The purpose of this article is to show what to expect of FB11. FB09 set a new level to compete, which even FB10 and ST01 struggled to reach, so as last time I will focus on not just what this new set delivers mechanically, but how relevant that could be in the upcoming months, and how it affects the current meta.
For all decks covered, a deck link will be provided in the name, which will be the deck of mine throughout the format. That means, that changes will be applied for the decks I like until the end of the season, triggered by my actual gameplays.
I'd like to emphasize, that we are before the release, so my summary is based on the previous metas without actual games played with the new decks. It's not a prophecy, but an expectation. I might update this article when proved wrong to remain relevant, however if I do so, I will mark it with a changelog.
The evaluation ratings are the following for me:
S: possible bdif decks, I expect them consistently top cut events, and possibly win them
A: very strong decks, I expect them to top cut events, but not be the ones the meta revolves around
B: solid decks, which could top cut in the right hands and with some luck, but are victims of the meta in general
C: runner-up decks, which work great and can punish some meta decks, but it's highly unlikely to yield results in tournament play
D: playable decks, which could be played at casual events and yield results, but are mostly for fun
Conclusion
With this set and with the past few months Bandai basically doubles down on all my issues with the game detailed in the article: Fusion World Design Critique | DeckPlanet News | DeckPlanet
I'd like to quickly summarize, what this set contains, the design philosophy of it and finally how my gripes worsened and how that affects my take on the game, and possibly several others.
Set Content
This deck offers nothing new in terms of depth compared to anything released since FB09. It's a 50/50 split (as much you can split 5) between evolve and ki mechanics, as it seems these are the only concepts deemed worthy in having in this game. None of these offer anything new as the ki is still an arbitrary threshold forced onto cards, switching some abilities on or off, but makes no sense as an actual counter. Very samey decks are being printed with different leader names and colors just to produce more products.
Red got a busted, destructive card, which can steamroll the game from turn 2. It's not necesserily S tier as the best decks might have a chance to prevent that steamroll, and without it the new leader has nothing to offer. Blue got Trunks, which is basically the reboot of FB01 Trunks but with ki. Green is still on the roll of being the worse color in the game, which actually feels colorless, but needs to be printed, because it would be weird not to. Yellow brings fusion evolve into the color, and is actually a good choice for those who like yellow sequencing or legends characters in general. Black got Bardock in ki fashion, which experiments with the what if scenario of when k.o abilities not being bad. It copies a bit from everywhere, but in the end it's scared, that it's too good, so it nerfes itself by needing 2 cards to trigger the effect of 1.
The supports are hit and miss. Already great leaders are supported with busted cards with no reason and for some reason the worse the deck already, the worse support it gets. There are some saving graces here though as the legends support is a nice touch.
Meta
I don't expect meta shifts from this set on its own. Red will be a gatekeeper in the "can you remove big stuff on turn 2" category, but the rest come in short compared to similar strategies in their color mostly for the lack of consistency. It will still be an FB09 meta, especially because they are still supported.
Design issues
So why the game continues to be worse with this set (in my opinion)? It's still a game of tempo removal. Those who can remove a threat early on by placing another threat will dominate. This only comes sooner as a 4c body need to be removed on turn 2-3, preferably without attacking. The new decks are worse, than the others, because they don't feature such a removal except for Shallet, who can use an FB09 removal piece. In a game of hand size, where the winner tends to be the player with the more cards regardless of life and board state, a Trunks leader, which bounces cards for some tempo gain is hard to comprehend, especially after the evolve mechanic, when the 4-6c can come down for 2-3 energy. Decks still build themselves, even when a card would be good from older sets, they create some rulings so they are not.
Pricing
Also some other thing happened. With the removal of code cards, and the increase of SR and SCR types in sets it's way harder to collect cards on digital and physical alike. It got more expensive to experiment with everything, which will limit the variance as people will build what's best instead of multiple or all decks.
