Outlaws and mercenaries, I have a task for you all. A bounty has been put up for Vash "The Stampede", and whoever brings him in, dead or alive, will be rewarded handsomely. He is accompanied Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and both individuals are armed and incredibly dangerous, so be warned. Welcome to the world of Trigun Stampede as it is introduced into the world of UVS for the first time with the new Challenger Series decks! This article will only cover the Trigun Stampede Challenger deck, if you’re looking for information about the Cowboy Bebop 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!
The deck is lead by Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and one of the coolest parts of the Challenger series decks is that multiple characters will be included within it, and all of them will be capable of being the face of the deck without any modifications! Contrary to the Cowboy Bebop deck, which was featured in a previous set and contained a multitude of reprints, this is Trigun’s first foray into UVS so the deck features 19 brand new cards and 2 new characters, so without any more delay, lets hop right into it!
New Faces, New Possibilities
Vash, The Stampede
Power: 7/10
Playrate: 4/10
Sauce: 5/10
The primary face of the deck, Vash on face is a fairly solid character. Being able to give a flat +2 speed to all of his moves is solid, allowing him to constantly apply solid offensive pressure at all stages of the game due to his speed pump. However, this means he needs to be able to find damage within his attack lineup to make his moves truly threatening, especially when so much of the meta is focused on slinging many high damage moves. If he is able to find consistent enough offensively oriented foundations that could also be his primary way of exerting pressure, though that will conflict with another issue he has.
Vash’s second ability allows him to commit and pitch an attack in order to draw 3 cards, giving him a huge influx of card advantage. Pitching an attack may seem like a big cost, however they odds of drawing into another attack off of this ability are decently high, being about 70% in a 1/3 attack-to-foundation ratio deck. This allows Vash to play the game generally solidly due to his large card advantage making him effectively an 8-hander. Something that is understated however is that while Vash will always have cards to play, he needs to be able to actually pass all of them. This means he will have to index heavily in defense given he lacks any defensive ability on face, meaning most of his foundation base will need to be dedicated to speed control and manipulation rather than offense.
His middling sauce score is mostly due to the number of effects that interact with the top card of his discard, with him being the best character to use Knee Smash with, with both his mill cost and discarding an attack allowing you to always modulate the top card of your discard in order to get maximum value. Since he commits himself and is playable while committed, he also works with effects that interact with a committed character such as Dark Shadow Emergence or cards from Asui I’s kit.
Overall he is solid, though I am unsure how he will fit into the metagame. An analogous character exists in All Might VII, having effectively the same speed pump effect, an effect that (albeit inconsistently) let’s him go +2 in card advantage, as well as a potent situational defensive ability. And yet All Might VII sees virtually zero play, which has me doubting whether Vash will be able to overcome this fact. Granted, All Might VII was screwed by an unfortunate release schedule in terms of legality, while Vash will see a spike in play due to new toy syndrome, as well as the bonus incentives to play the Challenger Series character from UVS Games, I am unsure how popular he will remain in the long-term.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood
Power: 8/10
Playrate: 6/10
Sauce: 4/10
Nicholas D. Wolfwood is accompanying Vash in this deck, and provides a unique foil to Vash. Instead of giving speed, Wolfwood’s enhance grants his attacks a whopping +3 damage, meaning he will be one of the hardest hitting characters in the game. While he is gated to Ranged and Weapon attacks, that is a minimal condition considering the amount of support both of those keywords have received within the game. Since he can pump damage, he will instead be looking for speed within his attack lineup, which is generally more difficult to find than damage. This means that the value of Stun effects and incremental speed pump will be high for him, and finding an attack and foundation lineup to support this will be the primary goal of his deckbuilding.
Additionally, while Vash wants to discard attacks for his card advantage, Wolfwood instead gains his card advantage off of discarding momentum, which is obtained from connecting attacks with the rival. While this is a much greater ask than Vash’s discard, it is much stronger in that you don’t have to get rid of an offensive resource, meaning you can keep up the aggression. It also comes with a bonus effect of healing himself by 2, giving him surprising longevity if he can continuously fuel the ability. Just like Vash he is a soft 8-hander, though as mentioned the condition for his card advantage will limit the number of turn cycles where he has his card advantage. This means that he loves any effects that can guarantee momentum, of which there are plentiful options within the current format, with the best example being Dual Needle Lunge, allowing him to play with a clear card pool, zooping a momentum, and then recouping the health cost with his response on the following turn.
