The dragon orders a shot of fireball, the bird orders a flight of beer, and the frog abstains as it would kill her.
Welcome everyone to my first exploration into Jetburn, and today we will be taking a look at three of the decks I am looking into testing first come release day! Of course whenever a set releases all eyes are on the new characters and toys, and I am not immune to this phenomenon. Of course I will be looking towards older characters as well, but while the set is fresh I love to play and enjoy the new characters. As of writing, we are technically missing the full set (waiting on the last four cards to be revealed), however enough of the set has been revealed for me to start building with it in mind. The Plus Ultra cards may find places and change builds, though it would be unlikely to massively impact any of these characters.
Before I move onto the rest of the article I did want to mention that my Nationals report is coming, it has just been a doozy to write in addition to dealing with a cold I obtained over the weekend (thankfully it isn’t covid). It will be out as possible, thank you for all of the patience and support you have shown me, and I appreciate everyone who came up to chat with me over the weekend! Without further adieu, let’s take a look at Ryukyu, Hawks, and Asui the third!
Imagine Dragons on Loop
With the first deck on the list, we have Ryukyu! While many players’ initial impressions of her were lackluster, she has shown to be one of the potential menaces heading into the next format. The ability to draw cards to find combo pieces along with charging a free momentum means she can reliably find aggressive hands while using Capture Evil-Doers to beat the opponent to death with stats. Her ultra rare, Dragon Impact, can also look with a blank attack and her foundation Vast Strength in order to turn two attacks into five, reminiscent of Ochaco I with Amphibious Ambush. Differing from Ochaco however, Ryukyu is able to abuse Capture Evil-Doers as well to string long, giving her incredible potential on both low attack hands as well as attack-flooded hands.
The concept and premise are easily found as the goal of the deck is self-explanatory; find the good ones, snap momentum for powerful effects, and beat the rival to death with an absurd amount of attacks. She feels like a variation on Rappa, Ochaco I, and Asui I, where she just wants to play her entire hand to count to the rivals life total. With multiple ways to multiply her turns, she can feel like a solitaire combo deck at times, given both her lines with Dragon Impact and Capture Evil-Doers, letting her “take” two or sometimes three turns in a row.
Moving onto actualization, the attack lineup solves itself given the heavy restriction on the character. I ended up splitting copies of Air Force Blast and Dragon Strike, as the former is a larger move while been off-zone, with the latter providing targeted interaction at the cost of worse stats. Copies of these two are flexible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I moved to a 4-1 ratio of Dragon Strike to Air Force Blast.
The foundations are where the majority of deckbuilding exists with this character, and my list goes full greed, running foundations such as Prone To Dry Eyes, Talented Baker, and Floating Around My Babies in combination with Ryukyu’s Dragon Power to pump our reliably pump our stats, with Prone To Dry Eyes being a greedy 3-difficulty foundation in a deck with 2-checks, however the payoff is well worth the risk. Other cards such as Destined For Mainstream Success and Advice For Winners helps smooth our checks, as the main limiter on our turns is how well we check. Chivalrous Competitor also finds a home as a generically strong card that lets us dig for more attacks and combo pieces.
The deck is fairly straightforward as you go for greedy builds early in order to one-shot your rival on turns two and three. The deck plays itself for the most part, with it being “intensive” in the sense that you have a surprising number of buttons to push between all of your stat pumps and consistency effects. Most of the learning curve of the deck will be analyzing aggressive hands and figuring out the lines you want to take during an aggressive turn. Oftentimes you will want to go for the Dragon Impact line first, and then Capture Evil-Doers once you have looped as much as you can. This obviously may change, and you can adapt your lines as you find more cards throughout the turn with your response, Chivalrous Competitior, and Destined For Mainstream Success.
The most common line to get used to will be a blank attack into Dragon Impact, making sure to respond and shove a momentum on the first attack. You will lift the first attack, and once Dragon Impact resolves you can use Vast Strength to loop it to hand to repeat the line. From there you can slam more attacks and clear with Capture Evil-Doers as necessary. Occasionally you may lead with double blank attacks in order to Pro Hero Enhance on Dragon Impact to commit the rivals character, meaning your line would look like blank attack into blank attack, responding both times, into Dragon Impact, Pro Hero Enhance, then pick up one of the previous attacks. Follow it with the form on Vast Strength, then replay Dragon Impact to lift the other attack out of your card pool. This does leave the rivals character up for two attacks however, so if you are able to stockpile a momentum you can access the commit effect on your second move with the regular line.
Overall I see Ryukyu joining the ranks of powerful 6 hand-size aggro characters leading the format alongside Mirio, Rappa, and Jiro. What sets her apart from other aggro decks is the sheer volume of attacks she is able to vomit out in a single turn, through both multiplying attacks with Dragon Impact or ignoring progressive through consistent access to momentum to fuel Capture Evil-Doers. More midrange variants could pop up, given her ability to enable Convenient Timing like no other character letting her play defense by reducing the rivals ability to play long strings. This gives her a defensive edge against other aggro lists, as breaker 1 for an entire turn hugely limits the output of other decks. While my list is fully aggressive, I would expect defensive pieces such as Determined and Night Watch to also potentially find homes.
