Welcome to A Brewer’s Guide, as I review the new cards coming out in the next set of UVS, Jetburn. This article will cover just the characters, as I will delve deeper into their support at a later date. I will also be reviewing the cards on multiple axes, such as…
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 grading criteria out of the way, I’ll be grading the characters with full kits in this article, so without further ado, let’s get into it!
Best Jeanist
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 2/10
Best Jeanist makes his debut in this set, and doesn’t disappoint. With his top response to clog the opposing card pool, as well as being a soft 9 hander, he has to be good in some capacity. Power-wise he is solid, however the biggest limiting factor for him is the fact he has to run at the very least a small Ranged package in order to support his bottom response to get the most value out of it. I expect him to hold a minor playrate, as he is a beloved character as well as being strong, however it is moreso impacted by the simplicity of his face and the restrictions he has in deckbuilding. Additionally, he has almost no sauce, with the most spicy thing available being from within his own kit and the synergy around stuffing in there. He does get a few cute options as well, such as Navel Laser Beam and Twisting Azure Inferno under Death, however his options otherwise are overall limited, which will make his decks feel same-y.
Breaker: 2 or -1 for checks to block on top of card pool clog seems preeeetty goooood
Dabi III
Power: 5/10
Playrate: 1/10
Sauce: 3/10
Dabi makes his third appearance in this set, and a disappointing one at that. On face he effectively gets to occasionally peak at the top card of his deck, while also giving his attacks +1/+1 and rival attacks -1 speed. Combined with having a theme that has minimal support, he certainly can get there, but you will be locked into the same set of cards for it. His sauce rating is slightly above Best Jeanist due to having some cute support with Shigaraki III’s kit as well as a few cute synergies such as Final Exam Failures and Destined For Mainstream Success, but the list is few and far between. This unfortunately will lead him to have a minimal playrate as he doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before, as well as being locked into a very specific package.
Despite his mediocrity, these cards will definitely make an impact
Endeavor III
Power: 8/10
Playrate: 8/10
Sauce: 7/10
Endeavor also makes his third appearance, however unlike Dabi, actually has some bite to his bark. Being able to blanket give attacks +2 speed is phenomenal, on top of giving them an additional +3 damage once you have fulfilled his minigame condition is incredibly potent, making him the best character so far in terms of power. This isn’t even including his form that allows him to “tutor” an attack to go in for the kill. Both of these abilities combined with a massive 31 health will make him a force to be reckoned with. It is unsure what the optimal deck size will be right now, but he has some very neat tricks with his new attack Flashfire Fist: Jet Burn combined with Photogenic Hero allows him to complete his minigame on turn 2, along with using the myriad of self mill effects he has on symbol. Another case for him having a good sauce score is that you are able to take advantage of various effects that haven’t found a home before, such as Knee Smash and You’re Finished interacting with the top of your discard, as well as being able to snag a removed card allows for some very cute combos, such as gaining multiple momentum if you ever find 2 Nitro Explosion Ignition. All of these combine with the fact that he is a fan favorite character means he will see a lot of play, and with his power level, will likely see sustained play throughout the next set.
Jets? Burned. Photos? Taken. Deck? Cycled.
Gentle Criminal
Power: 9/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 7/10
Normally it would be difficult to follow up the glowing reviews Endeavor II just got, but Gentle manages to do just that. This character is divisive on multiple levels, having people on both sides of the aisle arguing if he is good or not, or even if they like him as many people have described him as “ultra lame”. Well, this character is not only great, but you better be prepared for him. While not super obvious, his strength punishes the key component of this game; interaction. If your rival attempts to interact with you and block your moves, you simply play more which end up being easier and faster, while on defense you are able to chain block a long string of attacks. Of course, if your opponent doesn’t interact with you there is nothing this guy can do. But that would mean not blocking, and thus dying to your offense. I believe his playrate at high levels won’t be representative of his strength, as he doesn’t allow much skill expression. Additionally, while he doesn’t have the coolest face (pun unintended), he has enough neat interactions to make deckbuilding for him open and consider unique options that don’t normally see play. Personally I am brewing around cards such as League interview, Training With Gunhead, and Shrapnel Cloud Release, and expect to find other cool combos as I gear my deckbuilding towards the newest set.
