MHA Universus League of Villains Prerelease Tournaments

Prerelease tournaments for the newest MHA block release for Universus begin on on Feb 23rd and run through the release of the set on March 3rd. A list of stores participating can be found on the official site. These tournaments use the sealed format, which has different considerations than standard play.

To begin, each player receives 6 booster packs, which forms the available card pool to build your deck. Additionally, each player should get a promo card, which is also usable in the event. Where sealed differs from standard begins with deckbuilding. First, you ignore resource symbols on your cards; anything you pull can be used. Second, you ignore the 4 card limit. If you pull 6 copies of the same card, you can use all 6. This can open up a lot of interactions and decks that could never work in standard. Without further ado, here are my unsolicited and non-professional insights.

Deck building here isn’t much different from creating a standard deck. You will most likely want to follow the 60%/40% foundations to attacks ratio, although there is a bit of wiggle room. Anything that works well together is something to consider if you can use it consistently. You should also consider how difficult it can be to play cards. This will largely depend on what character you use and what cards you pull, but generally, the higher the character’s hand size, the lower you want the average difficulty to be.

Any character in the set is available to use, so I’ll offer my thoughts on each of them as it relates to the format. First, Mr. Compress can fill momentum and clear defensive card pools. The form ability can let him act like a 7-hander if you run 1 or 2 copies of cards. Dabi II has a built in damage buff, but the smaller deck size can make it difficult to use. If you don’t pull many actions, his second enhance is not very useful. Toga II has a built in speed boost for your first attack, and can flip momentum to ready foundations. If you get a lot of cards that go to momentum face-up, she can be a good pick. Kurogiri II is a 5 hand that can act as a 7 hand. Much like Dabi, the small deck size can make his form tricky to use, but is overall less risky as you know what is in your discard pile. Moonfish has a low health total, but if you have access to a lot of 3 damage attacks, he can play a lot of quick attacks with a little hand disruption.

Muscular has a high health total, and can do more damage as attacks hit. The ability to build a card face down from your card pool when taking damage from an unblocked attack can help ramp quickly. Spinner is perhaps my favorite character in the set. He can buff Weapon speed or damage, changing as needed, and can build a foundation in hand to give a speed bonus. If you get a lot of weapon attacks, this is the character to use. Shigaraki III is likely going to be the most played character. A built in, repeatable card draw that forces a check, as well as check reduction makes this one of the most solid characters. I have conflicting thoughts about Twice. One one hand, the enhance ability can be easier to do in sealed than standard, especially if you pull several copies of the same attack. On the other hand, the response is likely going to be useless.

Overall, I think Shigaraki and Spinner are the most overtly useful in the environment. Muscular can be strong, but not having access to Resistance or Harden makes using his response riskier. If you get the right selection of cards, Moonfish should be really strong as well. Toga and Kurogiri need a few turns to build up before they get the most use of their abilities. If you don’t pull a lot of Toga’s attacks, you have to rely on her first attack speed enhance. Kurogiri doesn’t need to be built around specifically, just survive long enough to get a good mix of cards in the discard pile. I think Twice and Dabi are better in standard environments rather than sealed, as Dabi needs more cards and Twice needs built around.

Attacks and foundations you want will depend on your specific pulls and the character you use. With that in mind, one I will suggest is Surviving Beast’s Forest. It is a fairly standard 1 difficulty, but the requirement for 5 different symbols in your card pool for its enhance should be easy to trigger with as few as 2 cards. Saving Bakugo Ignite, and Enamored are the only 0 difficulty foundations in the set, so if you pull any of those, they are automatic additions to your deck.

Overall, this is a fun, casual format coupled with a set with interesting new mechanics and characters. Whether you are a new player looking to get more experience or a veteran wanting to try something new, a local prerelease tournament is worth joining.