| Game Rules | Checklist | Tips |
Dragon Balls
There are only seven Dragon Balls on Earth, each one represented by a
card in the game. The planet Namek has more Dragon Balls, and those are
detailed in an expansion of the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game.
Playing Dragon Ball Cards
Dragon Ball cards are Non-Combat cards, so they can be placed face up
on the table during Step 2) Play Non-Combat Cards of your turn. The Dragon
Ball cards are numbered one to seven. When a player plays a numbered Dragon
Ball card face up in front of him, no other player can play a Dragon Ball
card with the same number out of his hand while the first one is still
in play. For example, anyone can put down the Dragon Ball One, but there
can only be one Dragon Ball One in play at a time.
Once played onto the table, Dragon Ball cards cannot be discarded or otherwise removed from the game. Other cards that force destruction of discard cannot be used against Dragon Ball cards in play.
When a numbered Dragon Ball card is drawn from the life deck as damage to be discarded, check to see if another player has played it. If a duplicate is already in play, this newly-drawn Dragon Ball card is removed from the game. If it has not yet been played, it is not discarded but instead placed at the bottom of the owning player's life deck.
Capturing Dragon Ball Cards
To achieve a Dragon Ball Victory a player must have all seven Dragon Ball
cards face up in front of him. A player could be the first to play each
Dragon Ball card, one through seven, in frong of him, but more likely
he will have to capture a complete set of Dragon Ball cards, taking some
from the areas in front of other players. This is done in three ways:
1) Life Card Capture: When a single attack forces the other player to discard 5 or more life cards, the attacker has the right to capture and take any single Dragon Ball card from in front of that player. This can happen in any phase of Step 4) Combat.
2) Personality Capture: When Bulma, Krillin, Saibamen, Chi-Chi, Tien, or Yamcha are used a Allies, they can try to capture Dragon Ball cards instead of doing damage. To do so, one of the Allies must make a successful attack on a Main Personality that forces the player to discard one or more life cards. Having done that, he can capture and take a Dragon Ball from that player instead of inflicting the life card damage
3) Card Capture: There are cards in the game that provide for the capture of a Dragon Ball.
In all cases when you capture and take a Dragon Ball card from another player, regardless of the method, after moving the card to your area, turn it sideways to remind yourself to return it to its owner after the game.
Dragon Ball Card Powers
The first time a Dragon Ball card is played face up, that player gets
all the benefits of that Dragon Ball's card powers Those special Dragon
Ball card powers are never again used in that game. Capturing a Dragon
Ball card does NOT allow you to use the card power given on the Dragon
Ball card.
Winning with Dragon Balls
When all seven Dragon Ball cards are in front of one player that player
may have a Dragon Ball Victory. If that player placed the last Dragon
Ball card on the table from his hand to complete his collection, the Dragon
Ball Victory is immediate. If the player captured the last Dragon Ball
card from another player to complete his collection, he must wait untill
the start of his next turn to win. Other players can win in the meantime
or capture some of the Dragon Ball cards back, but if nobody does so,
the player achieves a Dragon Ball Victory at the start of his next turn.
Building a Deck
Building a deck is a lot of fun after you've learned how to play the game. With additional DBZ game cards, sold in Booster Packs from Score, you can strengthen your decks and design your own special strategies to defeat your opponents. Keep your strategies secret if you want. It's all up to you. Check out www.dbzcardgame.com for free tips on building decks. Have fun!
Here are the requirements for decks:
1) Deck Size
Decks must have a minimum of 50 cards, including all the Main Personality's
different level cards. The deck can be as large as desired in non-tournament
play. During tournaments, no deck can be larger than 75 cards, including
the deck's Main Personality cards.
2) Main Personality
Each deck must have a Main Personality with at least levels 1, 2, and
3. You announce to everyone who your deck represents. You may add additional
card levels of your Main Personality to your deck, as long as they are
consecutive (no level is missing between two other levels of Main Personality
cards included in your deck).
3) Allies
Allies of the Main Personality must be at least 2 levels lower than the
highest level of the Main Personality. For example, in a Nappa deck with
a level 4 Nappa, there can be only a level 1 and 2 Raditz, Vegeta, or
Saibamen. Only Hero players may have Hero allies, and only Villain players
may have Villain allies. Therefore, after separating your Main Personality
cards, remove other Personality cards from your deck that cannot be used
as Allies. Remember, Hero Personality cards have blue backgrounds, and
Villain Personality cards have red backgrounds.
Duplicate Card Limits
1) Personality Cards
Only one card of each level (i.e., 1, 2, 3) of a personality can be in
a deck
2) Combat and Non-Combat Cards
A maximum of 3 duplicates of any Combat or Non-Combat card can be in the
deck. Certain cards with special limits on them, such as "only one
per deck", must be limited as instructed.
