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 
I love the look of the foil patterns in this set. There isn’t much I’d change from it, aside from possibly adding a border to it, or maybe a combination of both types of foil would probably look really sweet.
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Love the new foil pattern from hero’s abd villian’s. Definitely better than the first set. I have played this game since almost day one from the original z game. My favorite foil set was androids. Thanks for bringing back a smile to my face and starting this up again.
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I hated them at first, but then they kind of grew on me. I’d like them a lot more if it worn’t for the silver boarders. I prefer the boarder to be black. Set 1 was too difficult to tell if it was foil. I like how you can immediately tell a Set 2 card is foil.
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To be entirely honest. I am totally in love with the heroes and villains foils. In set 1 you could barely see the foil on some cards, particularly the black style cards. I think the new ones really stand out and make the cards seem special for having been lucky enough to pull a foil version. Something to maybe think about. Adding color coded borders might make the different styles pop more. I would like to see full art foils personally. Basically like the Pokémon EX cards in recent sets where the art takes up the whole card except for the text box and necessary icons.
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I’m not completely won over by them. Seeing them in person at the release event definitely won me favor, but they’re such a significant change from previous. I think that bringing the black borders back and maintaining a close relation to the non foils would be preferred for me.
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I personally love the new foil pattern. It’s vibrant and easy to distinguish from set 1’s foil cards. However, I think that adding in the style’s corresponding color to the border would be awesome! Leaving silver for freestyle cards and illuminating the border with the specified color would look outstanding!
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I really enjoy the foils from the Heroes and Villains set.
The only thing I would consider changing, would be adding in an alternative foil pattern.
Namely I’m thinking of something like in the GT Sagas – having two different kinds of foils adds a whole new level of collection to the cards!
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The foil pattern of set 2 is awesome! I think that alternate foil patterns within the same set would be interesting, because it would increase collectibility without causing the game to become a cash pit.
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Love the foils, the first time I saw then m I was excited to get all my cards foiled. Have you guys ever thought about making full art personalties like Pokemon makes for certain cards? It would be cool to have a chance to pull an ultra rare and a full art personalty!
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If I was going to change the foil pattern, the first thing I’d do is ensure that all breaks in the pattern occur between cards. There are a ton of foils that have blanked lines across them coming out of packs this set. Adding a black border around the cards a la set one would not only help that by having somewhere to hide the pattern breaks, but would also make unsleeved decks less predictable, since you can see foil cards by the sides of the cards when stacked in with other cards.
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I rather liked the new foil pattern more than I expected. Pictures of it didn’t do it justice, it looks really cool on Personalities.
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I think the outside border was really good as it helped them pop but it may have been too much. They don’t mesh well with set 1 which is kind of bad but overall I think they are much better than set 1.
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The new foil art is awesome. I’m really liking that the foil covers the whole card, and not just the picture!
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I really like the foil pattern from heroes and villains. It’s somewhat similar to the Score Z Trunks saga pattern which was one of my favorites. If i HAD to change one thing about it (which taking JUST the foil cards themselves into account, I wouldn’t really wan to change anything) I would say the foil border should be toned down or removed just because when you open a pack you know instantly whether or not you got a foil, there’s no suspense.
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I love the foils in Heroes & Villains. However, I would have kept the black border instead of foiling that as well as. Keep up the good work guys.
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Overall great job! Huge improvement from the first set, really feels like I pulled somthing special from a pack. If I would change anything I would make the art work the focus of the foil cards much like the JPN battle Carddass card game does! Thanks for bringing this game back, you guys rock!!
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My only complaint, which seems to be a common one, is the border foiling. I admit I’m a little torn, though. At first I thought it made foils really stand out and look cool, but the more time I spend with them the more I think the same/similar foiling with black borders would have probably been preferable.
I think it’ll be odd moving forward. Going back to black borders will probably make this set’s foils look even weirder, but that’s probably for the best.
Just my opinion. I admit I don’t make much of a fuss about collecting foils regardless, just my two cents.
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The new foils are InSAIYANly awesome!
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Foils are cool, but I like to have a boarder. I think there is too much foiling on the card. Or maybe highlight areas
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I personally don’t like the new foil pattern. It reminds me of those stickers you get out of quarter machines. Also, all the foils look the same regardless of card mastery. I liked set 1’s foil pattern and variety of colors but wish they were more vibrant so the foil pattern could be seen more easily.