Verdict
And finally my personal verdict for post-FB09. I've dropped Fusion World (and Bandai as a whole) as my main card game. I've put in a lot of effort into this game since release and I feel this game is not for me anymore. I feel like Bandai makes the same mistakes with every card game it produces, and being an actual game is a side thing for them, being a franchise milking machine first and foremost. We put in a lot of effort to grow the size of our local, and did so successfully until FB09. There are people leaving this community now in the face of the shortcomings of the game and the company producing it and the distribution issues makes things worse for existing players and potential newcomers alike.
I won't drop the game just yet though. While I won't make guides in the fashion I did so far, at the very least I will cover set releases and decks, which I truly enjoy. I won't even try out every deck, only those which are interesting enough for me (FB11 offers none so far). I do hope, that in time the game design will shift course as it's dishearteningly hollow in the moment and the current designer feels a lot worse, than the previous, focusing only on short-term profit by selling as many products as possible.
Red 🔴
FB11 Goku
Concept
The concept is pretty barebones here. The whole archetype is built upon two very similar cards at core, but mostly the SR Goku. Basically we want to board a 4c evolve Goku as fast as possible, and keep it on the board. This will generate absurd amount of card advantage if we do so, as for every won battle we draw a card. That means successfully hitting a leader, a battle card, or surviving an attack from another card. In addition our leader will turn this card into a blocker on every turn similar to Orange Piccolo, generating card advantage on our opponent's turn as well.
The less great part of the package is the cards that translate this card advantage into pressure. Great Saiyaman is basically a free 25k body who can activate the Goku chain, but there is another combo there. He can play Great Saiyaman 2, who will attack with 20k, then Gohan could be evolved onto the Great Saiyaman to make himself a 35k attacker and Great Saiyaman 2 a 30k attacker for the turn.
Our SCR is a finisher, basically a more expensive version of the SR, but one that can kill the opponent on 2 life. Combined with Trunks, who makes him a double strike, essentially we get a triple strike finisher.
Evaluation: A
This deck has S tier level of pure power, and I'm pretty sure one day it will be given the generic nature of the leader. However this is a busted, but honest deck. It's more like a gatekeeper, than a top competitor. In the new meta all top level decks need to answer the 4c here on tempo, and if they can do that, they will be granted access to high level play. A few examples for this is Kame for red, Vegeta and Vegito for blue and Warrior for yellow. This deck will be a really hard time against cards like that, which costs him the S tier for me.
FB09 Gogeta: BR
New cards
FB11-012 Goku: BR - an alternative Cheelai. Works before awakening, can draw life, but at the same time can't cheat out a big card 2 turns earlier, like a double Cheelai would. I don't think there's space for both and I'd rather have Cheelai for the turn 4 big Gogeta: BR play, but it's a good card nonetheless.
FB11-023 Vegeta: BR - this card is absolutely crazy. It turns our leader into 25k both for offense and defense, which cripples a lot of aggro strategies. This card can save us a huge amount of cards, and is easily the best of the new cards.
FB11-005 Gogeta: BR - this is the weakest and the weirdest one at the same time. Basically it almost guarantees a kill, but only against cards with 30 000 power. It sounds like the red Goku SR killer, but it's quite late for the party. The other two 5c Gogeta cards are way better.
Evaluation: S
Another set, another Gogeta: BR support. It was top level already, and potentially having 25k leader every turn is the most substantial upgrade this game has so far. It has a vast amount of options, and can alter the build to be competitive in the new mata with no issues.
Blue 🔵
FB11 Trunks
Concept
This deck is an evolve deck in disguise, one that wants to demolish the opponent by tempo due to the lack of traditional removal. Our whole concept is built upon playing a small Trunks, then replacing it with a bigger Trunks. Weirdly enough, our most important base card is not an SR, but a R, the 2c in this case. Depending on how many ki we can gather on that Trunks, we can put it on the bottom and play an SR Trunks instead. The 4c will grant tempo and semi board control, while the 5c will attack twice. Basically this is the chain we want to play over and over again, because this is the core of the deck. The thinky part is how to obtain the ki the most efficient way. Our leader will give 1 each turn, and Gohan will also grant one, while for an extra energy we have Bulma as well, or we can have an alternate Gohan sequence given we already have a board to take advantage of.
