Zamasu FW guide

how to consistently beat TopKu

This is the list I went 5-2 into 7 topku matchups barely bubbling out of t32 and both losses were to mistakes not the deck’s fault; we gave it to a friend in south America for their regional who made small tweaks and won a serial with it. This article will cover deckbuilding decisions and how to approach the matchup to get positive results into the tier 0 of this format.

PART 1: Deckbuilding decisions

One of the biggest questions I get asked is why no Vegito scr or Vegeta 5c sr. The reasoning is because they often do very little for the matchup. Vegeta they will spend 1 SC from hand to get out of the swing and it only deals with 1 card on board while also being 0 combo. Vegito scr is better, but often the good players sit on Kefla 4c and 3c into me to prevent me from gaining value off my removal and you never want to bounce either of those. Goku black on the other hand is absolutely disgustingly strong topend especially when you have Gotenks. It enables you to swing twice into their board and draw 2 combos back to hand to protect yourself on their crackback so I went with the full 4 copies of GB and 0 copies of the other topend.

We are full 4 of’s outside of the two extra gotenks targets which are all 10k combos which also make up the 2 extra cards to make the deck 52. You could cut down to 50 and play 1 of each instead however there are two reasons for this inclusion. First off, this lets me see gotenks targets and charge them without worrying about not finding another copy being as difficult. Second let’s talk about the statistics behind 50 vs 52.

Opening a specific 4-of in a 50 card deck is about 1.3% more likely than in a 52 card deck however opening two or more 10k’s is roughly 5% more likely in a 52 card vs 50 card deck if both of the extra cards are 10k’s when you run the hypergeometric distribution. This led to me accepting the very small 1/100 games changed from seeing a 4 of to see more 10k’s on average and have increased gotenks consistency.

Gotenks is the absolute mvp of the deck and the reason I felt so confident in the matchup. He enables you to swing into their body and grab two combos back and they often play gohan and swing into gotenks basically protecting you from 3 attacks while you stall for your endgame. Zamasu 4c is worse than gotenks, but still good especially when you get into the endgame when double gohan is no longer nearly as likely to occur, but I almost always prioritize Gotenks when I have both targets.

The 1 drop card draw engine is to stay alive and protect your hand to sustain yourself into the lategame where your deck is better than theirs. Trunks, Pilaf and galick gun are incredible cards and keep the deck alive. The early game removal package of zamasu 1c, vegito 3c and sickle are there to bridge yourself from the midgame to 6 where your deck becomes a real deck. Zen-oh is the only reason this deck works and it’s also a 10k. The card is fantastic and cleans up the game.

Part 2: How to pilot the list

Opening hands: I am looking for 1c card draw, especially Trunks/Pilaf together. When I’m going first it becomes even better as T1 trunks stop their leader swing t2 pilaf trunks stop their leader swing even if they have hit while enabling you to protect your life and keep it as high as possible. Galick gun works just as well and I will use it turn 1 to stop their leader swing without losing cards if I don’t have trunks. The other key piece is early interaction (Zamasu 1c, sickle, Vegito 3c). I try to find a hand with both of these factors, but if I have multiple cantrips in my opening hand I will snap keep it regardless of the interaction available.

Piloting the early game: You want to stall their awakening and remove self-awakeners as it slows down their gameplan significantly. I often play the 3 and 4c off curve by 1 to leave up gun in the midgame as all you are trying to do is stall until turn 6. I protect my life extremely heavily. I try to not let a single leader swing through, and if I can help it I also stop 20k swings from bodies like Caulifla and Hit. I usually let 25k’s through unless it pushes me over the hand threshold for Gotenks/Zamasu on t5 or I have galick gun to easily reach 30. I want to awaken as late as possible because you lose the extra draw and if possible I try to awaken on my turn so I can do my usual shenanigans that require low hand size then swing and awaken mid swing to draw 2. Vegito 3c is usually only really strong in this phase to bottom Roshi/Hit/Caul unless you draw multiples in combination with Zam and Goten 1c, but usually Vegito is charged after the first 3 turns have passed or combo’d away.

Piloting the midgame: you want to control the board heavily and try to minimize life damage while throwing as little card avdantage away as possible. Sickle, Gotenks and galick gun are the absolute MVP’s of the midgame as you just want to see these cards and enable them to keep your life as high as possible to help you navigate to where this deck shines best: the endgame. A common play on t5 for me is awaken after I get value off Gotenks (or Zamasu if I only have 1 target for Gotenks). For example: say t5 I have 8 in hand. I play Gotenks grab 2 back and go to 9 then swing awaken and draw 2 going to 11 leaving up galick as well letting me very easily protect my life on the following turn and swing 25 twice into their board pressuring their card advantage.

Piloting the endgame: This is where some amount of mindgames come in. You really want to charge or combo a Zenoh and make it very obvious that you play Zen-oh. If you don’t see more than 1 discuss with your opp how Zen-oh won your last round. Make the opponent think about Zen-oh as much as possible throughout the match. This will make them think twice about overextending into a really wide board which is where you want them. If they do value plays like hardcast Kefla 4c into Kefla 3c and swing with both then pass, you can punish that extremely hard with Goku black into Gotenks. They then have to overextend to match pressure which makes your Zen-oh even better as follow up especially if they focus on clearing Goku black with their Gohans and swings. You want to put them in a lose-lose situation where they either lose a massive board via Zen-oh or they aren’t applying enough pressure as Goku black into Gotenks is an insane card advantage turn-around and how I won almost all of my games, except for the players who just perma-drained their hand to spam the board in which case you just chain Zen-ohs to win against. I prefer the Goku black on T6 as long as their board is not massive and by playing mindgames around Zen-oh players will usually not go all in. I will even say to my opponent’s on their turn before I hit 6, ‘here comes the double Kefla turn right’ just to get more into their head about it. Play safe around Ribrianne combo and keep yourself healthy here. Sometimes I even bring back galick gun off Goku black T7 if I have the 4c I want in hand to give myself even more of a buffer. Your leader being 25 makes it much harder to pressure you so work around that.

Final thoughts:

This deck is very hard and will take practice. I only designed it on thursday so I only had thursday night and friday to practice with it before the regional. Despite that it still performed well and I would choose to bring it again. You are not allowed to make misplays though while Topku is. Your play has to be very tight. You need to manage your hand size and life extremely carefully the entire match. It’s equivalent to walking on a tightrope above a tiger pit. If you make a mistake and slip you will lose, but if you learn and master blue you will see great success into TopKu this format and beat them round after round. It’s so strong I even won through quad kefla 3 matches in a row while most decks even beerus struggle heavily with that amount of high rolling.