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I like the new full foil art much more than the previous set. Personally it does look a little weird sometimes, that the cards may possibly be knock offs or the foil can be peeled off. In saying this though it looks very nice on main personality cards. I myself would only recommend maybe changing the art slightly within the full foil cards, maybe have this done throughout every set so then each one is unique? I wouldn’t make drastic changes though because personally i think it will look odd when I am playing foils from both sets. This is simply what I think 🙂
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David Bowen from N.Carolina
I would like to see the Broly personality come back into play giving the sayian type a better range of personalities. As for the the bonus question I work for a company that makes hologram foil , I feel like you could have gone with a custom foil with dragonballs or go with a pattern called magma.
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the foils are perfect the way they are but what would be cool is add a holo shenron watermark if you know what I am talking about.
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The foils remind me of Yu-Yu Hakusho too much. They stand out a lot and kinda make me not wanna play them lol
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I prefer the look of the new foils over the previous set, but I would like to see some consistency on border color, so that full foil decks can be better looking.
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While I like the foils in Heroes and Villains WAY better than the first set, you may have overcompensated a bit much. Just slightly less bright I think would make them perfect.
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It was one extreme to the other, the first set had almost no foil, it’s so hard to tell what is foil and what is not. Set 2 however the foil comes out and smacks you in the face. I love this foil on the characters, but for non personality cards I feel it is a bit much, I definitely look forward to the foils to come and I am glad that you are doing them different set to set like Score.
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I feel the new foils are a step in the right direction. Mainly due to the fact you can actually tell its foil.
Set 1 foils, especially the second print run, where a bit hard to tell if they had foiling Or not.
My personal favorite foil pattern was from ScoreZ’s bojack movie subset.
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The foils from the second set are definitely different than what I am use to in other card games that I have played and they looked well printed. If there is something I would change about them, I would say to adjust the portions for how the foils shine within the art work of the card. If there could be a way to show a three dimensional depth to the images printed on the cards than it would add better contrast to the images. A lot of people are mentioning to add a black boarder to the image, I would even go as far as saying that a black boarder may not even be necessary. There just needs to be a way to distinguish the level of foil that is portrayed on the cards so that the brightness is not overwhelmed from first glance, such as how a large portion of the image is foiled and that amount of brightness is continued all the way to the boarders or the card. why not, instead of doing a black boarder, extend the images to the boarder of the card. Maybe be more creative by having the text box’s on the cards that list the effects and abilities become lighter where from looking at the card u can see the artwork of the card extend to the entire face of the card and not just from the boarders. These are my out of the box ideas.
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I love ’em! They really stand out, and the foils feel more… well, unique when you pull them from a pack or in a game.
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I really like the way you guys did it this time, as if i didnt already. everything that panini has done to revamp this amazing game works for me, keep up the awesome work guys!
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I feel like the foil from the first set is too little and the foil from set 2 were an overcorrection to the extreme. I think the cards would look better if the border was still black rather than foiled out like they are in set two. I DO however like that they are more noticeable this time and I think meeting somewhere in the middle would be cool. I’d personally like to see black borders, and foils that tailor themselves more to making the art on the cards pop a little better, you can see it really well on a few of the cards in the new set. I’m also not a fan of the large wavy line thing that the new foils have going on.
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I like the new foil pattern compared to set 1, its nice that its east to tell if it is foil or not. But I do find it weird that some cards are much more foil than others.
I kinda hope you guys do a new pattern each set or at least between each set of starters.
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I love Heroes and Villains foils. Nothing pleases me more than this foil pattern. If I would change something on it I would make them like old z’s world games pattern, only with much more foil. Android saga was pretty good too. There are just too many things you can do with foil.
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I like the reveal factor when opening boosters. Knowing first hand that there is a foil to be revealed. The first set foils aren’t great since they are hard to see, and in contrast it appears they are part of an entirely different game.
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I really enjoy the new foils and hope you continue to produce a variety of foils in newer sets. It is really fun trying to collect all the foil personalities because they look awesome! Don’t change a thing!
