I’ve written previously about what the Game Design team looks at in order to make B&E adjustments to best suit the needs of our players and formats. Here’s a quick summary:
Tournament data
Professional gameplay assessment
Community feedback
As a general rule, we try to make as few adjustments to a format as possible. The goal is to create a fun format players enjoy, while minimizing disruptions. After our last B&E update we had several cards we were keeping a close watch on as we felt they may be close to the bar in need of action. We wanted to give the new format, post Ojiro updates, a chance to develop before making additional changes.
“One With Nature” was the top card on our watch list for several reasons:
It creates a play pattern out of step with what we’re trying to foster
It is a key component of the popular Earth strategies
It was overrepresented in popular decks on all three of its symbols
The month following our last announcement has shown us a mostly healthy format. Top cuts from events have seen a diverse cast of characters, no single strategy has emerged as overly dominant, and feedback has trended positively. However, within those bright spots “One With Nature” stood out: Earth is still slightly over represented as a symbol in play, and One With Nature is one of the top cards played in those strategies, and frequently as a 4-of. Combined with the fact it creates play patterns we prefer to not be in the mainstream and which we thought would get worse with the release of the upcoming Undaunted Raid expansion, we were led to the conclusion we needed to take action.
Up Next
The banning takes effect on Monday, June 12th in accordance with our B&E announcement policies: the announcement is made on the first Tuesday of each month, and changes take effect on the following Monday. We are continuing to monitor the health of our formats, and while we have a few things we’re keeping a close eye on, we’re happy with the health of formats overall headed into the release of Undaunted Raid.
Undaunted Raid HYPE! Secret Rares and Chrome Rares Announced!
By Bill Stark - June 5, 2023
Cards
Latest news
News
Greetings, Heroes!
We’ve dropped some big news over the weekend regarding Undaunted Raid, so let’s get into it!
Chrome Rares Return!
Chrome Rares are making a return appearance in Undaunted Raid! Previously featured in Heroes Clash, these extremely rare cards are alternate arts of some of the most impactful Attack cards in Undaunted Raid! Each Chrome Rare is serialized out of 100 copies, and they are truly beautiful to behold!
Rejuvenating Smash lets you replenish your resources by playing it as your second card in a turn, on offense or defense! Furthermore, if you discard a card from your hand during this attack’s Enhance Step you get a free Momentum as well!
Spiral Blasts provides multiple swings of 5 damage via the Echo keyword! Each swing’s Enhance lets you gain 2 life, and if you’re at Maximum health you get 2 damage as well!
Lastly, Spiral Blasts’ Deadlock Enhance is no joke! Scooping up your Momentum full of attacks from previous turns is an easy way to take a single attack and turn it into a game-ending string!
Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken pressures your Rival’s resources while also making your attacks harder to block!
If Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken goes to your momentum, it goes face-up and can use its Once Per Turn Enhance to give one of your attacks each turn +2 Speed, meaning Vast Hybrid provides continuous value as long as it’s in your Momentum.
Secondly, the other Enhances seriously pin down your rival’s board! You can commit and freeze a threatening foundation, as well as committing an Asset! This helps you clear your way through their defense or limit their offense on their next turn.
Schoolyard Smackdown lets you discard an attack from your card pool to switch your attack’s zone! Furthermore, when you do so Schoolyard Smackdown gets +1/+1! Combine with other effects that let you switch your Attack’s zone to show your rival your true “POWERRR!!!”
Stalagmite Piercer is a sneaky threat, that between its two Enhances and it’s low Block Zone is very tricky to block well.
If your rival blocks it with a non-attack, they lose 2 life, and if you’ve played an attack from anywhere other than your hand Stalagmite Piercer gains +2 speed!
Secret Rares Revealed!
Undaunted Raid features approximately one Secret Rare card per 24 booster packs, and you can check them out here!
A Spear And A Shield lets you pivot from efficient blocking to sending huge Attacks in the blink of an eye! By paying 2 health when you block with this card, you can have your rival commit a foundation and send A Spear And A Shield to your momentum at the end of the turn!
Lastly, A Spear And A Shield has an Enhance you can activate from your Momentum! By Removing it from your Momentum you can give your attack a damage boost based off how many foundations have left the stage this turn! Combine this card with cards like Brute Strength on long attack strings to put out some huge swings!
Manifest is an action that lets you turn any card in your card pool into a Momentum — and it even sends the card face-up! Combine with cards like Zero Gravity Lift to assemble truly devastating combos without playing into your Progressive Difficulty!
Lastly, Manifest even blocks well! With a +1 High and a Response that gains you two life when you block, Manifest is a great card to have on both your and your Rival’s turn!
Chronostasis Trigger is a fantastic attack for pressuring your Rival’s ability to block your attacks and stripping away their defensive options. With a lean 4 difficulty, Chronostasis Trigger is great anywhere on your attack string, and has two powerful Enhances!
The first Enhance lets you restrict your Rival’s foundations by freezing one and committing another if you played it from somewhere other than your hand! Characters like Mr. Compress, Kurogiri (II) and the upcoming Overhaul all love sneaking this card into play from other zones!
Lastly, there’s an additional bonus for if your Character has the Evil Symbol — you can change the attack’s zone and if it hits you SEAL THEIR CHARACTER! (Get it? It takes their Quirk away!)
Phantom Threat is a game-ending threat in the right hands! Phantom Threat is at its best with characters like the upcoming Mirio Togata who can easily change the attack’s zone. Once that’s enabled, Phantom Threat goes to your momentum after it resolves!
Secondly, Phantom Threat’s response is a killer! Every time Phantom Threat recieves a damage bonus, it gets one speed too! Once you’ve gotten Phantom Threat’s Response to trigger 5 times, you draw a card and the attack gains Flash — preventing your opponent from using any Enhances to reset your stats!
Repeated 100% Smash‘s artwork features Izuku Midoriya beating the absolute stuffing out of his Rival, and the card does just that!
Repeated 100% Smash wants to be at the end of a very long string of attacks, as its first Enhance lets you ready as many foundations as you have Punches in your card pool. Even if you have to commit everything to pass the check, you’ll get to ready enough foundations to keep going!
Secondly, if Repeated 100% Smash is at 10 damage or higher, neither player can modify their checks for the rest of the turn. Keywords like Breaker and defensive tricks like Release are no good here — you’ve got to block it the old fashioned way!
Tetra-Terror Onslaught is a very value-dense attack that if un-answered lets you recur multiple attacks from your discard!
It’s usually coming in with 6 speed, and by paying 3 health you can make sure that you’ll have a follow-up after Tetra-Terror Onslaught by picking up an attack to continue your attack string, or a defensive option like Showdown to let you end your turn securely.
Tetra-Terror Onslaught even has Echo, and when you use the Echo effect you get to play it with -1 difficulty and +2 speed, as the Echo was triggered from somewhere other than your hand!
Is there a more fun experience than a UniVersus Prerelease? It’s an absolute blast getting to play the latest set before anyone else. Let’s talk about what Prerelease design has looked like in past My Hero Academia sets, and how we’re changing things for Undaunted Raid.
Who are Prereleases for?
Yes, Prereleases are for all fans of UniVersus. It’s the sneak peek of the new set before you can buy it anywhere on earth; who doesn’t get excited about that? They do feature unique qualities that help them excel at serving the needs of players new to UniVersus or tournaments in general. Qualities like:
Using the Sealed deck format, which means players don’t need a prior collection to participate.
A more even playing field as no players have experienced the cards in person yet.
The maximum amount of excitement heading into an event owing to the “sneak peek” nature of the event.
Making a good impression with players new to tournaments or to the game itself, sometimes even learning it for the first time the day of the Prerelease, is a big challenge. We want our Prerelease experience to be welcoming! Our wonderful network of local game stores and our fantastic community of passionate fans has done a great job of making the play environment welcoming. However, as we assessed our learnings from the first few sets of MHA we recognized there were some pain points we could improve upon for the logistics of running the event.
What we found is that the prior Prerelease kits we sent to retailers looked flashy, but that incredible design work was lost on our players who never see the boxes their Prerelease boosters come in. Instead, they’re handed six loose boosters from which to build their decks, then given a promo card by someone running the event. There was also no guidance on how to build a deck, how to get pairings, or any onboarding that could make the whole tournament experience less intimidating for new players. That was a problem.
What to do about it?
Introducing the Prerelease Player’s Kit
In order to solve these problems, we’re introducing the Prerelease Player’s Kit. When you attend an Undaunted Raid Prerelease, you’ll be handed your Prerelease Player’s Kit after paying any entry fees. Inside you’ll find everything you need to build and play your deck. Here’s what it contains:
6 Undaunted Raid booster packs
1 Prerelease promo
1 Undaunted Raid deckbuilding insert
Just like previous Prerelease events you’ll open your six boosters and build your deck from the cards in those boosters. Remember: your deck must be a minimum of 40 cards (plus 1 character card), and in Undaunted Raid you can only choose from character cards provided in your six booster packs. Here are some other rules for Sealed play that differ from other formats:
Cards in your deck do not need to share a symbol with your character.
The 4-of deckbuilding requirement doesn’t apply to Sealed; did you open 5 copies of a card? You can play them all!
If you run out of cards in your deck, you only remove 5 cards from the game instead of 10 when cycling.
You are allowed to play your Prerelease promo in your deck.
The Prerelease Player’s Kit allows us to solve many of the problems we received feedback on from prior Prerelease events. Instead of a cool box that only your tournament organizer sees, we’ve built a stylish design that goes directly to you. Instead of loose packs, everything you need to play your Prerelease is all inside the box you’re handed. Not sure how to sign up for the UGN or what’s required to build a Sealed deck? Our insert provides handy QR links to resources that help you do both of those things. Finally, your Prerelease promo is contained alongside your boosters to make sure you receive it directly and that stores have one for every player participating in the Prerelease.
In addition to making the experience for players easier this design also reduces logistical complexity for stores running Prerelease events. There’s no counting loose booster packs, managing extra character cards, or figuring out who has and hasn’t received a promo card. Instead, players can simply sign up, pay, and be handed their Prerelease Player’s Kit to get off to the races.
Additional notes
The Prerelease Player’s Kit will be a big improvement for the UniVersus Prerelease experience, and I can’t wait for you to experience it. Don’t forget, you also earn prizes by attending! While it’s up to each store how they choose to distribute Prerelease prizes, because it’s an event that engages newer and inexperienced UVS players I recommend a flat prizing structure for stores that looks like this:
1 prize booster to each participant
1 additional prize booster to the 3rd and 4th place finishers
2 additional prize boosters to the 2nd place finisher
4 additional prize boosters to the 1st place finisher
That means in a 16-player event each participant would receive their 6 boosters for playing the event, and an additional prize booster for a total of 7 boosters received at the event. The players who finish 3rd and 4th overall at the event would receive one additional prize booster, bringing their tally to 8 total boosters from the event. The 2nd place finisher would receive two additional prize boosters, or 9 boosters in total. Finally, the top-placing finisher would receive 4 prize boosters or 11 boosters in all.
1st Place Name Jeffrey Kahn Character Fourth Kind (I) Symbol Order
1 Fourth Kind
1 City-Wide Crisis 1 Fulfilled My Duty 4 League Invitation 1 Shock Treatment 4 Passing the Torch 2 Drowning In Resentment 3 Challenging The Fakes 2 In Control 4 Bonds of Friendship 2 Self Sacrifice 4 Calling For Backup 3 Ice Gliding 2 House Of Cards 4 Requesting Assistance 2 Desperate Times
2 Ice Slide Tackle 2 Grasping Tape Toss 4 Electric Jolt 4 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 3 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 3 High Engine Kick 4 Vile Seizing
Sideboard
1 Ice Slide Tackle 1 City-Wide Crisis 1 Grasping Tape Toss 1 Fulfilled My Duty 2 Run Away! 2 Bloodcurdle 2 Can’t Escape Me
2nd Place Name Tim Keefe Character Ibara Shiozaki (I) Symbol Water
1 Ibara Shiozaki
3 Surviving The Final 2 Ice Gliding 4 Struggling With Studies 4 Basic Training 2 Sticky Balls 4 Stalking Her Prey 3 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 1 Think Fast! 1 Frozen 2 Faith’s Shield 3 Desperate Struggle 1 Observant Student 1 First Villain Encounter 2 Feelin’ Cute 1 A Refreshing Slice
1 Low Blow 1 Desperate Struggle 1 Faith’s Shield 2 Cheerful Uppercut 1 Toru Hagakure (II) 1 First Villain Encounter 1 Nullify 2 What’s Their Plan?
3rd Place Name Mitchell Cimino Character Kyoka Jiro (I) Symbol Good
1 Kyoka Jiro
4 Rising Starlet 1 Hack & Slash 4 Blade Expertise 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Specialist Of Sound 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Hero’s Inspiration 3 New Training Method 1 Preparing For Battle 3 Self Sacrifice 2 Taiyaki Fanatic 1 Passing the Torch 2 Lost In Thought
2 Faith’s Shield 3 Evade And Copy 2 Someone With Style 1 Pump Up 2 Bewildered
5th Place Name Matthew McDannel Character Kyoka Jiro (I) Symbol Air
1 Kyoka Jiro
4 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Arrogant Disposition 4 Requesting Assistance 3 Release 3 Latent Skill 4 Specialist Of Sound 2 Wealthy Aspirations 3 Basic Training 3 Decoy Duplicate 1 Encouraging Training Partner 1 Short Circuit
3 Double Jab Pummel 2 Amplified Sound Blast 4 Specialized Sound Waves 4 Home Run Comet 4 Electric Jolt 1 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 1 Zero Gravity Lift
2 Earphone Jack
3 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
1 Toru Hagakure (II) 3 Invisible Infiltration 3 Short Circuit 3 Encouraging Training Partner
6th Place Name River Cook Character Rikido Sato (I) Symbol Order
1 Rikido Sato
4 Requesting Assistance 4 Self Sacrifice 2 Class 1-A President 4 Calling For Backup 3 League Invitation 4 Making A Stand 4 Heroic Lineage 1 Unexpected Hero 2 Desperate Times 2 “Fusion” 1 Sticky Balls 2 Bonds of Friendship 1 You’re Finished
1 Gecko Stomp 4 Recipro Extend 4 Recipro Acceleration Kick 4 High Engine Kick 3 Electric Jolt 1 Recipro Burst
7th Place Name Ben Lambright Character Izuku Midoriya (III) Symbol Good
4 Izuku Midoriya (III)
4 One With Nature 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Passing the Torch 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 3 Self Sacrifice 3 Specialist Of Sound 2 Celebrity Status 2 Determined 4 You’re Finished 2 Pull No Punches 4 Lost In Thought 2 Note Taking
1 Young Heroes 1 Ruthless Mockery 2 Passing the Torch 1 Encouraging Training Partner 2 Evade And Copy 1 Focused Attack 1 Lost In Thought 1 Wall Cling
10th Place Name Andrew Holder Character Fourth Kind (I) Symbol Order
1 Fourth Kind
4 In Control 4 League Invitation 2 City-Wide Crisis 4 Passing the Torch 4 Self Sacrifice 4 Desperate Times 4 Calling For Backup 4 Requesting Assistance 1 Shock Treatment 3 Bonds of Friendship
2 Decaying Palm Slam 4 Vile Seizing 4 Electric Jolt 4 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 3 High Engine Kick 3 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 3 Setup Strike
Sideboard
2 Bloodcurdle 2 Can’t Escape Me 2 Run Away! 4 Searing Glacial Storm
11th Place Name Mitchell Janowiec Character Recovery Girl (I) Symbol Life
1 Recovery Girl
2 Recovery Girl’s Kiss 3 Release 3 Tight Lipped 3 I’ll Protect You 2 Bonds of Friendship 4 Self Sacrifice 4 A Precious Lesson 2 Lost In Thought 4 Wild Wild Pussycats 3 Bench Press 3 New Training Method 3 Passing the Torch 2 Encouraging Training Partner 1 Blood Evaluation 1 Pump Up 4 Carbo Loading 4 Excited For Blood 1 Wealthy Aspirations 1 Rescue Completed
4 Blood Transfer 2 Muscle Mauler 3 Focused Attack 4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Future Charge 4 Navel Laser Beam
1 Young Heroes
3 Ruthless Mockery
Sideboard
2 Recovery Time 1 Lost In Thought 3 Bewildered 2 Evade And Copy 2 Wall Cling
12th Place Name Travis Tangeman Character Recovery Girl (I) Symbol Life
1 Recovery Girl
3 Wild Wild Pussycats 4 Bench Press 4 Carbo Loading 4 Excited For Blood 3 Bonds of Friendship 3 Passing the Torch 4 A Precious Lesson 1 Recovery Girl’s Kiss 3 Release 4 Tight Lipped 4 Self Sacrifice 1 Pump Up 1 Rescue Completed 1 Wealthy Aspirations 4 New Training Method 1 Blood Evaluation 3 Encouraging Training Partner
3 Lost In Thought 2 Bewildered 3 Evade And Copy 2 Panache Shining Navel Blast
13th Place Name Nathan Dewalt Character Momo Yaoyorozu () Symbol Life
1 Momo Yaoyorozu
3 I’ll Protect You 4 Wild Wild Pussycats 2 Friend Of Animals 4 New Training Method 2 High Value Target 2 Floating Around My Babies 2 Self Sacrifice 4 A Precious Lesson 2 Preparing For Battle 4 Rising Starlet 2 Encouraging Training Partner 3 Release 3 Bonds of Friendship 3 Evade And Copy 3 Faith’s Shield 2 Lost In Thought
4 Command Pigeon Flock 4 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Cannon Blast 3 Create: Bo Staff 2 Home Run Comet 2 Instant Shining Flash 1 Knife Slice
4 Quick Creation
Sideboard
3 Wall Cling 2 Encouraging Training Partner 1 Evade And Copy 1 Faith’s Shield 3 Stalking Her Prey
14th Place Name Wesley Bittner Character Kyoka Jiro (I) Symbol Good
1 Kyoka Jiro
4 Male Bonding 2 New Training Method 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 3 Specialist Of Sound 3 Bonds of Friendship 4 You’re Finished 2 Determined 2 Passing the Torch 2 Self Sacrifice
3 Lost In Thought 2 Bewildered 3 Evade And Copy 2 Panache Shining Navel Blast
16th Place Name Bryan Garza Character Ochaco Uraraka (II) Symbol Death
1 Ochaco Uraraka (II)
4 Tight Lipped 3 First Day of Class 4 Let’s Fight Bad Guys! 1 League Invitation 1 League Interview 2 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 4 Snack Time 2 Struggling With Studies 3 Latent Skill 2 Agitation 1 Night Watch 2 Learning The Standards 3 Arrogant Disposition 2 Desperate Struggle
1 Desperate Struggle 1 First Day of Class 1 Struggling With Studies 1 Latent Skill 1 League Invitation 3 Forcing Surrender 1 Learning The Standards 1 Arrogant Disposition
The Monthly Monday Mayhem (“MMM”) Webcam Tournament Series gives players opportunities to compete in accessible higher-level competitive play from home. Each month, tournament organizers will be hosting a $1000 cash-prize webcam tournament, featuring special deck construction formats!
MMM events will be used to provide opportunities for serious players to test their mettle from home, as well as provide us new opportunities to test new rules and regulations and see what players like!
The MMM event will be on June 12, 2023, hosted by UnfunStuff. Space will be limited, so make sure to sign up as soon as possible!
Tournament Format
The event format for MMM events is significantly different from regular Webcam play, so please take note.
Every format, the deck building restrictions for Monthly Mayhem will change. Currently, it is:
CLASS REUNION CELEBRATION – Your deck needs to include at least four cards from Class Reunion. This can be four copies of a single card.
MMM events are currently always three rounds of Swiss with no top-cut to ensure a reasonable event length.
We will be testing new “tie-breaker” rules in MMM events, the details of which are noted below:
When time in the round is called, the game immediately ends and whichever player has the most game wins is the winner.
If there is a tie in game wins, the current game will be decided by who has the least missing health.
“For example, if Player A is playing as Eraserhead with 19 Max Health, and Player B is playing as Izuku Midoriya with 28 Max Health, and when time is called Eraserhead has 18 Health and Midoriya has 24 health, Eraserhead wins the match.”
If both players have the same current missing health, gameplay will continue until there is a change in health. The player with the least missing health will win the Match.
Where to Watch
UnfunStuff will be hosting the MMM and streaming it on their Twitch channel! You can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/unfunstuff
For MMM events in the future, we will have a monthly news article on this site detailing each tournament’s unique format and how to participate.
Regional License Exam events are back for 2023 Organized Play! RLEs continue with Season 2 of the 2023 OP Calendar. There will be 1 RLE for each of the 6 supported regions:
North America West
North America Central
North America East
Europe
Oceania
Webcam
Top Cut performers at each Regional License Exam will qualify to compete at any and all Pro Hero National events!
