DBZ CCG (GBA) In-depth guide/breakdown (for beginners)

Part 1: Introduction & Ways to Win

The goal of speedrunning Dragonball Z: Collectible Card Game for the Game Boy Advance is to defeat all duelists in each level, beating them one by one until finally beating Cell. Now, this doesn't trigger the credits; I assume once you unlock all personalities, and beat Cell with each one, the credits would play. But since I wanted to make this run convenient, simply reaching the screen that says "You have defeated Cell" is enough IMO. This is made from the old version of the card game, made by Score Entertainment.

The following is gonna be a guide for anyone who's never played the game before, split into 4 main parts. This video game was made in 2002, so if you played the real life game around that time, things might be a little different. I've only played the video game, so I can only talk about how the game has applied the rules. Here's a link to the rule book: http://lackeyccg.com/dbzccg/dbzcrd.pdf. You can of course read the official rule book, but if you want a first hand take on the game, then read on. It's made for the last format the real life card game was made, so a large amount of the cards in there aren't in-game, and some of the rulings don't apply.

The Dragonball Z: Collectible Card Game (which I'll shorten to DBZ CCG from now on) is a turn based strategy game, where you and your opponent use your personal decks to play. There are 3 ways to win:

1. Dragonball Victory: That's right, you can collect all 7 Dragonballs in the DBZ card game, woohoo! :). To explain it in a more technical sense, if you have all 7 Dragonball cards played on your side of the field, you receive an automatic victory. It's a little more particular than that honestly, but I'll save a more in-depth explanation for later on in the guide. This is a condition that won't ever really happen; you aren't given any of the Dragonball cards at the start of the game.
- Non-Combat phase, 5 life cards of damage takes control of opponent's Dragonballs

2. Most Powerful Personality Victory: If you reach your highest personality level (which will be explained in more depth in a bit), and if your opponent's highest personality level is equal to or lower than your highest level, than you automatically win. This is the fastest way to win a duel in the game.

3. Survival Victory: When your opponent runs out of cards in their Life Deck, you win the game. Your playing deck is called "Life Deck" for this purpose, I guess since you basically live and die by it. This will be explained in more detail later, but attacks can do what's called "life cards of damage". With enough attacks, if you would inflict more life cards of damage than your opponent has currently in their deck, you win the game. Also, if your opponent cannot draw cards from the deck, you win as well. This can happen during the very start of a turn, when each player draws 3 cards.

So now that we have the win conditions out of the way, let's get a little deeper in how you start to play. The first step is to choose a DBZ character, or what's known as your Personality. So in this game, you can choose to be Goku, Gohan, Garlic Jr., or Frieza.
Each personality has at least 3 levels: you start a duel at Level 1, and via the anger mechanic, you can reach your higher levels. You can gain anger via a variety of card effects; in a bit, I'll try to explain the construction of the cards in this game, and how to use them. There are some personalities you duel against that have 4 or more levels; unfortunately, all the characters you have at the start of the game only have 3, so you can't win by Most Powerful Personality every time.

In this game, your deck can be between 50-75 cards, with your 3 Personality cards included. It's your choice completely as to what other kinds of cards you want to use. In the next part, I'll try to flesh out all the different types of cards in the game. Then, I'll explain the format of how a duel goes.