The New Hampshire Regional is up next, and you can see a full breakdown of Hercule and Black Conflict Mastery below:

The New Hampshire Regional takes place this weekend at GraniteCon, pre-register here! Note: a convention badge is not required to participate in the tournament. Players should be fully familiar with the Tournament Guide and CRD, available here. You can save time by filling out a Deck Registration Form in advance.

The Black Style has traditionally had limited access to Critical Damage effects, usually relying on specific card abilities to answer Anger and Allies. Black Conflict Mastery lowers the threshold required to deal Critical Damage – making cards such as Black Defensive Burst and Assisted Kamehameha immediately fall into Crit range. This effect also benefits larger attacks, as punching through for 4+ absolute cards is significantly more achievable than the normal five damage threshold.

The discard POWER of the Mastery enables cards like Black Corruption and Black Declaration, and the choice of various boons offers a high amount of utility. Energy beatdown decks will benefit from the late-combat stage gain, firing off attacks with constant fuel. When facing aggressive physical decks, Black Conflict Mastery provides relief against early stage pressure.

In other aggro matchups, Black’s limited anger control can be supplemented by the Mastery’s -1 anger ability. Most of the time, the anger mode will be used to augment your own slime anger strategies.

When Dragon Ball Z: Awakening releases on October 28th, Starter Decks containing Black Conflict Mastery will include Hercule.

In the series, Hercule is entirely unable to manipulate ki. True to form, Hercule’s TCG incarnation is unable to include cards in his Life Deck that perform energy attacks. Cards that have the potential to perform an energy attack but do not explicitly do so (such as an Ally card or Black Reflection) may be included in your deck, but anything that produces an energy attack is off limits (such as Chaozu – Resurrected Ally).

Hercule Level 1’s attack has an immediate effect that gains 5 stages, which helps to compensate for his low PUR and Power Levels. It also searches for Hercule’s Dynamite Kick.

Hercule’s Dynamite Kick is an unstoppable attack that stays in play to be used four times. Each use gains more stages for Hercule, and its parenthetical text ensures consistent access to itself by providing an insurance policy against damage or cards like Surprise Attack and Black Scout Maneuver.

While Hercule’s Dynamite Kick is unstoppable, Hercule – Champion is unable to apply modifiers to his attacks…

Advancing to Hercule Level 2 provides a defensive reprieve, granting a sizable -3/3 modifier. You won’t be able to stack this effect with other Drills, as Hercule – Posing cannot utilize their Constant effects. His attack again searches out Hercule’s Dynamite Kick, providing additional refreshment of stages.

Reaching Hercule – Guarded is a major milestone, as his parenthetical text protects you from being lowered a Level by opposing effects. Similarly, your anger is safe from Critical Damage effects – smoothing out the march to Level 4. Hercule’s Dynamite Kick still cannot be modified, but playing a single copy can raise your anger 4 levels. 

Though your Named attacks cannot be modified on this level, all of your other attacks are buffed by his +1/modifier doubling effects.

At last, Hercule is able to apply modifiers to his Named attack – allowing for some high damage combos! On Hercule Level 4, each activation of Hercule’s Dynamite Kick will destroy the top card of your opponent’s Life Deck while performing an unstoppable attack for +2 life cards (in addition to any other modifiers present). Taking his Level 3 into account, Hercule can also attempt an MPPV strategy – though you’ll want to watch out for the anger lowering effect on this Level.

In addition to Hercule’s Dynamite Kick, Hercule also has a Named Event:

This effect has a unique timing, and the ability to search for an Ally after your opponent performs an attack allows someone else to step in and handle things while Hercule tends to his stomach ache.

One of Hercule’s biggest fans is a prime candidate to search out with this effect. Even when not found by Hercule’s Grand Entrance, Jimmy Firecracker combines with Hercule to provide an omni-block on the board that shuffles back into your Life Deck after use.

Check back next Tuesday for more previews, and see the reveal of Gohan and the Saiyan Mastery on Friday. Until then, you can find additional spoilers on the following fansites and podcasts (NOTE – RandomNumberGaming has been newly added to this list):

• RandomNumberGaming
• Retro DBZ CCG
• DBZ Top Tier
• Next Level Z
• DBZ TCG Wiki
• Cubicorn Games Podcast
• Dragon Ball Radio
• Kame House Podcast
• DBZ Fanatics Gaming Network
• Panini DBZ Facebook
• Manabeast
• TAK Games
• DBZ Panini Twitter
• Kami’s Lookout
• Western Kai Podcast