With Jetburn releasing recently and everyone preparing not only for the upcoming webcam events run by both UVS as well as prominent community members, as well as for worlds coming up in February, the whole community has been deckbuilding and exploring the most recent set. Personally, I have been having an absolute blast brewing with this set, with so many cool characters and awesome options, this has been the most fun set yet in my opinion.
With this in mind, I wanted to show off not only some of the decks I have been playing and have brewed, but also the coolest cards from my perspective as a deckbuilder in this set! In terms of decks I’ll be showing off a Denki I list that is high on my competitive radar, an explosive Inasa list, and finally one of the most fun decks I have played in this game with a spicy Uwabami list.
Throughout I’ll be going over some of the coolest set 6 cards and exploring other similar options or explorations so expect a more free-form article, so buckle up for a wild ride of storm proportions!
A Shocking Update to a Beloved Character
Denki I has always been one of the most dangerous characters, with his pop-off turns nearly unmatched, he has earned the nickname “Mr. Two Turns” for a reason given his ability to, well, take two turns in one. He has seen minor competitive success in previous formats, but has been part of the group of set 1 characters that have fallen by the wayside as new shiny toys have been released, as well as other powerful characters being added to the fray. He also is very risky to pilot given the recent meta as well as developing meta going into this new set, as his 20 health and lack of defense on face means he is a prime target for other aggro decks that are litering the format.
Despite this, he is still quite a formidable deck, and has gained several new and important tools in his arsenal, adding not only additional consistency to his turns but new offensive options that allow him to truly have some of the most insane turns in the game. I mentioned he is high on my radar of competitive decks, and is a likely candidate for my tournament ventures of this set. Additionally, he has been an absolute blast to play, and if it wasn’t for another deck later in this article cough Uwabami cough, this would be the deck I most recommend to try. With that, onto the list!
Now it looks like a bunch of 1-ofs, which it is, but they all serve a purpose, and have the secondary effect of making each game play differently, adding a ton of variety to the deck which makes it an absolute blast to play.
For the attack lineup it includes the basic Denki staples of Electric Jolt and Zero Gravity Lift, while also running the Meteor Shower and Double Jab Pummel package to make sure there is both enough fuel to keep stringing long as well as consistency in being able to support playing a bunch of attacks in a single turn. The biggest addition is Velocity Rush, an unassuming common from Jetburn. It is one of the few cards with Echo, and given Denki’s ability to reliably grab momentum means it is often two attacks in one, and it is even a Charge for his enhance! It has been one of the key cards in extending offense turns, and even neatly synergizes with Zero Gravity Lift to pick it up when it would flip from Echo, meaning you can play another attack and then follow up with a combo’d Double Jab Pummel which comes up more frequently then you’d expect.
Of the excluded cards, one of the biggest ones is Close Quarters Subdual. While it does fit in theory, it is less useful in practice, as the commital is redundant with our character, and with it being poorly statted means it doesn’t exert very much offensive pressure. Swift Redirect is another neat option that is pretty much always 4-difficulty 4-high-6 with EX: 3, though it barely didn’t make the cut. It has been on my mind however as a very cool offensive option that I have been running to great effect in Midoriya V as it becomes a 7-high-7, which as a 4-diff makes it incredibly threatening and easy to weave into turns!
On the topic of 4-difficulty moves, Jetburn has blessed us with a plethora of awesome options across a wide array of symbols. Of course the standout ones are Flashfire Fist: Hell Spider, Velocity Rush, and Falling Skies, but that isn’t all the set has to offer! Fiber Web Combo has been one of my personal favorites, acting as a potent game-ending threat, especially when combined with characters that can pump damage. I have been playing a decent amount of Dabi I where it is a key piece in ending games, being able to launch multiple gigantic throws in a single turn letting you break through even the strongest defenses. I have also been exploring an Aoyama I list utilizing it, as he can also pump it to astronomical numbers to end games.
Slice & Burn has also been on my mind, and while I haven’t built anything with it, the prospect of triggering the powerful Combo ability has been tantalizing me since it was revealed. Not only does it let you filter two cards, but it also burns the rival for two damage meaning it represents 7 damage by itself, 9 if you have been going through your deck rapidly! Frog Strike has also piqued my interest as a solid value attack, allowing you to both Stun and Seal the rivals board, and if you have spare cards it also can pump itself to a respectable 7 damage.
