm the field very early on and start swinging!
Learn to play
I'm not really an expert on Fu, which is why this last recommendation is so short, but I do have an in-depth tutorial on the basics so, if Fu interests you, check it out!
Conclusion
That's it! The massive budget decks article is over!
Next week we will have our first competitive events, which means that we'll have breakdowns, so make sure to check out the livestream on the 23rd on our Twitch and come back afterwards for a breakdown article! See you then!