Entry costs for each event will be posted on the Registration page. Entry costs are consistent to previous RLE seasons.
GenCon events may be posted on the GenCon site before this date. We will keep this page and our socials updated!
*Prize details are subject to change.
Participation
Participation prizes distributed to all event goers after participating in 3 rounds of play.
Character Promo Card
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
1x
Requesting Assistance Promo
1x
Booster Pack (Current Set 1st Ed.)
6x
Participation Playmat
1x
“Raid” the RLE! – Earn A Free Booster Box
To celebrate the release of “Undaunted Raid”, bring a friend to “Raid” the Regional License Exam! By doing 3 of the following activities at an RLE this season, you can earn a free booster box!
Be one of the first 128 players to sign-up
Play in all rounds of the main event
Play in 2 side events
Bring a new player to an RLE (this counts for both of you!)
Win a side event
Play with a character from Undaunted Raid
Make Top 16 of RLE
While supplies last. This offer does not apply to Webcam events. Booster Boxes will be from Set 2, Set 3, and Set 4
Top Cut Prizing
The tiers below are not cumulative.
Top 64
Bonds of Friendship Promo
1x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
1x
Booster Pack (Current Set 1st Ed.)
2x
Top 32
Bonds of Friendship Promo
2x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
2x
Clever Distraction Promo
1x
Frozen Promo
1x
Booster Pack (Current Set 1st Ed.)
4x
Top 16
Pro Hero National Qualification
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
2x
Requesting Assistance Promo
2x
Bonds of Friendship Promo
2x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
2x
Clever Distraction Promo
1x
Frozen Promo
1x
Booster Pack (Current Set 1st Ed.)
8x
Top 8
Pro Hero Nationals Qualification
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
2x
Requesting Assistance Promo
2x
Bonds of Friendship Promo
2x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
2x
Clever Distraction Promo
2x
Frozen Promo
2x
Booster Pack (Current Set 1st Ed.)
12x
Dual Needle Lunge Contender Promo
1x
Top 4
Pro Hero Nationals Qualification
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
3x
Requesting Assistance Promo
3x
Bonds of Friendship Promo
3x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
3x
Clever Distraction Promo
2x
Frozen Promo
2x
Booster Box (Current Set 1st Ed.)
1x
Dual Needle Lunge Contender Promo
1x
Runner Up
Pro Hero Nationals Qualification
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
3x
Requesting Assistance Promo
3x
Bonds of Friendship Promo
3x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
3x
Clever Distraction Promo
3x
Frozen Promo
3x
Booster Box (Current Set 1st Ed.)
2x
Dual Needle Lunge Contender Promo
1x
Champion
Pro Hero Nationals Qualification
1x
1 Round BYE at Nationals* Byes do not stack
1x
Earphone Jack Promo
4x
Requesting Assistance Promo
4x
Arrogant Disposition Promo
4x
Bonds of Friendship Promo
4x
Clever Distraction Promo
4x
Frozen Promo
4x
Booster Box (Current Set 1st Ed.)
3x
Dual Needle Lunge Champion Promo
1x
Champion Playmat
1x
Side Event Information – North America
Participation Prizing – Limited
1x Earphone Jack
Participation Prizing – Constructed
1x Requesting Assistance
Winner Prizing
(Choose One) 1 x Earphone Jack 1 x Requesting Assistance 1 x Arrogant Disposition 1 x Bonds of Friendship 1 x Clever Distraction 1 x Frozen
Side Event Information – Oceania / EU
Participation Prizing – Limited
(Choose One) 1 x Earphone Jack 1 x Momo Yaoyorozu 1 x Ochaco Uraraka 1 x Tsuyu Asui
Participation Prizing – Constructed
(Choose One) 1 x Requesting Assistance 1 x Momo Yaoyorozu 1 x Ochaco Uraraka 1 x Tsuyu Asui
Winner Prizing
(Choose One) 1 x Earphone Jack 1 x Requesting Assistance 1 x Arrogant Disposition 1 x Bonds of Friendship 1 x Momo Yaoyorozu 1 x Ochaco Uraraka 1 x Tsuyu Asui 1 x Clever Distraction 1 x Frozen
RLE Participation Character Promo Cards
Each in-person event in North America will provide a different Character card. International and Webcam events will provide one of the characters at random. GenCon’s entry promo is Tsuyu Asui, Las Vegas’s entry promo is Ochaco Uraraka, and Rochester’s is Momo Yaoyorozu.
RLE Participation Character Promo Cards are also available in Oceania and EU in Side Events.
Hello everyone! Shane Duckworth here from the game design team, putting the spotlight on Izuku Midoriya from the upcoming My Hero Academia set, Undaunted Raid! In this article I want to cover how this version of Midoriya came to be and highlight some cool things you can do with him.
The first step in our creative card design process is figuring out how to properly translate a character’s fighting style and themes to the UniVersus game engine. UniVersus is a character-driven collectable card game that has a heavy emphasis on combat. Thematics are extremely important as we want you to feel like you are playing as the character from the TV show, video game, or whichever content they are native to.
Midoriya’s Quirk is “One For All” which allows him to stockpile unbelievable power. He inherited this Quirk from All Might, but his body was not strong enough to handle it. Because of this, Midoriya’s bones would break with each use of his Quirk. This is demonstrated with Izuku Midoriya (I) from the very first My Hero Academia set, as he can pay a very steep cost of discarding his entire hand (breaking his arm) to give a Punch attack +10 damage.
As he continues his training, Midoriya ends up developing some control over his Quirk. He is able to focus his energy into 1 finger at a time, spreading out his power by breaking individual fingers rather than his entire arm. This is showcased with Izuku Midoriya (II) from the second My Hero Academia set, Crimson Rampage. Instead of discarding his entire hand for a huge damage bonus, he is able to discard 1 card at a time and make multiple attacks threatening rather than going all in on just one.
Undaunted Raid is the fifth My Hero Academia booster set of UniVersus and focuses on the Shie Hassaikai arc. Midoriya is assisted by Eri during his fight with Overhaul. Eri’s Quirk “Rewind” allows her to reset an individual’s body to a previous state, effectively healing their injuries. This allows Midoriya to unleash his full power with no consequence. This theme is translated into Izuku Midoriya (IV) from Undaunted Raid!
This version of Midoriya continues his trend of discarding cards from his hand to increase the damage of his Punch attacks. If you watched his fight against Overhaul, you shouldn’t be surprised to see that he is able to work with Fury attacks as well! Midoriya’s enhance gives his attack Powerful: 4 and allows him to use 1 card from his hand to help pay for the cost. This means that he can have 0 momentum and still get +4 damage from Powerful: 4 by discarding 1 card. He can of course further increase the damage bonus by spending any extra cards he has in his momentum!
Eri’s power is showcased via Midoriya’s response ability, refilling his energy after he expends it. Whether he is building foundations or creating massive attacks with Powerful: 4, he is allowed to overextend and still have cards in hand to block and defend with on his rival’s turn. This character provides a very comfortable safety net to fall back on. You can enjoy a nice amount of freedom while playing this character, especially with how common Fury and Punch attacks are.
It’s worthwhile to note that when your rival begins the game going first, you can use Midoriya’s response to draw 3 cards and then discard back down to 5. This effectively serves as an “additional mulligan“ allowing you to see more cards and further curate your opening hand for your first turn!
Check out Tamren Cardwell’s YouTube video for a look at most of Midoriya’s kit!
Discarding cards from your hand is a steep cost, and although Eri’s Quirk allows Midoriya to replenish them, there are some great cards you can use to further capitalize on discarding cards. Body Rejuvenation is from his own kit in Undaunted Raid, showcasing more of Eri’s power by restoring your health. Any Means Necessary straight up replaces the card you discard for Powerful: 4, serving as card filter which is very important for 5 handsize characters.
Wind Up Punch and Tetsutetsu Fist are also great additions as they offer bonuses if you have discarded cards from your hand, which you are always able to do thanks to Midoriya’s enhance ability!
If you decide to try Midoriya off of the Void symbol, there are two nice little 1 difficulty spam foundations that offer tiny bonuses that can help add numbers up. All Worked Up has an additional use of making your next attack easier to play. Late Riser is worth keeping in the back of your head as more Void Combo attacks come out that are paired with Fury or Punch.
Next up, let’s take a look at Midoriya’s Ultra Rare attack from Undaunted Raid, Rejuvenating Smash!
Here we get to see Eri displaying more of her power. When it is played as your second card of the turn, you draw 2 cards and gain 2 health. This helps Midoriya refuel his hand and decide whether he wants to keep attacking or build more foundations. Getting 1 free momentum with the enhance is an extra cherry on top!
Veterans of the UniVersus game engine may notice a striking similarity between Midoriya (IV) and Jacqui Briggs from the Mortal Kombat set released back in 2018. There were a handful of initial drafts as we were designing Midoriya with Eri’s Rewind Quirk, but the one that made the most sense thematically ended up looking a lot like Jacqui Briggs. Her Ultra Rare attack, Air Ground Smash, was pretty necessary for her competitive viability, so we decided to remodel it so Midoriya could enjoy a similar play pattern that felt rewarding.
We wanted Rejuvenating Smash to work on defense too. Some players may remember a promo card called “Templar” that was handed out as a top cut prize during the Standard Sunset side event at US Nationals 2022. The fusion of Air Ground Smash and Templar felt very nice and made its way onto Rejuvenating Smash.
Here is a look at some previous initial designs of Midoriya (IV) that we were not as happy with or weren’t quite there.
The first Midoriya had a static ability that created a pause condition where he would immediately lose the game if he cycled his deck, but got to continually put cards from his discard pile back into his deck to help prevent that. The lose condition was representative of Eri’s Rewind Quirk, capable of rewinding someone to before they existed. Lose conditions aren’t necessarily fun on paper, especially for a protagonist like Midoriya. That combined with having to memorize the cards you put back into your deck didn’t seem to make for an enjoyable gaming experience, so we transitioned to the second Midoriya you see above. This one was more straightforward, drawing 1 card every time your Fury or Punch attack connected. His support kit was also envisioned with every attack having the Powerful keyword and abilities that synergized with Powerful attacks. Ultimately we decided to reshape him into what you know will be releasing in Undaunted Raid.
Rejuvenating Smash always had Air Ground Smash in mind as its predecessor, and our goal was to tune the card to be less egregious, but still powerful. We still wanted it to be played on a 6 difficulty like Air Ground Smash, so at first we tried a Combo approach. It used to only work with 5 handsize characters, but as an Ultra Rare we preferred if it were more applicable to a wider range of characters. We decided to let up on the restrictions and make it playable on defense for a much more attractive card.
I hope this article gave some valuable insight on nailing down thematics during the design process. Midoriya was really fun to design and is a total blast to play. The design team is excited for everyone to enjoy what we have cooked up in Undaunted Raid. Thank you for reading, and I’ll catch you all next time!
With four sets in partnership with the My Hero Academia franchise, we are excited to announce the release of the My Hero Academia CCG Class Reunion Collector Pack and Limited Edition Collector Box. Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
We are aware that there are unprecedented delays in the product delivery outside of North America. We have been working closely with our Distributors to get inventory to your territories in a timely fashion. We ask you to please have your local game stores contact their distributors about expected delivery dates.
Over the last year, we have seen historical record-breaking engagement from the international fan base. More stores are carrying UniVersus products and more players are playing than ever before. With a growing game, comes challenges. In partnership with our distributors, we are committing to improving international logistics.
DJ Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak and Crunchyroll, the global brand bringing fans the ultimate anime experience, have joined forces to release the highly anticipated collaboration: Dim Mak x My Hero Academia. The apparel collaboration features epic artwork showcasing the abilities of U.A. High’s most beloved heroes-in-training, their dedicated teachers, pro-heroes, and devious villains across an array of colorful tees and hoodies; all reinterpreted through Aoki’s effervescent, punk-meets-raver aesthetic.
In addition to the wearables, Dim Mak has partnered with Jasco Games, creator of the UniVersus, My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game, to deliver one coveted CCG card for each item purchased. Three unique cards were designed featuring Deku, Bakugo, and All Might alongside signature Dim Mak holo-foil branding details. All three limited edition CCG cards are playable and exclusively available as blind packs with purchase, only while supplies last.
“My Hero Academia is one of the best modern animes around. The determination, courage, and compassion of each character – both hero and villain – are incredibly relatable and admirable. While I find myself marveling at the U.A. High students’ growth in the face of adversity, I also empathize with the traumas experienced by the villains and understand how they came to be who they are – I truly hope that Deku can help them come around….” Steve Aoki continues, “I’m also an avid CCG collector and am beyond excited to release these beautiful, limited-edition cards by UniVersus…I can’t wait to see them in action, and I know that fans will collect them and cherish them for years to come as I surely will! PLUS ULTRA!!”
The Dim Mak x My Hero Academia collaboration includes bright tie-dyes and solids showcasing action-packed artwork featuring fan-favorite students from Class 1-A including Deku, Bakugo, Ochaco and Todoroki; heroes including All Might, Endeavor, Eraser Head; and villains like Shigaraki, Dabi, and Toga. Each purchased item will come with one of three mystery trading cards from the exclusive partnership with Jasco Games. The collection will launch on dimmakcollection.com on May 19, 2023 at 9am PST and will also be available on the NTWRK app for a live Q&A at 11am PST on the same day!
About Steve Aoki
Boasting a 77 million average monthly reach across all his platforms, 2x-Grammy-nominated music producer, artist, fashion designer, entrepreneur and NFT visionary Steve Aoki is one of the most successful cross-genre artists in the world. A Guinness World Record holder for the “Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year,” Aoki has performed at nearly every top festival around the world, including Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Fuji Rock Festival, Tomorrowland and Electric Daisy Carnival.
Since the release of his 2012 debut solo album, Wonderland, which earned him his first Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album, Aoki has collaborated with an impressive list of varied artists, including BTS, Maluma, Snoop Dogg, Linkin Park, blink-182, One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Uzi Vert, 2 Chainz and Daddy Yankee, on top of having released three Platinum singles, six Gold singles, and over ten Top 10 self-produced radio records. After unveiling four Neon Future albums, the most recent being Neon Future IV in 2020, Aoki’s next album is due later this year featuring the dynamic alt-rock single, “KULT,” alongside grandson and Jasiah.
Aoki approaches each new endeavor with the same sense of dedication he’s put into his past achievements, including his critically-acclaimed 2019 memoir BLUE: The Color of Noise and THE AOKI FOUNDATION, which he founded in 2012 to support organizations in brain science and its research. His influential record label Dim Mak celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021, which is known for being a launching pad to the careers of prominent acts like Bloc Party, The Chainsmokers, Bloody Beetroots and The Kills. Most recently, Aoki created the A0K1VERSE, an NFT membership community, powered by the Passport, that welcomes his fans to both virtual and real-world experiences. In whatever space he enters, the multi-hyphenate entrepreneur continues to set trends and inspire creativity on a global level.
About Dim Mak
In 1996, Steve Aoki founded DIM MAK and developed it into an influential independent record label, music and fashion lifestyle brand. Responsible for launching the careers of seminal acts such as Bloc Party, The Bloody Beetroots, The Chainsmokers, M.I.A., Keys N Krates, The Kills, and countless others, the independently owned DIM MAK has consistently pushed new musical movements via its staunch DIY ethos. As a fashion leader, Dim Mak cultivates community by bringing together collaborators from all walks of life including the likes of Hiroshi Fujiwara, Sanrio, and Playboy, to name a few. With nostalgic references toward his youth, Aoki often includes manga, music, and games into the Dim Mak aesthetics. Aoki named his record label and subsequent fashion brand “Dim Mak” as a nod to Bruce Lee’s signature fight move: the touch of death. With a back catalog hundreds of records deep, a history of legendary live events, and a fully formed clothing line, Dim Mak continues its global mission of promoting boundary-pushing music and culture ‘by any means necessary.’
About My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a TV anime based on the popular comics by Kohei Horikoshi serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha) and over 85 million copies are sold. It is set in a world where about eighty percent of the population has a superpowered Quirk. Heroes protect people and society from accidents, disasters, and villains—criminals who use their Quirks for evil. The story of Izuku Midoriya and his classmates at U.A. High School and their growth, fights, and friendship unfolds as they aim to become such heroes. My Hero Academia is available to stream now on Crunchyroll.
About Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll connects anime and manga fans across 200+ countries and territories with the content and experiences they love. In addition to free ad-supported and membership Premium content, Crunchyroll serves the anime community across events, theatrical, games, consumer products, collectibles, and manga publishing.
Anime fans have access to one of the largest collections of licensed anime through Crunchyroll and translated in multiple languages for viewers worldwide. Viewers can also access simulcasts—top series available immediately after Japanese broadcast.
The Crunchyroll app is available on over 15 platforms, including all gaming consoles.
Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.
Jasco Games is hosting an online “how to play” demo event for the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game!
This is the perfect online event to join to learn how to play! We will be answering everyone’s questions live, as well as playing live games of MHACCG!
Welcome to my second UniVersus CCG behind the scenes article! My name is Jeremy Ray and I’m a member of the design team. Today, I’m going to talk about the process of designing a Clash Deck. Mainly, I want to talk about the development of the All Might vs. All For One Clash Decks. When designing a preconstructed deck like this, we have different goals in mind compared to a standard booster set. Let’s dive into some of those differences!
To start, it’s important we understand what the primary focus of these Clash Decks is. Is there a particular moment or scene we want to really explore? For Set 4, we wanted to capture the epic showdown between All For One and All Might. This battle is an important moment that shaped the future of the entire show. The key outstanding element here was that All Might no longer has enough power to match All For One’s strength anymore. and we wanted to create that dynamic between the two character’s decks. In turn, we see All For One using his Quirk to overwhelm his opponent, while All Might digs deep to muster enough power to save the day one last time.
After we’d landed on the thematics, we faced our next big challenge: Who is the target audience? For our previous preconstructed decks, we focused on making the products as accessible as possible for newer players to learn the game with, while still introducing exciting cards for our established playerbase. If I had to give them a rating, I’d say, the Midoriya vs. Bakugo Rival Deck is 3 out of 10 in terms of complexity, and our Eraser Head and Endeavor Decks a 5 out of 10.
With this being our first version of All For One, we wanted to focus on capturing the moment without worrying about trying to make a beginner level preconstructed deck. Without this limitation, we decided to up the complexity levels a bit to better capture the essence of the battle. These changes bring this preconstructed deck to about a 6 or 7 on the complexity scale. We wanted these decks to be a satisfying experience to play out of the box, even for advanced players, and especially against each other.
But not all starter cards get adjusted with constructed play in mind. We spend lots of time balancing the battle between these two iconic characters specifically, and there are adjustments made to some cards to enrich the play experience between the two decks. A good example of this is the card “Vanquishing Punch”.
“Vanquishing Punch” is an important card in the Clash battle experience. It gives All Might a disruptive threat that grows in strength as All For One builds up his stage. It’s a card that is important to the Clash Deck experience, even if it won’t find a ton of homes in constructed play.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have cards like “Ultimate Combination” that are likely to see constructed play.
We knew this card had lots of potential outside of the Clash battles, so we had to consider where and how it could be utilized. In the Clash Deck, “Ultimate Combination” is an exciting finisher that can pay off All For One’s strategy. In constructed, the card can be a build-around (a card that many other cards in your deck aim to support) that offers board advantage AND big attack potential. To help balance the card, we tested the decks and characters we believed could leverage a card like this. Characters like Pixie Bob (Wild Wild Pussycats DLC) and Shigaraki 2 (Heroes Clash) got playtest attention to ensure that we were not creating a monster. The goal was a fun card that supports some unique strategies.
I want to spend a little bit of time talking about All For One, his deck, and the themes we were trying to capture. All For One is a textbook “Big Bad Boss” character. We wanted him to feel like he had some unfair advantages. The “Big Bad Boss” gets to break the rules, and we wanted to capture his powerful quirk’s flexibility. Offense, Defense, and Utility — his quirk can do it all!
One of my favorite parts about design is when I can tie two goals into one design. I wanted to capture All For One’s ability to change out Quirks to suit his needs. I was able to tie that ability with the desire to make him feel like he is breaking the rules of the game by letting him gain and change his momentum. With this, All For One is able to find the right tools for the job on every turn. It also allows him to start the game with momentum before any attacks hit the table. Plus, he never has to go into combat without having at least 1 momentum available. All For One can then turn that momentum into defensive utility using his other character ability, a powerful omni-block. That momentum can also become the firepower cards from his deck need like Ultimate Combination and Impact Recoil.
All For One’s final ability is a scaling damage pump as he uses more and more deadly ability combinations. His ability to repurpose attacks that dealt damage out of his momentum combined with this damage pump creates an inevitability to his game plan. In time, he will grow too powerful for you to stop him, so you need to beat him before he unleashes his full power.