Just like Vash, his sauce score is middling due to not having any crazy synergies (disregarding the prior mentioned Dual Needle Lunge) that drastically alter his gameplan, given he is an incredibly generic character. He still synergizes with self-mill themes, which allows him some interesting options on the Fire symbol, with cards like Gotta Go Faster and Lust for Battle being prime candidates for inclusions within those lists. He also appreciates ways to guarantee momentum, such as with Blood Transfer, or his new card Punisher’s Beam to make sure you are always fulfilling the cost for your response.
I expect Wolfwood to be one of the premier aggressive characters as the meta develops, with his honestly absurd damage output combined with his snowball potential allowing him to become an early-to-mid game monster. As with Vash, his playrate will spike on release, and I expect him to maintain a healthy playrate as the year and format progresses.
New Tools for the Job
Of course it wouldn’t be a deck without attacks, and the big theme around this deck is mill, so many of the attacks are based around that concept! Many attacks revolve around milling cards, or interacting with the top card of your discard in some form or fashion.
Inevitable Clash is the ultra rare of the deck, and sports some impressive stats. It is a 6-difficulty move that is a 5-high-7 while also sporting a +0 mid block, and an enhance to add the top card of your discard to your hand. While this card pairs nicely with the theme of the deck, I am afraid it doesn’t do quite enough. As a 6-difficulty attack it only has a primarily utility effect instead of something that applies offensive pressure, I don’t expect it to see much play due to simply not being good enough for the slot.
Punisher’s Beam on the other hand has a lot of things going for it. Being a 5-difficulty move it is easier to slot into decks, while also having two very potent abilities. The first one is a simple mill 3 effect, however if you mill a Weapon or Ranged card you can zoop it to momentum, and any easy momentum generation is incredibly valuable. Additionally, it lets you target destroy a rival foundation if it manages to connect with the rival, letting you take care of a threatening piece of the opponent’s board if they don’t manage to completely block it, which is assisted with it being an off-zone attack. In addition to all of this, it also has the valuable Breaker: 1 ability, giving it some defensive utility as well. I would expect this to find homes in a variety of decks that appreciate a snap momentum, as well as decks with reliable speed pump with the theme of foundation destruction.
This deck also features an ultra rare asset and an accompanying rare action, both of which are fairly solid. The asset, Interdimensional Plants, has high potential, being both a draw engine as well as a powerful momentum outlet. It lets you blow up a foundation to both draw 1 card and give your next check +1, and since you’re usually going to blow up committed foundations this is both a great turn smoother and draw engine. It also lets you spend a momentum for +3 damage and also heals you for 1, giving more longevity as well as providing a momentum outlet, which some decks don’t readily have. One of the most notable things is that it lacks the Unique keyword, meaning slotting it into decks isn’t as challenging due to being able to build multiple copies of it, meaning it exists in the same space as 3-difficulty foundations. I would expect it to find homes in various decks that could use draw power and a momentum outlet, though since it is a 3-difficulty asset it will have a real deckbuilding cost to including it.
The action of the deck is Avoiding Conflict, a very interesting card in terms of what it enables. It gives a slight bonus once it enters the discard during the enhance step, notably by any means, meaning it functions well with both mill strategies and as a card to pitch for a discard cost. It also has an enhance to shove it to the bottom of your deck to draw a card, effectively replacing itself.
One of the biggest uses of this card is that it is a very simple cantrip, meaning including it within a deck “lowers” the deck size by 1, since you will always be able to replace it with another card. This lets players run a “56” card deck if they include 4 copies, though I am unsure how valuable that may end up being. Additionally, it shares 2 symbols with Twisting Azure Inferno, meaning this will slot perfectly into decks that have a gameplan focused around that attack. Another thing to mention is its wonderful 1-mid block modifier, meaning it will rarely feel bad to find. I can’t predict how much play this will see as it provides an effect that doesn’t exactly exist in the game, though I could see it becoming a staple in aggressive decks by letting you dig for more cards and thereby increasing the consistency of your deck.
As with the Cowboy Bebop decks, this deck also features 2 rare foundations. First up we have The Big Fall, a simple yet effective foundation. It lets you enhance to remove it and have your rival destroy a ready foundation, or if the rival is in deadlock, destroy 2 ready foundations. Despite its simplicity, foundation destruction is an incredibly powerful tool, and having access to it lets you put enormous pressure on the rival in the early stages of the game by denying them resources. This card does have an analog in Hero Killer, with them accomplishing effectively the same thing, while Hero Killer has soft targeting. While this card won’t be a staple as shown with Hero Killer, there could be a deck utilizing both of them under the All symbol to deny the rival a significant amount of resources to aggro them down. As with Hero Killer however, this card is astronomically worse going second compared to going first, and that may be the biggest limiter on how much success this card will see.
