Hi there! With Heroes & Villains still just a month old, the metagame is settling into place. Organized Play is on the horizon, and there certainly seems to be a calm before the storm. It is exciting to think what new developments will occur when the stakes are raised. Are you ready? I don’t think you’re ready. . .
“Will there be different sets of dragon balls introduced like in the old game. Such as Earth Dragon Balls, Dende Dragon Balls, etc”
-Anthony P.
Definitely. You’ll generally see new sets of Dragon Balls introduced in expansions with Starter Decks, and a set of Earth Dragon Balls is likely to arrive in the near future.
“In future releases, are you planning to stick with the saga you’re on, or is everything up to that arc fair game? (if you’re in Buu saga, could we see another Nappa named card or a Saibaman ally).”
-Bobby D. from New Jersey
While new sets will progress through the various arcs of the show, there’s no need to speed through everything without revisiting some uncovered moments. Compared to the old game, you’ll see a much less restrictive release schedule (without the emphasis on a brisk pace to match episode air dates).
“Here is my idea for a card.”
-A Million People from Earth
While the enthusiasm is appreciated, we aren’t accepting any card ideas submitted by fans. Sorry!
“With Main Personalities with comparatively low Power Levels and aren’t Vegeta, given all of Saiyan’s ‘Higher Power Level’ cards, how would you build it? I tried building Gohan Saiyan from the Set 1 cards and didn’t really feel like I had enough and I felt that with my low Power Level, I was locked out of too much.”
-Erik G. from Australia
Based on current tournament data, Saiyan is being underestimated. Aside from some of the options you’ve mentioned, I feel that Goku or Trunks can be extremely powerful. In any Hero Saiyan deck, you have access to a dominant recursion engine through Saiyan Prepped Ball, Saiyan Drive By, and Saiyan Rescue. With so many options to arrange your discard pile, Saiyan Power Up also becomes exponentially more useful. Between the massive amounts of regeneration and Saiyan’s unruly Endurance, you’ll find that many Survival based matchups are heavily in your favor.
That brings us to the end of this week’s inquiries, thanks to everyone who wrote in. You can have your question or comment addressed here by messaging dbz@paniniamerica.net with “MAILBAG” in the title. Please include your name/location, and use the same address for any rulings questions.
As a special bonus, answering this Question of the Week will give you a chance to win a booster box of Heroes & Villains! Simply reply in the comments section for this post, and make sure the contact information on your account is up to date.
What are your thoughts on the foil cards from Heroes & Villains, and what would you change about them?
Panini Games 
The foil pattern is too shiny, when compared to set 1. The lack of borders is especially jarring and borders should return in the future.
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The foils are cool looking. The only problem I’ve seen is they don’t fit in pro fit sleeves so you can’t double sleeve them.
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Make the foil pattern from friza saga. Love the lil square look
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I love the foil pattern from H&V and would love to see the next set have a foil pattern that stands out, unlike the set 1 foils which were quite literally almost impossible in some lights to tell if foil.
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The foils from Heroes & Villains look much better than the ones from Set 1, but they could be much better, instead of a solid (foil) background, and the figure on top, the background could be the normal picture background with the foil effect.
Also, the new foil cards come cut weirdly, they seem to have remainders from the cut still attached.
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The Heroes and Villains foiling pattern reminds me of the old school Yu Yu Hakusho foils from way back when and wouldn’t change anything about them. Love that type of foiling and would love to make sure that future sets all have foil patterns that can clearly be seen without being overbearing 🙂
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Love it.
I like the patterns, it really makes a lot of cards pop.
My favorite thing though is when I open a pack I can immediately see the silver border and get hyped to see what the foil will be as I slowly go through the pack.
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I think the new foils are amazing and do not need to change at all.
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I think this new foil pattern is on par with the already classic android saga one. honestly i can’t decide which one is better, a lot of cards looks awesome in their foil versions and seems that even commons and uncommons have different parts foied separetly. The only thng i wuld change is to not cover some parts of the cards with foiling – for example Tenshnhan looks like he had his hands cut off in the picture of Tenshinhan’s Draining blast.
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I love the design of the foil modification to the cards themselves. The idea of opening up the borders of the cards really appeals to me aesthetically.
I feel that the specific foil pattern can be very jarring at times, due to some of the wider spaced created by the design modifications. I might try experimenting with some different patterns.
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While I like that the set 2 foils are definitely foil there are a few things I don’t like about them. First, my biggest concern is the foiling process bends these cards worse than a typical foil. Second, I’m not a fan of the foil stretching to the borders of the cards. It’s like playing with white border cards in Magic, the cards feel out of place and even though they’re definitely not, they feel cheaper. I like that you guys came out swinging with your foil patterns, but sometimes less is more. Maybe in future sets you can do a typical reverse foiling, but highlight the action on the cards: like energy bursts, auras, or whatever else is pertinent.