All For One’s core ideas were intact from the very beginning, but through testing we adjusted his power level for both constructed and Clash Deck play. The very first thing that we changed was his damage pump. Originally his pump started with a little extra kick. More importantly, it could be used on throws. The early testing “All For Throw” decks is where testers gravitated for constructed play. This version of him was grinding games by playing the same throw over and over and using his ability to recycle them. The way this strategy was working was just not a fun experience to play against. It also allowed for very low attack count decks to thrive. We ended up placing “non-throw” on the damage pump to make sure that the strategy could exist, but it would take a very long time to close a game out.
At this point in testing, All For One’s damage pump still had no cap, and he had more health. This proved to be problematic when games stalled, especially in the Clash Deck matchup. There are times when both players can’t draw attacks, which is already advantageous for All For One. By adding a cap, that advantage is slightly mitigated. The combination of his defensive omni-block ability and the extra health ended up making him a bit too frustrating to play against. The pace of the two Clash Decks early on was too slow with games taking a long time. Once we brought the health down and capped the damage pump, the Clash Deck experience really started to feel good.
In All For One’s Clash Deck, we included a lot of ways for him to manipulate his momentum. In development, we found testers enjoyed the ability to make powerful plays using cards like “Forced Quirk Activation” to tutor a card from discard, or using “Helping Tomura” to create bursts of momentum to support “Ultimate Combination”. Empowering players to make strategic decisions about how and when they used their momentum became a focal point for the character.
The final touch was to make some cards that directly targeted his rival, All Might. These are cards that really focus on the Clash Deck experience like “Where’s Your Smile Now?”, which can take away All Might’s options and take advantage of his moments of weakness. Another example is “Crushing Truth”, a card aimed directly at trying to take away the #1 Hero’s best offensive tricks.
The All Might vs. All For One Clash Deck was the culmination of many, many hours of planning, detailing, and testing. I hope we made a Clash Deck that our fans enjoy. For me, designing a preconstructed deck presents a lot of challenges that I personally feel makes it the most difficult project to work on. Making a fun and balanced play experience between the Clash Decks that is accessible to intended skill levels of players, all while capturing the thematics of the characters, and including cards that can have an impact to the constructed format is a lot to juggle. When we recognize we missed the mark we learn from the experience and adjust in future designs.
If you have any questions or feedback (or you just want to tell me “good job!” and make my day), you can tag me in the main MHA CCG Discord. You can also reach out to me on my new Twitter account! I plan on posting some musings about the state of the game, links to new articles when they drop, and general news about what events I’ll be attending this year!
Friday May 26th (Standard UVS Tournament) -Venue Open: 9:00 am CST -Decklist Registration: 10:00-10:45 am CST -Player Meeting: 10:45 am CST -Round One Start: 11:00 am CST
Saturday May 27th (MHA Regional License Exam)
-Venue Open: 9:00 am CST -Decklist Submissions Close: 10:00 am CST -Player Meeting: 10:45 am CST -Round One Start: 11:00 am CST
Sunday May 28th (Top Cuts)
-Venue Open: 9:00 am CST -Deck Check: 9:30 am CST -First Round: 10:00 am CST
Tournament Format
Swiss Rounds, Best of 3 60 minute rounds + 10 minute overtime Top Cut, Single Elimination Best of 3 Untimed
Prepare for battle with two new Clash Decks featuring fan-favorites Mirio Togata and Overhaul! (We have been revealing the cards on our social channels.)
Each deck contains 51 cards (50 cards + 1 character card) focused on the abilities that make each character unique!
Overhaul bides his time, storing attacks to unleash a powerful assault later on, while Mirio Togata leverages his unpredictability to leave rivals guessing how Mirio will attack.
These decks are ready to play right out of the box, making them perfect for new players! Expand their strategies with cards from all MHACCG sets, especially Undaunted Raid!
The cards in these decks are exclusive and not found in Undaunted Raid booster packs.
Mirio Togata
Mirio Togata is a Punch and Slam focused Character with two very powerful Enhance abilities, focused on aggression and taking opponents down early!
His first Enhance lets him buff a Punch or Slam attack and then change its attack zone! Combine this with effects that let you see your opponent’s hand like Deku’s Notebook or Hold Hostage to slip through your Rival’s defenses and bring them down!
His second Enhance lets him Commit and discard 1 momentum to reduce an attack to 0 damage! You don’t have to fear “combo decks” focused on sending one giant, unblockable attack — and you’re going to give a lot more damage than you get!
Schoolyard Smackdown naturally synergizes with Mirio’s love of switching zones, and provides a clean way to clear another attack out of your card pool while still putting the pressure on.
Overhaul
Overhaul‘s focus is on taking games long, and leveraging his powerful abilities to get extra resources to out-value his Rival.
As a First Enhance, Overhaul starts every turn by building a card from your hand face-down. You can use this to place good targets for his other Enhance in your face-down Foundations!
Next, Overhaul’s Response lets him Flip a foundation to give your attack +2 damage and gain you 1 health if it deals damage. This ability is very strong as it lets you choose after you know if your opponent is blocking or not!
Lastly, the second Enhance pulls everything together! Once per turn, you may play 1 face down card from your stage as your next card, ignoring progressive difficulty! While you have to discard a card to do so on your rival’s turn, this ability lets you always have the right tool for the job out of your facedown Foundations – whether attacking or blocking!
Monstrous Fusion is Overhaul’s most threatening attack in the Rival Deck! Stuffing a copy of Monstrous Fusion into your facedown foundations with Overhaul to use at a later turn feels great, because if you do you can use the first Enhance to gain Powerful: 3!
Lastly, you can remove the top 3 cards from your discard pile to give your attack +3 speed. Overhaul can send huge attacks like this every turn, as long as he’s got the time to get set up.
You Can Be A Hero with My Hero Academia: Undaunted Raid! Find Undaunted Raid and the new Rival Decks at your Local Game Store on June 30, 2023! Find a store near you here: https://play.mhacardgame.com/store-finder
Undaunted Raid Card Reveal Season!
We’re opening up the full Undaunted Raid Card Reveal Season with collaborating with our community! Over the next few weeks, selected content creators in our community will be revealing the contents of Undaunted Raid! A few have already started, so keep a close eye out on our social, too.
1st Place Name Grant Padley Character Kyoka Jiro (I) Symbol Air
Character: 1 Kyoka Jiro
Foundation: 3 Basic Training 4 Requesting Assistance 4 Arrogant Disposition 4 Latent Skill 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Specialist Of Sound 3 Release 2 Polite & Well-Spoken 2 Feelin’ Cute 2 Wealthy Aspirations 1 Web Of Blades
Attack: 4 Electric Jolt 4 Instant Explosive Release 4 Specialized Sound Waves 3 Home Run Comet 3 Zero Gravity Lift 1 Double Jab Pummel
Asset: 2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard: 2 Noble Participation 2 Cheerleader 3 Wall Cling 2 Sports Festival Stadium 1 Plus Ultra!
2nd Place Name Connor Chilton Character Fourth Kind (I) Symbol Order
Character: 1 Fourth Kind
Foundation: 2 In Control 4 League Invitation 3 Mastermind’s Apprentice 1 City-Wide Crisis 2 Drowning In Resentment 3 Challenging The Fakes 4 Requesting Assistance 1 Shock Treatment 2 Gotcha 2 Tape 3 Bonds of Friendship 4 Passing the Torch 2 Self Sacrifice 1 Sticky Balls 3 Calling For Backup 3 Heroic Lineage
Attack: 3 Vile Seizing 2 Ice Slide Tackle 3 Electric Jolt 4 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 1 Recipro Burst 3 Recipro Extend 3 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 3 High Engine Kick
Asset: 1 Suited Up
Sideboard: 1 Drowning In Resentment 2 Fulfilled My Duty 3 Bloodcurdle 1 Recipro Burst 1 Rikido Sato 2 Grasping Tape Toss
3rd Place
Name Nathan James Character Endeavor (II) Symbol Earth
Character: 1 Endeavor (II)
Foundation: 4 Press Conference 2 Quick To Act 4 One With Nature 3 Prehensile Tail 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 New Training Method 4 Faith’s Shield 3 Learning The Standards 3 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Resistance 2 Tight Lipped
Attack: 4 Red Guard 4 Ignited Arrow 4 Prominence Burn 4 Hardened Uppercut 4 Rapid Punches 4 Back Alley Haymaker
Action: 4 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard: 1 Nomu 4 Hellflame Stomp 3 Kirishima’s Assistance 2 Snack Time
4th Place
Name Liam Chawner Character Tomura Shigaraki (III) Symbol Order
Character: 1 Tomura Shigaraki (III)
Foundation: 4 League Invitation 4 Requesting Assistance 3 Desperate Times 3 Heroic Lineage 4 Self Sacrifice 3 Mastermind’s Apprentice 4 Calling For Backup 3 Final Exam Failures 3 House Of Cards
Attack: 2 Searing Glacial Storm 4 Electric Jolt 4 Vile Seizing 2 Decaying Palm Slam 3 Final Smash 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts
Name Greg Moss Character Momo Yaoyorozu (I) Symbol Life
Character: 1 Momo Yaoyorozu
Foundation: 3 I’ll Protect You 4 Wild Wild Pussycats 2 Friend Of Animals 2 High Value Target 4 New Training Method 2 Floating Around My Babies 3 Self Sacrifice 4 A Precious Lesson 3 Preparing For Battle 4 Rising Starlet 2 Encouraging Training Partner 4 Release 3 Study Group Leader
Attack: 4 Back Alley Haymaker 1 Electromagnetic Stomp 3 Cannon Blast 3 Create: Bo Staff 2 Home Run Comet 3 Instant Shining Flash 4 Command Pigeon Flock
Asset: 4 Quick Creation
Sideboard: 2 Lost In Thought 3 Faith’s Shield 3 Evade And Copy 2 Rescue Completed
6th Place
Name Nicholas Ragan Character Endeavor (II) Symbol Evil
Character: 1 Endeavor (II)
Foundation: 4 Excited For Blood 1 Sticky Balls 4 Bench Press 4 Super Regeneration 2 A Refreshing Slice 4 Press Conference 4 Quick To Act 4 Floating Around My Babies 4 Surviving The Final 2 Shock Absorption 2 Brute Strength
Attack: 2 Winged Nomu 2 Compression Sphere 3 Turn To Dust 4 Hellflame Stomp 2 Ignited Arrow 4 Vile Seizing 3 Tongue Whip
Asset: 1 Kota
Action: 2 Showdown 2 Evil Gaze
Sideboard: 3 Crushing Truth 2 Fruit Of Our Labors 2 Evil Gaze 1 House Of Cards 2 Compression Sphere
7th Place Name Sam Turner Character Fourth Kind (I) Symbol Order
Character: 1 Fourth Kind
Foundation: 4 Requesting Assistance 2 Gotcha 4 Passing the Torch 4 Calling For Backup 2 Heroic Lineage 3 Ice Gliding 4 “Fusion” 3 Desperate Times 2 Creepy Realization 3 Classmate Introductions 1 Sticky Balls 2 Influencing The Youth 2 Charging One For All 1 Expanding Capacity
Attack: 3 Electric Jolt 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 4 High Engine Kick 3 Recipro Acceleration Kick 4 Recipro Extend 1 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 2 Grasping Tape Toss
Foundation: 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Male Bonding 4 Snack Time 3 Coping With #1 4 One With Nature 4 Super Regeneration 3 Quick To Act 2 Web Of Blades 1 Learning The Standards 3 Kirishima’s Assistance 3 Saving Bakugo 3 I’ll Protect You
10th Place Name Kai Siney Character Eijiro Kirishima (II) Symbol Earth
Character: 1 Eijiro Kirishima (II)
Foundation: 4 Harden 4 Homage To My Hero 2 Learning The Standards 3 Saving Bakugo 2 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Male Bonding 2 Chivalrous Competitor 3 Resistance 3 Manly Friendship 3 High Value Target 3 Manly Passionate Guy 2 Tight Lipped 2 New Training Method 2 Kirishima’s Assistance
Attack: 3 Hardened Uppercut 3 Hardened Barrage 3 Hardened Chop 4 Hardened Frenzy 4 Hardened Jab 2 Red Guard 3 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Hardened Pummel
Action: 4 Seizing The Advantage 1 Teamwork 1 Plus Ultra!
Name Declan Savage Character Tomura Shigaraki (I) Symbol Death
Character: 1 Tomura Shigaraki
Foundation: 2 Nothing To See Here 3 First Day of Class 1 Snack Time 2 Excited For Blood 1 Latent Skill 1 Prehensile Tail 2 Nervous Habit 4 Surviving The Final 1 In Control 3 Forcing Surrender 4 Keen Observation 4 Struggling With Studies 1 Desperate Struggle 2 Tight Lipped 1 Arrogant Disposition
Attack: 4 Vile Seizing 4 Turn To Dust 4 Full Cowling Impact 2 Cheerful Uppercut 4 Float Combo
Name Luke Quinsee Character Endeavor (II) Symbol Earth
Character: 1 Endeavor (II)
Foundation: 4 Press Conference 2 Quick To Act 4 One With Nature 3 Prehensile Tail 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 New Training Method 4 Faith’s Shield 4 Learning The Standards 3 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Tight Lipped 4 Resistance
Attack: 4 Ignited Arrow 4 Prominence Burn 4 Red Guard 4 Hardened Uppercut 4 Rapid Punches 4 Back Alley Haymaker
Asset:
Action: 4 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard: 3 Forcing Surrender 1 Nomu 4 Navel Laser Beam 2 Snack Time
16th Place
Name Ian Hildon Character All Might (III) Symbol Good
Character: 1 All Might (III)
Foundation: 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 You’re Finished 3 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Small And Limber 3 Specialist Of Sound 2 Pull No Punches 2 Passing the Torch 3 Self Sacrifice 2 Manly Passionate Guy 2 Bonds of Friendship 2 Determined 4 One With Nature 3 Lost In Thought
Attack: 3 Final Smash 4 Valiant Assault 4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Hardened Jab 4 Texas Smash 3 Heroic Strike
Action: 1 Plus Ultra! 2 Capture Evil-Doers
Sideboard: 2 Detroit Smash 2 You’re So Obvious 2 Evil Vs Good 2 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 2 Evade And Copy
Tim Frie, Undaunted Raid lead designer, here again! We’ve already kicked off previews for the set, and that’s super exciting. I love writing these teasers, so I wanted to make sure to get this out ASAP. This story arc is one of the most beloved of the entire show, so we wanted to get it right. There will be more design articles to come during preview season, and those will shed light on the development process and some of the ways we approached themes and cohesive mechanics in the set, but I’ll leave that for later. For now, let’s just get on with the juicy tidbits you all came here for. I present to you some really cool things that will be featured in Undaunted Raid.
Things you can expect to see in Undaunted Raid:
The Shie Hassaikai.
3 NEW Pro Heroes.
Some new tools for Mill strategy.
A new playstyle “theme.”
A transforming character.
Remember “3 damage matters”?
2 new versions of characters with a hand size they have not previously had.
An asset with a response limited to 3 characters.
2 cards with unconventional layouts.
Some Game Text on cards in Undaunted Raid:
Enhance Flip: If you have 3 or fewer ready foundations, this attack gets -3 speed.
Response: After you take damage from an unblocked attack, add 1 “Manly Spirit” counter to this card.
[EVIL] Enhance: Change the zone of this attack. If this attack deals damage, seal your rival’s character.
Response [Once per turn] Discard the top 3 cards of your deck: After an attack is played, you may play 1 non-attack Ally card from your discard pile as your next card this turn.
Enhance Flip 1 foundation: This attack gets +2 speed. Change this attack’s zone to [low].
When committing cards to pass a check, you may commit 1 asset as if it were a foundation.
Response [Once per turn]: After your rival makes a re-check, that check gets -1.
Enhance: If your rival has 1 or more sealed foundations, change this attack’s zone.
[CHARACTER] Enhance Commit your character: Discard the top 6 cards of your rival’s deck.
Form: For the rest of this turn your attacks get +2 damage.
Deadlock Enhance Flip: Name a card. Your rival cannot block this attack with the named card.
Some Keyword Combinations:
Slam • Weapon
Ranged • Weapon • Combo (Face Down)
Flash • Fury • Punch
EX: 3 • Punch • Powerful: 3 • Ranged
Kick • Powerful: 3 • Slam
Breaker: 2 • Terrain
I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of what’s to come with Undaunted Raid! What else do you think might come out with this set? Be sure to comment your thoughts, and get ready for a fun preview season!
The Monthly Monday Mayhem (“MMM”) Webcam Tournament Series gives players opportunities to compete in accessible higher-level competitive play from home. Each month, tournament organizers will be hosting a $1000 cash-prize webcam tournament, featuring special deck construction formats!
MMM events will be used to provide opportunities for serious players to test their mettle from home, as well as provide us new opportunities to test new rules and regulations and see what players like!
The MMM event will be on May 15th, 2023, hosted by UnfunStuff. Space will be limited, so make sure to sign up as soon as possible!
Tournament Format
The event format for MMM events is significantly different from regular Webcam play, so please take note.
Every format, the deck building restrictions for Monthly Mayhem will change. Currently, it is:
COMMON GROUNDS – Commons and Uncommons only! No SE, PSC, PU, R, UR, SR cards in your deck. Character Cards ignore this rule.
Prizing Structure
Entry
2 Plus Ultra Packs, 2 Booster Packs
Top 8
$125 Cash
MMM events are currently always three rounds of Swiss with no top-cut to ensure a reasonable event length.
Event Details and Registration Link
Registration: Goes live at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern on Monday May 8th
We will be testing new “tie-breaker” rules in MMM events, the details of which are noted below:
When time in the round is called, the game immediately ends and whichever player has the most game wins is the winner.
If there is a tie in game wins, the current game will be decided by who has the least missing health.
“For example, if Player A is playing as Eraserhead with 19 Max Health, and Player B is playing as Izuku Midoriya with 28 Max Health, and when time is called Eraserhead has 18 Health and Midoriya has 24 health, Eraserhead wins the match.”
If both players have the same current missing health, gameplay will continue until there is a change in health. The player with the least missing health will win the Match.
Where to Watch
UnfunStuff will be hosting the MMM and streaming it on their Twitch channel! You can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/unfunstuff
Two weeks ago we announced several new changes to our Bannings and Errata list for UniVersus (you can read that article here). I’m here today to discuss some adjustments to our process for managing bannings and errata, detail how we come to conclusions about what things to ban or change, and finally outline how you can expect to receive this news in the future. Let’s start with the “why.”
When to Ban or Errata
For games to feel fun and be successful long-term, players need to feel like they get to demonstrate mastery through gameplay. That starts with how you design the parts of your game players play with, but a design team is only able to test so many different iterations of those pieces before they’re published for players to use. For example, in a popular console game you might have a team of a few dozen designers building a game that will be played by millions of gamers. Game mechanics or designs that worked well in a small design team may turn out to be powered incorrectly once millions of players play them over and over.
Unlike digital games, tabletop games like UniVersus can’t solve these game balance issues by releasing updates that “fix” cards. UniVersus cards are manufactured and in players’ hands; they can’t simply download an update and play in a new, balanced environment. Instead we rely on bannings and errata to make changes to cards or mechanics that lead to play patterns or formats we feel miss the mark.
What does “missing the mark” look like? That could mean strategies that cause games to end much too quickly, before both players have had a chance to demonstrate mastery and feel they’ve had fun in the game. It could mean games that go much too long leading to boring game play and difficulties in tournaments ending on time (*cough* Kirishima *cough*). Individual cards could be problematic, leading to unfun interactions that remove too much skill or take away deckbuilding choices from players. In those circumstances we may choose to ban or errata cards to properly balance the game and bring back the “fun.”
Making Decisions
The act of banning or changing a card is not one we take lightly! Players may feel disappointed if the deck they’ve built their identity around changes, or if their favorite character is no longer available for play. In general we want to use these tools to the smallest level necessary to solve the problem, but to not shy away from using them when needed. That’s a very tricky needle to thread, so to evaluate what changes might be needed we combine data from three sources to inform our decisions:
Data from tournaments
Community feedback
Professional gameplay assessment
Tournament data allows us to get an objective look at what’s happening in competitive events. It tells us which characters show up the most at events, character win percentages, symbol representation, cards that appear to troublesome degrees, and even which characters do better against others. This is helpful to give us a snapshot of the real world of events. As an example, if several weeks worth of events showed a single character was winning 60% of the time that would be a strong signal we needed to examine what was causing that disproportionate amount of winning.
