September 2022 – My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game

Hello everyone, Shane Duckworth here from the Game Design team! I want to share my favorite deck that I played at the Pasadena regional. For those who don’t know, a handful of Jasco Games staff was in attendance at Pasadena, and the design team brought some decks containing Set 3 – Heroes Clash cards. We held an open invitation for anyone to challenge us, rewarding them with a random card from Heroes Clash for taking the time to play a game with us!

I built a total of 3 decks for this event and Bakugo was by far my favorite. It was a smash hit all weekend with many players commenting on how cool the deck was. The two other Jasco gunslingers, Tim and Mitch, also really enjoyed playing this deck, creating a funny situation where all three of us wanted to play this deck at the same time!

Stun Grenade is the missing piece Bakugo (I) needed to solve his natural 6 Hand Size aggro problems. Not only does it dig for another Fury attack, but it will also trigger Aggressive Temper and Burst Speed if those cards are revealed and discarded!

Double Front Beat Down is my absolute favorite attack to play with Bakugo (I). It’s a powerful card and always feels fun to throw down on the table, spinning the wheel and building in ready foundations to support your attack string. The effect on this attack also triggers Aggressive Temper and Burst Speed, so keep an eye out for those two cards when playing both Double Front Beat Down and Stun Grenade.

Many players get scared off by the 1 check as those can be crippling to your first turn build, spelling doom for the entire game if you fail your opening build. The way to help circumvent this is through proper deckbuilding. Our deck packs a total of 16 zero difficulty spam foundations to help combat checking Double Front Beat Down on turn 1. You should almost always draw a safe opening hand to build with.

Going second with this deck feels great as Bakugo starts ready, giving you the freedom to play foundations on a 2 difficulty curve, committing Bakugo if you check a 1. Bakugo also has 28 Health which is somewhat tanky for the amount of offense he can dish out. He can easily wipe out his rival in 1 turn if they disrespect him by overextending.

Destined for Mainstream Success is a great foundation that can ease the fear of checking that dreadful 1, calling “Attack” and either grabbing a free attack off the top of your deck, or revealing a foundation and confirming your next check. Small And Limber also helps as you primarily commit it to pass a check, then readying it by destroying a foundation with Bakugo’s enhance.

Signature Right Swing is an incredible card for Bakugo that:

helps him cycle for more attacks and;
triggers any Aggressive Temper and Burst Speed you may have in your hand

There have been many times I have drawn a Stun Grenade from Signature Right Swing, or found a Signature Right Swing with Stun Grenade, piecing together a nasty onslaught of attacks. Keep in mind that discarding 2 cards is a cost, so please beware of counters such as Night Watch and Nullify as they will cancel the effect of drawing 2 cards. However, you might still want to discard 2 anyways if you have Aggressive Temper or Burst Speed in your hand! 😉

While Bakugo can threaten big damage with any attack, both Howitzer Impact and Blast Rush Turbo operate as finishers. Howitzer Impact is a low-input high-output type card, putting out 8 damage for just 4 difficulty. Blast Rush Turbo puts out large stats, commonly sitting at 10 damage (+3 from its enhance, +2 from Bakugo). You can spend any Momentum you generate with the enhance on Blast Rush Turbo or with Powerful: 2 on Stun Grenade.

This is primarily a blueprint for one of many ways to play Stun Grenade Bakugo. I choose to play this off the Air Symbol because I really enjoy playing Double Front Beat Down and Air supports it very well with cards like Destined for Mainstream Success and Small And Limber. Fire Fury attacks get a huge boost with the upcoming Endeavor (II) Starter Deck, so it might be worth looking into for more Stun Grenade targets. I also purposely chose not to play Grenadier Bracers because I wanted to maximize hitting foundations with Double Front Beat Down, but you should most certainly consider playing it as it drastically increases the power of Bakugo!

With Set 3 – Heroes Clash, you will see lots of cards play a similar role as Stun Grenade in Bakugo. As you may know in Set 2 – Crimson Rampage, there were 12 total characters with mini-support of two cards. This was done to increase the cast of playable characters with just two sets. Set 3 – Heroes Clash not only adds 8 new characters to the roster, but it also helps fill gaps that previous characters may have had by adding tools specifically designed at helping them out. Here is an example of an attack found in the Set 3 – Plus Ultra packs, directed toward Ibara Shiozaki (I) from Set 2.