As an additional note, the All symbol has access to a plethora of 6-checks, with #10 Pro Hero, Pass Through Walls, Determined, and Patient Observation all being viable cards to run in her, allowing for 16 potential 6 checks. If you want to fully commit you also have the option of Polite & Well-Spoken to run a staggering 20 6-checks. While this would normally be a huge boon, Ryukyu is often playing her cards on 5s instead of 6s, reducing the general value of this strategy, though it is an option in more midrange variants in order to play better defense and go for greedier lines on kill turns. It also comes at the cost of cutting into your offensive foundations, meaning your early turns are less potent for anyone considering this type of build.
Bird is the Word
Moving onto our triumphant trio of champions, we have the #2 pro hero Hawks! Throughout the reveal season he has garnered a lot of support, both due to his unique design as well as being a fan favorite character. However, the community seems divided on how good he is, with opinions from both sides arguing that he is either one of the best characters of the set, or one of the worst. While initially I rated him highly, I have settled more towards the middle, as his strengths are apparent but gated. Picking up feathers requires finding them, meaning that you can be left without the primary ability for a portion of the game if you get unlucky. His other abilities are also strange, with the stat flip being incredibly situational, and the zone change even more so, except on defense when you can rig block zones. His speed modification is also powerful, but requires at least one player to interact with speed, which not every matchup does. Matchups like Mirio and Overhaul don’t interact with speed meaning you need to be packing your own interaction, while characters that use Flash moves like Jiro dodge it entirely.
This leaves Hawks in an awkward position as he is theoretically powerful, but he relies on a lot of things to go right for him during a game. He needs to find his feathers, he needs to find high blocks, and he needs to pack consistent interaction. While these are all asks, they aren’t the most difficult, and I believe Hawks will find a place within the meta. He has the Good symbol meaning he can play a generic punch package (which I have explored and was not impressed), meaning he can always fall back as a “user of good cards”, while Eri Smiles is the most potent defensive trick he has access too under any symbol. Order as a symbol has struggled, though I believe he can carve out a unique niche as the premier Order Blood Moon Rending user. Evil has a surprising amount of overlap with Order as they share not only Blood Moon Rending, but also Showdown which is the premier high-block for him.
In my initial exploration I was on the Good symbol, using effects like Phantom Threat and Rejuvenating Smash to snatch momentum for Capture Evil-Doers lines while Raiding The Villain Hideout provided both a discard outlet and a way to pump Feathers further. The deck wholly unimpressed me, but is something I will likely revisit in the future.
I still wanted to explore this character however, so I looked toward his other symbols. Blood Moon Rending is the obvious direction, however I noticed that both Feather Storm combined with Tongue Whip make very difficult-to-block strings. Unnerving Energy and Twisty Surroundings also provided me with a way to ditch momentum on the rivals turn, letting me actually take momentum from Feathers that do damage. Lastly, Fierce Wings has been a card I have been pretty high on, and being able to tutor Showdown, Twisty Surroundings, and Barrier Shield means you can reliably play very disruptive defense.
With the concept set I moved onto the premise and actualization, and eventually settled on a long-stringing deck that can also play potent turn-stopping defense. To go along with this plan I included Vile Seizings for the generic draw power, while Tongue Tank provided itself as a powerful finisher which plays incredibly nicely with the [Hand] enhance from Hawks’ Feather. Tongue Tank also doubles as a 3-difficulty move that I can grab with Fierce Wings, allowing me to find it reliably throughout my offensive turns. Feather Sword Slash is a staple of Hawks decks, allowing you to find your feathers reliably, which is what this character needs to get going in the game.
The rest of the deck is fairly basic, with Excited For Blood providing card advantage, while Cooperation Offer and Surviving The Final slot in with the new Incompatible Quirks to form the defensive backbone of the deck. Relaxed Demeanor finds Feather, as well as Tongue Tank which can be picked up with Fierce Wings. Feather Control is another Hawks staple, allowing him to reuse the enhance on Feather, or simply use it to duplicate a feather as an attack.
Offensive lines are straightforward, with the leads being Feather Storm and Tongue Whip, the latter of which can also be used as a finisher. Feather Sword Slash and Vile Seizing are sources of card advantage while also being threatening moves, and Tongue Tank is the optimal finisher, which can be sped up with feathers from hand which also boosts the damage from the enhance. It also means that you can go Feather Storm into Tongue Whip into Tongue Tank, a three attack string that is all on 5s, allowing you to play it without committing many resources.
This likely isn’t the most optimal deck, however I think it certainly has legs (or should I say wings?), and provides a more unique direction to go in. I believe that if you found slots for Blood Moon Rending that would likely be solid, though it means you have to play a Feather second, leading to less-than-optimal sequencing given Feather’s low difficulty allowing you to string out incredibly long. I could see more aggressive variations also pop up, with further damage pump to go all-in on the offensive feather gameplan.
