Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game (originally the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game and the Dragon Ball GT Trading Card Game) is an out-of-print trading card game based on the Dragon Ball series created by Akira Toriyama. The game was produced by Score Entertainment and uses screen captures of the anime to attempt to recreate the famous events and battles seen in the anime. Score then sold the rights to Panini which eventually ceased publishing.
The game first saw release in 2000, with the "Saiyan Saga" starter decks and booster packs. As of 2006, the game has had eighteen expansions, one "virtual" set, several "Subsets", and many promotional cards, or "Promos".
A brand new game, the Dragon Ball Collectible Card Game, with completely different rules was released by Bandai in July 2008. This game was discontinued quickly, but was relaunched in July 2017.
A remake of the original Score game was released on October 18, 2014 by the Panini brand. The remake, designed by a Panini America employee and the DBZCCG World Champion Aik Tongtharadol, featured many of the design and game play elements of the original but with several changes to ensure more fluid and clear game play.
In January 2017, it was announced that Dragon Ball Super CCG, developed by Bandai, was being released and the game was discontinued.
Cards Fighting in the card game is represented by "Physical Combat" cards, which designate the martial arts skills performed by the Z Fighters and their enemies, and "Energy Combat" cards, which portrays the attacks using ki, used by the Characters. Cards portraying the events of the series were known as "Non-Combat" cards in the DBZ CCG, then as "Non-Combat Setups" in the DBGT TCG. In the DBZ TCG, these cards are known as "Support" cards. Both of the Trading Card Game releases also sport cards called "Event Combat" cards, whereas they were referenced simply as "Combat" cards in the original Collectible Card Game.
Other card types in the Z-CCG and GT-TCG included Personality cards (which were used as Main Personalities or Allies), Mastery and Sensei Cards. Mastery cards were used in conjunction with a single style deck that could be used to declare a Tokui-Waza and would allow various benefits throughout the game, and covered Saiyan, Namekian, Red, Black, Orange and Blue styles. Later, a Freestyle Mastery was introduced. Sensei cards were required for Sensei decks, a game mechanic likened to the side deck system of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game and similar games.
Mastery cards were introduced with the Trunks Saga whereas Sensei Cards made their debut in the World Games Saga. Dragon Balls were classed as "Non-Combat" throughout the first few sets but from the Majin Buu Saga onwards they received the card-type of "Dragon Ball" to replace "Non-Combat", a trend that continued into the DBGT TCG.
Rarity The rarity of cards are listed as follows:
1-Star: -Common- These cards are easily accessed through virtually any means.
2-Star: -Promo- For card collectors, the rarity values of "2-Star" promo cards are debated. A promo can often be easily obtained (for example, as a card in World Games Saga starter decks). Other times they require limited effort to obtain, such as being packaged along with other cards in Sub-Sets of various card sets (Broly Sub-Sets, for example). Some are extremely difficult to obtain, such as being available only to attendees, participants, runners-up, and winners of official Dragon Ball Z card tournaments (such as the Grand Kai Invitational).
3-Star: -Uncommon- The availability of these cards are notably lower than the "1-Star" cards, although they are still rather easy to obtain but some cards are a little hard to get.
4-Star: -Fixed- These are cards that are primarily featured or "pre-constructed" always or often in, most notably, starter decks. Such examples include the random Main Personality (MP) cards, which vary depending on the starter deck. Dragon Ball GT changed this slightly by making "4-Star" personality cards available in booster packs.
5-Star: -Rare- The availability of these cards are greatly lower than the "1-Star" and slightly lower than the "3-Star" cards. In booster packs, most of the time there is only one "5-Star" card inside, although this can vary mainly if "Foil" (or holo) cards are involved, distribution errors, or in the case of starter decks in GT, two rares are inside.
6-Star: -Ultra Rare- These cards are, for the most part, incredibly difficult to obtain. Several booster boxes can be opened before even one "6-Star" card is revealed. GT was the only version of the game that featured Styled cards as part of its ultra rare lineup, instead of simply personalities, Combat, or Non-Combat cards. In Z, in Base sets there were four Ultra Rares, and in Expansions there were two Ultra Rares. In GT, in Base sets there were eight Ultra Rares, while in the Expansion sets there were only four. Also to note that Ultra Rare cards are always in "Foil".
7-Star: -Premium/Uber Rare- Similar to Promo cards in several of the aspects, "7-Star" cards were mostly only available through sanctioned Score tournaments. The noted exception to this rule would be the two "Gotenks" personality cards randomly inserted into Buu Saga starter decks. While technically they do have seven stars, many fans of the card game feel that the easy availability of these two cards should not be treated as a Premium or Uber Rare card.
Foil Cards: In booster packs, one of every two or three packs would contain a foil card. These cards increased the value of an existing card, and so their effect would greatly depend on the collector or player.
Alternate (Alt.) Foil Cards: Every year at the Grand Kai Invitational, alternate versions of older cards were made and given to participants. These Alternate cards were made to edit most of the popular, but poorly written cards from Saiyan and Frieza Sagas such as Nappa's Physical Resistance and Vegeta's Quickness Drill. Score also made alternate versions of all the ultra-rares from Saiyan Saga to Babidi Saga. The way to tell the difference is the Foil pattern and the number was replaced with UR 1-22.
