Black – Physical Combat
Physical Attack – Allies lose all effects until the end of combat. Allies cannot make actions or have damage redirected to them this combat.
Damage: AT +3 Stages.
HIT: Raise your anger X. X = your current anger level.
Early in the life of Panini’s Dragon Ball Z TCG, the Ally themed Captain Ginyu Deck was a very popular choice and due to this colours with heavy Ally control like Blue, Orange and Namekian were strong contenders. While Black had some fantastic tools including the Black Devious Mastery, Ally control was not really part of its theme.
Then Black got cards like the topic of today, Black Chin Kick. It handles Allies in a Black way, but was it good and has it stood the test of time?
STATS:
Black Chin Kick is a Physical Combat card used to perform a Physical Attack that will deal AT +3 Stages at no cost. This is very standard stats for a physical attack and Black at the time was poised for mixed attacking. Black Devious Mastery would bump it up to AT +4 Stages and 1 Life Card. Perfectly fine, but not the reason why you’re running Black Chin Kick.
IMMEDIATE EFFECT:
Black Chin Kick’s immediate effect just shuts down Ally focused decks for an entire combat, no questions asked. While it doesn’t deal with the problem long term, not part of Black’s color identity by itself, it does free you up from Allies disrupting your gameplan or being a damage sponge if you are running a physical focused build.
However, it’s also written so that both players are affected, never stipulating only your opponent’s Allies. This restricts it’s use and cuts it from a lot of decks.
HIT EFFECT:
Black Chin Kick’s HIT effect balances itself on your current anger level. If you have 3 and it hits, it can cause your Main Personality to jump straight to the next level. It’s also fairly impactful at 2, getting you into the range of levelling up. On 1 however, it feels insubstantial for a HIT effect.
SUPPORT:
Black Chin Kick is a support card itself, a tool for combating Ally focused metagames. The unfortunate reality for Black Chin Kick is that due to it not really dealing with the problem, instead casting it aside until the end of combat, cards like Black Declaration, a card that synergizes with Black Devious Mastery and shuffles the Ally into the deck, was a much better choice.
This is just the most prominent alternative at the time and with further releases, Black would get even better options including Black Conflict Mastery. With Black Conflict Mastery you only need to inflict 4 life card damage to use a critical damage effect, which includes destroying an ally.
Likewise, by shutting off your own Allies, it really limits what Black decks can use Black Chin Kick. Popular Main Personality choices like Android 13 who uses Allies in his main game plan just can’t run Black Chin Kick without it being detrimental. To even think about running Black Chin Kick, you need a Main Personality that can completely exclude Allies, which as the game progressed, became quite rare.
Play these cards with Black Chin Kick!
- Black Devious Mastery
CARD RATING:
Black Chin Kick sounds great on paper, but is detrimental to too many Black builds and there are just better options to achieve similar goals. Even little played cards like Black Halt can be more beneficial for the vast majority of Black builds. With the final Panini rules Black Devious Mastery was frozen, so you’re probably running Black Conflict Mastery if you’re playing Black, making Black Chin Kick completely unnecessary.
Card Rating: 1.0 out of 5.0 stars
