Come one, come all, and join us as we explore the wonderful world of Cowboy Bebop with the soon-to-be released Challenger Series decks, one of which features the beloved Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine! This article will only cover the Cowboy Bebop Challenger Deck, or the Brewer’s Guide on the Trigun Stampede Challenger Deck click here!
The Challenger Series is a brand new product from UVS Games where they dive straight into various IPs with a fully built preconstructed deck ready to play out of the box! One of the big draws to the Challenger Series is that they will often feature IPs that don’t have a full set attached to them, allowing UVS to introduce a vast array of new IPs to the game without having to design full sets for all of them, with the first two being the prior-mentioned Cowboy Bebop and Trigun Stampede. Later this year there will also be Critical Role Challenger decks featuring both Vex and Vax from Vox Machina, and then Nott and Jester from the Mighty Nein. Even later this year we will be getting a Godzilla Challenger Series, followed by both My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan, the latter of which will also be backed up with two full set releases!
While Cowboy Bebop has been featured as a full set in the past, it is returning in the new era of Universus with the Challenger Series! Not only will this deck feature a plethora of reprints as well as some spicy new cards, so without further adieu, lets get onto the reviews!
Old Faces, New Style
Of course we have to start off with the faces of the deck, and one of the hallmarks of the Challenger Series is that they will feature multiple characters that can both lead the deck, so there is not one but two new characters to cover, in Spike, Bounty Hunter and Faye, Queen of Hearts!
Spike, Bounty Hunter
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 2/10
Spike returns in the modern era of Universus with a brand new look and powerful new abilities to go along! He is a 6-hand-size character with a solid 29-health, featuring the Earth, Life, and Water symbols, and comes packed with 2 powerful enhances! The first lets him flip a foundation to draw a card, assuming the attack hits, allowing him a steady if inconsistent draw engine on his face, meaning he will often value speed a bit more than damage in order to guarantee draws. He is also able to play stellar defense with this ability, allowing him to draw if he doesn’t block or if he half blocks, letting him consistently have resources to withstand the rival’s offense.
Draw power doesn’t make a character though, and Spike can follow through on his utility with incredible offense, giving stats based on how many flipped foundations he has in his stage, which functions perfectly with the cost of his top enhance. This means that as the game scales in length, so does he, allowing him to pump his attacks to astronomical levels in the late game! The trade-off is that his stage will be “blank” given he requires a large investment of having a large quantity of flipped foundations, meaning that his face has to make up for playing with a lack of stage.
I expect Spike to reside as a solid option within the metagame, as a powerful generic character on all of his symbols. I could easily see a variation where he plays a vast array of powerful defensive effects to withstand the early and mid-game, and then follow a defending turn with a gigantic backswing turn, making every single move incredibly large! He will also be itching to go into deadlock to maintain both powerful stat bonuses and some amount of impactful foundations, so he is likely to look for powerful interaction to shut off any dangerous opposing deadlock!
He could also find a home as a powerful semi-aggro character, where he builds for two-to-three turns, flipping as possible, and then blasting the opponent with a barrage of heavily statted moves back with a full stage from building out. His top enhance becomes the most important part of this strategy, allowing Spike to build out to an extreme degree and still have cards in order to play defense. This would allow him to spend as little time in his “weak” portion of the game as possible, where his stage doesn’t do much and his pump isn’t meaningful enough.
For his Pippa stats, he is a solidly powerful character, though he has clear limitations that will limit his overall success within the game, with both of his enhances having restrictions on functioning. He doesn’t do much in the early stages of the game and requires denying himself resources to function, meaning that his game plan is surprisingly fragile. He will still maintain a solid playrate as fans stick with him, and he is still a decently solid character. Unfortunately, his sauce score is very low, given his limited ability to form a unique gameplan, and will likely end up as a simple and straightforward character that runs the best pile of cards available on his symbol.