Our infinite combo can be done for 4 energies. We play Gohan, who play Trunks. We gain two attacks this way, and we also have a total of 3 ki on Trunks, if we use the leader ability as well. We trigger the card ability, switch the 2c for the 5c and by consuming every ki on the board so we can attack with 40k twice (we have a ki on Gohan, and on Trunks itself at this point). We play 1c Bulma to get back the 2c from the bottom if we do not have another one in hand. 1c Bulma grants some alternative routes to gain the necessary ki and can also be a good target for leader ability bounce.
We don't have a traditional finisher, but if we need one, we can always toss in a generic double striker, like Kefla.
Evaluation: B
While this deck has a solid punch, not being able to react to the opponent is quite the drawback. It can slow down some evolve strategies by bouncing their cards to hand, but I'm not sure it has what it takes to destroy their hand to keep the upper hand, namely against ss3. It also seems to have a really bad matchup into the new evolve Goku, as it will just simply outdraw it. I'm aware that the deck will gain some support via promo cards, but those don't solve the main prolem, the lack of board control that has an impact.
FB09 Muiku
New cards
FB11-043 Vegeta - I believe this card is a trap. When attacking ability on a card we want to evolve onto is something we really don't want to do. For this reason I wouldn't play it. If we can a Vegeta which activates itself on evolve, this card could be considered, but not at the moment.
FB11-029 Goku - This card is a tricky one. At first glance it replaces Frieza, but it's not, since this only works after awakening, and it doesn't draw a card. The reason this card is really good is that it costs 1, and we can evolve onto it. This means our Goku chain can be done for 1 less energy which opens up possibilities in the long term.
FB11-039 Frieza - The best card in my opinion. 10k combo power searcher, helps in awakening, keep our engine going. There is no reason to not run it at 4 copies.
Evaluation: A
This deck is still a really good choice in the meta, because it has good tempo, good early removal and one of the best cards in the game, which can cripple our opponent's strategy. The problem is, that it has polarizing matchups. It doesn't have cheap 6 cost removal, like most of the top decks, and has zero protection against those removals. Being our 6c removed for 1c is really punishing, and make some matchups absolutely uphill battles. While the deck is really strong and can take on some S tier decks, it needs to dodge other matchups at the same time.
Green 🟢
FB11 Goku Black
Concept
This deck is another aggro deck built upon the ki mechanics. The concept is really simple, we want to play Zamasu and Goku Black cards, and give them ki. The gimmick of the deck is, that certain cards can be played from energy to have another attacker, but this ability is heavily restricted so we can't go crazy with it in one turn. The most we can achieve is to play the 4c Goku Black, which will play a 3c Goku Black from our energy. That 3c will replace itself with the other 3c Goku Black, as they work in pairs, the 0 combo and the 5k combo variant. That means 3 attacks for a deramp, and this is the craziest combo we can achieve, one that requires 2 ki to collect as all abilities require 2 ki on their own. 2 of the 4 is easy to get, as 1 comes from the leader, while the other is granted for the 3c, but we still need to find 2. Zamasu is the best card to help, as it can give us that 2 needed, however it's important to note that this sequence requires 5 energy on that point from hand, which is high deman from an aggro deck. If we're lucky, we can keep the board, and cascade effects from there, but we need to win without a dedicated finisher.
Evaluation: D
I can't see this deck being successful. It's an aggro deck without good card draw, good combo, removal and a dedicated finisher. Whatever it does, it does it half-heartedly, and the concept just doesn't work. It feels like a big chunk of the deck is missing, the one, that actually tries to close the game or do something crazy.
FB10 Son Gohan/Piccolo
New cards
FB11-067 Gohan - Basically switches 1 energy to active mode, that's what the card does. That energy could be used on Videl, or some other 1c card, but this is truly not a great card.
FB11-068 Gohan/Piccolo - The ability is quite nice, definitely the best card in the set for this deck. It's good because it can target itself, so it can protect 2 cards at once, and allows some ki to be stored on the battle area.