3) Named Cards
Many Combat and Non-Combat cards have a personality's name as part of
the title. These are "named cards." A Main Personality can have
up to 4 duplicates of any of his named cards in a deck instead of the
normal 3 duplicates limit. For example, in a deck in which Nappa is the
Main Personality (a Nappa deck), Nappa may include up to 4 Nappa's Energy
Aura cards in the deck. A Main Personality may include another personality's
named cards in a deck (to represent learning someone else's powers), but
at the normal limit of 3 duplicates.
Vegeta & Nappa In Two-Player Games
These two Saiyans are very powerful. Goku and the other Heroes were much more powerful as well when they encountered these Villains. For better game balance, when Vegeta or Nappa are in a two-player game, the Hero Main Personality, if one, should begin the game at level 2 of his Main Personality, and at his highest power stage. In this event, it will be necessary to take Main Personalities to level 4 to achieve a Most Powerful Personality Victory. Any players who do not have a level 4 personality card can still win by reaching 5 anger while at level 3 (after having reset the Warrior Sword counter to 0 when level 3 was first achieved).
Multiple-Player Rules
There are some special considerations when playing the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game with more than two players.
1) Use all the Optional Rules (see below) for multiple-player games
2) If Vegeta or Nappa are in the game, do not apply the 2-Player rules that relate to Vegeta or Nappa (above).
3) All players must agree at the start of the game to allow the Most Powerful Personality Victory. If not all players agree, only Survival and Dragon Ball Victories are possible in multiple-player games.
4) When there are only Heroes or Villains left in the game, put all Kumite Mastery Tournament rules in effect.
Heroes Fight it Out
If all the Villains are eliminated from a game, the competition becomes
a friendly free-for-all between the remaining Heroes for mastery. First,
all Heroes take the time to congratulate each other for having gotten
rid of the Villains. Then each of the Hero personalities resets his power
stages to maximum because each took time to rest. From this point on,
a Hero is knocked out of the competition upon losing 20 more life cards
or running out of life cards. May the best Hero win!
Optional Rules
In two-player games, both players must agree in advance to use any of these optional rules. Use them all in multiple-player games.
1) The "You're Picking On Me!" Rule (multiple player games
only)
Use this rule when there are three players in the game and two of them
are constantly picking on the third personality. The "picked-on"
player may return the last damage card taken to the bottom of his life
deck whenever he is forced to discard more than 1 life card for damage.
This rule is no longer in effect as soon as the game has only 2 players.
2) The Kumite Mastery Tournament (any game)
Heroes can play against Heroes or Villains against Villains in a Kumite
Master Tournament.
Players start with their next-to-highest level Personality card set to its highest power stage. So, if they have level 4 Main Personality cards, they start with their level 3 Main Personality cards.
No Allies are allowed in the decks in this duel of honor.
Players win by forcing each of their opponents to discard 20 life cards, or by winning with a Dragon Ball Victory, whichever occurs first.
3) Fast Play Combat (any game)
Use this optional rule when you want the game to go faster.
The martial arts styles can cost an opponent extra life cards when used against certain other martial arts styles. At the beginning of the game, each player must choose a martial arts style, but is not subject to the Tokui-Waza rules unless he wants to have the benefits of Tokui-Waza (the increase in the Main Personality's PUR number). This chosen martial arts style is used for computing extra damage in every combat, whether his cards indicate no martial arts style or a different martial arts style.
Use the Fast Play Combat / Multiple Player Rules Table (Click on Fast Play/ Multiple Player Table at the top) to determine the number of extra life cards a defender must discard in every successful attack.
4) Tournament Dragon Ball Rule (any game and non-beginner tournament
games)
Whenever a Dragon Ball is captured, the capturing player is allowed all
the benefits of the card power, even if the previous owner already used
it.
Example of Play
John and Sandra, having heard that the Dragon Ball Z Colliectible Card
Game is a great game to play, bought DBZ CCG started decks and some booster
packs. Sandra had already gotten a DBZ game card from a restaurant promotion.
Later that day they meet at Sandra's house, bringing decks they made from
the cards they collected. Each deck has 50 cards, which is the minimum
number to play.
"I'm playing the hero Goku," John announces, placing his level
1, 2, and 3 Goku cards in front of him on the table with the level 1 card
showing on top.
"Okay, I'm the villain Raditz." Sandra places her four Raditz
personality cards out in front of her. "I collected the level 4 Raditz
promotional card, see! So, since I've got a level 4 Raditz and you've
only got a level 3 Goku, only I can win with a Most Powerful Personality
Victory. I'll have to reach level 4 to win that way."
"Right," John agrees, "but we can both win with a Survival
or Dragon Ball Victory. Are you picking a Tokui-Waza for this game?"
"No. Are you?"