Community feedback helps us understand how players feel about the formats they’re playing. Highly competitive events, like RLEs, might paint one picture while feedback from our local play communities indicate another. The recent RLE in Florida is a great example: while Ojiro 2 was the most popular character, he didn’t do well in the top cut. However, at local tournaments Ojiro 2 was much more present and players vocalized fatigue with Ojiro’s play pattern. This is an important distinction: a card that might be contained at high levels of competitive play can still feel oppressive at local levels, and that can in turn drive players away from the game. Including community feedback in our analysis before making decisions helps ensure we don’t make myopic decisions centered around only one player demographic.
Finally, we rely on our own professional game play assessment to help make decisions. The recent Ready, Get Set, GO! (RGSG) banning is an example of this. While it caught some players by surprise, after examining the first two sets of data from tournaments and the community we experimented with the new format based on Ojiro 2 errata. It quickly became clear RGSG was going to be a problem, and additionally it leads to incredibly unfun game play. Our assessment made it clear we also needed to take action on that card to give players the chance to experiment with a new format before we make any additional changes.
Bannings and Errata Moving Forward
One of the biggest pain points in our last Bannings & Errata announcement was that you didn’t know when to expect it. This led to some harmful community impacts with some players unsure what to expect, and many complaints about confusion. Moving forward we’re going to fix that by adjusting to a regular cadence for these types of statements. Beginning this month the first Tuesday of each month will be our official announcement day for updates to the banned and errata list. In the event of a holiday in which our office is closed on the Monday preceding that Tuesday, the announcement will instead be the first Wednesday of the month. Additionally, changes will go into place the Monday following the announcement. This gives players a final weekend to play the format as they know it, and minimizes negative impacts to people who may have made plans to travel expecting to be able to play a particular strategy.
For the month of May 2023 we have no additional changes to the B&E list at this time. However we are keeping our eye on several cards, characters, and play patterns for potential issues that impact players. Make sure you keep in touch with us through our official social media channels below, and we’ll see you back here in one month!
Hi everyone! My name is Bill Stark, and a few months ago I joined Jasco Games after nearly two decades in the gaming industry with a focus on TCGs. At Jasco Games, I’m the director of gaming, meaning I lead the team that builds the cards that make up the UniVersus system. Today, I’m here to introduce myself, but more importantly to introduce the exciting fifth set in the My Hero Academia world: Undaunted Raid. Let’s get started!
At a glance…
When I joined the Jasco team, the development for “Set 5” was well underway. After reviewing the results of the first few sets in the My Hero Academia world, we had a few key takeaways:
Players prefer bigger sets.
The results from a few experiments were in, and some pivots were in order.
Improving accessibility for new players while keeping long-term fans happy would be a big win/win.
Players love when opening a booster pack feels awesome.
Before I dive into what we did with those takeaways, I think it’s time I introduce who the “we” is that I’m referring to. Here is the Game Design team for Undaunted Raid:
Clint Badger – A 2016 US National Teams Champion, Clint joined Game Design in 2021.
Shane Duckworth – A 3-time UFS World Champion, Shane has worked on Game Design since 2014.
Tim Friedlieb – With numerous UniVersus top cuts under his belt since 2015, Tim has worked with Game Design on 10 sets, acting as design lead on 5 expansion sets.
Jeremy Ray – A multi-time World and National champion, Jeremy has been working on design since the Yu Yu Hakusho expansion, officially joining the Game Design team in 2021.
By the time I joined, Game Design already had a solution they thought might answer all four takeaways at once. What was it?
Getting More Out of a Booster
The key factor that makes UniVersus interesting and appealing to gamers is its “when worlds collide” premise: pit your favorite character from one franchise against your favorite character from an entirely separate franchise. Who among us hasn’t had some form of the conversation, “Who would win in a fight, Zangief or Mega Man?” Because we’re a character-driven game, one of the most exciting things a player can find in a booster pack is their favorite character. To this, Game Design posed a question: What if we put a character card in every booster?
This was a novel thought exercise at first, but the more we discussed it the more it made sense. It certainly makes opening booster packs more appealing, but it actually solved a much bigger problem: playing Limited formats. A UniVersus deck needs a Character card to operate. That’s easy to do when you’re playing a “Constructed” game where you construct your deck from your collection and bring it with you. However, in “Limited” formats like Sealed Deck or Booster Draft, you’re “limited” to playing with the cards provided. Previously, this meant there was a risk you might not receive a Character card within your pool and wouldn’t be able to play your deck. In the past, we solved this by providing tournament organizers extra copies of Character cards for players to choose from.
This approach solved the problem, but came with its own issues. Providing these extra cards was confusing for local game stores, and provided a negative incentive for players to try to “game” the system by ignoring the Characters in their pools and instead going for the most powerful character to support the strategy their pool provided. It was also a turn off for new players who didn’t know what was going on and had to pick from many possible Character cards instead of just the ones in their decks. A Character card in every pack changes that entirely! A Character card in each pack:
Makes Limited formats more accessible. Everyone wins when new players have an improved Sealed Deck experience and veteran players get an improved Booster Draft experience.
Forces us to make sure we build a large enough card set to support Limited formats.
Allows us to pivot away from the confusing and time-consuming process of mailing out Character cards.
Makes opening boosters feel more awesome!
Beginning with Undaunted Raid, UniVersus booster packs will contain 11 cards instead of 10, with one being a dedicated Character card. Updates to the official rules for Sealed Deck and Booster Draft play will be revealed as we get closer to Prerelease.
Farewell to Editions
When Jasco Games first started distributing cards for the My Hero Academia universe, we took a new approach to the way we released product. The first wave of product, known as “First Edition,” was a limited card print. What followed was a second wave of product, known as “Unlimited.” The idea was that collectors would enjoy First Edition due to its exclusivity, while our players would benefit from Unlimited’s accessibility. While the intent behind this experiment was noble, the impact to our community missed the mark. Instead of delighting the two groups, the varied printings were a disappointment across the board. Coupled with the confusion local game stores experienced matching products to players, and negative feedback regarding the impact to premium card treatments like Chrome Rares it became abundantly clear that this was a failed experiment that needed a pivot.
Starting with Undaunted Raid, we’ll be moving forward with a single printing for each set. No more wondering if you’re getting Unlimited or First Edition; now, everything will fall under the same release. This change also helps us bring back a really, really popular experiment from Heroes Clash. What could that be, you ask?
Chrome Rares Return!
In Heroes Clash we debuted a new type of rarity: Chrome Rares. These cards were a big hit, and featured a unique foiling treatment with serialized numbering. Each of the five cards selected for Chrome rarity was a unique 1:100 copy. They helped make opening a booster feel awesome.
In Undaunted Raid, we built on what was successful with the first Chrome Rares, keeping the foil treatment and their serialized nature. There are five cards selected as Chromes, each a 1:100 printing. One new feature: the cards selected are not character cards. It’s important to experiment in this space to find what players like the most, and we’ll be looking at feedback on this change to gauge its reception.
Finally, because we’ve transitioned away from the double printing of our booster sets, you won’t need to worry about which Undaunted Raid boosters you’re buying to know if you might be able to get a Chrome Rare. With no “Unlimited” and “First Edition” difference in boosters, you’ll have the opportunity to crack a Chrome with every pack of Undaunted Raid you open.
So, which cards did we select as Chrome Rares in Undaunted Raid? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until the official previews to find out!
Re-Examining Secret Rares
Adding a Character card to every pack and bringing Chrome Rares back were big steps to make opening Undaunted Raid boosters feel awesome. We also examined how we handle Secret Rares. Historically, we’ve produced 2 for each set. Was that number correct? Could we do better?
Secret Rares appeared in approximately 1:3 booster boxes in previous UniVersus sets, or two Secret Rares in a case of six booster boxes. One piece of feedback we received from players was that they didn’t feel comfortable buying a sealed booster box individually out of fear it came from a case whose Secret Rares had already been found. This is a terrible experience; players should feel that every booster box has the same opportunity to grant them a set’s rarest cards. In meeting this expectation, however, we felt it was important that Secret Rares maintain their design identity from previous sets. If we were going to increase the unique number of Secret Rares in a set, we needed to adjust how frequently players open them.
How to thread that needle? We settled on six unique Secret Rares. This puts UniVersus closer in line with other TCGs regarding how many of the top level rarity appears in a set. We’re also adjusting their drop rate. Instead of one Secret Rare in approximately every three booster boxes, there will now be one Secret Rare in approximately every booster box. That means in a case of booster boxes, you’ll see approximately six total Secret Rares instead of the previous two. This also ensures the drop rate of any specific Secret Rare is almost exactly the same as it was in previous sets.
(Our legal team wants me to make sure I clarify: these numbers are not a guarantee that you’ll get a Secret Rare in every box, nor that every case of boxes will feature one of each Secret Rare as printer hiccups can impact distribution.)
A Final Pivot
One final pivot we made from our experiments in the first few My Hero Academia sets was based on one piece of feedback we heard more than any other: many of our coolest cards aren’t in booster packs. These cards showed up previously in products like Quirk Packs, Box Toppers, and our Deck-Loadable Content (DLC) product line. Cards featured in those products are neat, no doubt about it, but the fact that they weren’t in booster packs made many fans feel disappointed. A set’s coolest cards should be available in the primary product associated with that set. As a result, you won’t find the aforementioned products in Undaunted Raid. Instead, the cards we would have included in those types of products are now within the booster packs themselves. We’ll be monitoring this change as it rolls out to continue to explore this design philosophy and adjusting where we think we can make improvements.
In Conclusion…
Clint, Shane, Tim, and Jeremy are all long-time, passionate players and fans of UniVersus. The work we did on Undaunted Raid I believe makes it our best release to date. I cannot wait for you to experience it over the coming weeks. To make sure you don’t miss anything, follow the conversation in all of these spots:
Jasco Games has been busy as a bee at GAMA Expo announcing upcoming releases for the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game. We’ve collated all the new information into this article so that players who couldn’t attend don’t miss out on any new news!
Class Reunion’s Out Soon!
Class Reunion releases May 19th, 2023! Retailers still have time to place orders at their preferred distributor, so pre-order at your Local Game Store ASAP!
Undaunted Raid
We announced a ton of news regarding our upcoming set, My Hero Academia: Undaunted Raid!
Undaunted Raid Card Reveal Season Begins!
We began the Undaunted Raid presentation with revealing four new character cards – Overhaul, and The Big 3! We’re very pleased to be able to finally bring these fan favorite characters to the game!
Simplified Starter Decks!
Beginning with the Mirio and Overhaul Clash Decks, we have tuned the products to be more new player friendly, including a new lower MSRP.
Clash Decks will no longer include a random Ultra Rare from their associated set, but each Clash Deck will include at least two copies of each non-character card to increase ease of collecting.
Upgraded Booster Packs!
Starting with Undaunted Raid, each booster pack will include 11 cards, with one character card seeded per pack. Changing the product in this manner allows for significant expansion of Sealed and Draft Play, as external character cards no longer need provided by the Tournament Organizer.
Chrome Rares are Back!
Adjusted “Secret Rare” Rarity
In previous releases, Secret Rare cards were approximately one card per three booster boxes, with two Secret Rare cards per set.
Starting with Undaunted Raid, there will be 6 Secret Rare cards which appear significantly more frequently in booster packs, with an average of one Secret Rare card per booster box.
Simplified Collector Path
Starting with Undaunted Raid, we are making the following changes to make our game easier to collect than ever before!
There is no 1st Edition or Unlimited print differentiation — it’s all one print run!
Furthermore, we have simplified the process for players to find the cards they want — starting with this set, there are no “Quirk Pack” cards separate from the booster pack product, and there will not be a DLC associated with this set. Simply put, we want to be “Doing fewer things, and doing them better“!
Improved Prerelease Experience
A primary focus of ours with Undaunted Raid was to lower the friction for stores to run structured events such as Prereleases. Starting with Undaunted Raid, Prerelease Kits are individually packaged for ease of event management.
So, what’s next?
We’re keeping hush on details for now, but we are proud to announce the name of the sixth MHACCG set – JetBurn, releasing Q4 2023!
Over the past few weeks the team at Jasco games has been closely monitoring the My Hero Academia only format used at Provisional and RLE events. After analyzing several weeks worth of data as well as interviewing players from diverse play communities across the world and observing our own internal playtests, we’ve decided to make the following changes, effective Monday, April 24th:
Mashirao Ojiro 2 receives the following errata to its first enhance ability:
Old: Enhance: This attack gets +1 speed and +1 damage for each different printed attack zone in your card pool.
New: Enhance: This attack gets +1 speedor +1 damage for each different printed attack zone in your card pool.
Mashirao Ojiro 2 receives the following errata to its second enhance ability:
Old: Enhance [Once per turn]: Add 1 attack from your card pool to your hand. Only playable if there are 3 different printed attack zones in your card pool.
New: Enhance, Commit: Add 1 attack from your card pool to your hand. Only playable if there are 3 different printed attack zones in your card pool.
The card “Ready, Get Set, GO!” is banned in the My Hero Academia only format.
Length of Games and Ojiro
One of the key elements of a game being “fun” to play is ensuring all players get to participate in the core gameplay loop. Showing mastery, after all, is the motivator for many gamers and the thing that makes playing games enjoyable; failing to get the chance to do that in your favorite game doesn’t feel fun. One of the things we look at as we examine data from events is the length of games and whether their current pacing allows for both players to have a fun experience and feel the chance to demonstrate mastery during the match.
In the present meta, Ojiro 2 decks are negatively contributing to game length. This has led to a detrimental experience for players as many feel the games end too quickly, before they’ve had a chance to participate in the experience.As a result we’re taking the action to provide errata for Ojiro 2.
Why errata and not a banning? One of the strengths of the UniVersus TCG is allowing fans to experience characters from many of their favorite worlds combined together. Because the big characters in those worlds are a key driver of interest in UniVersus, it’s a problem removing one entirely from the game. That’s why you’ll see us bias towards errata for adjusting character cards while bannings are reserved for non-character cards. Speaking of which, let’s talk about “Ready, Get Set, GO!”
Deckbuilding Decisions and Ready, Get Set, GO!
The banning of “Ready, Get Set, GO!” may come as a surprise. However, the function of the card creates an undynamic gameplay experience. Its Response effect is very powerful on the first turn, allowing a player going second to surpass their opponent’s resource building whenever they open with the card in their hand. Additionally its Form ability is an almost cost-free cycling ability that makes the impact of including the card in your strategy practically “free.”
That means the only decision players are left with if they can play “Ready, Get Set, GO!” is whether to play it in their maindeck or keep it in the sideboard for all games in which they’re not on the play. This is a non-decision, creates an unfun non-play decision in deckbuilding, and is not the type of game decision we want players to be forced to make. As a result we’re taking the pre-emptive action to ban the card alongside the shift to Ojiro to prevent it from becoming a 4-of that leads to both unfun game play and unfun deckbuilding.
Why Not More Changes?
Bans and errata are powerful tools to help ensure fun, interactive gameplay in the UniVersus TCG, but they come with costs as well. Accordingly, we try to minimize our use of them with the aim of making necessary adjustments with as few changes as possible at any given time. That doesn’t mean we won’t make any additional changes if necessary as they come up, and we will be continuing to monitor the health of our formats in the coming weeks to examine the impact of these changes. It’s important to give you, our players, the opportunity to adjust to the changes and to see what new strategies come from them.
What’s Next…
As I said, we’ll continue monitoring results and feedback from our audience to determine if any additional changes are necessary in the future. Care to join the conversation? Make sure to follow us on social or join these communities:
Today, we’re showing off what you can find in the My Hero Academia CCG Class Reunion Collector Pack and Limited Edition Collector Box!
Both Class Reunion boxes contain a guaranteed “The Future Is Now!” Promo Card, as well as new, never before seen cards and League of Villains Booster Packs!
The Limited Edition Collector Box also contains color-coded dice for calculating Damage and Speed, as well as Game Tokens to keep track of active effects and a 65-card pack of Card Sleeves, manufactured by Dragon Shield!
Check out the full trailer below, as well as a full overview of each of the cards you can pull!
The Future Is Now! lets you extend your attacking turns by giving your next attack a stat bump, as well as letting you ignore progressive difficulty. Playing this at the end of a long string of attacks to cap off the turn with one last swing is very powerful!
Masterminding fits like a glove into any Check-based Control strategies! Masterminding sends itself to your Momentum when your opponent fails a check — while you can’t use Masterminding to pay costs from your Momentum, it instead provides value through the Enhance. Every turn, you can decrease one of your opponent’s next check by 1! Multiple copies of Masterminding can let you drown your opponent in tax effects if they don’t have an answer!
Run Away is a new defensive trick designed to frustrate aggressive strategies! When an attack would hit you, you can pay life equal to the attack’s printed damage to have the attack deal no damage, and then your rival stuffs a card into their card pool.
This card can be backbreaking against decks leaning on keywords like Powerful to get their damage in, as taking the printed damage can let you save lots of life.
Gran Torino Agency helps push “Kick” based strategies as well as decks that can clear their own card pool during their turn! Giving everything +1 Speed is a double edged sword, but tight play can allow for keeping Gran Torino Agency ready during your turn, and commited during your Rival’s!
Lastly, the Enhance lets you use any Kick attack to block like it has a +0 Mid block, letting you guarantee that you’ll have good blocks to keep yourself safe.
Blazing Icicle features a Card Pool Response that lets you freeze your Rival’s foundations if they let you hit them! This is great for turns where you need to extend and deal damage but are worried about getting knocked out on their backswing, as freezing their problematic foundations can take the edge off their aggression.
Lastly, if Blazing Icicle has its speed and damage buffed, you get to draw a card, letting you either extend your aggression or keep another card back for blocking.
Create: Insulation Cloth serves as a new method of setting up Staff Strike’s Combo requirement in one card while also checking a lot of other desirable boxes – 4 difficulty, a low attack zone, and even a block modifier of +1 Mid!
On top of that, the Card Pool Response is impactful on both attack and defense — being able to shut out your Rival’s interactions during your turn to pressure damage is great, but blocking with Create: Insulation Cloth and then using the Response on your opponent’s turn to protect your resources is incredibly valuable.
Dark Shadow Surge is the newest piece of support for “Ally” strategies, and it’s a doozy! A Combo requirement of (Ally, Ally) is trivial to execute in a Ally-focused deck, and the pay-off is to destroy any Rival foundation! It’s best to look for an opportunity to activate the Enhance right after your Rival stacks a high check on the top of their deck, as you can get rid of the check and deny your opponent a foundation!
Lastly, the Card Pool Response can be very useful on attack or defense depending on when your opponent wants to spend their Momentum. As you play, keep an eye on your opponent’s Discard to see what they use their Momentum for, and make sure Dark Shadow Surge is available to make them pay life!
Dupe-Plex is an outstanding card for any Character Card based strategy! Being able to build Character Cards straight from your Discard is great for characters like Mt. Lady or Twice, and Twice is even able to give the attack Throw!
A solid way to play this card as Twice is to back it up with methods of giving +4 damage, so that once you give the attack Throw it’ll deal at least 5 damage and enable the build no matter what!
Wait, is that a SEVEN DIFFICULTY ATTACK?
One For All 1,000,000% Delaware Detroit Smash asks your opponent a very simple question – “Can you block this attack?”
With a massive difficulty of 7, it’s going to be a lot of work to work through your opponent’s defenses while leaving enough open foundations to play this attack, but if you do you might knock out your Rival on the spot!
For example, If you have 4 momentum when you play this card you can discard your hand and give your attack Powerful: 4 and then discard those momentum to give +16 damage! That’s enough to make anyone sweat!
Throwing Knife Lunge is an outstanding tool for any Weapon decks planning on going as wide as possible! With two Card Pool abilities, Throwing Knife Lunge is at its best at the front of a very long string of attacks.
The Card Pool Response is simple — if any of your Weapon attacks deal damage, your Rival loses a health. Going as wide as possible on your aggressive will score you a ton of extra damage!
Lastly, the Card Pool Enhance is a nice way to top off an attacking turn — if you’ve gotten 5 damage in, you can destroy a Rival asset or foundation!
Haughty helps all-in, “big attack” decks push to the finish line! Discarding 1 momentum to give your attack +5 damage is no joke, and usually means that your first attack every turn will be threatening lethal after the first few turns of the game.
Lastly, Haughty can also flip to ready itself if you have an attack with 10 or more damage! What is there to not love?
The Future Is Now with the My Hero Academia CCG Class Reunion Collector Pack and Limited Edition Collector Box, releasing May 19! Preorder at your Local Game Store now! Find an LGS near you here: https://play.mhacardgame.com/store-finder
1st Place Name Cristos Panos Character 1 Ochaco Uraraka (II) Symbol Death
1 Ochaco Uraraka (II)
1 League Invitation 2 All Might’s Mentorship 4 Snack Time 3 Forcing Surrender 2 Tutoring Kirishima 2 Struggling With Studies 1 League Interview 3 Latent Skill 4 Let’s Fight Bad Guys! 1 Villainous Entrance 4 Tight Lipped 3 First Day of Class 2 Agitation 1 Night Watch 2 Learning The Standards 2 “SPoOoOoOoKY!”
