Summary

The Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game (Score edition, referred to as ReZ, pronounced ree-zee) was a card game published by Score from 2005 to 2006. It is not to be confused with the original Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game (ScoreZ) by Score, the Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game (PanZ) by Panini, the Dragon Ball Collectible Card Game by Bandai, or the Dragon Ball Super Collectible Card Game by Bandai (phew). It was a remake of the original CCG (ScoreZ) -- similar to how the Second Edition of the Star Trek CCG was a remake of its First Edition -- and was fully incompatible with ScoreZ (as well as the offshoot Dragon Ball GT CCG).

Like every DBZ card game, you play as a hero or villain from Dragon Ball Z, fighting to either save the universe or destroy it. The game was available in starter decks and booster packs.

The starter deck rulebook lists the major changes from ScoreZ, but among them: you can "refocus" attacks to use them to defend, you no longer level up your main personality (and no more anger mechanic), allies start in play (and are a distinct card type), there's only one type of damage (which can be taken as power stages or discards), Dragon Ball cards are no longer special WRT discards and searches, and personalities no longer have a hero or villian alignment. In that manner, this game is a serious simplification of ScoreZ, and seems to be focused on a consistent and accessible gameplay experience.

Card Types

• Main Personality - A card representing a character in the game that you play as. Each card has a level (1 to 3), a Power Up Rating (PUR), some traits, and 11 power stages (including 0). Each may also have an attack it can use, and may have an additional ability. Starts the game in play. (Personalities are no longer split into Heroes or Villians.)
• Ally Personality - A card representing a character in the game who supports your main character. Each card has a level (always 1), a Power Up Rating (PUR), some traits, and 6 power stages (including 0). Each may also have an attack it can use, and may have an additional ability. Starts the game in play. (Personalities are no longer split into Heroes or Villians.)
• Physical Combat - A card representing some form of physical attack, such as a punch or a kick. Each can be an attack or defense card, has an ability, and belongs to one of six combat styles (red, blue, orange, black, Saiyan, Namekian) or is freestyle.
• Energy Combat - A card representing an energy attack, such as a beam or an energy ball. Each can be an attack or defense card, has an ability, and belongs to one of the six combat styles or is freestyle.
• Event Combat - A card representing some other happening during combat. Each can be an attack or defense card, has an ability, and belongs to one of the six combat styles or is freestyle.
• Support - A card representing some kind of occurrence outside of combat that impacts the game. They can have ongoing effects or abilities that can be used. Each belongs to one of the six combat styles or is freestyle.
• Dragon Ball - A card representing one of 7 Dragon Balls from a specific planet; gathering all 7 wins the game. Each has an ability.
• Mastery - A card representing your deck (and character's) style. Starts the game in play, and forces your deck to include only cards of that style (or that are freestyle), but provides a benefit to gameplay.

Sets and Decks

The game saw a total of 3 booster sets released: Arrival, Showdown, and Transformation. A fourth set (Revelation) was released in text-only form for printing and proxying, after the game was cancelled. There were also a few promo cards.

Only the first set (Arrival) had starter decks. The game did not have any other types of decks or products besides boosters.

Each set includes a parallel foil set, randomly inserted into boosters. Arrival also includes starter-only "hi-tech" cards (unlike the DBZCCG, these were simply translucent versions of rare main personality cards found in the set) along with "hi-tech" scouting cards (which included attack tables).

Deck Composition and Contents

Starter Decks

A starter deck contains one of six hi-tech main personalities (Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Nappa, or Raditz; each at level 3) and a matching hi-tech power level scouter card (which includes the attack table). A personality is paired with one of two possible fixed 60-card decks (a given personality will always have the same corresponding 60-card deck). The box does not indicate which personality or deck you'll get. These personality and scouter cards are found only in starter decks.

A starter deck includes 2 rare cards (one different card, which itself is the same across both decks), 19 or 15 uncommon cards (9 different cards in both decks), with the remaining deck cards being common. The deck is a full, legal 60-card deck.

A rulebook and poster are also included.

Deck Rarity Analysis

This is probably the worst rare situation I've seen in any card game, and the blind boxes with starter-exclusive personality cards make it even worse. Not only does a single starter deck include two (of the same) rare card, every starter deck (regardless of which of the two decks you get) contains two copies of that rare (Saiyan Right Punch, if you were curious). As there are 6 different main personalities to collect, if you collect them all, you'll get at least 12 copies of this one rare card. A deck is limited to three copies of any one card, so 3/4 of them are useless. This completely and utterly spoils pulling that rare from a booster pack (which I did... twice... no, it did not feel good).

The only saving grace here is that you seem to be guaranteed to get all 6 main personalities in a sealed box of 6 starter decks. So if you can find a sealed box (increasingly difficult and expensive, these days), you at least won't be hunting for forever. And at least it's only one (of the 62 rares, out of the 242 non-starter-deck cards in the Arrival set), so you're not spoiling the other 61 rares at all.

I would have preferred that they included no rare cards in the starters, like the DBZCCG did (at least originally).

Alan's Thoughts On The Game

This was one of the first games I bought in bulk for myself, upon getting a full-time job and having money to spend. It therefore has a special place in my heart, as I have fond memories of coming home from work and grabbing another box of booster packs and spending some time unwinding by opening packs and sorting the cards. (This was also, unfortunately, from the era when I did not save booster pack wrappers, so the only proof that I purchased this game is the almost-complete collections of cards in binders.)

As mentioned on that page, I never played the original DBZCCG, so I can't really compare the two games. But as someone who isn't carrying any expectations into the game from its previous iteration, I have to say I enjoy the game. It feels (at least from a rules and card standpoint) much simpler to manage than the original. I like the ability to block with any card, which seems like it should reduce deck screw around dedicated block cards. Play feels reasonably fast and fluid.

From a gameplay standpoint, nothing to really complain about here. Fun. Enjoyable. Yay.

I do want to continue to comparison to Star Trek 2E though. Playing PanZ (and looking at the final rules for ScoreZ) feels thematic. You have characters getting angry and getting stronger as a result. You have teachers with their own strengths (Sensei cards and decks). You have characters fusing, but only temporarily (just like in the show). You have ever escalating power levels across sets (It's over 9000! No it's much, much higher than that!). I very much see ScoreZ (and by extention PanZ) to be focused on the experience, making them games that are much more true to the source material, which can make them problematic as games (although PanZ feels like it has much more of a handle on this than ScoreZ). Whereas ReZ feels like it was built to be a game first and foremost, that's mechanically sound and mostly balanced, with DBZ flavor on top. And that's usually what I prefer when it comes to games, so it's unsurprising to me that I prefer ReZ over PanZ.

Side note: Why is the starter (level 3) version of my favorite character (Vegeta) unable to refocus attacks?! I'd rather run a lower level Vegeta with an ally anyway, but this clearly completely ruins the game and makes it unplayable (/s).

Resources

• Retro DBZ CCG (includes rules, info, and a full card listing)
• Starter Deck Card Lists (AlanvDotOrg Randomjunk)