Faye, Queen of Hearts
Power: 9/10
Playrate: 6/10
Sauce: 4/10
Backing up Spike is Faye Valentine, what I would argue is the better of the two characters featured within the deck! She is a 7-hand-size with a staggering 21-health, meaning she has a surprising amount of baseline survivability for a 7-hander, with a powerful defensive ability as well! Her enhance lets her flip a foundation for +2 or -2 damage, allowing her significant offensive and defensive potential. With such a strong damage reduction ability on her face she can stretch her base health even more, making her one of the most resilient 7-handers in the game, giving her awesome longevity in a format that is currently very aggro and midrange centric, though that may change with the upcoming releases. It also lets her pump her attacks by +2 damage, which is nothing to scoff at given her ability to reliably find aggressive hands since she is a 7-hander. Notably it is also playable while committed, which comes in handy when paired with her bottom effect!
Speaking of which, Faye also features a very interesting response, allowing her to commit and pick up the top card of her discard pile assuming she is able to land an attack. This makes her a soft 8-hander, piling on more card advantage on top of being a 7-hander. The biggest limitation is that you will be at the mercy of the rival of which card you will actually be able to pick up, given you need to hit with an attack, meaning the rival can play around it with good defense. This ability, while cool, is simply a nice bonus on top of her fantastic stats and splendid top ability. You won’t have much consistency with it which means that you cannot rely on it to grab you something important, plus it gives you a resource that your rival has knowledge of.
Faye will likely reside in a similar space as Spike, where she is a solid generic option on her symbols. The draw of being a 7-hander with surprising resilience means she has a high likelihood of finding a niche within the metagame, either as one of the most stable 7-handers or as an aggressive beast, being able to give her attacks +2 damage to rush down the rival. I could see her occupying a very solid anti-aggro, aggro niche within the meta, living through a rival barrage only to backswing once the rival defenses are down.
She is incredibly powerful, reflected in her power rating, and will likely see a solid amount of play given both her strength and the popularity of the character. She also has a tad more sauce due to her response allowing her to soft-tutor a resource, though it is also limited and she will, like Spike, likely run a simple “goodstuff” pile on her symbols, though that won’t discount the neat interactions she can provide or take advantage of.
New Cards on the Block
While the deck will introduce two outstanding characters while also bringing back a plethora of powerful reprints, it will also introduce several new attacks that will be sure to spice up some decks!
First off the Ultra Rare of the deck, Fallen Angel’s Revenge, a powerful new 5-difficulty attack that comes with incredible utility! This cards’ key feature is the first enhance, allowing you to pitch a momentum to unflip two foundations, letting you take advantage of powerful effects an additional time, or to fuel any self-flip effects you may have, such as from the signature characters of the deck! With the rotation of MHA Set 1 with the release of Yu Yu Hakusho the Dark Tournament, Fallen Angel’s Revenge will replace Navel Laser Beam as the premier way to reuse your flipped stage, though with the loss of the highly important Breaker: 2.
It also features a powerful response, boosting its speed by +1 every time you flip a foundation, and when coupled with the high base damage of 6 means this can easily become incredibly threatening! If you play this in Faye you can flip 1 foundation for a 5-low-8 attack, which is incredibly well statted for its cost, and it scales as you flip more and more of your stage! I believe this will exist on the fringe of competitive viability, given that all the strength of the card is gated. You need momentum for the enhance, and you need a way to flip foundations for the response, limiting the number of decks able to run this card. I could see it as a 1-or-2-of inclusion in certain decks, though it won’t find a home generally.
The rare attack follows up on the flip theme of the deck, with Split-Second Standoff being a huge 6-difficulty move that is effectively a printed 7-mid-8 with its top first enhance buffing the speed by +2. It's true power is unlocked when you have a high quantity of flipped foundations in your stage, transforming it into a massive 10-mid-8, becoming one of the most powerful game-ending attacks if you are able to meet its condition. Not only that but it sports a +0 mid block meaning it packs solid defensive utility just from being a wonderful block.
There isn’t much to discuss with the card, it is a huge stat-stick of a move that is unlikely to find many homes, but the ones it does find will appreciate its power. Being a 6-difficulty move means that it is difficult to slot into decks, especially as one with no utility. As mentioned above, it is one of the best game-ending moves given its massive base damage and potential to become absurdly difficult to block with the amount of speed it generates for itself. It won’t be an all-star, but it will make closing out games easier for the characters able to unlock its potential.