The last 4-diff I wanted to mention is Rabbit Kick, one of the new ultra rares of the set. While designed for Mirko, it has several incredibly interesting uses outside of her. When combined with Breakdancing, #5 Pro Hero, and Forcing Surrender, you are able to do a ton of card pool shenanigans with flipping and discarding your cards to allow for some truly wild turns. I have been exploring this concept on a variety of Death students, from Shoji II to Aoyama I (again), and Inasa (though that isn’t the variation I’ll show off later!).
Moving back to the Denki list, the foundation base has gone through the most changes this set. The biggest cards for the deck have been Bring It On!, Incompatible Quirks, and Flustered, all of which solve the biggest issues that Denki has faced previously. Denki has always been phenomenal at playing a ton of moves, though his issues have been threefold; he lacks ways to give damage to his attacks, he hasn’t had reliable draw power to find a bunch of attacks consistency, and being able to pass all the moves he can play. Bring It On! provides a powerful source of damage pump given his ability to clear a ton of cards from his card pool while also allowing you to nullify a rival card advantage effect in a pinch while on the offense. Flustered is a simple draw effect that the Air symbol has been lacking, which also doubles as a piece of momentum hate in a format defined by powerful momentum effects such as Capture Evil-Doers, Specialized Sound Waves, and Mirio’s big dumb face. Lastly, Incompatible Quirks solves the final issue of passing checks by being a way to consistently reready itself to always have foundations to commit for your strings while also doubling as a Release-style effect on defense.
Speaking of defense, one of the decks glaring weaknesses is the almost complete lack of low blocks. Another Jetburn card is here to save the day though in the form of Quirk Expertise, allowing you to change the zone of any attack to a high, making use of the vast quantity of high blocks in the deck. Additionally it checks a 6, allowing you to get away with greedy lines or have surprise extension on defensive turns. One of the few low blocks in the deck is the newly introduced The Return of the Kings, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards of the set. It is a simple defensive 1-diff, but it sports a wonderful 2-low block and a killer on-block response allowing you to zoop it into your stage after blocking, giving you incredibly stable defense if the rival swings lows at you. You’ll often have momentum in this deck, so that response is often online as well, making it another cog in this well-oiled machine!
Other newly release foundations have also found their way into this list, such as Multitasking giving additional damage to our lineup while also always having fodder given Denki’s ability to commit the rivals board. Reaching Out is another small stat pump that again eases the burden of playing out our turns while having the benefit of “storing” the –1 difficulty if we need to play foundations to charge more momentum before triggering the once-per-game with Electric Jolt. I also want to note that small damage pumps combine well with Zero Gravity Lift as it just needs a single point of bonus damage to reach an odd number to maximize it’s Throw keyword.
As mentioned this is likely to be one of the competitive decks within my repertoire this season given it’s explosive potential and sheer amount of fun to play. If you're looking into this character in a competitive capacity I'd recommend starting here, though all of his other symbols also got incredibly neat options as well with Jetburn. Speaking of explosiveness however...
An Explosive Storm is Brewing
Moving onto the next deck, a new face brings a unique spin on an existing archetype as Inasa enters the fray with a bang! While he isn’t a God of Thunder, he shares the primary ability as well as packing a speed-modifying response to go along with it! His face presents a plain and simple gameplan; build out, blow up your weak foundations to ready the strong ones, and control the pace of the game with his powerful speed modification ability. He has been one of my favorite characters to play this set, as he embodies high-risk high-reward, having to balance offense with building foundations in order to fuel his response, and few things feel better than reliably slinging exceptionally fast moves.
Since he’s so open ended, players can take him in any direction they please. I have explored variations on all of his symbols, though the one I’ve had the most success with has been under Death. Grenadier Bracers was made for this character (sorry Bakugo), giving him damage pump to go along with his natural speed pump, while also being able to store up for a huge steroid at the end of a string. Death also gives him other foundations that slot in perfectly with his theme, with both Blood Evaluation and Learning to Harden giving incredible speed control as well as reliable draw power.
To go along with this, I focused the deck with a strong Fury package, with Stun Grenade, Vile Seizing, and Howitzer Impact Cyclone adding more sources of card advantage. Along with that the deck features Hardened Fist to keep our board full, and Howitzer Impact (No Cyclone) slots in perfectly with the gameplan. With all of the card advantage, I have had turns where I reliably end up with 10+ cards in my hand when I end my turn, meaning you will always have fuel to build out or string along, and this guy is great at stringing.