3 Vile Seizing 4 Hulking Grimace 4 Stun Grenade 4 Howitzer Impact Cyclone 1 Touch of Decay 4 Turn To Dust 4 Nitro Explosion: Ignition
1 Battle Arena
2 Showdown 3 Go For The Win!
Sideboard
3 Arrogant Disposition 1 Sports Festival Stadium 1 First Day of Class 1 Struggling With Studies 1 Latent Skill 2 Touch of Decay 1 Super Regeneration
2nd Place Name Nathan Dewalt Character Momo Yaoyorozu Symbol Life
1 Momo Yaoyorozu
3 I’ll Protect You 2 Lost In Thought 4 Wild Wild Pussycats 2 Friend Of Animals 4 New Training Method 2 High Value Target 2 Floating Around My Babies 3 Faith’s Shield 2 Passing the Torch 2 Self Sacrifice 4 A Precious Lesson 2 Preparing For Battle 4 Rising Starlet 1 Encouraging Training Partner 3 Release
4 Command Pigeon Flock 4 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Cannon Blast 3 Create: Bo Staff 2 Home Run Comet 3 Instant Shining Flash
4 Quick Creation
4 Ready, Get Set, GO!
Sideboard
3 Stalking Her Prey
1 Young Heroes
1 I'll Protect You
1 Faith's Shield
2 Encouraging Training Partner
2 Navel Laser Beam
3rd Place Name Tyrell Scott Character Fourth Kind Symbol Order
1 Fourth Kind
4 League Invitation 4 Passing the Torch 3 Challenging The Fakes 1 Shock Treatment 2 Drowning In Resentment 4 Calling For Backup 4 Tape 4 Saving Bakugo 4 Requesting Assistance 2 In Control 2 Self Sacrifice 3 Bonds of Friendship 1 City-Wide Crisis 1 Dissolving The Conflict
3 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 4 Electric Jolt 4 Vile Seizing 2 Knee Smash 2 Ice Slide Tackle 3 Setup Strike 4 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts
Sideboard
1 Plus Ultra! 2 Bloodcurdle 2 Ice Slide Tackle 2 Can’t Escape Me 2 Eyes Of The Tiger 1 City-Wide Crisis
4th Place Name Andrew New Character All Might (True Form) Symbol All
1 All Might (True Form) (IV) 4 All Might (I)
1 Charging One For All 3 Public Support 4 Easily Excited 2 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 3 Destined For Mainstream Success 2 Reluctant Retreat 4 Daunting Message 4 Constantly Improving 2 To The Rescue
6th Place Name Kyle Jakobitz Character Death Arms Symbol Earth
4 Proud Scion 4 One With Nature 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Tight Lipped 4 Male Bonding 3 Prehensile Tail 3 Stare Down
4 Back Alley Haymaker 3 Hardened Uppercut 4 Trap Flex 4 Hardened Chop 2 Creeping Vine Eruption
4 Ready, Get Set, GO!
Sideboard
3 Faith’s Shield 2 Creeping Vine Eruption 1 Stare Down 1 Quick To Act 1 Class Line-Up 2 Learning The Standards
7th Place Name Kevin Broberg Character Eraserhead (I) Symbol Void
1 Eraser Head
3 Manly Passionate Guy 4 Tape 4 Calling For Backup 2 Gotcha 4 Prone to Dry Eyes 2 Fruit Of Our Labors 2 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 4 Small And Limber 3 All Worked Up 2 Adorable Telepath 1 Petty Squabble 2 Forced Quirk Activation 3 Acrobatic
8th Place Name Darwin Hernandez Character Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Student Of The Art 4 Tight Lipped 3 One With Nature 1 Quick To Act 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 2 Someone With Style 2 Snack Time 3 Saving Bakugo
4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 4 Rapid Punches 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Jab 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
2 Karate Chop 2 Hardened Uppercut 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 1 Snack Time 1 Someone With Style
9th Place Name Thomas Serviss Character Nomu Symbol Earth
1 Nomu
4 Coping With #1 4 Male Bonding 4 One With Nature 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Super Regeneration 2 Web Of Blades 4 Press Conference 2 Masked Menace 4 Quick To Act 4 Saving Bakugo
1 Grenadier Bracers 1 Suited Up 1 League Of Villains
3 Go For The Win! 2 Evil Gaze
Sideboard
2 Evil Gaze 1 Tomura Shigaraki 1 Cheerful Uppercut 1 All Smiles 2 Plus Ultra! 2 Showdown 1 Forcing Surrender
12th Place Name Stephon Finley Character All Might (II) Symbol All
1 All Might (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Acrobatic 4 Easily Excited 4 Floating Around My Babies 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Specialist Of Sound 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Polite & Well-Spoken 3 Snack Time 4 Full-On Attack Mode! 1 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 4 Firestarter 1 Night Watch
2 Specialized Sound Waves 4 Invincible Clasp 4 Final Smash 4 Needle Stab 2 Slashing Whirlwind 3 Dignified Display 3 Plus Ultra Smash 1 Net Gun Surprise!
3 Capture Evil-Doers 2 Sugar Rush Power-Up 1 Plus Ultra!
1 Plus Ultra! 1 Capture Evil-Doers 2 You’re So Obvious 2 Villains Defeated 2 The Price For Peace 2 Net Gun Surprise!
Sideboard
1 Plus Ultra! 1 Capture Evil-Doers 2 You’re So Obvious 2 Villains Defeated 2 The Price For Peace 2 Net Gun Surprise!
13th Place Name Frank Gargiulo Character Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol All
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 Student Of The Art 4 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 4 Specialist Of Sound 3 Floating Around My Babies 2 Easily Excited 1 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 1 You’re So Obvious 1 Unexpected Hero
1 Tsuyu Asui 4 Tongue Smack 3 Prone to Dry Eyes 2 Exhausted Exclamation
15th Place Name Gavin Kale Character Midnight Symbol All
1 Midnight
4 Easily Excited 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Floating Around My Babies 2 Full-On Attack Mode! 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 2 Specialist Of Sound 2 Acrobatic 2 Celebrity Status 3 Spirited Referee 1 Award The Victor 2 Daunting Message 2 Prone to Dry Eyes
1 Red Guard 2 Nullify 1 Hero Killer 2 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 1 To The Rescue 1 ERASE! 1 Eraser Head 1 You’re So Obvious
16th Place Name Orian Rodriguez Character Fourth Kind Symbol Order
1 Fourth Kind
2 Self Sacrifice 4 Desperate Times 4 Passing the Torch 3 Heroic Lineage 4 Requesting Assistance 4 Making A Stand 4 Bonds of Friendship 4 Calling For Backup 3 In Control 2 Expanding Capacity 3 League Invitation 2 Sticky Balls 3 Challenging The Fakes
UniVersus is a blast to play, but did you know that you can get rewards for enjoying your favorite TCG? It’s true. Today we’re talking about the Jasco Loyalty Program. Let’s dive in!
Loyalty: An Introduction
The Jasco Loyalty Program rewards players and fans for their interactions with the UniVersus TCG. It rewards points for taking certain actions which you can exchange for cool stuff. There are two primary methods for earning points:
Playing UniVersus
Buying Universus
You can choose which path works best for you, or even use both!
Earning Points for Play
There are two types of events that award Loyalty Points: casual events hosted by Universus Players, and in-store events hosted by officially sanctioned Universus Gaming Network stores. The difference? You earn more points by participating in officially sanctioned events at local stores. Here’s the breakdown:
Event Tier
Earned Points
Casual
10
Local Game Store (LGS)
50
Provisional Showdown
100
Regional License Exam
200
Pro Hero National
300
Each week you can play up to one casual event, hosted by you or a friend. You can also earn points from up to five Local Game Store events each week. Players must play the event to completion to receive earned points. For organized play programs offered directly by Jasco Games, or through selected partners, you can earn unlimited points each week. That includes tournament programs like Provisional Showdowns, Regional License Exams, and Pro Hero Nationals. Some events even offer additional bonus points for each match that you win.
You can create your own events or find events to play at local stores using our UGN website.
Earning Points for Purchasing
When you purchase specially marked UniVersus products and boosters you’re eligible to redeem them for points to use in the Jasco Loyalty store. To submit this type of redemption you’ll need to fill out the proper form, which you can find here. Once the form is filled out you’ll pack it up with any product wrappers eligible for redemption, indicated by a resource symbol with the word “redemption” written above it, and ship it to:
Jasco Games
5075 Cameron St. STE C
Las Vegas, NV 89118
Some redemption containers, like booster packs, have restrictions. Boosters must be redeemed in increments of 30 and earn 1 loyalty point each. You can submit as many boosters as you like with each submission, though there must be at least 30 wrappers, and the total must be divisible by 30. Hot tip: Quirk boosters count towards this total!
Rewards
Buying UniVersus boosters is fun, and playing in events with friends and your local community maximizes that fun. Earning loyalty points is just icing on a very tasty cake, but what do you do with the points once you’ve earned them? It all starts here in the loyalty shop.
Once in the loyalty shop and logged in, you’ll be able to see how many points you have to spend as well as the items you can spend them on. Presently you’ll find a host of promo cards available for redeeming, featuring non-foil versions of many of our popular promo cards from Plus Ultra events, Prereleases, and Provisional Showdowns. Excited to play with these new cards? Great, redeem your points immediately to have them sent your way (while supplies last). Willing to wait? You can redeem points at a discount for promo cards during certain time periods. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Worried about shipping and handling? Don’t be! Receiving your rewards is free to users as there’s no costs for shipping or handling. Rewards usually ship in 2-4 weeks, though in particularly busy seasons there may be delays. For fans outside the United States your rewards may take longer to arrive.
Plus Ultra Series 4 cards will be added to the Loyalty Shop on May 1st, 2023.
Additional Resources
The community that plays UniVersus is what makes the game so great, and the Jasco Loyalty Program is a way to say “thanks!” Make sure you sign up for a UGN account to take advantage of this program, and check out these additional resources:
This Monthly Monday Mayhem hosted by UnFunStuff was a huge success! Each of the players below went undefeated through the tournament and each took home $125! Congratulations to each of you!
Stay tuned for more information on the next MMM, including time and format!
Name: Jordan Nalley Character: Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol: All
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 All Might’s Mentorship 4 Easily Excited 4 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 3 Award The Victor 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 2 Specialist Of Sound 4 Student Of The Art
2 New Training Method 4 Faith’s Shield 2 Learning The Standards 2 Someone With Style
Name: Zackary Anderson Character: Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol: Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Student of the Art 4 Tight Lipped 3 One With Nature 1 Quick to Act 2 Someone With Style 2 Snack Time 2 Saving Bakugo 4 Kirishima’s Assistance
4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 4 Rapid Punches 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Jab 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing the Advantage
Sideboard
2 Karate Chop 2 Hardened Uppercut 2 Forcing Surrender 4 Learning the Standards
Name: William Anderson III Character: Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol: Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 Kirishima’s Assistance 2 Saving Bakugo 2 Quick To Act 4 Student Of The Art 4 One With Nature 2 Snack Time 1 Chivalrous Competitor 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 You’re So Obvious 2 Someone With Style 3 Tight Lipped
2 Hardened Uppercut 2 I’ll Protect You 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Faith’s Shield 2 You’re So Obvious
Name: Travis Tangeman Character: Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol: Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Student Of The Art 4 Tight Lipped 1 Quick To Act 2 Someone With Style 2 Snack Time 2 Saving Bakugo 3 One With Nature 4 Kirishima’s Assistance
4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 4 Rapid Punches 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Jab 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
2 Karate Chop 2 Hardened Uppercut 4 Forcing Surrender 2 You’re So Obvious
Name: Barry Everson Character: Hanta Sero (II) Symbol: Water
1 Hanta Sero (II)
3 A Refreshing Slice 2 Basic Training 2 Feelin’ Cute 3 Struggling With Studies 4 Surviving The Final 4 Gotcha 4 Desperate Times 2 Sticky Balls 2 Frozen 1 Self-Assured 1 First Villain Encounter 2 Prone to Dry Eyes 1 Cheerleader 2 Rescue Completed 4 Ice Gliding
After a very successful Organized Play season in 2022, we are coming back even stronger in 2023 starting with our first in-person European Regional License Exam in Sheffield, UK hosted by Patriot Games!
Featuring on-site Loyalty Point Redemption for the first time in Europe, this event is a must-attend for European MHACCG players! And with less than 50 seats left, the clock is ticking to register!
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wished you had ONE more attack to finish your rival off?
Hello everyone! My name is Shane Duckworth from the Universus game design team, here to talk about the Echo keyword, a brand new ability introduced in MHA Set 4: League of Villains. Echo attacks have the ability to function as 2-for-1 attacks, giving players additional ways to attack their opponents!
Echo grants the ability:
“Response Discard 1 momentum: After this attack resolves, you may play it as your next form. If you do, after it resolves, flip it.”
Veterans of the UVS game engine may find a striking similarity to a keyword ability from previous sets, known as Multiple. Echo and Multiple: 1 are very similar in how you spend a momentum to generate an extra copy of the attack.
Let’s look at Spinning Necro Driver, one of the participation prizes from the Standard Event at US Nationals 2022.
Multiple currently grants the ability:
“Enhance Discard X momentum (minimum 1, maximum the Multiple rating): Add X cards from the top of your discard pile to your card pool face down as multiple copies of this attack. Add those attacks to the attack stack.”
While the functionality between the two is comparable, there are many gameplay differences and rules intricacies.
With Echo, you need to pass the check again in order to play it again. With Multiple, the extra attack is spawned without making a check. Competitively, Multiple attacks were usually played at the end of an attack string since the multiple copies do not care about progressive difficulty, and also contribute to progressive difficulty because they take up spots in the card pool. Echo on the other hand usually wants to be played early to avoid progressive difficulty. This also means that Breaker is a very effective keyword against Echo attacks!
Multiple copies come in with the printed speed, zone, and damage of the original attack, and they do not carry over any keyword traits or abilities. In the case of Spinning Necro Driver above, the multiple copy does not have the Throw keyword. Since an Echo “copy” is always played face up, it retains its keywords, giving you synergy with any effects that look to buff attacks with its keywords!
Echo being a response ability is also noteworthy since abilities that cancel enhances are more common than abilities that cancel responses. Also, since multiple attack copies are face down, any effect that returns to printed speed or damage will put those values to 0 (face down cards have no printed values, therefore defaulting to 0).
A single Echo attack in your hand counts as two attacks as long as you have momentum to pay the cost of playing it again. This is especially helpful for low-handsize characters who might struggle to find attacks mid-game. Nomu with Resolute Rushdown is a perfect example of this, making him capable of threatening 24 total damage with just his enhance and 1 momentum!
One of the side events at the Hero League Championship earlier this year was “gunslinging”, where players could challenge different members of the design team for rewards, such as promos or prize wall points. I built a [Fire] Dabi (II) deck for this event with the intent on showcasing the power of the new Echo keyword. The idea was to use Cremation and Blue Flame Spiral to hypercharge momentum for Echo attacks.
Two momentum and two copies of Winged Nomu in my hand creates 4 total attacks, each which I can give +3 damage to with Dabi’s enhance. If my rival has momentum, I can “steal” it with Capture Evil-Doers to fuel my Echo attacks a turn earlier than usual! Capture Evil-Doers also shares two symbols with Dabi, meaning I can easily access it from my discard pile with his other enhance. Since Echo attacks flip face down after they are played for their second time, there is a neat interaction with Forcing Surrender, allowing me to mitigate progressive difficulty and continue attacking efficiently!
An attack that uses its Echo ability will flip face down after resolving, meaning it will not go to momentum during the End Phase, even if it dealt damage. There are other safeguards to this as well, such as no longer being able to follow up with a Combo attack that looks for specific keywords, and most importantly not being able to use Echo repeatedly.
There is a very interesting case with DLC Ochaco (II) whose response allows her to add her attack to her hand if it deals damage. Since her response activates during the Damage Step (which is right before attack resolution), she can add the Echo attack to her hand before it resolves and flips face down. This effectively means she can create a total of 4 separate attacks with just 1 Echo attack, provided she has the momentum to do so. With Ochaco’s built in speed bonus and both enhances on Winged Nomu for example, you might find this strategy to be very effective! Keep Ochaco (II) in mind as more Echo attacks are released in the future!
While Multiple has been in the game since the very first set in 2006, we decided to introduce Echo with My Hero Academia. This does not mean that Multiple is retired, and you may see it again in future sets!
Echo in Retro play
With plans to support Retro events in the future, it’s worthwhile to look back at the history of the game and find some cool and powerful interactions with the new Echo keyword. Here are some examples to get started with!
It goes without saying that Multiple: 2 is vastly more powerful than Multiple: 1. Fun fact, the very first National Championship in 2006 was won by Wess Victory, using a Cassandra deck utilizing a Multiple: 2 attack, Ryu’s Tatsumaki!
A single attack card that generates an extra attack is very powerful. Echo does just that, and moving forward I expect to see many players using Echo attacks to create powerful strategies and devastating attack turns! You will definitely see Echo in future sets as well. In the meantime, try out some Echo attacks at your next local event!
Welcome to the Jasco Games’ Design Team Symbol Primer! We are going to dive deep into the Chaos symbol today, so those who love momentum will want to keep their eyes peeled on the cards we feature here. If you’re interested in stockpiling momentum, or in boosting your checks to have a long attack string, then you’ve come to the right place!
Momentum Generation
Acquiring momentum is the most commonly seen theme for cards on the Chaos symbol. This momentum can be gained from a multitude of places, and it’s up to you to choose the most fitting ones for your deck.
Uses the theme
Sometimes it isn’t enough to just get a pile of momentum for a big use of EX or Powerful, so many Chaos cards also use Momentum as a resource for devastating effects!
Plays with the theme
If your opponent is getting momentum at a faster rate that you can handle, check out these ways to slow their momentum down to a halt! Take special note of the abilities that can be used during your rival’s turn, as this will put a hamper on any plans they may have had.
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Control Check Boosting
The next most common theme for Chaos is one that appeals to aggressive players, and it gives you the ability to reliably play your attacks while keeping your defensive options available.
Uses the theme
Boosting your checks lets you play more cards per turn without committing Foundations!
Plays with the theme
While there are not many ways to directly cancel check boosting, you could look into the Evil symbol to reduce their checks the opposite way or Death to destroy their foundations that boost their checks.
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
In addition to momentum generation and check boosting, Chaos has another theme that lives up greatly to its name. If you activated an ability and don’t know what will happen yet, you’re likely playing a Chaos card.
Minor Theme: Uncertain Effects / Unreliable Effects
Chaos can be quite chaotic, imagine that! Many “Chaos” effects have variance baked into them, that you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get… but the payout can be huge!
Lastly, here are some characters who encapsulate the feeling of the Chaos symbol. You can consider building some of them if you want to get consistent uses out of momentum abilities, or combine multiple momentum-costed abilities to get extra use out of your attacks that other characters could not achieve!
Characters who represent the symbol
That about does it for the Chaos symbol! I hope that reading this has helped your deckbuilding become just a bit less chaotic. Next time we’re going to explore the depths of the foundation destroying Death symbol. Until then, keep your momentum flowing!
1st Place – Zach Pasley Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Student Of The Art 4 Tight Lipped 3 One With Nature 1 Quick To Act 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 2 Someone With Style 2 Snack Time 3 Saving Bakugo
4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 4 Rapid Punches 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Jab 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 1 Snack Time 1 Someone With Style 4 Ready, Get Set, GO!
