As most of us are probably aware, there are 3 big meta teams right consisting of Saiyans, Hybrid Saiyans and Androids with the latter two teams getting a huge boost from the latest update. Today, I'm going to go over some of the most popular Androids teams, along with some substitutions for those who are missing key units.

If you're not too sure if Androids are the right team for you, below are some of the reasons why they're currently one of the meta teams at the moment:

1) There are currently 4 SP Android units with 3 of them being S Tier and above (16, 17 & Cell). 18 is slightly weaker, but still kicks ass. Androids are the only team with two top tier tanks, which is absolutely crazy at this point in the game.

2) Lowest entry barrier out of all the meta teams, you only needed to pull 3 out of 4 SP units and all of them were featured on major UST banners.

3) Great bench - EX 19 and EX 20 are the ONLY units in the game that gives double buffs to a major tag. You usually only see double buffs for COLORS or something useless like Crit.

Granted, the fact that no SP Androids outside of 16 buffs the Android tag kind of offsets the above, but a great bench is always a great foundation and allows for flexibility in the main lineup.

4) Androids have some of the best EX units if you have poor luck (granted some EXs are even harder to pull than SPs). EX 18, 19, 1st form Cell & 2nd form Cell are all fantastic units and could easily be subbed in when needed without being a complete downgrade.

With that said, it's best to have at least two out of the four SP units to make a decent competitive Androids team.

Full Androids: Perfect Cell, 16, 17, EX Cell, EX 19, EX 20

This is one of the more conventional Androids teams you can build. Android 16 & 17 are the backbones of this team, with Perfect Cell being the main offensive unit. Perfect Cell is a great opener (he's your only choice because other two are cover tanks) with his 5 ki to enemy arts passive, which prevents you from getting combo'd too hard if you suck mess up. Perfect Cell's 40% Blast damage against Super Saiyans also makes him deadly against most relevant units from Saiyan/Hybrid Saiyan teams with the exception of Bardock and SSJ2 Gohan.

EX Cell can also be used as a fighter if you're facing a purple heavy team, but Cell & 17 are good enough versus neutral match ups for it to be really worth it.

Ideally, you'd want 16 to tank a RR but that's not the only thing he's good for. His insane cover & recover is great at absorbing combos so don't hesitate to switch him in where you see fit.

Once 16's health is low, or once you have a numbers advantage you could look to use his self destruct. Obviously don't use it if you're at a numbers disadvantage, you're just digging yourself a hole there.

And make sure you don't self destruct into a 16/17 cover or something stupid like I often do.

Strengths:

• Double tanks with some of the highest defenses in the game

• All main fighters are capable of winning neutral match ups (16 is slightly weaker offensively than the other two, but his strike attack definitely packs a punch).

• Should be able to tank opponent RR or get off your RR first if played correctly (and RNG doesn't screw you completely)

• Cell shreds through any non-blue Saiyans not named Bardock or SSJ2 Gohan

Weaknesses:

• No natural counter to SSJ2 Gohan, who can shred your defenses especially when below 50% HP

• To a lesser extent, Kami Piccolo can also shred through this team once his main ability activates. Be thankful he doesn't have a non-mono blue team yet.

Notes:

18 could also be a decent replacement for Perfect Cell, if SSJ2 Gohan is giving you too much trouble. But with this, you'd lose out on damage against other Hybrid Saiyans (her 20% strike attack only works against Saiyans) and you're climbing a huge hill if you're facing against another Android team with Perfect Cell.

I don't recommend this, but you could also replace one of the bench units with SP 18, so you'd have 4 fighters and can pick your fighters depending on the situation. Again, not recommended since you're losing too much for a slight situational advantage.

SSJ2 Gohan Androids team: SSJ2 Gohan, 16, 17, EX 1st Form Cell, EX 20, SP Turles

16 and 17 are again the backbones of this team (seeing a trend here), with SSJ2 Gohan being the sole offensive unit. EX 19 is replaced by SP Turles on the bench, because we want to buff up Gohan a bit more as he's the main damage dealer.

This team works extremely well based off of the synergy between 16 and Gohan - when 16 self destructs, Gohan gains a 50% ki recovery bonus for 20 counts. Added with Gohan's own passive where he gains a 35% ki recovery bonus when there is one dead enemy on the field (and there should be w/ 16's self destruct), he's looking at a 85% ki recovery bonus at the very least. This allows him to unleash an infinite combo for 20 counts because he LITERALLY loses no ki while using strike cards (provided that you're utilizing side stepping).

The best part, u/Vladtepesx3 already made a video of this so I don't have to record anything myself.

Check out Gohan's Infinite Combo after 16 Self Destructs

Strengths:

• Double tanks with some of the highest defenses in the game

• All main fighters are capable of winning neutral match ups (16 is slightly weaker offensively than the other two, but his strike attack definitely packs a punch).

• Should be able to tank opponent RR or get off your RR first if played correctly (and RNG doesn't screw you completely)

• SSJ2 Gohan shreds through everything including yellow units after 16 Self Destructs

Weaknesses:

• Bad color variation, opponent yellows can make quick work of you if you aren't careful

Notes:

If you don't have 16, you can use Perfect Cell instead to form a dangerous PPR team which is pretty much a direct counter to the popular GGY Saiyan team. Gohan won't get any additional buffs in this team, but is more than formidable.

Substitutions (in no particular order)

In a perfect world, we'd have every single unit. Obviously that's not how life works, so there are bound to be players out there missing one or two essential units to these builds (probably want to look elsewhere if you're missing 3 out of 4 SPs). Here we're going to talk about some substitutes you could use without missing... too many beats.