One card I want to point out is A Spear and a Shield, given its perfect synergy with the deck, given it being a potent defensive trick while also charging a momentum for Howitzer Impact Cyclone and finishing off with an easily maxed-out offensive steroid in this deck. Showdown is the other blocking action which is easy to pass given the reliable speed reduction Inasa offers, while also being a neat answer to Capture Evil-Doers.
While the deck only features two new foundations, with one being Inasa’s very own given its wonderful synergy with the deck. The stun hate is a bit redundant given the character, as well as most decks leaning away from stun generally due to the number of powerful anti-stun 0-diffs in the format. The deck also includes #5 Pro Hero as a great defensive tool against one of the menaces of the format cough Dragon lady cough, as well as minor disruption against other decks relying on having their card pool face up such as against decks featuring the combo keyword such as Mirio. It also has the secret text of “Deadlock Form: Take an extra turn”, which is never a bad thing to threaten with especially with the amount of draw this deck has to actually threaten that possibility.
While slightly on the topic of defensive foundations, I did want to mention the number of quality defensive foundations introduce within Jetburn. This iteration of the game in terms of the MHA format has presented offensive that has been smothering at best and oppressive at worst, with a wide variety of characters having ways to pump damage consistency, such as frontrunners of the format in Jiro, Mirio, and Overhaul, while also having potent ways for decks to ignore the primary limiting mechanic of the game, progressive difficulty. From clearing the card pool with Capture Evil-Doers and Asui, to check bonus abilities in Summon Dark Shadow and Double Jab Pummel, to ignoring progressive with The Future Is Now, Overhaul, and Echo attacks (It makes sense if you think about it), as well as simply rigging the game with Jiro and Specialized Sound Waves, playing “fair” Universus isn’t usually effective against the variety of ways to play unfairly. This has culminated in a format featuring primarily aggressive decks at the top, with defensive decks requiring oppressive defense even from early on in order to survive.
With Jetburn however, the number of defensive tricks has increased a sizable amount. While they won’t stop the unfair decks from doing the unfair thing, defensive options have caught up to offense in a big way, and the metagame broadly is incredibly healthy and diverse. Set 6 introduced a plethora of low-difficulty foundations that add small speedbumps in the rivals offensive gameplan, such as Fiery Confrontation, Hot Pursuit, and Soulful Rendition. There was also a cycle of 1-difficulty foundations that commit to help block, which while some may not see the most play, are fantastic to exist as options for players.
Another layer to this is the number of utility effects introduced within the set. We got a way to lock damage in Always Cool, three speed resets in Fashion Icon, Defending Pageant Queen and The New #1, while League handler helps against long strings by effectively forcing the rival to fail their last attack if they aggress long enough. Feather Control, Incredible Display, Air Force Style, and Blood Sample all present ways of maintaining card advantage while defending, while Quirk Expertise and Fearless Frog let you fix your block zones in case you were dealt a lopsided hand. Even beyond that, Vast Strength effectively seals an attack, #5 Pro Hero acts as a cool defensive piece, and Strength and Beauty lets you lock cards in the rival's pool to counter any sort of clearing shenanigans that may happen.
With all of this in mind, the number of defensive-to-offensive options has greatly evened out, which contributes to why the format is so good in my opinion. Ignoring the obvious outliers, the metagame is incredibly diverse and healthy currently, and is an absolute blast to play. There are plenty of aggressive strategies that exist that each have their own answers, where previously some offense was incredibly difficult to answer, or the answers plainly didn’t exist.
Of course this makes the prior-mentioned egregious decks feel even more frustrating to play into, but there will always be the strongest options. To me, a healthy format is one where the best options don’t so clearly tower over the rest of the field, and the current format is increasingly heading in that direction. If you don’t want to play any of the top 5, 10, or even 20 decks, I would argue you still have plenty options to remain competitive. Of course you will have to put in some work, however the amount of work necessary and the variety of the format makes it a ton of fun and exciting to play and explore. And speaking of exploration, I still have one last deck to show off...
Why Can’t Snakes Play the Guitar?
Because they have no handssss! A super lame intro, but I promise this deck is the opposite of that. With the advent of Jetburn, one of the biggest cards that caught the community's eye has been Tasty Riff, a (Deadlock!) powerful card that warrants the 2 check, given that at baseline it builds in a 0-diff while also forcing a block lest you drown the rival in card advantage. Of course its primary synergy is with Jiro II, but the effect is strong enough for players to explore using it in other character, such as UnFunStuff’s Tamren Cardwell featuring it in an Asui III deck that drowns the rival in card advantage.