Counselor of Plants is the other rare foundation and again it has some very simple text, letting you flip to regain 2 health and ready a foundation if it is committed due to a rival’s effect. This card is unfortunately unlikely to see play, given it is a 2-difficulty foundation with stun hate in a format full of no-difficulty stun hate options. On top of this, that is the only thing it does, meaning in matchups without stun it is effectively textless. I could see this seeing play as a sideboard piece for specific matchups should stun be a format threat, however I don’t expect it to find homes generally due to how niche the card is.
Moving onto the attacks of the deck, one of the reoccurring themes of the deck is interacting with the top card of the discard pile, so expect a lot of card to go along with this theme. Nimble Maneuver is the first card to look at, with it being a rather poorly statted attack with the effect of putting the top card of your discard onto the top of your deck. At a baseline this usually says “Stack a 5-check", though when combined with an form of draw power lets you “draw” the top card of your discard. Unfortunately this doesn’t do enough, and when combined with the poor stats, I don’t expect this card to see much if any play.
Steady Shot is a step in the right direction though, with it burning the rival for 2 and healing you for 2, meaning in total it is a 4-health swing, ignoring the actual pressure of the attack. Of course this is gated behind having an attack on the top card of your deck, which is random at worst and only somewhat reliable at best. It is also mediocrely statted being a 4-mid-4 also doesn’t help make a case for this card, and the condition means it will sometimes be a vanilla attack. There is some amount of sauce with it however, being a burn effect enables Excited for Blood, and it is also easy to meet the condition in decks that reliably mill many cards such as Endeavor III or All Might II. Unfortunately I believe it falls to behind the curve in these decks, and as such I don’t expect it to see much play, though it is certainly a card with at least a small amount of experimentation.
Last of the top-of-discard synergy attacks, Disabling Shot is the last one as a 5-difficulty 4-mid-5, with the effect to gain Stun: 2 if the top card of your discard pile is an attack. As of writing, a 4-mid-5 Stun: 2 card got banned recently in Back Alley Haymaker, though that had numerous advantages over Disabling Shot. It not only had the consistency of always having Stun: 2, but also plus'd you a resource in another form, whether it be building a foundation or drawing a card, while also packing EX: 2 to be able to close out games. Disabling Shot by comparison is not even comparable to being called a "poor mans" Back Alley Haymaker, and has as such will be unlikely to see any sort of play, with the only scenario I could foresee being if much more Stun support and potential Keyword synergies pop up this could technically find a home, however I believe it is just to below the curve.
The last two attacks focus more on a mill theme then relying on the top card of your discard. Merciful Volley contains the simple effect of milling 2 and getting bonus speed equal to the highest difficulty milled. If you manage to mill a 5-difficulty card it becomes a 7-low-4 as a 4-difficulty move, however while initially impressive falls apart when you take full context. The speed gain is horribly conditional, with it more often getting 1-3 speed off of milling foundations, and since the mill effect is so small you cannot reliably deckbuild to activate it consistently. Past that, it does nothing else, and is effectively a "blank" 4-difficulty attack. It does contain Deadlock Stun: 2, which while nice, cannot be taken into consideration when evaluating cards given you won't have access to that text in a large majority of scenarios. Unfortunately this means this card will also be doomed to minimal to no inclusions within lists.
Fan the Hammer is the last attack and shares a lot of similar qualities with the previous attack. It is a 4-difficulty 3-low-3 that has a single enhance which allows you to mill 4 and it gains +2 damage for each ranged attack milled this way. While mill 4 is certainly an improvement in consistency, it also has the gate of requiring ranged attacks to be milled. For anyone familiar with Frigid Heatwave, this is a near-identical enhance effect, though Frigid has many other things going for it, and the mill for damage effect is simply a nice bonus on top of the powerful card draw effect. Fan the Hammer however is relying solely on the damage effect, meaning that while you could theoretically hit big and get +8 damage, it is more often going to result in a much smaller bonus of +2 or +4. This attack faces effectively the same issues as Merciful Volley, where it is an inconsistent attack that is supposed to be a "stat-stick" while providing no meaningful utility outside of it.
I have heard discussions of including Fan the Hammer in decks that enjoy milling, with the primary target of inclusion being Endeavor III, however I would still argue against its inclusion due to preferring having my attacks come with other effects to meaningfully progress or capitalize on my gameplan. It makes little sense to include a "blank" stat-stick attack in a character who already effectively only provides stats, instead of a utility effect that can synergize well with the character such as Nitro Explosion Ignition for stringing while being able to occur it with your form, or cards like Slice and Burn that let you filter through your deck to find more offensive pieces. Overall I believe players will be likely to experiment with this card, though I expect them to quickly move on from it due to it not "doing anything".
