Welcome back to the newest Culling the List where I take a look at Midnight, one of my all time favorite characters and one of the ones I am most known for. Midnight has been a pet deck of mine ever since she first released, and I have been tinkering and tuning her throughout my lifetime as a UVS player. She packs some of the most potent abilities on her face, with powerful speed manipulation and a free mulligan every cycle, she is able to aggress and defend effortlessly assuming she has ready foundations, all while being able to sculpt the perfect hand to go in for crazy kill turns.
As one of the pioneers of the character, unfortunately under chaos she hasn’t had much evolution over the sets due to set 1 having all the best cards for her, with the biggest draws being Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts and Dark Shadow Ruin being absolutely massive in her while also packing utility in the form of Ice Storm and Electric Jolt. The biggest innovations were during set 3 with the release of Command Pigeon Flock and Friend Of Animals allowing your moves to get even bigger, while Somnambulism provided a powerful way for her to interact with the rivals character, a niche that very few other characters could match reliably, either by running Bloodcurdle (which is very good right now!!), or being Eraserhead I.
As such, Midnight is in the powerful midrange to aggro archetype, the biggest grouping of characters in this game. While she doesn’t struggle in slower paced matches, she is incredibly resource hungry which can cause her to falter once the opponent has fully established their board. With this in mind, she is looking to blow out her opponent quickly with a barrage of ridiculously large moves. She values having damage within her foundation base, as all the speed in the world doesn’t matter if she hits like a wet noodle. Cards that ready her board are also essential to be able to string out while still having foundations to commit for her enhance.
While I mentioned that the Chaos archetype hasn’t seen much evolution, as the Chaos list I am presenting only includes a single set 4 AND 5 card, she has undergone quite some updates on her other symbols, primarily Void, which will be the other list covered here. With the additions of Rejuvenating Smash as well as Repeated 100% Smash, she is able to gain more card advantage than her Chaos variation while also gaining an incredibly potent tool to reready her board. She is positioned well to take on the meta currently, so with that let's delve into the R-Rated Hero: Midnight!
And Update to the Old
As I mentioned above I will be including an “updated” Chaos list, though it has barely changed over the last few sets, and is unlikely to change in the future. This is one of the most stagnant decks currently, with little reason to stray from the path of a Summon Dark Shadow aggro-adjacent deck with the ability to kill your rival with ease.
As you can see, the only new addition is Nice Try!, a welcome include as it allows you to commit your board while constantly rereadying itself for the rivals turn. Other then that I have made a few small adjustments, such as the including of Frozen which helps you push through large boards, as well as Spirited Referee as a way to add damage since the banning of Stronger In Darkness. Otherwise the foundation base has stayed the same, though it will likely be shaken up with the advent of Jetburn, with powerful cards such as Incredible Display and Rescue Specialist likely finding a home in here.
The attack lineup has also shifted, notably the removal of Twisting Azure Inferno and Home Run Comet. The former lost too much consistency due to the removal of Stronger In Darkness, while the latter doesn’t suit the updated lineup, which includes Ice Storm and Somnambulism in the main deck, along with the new Giant Ice Wall. The meta currently favors string decks that can go deep in their offensive turns, as well as a surge of characters that have defensive tricks on face. Somnambulism finds its way into the main deck to counter the likes of Overhaul and Mirio, while also hitting top cut contenders such as Amajiki, Nomu, Eraserhead I and Momo. It also helps tear the rivals hand apart with the bottom enhance, an often forgotten ability of the card, while also giving us a rare source of card advantage.
Ice Storm also finds a home in the main deck as a potent defensive piece while also being able to become a game ender with its Powerful: 3 and being unable to be blocked by attacks. Giant Ice Wall is another Todoroki move we get to include as a further way to commit down the rivals board while having small defensive utility with the off-zone Breaker: 1 block. Another slight synergy with it is that it gives the following ranged attack Stun: 2, which is another keyword to count for Midnight’s enhance.
Overall this deck has stayed mostly the same, with adjustments to account for the current meta. And while I love this deck, the chaos variation is not on my list due to the lack of evolution, as well as plainly being the same deck for the last three sets. I very much am a brewer, and when a deck lacks significant change it really harms by perception of the deck and my ability to want to play it. Thankfully, she has found a new direction with Undaunted Raid…
Better than your EX
Introducing what I am currently dubbing “EX Midnight”, where nearly every attack in the deck has EX (almost incidentally). While seemingly overkill in this character due to the excess of speed, the current meta has placed large importance at having raw speed reduction, so having additional outlets to increase the speed of your attacks are welcome. It also allows for some very cute usage of some previously underused cards, which always makes me excited as a brewer. Without further adieu, presenting EX Midnight!
Another name for the list would be Bart nd Lisa Midnight in honor of this famous scene, with the combination of punches and kicks being an unlikely fusion, but hear me out. Rejuvenating Smash and Repeated 100% Smash are both massive boons to this character, with the former synergizing perfectly with our character, and the latter readying our board for more uses of our enhance. When looking through other punches on the void symbol however, our options are… lacking to say the least. The deck includes the wonderful Hardened Uppercut, which serves as both a potent kill condition while packing awesome defensive utility. Ultimate Combination is the next most valid include, which is not the best due to it being effectively a 7-difficulty move in our character. Followed by that is Double Jab Pummel, a card that lacks synergy pieces with both our list and general synergy on the void symbol. From there the quality of punches gets progressively worse, causing use to need to fuse the punch package with another in order to have enough moves to form a deck.