SP Bardock: Bardock is going to be relevant is most teams with his lockcage ability. The luxury of being able to lock a unit of your choice and one shot it with RR is just too good. This is great against those IT Goku teams, tanky android teams or annoying SSJ2 Gohan teams. He also brings two strike cards which is always nice.

You could look to run Bardock with 17 & 18 or 17 and Cell along with an Androids bench. 16 is not as good in this set up IMO since you're going to be lacking offensively (keep in mind that Bardock here is not the same as Bardock in a Saiyan team).

Downside is that Bardock obviously has zero synergy with any androids Z-ability wise. Without a proper Saiyan team supporting him, his otherwise high stats become somewhat mediocre.

IT Goku: Similar to Bardock, he's a good fit to pretty any team with his instant transmission ability that stops the opponent's combo/RR right in its tracks. He's best used with 17 and Cell along with an Android bench since they're all blast oriented. Again, I found 16 to not be an ideal fit here since he and IT Goku's main role & color overlaps as there are only so many RRs in one match. 18 is less than ideal as well, since she focuses on strike damage on a very blast heavy team.

Similar to Bardock, downside is that IT Goku has zero synergy with androids Z-ability wise, and will have trouble handling neutral match ups in this setting.

Kami Piccolo: One of the best solo units in the game, but does not yet have an optimized team of his own (Buu when??). He reminds me of that super smart kid in school, but doesn't have any friends. Okay I'll stop it with the horrible analogies.

He fits decently with any Android combinations minus 18. You could go blast heavy with Perfect Cell & 17, or go with a more tanky/balanced team with 16 & 17. Despite the lack of Z-ability support, Piccolo has zero issues shredding Androids. If you find yourself lacking damage, you can always swap EX 20 with EX Frost or something for some extra buffs.

Downside, again lack of Z ability synergy. He holds his own well against Androids but struggle against GGY Saiyans and Hybrid Saiyans (especially Goten) even with his main ability.

SP Piccolo: Ohhh how the mighty have fallen. It really wasn't so long ago when Piccolo was the most OP unit in the game. His offensive game is close to non-existent (worse than some EX units), but he makes up for it with his good defense 50% cover. & 25% team heal.

His sole job is to tank a RR and pop a heal if he survives, don't expect too much from him.

SP Krillin: Krillin works well with 18 because he has the strike cards that she desperately needs, and she has the vagina blast cards that he desperately needs. By that logic, he also works well with Cell.

Krillin is a jack of all trades in this setup in the sense that he can put out some respectable damage with his high blast attack, he also increases your team's damage by 15% every time you swap out a unit, can heal your team for 20% & cancel debuffs, and his solar flare can make sure your RR doesn't get covered.

One of the most rounded units in the game IMO and often gets underrated. Definitely a good fit for this team (or any team) if you're missing SP Android units.

EX 18: Once a staple to the original Android team with SP 17 & 18, now slightly falls behind the new SP Androids. With that said, she's definitely good enough to sub for one of the SP units. She's pretty tanky for an EX unit, and is very balanced offensively when factoring in the bonuses she receives from Android Z-abilities (for an EX unit). Her special card heals herself for 15% a pop and her main gives her 40 Ki & a special arts card after 10 counts.

You'll want to run EX 18 with SP 18 since their Z-Abilities buff each other. We'll want all the boosts we can get when running EX units in today's metagame.

Solid unit overall, but has been slightly powercrept by the new units.

EX 17: Great unit to pair with Perfect Cell for that double Z-Ability buff for both Cell and himself. Unlike his SP counterpart, EX 17 specializes in strike attack, and boasts one of the highest strike attacks on an EX unit (he also balances out Cell's 2x Blast cards which is great if you prefer a balanced deck like me). His defensive stats are slightly mediocre but makes up for it with his double defense Z-Ability as well his mini 20% cover. He won't tank a RR, but will do fine to tank a normal combo - the 20% strike attack damage after he covers is just icing on top (similar to his SP counterpart).

EX 2nd Form Cell: I swear this mofo is rarer than a SP unit, good for you if you have him because I still don't. Hopefully we'll get him on Scout Missions after he's been completely powercreeped because why not.

On a serious note, 2nd Form Cell is one of the most powerful EX units individually in the game who puts most of our early SP units to shame. He provides 2x Blast cards which works well with blast heavy units like 17, but can also benefit from 16's 2x Strike cards since he has good strike attack as well (it's actually slightly higher than his blast attack iirc). He also does 25% extra blast damage against non-Cell Androids, and does 20% more blast damage against all Saiyans.

His main adds 7 Ki cost to your opponent's strike & blast cards for 20 counts which is long as fuck. As a comparison, Pikkon's main adds 10 Ki cost to both strike & blast cards for 10 counts.

Downside being his Z-ability only benefiting himself.

Conclusion

Androids OP.

Suicide Squad OP.

But yeah on a serious note, as mentioned earlier Android teams are one of the top 3 teams in the game right now despite having the lowest entry barrier out of the three meta teams we have. If you still don't have 16, we still have another guaranteed SP ticket and a shit ton of dailies left. We'll have a prayer circle on the last day or something for you poor souls.

Now keep in mind I'm no Vlad, so there's bound to be SOMETHING I've missed in my analysis. Kindly let me know anything that I've missed, and I'd gladly add it in.

Edit:

Seems some people are misunderstanding the intention of this post. This post is not trying to claim that Androids are better than Saiyans and Hybrids. It's more of a "here's why Androids are pretty good, and here's how to build them" kind of post.