Welcome to A Brewer’s Guide, as I review the new cards coming out in the next set of UVS, Jetburn. Last time I went over the characters with full kits, this time I am finishing off the set by reviewing the backpage characters. Just as a reminder, I will be grading cards based on…
Power: How strong is the card? Do I foresee it making an impact in the meta, and if it does, how much of an impact would it make? Does it become a big draw to the symbol, or generically buff the symbol's power? A power score of 1 would be a horrendous card you should never consider running, whereas a 10 would be a powerful, likely meta defining card.
Playrate: How often do I expect to see a card? Sometimes strong cards are overlooked due to them being boring, or bad cards see play due to being fun or having popular characters on them. The ratings for this are simple, lower rating equals lower playrate, while higher rating indicates wide usage within the meta.
Sauce: How much potential does the card have, in both strength and deckbuilding potential? Cards can be highly powerful but have no sauce (such as Back Alley Haymaker), or cards can have incredible potential that requires building around them to make it work (such as Needle Stab). A low sauce rating shows that the character has minimal interesting things to do, whereas the opposite has a vast array of cool and unique options within theorizing.
With the brief reminder out of the way, onto the backpage characters!
Camie Utsushimi
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 3/10
Sauce: 8/10
Camie makes her first appearance and comes with some incredibly unique abilities, with the top response allowing her to nullify a single attack each turn combined with the bottom response allowing her to turn a full block into a partial block means she will put her rivals on a clock while also being deceptively bulky. The downside of nullifying an attack is that it requires a very specific type of card in order to function, of which there are minimal available. Players are likely to cram many Taunt cards into their lists in order to always have them available, which I believe will ultimately be incorrect. Of course you will need enough to reliably have them, but shoving every taunt card on symbol will just end up with clunky decks that have too many suboptimal cards. Players will have to tinker to find the correct ratios, as well as finding an attack lineup to take the most advantage of her bottom response. Being able to always hit allows for some very unique synergies, allowing for consistent use of abilities requiring attacks to hit, such as Instant Explosive Release, Chainsaw Nomu, or the recently revealed Frog Hop. It also allows you to consistently over-the-top rivals by making a huge dunk still do half damage, giving her immense killing power when combined with attacks such as Surging Crystal Darts, Blitz Rush, and Howitzer Impact Cyclone. She will likely see slight representation, though I would not be surprised if she was consistently fighting to make top cuts.
Edgeshot
Power: 9/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 3/10
Edgeshot makes his debut alongside new versions of the other members of his team, The Lurkers, and is effectively a straight reprint of the old character Lord Raptor I on new symbols. While not the most exciting character, he is incredibly powerful due to his ability to both build incredibly well reliably as well as a generic stat pump makes him one of the most powerful characters of the set. When you factor in the support he got as well, it won’t be uncommon for him to reliably get to crazy speed and damage numbers. Ultimately the thing holding him back the most will be how boring he is, as there isn’t much skill expression with him, as well as his lack of interesting synergies within deckbuilding. His lack of any restrictions allows for complete theoretical freedom in deckbuilding, when in reality it will simply be about playing the most efficient list for him.
Inasa Yoarashi
Power: 8/10
Playrate: 7/10
Sauce: 7/10
Inasa debuts along with his classmate Camie, and certainly does not disappoint. Being able to Refresh 1 on every attack is incredibly powerful, as well as packing response-speed speed control means he will reliably be able to block and aggress efficiently. With him being as strong and beloved as he is I would expect solid representation. His high sauce rating is due to the ability to consistently get incredible value out of any commit or ready effects, such as repeatedly blocking with Unbreakable, building while aggressing with Ryukyu Agency Trainees, or converting it into Stun with options like Surge and Asui’s Friendship, the options are nearly boundless. Personally I will be building him under Death, with options such as Blood Evaluation and Learning To Harden allowing me to manage speed while also serving as potent draw sources, while cards such as Howitzer Impact (not Cyclone) and Grenadier Bracers allow for incredible offensive potential. Inasa is one of my most hyped characters of the set, and I cannot wait to see what other cool tech the community comes up with for him.
Kamui Woods II
Power: 6/10
Playrate: 2/10
Sauce: 4/10
Kamui Woods makes a return with a second version, and what a unique one he has. As with the rest of the Lurkers, his gimmick is based around reviewing cards which allows him to grow from a tiny sapling into a mighty tree, gaining health with each review. I am unsure how to evaluate this ability, as it is entirely dependant on game length and how long he can extend it. In a midrange game I would expect him to gain anywhere from 5 to 10 health just off of his face, with even more potential with the varying support he gets. I don’t know how much this will help him, but it will certainly make it incredibly difficult to kill him once he gets established. His enhance allows him to stuff something into his card pool with it ignoring progressive, which allows for many unique setups and combos, though ultimately he will likely simply use Seizing The Advantage every single turn in order to neutralize the opponent's board piece by piece. I don’t expect him to see much play, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he snuck into tops every once in a while.
Mt. Lady II
Power: 6/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 2/10
Last on the list is Mt. Lady, the last member of the Lurkers, with her review theme being based on growing in size to smash her enemies. I expect her to see moderate play due to being popular as well as having an interesting concept and gimmick. She is a midrange character that excels at taking a few turns to set up before blowing her rival out of the water with +3 damage and Stun: 1 on every move. Finally to top it off she is able to guarantee lethal unlike any character before means she will put her rival under incredible pressure to act before she is able to stack up her counters. This key weakness will likely hold her back as the meta is currently a healthy mix of aggro decks and aggressive-leaning midrange decks that can slaughter her before she gets going, meaning she won’t be able to reliably execute her gameplan. I expect a few players to try and push her as much as possible, but I don’t expect that endeavor to bear many fruits.
Continuing Next Time…
That makes all of the main-set characters of Jetburn, the future articles of this series will be aimed at discussing the most notable cards revealed and how much of an impact they will have on it game. Until next time!
Do you have any articles you’d like to see? Any topics you wish were discussed more? Any questions, comments, or feedback on this article? Well let me know down below! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
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