The deck also features an action and asset, both of which are incredibly solid. Ein is a simple 2-difficulty asset that functions as a generic draw enabler, while also packing awesome late-game wallbreaking potential by making your rival discard a card if you have a board full of face down foundations. The doggo will find consistent homes in decks that want a large, flipped board such as Spike and Faye, but also older characters such as Overhaul and Cementos.
Welcome to Space Land is the spiciest card of the deck, bringing another instance of the Unblockable keyword, and this time it is available to anyone on its symbols. While scary, it does require a high amount of investment. Since you cannot guarantee any amount of flipped rival foundations, you have to work in order to enable it, while also giving the rival a slight avenue of counterplay. It is worth nothing as well that it both is a First Enhance while also ending the enhance step, meaning that you don’t get many opportunities to pump the attack, unless you have a fired effect or response-speed buff, another limiter to the power of the card.
Disregarding the top enhance, it also packs a potent bottom enhance, being able to ready 3 face down foundations on the rivals turn, giving it solid defensive utility in the right deck as well. It is also more limited than at first glance, given it is only on the rival’s turn, it readies face downs, and it costs a card in hand that could be used as a block. The frequency of having 3 committed face down foundations on the rival’s turn is low unless your deck is very dedicated to having a flipped board.
Overall while the card appears terrifying, I believe its impact will be greatly exaggerated and it won’t be as prevalent as people will intuit. Both effects come with restrictions that are more difficult than you’d think, on top of being a 3-difficulty 4-check action means it will only really find homes in decks dedicated to making it succeed. Spike and Faye are prime examples, given this is part of their deck, with Overhaul and Ochaco IV coming in as next-in-line candidates for it, but otherwise I wouldn’t expect it to be widely used and only slotting into very few specific decks.
Following the shiny blue and green cards, we get some shiny grey cards as well! Fateful Meeting and Leaving the Bebop are the rare foundations of the deck, both of which featuring interesting use cases. Leading with a Fateful Meeting, it is a very strange defensive interaction piece, which calling that is a stretch given that it doesn’t provide any defense. It punishes the rival for aggressing into you by dealing some damage back, however this puts you down a resource for not defending yourself. This puts it in a weird limbo of requiring rival interaction while also not stopping the rival from killing you. With it being a 2-difficulty unique foundation also hurts its potential prospects as that is a highly competitive slot in decks which will make it a tough include.
Ultimately Fateful Meeting is unlikely to make a huge impact, though I could see it finding places in aggressive decks, or in sideboards of aggressive decks. If the rival doesn’t respect it, it deals 3 damage which is a non-trivial amount and could make a huge impact in aggro mirror matchups. Against slower decks it does less given they are less aggressive in the first place, meaning more often than not it won’t do much within a game. The best place I could imagine would be a Recovery Girl deck where she can reliably build all 4 copies during a game to deal 12 damage to the rival, giving her even more inevitability when combined with her enhance. This card looks scarier then it actually is, and I wouldn’t expect it to find consistent inclusion in decks long term, though it could pop up as an occasional sideboard option in certain decks.
Leaving the Bebop is the other rare foundation of the deck, and I am mixed on it as well. It is a 3-difficulty foundation, which already makes it difficult to include, but it does pack some powerful text, allowing you to flip it and spend a momentum to find an attack. There have been 3-difficulty foundations that have had similar effects in trying to find attacks, however they have all failed to find reliable homes. Part of this was due to them being unreliable and having a form of destruction-based-cost, making them to poor an exchange rate. Leaving the Bebop fixes these issues, guaranteeing you will find an attack as well as flipping instead of leaving the stage, however it also comes with a momentum cost, limiting its potential usage.
While Leaving the Bebop fixes both of the past issues with this type of card, it tacks on an additional restriction that makes it potentially worse, given that it is blank until you find a momentum, whereas previous similar cards are simply usable out-of-the-box. I wouldn’t be surprised if it finds an inclusion in a very specific deck, one that can generate momentum and is looking for attacks, however I believe the asks are to tall an order to run this card generically given the hefty cost of enabling it. I could be wrong given the abundance of momentum generation in the current format, and I will be looking to explore the limits of the card, but I don’t expect it to find homes in most competitively minded lists. The most likely candidates are characters that can easily generate momentum such as Ryukyu, Amajiki, or Selkie, but I am unsure if it will be good enough to stay within those lists long-term.