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I really like the new foil pattern quite a bit, especially the way it overtakes the foil pattern. What I’d like to see on future patterns (and I don’t know how cost feasible this is), but I think some subtleties in how certain cards are foiled would be cool. For example, maybe have part of the card be foiled and parts of the card aren’t foiled to give the foil pattern some depth (sort of like what people do with their custom foils–I think there are some really elegant looking cards). The foil version of crushing beam is almost an example of this, looking as if the beam is not foiled while the rest of the card is (though when you look closely, the foil does run over the beam). But overall, I dig the new pattern, especially because it seems to be a nod to the Yu Yu Hakusho game.
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Edit to that first sentence (my bad): The way it overtakes the entire card, border and all***
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The new foil pattern is really nice, I would like to see the card image to fill the card, it can be a little jarring at times but overall the foil is really sweet. If the pattern changes for set three, than the android saga foil would be nice but if continuation of this pattern stays, Id be pretty happy. My only real gripe on the foil is the printing, some cards have crazy lines on them but that can be remedied. Overall, the set is awesome and I cant wait to see whats next!
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I love them! Although some cards like Crushing Beam, and Saiyan Prepped Ball could have been better, the energy beam/ball should have been foil rather than printed. Also a black border, or extended art on personality cards would have made some of them, like Nappa pop a little bit more.
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while I like the new foil pattern a lot I would like to see the pattern change from set to set.
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I love the foil pattern for H&V. I really enjoy having different foil patterns between sets like the old game and feel that there is a really nice and rewarding pop to having one on the field for others to see.
If I had to change anything about them it would be how easy they are to distinguish from non-foil cards when face-down without sleeves. I know it’s difficult to make Foil like that but it creates some issues with honest shuffling and, even with sleeves at times, you can sometimes figure out where a certain card is in the deck based on the slight bend that is often synonymous with foil cards.
As far as the foil design itself, I would love to see some variation on them in where the foil is. Massive have the borders of the Name Plate and Text Box only foiled or just the picture and have different foil variants based on card types (Personality vs Combat Step vs Planning Step cards, etc).
Given they’re just a creative aesthetic to the cards there’s just so much that could be done and experimenting with something different every set is just a fun aspect to me.
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I like the change from first edition but think it’s a bit extreme. Can barely make out image on “red overpower”. Think the personalities worked best with this foil style. Perhaps a foil color scheme that matches the martial arts style and a matching border. Thanks for bringing DBZ back!!!!
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I like them, they’re heavy and shine just as powerful as I want to feel from the show. Just now keep this standard and leave the set 1 foil behind you.
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I love the foils from this set, very reminiscent of trunks saga (my favorite foils). Next time I would love to see something similar to the androids saga foil. Also H&V foil>set one… Set one was too dull and barely visible sometimes.
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I feel that the foil process from the new set is am improvement over the last. How ever I do see a couple of inconsistencies with the new process. The first being the unfortunate thing of the cards bending from the foiling. The second being that I have seen a number of lines through each foil. But I do understand that these things will happen.
Things that I would like to see from the upcoming foils would be a more full foil of the card, much as the style of the older cards were. I feel that it would provide a more consistent foil and cut down on the lines and bending. As a side note, full art foils would be an amazing addition for promos.
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While I love the pattern, I hate how inconsistent the pattern is on certin cards. Some cards it seems to cover all areas except the main focal point of the photo and the text box. On others it seems to just be mostly the edges with a part here or there. Can’t wait to see what the next pattern is
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I’m certainly looking forward to seeing some new dragon balls. Thank you for bringing back this game that I have loved since even the beginning. Please keep up the good work!
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I really enjoy the Heroes and Villains foil cards compared to the set 1 foil cards. Sometimes its hard to tell with set 1 if you’re holding a foil or not and the new ones bring you back to holding a holographic pokemon card or something of the sort. It’s been years since I collected any TCG and the brighter/more outrageous a foil card is the better in my opinion! Thanks for bringing this TCG back it’s the best!
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I’m not sure I like the “full card” style of foil. I like borders.
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The foil cards in the H&V set are a huge improvement over the set 1 foils. It was difficult to tell if it was foil in the first set, but it’s obvious, and cool, with the second set. I’m not sure if I’d change much, but I think it would look awesome to have the Dragon Ball on the top right corner of the card stand out more in the foil cards. Other than that, I love the cards!
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