2nd Place – Tamren Cardwell Character – Izuku Midoriya (I) Symbol – Good
1 Izuku Midoriya
4 One With Nature 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Pull No Punches 3 Note Taking 4 Passing the Torch 3 Self Sacrifice 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 2 Specialist Of Sound 2 To The Rescue 4 Bonds of Friendship 2 Lost In Thought 2 High Value Target
3 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Texas Smash 4 Hardened Jab 3 Heroic Strike 2 Reverse Throw 2 One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike 2 Valiant Assault 2 Wind-Up Punch
4 Plus Ultra! 2 Capture Evil-Doers
Sideboard
2 Evil Vs Good 1 Lost In Thought 2 Evade And Copy 2 You’re So Obvious 2 Reverse Throw 1 All Might (III)
3rd Place – Donovan Smith Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 Student Of The Art 3 One With Nature 2 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Saving Bakugo 2 Quick To Act 2 Learning The Standards 2 Someone With Style 4 Tight Lipped 2 Forcing Surrender
2 Texas Smash 4 Missouri Smash 4 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Hardened Jab 4 Rapid Punches 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing The Advantage
4th Place – Andrew Holder Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Student Of The Art 4 Tight Lipped 3 One With Nature 1 Quick To Act 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 2 Someone With Style 2 Snack Time 2 Saving Bakugo
4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 4 Rapid Punches 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Jab 2 Hardened Chop
2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
2 Karate Chop 2 Hardened Uppercut 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 1 Snack Time 1 Someone With Style
5th Place – Brent Cooper Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – All
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
2 Closing In 4 Student Of The Art 2 Easily Excited 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 3 Showing Off 2 All Worked Up 1 Award The Victor 1 Daunting Message 3 Chivalrous Competitor 2 Specialist Of Sound
2 Binding Cloth Whiplash 3 Binding Cloth Assault 2 Aerial Drop 3 Binding Cloth Precision 3 Binding Shoulder Rush 2 Binding Cloth Drop Kick 3 Create: Capturing Net
3 Flex Your Might 1 Sugar Rush Power-Up
3 Eyes Of The Tiger 1 “SPoOoOoOoKY!” 4 Invincible Clasp 2 Facepalm Takedown
6th Place – Mitchell Cimino Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
2 Saving Bakugo 1 Quick To Act 4 Student Of The Art 3 One With Nature 2 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 2 Forcing Surrender 2 Learning The Standards 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 2 Someone With Style 4 Tight Lipped
4 Rapid Punches 4 Back Alley Haymaker 4 Missouri Smash 2 Texas Smash 2 Hardened Chop 2 Hardened Jab
2 Seizing The Advantage
Sideboard
2 Karate Chop 2 Hardened Uppercut 2 Ready, Get Set, GO! 2 Faith’s Shield 1 Forcing Surrender 1 Learning The Standards
7th Place – Andrew Porat Character – Himiko Toga Symbol – Life
1 Himiko Toga
4 Bench Press 4 Carbo Loading 2 High Value Target 4 New Training Method 3 Self Sacrifice 3 Release 2 Rescue Completed 2 Tight Lipped 3 Floating Around My Babies 4 Stalking Her Prey 2 Note Taking 2 Encouraging Training Partner 3 Recovery Girl’s Kiss 2 Observant Student
2 Plus Ultra! 2 Nullify 2 All-Out Battle 2 Kota 2 Low Blow
9th Place – Travis Tangeman Character – Momo Yaoyorozu Symbol – Good
1 Momo Yaoyorozu
2 Raiding The Villain Hideout 3 You’re Finished 2 One With Nature 4 Small And Limber 4 New Training Method 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Manly Passionate Guy 3 Passing the Torch 4 A Precious Lesson 3 Rising Starlet 1 Preparing For Battle 2 Study Group Leader 4 Specialist Of Sound 1 …So Manly 3 Going Out To Fight Some Villains 3 Male Bonding 1 Recovery Girl’s Kiss
3 Command Pigeon Flock 4 Invisible Infiltration 4 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Cannon Blast 4 Hardened Jab 2 Create: Bo Staff 2 Final Smash
1 Training Weights 3 Quick Creation 1 Kota 1 Earphone Jack
Sideboard
2 Cheerleader 2 Taiyaki Fanatic 3 Sense Of Justice 3 Lost In Thought
10th Place – Shane Johns Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Water
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
1 Sticky Balls 1 Self-Assured 3 Observant Student 4 First Villain Encounter 2 Acrobatic 2 Patient Observation 4 Student Of The Art 3 Basic Training 3 Feelin’ Cute 2 Honorable Forfeit 2 Ice Gliding 2 Creepy Realization 3 Desperate Times 2 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 2 Faith’s Shield 3 Defrosting
3 Eyes Of The Tiger 3 ERASE! 1 Eraser Head 3 “SPoOoOoOoKY!”
12th Place – Matthew Cruickshank Character – Denki Kaminari (I) Symbol – Air
1 Denki Kaminari 1 Toru Hagakure (II)
3 Latent Skill 2 Arrogant Disposition 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 3 Observant Student 4 Requesting Assistance 3 Release 4 Specialist Of Sound 4 Wall Cling 2 Basic Training
4 Electric Jolt 3 Double Jab Pummel 4 Meteor Shower 3 Specialized Sound Waves 3 Home Run Comet 1 Blitz Rush 1 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 1 Zero Gravity Lift
2 Plus Ultra! 4 Ready, Get Set, GO!
Sideboard
1 Cheerleader 3 Seizing The Advantage 1 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 2 Concentrate 3 Encouraging Training Partner
13th Place – Jose Norono Character – Tomura Shigaraki (III) Symbol – Death
1 Tomura Shigaraki (III)
4 Brute Strength 4 Tight Lipped 4 Struggling With Studies 3 Blood Evaluation 3 House Of Cards 2 In Control 3 Snack Time 3 Someone With Style 4 Surviving The Final 3 Arrogant Disposition
4 Twisting Azure Inferno 4 ERASE! 1 Eraser Head 1 League Of Villains
14th Place – James O’Doherty Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – All
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 Student Of The Art 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 4 Specialist Of Sound 2 Snack Time 4 Chivalrous Competitor 2 You’re Finished 3 Easily Excited 2 Destined For Mainstream Success 3 Convenient Timing 2 Daunting Message 3 Challenging The Fakes 1 Pull No Punches
16th Place – Taylor Garofalo Character – Mashirao Ojiro (II) Symbol – Earth
1 Mashirao Ojiro (II)
4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Saving Bakugo 3 Tight Lipped 4 Chivalrous Competitor 3 Snack Time 2 Forcing Surrender 1 High Value Target 4 Student Of The Art 4 One With Nature 1 Learning The Standards 1 New Training Method
League of Villains DLC Spotlight Attacks & Foundations
By Bill Stark - March 31, 2023
Latest news
News
Greetings, Villains!
Today, we’re covering the new Attack and Foundation cards that you can find in the upcoming DLC release for League of Villains!
Get Loud lets you dig into your Rival’s deck and send a big attack at the same time! Leading with attacks like YEEAAHHHHHH!!! or Final Exam Gut Shot lets you enable the Combo Enhance while doubling down on the “mill” strategy!
The second Enhance is important for setting up maximum value out of the Combo Enhance, as it lets you stuff a high-difficulty card from your stage into your card pool to get more speed! It’s important to note that Stacked Character cards can’t be used to pay costs unless specifically noted otherwise, so it’s best to use high-difficulty Foundations and Assets like Young Heroes, Top Pro Heroes or All Might’s Mentorship (featured below) to get a big boost!
Quick Thinking
Quick Thinkingis great for decks that are built around specific foundations or Characters, because if you ever check the card you need you can build it from your discard pile! Cards like Blade Expertise look great when you can use them multiple times in a game, and being able to consistently find your all-star foundations like One With Nature and Passing the Torch is very strong. You can also add Characters to your stage for Shoto Todoroki (III)‘s Freeze Enhance with ease!
Furthermore, Quick Thinking has Ally, Ranged and Weapon as keywords so it can slide into many existing strategies! While the card does have a Check of 2, the consistency you gain in being able to always have the foundations you want does a lot to balance out your deck’s draws.
Rushing In features a reasonable stat frame of 4 Mid 5 Damage, and a +1 High Block Modifier, as well as EX:2. Rushing In’s Enhance strongly encourages players to find lots of copies of the same foundation to gain speed, or stack Character cards to earn the boost as well.
Properly set up, Rushing In represents upwards of 8 speed without paying any additional costs — and you can get even faster than that with the EX:2!
Shocking Entrance‘s great at annoying your opponent with a nice “poke” to start your turn! Shocking Entrance comes in with an extra 2 speed if it’s your only card in your card pool. Characters like Asui Tsuyu (I) can remove attacks from your card pool, letting you get the extra speed even further into your attack strings!
Lastly, the second Enhance lets you switch out any card in your hand with a Character or Asset in your discard! This synergizes with the new Katsuki Bakugo and can also pick up cards like Earphone Jack, Sports Festival Stadium or Special Edition Collectible from your discard to play after!
All Might’s Mentorship helps solve a classic problem — “What if I want to build, AND beat up my Rival?”
All Might’s Mentorship has underwhelming stats for its difficulty, but it’s worth the 4-check. Firstly, Progressive Difficulty doesn’t count All Might’s Mentorship when playing attacks, so you can safely build one (or two… or three!) copies and THEN start your attacking turn.
But that’s not all, because if any of your attacks deal damage while All Might’s Mentorship is in your card pool, you get to draw and discard to help find the cards you need!
Asui’s Friendship lets Ranged strategies cut through their opponent’s defenses better than ever before! When you deal damage with a Ranged attack, you can commit Asui’s Friendship to make your Rival commit two foundations!
Combine this with abilities that let you ready Asui’s Friendship like Frog Kick and Sludge to force your Rival to commit everything and take them down!
Kirishima’s Assistance is a effective method of breaking through troubling defensive blocks like Faith’s Shield and defensive keywords like “Breaker:2” that can be backbreaking for aggressive decks needing to push damage through.
With a low difficulty and low block, what is there not to love?
Featuring two different one time use “First Form” effects, Uraraka’s Encouragement is a powerful foundation for setting up complicated strategies that need a lot of different pieces.
One First Form lets you search your deck for a Character card, a powerful effect for anyone who revolves around characters, such as Mt. Lady, Twice or the new Izuku Midoriya (III).
The second First Form lets you add any non-unique foundation from your discard to your hand! This is great for any that seriously revolve around getting specific foundations in play for their deck to work as intended, and also lets you get away with playing 1 copy of specific foundations for niche situations that you can grab when you need it, such as In the Typhoon or Cheerleader!
My Hero Academia Chibi Mania DLC releases on April 7th, 2023! Pre-order at your Local Game Store!
The Monthly Monday Mayhem (“MMM”) Webcam Tournament Series gives players opportunities to compete in accessible higher-level competitive play from home. Each month, tournament organizers will be hosting a $1000 cash-prize webcam tournament, featuring special deck construction formats!
MMM events will be used to provide opportunities for serious players to test their mettle from home, as well as provide us new opportunities to test new rules and regulations and see what players like!
The MMM event will be on April 10, 2023, hosted by UnfunStuff. Space will be limited, so make sure to sign up as soon as possible!
Tournament Format
The event format for MMM events is significantly different from regular Webcam play, so please take note.
Every format, the deck building restrictions for Monthly Mayhem will change. Currently, it is:
CHIBI MANIA – Your deck needs to include at least four cards from League of Villains DLC. This can include your Starting Character, and can be four copies of a single card.
MMM events are currently always three rounds of Swiss with no top-cut to ensure a reasonable event length.
We will be testing new “tie-breaker” rules in MMM events, the details of which are noted below:
When time in the round is called, the game immediately ends and whichever player has the most game wins is the winner.
If there is a tie in game wins, the current game will be decided by who has the least missing health.
“For example, if Player A is playing as Eraserhead with 19 Max Health, and Player B is playing as Izuku Midoriya with 28 Max Health, and when time is called Eraserhead has 18 Health and Midoriya has 24 health, Eraserhead wins the match.”
If both players have the same current missing health, gameplay will continue until there is a change in health. The player with the least missing health will win the Match.
Where to Watch
UnfunStuff will be hosting the MMM and streaming it on their Twitch channel! You can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/unfunstuff
For MMM events in the future, we will have a monthly news article on this site detailing each tournament’s unique format and how to participate.
Jasco Games is announcing a new partnership with Arcane Tinmen, the creators of Dragon Shield Sleeves to create quality card products with UniVersus branding. Dragon Shield is an industry leader in high-quality card supplies, and we are very proud to bring that quality to our players this year.
In our upcoming Class Reunion “Limited Edition Collector Box” releasing on May 19th, we are pleased to announce that the sleeves featured in the product are the same type and quality that players have come to expect from our previous collaborative offerings with Dragon Shield! It will randomly include one of the five above My Hero Academia art pieces in a 65 sleeve pack form.
Hello everyone! My name is Jeremy Ray, but many people in the community call me J.Ray. I’m a former player and current member of the game design team for UniVersus. For those who don’t know me, I’ve been a part of the community for over a decade now mainly as a player but now as part of the team. Hopefully some of you reading this I have met and maybe even played against while doing our Gunslinging side events at our Dallas for our Pro Hero National Championship event or in Las Vegas for our Hero League Championship event!
Today I’m going to focus on a little of my personal process on the development of characters in the early stages of a new set design. I think the easiest way for me to explain is by using an example from the most recent set release, League of Villains! One of the first steps is deciding the themes of the set, the goals, and the big ideas. For League of Villains one of the core themes was making every character feel very distinctly unique. Each member of the League has their own motivation, their own goals and their own personality. So the main goal for us was to really capture that. In the big picture we were introducing so many new characters that we wanted to make sure each one really had their own play styles that captured their methods and their quirk in thematic ways.
The next step in the process is we meet together and as a team discuss how we want the characters to function in a way that really captures how their personalities, their actions at the point of the show we are trying to capture and most importantly – their quirk! After we agree as a group on some basic concepts for each character, we split the characters up into each member of the design team and get to work on our initial designs for our assigned characters and their “Kits”. The “Kits” are the group of cards representing the focused characters of each set, usually a mix of attacks and foundations designed to support and facilitate the game plan of the character themselves, but also other characters who may fall under similar archetypes or themes.
With all that out of the way, today is all about Muscular! I took on the initial design for Muscular with the guidelines of the team in place. We had all agreed on a hard hitting character that wanted to see both players swinging for the fences and really trying to capture the feel of his fight with Deku. I didn’t want to frame him as an overly defensive character because that wouldn’t reflect him accurately from the show, he was incredibly durable but wasn’t using any sort of significant defensive tactics beyond his ability to absorb powerful hits with his layers and layers of muscle. I also wanted to capture him growing more and more dangerous as his fight with Deku went on, after taking some significant blows, he stopped holding back and unleashed his full power in the closing parts of the fight.
You can see the evolution of Muscular’s design over the different playtest iterations!
In order to capture his incredible durability and growing strength, I needed to create a defensive package that didn’t make opponents’ attacks weaker, but by being hit by the attacks, made him even stronger. To show him growing more and more dangerous as the fight goes on, I needed to find a way for him to turn into the heavy hitter we wanted for the character. Overall I was trying to create a “Scaling” (starting slow but getting more powerful as the game goes on) character with a focus on big damage.
In came the idea for Muscle counters to represent the growing threat of the character as the fight goes on. This was a core concept from day 1 for this character, though it went through some changes from how it started. One of the earliest concept versions of the Muscle counters included versions that “spent” the counters for damage. This version felt like he had big spikes of power, but not that sustained power we really wanted for the character. Another early version only gained when your own attacks hit but this iteration suffered too frequently from games when he would get “Shut Out” of gaining counters and end up creating some very negative play experiences. On top of the potential negative play experience, it made us design most of his support towards counter generation to make up for the slower production and that made the support just feel too narrow. So I decided to focus the generation into 2 primary places to keep his kit open to have some sub themes and make them less narrow. The main generation would be right on the big guy’s face, and by having it trigger both offensively and defensively, it meant that he would always get BEEEG and be able to jam out some huge damage. The second big piece was Pump Up, so let’s talk a little about that card’s journey.
Pump Up took a few tries to get right — striking the balance between accessible late-game scaling without being too strong in multiple copies took a lot!
Pump Up ended up being an essential part of his kit, and went through MANY iterations in initial and early design. Originally it worked on every attack you played which was way too much generation, and was clearly unfair in multiples. So we then tried a version similar to the final version, but you could use it Once per turn on either player’s attacks, not just your own. This led to versions of Muscular that were playing a heavily defensive gameplan, just trying to build up through opponents attacking them until they could then unleash a single huge counter attack, often utilizing cards like Determined Victory Smash. We finally settled into the version you see today, rewarding him for his aggression and getting him BEEEG. It was the weakest version of the 3 but it was still getting the job done and encouraging play styles for the character that were identified as the most fun. To try and really lock the cards value in, we significantly improved the block mod from a +3 to a +1 Low so Muscular players didn’t feel punished for needing to play this card in their deck and now the card felt just right. This solved a large part of his gameplay loop for the whole kit. By focusing the Muscle generation here it left us some breathing room to give him some tools he was interested in within his support.
We wanted to capture how punishing even blocking his powerful attacks is, and so cards like Muscle Rush, Nightmare Physique, Pump Up and Double Overhead Hammer Fist all cause damage to opponent resources or health, even when they are blocked. Muscle Mauler filled an important role of spending some of the face down resources he gained from his support ability all while generating important card advantage needed to help offset his low hand size. Muscle Rush was an especially important part of his kit, giving him a “Two-Way”(good on both offense or defense) card that felt good at almost any point of the game and generating momentum for Muscle Mauler/Double Overhead and Muscle counters for the character himself. Rounding out the kit was his Ultra Rare Double Overhead Hammer Fist, a powerful finisher that mirrored Iida’s Recipro Burst, but with a sharp focus on raising the Damage as high as possible — something Muscular is ready for!
After the initials were done, Muscular and his kit went into the hands of our playtest team who put him through the ringer, helping pinpoint the correct numbers and adjustments to make sure the character was fun and fair for the outside world. At one point he had a few more health for example, this was rough because more health for him also meant more damage for his attacks. With the help of the rest of the design team to guide adjustments and the testers to spot problems we got him ready to join the rest of the cast of the League of Villains set!
If you enjoyed the style of this article and would like to see more articles like this about other characters from me, leave some positive feedback on social media or even tag me in the official discord (I’m F2K) with a thumbs up!
After a very successful Organized Play season in 2022, we are coming back even stronger in 2023 starting with our first Regional License Exam in Kissimmee, Florida hosted by Pro-Play Games!
We have significantly expanded our offerings for side events, including structural support for “Standard” format, team events and more – check out the new schedule below!
The first Monthly Monday Mayhem hosted by UnFunStuff was a huge success! Each of the players below went undefeated through the tournament and split a prize pool of $1,000! Congratulations to each of you!
We’ve received a lot of feedback on the topic of end of round procedures and tie-breakers in Webcam events. This week’s Weekly Survey on the MHACCG Discord will be on the topic of Tie-Breakers, which you can find here: https://discord.gg/mhaccg
Stay tuned for more information on the next MMM, including time and format!
Name: Jose Norono Character: Tomura Shigaraki III Symbol: Death
1 Tomura Shigaraki III
3 Blood Evaluation 3 House Of Cards 2 In Control 3 Snack Time 1 Graceful Maneuvers 4 Struggling With Studies 4 Surviving The Final 3 Brute Strength 3 Someone With Style 4 Tight Lipped 2 Forcing Surrender 3 Dual Needle Lunge 4 Vile Seizing 2 Fierce Whirlwind 2 Howitzer Impact Cyclone 1 Howitzer Impact 4 Instant Shining Flash 4 Nitro Explosion: Ignition 2 League Of Villains 2 Grenadier Bracers 2 Showdown
Sideboard
2 In Control 2 League Invitation 4 Evil Gaze 2 Navel Laser Beam
Name: Cory Nelson Character: Tomura Shigaraki III Symbol: Evil
1 Tomura Shigaraki III
3 Forced Quirk Activation 3 Mastermind’s Apprentice 4 Quick To Act 3 Floating Around My Babies 3 Excited For Blood 4 Surviving The Final 3 Desperate Times 2 Sticky Balls 2 Brute Strength 1 Bartender 3 Gas Cloud 2 Shock Absorption 2 Convenient Timing 4 Fruit Of Our Labors 3 Decaying Palm Slam 4 Vile Seizing 3 Needle Stab 4 Tongue Whip 3 Turn To Dust 4 Quirk Combination 3 Showdown
Sideboard
1 Sticky Balls 3 In The Typhoon 3 Bloodcurdle 3 Bartender
Name: Keenan Meadows Character: Dabi II Symbol: Chaos
1 Dabi (II)
4 One With Nature 4 Chivalrous Competitor 1 Petty Squabble 3 Struggling With Studies 2 Award The Victor 1 Shock Treatment 2 Encouraging Training Partner 3 Release 2 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 4 Easily Excited 4 Basic Training 2 Frozen 1 In The Typhoon 2 Feelin’ Cute 4 Rivet Stab 4 Twisting Azure Inferno 4 Frigid Heatwave 4 Ice Storm 4 Ice Slide Tackle 2 Dark Shadow Ruin 3 Cremation 2 Recovery Time
Sideboard 1 Encouraging Training Partner 1 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 2 Concentrate 3 Giant Ice Wall 1 Petty Squabble 1 All For One 1 Dark Shadow Ruin
Name: Trevor Carter Character: Dabi II Symbol: Chaos
1 Dabi (II)
3 Firestarter 3 Ignite 2 Decoy Duplicate 3 Basic Training 4 Easily Excited 2 Feelin’ Cute 2 One With Nature 2 Chivalrous Competitor 1 Struggling With Studies 4 Training With Gunhead 2 League Interview 3 Requesting Assistance 1 Release 1 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 4 Freezer Burn 4 Twisting Azure Inferno 4 Double Jab Pummel 3 Electric Jolt 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 2 Flame Flicker 2 Dark Shadow Ruin 4 Cremation 1 Hold Hostage 4 Evil Vs Good 1 Anivoice
Sideboard 1 Chivalrous Competitor 1 Struggling With Studies 2 Encouraging Training Partner 1 Release 2 Irrefutable Force Of Nature 2 Anivoice 1 All For One
Name: Kou VT Character: Kurogiri II Symbol: Air
1 Kurogiri (II)
3 Bartender 3 Convenient Timing 4 Polite & Well-Spoken 4 Decoy Duplicate 4 Latent Skill 4 Specialist Of Sound 4 Release 2 Encouraging Training Partner 4 Wall Cling 4 Basic Training 4 Requesting Assistance 2 Rescue Completed 3 Infinite Potential 4 Dark Interruption 3 Nebulous Stare 4 Electric Jolt 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 3 Zero Gravity Lift 1 Home Run Comet 4 Meteor Shower 1 All-Out Battle
Name: David Pena Character: Kurogiri II Symbol: Water
1 Kurogiri (II)
4 Bartender 3 Polite & Well-Spoken 4 Arrogant Disposition 4 Requesting Assistance 4 Specialist Of Sound 3 Release 4 Destined For Mainstream Success 2 Cheerleader 2 Convenient Timing 3 Wall Cling 4 Basic Training 1 First Impressions 4 Small And Limber 4 Dark Interruption 3 Nebulous Stare 3 Specialized Sound Waves 4 Electric Jolt 2 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 3 Zero Gravity Lift 2 Double Jab Pummel 2 Home Run Comet 2 Plus Ultra! 2 Engine Trouble
Sideboard 2 Cheerleader 4 Meteor Shower 2 Home Run Comet 2 Double Jab Pummel
My Hero Academia: League of Villains is in stores now! Show off your new villain deck on social media with the hashtag #MyVillainDeck!