Moving onto the other new attacks of the deck, it also features two new basic rarity attacks in Hunters’ Pursuit and Questioning Threat! The former is a simple generic 5-difficulty 5-low-5 that reduces the difficulty of the next attack you play, assuming you have 3 or more face downs! It also has EX: 2, allowing you to pump the speed in case you need to get some damage through. It is unlikely to see constructed play given its lower power-level, though it may find a small inclusion in decks that enjoy the keywords and can reliably enable the enhance.
Questioning Threat is a 3-difficulty attack that starts as a 2-mid-3, however you can flip a foundation for +3 speed turning it into a 5-mid-3, which is a solid amount of stats for a 3-difficulty attack. When paired with any damage pump this can easily become a threatening offensive piece that is easy to slot into turns due to its low difficulty. It also packs a powerful Deadlock enhance that effectively says your next card passes, meaning that it allows you to string longer against rivals who build an obscene number of foundations. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this finding homes in decks that are able to reliably pump damage, and I am personally excited to brew with this card given its high potential!
The deck also introduces two new foundations to the mix as well, both of which are power 1-difficulty spam foundations! Skeptical is a 1-difficulty 4-check foundation with a simple yet effective line of text, allowing it to flip and ready itself once you flip a foundation, insulating your stage and counting as two resources in one! This is a wonderful card to extend turns and maintain a healthy stage, and when combined with reliable flip effects allows you to “multiply” the number of foundations you build! I doubt this will see widespread play due to the poor stats, though I could imagine a deck using both Skeptical and Weightless from the Ochaco IV Clash deck to have incredibly explosive turns where you have a deceptively resilient board to fuel a strong offensive turn.
Fast Friendship is on the opposite end of the spectrum as a widely applicable speed hate piece, being able to flip for -2 speed, a solid baseline effect, or -3 speed if you meet the condition of having more face downs than your rival. This will become one of the premier defensive spam foundations on its symbols given its ease of being built and the sheer effectiveness of the ability. Notably, since you flip the foundation and then the effect resolves, you can flip this for -3 speed if it puts you at more face downs than the rival, making it very easy to trigger. This will find a home in virtually any deck on symbol given the simple efficiency of the ability.
Returning Radical Reprints!
The Cowboy Bebop also features a vast variety of reprinted cards from the old Cowboy Bebop set, some of which are bound to shake up the format! Since Cowboy Bebop was designed in the before-times (MHA being the start of the “times”), the cards featured are decently strong and some will make a solid impact in the format!
Starting with the least impactful attack reprint, High Roundhouse Kick is a simple 4-high-4 that can pitch a momentum for +5 damage. I wouldn’t expect this to see much if any play, however there is small potential with any decks that can generate easy momentum, as a 4-high-9 on a 4-difficulty attack is incredibly powerful, though the cost means that more often then not this is a blank attack.
The truly powerful reprints exist with the other two cards, so let’s start with Jaw Jammer, a simple 4-difficulty 2-high-4 throw attack. The big part is that you can destroy a face down foundation in order to buff it by +4 damage, making it a 4-difficulty 2-high-8 throw. This is incredibly threatening for such a low-difficulty move, and it you can find 1 more damage it represents 5 “unblockable” damage. This will definitely find a home in some form of deck, with early candidates for me being a throw-based list under Water or Life with cards such as Zero Gravity Lift, or in a lineup including Falling Skies. Jaw Jammer is unlikely to see widespread play, however it will certainly find a home somewhere and be incredible in that deck.
Falling Heel Strike is the last reprinted attack of the deck, and is a solid value piece for any decks looking to reuse flipped foundations. It is effectively a 4-difficulty 4-high-4 with Stun: 1 that unflips a foundation for reuse, an intensely powerful mechanic to given generic access too. I am unsure how much play it will see, however the card is undeniably solid and will find homes in a variety of decks. One of the most obvious inclusions is Overhaul who gets to run it under both Earth and Life, as he can First Enhance to build a face down and then proceed to unflip it with Heel Strike, allowing him to “build” a foundation face up during the combat phase, which is an incredibly scary ability to have access too.