Gentle breaths life into old cards
Hawks
Power: 9/10
Playrate: 9/10
Sauce: 10/10
Continuing with bangers, Hawks manages nearly perfect scores. He is the softest 8 hander, only requiring finding 2 of Hawks’ Feather, which doubles as from-hand speed reduction, which also combines back with his face to make the speed reduction even more potent. Additionally, he is able to flip the stats of something once per turn and changing the zone to high. This in effect “guarantees” him 1 full block a turn (assuming he can pass it), or simply reducing the damage to 0 with the stat flip. He is an overall incredibly powerful character that has a lot of skill expression meaning he will be played by most people and should see solid representation at the top level as well. With everything on his face, he also isn’t limited to anything specific, meaning he can go in any way the builder wishes, letting him have plenty of viable variations, to the point that he could become a toolbox style character akin to Momo Yaoyorozo I.
Hawks can take full advantage of blocking with these cards
Hood
Power: 5/10
Playrate: 2/10
Sauce: 7/10
Hood is a strange character, with an inconsistent damage pump combined with one of the best defensive abilities in the game makes him tough to evaluate. Another factor that makes him tough to evaluate is that he will receive a naturally lower playrate due to being a 5 hand size character who is inconsistent, leading to lower experimentation with him. Ultimately I would rate him middle of the pack, though I am unsure if this is where he will ultimately land. Something in his favor is a high sauce factor, which to the brewers allows some interesting angles with deckbuilding. I personally have been experimenting with League of Villains Bar combined with running character cards to not only have 6 difficulty cards for your enhance, but also additional 6 checks for a more top-heavy attack lineup. Lastly, when checking a character it lets you fetch a quality attack, allowing for additional chances to find enough attacks to be lethal. Ultimately I don’t expect much from this character, though I could see a world where he finds a place within the metagame as a backswing heavy 5 hander.
A biologically engineered weapon of mass destruction walks into a bar...
Izuku Midoriya V
Power: 8/10
Playrate: 7/10
Sauce: 3/10
Midoriya is back with his fifth variation, and we are introduced to another banger character. An enhance that effectively gives every attack +2 speed and +1 damage, as well as the ability to refill your hand after a turn of swinging means he will be a midrange monster. Two of the three keywords he has access too, Charge and Punch, are both heavily supported under his symbols, giving him incredible flexibility within deckbuilding. Another thing with this character is the responses to both lineups are varied, with Charges having access to incredible stringing attacks such as Double Jab Pummel and Meteor Shower, combined with incredible dunks in Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts and Home Run Comet make him easily able to extend into kill turns with little effort. Punches on the other hand have more generic stability, with access to the ever present Back Alley Haymaker and Repeated 100% Smash gives him a lot of stability in the mid game when he is strongest. The biggest downside is the requirement of pigeon-holing yourself into a specific lineup of Charge Punches, of which few quality ones exist. We could potentially see a list under All, taking advantage of cards that haven’t yet found a home, such as Justice Rush, as well as general charge support on the symbol such as Hardened Barrage and Rapid Punches along with Create: Capture Net to create a unique style of deck that hasn’t really manifested yet. Due to all of the above factors he scores highly in both the power and playrate categories, while the sauce score is middling due to being able to use some lesser known attacks, but his keyword locks make it difficult to put him any higher.
The trinity of Charge dunks
Katsuki Bakugo IV
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 4/10
Sauce: 2/10
Bakugo also returns in this set with a new style of gameplay that hasn’t really manifested yet, which is discard as a central theme. His top enhance is generically powerful, while the bottom one is much more niche. Combined it communicates a theme of ripping cards from your rivals hand while relentlessly smashing them due to being effectively immune to damage reduction. The biggest thing holding this character back is the deckbuilding cost of being able to take advantage of his response in order to make your moves large. Under Air and Death he is limited to mostly his own kit, meanwhile Void has a plethora of damage reduction options, in addition to having additional discard options will make it his best symbol. Due to his nicheness he will suffer in all three categories, and while he is powerful he will see lower play due to the restrictiveness of his theme, while also having to contend with the other versions of himself which have proven results. I would not be surprised if he were to top an event, however his biggest struggle will be having enough representation to make that happen.
