DBZ CCG GBA General Notes

http://www.gamefaqs.com/gba/553543-dragon-ball-z-collectible-card-game/reviews/34989

General notes on gameplay:
- Hold 'A' to make things go faster.
- Certain inputs can be buffered, mastering then can make things a good bit faster (in-depth notes later?)
- Hold right arrow to go through the hand faster.
- Try to hold on to cards with important effects, such as those that increase power stages (i. e. Hidden Power Level). Pay attention to specific notes against opponents.
- Remember for you and the opponent, that Drills are removed when you go to the next level of personality.
- The AI will always use its main Attacks/Combat cards first, then Non-Combat's (or I guess optional drills), then potentially its Personality Attack, and lastly a potential Final Physical Attack.
- I've noticed that while holding A, when you have no cards in hand, you get to the hand screen faster. So be careful in the timing of holding the A button.
- It's glitched in the game, in that you can win sometimes when the opponent is down to 3-4 or less life cards left. 4 left in his life deck here at around 23:40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSwf3hSVrZU. This doesn't happen frequently but it's nice.
- After a win, when you're given cards, it seems that only the first 3-4 cards are any good. So during a speedrun, it's probably faster to just check the first 3-4 rather than going through all the cards. But as long as I'm just testing the game, I'll probably always check all 10 drops. Make sure to hold the right arrow, as it's faster than pressing the key individually; there isn't much of a need to look at the card drops for any extended period of time, you know 99% of the (important) card arts anyways.
- After duels, don't just hold on to A, wait a bit so you can select the right deck.
- I think the AI will hold on to cards often instead of using Final Physical Attacks. I think it can read if it would do any power stages of damage or not.

For Pausing: If you see a +2, always pick it up? So don't even look at the other card on the bottom of the pile?
On playing with the Red Mastery deck:
Playing your own cards
- Be smart with Red Mastery, depending on how you use it can make things much faster. In particular, if you're in a situation where you might lose (vs Goku for instance), or winning may be quick, use Red Mastery.
- Often, the best strategy is to wait for the opponent to play cards before playing any of your own. It's best to keep track of how many cards they have in hand. When they get to 1 or no cards at all, you can start playing cards. It's easier when the opponent may have Non-Combats to play, or a Personality attack.
- Generally, you should play to make Red Mastery always get you +2 anger. It's best to use a Red card as the last card of your turn, then using Mastery at the start of your next turn to potentially get to the next level. For example: say you used your mastery, and the last attack you used was a Red card, getting to +3 anger. So the very next turn, use the Mastery to get to the next level.
- Since you're always holding A, notice that you get back to your hand faster when u have no cards. So if you can use Mastery last, it's faster to play all your cards out.
- If you have 2-3 Red cards that raise one anger each, there's no need to check your discard pile. Let the opponent play all his cards, then play 2 Red attacks, use the Mastery, then play the 3rd Red attack to gain a level.
- (Almost) Always play all your anger cards before a turn ends. Your next hand can potentially immediately get you to the next level.
- If you have to discard cards, try to have the last discarded card be a Red card.
- For Battle Pausing, you should take your time to use it. It gets the top 2 cards in your discard pile; you can plan to use 2 attacks, then Pausing to get those same 2 attacks back. Also, if you're taking life cards of damage with Pausing in hand, you can constantly check your discard pile, and see if you can make a play with the top 2. Note: When checking the grave, you first look at the BOTTOM card; press the left arrow to look at the last, TOP card.
- A lot of the defensive cards banish themselves: Mother's Touch, Yamcha's Skillful, Red Energy Shield, both Nappa cards, Vegeta's Jolting, etc. Knowing this, you know that your discard pile won't include those cards when played in combat. It should allow you to use the Mastery, or even Battle Pausing more effectively.
- If you have Red Power Rush, try to activate it before other physical attacks since it can't be defended against by certain cards (i.e. Nappa's Physical Attack, Vegeta's Stance, etc.)
- Don't hold A after attacking with Red Face Upheaval, since it has the effect to remove a card.
- Try to play non-combat anger cards before using Upheaval. It has the ability to get rid of your own cards, so it's faster to use them before.
- Don't hold A with Red Power Shield.
- If you have Red Knee Pick Drill in play, don't hold A before you get to your hand since it makes things longer.
- For Garlic Jr.'s Kyokaika, it's pretty okay if you're on your first personality, since you don't do much damage. But at your higher levels it's more of an average attack. So for example, it might be good vs. King Cold since his power stages are high, and the game goes a while.
- When you reach Frieza's 3rd personality, anger doesn't matter. Feel free to tee off, trying to end the game as fast as possible. Also, feel free to use a Final Physical Attack on Energy cards, as they'll do way more damage that way.

Cards played against you:
- FUCKING GOKU'S BATTLE READY SUCKS. LOWERS ANGER TO 0 AND FUCKS YOUR POWER STAGES. I'VE NEVER HATED A CARD IN ANY TCG, CCG, OR WHATEVER AS MUCH AS THIS FUCKING CARD. GODDAMMIT.
- Dragonball 4 raises anger and skips your combat, it's really damn annoying. Pay attention to when it's played, and try to inflict 5 or more life cards somehow, so you can steal it from the opponent.
- Terrible Wounds is really strong against you; when it's activated in combat, it lowers your anger to 0 and prevents you from gaining any anger at all. Try to gain a level before it's played, or somehow inflict life cards of damage, as that's the only way to get rid of it.
- If King Kai's Calming/Roshi's Calming/Vegeta Scans is played against you, your personality is lowered, but you keep whatever anger you had. So even if you had 5 anger, when you get put to level 2, you still need to gain another anger to get back to the next level.

Order of Difficulty (greatest to least):
Goku
Gohan
Cell
Guldo
Vegeta/King Cold
Trunks (if he gets Orange Restraint, he's prolly stronger than Vegeta)
Piccolo/Garlic Jr. (different, but similar in difficulty overall)
Nail
Krillin