The deck also features a wide array of foundation reprints, with a solid mix of both offensive and defensive tools. What may end up being one of the most impactful reprints is Syndicate Target, a simple 0-difficulty 6-check with a 0-low block modifier. It has a downside of burning you for a health if you block with it, however that is a small price to pay for a card with such outstanding stats. It will find stable homes in all of its symbols as a generic 0-diff spam, and while boring, the card will find plenty of homes in a vast variety of decks.
Another neat defensive reprint is Nothing Like Andy, another spam foundation with small defensive utility as it removes after blocking with it while also sporting a solid +2 mid-block, allowing it to always be useful on defense. It will simply exist as a solid spam foundation that can find occasional includes in decks that need more 1-difficulty foundations, however I don’t envision it finding to many spots long term as it is often blank. Characters that flip foundations (Whoever could I be referencing) can use this fact to not feel bad about flipping a resource, though outside of them I believe the lack of relevant text will greatly dampen the amount of inclusions it will find, though it is solid enough to warrant a spot, though it will likely be less impactful than other cards fighting for the same spot.
The last of the defensive reprints, Sing For Me, is another card that may find slight inclusions but I cannot see it staying in lists long term. Being a 2-difficulty foundation means it faces strong competition, and while the effect is strong, requiring a momentum is a big ask, especially with so many incredible momentum outlets that are present within the game. In decks that can reliably get momentum it is somewhat like Passing the Torch plus, however I still believe there are better things to be doing with such a valuable resource.
Moving onto the offensive foundation reprints of the bunch we start with the end, Ending the Dream specifically. As I have said previous 2-difficulty foundations struggle to find inclusions due to the highly competitive nature of the slot, and damage-granting foundations have always fallen behind the curve compared to defensive and utility foundations of the same difficulty. Ending the Dream has the potential to become a 2-difficulty damage-focused foundation that actually sees play, with it destroying itself to grant a gigantic +4 damage buff. While it is one-time, the bonus is effectively adding another attacks worth of damage onto your move, and notably it doesn’t say “non-throw”, meaning that throw-based decks can put even more pressure on their rival should they include this foundation in their lineup. I don’t expect this to see widespread play, but it will certainly be a very attractive option for decks looking for a bit more oomph.
Light It Up on the other hand is likely going to struggle to find inclusions, as 2-difficulty foundations that pump +1 damage haven’t seen much play in the past in Revel At His Masterpiece has failed to see consistent play, and Light It Up is conditional, making the pump ability strictly worse. Not only that, but the counterplay of the rival being able to potentially flip their board to counteract it also exists, meaning that it is less likely to be available for use, especially in the early stages of the game. I don’t foresee this seeing much play, though it does add an additional source of damage pump which could eventually reach a critical mass of pump foundations, though I don’t believe we are quite at that point yet and don’t foresee this finding a home until then.
Last of the reprints we have Finally Awake, another offensively-minded 2-difficulty foundation, with it letting you commit a foundation to give your High or Mid attack +1 speed and damage. I am not quite sure this makes the cut in most decks, though I could envision this as an include to help give extra power towards the late game when you have resources aplenty. Even then I am unsure about its inclusion, though it would make for a neat piece in Ochaco IV with her ability to Refresh her stage, Ultimately, I don’t expect Finally Awake to see much play, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple copies snuck into well-performing lists here and there.
The Horizon as the Sun Sets
Overall the deck sports some incredibly powerful generic characters that will be solid options going forward, as well as some very powerful payoffs for a focused gameplan. This deck also includes one of the new defensive staples on its symbols, one of the best new 0-difficultty foundations, as well as some other interesting options that could occasionally find homes in various strategies.
With the Cowboy Bebop decks fully revealed the brewing can commence, so be on the lookout for upcoming articles where I discuss my initial directions on all of the characters! With the newly announced Challenger Series bounties I want everyone to be prepared to take on their locals so be on the lookout for that in the coming days!
I would also like to thank UVS games for the early sneak peak at the new cards, and be sure to pick up your decks at your LGS, releasing on January 19th! And for my analysis of the Trigun Stampede Challenger deck click here! And as always, take it easy!
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.
Be sure to preorder any UVS related needs at UnFunStuff to stock up on any TCG supplies or cards, such as any of the upcoming Challenger Series releasing on January 19th!
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