FB11-069 Piccolo - Really bad card, paying 5 for this is suicidal. It does nothing to the deck.
Evaluation: D
The deck got a bit better, but it's still bad. It got a tool to have a chance to gather ki on the battle area, but awakening is still a problem, and the payoff still doesn't worth it. It's a bit more playable now, but doesn't effect the meta whatsoever. It's weird they decided to support this deck with 3 cards, but only 1 is good among those.
FS09 Giblet
New cards
FB11-064 Cell - Really great card. Has protection against k.o effects, and every turn it can draw a card from drop, which is easily done, since we can manipulate the drop. It can also help us deramping if we mess up, but it's important to note, that we don't have to deramp with this card, we can get a card even with 0 cards placed.
Evaluation: C
Giblet was never bad, the competition just got too hard to beat. Beside the new Cell - which is great -, this deck received nothing as support, but the original aggro variant is still quite capable at punishing some decks. We just shouldn't expect it to have a chance against those high level decks which operates with non-ko removal on tempo.
Yellow 🟡
FB11 Shallet
Concept
This is an evolve deck for 2 characters, Shallot and Giblet. It involves some stacking, some fusion evolve as well, it's a less linear and more varied form of the mechanic. The basic loop is quite straightforward and costs 4 energy minimum (8 max), however 2 will be refunded by the leader ability. The chain will always start with a 2c Shallot, which has something to do with card draw. Then comes the 2c Giblet, which actually costs only 1, but comes with worse abilities as well. At this point we can fusion evolve into Shallet, which is the best end goal, and this evolve should be considered a cost of 3, since we definitely want to trigger the ability granting us the option to attack twice with 40k.
We have some options however. We could also evolve both Shallot and Giblet first, which costs 2 energy total, which comes with additional attacks, resting and freezing, but if we want to fusion evolve we need to either evolve both or none to have matching costs. We also have a Son Goku at our disposal to attack with 30k for the cost of 2 almost any time. We want to close with the game with the scr.
Evaluation: B
Yellow evolve decks are a force to reckon with, and this deck is very similar to Gogeta. It also builds around the scr, which also attacks twice a turn. It has no life protection, but also it doesn't need its card to stay around, playing it time after time off hand is totally fine. It can also get on the board by turn 4 even without a board. In the current environment this seems the better deck.
However ss3 also exists, and this is where the trouble begins. This is a lot more convoluted and restricted archetype. We heavily depend on the scr, the rest of the pack is nothing crazy. Building up the whole perfect chain takes a lot of cards, and a lot of energy as well, while the other can finish the game by turn 4. Shallet also lacks the insane amount of card draw and the double striker finisher potential, and has no hard removal. While Shallot will most likely replace itself, Giblet will not. It's also true for the sr variants. Given that the scr reactivates the leader meaning an additional card draw, ss3 operates on a deck, where almost every single card replaces itself and don't depend on a bunch of other cards.
The deck seems really solid, but ss3 is similar, more consistent and more flexible, so this deck will have a hard time establishing itself.
FB10 Boujack
New cards
FB11-080 Zangya - Let's start with the worse one. This card seems really good on paper, but it doesn't let the leader to draw an additional time (so 3rd time). That means a net 20k attack, rarely a 30k attack, which is worse than the competition.
FB11-092 Bido - First, this card has a when attacking ability instead of an on play one, which is definitely better for this deck. The critical is quite good as well, because it can affect multiple attacks on the leader.
FB11-076 Gokua - The best of the bunch. 10k combo power, 25k body, can draw back a card each turn. There's nothing to dislike here. It's a pity it doesn't grant a ki as well.
Evaluation: B
While the deck get better, its weakness seems to be more present in the meta. Boujack can't deal with 25k leaders. Brogeta gain the ability to be one, Broly is back to the game, and Vegito has already gained this statline. Even Bardock has tools to be a 25k, if he's meta. Sure, Boujack can punish some decks, and has a very effective wide attack strategy, but it seems, that it needs to dodge more and more archetypes at the same time.