While I don’t believe Hawks is as bad as some people say he is, I have cooled down and think he will settle as a solidly middle-of-the-pack character that will have high representation akin to Bakugo I. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him top cut, though talk of him ruling the format is greatly overexaggerated.
What The Frog Doin’ Now?
Lastly we have Tsuyu Asui back in her third incarnation, and she is back with a vengance. After having one of the best and worst faces in set 1, her newest iteration is going to be one of the meta front-runners in Jetburn. With a draw effect that is repeatable via her response on top of being able to clear her card pool, she is easily going to be a jack-of-all-trades character that can find what she needs to reliably to execute her gameplan.
One of the things that is most unique about her is that she present reliable draw power on face while on the Air and Chaos, two symbols that have historically lacked card advantage in the My Hero Academia format. This allows her to use many of the powerful effects on the symbols while not falling due to lack of advantage, one of the biggest drawbacks to other characters on those symbols such as Jiro and Midnight. Her heavy card advantage also means she is able to filter and find combo pieces reliably, meaning she can go for a greedier high-synergy build as she can find all of her necessary cards reliably.
While I will likely explore this character on all of her symbols, the variation I present today is under the Chaos symbol. The immediate synergy with Summon Dark Shadow is something that always catches my eye given the strength of the card. From there the list was open, and while I explored two variations, the initial one being a low-synergy attack lineup that just ran a bunch of solid value cards such as Frog Hop, Blueflame Torment, and Spiral Wave Surge alongside a Summon Dark Shadow and Dark Shadow Ruin package.
That didn’t strike particular inspiration for me, so I opted to go with another direction; a more aggro-centric list utilizing Team Player to string long and pump my moves, while Command Pigeon Flock lets me find it reliably and Frigid Heatwave keeps my hand topped off. I am also able filter a ridiculous amount using Petty Squabble in a fashion reminiscent of Kamui Woods, while Single Spiral also presents a powerful (not the keyword) move that allows additional filter for combo pieces.
I ended up with a midrange-combo deck, using Asui’s face combined with Struggling With Studies and Incredible Display to loop blocks to my hand while I dig for a hand where I can combo out. Petty Squabble also doubles as a committal tool that we can reliably use due to the excess card advantage offered by the character.
The rest of the build is fairly basic, with Manifest being an awesome card paired with Dark Shadow Ruin to extend offensive turns by clearing the card pool and drawing a card. Levitate is a momentum outlet that furthers our card advantage, while Problem Solving is both stun-hate and a check bonus on both offense and defense with our reliable ways to pitch it in Team Player and Petty Squabble respectively.
Offensively the most noteworthy card is Quick Draw, as it draws a card if it hits, meaning that either it is not blocked and we draw a card, or it is blocked and we get to ready our character, which also allows us to draw a card. It is a catch-22 card for the rival, and provides sneaky utility by “hacking” the rivals’ next check as well. Freezer Burn also makes an appearance as a “3-difficulty” attack that has water so it can be pumped with Team Player.
This character has a lot of eyes on her, and for good reason. Her face is one of the best in the set, as drawing cards and clearing card pools is an incredibly potent combination. Expect to run into this character a lot in the coming months as players explore all of her variations. As I mentioned, she gives Air and Chaos reliable draw power to facilitate combo decks, while under water she is able to play near-infinite defense with all of the speed reduction on symbol and repeatable draw on face.
While I didn’t mention techs for the previous decks, Chaos presents some interesting options. Concentrate is high on my list given the prevalence of Capture Evil-Doers, and cancelling that card often ends the rivals turn. With it being one of the most dangerous cards in the game currently, I could easily envision running it in this deck as you can reliably find it with all of your card velocity. League Of Villains is another notable card as a generally powerful tech, and in this deck you can almost always pay the cost by committing your character only to reready whenever an attack is blocked.
Lastly, just as with the All symbol, Chaos has a plethora of potential 6-checks that can be run. Combat Decisions and Pass Through Walls are the best options, though #23 Pro Hero is another valid option in order to dig an additional card before reviewing. League Interview is another option with slight offensive and defensive utility, bringing the total number of 6-checks up to 16 if you run all four. Other options like Takoyaki, Strange Friendship, Finger Guns, and Taunt The Hero exist, however are too niche to find homes in general decks.
A Menagerie of Mayhem
With those out of the way, expect more content in this style as I cover the various decks I am looking into with the release of the new set! Other characters I am looking towards include Jiro II, Ochaco IV, and Inasa, as well as old favorites such as Denki I, Ochaco I, and Dabi I, so be on the lookout for those in upcoming articles!
Another topic I would love to dive into in the future is how I concept decks and come up with out-there ideas. I will likely cover that soon as I will be in full theorycraft mode with the set release, and of course I will be publishing my full Pro Hero Nationals report as soon as I can (I am about 70% finished!). As always thanks for reading, and 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, or shoot me a message on discord! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to follow me on twitter or leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
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