Heading onto the offensive foundations of the deck, Decisions, Decisions is a generic 2-difficulty foundation that commits to give your attack +2 damage, or conditionally +3 damage if, guess what, the top card of your discard is an attack. We have had many effects similar to this, with often better upsides, and even if the +3 wasn't conditional, I still don't believe that would see consistent play. This card has been rehashed many times and it has never panned out, so I expect this to see zero relevant play.
Seen It All is also an effect we have seen, with more reliability, in a card already that has seen near zero relevant play. This card however does have the bonus of being able to give +1 speed, but even then it is gatekept again by requiring the top of discard attack clause, and even then has worse stats by only having a 4-check. I could theoretically see this in a deck that can easily modulate the top card of your discard pile, such as Endeavor III, however even then I am not sure this would see play due to only offering more stats instead of any utility effect, plus the small additional cost of deckbuilding consistency. I could envision this realistically seeing play due to stats being king, though it would likely be suboptimal and would fall out of lists in favor of more utility effects.
Lastly for the offensive foundations, Grasping for Answers is another 2-difficulty 5-check foundation that lets you, conditionally, flip and commit itself to give your next ranged -2 difficulty. Comparing this to a card that could realistically see play in Looking For A Challenge that has effectively the same effect without any gates on top of an additional ability that is one of the best forms of stun hate in the game, there is no reason to consider including Grasping for Answers in any competitive deck.
Moving onto the defensive foundations of the deck, Suspended Bounty is the only truly defensive foundation in the deck, with it being a 2-difficulty foundation that can commit for -2 speed, or conditionally -3. Many foundations of similar difficulty can either commit for -2 speed with an additional general upside on the card, or give -3 speed reliably with a conditional upside. Even then committing for -2 speed is a staple 1-difficulty effect, so this card will not see any play due to being severely overcosted.
Though not traditional defense, this deck does include some pseudo defensive effects, such as with Prideless Negotiations being a simple 0-difficulty foundation with its only ability being Breaker: 1. This will see play because any 0-difficulty foundation can see play due to decks needing them to smooth out their curve. This foundations upside, while small, will put it in the upper tier of what 0-difficulty foundations are worth running, though it is ultimately a filler card. If other 0-difficulties are better then it won't see play, but if a symbol has few playable 0-difficulty foundations this could become the generic "fine" inclusion.
Motherly Affection is the last defensively slanted foundation, with it being able to flip to restore 2 health if the top card of your discard is an attack. While not a traditional defensive effect, it does give you more longevity within a game. The effect is efficient and it is highly likely you will find a spot to weave it in means that the condition doesn't matter as much for this. I could envision this in decks that can include a sizable life game package such as Recovery Girl and Toga I, but I wouldn't expect this to see much play outside of outlier decks such as those.
This deck also includes two utility foundations with the first being Get the Scoop, a 1-difficulty foundation that lets you peak at the top card of your deck and optionally discard it. This compares poorly to a current soft-staple foundation in Destined for Mainstream Success, which is a strictly better version of this effect. One thing to note however is that Destined is rotating out of the format very soon, as soon as the next set Yu Yu Hakusho releases in February. Before the rotation I could envision it seeing play alongside Destined for Mainstream Success as well as Advice for Winners in an aggressively slanted midrange deck that never checks poorly. Post rotation it could see play in a similar idea as a simple 1-difficulty consistency tool, which would make it a valid yet often out-competed include within decks.
The last card of the deck, Pitching In, is another 1-difficulty foundation that also sports the prestigious 6-check. The buff in stats comes at a cost of having a useless effect. Your can flip it to move any card in your discard to the top of it, which unless you have any synergies, does nothing. It does help enable the overall theme of the deck and creates cohesion in the strategy, though overall the theme of the deck is too conditional and situational to see play over other options available.
In Summation...
The deck overall is bound together with a very specific theme that currently doesn't provide anything outstanding compared to other options readily available. This deck would be a fantastic introductory product for players to looking to get started with the game, however it contains few cards that will be competitively relevant. It does include some very solid cards such as Punisher's Beam, Avoiding Conflict, and Interdimensional Plants, though even then they will be situational includes in specific decks.
The biggest selling point of this deck is the access to these two new powerful characters, flanked by some situationally powerful cards that could find homes in competitive decks. There will also be several cards that while won't be top of the line, will be occasionally good enough to warrant generic inclusion in decks that need to fill out a few consistency slots.
With the Trigun Stampede 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 Cowboy Bebop 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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