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While some people I know would disagree with me I actually like the really flashy set 2 foils. I’ve played other card games and I haven’t seen a foil remotely similar to the foils from Heroes & Villains. Creativity and originality are both aspects that I highly praise. However, I do feel as though the foil rate isn’t that high and finding specific foils can be a real chore. Other than that I think Panini has done a great job with this set’s foil style.
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I do like the new foils from set 2 better than set 1. What I would change personally would be more of a shift to the style of foiling of the Score DBZ game from the later sets. I just think the foiling and artwork was so intricate. Even the card borders and style of the cards feels more lively and fun than the current design.
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The foil pattern is a big improvement over Premiere, but I also hope it changes from set to set so that the cards are visually different by their foil patterns. Also kudos for not doing flat foil/alt foil gimmicks, that always made trading so much more annoying.
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As a player of the old version of DBZ, I got to see all the foil patterns. I only had 1 favorite pattern and that was from the Trunks saga. I now have a new favorite. I absolutely love the new pattern for Heroes and Villains. The way it blends over certain images, make those cards “POP” or just make the images on them even more awesome. Great pick for this set guys. At this point, the only thing I would change is to maybe go back and reprint all of the starter set cards in this new pattern.
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I love the foil pattern. Its the first time I’ve ever seen a clear border on a foil card, and while striking and surprising to me I very much enjoy it.
Honestly there’s nothing I’d change about it. I’m excited to see new foil patterns and new implementations, but I’d be completely happy if you stuck with how it was applied for futre sets.
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Love it
The foil pattern really makes a lot of the card pop.
Best part is when I open a pack I can see the silver border and get hyped for the foil card as I slowly go through the pack.
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I personally didn’t mind the foils from set 2 but I can see the reasons people didn’t like them.
-The foiling of the border makes it look cheap and ‘sticker-esque’
-People (myself included) want more specific parts of cards foiled (i.e. energy beams, eyes, dragon balls) and not a static foil over the entire image.
-It isn’t Android Saga foil (PLEEEEEEEEEASE bring it back, at least for one set)
As for suggestions: If you aren’t familiar with Pokémon and the way they do their secret rare/full are EX cards… you should go see one in person and feel it. Those are quality cards.
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I love the new foil pattern within the art and text of the cards, I would however remove the foil from the border I think it disrupts the flow from the rest of the card.
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While i enjoy the new foiling system there are some issues with visibility and that a lot of the foils look similar. The shiny pattern on some cards reduces your ability to see specific parts of the art allowing for cards with the same characters in them to look like the same card with just a glancing look. What i would like to see is the foiling system to intensify the color contrast between different styled attacks and for it to be less of a static shiny layer applied to every card and more of a dynamic foiling system.
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The foil cards in Set 2 are much improved. Sometimes the foiling is slightly fragile but it’s definitely a huge improvement from the muted foils of Set 1.
I wouldn’t change much other than maybe muting the shininess a slight bit so it doesn’t blind you when it reflects right. And I would like to see Ultra Rares get slightly different foiling patterns, to signify how special they are. URs at first glance can blend in with your collection. It should be foiled differently so you know immediately that you pulled a UR.
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I love the new foil cards. They’re so much easier to see from a distance, and add a great level of depth to the card’s artwork. They’re a huge step up from the very mild holos of the first set; those things are nigh on impossible to see!
The only improvement I can think of would be either have a border differentiation (maybe white versus black or something). I think that will help the more mild looking holos be more obvious, and would look great on the cards!
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I love the foil pattern. It reminds of the aura/ki around a character while powering up. Maybe the same pattern but a gold super saiyan foil or red villian / blue hero foil
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I really enjoy the new foils, the look is much better then from set 1. Makes me want to build a full foil deck. Aside from that, I would keep the foils the way they are now. They just stand out more and bring a lot more attention to the table.
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I love the new foil pattern! The only thing I would change is trying to mask the lines from the edge of the foil sheets better. Much harder with the newer foils with no borders though.
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I really love how Well the new foil pattern works with personality cards. For other card types though, It was Hit or miss depending on the card. Nappa’s named cards for instance looked amazing. But Black evasion not so much. I liked that the characters were not foil and therefore highlighted but with cards that has an action scene that was all foiled out, it looked messy to me. Two things I’d like to see changed , foil energy combat cards with JUST the energy attack foiled out, and the rarity of foil cards being 1 in every pack.
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The new Foil design is great! I love the thicker texture. And you don’t have to hold it in just the right light to tell its a foil. you can casually glace at it and go “Sweet foil bro”. Only suggestion i have would be to somehow make the foil pattern DBZ themed.
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i do enjoy the foil border around the outside of the card. It would be cool if there was a way to make the foil have a color based to it for the style. Like red would have a more red effect, or blue with blue effect. That kinda of thing would be cool
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I really like the new foils, especially the crazy silver foil ones. I’d really like to see more reverse foils possibly. So long as the don’t effect the text box of course! I am loving the revamp of the series and I can’t wait to see where it continues to go! Thanks Panini!!!