Say goodbye to your hand
Kyoka Jiro II
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 6/10
Sauce: 7/10
Continuing with returning additions, Jiro makes her second appearance in the My Hero Academia card game. As a 7 hand size character she already is going to be solid despite her gimmick in Applause Counters (also known as applesauce counters). Being able to have reliable speed reduction as well as the ability to ready foundations is incredibly strong, though it is unsure how her counters will impact her gameplay and deckbuilding. I believe the alternate win condition in “I am a Hero, too!” will ultimately be found to be too unreliable, though I am sure the community at large will be trying to make it work. She should see high level representation despite this, and would expect many people will be on her. Something else that is a boon for her is that she exists on three symbols that have all been historically good, in Good, Life, and Water. This combines into the fact that along with her lack of keyword gates make her incredibly fun to build, from the counter theme to trying to just kill people with Jiro’s Bass giving a massive buff to your offensive potential (which is where I believe she will ultimately settle at). There have also been multiple combos theorized around using Command Pigeon Flock to build in Friends of Animals, which snags a momentum to use with Capture Evil-Doers to clear your card pool, combined with Tasty Riff and UA High to fetch back Command Pigeon Flock, lets you play exceptionally deep turns to generate counters at a massive rate, which may also end up being one of the better directions for her going into the future.
Oh yeah, its combo time
Ryukyu
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 4/10
Sauce: 5/10
Dragon Hero Ryukyu makes a smashing debut in this set, and she isn’t here to mess around. With the ability to reliably draw cards and generate momentum, as well as being able to make her moves massive, the downside of requiring blank moves is warranted. Unfortunately this gimmick will likely push players away due to being considered “boring”, but that doesn’t stop her from still being a powerful character. She has multiple combos within her kit to let her string phenomenally well, in addition to gaining momentum, she will have several unique options within deckbuilding. She will of course run her bread and butter moves, but offensive options such as Howitzer Impact Cyclone, Red Riot Unbreakable, BMI Buster and Nejire Wave fit right into her gameplay, while also being able to load up on utility effects such as the recently revealed Dramatic Slash, the previously revealed Incredible Display, and old goodies such as Convenient Timing. Not to mention she works flawlessly with Echo Attacks, allowing her to weave even more attacks into her rushdown style turns means she can blow up most characters with ease. I would expect her to emerge as one of the premier aggro archetypes on the fringes of topping, with enough legs to occasionally get there.
Non-vanilla ways to spice up your attack lineup
Shoto Todoroki IV
Power: 8/10
Playrate: 7/10
Sauce: 6/10
Just like with Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki also makes his forth appearance this set. Sporting two simple abilities, he will likely emerge as one of the best aggro decks in the game. He has a potentially massive stat pump as well as a theme of sealing rival foundations, means he will be able to overcome nearly any wall, though paradoxically does less against opposing aggro archetypes. He has many unique options under all of his symbols, with the most notable one being Repeated Seal Toss, which is ranged for his response, seals stuff, and grabs itself for additional attacks. Ultimately he will be a simple character with a solid playrate that will be able to blow people up on the early turns of the game, likely by turn 3.
Selkie's new best friend
Tsuyu Asui II
Power: 9/10
Playrate: 7/10
Sauce: 8/10
Last but certainly not least, Tsuyu Asui makes her third appearance and is certainly not a slouch like version II. Asui is effectively a variation of Kamui Woods I, a respectable character, and does it potentially much more powerfully. Being able to theoretically draw on every attack makes her one of the most resource wealthy characters in the game, allowing her to formulate whatever gameplay she wants to achieve. While I think that midrange versions will likely be the most common early variant, a much more scary option is to build into infinity, blocking every attack, and eventually crushing the opponent under her sheer mass of resources. I expect her to maintain a healthy playrate while also often topping events, with enough freedom in deck building allowing each player to exhibit their own personal deckbuilding style, she will be one of the most impactful characters from the set.
You already know what I am going to do...
What’s To Expect Next Thanks for tuning into my expectations and ratings for the main set characters of the upcoming set, expect an addition later reviewing the back page cards! Any discussion below would be appreciated, and I will try and be involved as possible!
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