Next Steps – Izuku Midoriya Rival Deck
After buying the Izuku Midoriya vs. Katsuki Bakugo Rival Deck, these are some next steps you can do to improve your new deck and step further into competitive play!
Izuku Midoriya’s Rival Deck is built around using a suite of Punch attacks such as Heroic Strike, Aspiring Punch and Determined Victory Smash combined with Midoriya’s Enhance abilities to slow down your opponent and sneak big attacks in by discarding your hand to make your regular attacks extremely dangerous for your Rival!
Giving your attacks +10 Damage with Midoriya’s second Enhance is very strong, but it’s important to use your other Enhances to provide you with resources to block during your Rival’s turn! Determined Victory Smash can add itself to your hand after it resolves to give you an extra attack (or a +1 Mid to block with!), and Passing the Torch can frequently draw you two new cards by using it after discarding your hand.
Many cards in My Hero Academia: Base Set and My Hero Academia: Crimson Rampage can help support this strategy and bring it to its fullest potential!
One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike is a devastating Punch Attack from My Hero Academia: Base Set with two Enhances sure to leave your Rival reeling! Firstly, you can discard your hand to draw 3 new cards! Combining this with Midoriya’s ability to discard your hand for damage is an easy way to send huge attacks and still end your turn with a hand of cards! Lastly, if your opponent can’t block the attack, you get to commit their Rival! Being able to commit problematic characters like Nomu to stifle their abilities can be essential for winning tough games!
Back Alley Haymaker, released in My Hero Academia: Crimson Rampage is one of the most efficient Punch attacks in the game, and confidently secures a spot for itself in the deck if you’re playing on the Good symbol. Between a reasonable stat frame of 4 Mid 5 Damage with a +2 High Block, EX:2 and Stun:2 to help break through strong defensive boards, and the ability to either draw a card or play a foundation like It Can’t Be Fixed from your discard pile lets you continue swinging while still accumulating value along the way.
Plus Ultra! Is an incredible tool for both offense and defense, but can only perform to its full potential playing as a Character Card from Base Set – Midoriya qualifies!
Firstly, Plus Ultra has a static ability that if you ever block with it, you reduce the rival’s speed to 0. Plus Ultra is on a +5 Mid Block, so you essentially always check a 5 to block with this card (not including Progressive Difficulty). This is great because it means even if your opponent stuns you out, or combos off and sends a 30 damage 30 speed threat at you, you can block it with grace!
Lastly, Plus Ultra has an extra First Enhance that you can only use if your Character is from My Hero Academia: Base Set – you can pay 1 Momentum to double your attack’s speed or damage! Simply put, Plus Ultra does it all!
Plus Ultra as well as many other promo cards are obtainable through the Universus Game Network. Learn more about this program here, and how you can get more involved with your local community to snag some sweet cards!
Learn About The Loyalty Program
Example Decklist
Izuku Midoriya (I) was piloted to much success by Tamren Cardwell in the 2023 Webcam Oceania RLE! You can find the deck list here:
Oceania RLE Deck Lists