Enter the kick package. Not only does it provide the new powerhouse Recipro Burst, but also the uncommon Engine Boost as another way to snag quick momentum due to our powerful speed buffs. This also gives us a high enough density to consider Falling Thruster Kick, a throwaway common from Crimson Rampage, a move that works perfectly within the deck, allowing for a low-difficulty high-damage option. With a simple Midnight Enhance and EX activation it becomes an 8-High-7, and we will be able to generate momentum for that EX through both Engine Boost as well as Rejuvenating Smash. Lastly is the include of Roundhouse Exhaust, the random Iida card in Eraserhead II's starter deck. With the ability to not have it's speed reduced makes it a consistently fast attack when combo'd, while also allowing us to target commit something on the rival's board.
The deck also runs some cards that don’t technically fit into either package, with Somnambulism being included as discussed previously in the article. Fierce Whirlwind is also a perfect include in our deck, being able to destroy committed foundations to ready our board to string further and allow more activations of our Midnight enhance. Another thing I would like to point out is the ability for Repeated 100% Smash to be an opener as well as a mid-turn piece, as it readies a foundation for free, allowing it to be a “printed” 8-High-6. While we don’t have enough punches to reliably ready more than one or two foundations, that is still perfect for what this character would like to do.
Moving onto the foundations, Gotcha and Easily excited are both spam foundations that allow us to further boost the speed of our moves, while doubling as a defensive trick with our face. We also pack a suite of damage-increasing foundations, with Class 1-A President, Red Riot’s The Coolest, and Spirited Referee being consistent ways for us to buff the damage of our moves to make them even more threatening. Exhausted Exclamation and Calling For Backup give us additional draw power which is something the chaos variation sorely lacks.
Void also gives us a plethora of unique defensive options, with Keeping Eri Safe providing stun hate (which again the chaos variation lacks), Unexpected Hero easily being -5 speed or more when combined with our enhance, while “SPoOoOoOoKY” lets us reliably zero out our rivals moves with all of our speed reduction. …So Manly also shows up as a way to clog the rivals card pool should we be unable or unwilling to block, which further combos with Spooky for us to take reduced damage followed up with a card pool clog, which resembles a build-your-own Run Away!
We also get access to both effects of Ruthless Mockery, which is one of the most potent defensive tricks in the format right now due to the prevalence of string-heavy decks. It also gives us more damage, an additional keyword, and replaces itself, making it one of the key cards of the deck. The other action present is the wonderful Barrier Shield, the best defensive tempo piece in the game, which allows us to not only preserve our resources but gives us some much needed Breaker for our defensive turns.
For the other cards I didn’t touch on, A Master’s Pride readies itself at the end of the turn once assuming we land an attack, which shouldn’t be an issue with our ability to make thing unblockably fast. City-Wide Crisis is another unique singleton, with it being soft draw hate while also having a speed reset for both our own moves as well as any opposing attacks that get a bit too fast for our liking.
Cards for the sideboard would include Barrier Shield, which while slightly redundant with all of our speed reduction, having access to the turn-haltingly good Breaker: 2 makes it a wonderful card to have more copies of in our back pocket. Plus Ultra is another cute potential include, with the potential to make our moves large while also being a defensive trick that doesn’t require resource investment, this is likely to also find a home in the sideboard. Other sideboard includes would be additional copies of Somnambulism for the matchups it excels in, Airstream Driver is another potential dunk we have access to that can also pick apart the rival board. Unbreakable allows another way to take advantage of our committed foundations while shoring up any partial block we may have. Stopping For Breakfast gives us an answer to Capture Evil-Doers, while Locking The Building allows us to chain blocks and also halt any card pool clearing shenanigans our rival may have. Saving Bakugo is anti flip protection, however with the lower counts of Seizing The Advantage makes it less relevant then it was in the past.
Fostering The Relationship
While chaos Midnight is still powerful, the void variation is the current deck on my short list, with it being one of the better contenders for my deck choice. Having plenty of answers to the meta while also being flat-out strong, it is a deck people should keep on their radar, especially after the recent stellar performance of Garett Brett piloting her to a 16th place finish at the recent Rochester RLE. While his variation is wildly different, focusing on a soft weapons package as well as some miscellaneous attacks, the game plan is similar but with a different attack lineup.
Ultimately I wouldn’t expect her to see massive representation at nationals, but the dedicated players who will take her will be a force to be reckoned with. Part of the fun of this character is that each player is able to put their own spin on their versions, so while you can’t properly prepare for everything you may encounter, you can at least be familiar with the deck's play patterns as she plays fairly similarly across all of her builds.
This is another deck I would highly recommend checking out, due to how fun it is to put massive stats on everything while having plenty of ways to approach various situations. A tip I have for people is that you should draw off of Exhausted Exclamation less than you’d expect due to committing your board further. Another useful trick I love is to play a foundation into Rejuvenating Smash, as it means your rival is unable to disrupt your move through effects such as Breaker or any card pool clog they may have. Additionally, don’t be afraid to use your mulligan effect to dig aggressively into your deck, it allows you to reliably find your deck pieces and singletons as you are often drawing much more than you check, giving you increased odds of finding what you need. This further harkens back to Garett’s list, where he is playing a plethora of 1-ofs, as this character can easily find any number of specific pieces for each matchup.
Moving On
Midnight continues to be a strong anti-meta pick, and with all the options she has access to, can be tuned in any way to match up against the expected metagame. She is a character that directly scales in power with the amount of cards she gains access to with every set release, and I expect her to adjust and evolve with all the new cards she gains access to in the future, especially with the next upcoming set Jetburn. With Midnight being the first more “normal” deck of the series, the trend will continue as I look to explore Asui I next. Until next time!
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