With people looking for other spots to play it, the natural answer is a character that synergizes with 3-damage moves, Uwabami! Given her ability to constantly pick up and replay it, she can consistently pressure the rival by forcing blocks lest she gets a perfect sculpt with her hand heading into aggressive turns. Tasty Riff also scales with how few cards you have in hand, and with Uwabami’s difficulty discount she is able to reliably play it late into a turn to refill her hand before the rivals turn.
Of course she doesn’t have to play it late if you can manage to dump your hand prior to playing the guitar, and I’ve been eyeing a very specific card for that purpose. Needle Stab is the perfect card to pair with the Riff, allowing you to dump your hand early to get MAXIMUM VALUE, and the synergy doesn’t end there. Needle Stab lets you pitch one card to give the next attack +3 speed, meaning the Riff is near-guaranteed to hit, while also letting you pitch two cards to pump it to 9 damage, meaning it incredibly threatening and likely to force a high block from the rival, again increasing the likelyhood of your sick jams connecting with the rival.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pippa deck without some sauce, and I couldn’t resist playing Heroic Clash given all of the existing synergy with the list. Needle Stab lets you charge momentum instantly, enabling Heroic Clash lines without warning, while Tasty Riff lets you filter and redraw an incredible amount, allowing you to both find your Heroic Clashes consistently while also continually giving you more fuel to keep the offensive pressure up. This allows the deck to consistently create insane pop-off turns that dwarf the decks abusing Capture Evil-Doers currently, while also providing consistent pressure of overwhelming value. Heroic Clash also doubles as an omni-block that Uwabami can pick up with her response to get full use of both its offensive and defensive potential.
While not the most competitive deck, it has been an absolute blast to play and some of the most fun I have ever had playing this game and cannot recommend trying it out enough. I wouldn’t recommend taking it to anything other than a local (unless you’re crazy like me), but I believe this is the one of the most competitive directions for the character (sans Heroic Clash). The other direction to go is under Earth where you get access to Berserker Bite, allowing you to consistently have “Breaker: 1” for the entire turn, every turn, positioning its defense well against the litany of string-heavy decks in the current format. Another card Uwabami gets this set is CANYON CANNON (yes, you have to shout it every time you say it), which she has access to under both Chaos and Earth. It is a powerful option that is able to be picked up while reliably hitting for more than 3 damage at a time, giving her consistent offensive pressure which is something she has generally lacked in the past, while also having the side benefit of loading up your discard to fuel both of her enhances.
Other attacks featured include Ambush Thrust, which is an incredibly lowkey card that slots in perfectly in this deck. Being able to pick up a momentum is the main part, being able to reuse attacks that have hit, and since Needle Stab adds in momentum face up you can scout out any momentum added in that way to have a clearer picture of what to grab for the certain circumstance. Since a lot of the moves in the deck are relatively taxing to block, it can also come in as a 7-damage move that can help close out games and adds to the arsenal of high damage moves this deck threatens. Meteor Shower also finds its way into this list as a recurrable threat that lets you turn momentum from Needle Stab into attacks, while also having the benefit of being able to be grabbed since the prior mentioned face up momentum grabbing effect of Needle Stab. Lastly, Nejire Wave is a way to punish the rival for blocking the ridiculously long strings this deck is able to produce, while also commiting the rivals board out with the excess momentum we have access too, which has the knock-on effect of enabling Ambush Thrust as well.
The foundations are fairly standard, with Soulful Rendition and Incredible Display adding additional defensive utility to the deck, while Surprising Skill is another 0-diff that can be built in and smooths out build turns especially with the quantity of low checks in the deck. One of the notable inclusions is Wild Wild Pussycats, which offers a way to “draw a card” without requiring an enhance step or committing a resource while also filling the discard for our face. Finally, while not a foundation, The Future Is Now! Lets gives you the option of building out and then playing Tasty Riff to end your turn to again refill your hand to weather the storm of attacks decks are trying to play this format.
On the topic of offense in the current format, the top decks of the format are boiling offense down to decks that can break the game and play the most unfair offense possible. While it is an issue, I want to analyze more on why it is an issue. Simply put, playing unfair offense is fun. The largest way to interact with the game is via playing a ton of cards, which is usually the fun part as you are actively interfacing with the game. I don’t necessarily have an issue with that, however the extent to which the “unfair offense” outpaces the rest of the “fair” decks is where the issue lies. Conceptually, why would someone play a deck that “plays less of the game” than others, ignoring diversity of playstyles and card favoritism, when other decks get to “do the thing” to such a higher degree than others?