My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game Deck Loadable Content Series 4: Chibi Mania character cards have been revealed!
This DLC features fan favorite heroes with new abilities and an adorable “chibi” aesthetic! The new Character cards all have a theme of playing multiple copies of Character cards in your deck to unlock their full potential. Each of them use extra character cards in your deck to create advantages in different ways, such as Eraser Head drawing cards every time he blocks with a copy of himself, or Katsuki Bakugo discarding Character cards to remove attacks from your card pool!
Below, we’ve broken down the new characters and what you can expect from them.
Izuku Midoriya’s new Character is a reasonable 6 hand size 28 health frame, with an identity all about playing lots of Character Cards to empower straight forward, powerful attacks.
The first Enhance lets your Kick and Punch attacks get free damage based off how many Characters you have in play. While even with one free damage it feels good, playing multiple Characters to give each of your attacks significant damage bonuses with no cost feels great!
The Once Per Turn Response is gated behind Kicks and Punches, but the pay off is worth the trouble. Every turn when you play a Kick or Punch, you can either give it Stun:2 or Breaker:2. Stunning your Rival out during your turn is always a solid approach when you’re the aggressive player, but being able to use those same cards to slow your Rival during their turn can be pivotal.
Lastly, the second Enhance is a nice Once Per Game to help push over the finish line. Later in the game after playing enough Characters, you can draw upwards of four cards off this Enhance — more than enough to bury your Rival in cards!
Katsuki Bakugo’s new Character has a simple plan on his mind — all out aggression! As a fragile 7-hander, Bakugo wants to leverage his two Enhance effects to blow his Rivals to bits before they can assemble their own strategies.
His first Enhance defines his strategy — you can Discard another Katsuki Bakugo Character from your hand to boost your attack and remove a Fury attack from your card pool! This lets you essentially “cheat” your progressive difficulty as long as you have Characters to discard.
His second Enhance plays into this theme, being able to flip 3 foundations you control to draw 2 cards. You can either use this to extend your turn if you’ve been discarding characters to keep attacking, or to draw cards on your Rival’s turn to hold on when all seems lost!
Shoto Todoroki’s new Character wants to drag out your Rival’s resources, because he gets stronger and stronger based off how many Foundations they have committed!
As a 7-hander, he won’t be taking too many hits on the chin, but his two powerful Enhance abilities keep him safe from harm.
His first Enhance allows him to discard a Character from your stage to commit and freeze a rival foundation. If you are able to spend your early turns stacking Character cards on your stage, you can commit your Rival’s problematic foundations to ensure a clean win when you’re ready to go for the knock-out!
His second Enhance follows up on this theme — once per turn, Shoto can give an attack + or – X damage, where X is the number of committed foundations your Rival controls, with a max of 5.
If your opponent commits out during their turn to launch a big attack, you can give it -5 damage! Even better, when you send an attack at them next turn, it’ll come with with a +5 damage bonus as well!
Eraser Head returns as a 5 Hander for the first time! He has three abilities which between them, sculpt Eraser Head into a terrifying force to be reckoned with on attack and defense.
His first ability is a static which reduces the difficulty of all your “Eraser Head” cards by 3, allowing extra Character Cards to be played from your hand at a drastically reduced difficulty, which provides immense value through his other two abilities.
His first Enhance is how he becomes a threat — your attacks get stronger if you have non-attack cards in your card pool (such as a 2 difficulty “Eraser Head” Character), and if you attack twice, your next attack ignores Progressive Difficulty!
Lastly, his Response ties the entire kit together. When you play a Character, you get to draw two cards and seal a troublesome foundation, removing its text for the turn! It’s important to remember that blocking with a Character will also trigger this Response.
My Hero Academia Chibi Mania DLC releases on April 7th, 2023! Pre-order at your Local Game Store!
Welcome to the seventh article highlighting the various characters in Set 4 of the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game: League of Villains!
This week, we’re covering the kindest member of the League of Villains, the duplicating powerhouse Twice (I)!
Twice may be as kind as villains come, but he doesn’t play nice when it comes to facing rivals. He comes packed with a high value deck that, true to his quirk, focuses on using extra copies of himself!
Players looking for an all-rounder will appreciate Twice. He’s a jack-of-all-trades 6-hander with 27 health, meaning he can keep up well in both card advantage and sustainability. His access to Chaos, Good, and Water cards set Twice apart from the other villains while giving him powerful tools to work with.
Twice’s Enhance boosts attacks played in multiples. The second copy of an attack played in a turn gets +2 speed and +2 damage. The ability commits to playing high quantities of solid attacks to keep getting boosts.
This powerful Enhance also makes pro hero Ectoplasm’s Ectoplasm Clones, which you can play up to 8 copies of, the perfect fit in a Twice deck! The attack also gets faster and stronger the more copies are already in the card pool, which can be devastating in combination with Twice’s Enhance!
The extra copies of Twice give you cards in the deck that check for 6, but they’re more than regular vanillas with a high check thanks to Twice’s Response!
By Committing and discarding a character from the stage, Twice can reduce the damage of an attack by 2. This ensures that the extra copies of Twice can put in work to protect the main body.
Twice has plenty of high value cards that synergize with character cards, and the deck is all about getting incredible value from the other copies of himself with cards like Do I Know You? that can set up for his Response!
Agile Drop is a key attack for any Twice deck. Its first Enhance gives it an extra speed and damage for every character card on your stage. The more copies of Twice that you’ve accumulated, the easier it is to get the drop on your rival!
The second Enhance effect lets you discard 2 cards to add a copy of a card in your card pool from your discard pile to your hand. This effect has fantastic synergy with Twice’s Enhance, ensuring that you get those duplicate attacks to land devastating blows!
Twice’s next major attack is Double Trouble, which comes complete with Stun: 1 to make your opponent commit foundations early, and Echo to make use of Twice’s Enhance without the need for an actual second copy of Double Trouble.
The first Enhance for Double Trouble lets you discard a card to draw a card, a simple filtering effect that just adds to the consistency of the Twice deck.
The big highlight of Double Trouble is its Twice Enhance which lets you discard a character from your stage to use its Echo for free. Even when low on resources, Twice can deliver a clean finishing blow with just one attack!
Featuring all of your favorite Villains for the first time – My Hero Academia: League of Villains lets players join the League of Villains and show those Heroes what they are capable of!
Check out League of Villains at your Local Game Store!
With the release of “My Hero Academia CCG: League of Villains”, the community has been on fire building decks and exploring new strategies! We have selected eight decks from our community to show off some of the new tricks people are trying out, featured below.
Brett Pendragon
Character: All For One (I)
Symbol: Chaos
4 Behind The Curtain 2 Crushing Truth 2 Carpool To Work 3 Basic Training 3 Easily Excited 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 Graceful Maneuvers 3 Struggling With Studies 3 Requesting Assistance 2 Cool Student 4 Infinite Potential 3 Release 3 Wealthy Aspirations
3 Release 4 Requesting Assistance 4 Basic Training 3 Infinite Potential 2 Training With Gunhead 2 Web Of Blades 3 Latent Skill 3 Wealthy Aspirations 3 First Day of Class 3 Rescue Completed 2 Decoy Duplicate 2 Feelin’ Cute 4 Specialist Of Sound 2 Destined For Mainstream Success
2 Compression Sphere 3 Double Jab Pummel 3 Electric Jolt 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 3 Home Run Comet 4 Meteor Shower 2 Zero Gravity Lift
Marvin Emory
Character: Muscular (I)
Symbol: Earth
4 Pump Up 4 Masked Menace 4 Armored Muscles 4 Chivalrous Competitor 4 It Can’t Be Fixed 3 Saving Bakugo 3 Male Bonding 2 Terrifying Injury 2 Snack Time 2 Childhood Friends 2 Brute Strength 4 Seizing the Advantage 4 Muscle Rush 4 Hardened Jab 4 Hardened Frenzy 4 Rapid Punches 4 Back Alley Haymaker 2 Navel Laser Beam
Brooks Murrell
Character: Moonfish (I)
Symbol: Air
4 Requesting Assistance 4 Specialist of Sound 2 Arrogant Disposition 2 Destined For Mainstream Success 1 Shadow’s Aid 4 Basic Training 3 Blade-Tooth 2 Release 2 Wealthy Aspirations 1 Shock treatment 3 Confused 2 Let’s Fight Bad Guys! 2 Web of Blades 2 First Impressions 2 Sluggish Recovery
3 Ready, Get Set, GO! 2 Seizing the Advantage 1 Concentrate
Daniel Buchanan
Character: Dabi (II)
Symbol: Fire
2 Firestarter 2 Fast As Flame 4 Quick To Act 4 Revel At His Masterpiece 2 Latent Skill 4 Calling For Backup 3 Heroic Lineage 3 Nervous Habit 4 Staggering Positivity 4 Keen Observation
4 Twisting Azure Inferno
2 Go For The Win! 4 Sugar Rush Power-Up 4 Evil Gaze 4 Cremation
HoldLineHarry
Character: Himiko Toga (II)
Symbol: Life
4 Zero Gravity Capture 4 Rushing Stab 4 Gory Stab 2 Piercing Needle 4 Blood Transfer 3 Dual Needle Lunge 4 Zero Gravity Life
4 Recovery Girl’s Kiss 4 Battle Resolve 4 Enamored 4 Surviving Beast’s Forest 4 High Value Target 4 Bonds of Friendship 4 Full-On Attack Mode! 4 Stalking Her Prey 4 New Training Method 4 Passing The Torch 1 Blood Evaluation 4 Excited For Blood
4 Blade Expertise 3 Contempt for Heroes 2 Sense of Justice 3 Passing the Torch 3 Heroic Lineage 2 Hero Killer 3 Ice Gliding 4 Hack and Slash 3 Self Sacrifice 2 Bonds of Friendship 3 Requesting Assistance 3 Desperate Times
2 Flex Your Might!
CuriousKou
Character: Kurogiri (II)
Symbol: Air
4 Dark Interruption 4 Nebulous Stare 3 Electric Jolt 3 Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts 4 Meteor Shower 3 Zero Gravity Lift 1 Dignified Display
3 Bartender 4 Convenient Timing 4 Polite & Well Spoken 2 Tomura’s Protector 4 Decoy Duplicate 3 Cool and Tough 4 Latent Skill 4 Specialist of Sound 4 Release 2 Encouraging Training Partner 4 Wall Cling 3 Basic Training 4 Requesting Assistance 2 Rescue Completed
3 All-Out Battle
Featuring all of your favorite Villains for the first time – My Hero Academia: League of Villains lets players join the League of Villains and show those Heroes what they are capable of!
Post your villain deck on social media with the hashtag #MyVillainDeck and we might highlight your list next!
With the release of My Hero Academia CCG: League of Villains, stores worldwide are receiving the newest wave of tournament support promos this week — including the newest wave of “Extra Credit” Promo Cards! These foil alternate-art cards are only obtainable by playing Sealed events at your LGS, so make sure to attend!
“Determined” lets you efficiently block with cards that share multiple symbols with your character, and also has a deadly Deadlock Enhance!
“Drowning in Resentment” lets you buff your “Stun” attacks or weaken your Rival’s, as well as providing card pool clogging when they mess with their discard pile!
“Enamored” is a 0-diff Foundation with a Low block which provides incidental value with abilities that ready foundations you control, such as “Himiko Toga II”.
“Forcing Surrender” provides much-needed Momentum discard to many Combo strategies to help keep your Rival at bay! The Enhance is also very strong, as you can use it to clear face down cards from your card pool!
“High Value Target” is great for defensive decks that want to “wall up”, as it counts as two foundations for blocking! On top of that, you can protect your higher value targets from destruction with the Response!
“Infinite Potential” lets you change your Rival’s attacks to High when they attack! Being able to lean on this Response lets you deal with problematic Low Attacks with ease!
“League Interview” provides additional resources for playing greedy! The First Form is at its best when leading with big 6 Difficulty attacks, and the Response lets you nudge bad defensive checks in the right direction.
League of Villains is in stores now! Extra Credit Promos are arriving at LGS this week, so make sure to sign up for a Sealed Play event! Find an event near you here: https://play.mhacardgame.com/events
Welcome to the Jasco Games’ Design Team Symbol Primer! We’re going to take an in-depth look at the All symbol today to help you understand its ins and outs. If you want to see as many cards as possible, or are looking for a toolbox of a deck that can handle a multitude of situations, the All symbol will be the one for you!
Adding cards to your hand is the primary theme of the All symbol, alongside being able to manipulate your deck & discard pile. The most common way to add cards to your hand is drawing cards. Not content with just simply drawing from the top of your deck, some cards can get you cards from unique locations.
Adding Cards To Your Hand
Uses the theme
Going a step further than just having lots of cards in hand, these cards directly reward you for filling up your hand. Be it through Needle Stab being able to discard up to 6 cards, or All Might giving damage based on how full your hand is, there are various ways to take advantage of a full hand.
Triggers off of the theme
If your local meta is full of people constantly drawing cards, here are a few ways to make their day a bit more annoying. Drawing just as many cards as them with Nezu, or stuffing their card pool to make it difficult to play all of those cards are some fairly effective ways to keep the game in your favor!
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Deck Manipulation & Knowledge
Game knowledge is a powerful thing, and that includes knowledge of the top of your deck! Being able to avoid bad checks, or combining this theme with All’s capability to draw cards will give you a clear line to victory.
Uses the theme
Simply knowing what card is on top of your deck is quite valuable in its own right, but you can go a step further by using cards that reward you for knowing exactly what is on top of your deck.
Plays with the theme
If your rival is setting up their deck and gaining game knowledge above you, check out these cards that can look at or change the top of your rival’s deck to keep you in line!
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Minor Theme: Jack Of All Trades
Living up to its name, the All symbol can dabble in all kinds of abilities, but doing this does mean that they will either be less potent abilities, or their costs will be a bit more harsh.
Uses the theme
Lastly for today, let’s take a look at some character cards that you can play as if you just love the feeling of an All deck!
The All symbol lacks powerful aggression, but through utilizing excellent draws and the right plays you can overwhelm your opponent with your grand amount of options. After all, a toolbox is best when it is fully stocked! Stay tuned for next time when we go over the momentum hoarding Chaos symbol.
Welcome to the sixth article highlighting the various characters in Set 4 of the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game: League of Villains!
This week, we’re covering the aptly named brutish villain from the League’s Vanguard Action Squad, Muscular (I)!
Muscular focuses on late game scaling as he ramps up his attacks to deal devastating damage! True to his anime counterpart, Muscular just keeps ramping up to get more and more, well, muscular.
Muscular is a 5-hander with a very tanky 36 health. He may have less cards to work with than most of his fellow villains, but he makes up for it in survivability and two killer effects. His access to Earth, Fire, and Life gives Muscular some strong synergies to work with outside of his own signature cards.
Muscular’s first ability is a powerful static ability that ramps up throughout the game. When an attack deals damage, he gets a Muscle counter.
His Enhance gives meaning to those Muscle counters, boosting non-Throw attacks by 1 damage for each Muscle counter! This means that giving and taking punishment will just make Muscular stronger!
Muscular’s late game scaling is apparent on its own, but on top of that he has significant pay-offs for if he gets enough Muscle counters, such as repeatedly attacking with Determined Victory Smash! To help make sure that Muscular survives long enough to make use of his scaling, healing cards like Excited For Blood and Armored Muscles are pivotal.
Muscular’sResponse helps to make up for the natural disadvantage of being a 5-hander. After taking damage from an unblocked attack, you can build 1 card from your card pool face down! This creates extra foundations and removes a card from the card pool, lowering progressive difficulty!
Muscular’s extra “vanilla” foundations are also great sacrifice outlets for cards like Full-On Attack Mode! which can help burn down opponents and keep Muscular healthy.
Nightmare Physique is one of Muscular’s most nightmarish attacks! In exchange for a counter, its first Enhance can give it +2 speed, giving players a modular choice between stronger and faster attacks.
The attack also limits your rival’s options thanks to its second Enhance, which can unflip 1 foundation or flip a rival foundation if it’s completely blocked. However, if it isn’t completely blocked, Muscular ramps up his Muscle counters! This “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” type of card is perfect for Muscular’s villainous repertoire of attacks.
Double Overhead Hammer Fist is a killer attack with a shockingly low 0 speed! It comes with 3 Enhance effects that each make it more terrifying.
The first Enhance makes your rival flip 1 foundation as an additional cost to block the attack, while the second Enhance discards 1 momentum to give it speed equal to its damage minus 5! With enough Muscle counters, Double Overhead Hammer Fist can reach dizzying speeds.
The card’s final effect is a Muscular Enhance that gives a Muscle counter when blocked, ramping up Muscular even further to finish off your opponents with devastating force!
Featuring all of your favorite Villains for the first time – My Hero Academia: League of Villains lets players join the League of Villains and show those Heroes what they are capable of!
The Monthly Monday Mayhem (“MMM”) Webcam Tournament Series gives players opportunities to compete in accessible higher-level competitive play from home. Each month, tournament organizers will be hosting a $1000 cash-prize webcam tournament, featuring special deck construction formats!
MMM events will be used to provide opportunities for serious players to test their mettle from home, as well as provide us new opportunities to test new rules and regulations and see what players like!
The next MMM event will be on April 10, 2023, hosted by UnfunStuff. Space will be limited, so make sure to sign up as soon as possible!
We will be offering free entry to 8 players who have posted their deck on social media with the hashtag #MyVillainDeck!
Tournament Format
The event format for MMM events is significantly different from regular Webcam play, so please take note.
Every format, the deck building restrictions for Monthly Mayhem will change. Currently, it is:
VILLAIN’S HIDEOUT – Deckbuilding is limited to Characters featured in League of Villains. This includes the Set, Clash Deck, Quirk Pack, Plus Ultra and Pre-Release Characters.
Prizing Structure
Entry
2 Plus Ultra Packs, 2 Booster Packs
Top 8
$125 Cash
Event Details and Registration Link
Registration: Opens at 5PM PST, April 3 Event Time: Tournament starts at 5PM PST, April 10
MMM events are currently always three rounds of Swiss with no top-cut to ensure a reasonable event length.
We will be testing new “tie-breaker” rules in MMM events, the details of which are noted below:
When time in the round is called, the game immediately ends and whichever player has the most game wins is the winner.
If there is a tie in game wins, the winner of the match is decided by each player’s difference between their starting health and their current health.
For example, if Player A is playing as Eraserhead with 19 Max Health, and Player B is playing as Izuku Midoriya with 28 Max Health, and when time is called Eraserhead has 18 Health and Midoriya has 24 Health, Eraserhead wins the match.
If both players have an even amount of missing health, gameplay will continue until there is a change in health, with the greater life total winning the game.
Where to Watch
UnfunStuff will be hosting the first MMM and streamiing it on their Twitch channel! You can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/unfunstuff
For MMM events in the future, we will have a monthly news article on this site detailing each tournament’s unique format and how to participate.
