Character Intro: Shoto Todoroki
Shoto Todoroki FREEZES the competition in the My Hero Academia CCG!
Be careful not to get freezer burn when you collect his cards in booster packs from Series 1.
“Never forget who you want to become” – Shoto Todoroki
Shoto Todoroki’s quirk Half-Cold Half-Hot may not have the most creative name, but he is certainly one of the most competent students in Class 1-A, having gotten into the hero course on special recommendation. Shoto’s power is perfectly divided down the middle of his body, with the ability to emanate fire from his left side and to create powerful ice from his right side.
Shoto’s character card is equally split between the two elements. You can use Shoto’s Response ability to lean more into a control style of deck, or perhaps to just cancel key defensive pieces that your rival needs to survive. His enhance ability leans into the Fire symbol by getting stronger the larger your discard pile is, so this could encourage you to build your deck to be larger than the minimum of 50 cards as there is no maximum deck size in the game!
Early in My Hero Academia, Shoto avoids using his Fire abilities out of disdain for his father, the #2 hero Endeavor. Most of Shoto’s cards in Series 1 of the My Hero Academia CCG represent this as well, with each of them generally representing his Ice abilities and granting him stronger control abilities, such as the defensive ability Breaker appearing on half of his attacks. Because of this, Shoto’s enhance is less powerful than his full capability, but perhaps as the series goes on he will receive more cards that allow him to fill his discard pile quickly?
“Aren’t you embarrassed to lose to a child?” – Shoto Todoroki
As Shoto Todoroki’s quirk is an Emitter type, it means that each of his attacks will generally be Ranged attacks, and his kit of attacks supports his Ranged theme quite well. Giant Ice Wall is fantastic for shattering through defensive walls that your rival sets up, and Massive Flash Freeze comes in at a very fast speed and helps your future Ranged attacks get played as well! Usage of the correct Ranged attacks in their proper order will be key to learning to play Shoto Todoroki well.
Frigid Heatwave is the only attack that Shoto has in Series 1 where he begins to use his left side to its full potential. Because of its affinity with Fire, it quickly burns cards off of the top of your deck and gives great benefits for the size of your discard pile. This can be the card that truly enables a Shoto deck to function at its prime if you wish to be aggressive in Series 1, so be on the lookout for it when fighting against Shoto!
“You were woefully unprepared” – Shoto Todoroki
Shoto’s foundations each bring out the control elements from his right side to freeze his rival’s strategies before they can get off the ground. If you are attempting to push for victory on your rival and you need to keep their Stage committed for your attacks to be able to force through, Frozen may be what you want to use. You can destroy the foundations that you committed for Shoto’s enhance ability, thus losing no immediate resource, and force your rival to commit a foundation. With the high natural speed on Shoto’s attacks, this can certainly be the difference between a victory and your rival blocking your final attack and living!
Self-Assured is a card that can be used to great effect to block your rival’s attacks completely, regardless of which zone you are holding, and when paired with the Breaker: ability on Ice Storm or Precise Control, this can freeze your rival’s attack turn in place. While this foundation may be Unique, meaning that only 1 copy is allowed in your Stage, this is a great card to include multiple copies of in your deck as Shoto is very happy to see this card early in the game.
Irrefutable Force of Nature is Shoto’s final foundation, and it has the fantastic ability to seal cards in your rival’s Stage. For clarity, to “seal” a card means that the sealed card is considered to have no abilities for the rest of the turn, so you can seal down important offensive pieces on your rival’s turn to let you survive turns that your rival figured would have been a sure win!
That’s it for Shoto for now, and you can pick up his cards in series 1 of the My Hero Academia CCG, available now!