Part of this is the lack of true consistent answers to the oppressive offense. I am all for having decks that can play a bajillion cards in a turn, but the defensive options need to be able to handle such overbearing decks, which currently they don’t. Because of this the “unfair” decks have few reliable answers, compounded further by one of the main enablers being Capture Evil-Doers, an action, meaning counterplay is incredibly limited. Another way to beat it would be limiting the rivals access to momentum, however that is much more difficult given the abundance of momentum generation in the current format, with Phantom Threat and Rejuvenating Smash being the primary culprits under Good, while Ryukyu generates momentum off of nearly every attack in her deck. Momentum hate is limited and finding enough of it early on is a difficult task even for decks running as much as possible.
The amount of draw power in the format is another contributing factor to this, with the prior mentioned Ryukyu cantripping off nearly every attack, while Rejuvenating Smash, Valiant Assault, and Passing the Torch being reliable ways to consistently draw oodles of cards under Good. The latter is also one of the driving factors of Overhauls dominance on the Life symbol specifically, allowing him to greedily turbo out foundations while being able to top off his hand easily.
Jiro is the primary outlier in these metrics, given both her lack of card draw and card pool clearing, however she is able to reliably beat the rival over the head with sheer stats and long strings which are insulated with her enhance. Her ability to reliably pump stats to an absurd level combined with powerful dunks in Home Run Comet and the newly introduced Falling Skies serving as gigantic moves. Jiro is also able to close out games effectively with both Zero Gravity Lift and Falling Skies having access to the Throw keyword, making defending against this character a nightmare.
While all the previous points show some of the “issues” with the format, I wanted to note that I don’t believe they are inherently bad things. Playing lots of cards is fun, drawing lots of cards is fun, and playing powerful cards is fun, the issue comes from when said power imbalances are not spread out equally among the cast. When certain decks have such an elevated power level, it almost invalidates one of the coolest parts of the game; the wide array of playable characters that allow people to find a unique identity within the game.
Of course you don’t have to play one of the problematic characters to do well at events, but for top level play it simplifies options and reduces the amount of skill involved, especially when the good decks lean towards more aggro-centric gameplans. With the overall reduction in game length, players have fewer overall choices to be made within each game, reducing player agency and increasing variance to “If I don’t draw the right pieces then I am severely unfavored”, especially given the reduced game length making finding the incorrect pieces being effectively a death sentence if you don’t get them within the first few turns of the game. This has the knock-on effect of making reduced deck sizes more preferable in order to boost consistency, limiting the number of options you can include in your deck and simplifying deck building. This further limits the types of decks that are good within the format, with slower decks needing oppressive defense in order to withstand the barrage of powerful offensive threats, leading to a cycle of requiring decks to play offense as unfairly as possible to break through the defense powerhouses of the format.
Aside from the top decks however, the meta is in an incredible position. The number of viable characters is at an all-time high, and the variety of playstyles available gives every player a way to find something they enjoy within the game. There is a solid balance of playstyles available, and the power level of the format (generally) is pretty enjoyable. At a local level the game blooms into an awesome amalgamation of allowing creative deckbuilders freedom to mess around with a wide variety of concepts, and personally I have been having an absolute blast playing recently.
To end this section off, I wanted to leave on a positive note. I believe the direction design has been going in is good, and the primary issues of the format stem from cards from the initial era of the format which will leave with the new standard format next set release with Yu Yu Hakusho. I am excited to see what new directions the format will head in, and hope that the future format has less frustration in terms of skewed power levels.
What’s on the Horizon
As mentioned previously, I have been working on my own set for UVS, and progress is coming along nicely. I am reaching the point where I can start revealing parts of the set, so look out for that on the horizon. I will preemptively note however that the set will feature higher complexity new mechanics, and reworks of old ones in order to fully enhance the experience of the format! It will be quite a departure from the current game, and I cannot wait to share this as it is something I am incredibly passionate about, so expect the next article to be an introduction to the set!
And one last thing. My friends over at King’s Court Gaming have an announcement coming up on December 16th, and have sent me a little teaser for it. The real questions are who is coming, and where? The logical answer is that they themselves are coming, but as for the second? Only time will tell...
As always, thanks for making it all the way to the end. I know I got a bit rambly in this article, but I have had many thoughts on the game recently and wanted to share what I think of the state of the game. With the big webcam event this weekend we will get an early read on the meta with the newly released Jetburn cards, and just a few weeks later we have the community hosted Winter Clash event, so there will be plenty of events to play in! 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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