Over the course of 2022, UniVersus has grown from a niche cult-classic card game to an international “smash” hit! Our community has grown immensely over the past few months, so with the release of League of Villains we’ve built a guide for new players to know which products are right for them.
My Hero Academia Base Set
The set that started it all! In “My Hero Academia Base Set”, we introduced many of the classic fan favorites from Class 1-A, including the teachers “All Might” and “Eraser Head”, as well as the students “Izuku Midoriya”, “Katsuki Bakugo”, “Shoto Todoroki”, “Tenya Iida”, “Ochaco Uraraka” and more, as well as the nefarious villains “Tomura Shigaraki” and his loyal “Nomu”!
Many of the characters and cards from this set have gone on to see significant competitive play, including “Specialized Sound Waves”, “Staff Strike”, “Meteor Shower”, “Frigid Heatwave”, “Hardened Jab” and more!
My Hero Academia Crimson Rampage
In “My Hero Academia Crimson Rampage”, the set is mainly defined by the first appearance of multiple fan favorite villains such as “Stain”, “Dabi” and “Himiko Toga”, as well as first appearances from fellow Heroes such as “Mei Hatsume” and “Gran Torino”.
“Excited for Blood”, “Back-Alley Haymaker”, “Howitzer Impact Cyclone” and “Faith’s Shield” are amongst the variety of powerful tools introduced in Crimson Rampage. Many of the powerful cards in Crimson Rampage are very strong for defensively minded decks that want to “take games long”, such as “Faith’s Shield” and “Cheerful Uppercut”.
My Hero Academia Heroes Clash
“My Hero Academia Heroes Clash” is a set defined by the support that it gives to existing strategies, as well as a new Rarity — the “Chrome Rare!” Chrome Rares have their own special foiling process, and are each numbered out of 100.
Heroes Clash introduces the Class 1-A student “Koji Koda” as well as the Pro Hero “Thirteen”, as well as new versions of many fan-favorite characters such as Toru Hagakure, Tomura Shigaraki and Stain!
“Stun Grenade”, “Twisting Azure Inferno”, “Somnambulism”, “Focused Attack”, “Blood Moon Rending”, and “One With Nature” round out some of the many cards from this set that see regular competitive play.
My Hero Academia League of Villains
“My Hero Academia League of Villains” releases very soon, on March 3, 2023! League of Villains puts the villains center stage, featuring first appearances from “One For All”, “Twice”, “Spinner”, “Muscular”, and “Moonfish”, as well as return appearances from other fan-favorite villains like “Tomura Shigaraki”, “Dabi” and “Himiko Toga”.
League of Villains features the new attack keyword, “Echo”! Attacks with Echo can pay one momentum to “Echo” the attack, playing it twice! This mechanic on cards like “Resolute Rushdown” and “Dignified Display” pressure your opponent by forcing them to dedicate multiple blocks to a single attack.
“Hold Hostage” and “United States of Smash” are early contenders for hype, as well as “Vile Seizing” and “Dual Needle Lunge”.
We are very excited to see what decks the community tries out with the addition of the League of Villains card pool to Universus. Show off your League of Villains decks on social media with the hashtag #myvillaindeck!
Greetings, Villains! In this article we will be discussing each of the new Plus Ultra Promo cards, only obtainable at your Local Game Store with the release of League of Villains!
Magne is an interesting character — having two different Enhance effects which both modify attack stats lets Magne make profitable trades, but only if you’re able to reliably trigger both effects! Cards like Basic Training let you nudge attacks in the right direction to be able to make your attacks stronger or your Rival’s attacks weaker!
Lastly, Magne’s response follows up on wanting to slug it out blow for blow — every time you block an attack, you can commit a foundation to keep your opponent’s cards in their card pool moving into your turn. By forcing your opponent to start your turn with cards in their card pool, you can drown your Rival in progressive difficulty and take them down!
I AM HERE! is an incredible addition to any deck trying to swing for the fences! The First Form lets you look at the top 3 cards of your deck to find an attack and send it with +3 Speed. If you miss on finding an attack, I AM HERE! will build a card for free — face-up or face-down!
Lastly, the Enhance lets you commit a foundation to give a huge damage pump to your attack! The damage pump is at its best on characters who have a low hand size, such as All Might (I)!
Teamwork is a fantastic option on offense and defense for pushing over to the finish line! Teamwork’s Response is great for hanging on when all else seems lost — ignoring your progressive difficulty while blocking can let you handle lethal attack strings with ease!
Teamwork’s Enhance requires a little bit of finesse in your deckbuilding, but it’s worth the effort. By playing a wide diversity of symbols on your attacks you can use two-card attack strings like Prominence Burn -> Stun Grenade to enable a huge damage boost!
Suited Up is a high value Asset which rewards careful sequencing to get maximum value! Suited Up wants to be ready to change an Attack’s damage, but it needs to be committed to change the Speed. Since you can commit Suited Up to cards like Rescue Completed, you want a careful cadence of using the attack modifier Response, committing Suited Up and using the other Response to change speed.
Suited Up rewards very tight play — competitive players, take note!
Ally strategies, rejoice! Dark Shadow Behemoth is a 6-difficulty threat that requires a very high density of “Ally” cards in your deck, but can win games on the spot if left unchecked!
Dark Shadow Behemoth requires removing Ally cards from your discard to activate each of its three effects and considering using all three would require 16 Ally cards in your discard, each activation has a real cost associated with it.
Removing 3 Ally cards lets you ready an Ally in your stage, extending your resources on your turn. Removing 5 Ally cards lets you burn your opponent for 2 damage if they interact with you – and this damage can take your rival to 0 health! Lastly, 8 Allies lets you commit their entire board if they can’t fully block the attack. Just make sure they can’t, because you’re only going to have one shot!
Full Cowling Impact is a fantastic card for taxing blocks and forcing chip damage through to your Rival. The extremely low 2 speed makes this card tempting to block, but the first Response complicates things – when Full Cowling Impact is fully blocked, your Rival has to destroy a foundation they control!
Lastly, Full Cowling Impact’s Enhance gives you extra value when played against defensive decks that keep a full hand during your turn. If they don’t want to full-block, you’re going to get them for a ton of chip damage and consistently gain Momentum.
Insidious Advance is complementary to many of Shigaraki’s new cards in League of Villains! Shigaraki revolves around forcing your opponent into lose-lose decisions, and Insidious Advance leans further into that. The first Enhance lets you chip your opponent for free damage if they have failed a check this turn. Partnered with Shigaraki’s abilities that flood your opponent with checks, they will either commit themselves out and end up getting hit, or they’ll take the burn damage. Win-Win!
Lastly, Insidious Advance also is a game-ending threat if you have one momentum. Just by paying one momentum Insidious Advance can threaten 11 damage and if they’re committed out, the -2 to their next block check will bury them!
Red Guard is fantastic for decks that want to be very defensively minded, as being able to completely block problematic attacks with Throw or Enhance-based chip damage from cards like Static Jolt is awesome, and Breaker: 1 can save your skin when it matters most.
It’s also important to note — Red Guard has 3 difficulty! You can comfortably throw Red Guard in at the end of a long attack string, and so the card has practical value on attack and defense — the perfect tool for a character like Kirishima!
Rising Engine Kick is great for dedicated “Kick” strategies from characters like Iida and Eraserhead. Low attacks with relevant text are always great to have, and Rising Engine Kick steps up with two powerful Enhances to cause a ton of trouble for your Rival. The first Enhance lets you extend your attacking turns by giving your next kick -2 difficulty. Sending a long string of Kick attacks to your opponent ending with Rising Engine Kick into a Recipro Acceleration Kick will get the job done!
The other Enhance is no slouch, either. Being able to reliably discard your Rival’s Momentum is a big deal by itself — alongside a significant string of Kicks, your Rival’s in real trouble!
All Smiles is a powerful foundation for Control decks trying to restrict their Rival’s resources. The first Response is narrow but if your opponent is using a foundation multiple times a turn, it’s likely a good thing to destroy it! Being able to get rid of problematic foundations like Rescue Completed is great by itself, but there’s more than that!
The second Response is simple, but scary — if they gain health with a non-character ability, they lose 2 health. With multiple copies in play the effect becomes truly smothering, as they can each respond to a single instance of life gain. Nice “Recovery Girl’s Kiss”, Hero — now lose 8 health!
City-Wide Crisis is a powerful Foundation for punishing decks that draw cards while blocking. Cards like Passing the Torch are foiled by City-Wide Crisis’s Response, as when they add a card to their hand you force them to put a card from their hand into their card pool face-down!
Lastly, the Enhance can bail you out of trouble by returning an attack to printed speed, letting you maneuver around high-speed threats with ease!
Desperate Struggle provides access two generic but powerful, one-time use defensive Responses on the same card. This card is outstanding against decks that want to use one giant, fast attack to win such as “Determined Victory Smash” or characters such as Muscular or Nomu who provide huge stat bonuses to their attacks in single chunks.
What are Plus Ultra Promos?
Plus Ultra Promos are exclusive foil cards that you can only get by playing at your Local Game Store! Jasco Games supplies Plus Ultra packs to Local Game Stores at no charge to provide to players for playing in-store.
If you are a store owner interested in running Plus Ultra Events, please reach out to LGS@universusgames.com.
Hundreds of stores all around the world are running Plus Ultra Events each week! You can look for an event near you on the UGN app: https://play.mhacardgame.com/events
Welcome to the fifth article highlighting the various characters in Set 4 of the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game: League of Villains!
This week, we’re covering the blade-toothed villain from the League’s Vanguard Action Squad, Moonfish (I)!
Moonfish focuses on going wide, using a large number of cards to defeat opponents with a flurry of small increments of damage. While “go wide” can often find themselves out of gas and petering out in the late game, Moonfish has surprising scaling and can snowball out of control at any point in the game.
As a 7 hand character with a frail 18 health, Moonfish trades survivability for the hand size to flood with Foundations. With Air, Earth, and Void cards to choose from, Moonfish has some killer options in his villainous arsenal!
His first Enhance is simple, giving his weaker attacks speed to make them trickier to block! They get even faster if your rival is high on cards in hand. Combined with his rapid chip damage playstyle, this Enhance can really punish characters similar to Moonfish who operate with low health and high hand size!
Moonfish’s second Enhance allows him to discard an attack that dealt 3 or less damage from your card pool to make your rival discard 1 card. It’s an ability that feels counterintuitive to Moonfish’s first Enhance. After all, discarding opposing cards gets your rival further from the “3 or more cards in hand” threshold needed to trigger the +1 speed boost from his first Enhance.
However, this means that any Moonfish rivals will either be punished for having too many cards or will have so few that they can’t both block everything and keep their hand safe. This villainous strategy puts rivals in a “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” situation with their dwindling hand.
Of course, with a character that focuses on the printed damage of Attacks, Moonfish has some pretty powerful low-damage attacks of his own! Shrapnel Tooth and Glacier Breaker are both useful in their own right, but it’s Razor Deluge that strikes fear into Moonfish’s rivals!
Razor Deluge is one of the big standouts for Moonfish. It’s just low enough in printed damage to benefit from Moonfish’s speed boost, but the real benefit is its two Enhances. Like most of the Moonfish arsenal, Razor Deluge is a Weapon, allowing players to combo it with a perfect 3 damage Void attack for any Moonfish deck: Binding Cloth Precision!
The first Enhance can force out a card from your rival’s hand, potentially forcing out important blockers and increasing their progressive difficulty in the process.
Razor Deluge can be a must-block in many situations despite its low damage and difficulty, thanks to its second Enhance with the ability to make your rival lose 1 health for each attack in both card pools!
The bread and butter of any Moonfish deck is the killer Blade-Tooth! For a 1 difficulty Foundation, Blade-Tooth’s Response can completely take over the game with its rapid chip damage.
Blade-Tooth makes your rival lose 1 health every time a non-Throw attack deals 3 or less damage. With multiple copies Blade-Tooth in play, Moonfish can scale out of control and ping opponents for huge chunks of damage at a time!
Featuring all of your favorite Villains for the first time – My Hero Academia: League of Villains lets players join the League of Villains and show those Heroes what they are capable of!
Welcome to the Jasco Games’ Design Team Symbol Primer! Today we are going to help you understand the Air symbol and the ways in which it can play the game. If you are looking for a deck that can move its cards around your board, then Air may be the symbol for you!
Card Movement is the primary theme of the Air symbol. This is commonly expressed in manners such as
Clearing cards from your card pool
Readying foundations.
Moving cards to other piles, such as to the momentum or the removed from game pile.
Card Pool Clearing
Air’s core concept is keeping its card pool clean. This can be achieved by discarding your attacks, adding them to your momentum, or even the bottom of your deck. An Air player is happy when they aren’t getting much progressive difficulty tying down their attack turn.
Let’s look at a few cards that give examples of this theme:
Uses the theme
It’s not just enough that a symbol is able to perform the theme, though! You should have cards that utilize cards leaving your card pool in interesting ways. This can be through a reward if you have already cleared your pool, such as Tongue Smack giving you access to its draw ability, or you could find the reward directly on the card you clear from your card pool, like how Jet Kickback and Frog Kick both give you a stat bonus for clearing them.
Triggers off of the theme
Not everyone is an Air player, though. If you’re sitting across the table from someone who keeps clearing their card pool, you should look into some ways to force them to slow down a bit, or at least punish them.
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Readying Foundations
Readying foundations is a core ability for both Air and Water, seen through multiple cards that happen to share both symbols. This can allow you to extend your attack strings further, or to defend yourself when it looks like you were pushed to your limits.
Uses the theme
Triggers off of the theme
Readying cards for re-use is generally powerful enough unto itself, but there are some cards that activate when things are readied. Check out the Water symbol for more synergies with foundations re-readying as well, cards such as Enamored and Blood Evaluation will serve you well.
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Minor Theme: Momentum Generation
In keeping with Air’s theme of card movement, cards can sometimes be flowing through your momentum. While Air may not be as adept as Chaos at generating momentum, Air certainly has its own ways to get ahead in the momentum department.
Uses the theme
Minor Theme: Speed Pump
The second most efficient way to get momentum is to just make sure your attacks hit, and Air can help you get there with its plentiful speed pump abilities!
Uses the theme
Triggers off of the theme
Interacts with, or restricts rivals playing the theme
Lastly, I’d like to highlight some characters who I believe represent the symbol’s core values the best through their gameplay. You don’t even need to play these characters on Air to feel like you’re playing an Air deck!
As we have highlighted today, the Air symbol is largely about mitigating risks and being able to stay vigilant. If the cards in this article caught your eye, maybe you’d like to explore the Air symbol a bit further in the future! Stay tuned for next time when we go over the deck manipulation that is the All symbol.
It’s time for Villains to take center stage, in “My Hero Academia: League of Villains”, releasing on March 3, 2023!
League of Villains is the first My Hero Academia set focused on the Villains! Featuring return appearances from Shigaraki, Dabi, Kurogiri and Toga, as well as first appearances from Twice, Moonfish, Spinner, Muscular! League of Villains features 110 new cards, with support for both new and pre-existing strategies across every strategy.
League of Villains introduces the keyword Echo which allows your attacks to strike again by paying a Momentum, as well as a new cycle of defensive actions used to block and powerful “1-Check” attacks printed at Rare for the first time!
Join the League… and cause enough destruction to show them all how fragile their justice really is!
League of Villains Booster Box
Each League of Villains Booster Box contains 24 League of Villains booster packs, as well as two “Quirk Pack” promo cards and an extra XR rarity card.
“Quirk Pack” cards are only obtainable by buying a sealed Booster Box, and the extra XR means that buying entire Booster Boxes is the most efficient way to build your collection.
All Might vs. All For One Clash Deck
All Might and All for One face off in an epic showdown with this new Clash Deck! Features two 51-card decks that are ready to play right out of the box and can be expanded with cards from the My Hero Academia booster packs.
For players entering MHACCG with “League of Villains”, this is the best product for you!
Clash Decks also include two random Ultra Rare cards from “League of Villains” to help you start your collection!
Hundreds of stores all around the world are running Pre-Release events for League of Villains, starting on Feb 24! You can look for a Pre-Release near you on the UGN app: https://play.mhacardgame.com/events
Ashley Fullerton and Keenan Meadows are UniVersus’s new power couple! After Keenan’s killer Top 8 run in the 2022 HLC (and successful on-camera proposal!), we reached out for an interview.
Ashley and Keenan are both former UniVersus World Champions (2019 and 2011 respectively), and they have both been cornerstones to the community for years.
1. How did you two first meet?
Keenan: We met through a mutual friend who invited us out to boardgame night at a local gaming restaurant/bar called Battle and Brew. We were having way too much fun playing a board game, and we met up later for a date!
2. What was the first tournament you traveled together to?
Keenan: We traveled to Las Vegas for Ashley’s first Worlds in 2018 hosted at Level Up Expo. I think that was Ashley’s first trip to Las Vegas, and we had a blast!
3. You’ve both played Universus for a pretty long time – what are your favorite decks in the history of the game?
Keenan: Mine was Mad Pierrot with Coffee Samba. I’ve never liked 1 checks until Coffee Samba came along. The insane swings that card can give both positive and negative, make for really exciting games!
Ashley: Mine was Lord Raptor; apart from the fact that I did well with the deck, all of the components worked together ridiculously synergistically so I always felt like I could think myself out of any situation.
4. What is your favorite part about traveling to events together?
Keenan: I love having someone to explore new places with. Traveling for tournaments is like a mini-vacation, and we always try to go out of our way to see something cool while we’re there.
Ashley: I really love that I get to travel with someone who is so down to go explore new things but also so social, so every event we travel to is like one half couples vacation and one half meet up with friends and play games.
5. Have you ever had to play against each other in a tournament?
Keenan: We play during locals a lot, but I can’t remember a time we played at a major.
Ashley: You’re absolutely right, we get paired literally every locals and most regionals but never at a major!
6. When you two play, who wins more often? 👀👀
Keenan: Lately I’ve been winning but if you asked me that question when Ashley was playing her 2019 worlds deck, it would be the exact opposite.
Ashley: Absolutely agree with Keenan, the fact that I stopped playing during COVID means I got nice and rusty, and he can read me like a dang book when we’re playing so I have to win honestly – mind games will not work!
We would like to thank Keenan and Ashley for their time on this interview, as well as their support of UniVersus over the years. We wish them the best, and a happy life together! 🥳
The Hero League Championship was a huge success! The strongest MHACCG players from all around the world met together in Las Vegas, Nevada to battle for their cut of the $250,000 prize purse as well as to immortalize themselves as the Number One Hero!
League of Villains World Premier
The World Premier of League of Villains was a wonder to behold — the energy in the room was downright electric! Over 100 players gathered to get a look at League of Villains in its entirety for the first time, and the air was thick with excitement as players built decks with cards they’d never seen before!
If you missed out on the World Premier, worry not! Local Game Stores all around the world are running Pre-Release events for League of Villains, you can find them on the UGN: https://play.mhacardgame.com/events
Voice Actor Signings
Over the weekend, we brought in the Voice Actors for Denki (Kyle Phillips), Mt. Lady (Jamie Marchi), and Eraserhead (Christopher Wehkamp)!
Everyone got a chance to get their favorite cards signed — life is good!
Love in Universus??? 😍
After his match in Top 8 of the Hero League Championship, Keenan Meadows proposed to Ashley Fullerton during his post-game interview… and she said yes!
And remember, Ashley is the 2019 Universus World Champion — what a power couple!
HLC Main Event
The Hero League Championship’s main event was incredible to watch. As the day progressed we saw an incredible diversity of strategy, ending in a top 8 with five different characters in it!
From merciless, all-in aggro decks like Tokoyami to defensive, late-game strategies like Recovery Girl, there were a lot of favorites to root for.
Kevin Broberg’s run with Midnight was incredible, ending in a to-the-wire match against Philip Chybiorz’s Jiro, leaving Broberg on top! (And $125,000 richer 😲)
Congratulations Kevin Broberg for becoming the 2022 Hero League Champion!
Set 4: League of Villains Pre-Release event is coming to a local game store near you!
Pre-Release Dates: February 24 – March 3, 2023
My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game: League of Villains launches on March 3rd, 2023.
The Pre-Release event allows you early access!
This Set introduces a slew of dastardly evildoers from the anime, with 8 new playable character cards including fan-favorites like Shigaraki and Toga.
Why join a Pre-Release event?
Pre-release events are fun and great for new players, so bring a friend.
You will get a special Pre-Release paper playmat to take home. It has zones to help you assist your play.
These events are super casual since the focus is not the competition but a way to check out the new cards. Of course, some of the competitive players will be there, but they are also there for the fun to check out the latest cards.
And everyone gets a promo card.
This time it’s Mr. Compress! So make sure to join the event!
If you can’t find an event and your LGS would like to host a Pre-Release evet, have them email us at lgs@universusgames.com and we can get them set up!