Promotional cards Promotional cards are cards that are given away or sold for any number of reasons. In Score's Dragon Ball games, these include league and tournament prizes, judge gifts, video game or video/DVD prizes, the Capsule Corp Power Pack, wrapper redemption (mail-in promotion), and more. Certain cards, such as the "Fusion Frenzy" fantasy fusion Personalities, could be printed from Score's official Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game website.
Distribution Limited and Unlimited: Score often printed their cards on "Limited Print Runs", which meant that it was on a separate production line that would be discontinued after an uncertain amount of time. The "Limited" cards were distinguished from "Unlimited" cards with a symbol of a Dragon in Z or the GT symbol in GT. The value of "Limited" cards are greater than Unlimited, and certain Sub-Sets that are in "Unlimited" booster packs (such as Broly sets), would be marked as "Limited" regardless.
Booster Pack: A pack of cards containing ten, eleven, or twelve cards, usually with one rare card and a chance for a "Foil" card.
Starter Deck: A deck of cards (preconstructed in Z), that always had a level 1-3 and High Tech/Backer card of a Main Personality (MP). In Z there were always one rare and one foil, and in GT there were always two rares and one foil.
Booster Box: A box of booster packs, usually 24- or 36-card packs.
Starter Deck Box: A box of starter decks.
Additional cards in the sets include Personality cards, which are arguably the most important cards. Personality cards represent the various characters of the series, from warriors the likes of Goku and Cell, to supporting characters such as Oolong and Bulla. Sensei cards are modeled after the various martial arts teachers and leaders of the series, and hold a "side-deck" of sorts for the game. Drills were prominent in the Collectible Card Game and GT Trading Card Game, and were Non-Combat cards detailing training exercises. Mastery cards are a large part of most decks, relying on "Same Style Advantages" or "Tokui-Waza", to be most effective. Location/Battleground cards represented locales where battles and events in the series took place.
Decks in the game are built upon the principles of various colors (supposedly representing martial arts styles: Red - a more energy heavy attack style, Blue - a more defensive fighting style, Orange - tends to focus on allies, drills, and setups, and Black - which has a large amount of board manipulation), races (Saiyan - which is primarily a physical combat style and Namekian which focused on deck regeneration and manipulating the discard pile), or "Freestyle" cards, which represent no specific style, but can be interjected into a deck regardless of Tokui-Waza. A Tokui-Waza may only be declared if one has cards of one type (the aforementioned Red, Blue, Orange, Black, Saiyan, and Namekian), or all Freestyle cards. Saiyan and Namekian Tokui-Waza may only be declared if the player's Main Personality card is of Saiyan or Namekian descent, although Namekian style cards and Tokui-Waza were phased out during Dragon Ball GT. However, they returned in the DBZ Trading Card Game. Majin cards were introduced in the "World Games Saga" and lasted until the final set of the Collectible Card Game, "Kid Buu Saga". Most of these cards could only be played by a Personality with "Majin" in their name, but could not be used to declare a "Majin Tokui-Waza", although a card, "Majin Mastery" could be printed from Score's website and used in official play.
The Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game had 11 expansions, each representing a story arc, or "Saga" of the anime, such as the "Saiyan Saga" or "Cell Games Saga". Following the release of the Kid Buu Saga, Score shifted focus toward the Sagas of Dragon Ball GT, changing a few key rules, but it was still compatible with the previous releases. A fifth GT set, "Anthology", was planned, but never released.
The Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game was released after the Dragon Ball GT game was finished. The rules of the game were changed drastically, making it incompatible with previous expansions. These cards are based on FUNimation's "Ultimate Uncut Edition" DVDs, and is called "Re-Z" by many fans.
Expansions
Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game Source:
Saiyan saga The Saiyan Saga, being the first release of the game, was mainly untuned. For example, during this set and the next (Frieza Saga), what later became known as "Saiyan Heritage Only" cards could be played by "Villains, Goku, and Gohan only", meaning that even non-Saiyans such as Frieza and Guldo could use these cards. Other cards were ambiguous in nature, declaring such things as "does 1 life card in damage per combat until an energy attack kills it." These cards were officially assigned text corrections (errata) on Score's website to fit in with the wording of later expansions. On an entertainment scale, the cards suffered greatly from recycled quotes with quotes or part of the quotes being re-used on other cards.
The Saiyan Saga was released in Booster Packs, as well as Hero and Villain Starter Decks. Personality cards in this set included Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, Bulma, Chi-Chi, Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, and Saibaimen.
Frieza saga The first Booster Pack-only expansion, the Frieza Saga added scenes from the entire Namek story arc as well as a few scenes from the Saiyan Saga. Unfortunately, it didn't add much more; no new gameplay elements were introduced, and the Personality selection was rather questionable (for example, Guldo received a complete 1-3 Levels of Personalities, whereas Frieza only had one). This set also continued a trend of poor card titles though it did seem to clean up on poor image to name connections.