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I think the foil cards looked great for this set. It’s like the shine from the foil envelops the entire card. I’m thinking a deck full of foils would look pretty cool, but also quite expensive lol. I think the more vibrant a foil is the better.
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I wouldn’t change anything! They look amazing and remind me of the foils from the Trunks expansion from the old game. Love these!
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I liked the new foil pattern, however having the edges be foil as well somewhat makes this one look a little tacky.
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I love the new foils. I wouldn’t change anything about them. You can definitely tell they are foil unlike most cards from set 1.
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I enjoy the new foils from the new set. As a fan and collector of “old z” I am used to seeing a different foil pattern with each release. However I would not be opposed to seeing the current foil pattern in every future release because I really think it makes the art stand out especially with named cards and personalities.
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I really like the Heroes & Villains foil pattern. I know I’ve heard people say they look like stickers, but I really don’t agree. I’m a sucker for the different colored borders on cards like that. It’s a massive step up from the Set 1 pattern for sure.
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The foil pattern is a little too overpowering in my opinion. That said, the set 1 foil pattern was a little underwhelming and hard to tell if a card was foil or not unless it was in the right lighting. I’d say somewhere in the middle of those two sets would be better.
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I love the new foil pattern, it makes some card artwork pop. The only thing I would consider revising would be the addition of a black border around the card just like in set 1.
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I like the new flow pattern it’s much better than the first that I particularly like the fact you can tell it’s foil as soon as you see it Which is much better than the first sub because you actually had to maneuver that hard around to see if it was foil or not.
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Comparatively to the premier set’s subtle patterns. I really enjoyed how drastically different the H&V’s are. They initially were very reminiscent of the later Yu Yu Hakusho foils. Might as well of used Trunk’s time machine. Felt like I was back in 2003 when I pulled my first one. Thanks guys!
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On some of the cards it looks fantastic. Mostly the card with photos of auras on them. Some looked meh and some just didn’t look that good. I think what we need is a cross between set 1 pattern and set 2 pattern. I liked how set 1 pattern looked but you have to look close to actually see it on most cards and on set 2 like I said cards with aura pictures really made them pop but for others kind of made the cards look tacky. So for set 3 if we can have a mix of how set 1 looked and how in set 2 you can easily see its a foil we would all be happy with the results. just make sure that the foilness (not a word I know) from set 2 is toned down.
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I’d like to see, more rainbow style mixed with set 2’s current foil pattern. U know rainbow foil on main character (s) included on card. Wavey foil on perimeter of card and chrome backside of card as well. Foiled out is in big time. Hope to see more of your creative touch as well.
S.d.m
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i like the new foils but miss the border on most cards except on the MP cards it looks look awesome on them.
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For me, I think the Set 2 foils are a major improvement from the barely visible Set 1 foils. I do take some issues with the foiled border. Aesthetically, I’m just not a fan, but I also believe it sets the stage for potential cheating to observant and sneaky players. I’ve seen it happen in other games with less foil cards and I feel the borders could make stacking a deck easier. I would however like to see the firework patter from the, I believe, it was either the Babidi or World Games saga. It was an excellent foiling.
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I really enjoyed the foil pattern from set two, but I think it changed a bit too drastically from set one, making a full-foil deck that includes both cards a bit hard to look at sometimes. That being said, Set 2 is probably one of my favorite foil designs ever, right up there with my favorites from previous Dragon Ball Z card games. I’m really excited to see what sort of foiling the next set has to offer, as pulling a foil card to me is just as exciting as pulling a UR (though the UR is double-exciting because of being foil AND a UR).
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The foil pattern for Heroes & Villains is such an improvement, like you wouldn’t believe how much of a relief it was, it’s so much more visible than First Set. You guys should definitely keep the silvery card-border foil in later sets, it makes things so much easier to identify. All you had to do was fan the open pack of cards slighty and you immediately knew you had a foil or not.
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It’s kind of amusing because in this set you know instantly whether or not you pulled a foil. While the pattern looks much better than set 1 it does create a minor issue for sealed, when you or your opponent could see a foiled card or two in an unsleeved deck. And yes I realize all of my comments find some way to bring up the state of the sealed format, I just loved sealed so much.
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I think the foils look slick on the personalities and most cards. on some others its overbearing and too intense. If they had the borders back or was restricted to just the art part of the card I think this style would be amazing
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I love the new foil pattern and wouldn’t change a thing.
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I like the contrast the new foil pattern brings by placing the subject of the cards image to the foreground and having the background foilled. This almost captures a three dimensional effect.
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I think they are good but I would keep the black boarder… but I still think retro z “android saga was #1”
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I really like howe much the foil pattern stands out when compared to the previous set, it’s a major improvement.
I also really like that you will be changing the pattern occasionally, change is as good as a holiday 🙂
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