"Yes, I'm going to declare orange as my Tokui-Waza."
"That means you can have only orange Combat and Non-Combat cards
in your life deck, John, but your Main Personality's power up rating goes
up by 1."
"Plus all the Move cards I want, remember, Sandra? Now we set our
power stages. We put the Scouters 5 stages higher than 0, which is at
900 for my Goku."
"And 1500 for my Raditz."
"Okay, now we shuffle the rest of our cards and put them out face
down. These are our life decks."
"Right. Now put our Warrior Sword counters on 0, since our Main Personalities
start with no anger, and we're ready to play. John, you're playing the
Hero, so you go first."
John refers quickly to the During Your Turn summary and begins his first
turn.
"Okay, I draw three cards into my hand." He picks up the top
three cards from his life deck. They are the Orange Fighting Style-Standing
Fist Punch (Card 1), Orange Fighting Style-One-Knuckle Punch (Card 2),
and Mother's Touch (Card 90). They are all Combat cards. The first two
are physical attack cards, the third lets him negate damage from an attack.
"Can you play a Non-Combat card?" Sandra asks.
"No, I'm not playing one. So, I'll just power up. My level 1 Goku's
power up rating is 1."
"But you get to count it as 2 since you declared a Tokui-Waza."
"Thanks for reminding me, Sandra. So, I get to bump up his power
stages by 2, taking it to 1100." (See Personality Card Breakout Card
on first Rule Book page) John moves his Scouter up 2 stages on his level
1 Goku personality card.
"So, do you want to attack me? You don't have to."
"I know,"John says, looking over the cards in his hand. "But
I will."
"Now I get to draw three cards as the defender." Sandra pulls
three cards from her life deck into her hand. They are Red Fighting Syle-Lunge
Punch (card 6), Black Fighting Style-Elbow Strike (card 67), and the level
1 Vegeta personality card (card 173). The first two are Combat cards,
the first of which is a physical attack, and the second negates damage
from a physical attack.
"Okay, now I make my first attack...a One-Knuckle Punch physical
attack." John plays that card down in front of him.
"Fine. I'll respond with an Elbow Strike. It negates your physical
attack and raises my anger by 1." Sandra plays the card and adjusts
her Warrior Sword counter to show "1".
"Now you get to attack back, Sandra."
"Yes. I'll use a Lunge Punch physical attack." She plays that
card down from her hand. "Can you resond?"
"Yes, I'll play Mother's Touch, which negates the damage from you
attack, but I have to discard it from play." John puts the Mother's
Touch card off to the side, away from his discard pile and the rest of
the game. "Now I can attack again, and I will use the card power
on my Goku personality card, the Kamehameha Energy Attack. It costs me
1 power stage, but you have to discard 3 life cards unless you can counter."
John moves his Scouter down on Goku to 1000.
"Sandra examines her cards and Raditz's card power. "Yes, I
can use Raditz's Saiyan Energy Deflection card power, which brings the
damage down to just 2 discards." She turns over and discards the
top 2 cards from her life deck. One of them is Earth Dragon Ball 3 (card
75). "This Dragon Ball card hasn't been played on the table by either
of us yet, so I get to put it at the bottom of my life deck rather than
discard it."
"Okay. Do you have another attack back on me?"
"No, I pass," said Sandra, having used Raditz's card power and
both Combat cards in her hand. She could use the last card in her hand,
the Level 1 Vegeta personality card, to make a final physical attack,
but she decides not to.
"Well, I'm not done. I'll use a Standing Fist Punch." John plays
down that card from his hand. "Can you counter this?"
"No, so we have to check the Physical Attack Table to see how much
damage I take. You're attacking with a power stage of 1000 and I'm defending
with 1500. That's a 1, so I lose 1 power stage."
"Okay, but I get to raise my anger 1 for playing the Standing Fist
Punch." John moves his Warrior Sword counter from 0 to 1. "Do
you want to attack, Sandra?"
"No, I pass."
"I pass, too."
"Okay, the combat's over. We discarded the Combat cards we played.
Since there was combat, we both have to discard down to one card in our
hands. I played all of mine."
"I just have on left." Sandra keeps her level 1 Vegeta card,
which she can simply play inher next turn as an ally.
"I did have combat, so I don't put a discarded card back into my
life deck. That's it. Now it's your turn, Sandra."
Play continues as Sandra starts over with Step 1) Draw Three cards.
Rules Clarifications
1) Some card powers call for picking certain cards out of the discard pile or the life deck. After picking, the owning player must shuffle the remaining cards in an opponent politely requests it.
2) If you are playing a card (Such as Saiyan City Destruction (SCD)) That directs you to place discarded cards back in the life deck, you may not take the card (SCD in this case) as one of the cards you place back in the life deck. Instead, the card, such as SCD, must be discarded.
