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You can't really say Dragon Ball without having Son Goku come to mind. As the iconic character of the series, Goku is logically a starting leader, and I believe a great one to learn the mechanics of Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World. Indeed, with a deck built around manipulating the power of both our and the opponent's cards, Son Goku appears as a flexible, midrange oriented kind of leader. It will look to control the battle phase in order to build the lead, and then transfer to either exhausting the opponent out of cards, or become the aggressor to close the match.
If you aren't familiar with this type of fast-paced card games, where building an early lead is crucial to your success, I think Son Goku will be a great entry point. With this starter, you will be forced to work on card advantage and efficient trading, perfect to hone your skills before getting serious about the game.
Ready to dive into the Red Starter Deck?
Base Deck and Immediate Improvements
Goku has some promising cards in its started deck, unfortunately, it is mostly cards we get in two copies. Indeed, if both Son Goku (5) and Son Gohan (4) possess both a nice key word and a debuff ability, the rest of the deck tends to lack in overall power. It is normal considering the deck's synergy is based around afflicting opposing cards with negative power and buffing ours to dominate the battle phase, but can often be difficult to leverage if we aren't in the lead, and our opponent can pick its battles.
Then, I believe Goku is a great starter deck to understand one of the keys of Dragon Ball Super World Fusion: building card advantage early in the match to dominate battles later on. However, this deck really wants to be improved with a second starter deck, so it can get rid of some fillers, and instead focus on manipulating the power on the table.
Build With Two Starter Decks
With four copies of both super rare cards, Beerus and Krilin to help you awaken faster, Goku's deck immediately feels like it has much more gas to dominate its opponent. Indeed, considering the deck relies on building card advantage through the various buffs and debuffs it applies, having most of the cards with a related ability only as two offs felt awkward.
In this improved deck, Goku mainly gains the ability to really control the board with power manipulation. As such, you can be much more aggressive in the way you control your opponent's development early, with the intent to completely take over when your 4 and 5 costs come around. The extra two copies of Son Gohan (4) and Beerus (3) in particular, are great to bring the pressure onto the opposing leader with their Critical keyword while impacting the battle cards on both sides in the process.
Overall, I would say Goku is worth it if you intend to invest into a second red started deck.
Great Booster Pack Cards to Strengthen the Deck
FB01-001 Son Goku
Changing for other Son Goku leader makes sense if you get it. You should already have plenty of Universe 7 cards from your starter deck and the ability seems easier to leverage as a global buff rather than a once per turn.
FB01-016 Son Gohan : Adolescence
This on play ability is simply too good to pass on. It will KO a lot of cheap cards in the game you didn't take care of previously, and give you great trading ability into the other cards.
FB01-005 Master Roshi
This card will help you awaken really fast, which is something you want to do, no matter the Goku leader you are playing with.
FB01-004 Whis
Basically the on play ability of the Whis in the starter deck, but this once can be used every turn. Plus, you have a stronger trading ability, at the cost of less combo power.
FB01-013 Android 17
Very solid blocker with a good combo power in case you wouldn't need it. There isn't much to criticize about this card apart from the base power.
FB01-032 Tournament of Power Arena
This card is basically the starter Goku awakened ability for two energy. Play it early and you get a free 5,000 power up every turn for the remainder of the game.
FB01-026 Botamo
20,000 power which can't be removed in battle can represent a ton of value through the course of the match.
Game Plan
Goku doesn't really have a preferred style going into each and every game, and will adapt to its opponent. Against a Vegeta, which is faster and more focused on damaging your Leader, Goku will adopt a defensive play style, and look to remove their battle cards first and foremost, to limit how many hits you have to defend against every turn. On the other hand, Goku doesn't want to enter a long battle against Broly, as the power debuffs won't be effective enough when the big cards come around.
The cards used in each match will be the same, but depending on your opponent, you might use those for aggressive purposes. Against some, Son Gohan : Adolescence (4) and Son Goku (5) will have their ability used to open more opportunities to target the opposing leader and limit how much trading the opponent can do during their turns. If the opponent is faster than you, you will focus on their Battle Cards, using debuffs to leverage your trades, and build a commanding lead on the board before you start focusing on their leader.
Speaking on the opposing leader, Son Goku has access to a decent amount of battle cards with the Critical keyword, which is another to control the pace of the game. Ideally, you would want to attack the opposing leader with those, while the others are on trading duty. This isn't a hard rule, but card advantage is key in Dragon Ball Super World Fusion, so you should definitely try to leverage everything in your power to limit how many your opponent has access to, except if you know the late game won't favor you even with more cards available.
Closing Worlds
I really like Goku as a starter, especially if you don't have much card game experience, because the mechanics in that deck emphasize on trading efficiently, knowing how power thresholds work, and identifying the right targets to focus. Then, although I believe Goku might not be on the same level as a Broly or Vegeta, at least until you collect certain cards from boosters, I consider it the best to get started in Dragon Ball Super World Fusion for someone without prior card game experience.
Overall, I would say Goku is a bit more difficult to play compared to some other starter, but it also has more flexibility to it, especially when it comes to the battle phase. As such, if you like the play style and are ready to invest a bit to upgrade the deck, you should have a good time playing the red leader.
I hope this guide was a nice first look at the red starter deck. We will have similar pieces for every leader in the game, so you can make an educated choice on which you want to invest into before spending money, or in game currency. I wish you a lot of fun on Dragon Ball Super Fusion World, and feel free to reach out for any question you might have, in the comment section or through my Twitter page.
Good Game Everyone!