Black ⚫
FB11 Bardock
Concept
Another leader with ki on it, similar to nameku and vegeta, this time around with a concept of activating when ko-d abilities in the drop for a single ki, but only those that are 2 costs at maximum. The core sequence is the same as usual, 3 ki is the baseline we need to get to have abilities, so we will juggle between 2 and 3 usually.
We have two issues though in the provided strategy. The main is the 2 cost restriction. We either want to trigger Bardock Crew great apes, or Bardock himself. The crew has weak abilities, but don't require anything from our part, while Bardock cards need to be reduced in cost in the drop, which is only done by a single card. This is even more crucial given how our most important card is the SCR, which we need to spam, but in general the Bardock ape is the best option to trigger for the additional draw. The other issue is the 25k powerline for Bloodstained Vow. This card is the must play equivalent of Prince of Destruction, which we need to trigger everytime we can to save 1 card and 1 energy respectively. FB03 Bardock would be a really good card in this archetype, which would resurrect an old card, but since it's 20k, we can't play it. We have to settle on the worse FB11 variant.
To close the game, we have a searchable double strike.
Evaluation: B
There are 3 very similar leaders in this color. At first glance this seems the worse out of those. I was mistaken by Majin Vegeta at first, as I forgot to include Krillin and Legendary Warrior in that archetype. Those 2 cards fit in every ki-based leader, which collects the ki on itself, and are really powerful cards.
Nameku is a complete, independent archetype, which has powerful cards on their own, an early bomb and a leader effect, which could save cards. Vegeta has a very streamlined aggro profile, which could truly explode in the finish, paved by huge attacks from leader and battle cards alike with built-in pseudo autokill on 2 life. Bardock has none of these. It fight against it's own arhetype by finding cards to actually be able to trigger other cards, so the leader has a good ability. When everything goes fine, and the opponent can't avoid triggering our k.o abilities on board, or when we can keep a board, this deck will just steamroll. But that's not how the top level works. The board will be cleared, it will be negated, frozen, bottomdecked, or be put to drop directly. The deck has really high sheer power though, and could be easily improved by addressing the issues it has right now.
FB10 Cell
New cards
FB11-101 Cell - The other 2 similar Cells draw a card on play one way or the other, while this effectively plays a 1c we need to pay in hand size, so it's very similar to other 2 in 1 cards. This kind of does the same thing as embrio Cell, but better, as it saves an energy in the sequence. It's not a bad card, and it opens up some sequences on lower energy counts, but I still prefer drawing more cards instead of this. But just to demonstrate, what can be achieved -> 1c Android + 1c Cell (costs only 1 after awakening) -> this card, which plays Android 18 from drop -> 6c Cell. That whole thing can be done only for 2 energy.
FB11-102 Cell - It's very similar in concept to the previous Cell, but a lot worse. We save 1 energy, which is mostly Cell's kamehameha, but for exchange we played a bad card. 6c Cells are the most important payoffs in our strategy, so wasting the whole chain for a free energy is really not worth it.
FB11-103 Cell - This is best Cell in this set, and it adds another layer to the deck. For an additional energy we can gain an additional small attack, but we also get hand filtering, and potential k.o. It's also a really good option to recycle Cells or save them from being disabled, as we can explode them to retrieve them. Combo power is nice as well.
Evaluation: B
Not much changed in this deck, it's mostly a new tactical weapon we can use, but the powerlevel and the concept remained mostly the same. It's still a strong and fun deck to use, and the most mathy as well, but it's nearly not as consistent as some other decks.
FS09 Shallot
New cards
FB11-105 Goku - This card is absolutely busted, and is the best card in the entire deck. It draws a card every turn, while also setting the topdeck, and on k.o it draws again and almost repay itself in energy markers. It has some weakness to non-ko removals, but with this statline very few cards can actually target it.
Evaluation: B
The only reason I can't put Shallot higher is because of the lack of early game. Against really aggressive opponents even this beast of a card could come short as we won't have enough time to gain advantage. However Shallot is a very solid deck even without this card, and with some skills it can yield great results.
