The Ultra Authority on the U.A.
A year following the last article about a TCG-Premiere archetype on Noble Knights, I decided to get together with the other U.A. fanboy on the YGOrg writing staff (UltimateKuriboh) and work on creating a comprehensive guide to the U.A. (Ultra Athlete) archetype! Click below to read about the sport freaks in all of their glory, and learn how you can use this archetype to win competitively in over 30 Word Doc pages of valuable information (20,000 words), none of which consist of history or lore theme. It’s purely related to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.
It all began in 901, as two TCG-Premiere archetypes were introduced in Duelist Alliance. It was the beginning for the Burning Abyss monsters, based off the Divine Comedy, and a duo of baseball-themed Level 5 monsters. Naturally, people jumped on Burning Abyss since it was a theme that could be played from the start, but since we’re focusing on the U.A., let’s begin our journey through time to observe how the theme evolved.
U.A. Mighty Slugger
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Mighty Slugger”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Mighty Slugger” once per turn this way. If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.
Introducing the first offensive U.A. monster to hit the TCG! Boy, did it set a high bar for the offense of the U.A. deck. This card is most commonly considered as an Effect Monster version of “Armades, Keeper of Illusions” due to its similar effect when attacking (or “Gem-Knight Citrine”, as some may prefer). This effect allows Slugger to dodge defensive Spells, Traps, or even monster effects that activate when an opposing monster is flipped face-up or destroyed. Talk about shutting down Honest like nobody’s business. Once his attack begins, there is no stopping it. The first line of his effect is shared by all U.A. monsters – the ‘tagging out’ (so to speak) for a teammate becomes extremely useful at all stages of the duel.
When this card came out, it was seen as a power monster for the theme, even when the rest of the archetype had not yet been revealed. The issue at the beginning was simple – how could the archetype function without any monsters that could be Normal Summoned without tributing? While this issue will be resolved with the next set, “U.A. Mighty Slugger” had already begun to attract people’s expectations and throw them through the roof. After all, the last Warrior-type TCG-Premiere archetype fell flat for many competitive players (Sorry Noble Knight). The real ‘eye-candy’ of the archetype so far was the other monster released in the first set for the U.A., the pitcher.
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Perfect Ace”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Perfect Ace” once per turn this way. Once per turn, during your opponent’s turn, when a card or effect is activated: You can discard 1 card; negate that activation, and if you do, destroy it (this is a Quick Effect).
U.A. Perfect Ace
The first defensive U.A. monster to hit the TCG. Yes, this is an amazing disruptor to start off the archetype. This card is most commonly considered as an Effect Monster “Herald of Perfection” due to its negation effect, but sadly, Perfect Ace can only be used once per turn. The best part of Perfect Ace is that you do not have to discard a U.A. card to negate a card or effect, so some of the best plays come from discarding something you want in the graveyard, such as “Breakthrough Skill” or “Galaxy Cyclone”. But before we get to outside combos, let’s assess the two monsters’ synergy.
As the second monster in the Level 5 U.A. duo, Perfect Ace serves as the perfect partner for Slugger. When you have both Slugger and Ace in your hand, the magic truly begins. Simply Summon Slugger, use him to attack with no fear of effects, and then tag him out for a Perfect Ace in Main Phase 2. At the time, this allowed you to have a solid disruption to discourage your opponent’s responses while still getting in decent amounts of damage. So even at this point, you had a clear win condition – beatstick your way to victory turn after turn, while hiding behind a pseudo Herald of Perfection. Seeing this potential from their first release, casual players were picking up the deck and attempting to make the archetype into something even more powerful. It was extremely beneficial to the U.A. archetype at this point that one key Warrior-type support card was released in 901 as well – “Feast of the Wild LV5″, but we will cover this card more in depth later in the article. Let’s meet the last U.A. card to arrive in 901, arguably the reason to run this deck.
If a “U.A.” monster is Normal Summoned to your side of the field: You can add 1 “U.A.” monster from your Deck to your hand. Once per turn, if a “U.A.” monster(s) is Special Summoned to your side of the field: All monsters you currently control gain 500 ATK.
U.A. Stadium
The search engine of the U.A. archetype, this Field Spell assists the deck in setting up and then executing its main strategies. The first effect is simple: When you Normal Summon a U.A. monster, simply search a new one from the deck. At this point in the U.A. timeline, this card gave the reasoning as to why both monsters in the archetype were Level 5 – Stadium provided the compensation for a tribute summon, allowing you to setup your Slugger/Perfect Ace combination to batter your opponent during your turn, and then disrupt their plays during their following turn.
While the first effect grants consistency, the second effect offers pure power – the first time you Special Summon a U.A. monster each turn, all monsters you control gain 500 ATK. While this may not seem that important at first, every bit of ATK power helps when you are playing a strategy that needs to force its way through the opponent’s field. With Slugger at a boosted 2800 ATK, very few monsters could stand in its way. In addition, the boost benefits all monsters you control, but this wasn’t that important at the time.
Overall, Stadium was revealed and initially considered the linchpin of the deck. If you didn’t open Stadium, you couldn’t win. While this was definitely a very limited view of the deck’s capabilities, the theme simply wasn’t complete yet. Hint, even though many of us had hoped that Stadium would only be the beginning, it quickly became the main source of power and the essence of the theme’s entire strategical playbook. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the first players on the team have only arrived. With 901, the stage had been set, and the game was about to be introduced to the next suite of U.A. monsters that would take the TCG by surprise.
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Midfielder”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Midfielder” once per turn this way. During either player’s turn: You can target 1 other “U.A.” monster you control; return that face-up monster to the hand, then Special Summon 1 “U.A.” monster from your hand with a different name from that monster. You can only use this effect of “U.A. Midfielder” once per turn.
U.A. Midfielder
Talk about an unexpected turn of events in 902! While people expected the Noble Knight style of releases, with the most important cards being saved for near the end, the U.A. archetype broke that expectation with the second set by releasing the all-important Level 4 U.A. monster. This was the first monster that could be Normal Summoned without tribute, allowing for a ‘free’ search from U.A. Stadium from the get-go. More importantly, Midfielder became the first U.A. monster that could be searched from the deck by “Reinforcement of the Army” (referred to as RotA for the rest of the article). Take note that 902 was released 1 month after RotA became Unlimited, which gives this deck even more search capability. With the typical setup of running 3 “Terraforming”, 3 RotA, 3 Midfielder and 3 Stadium, you only had to open 2 certain cards, with each having a 1/6 chance in obtaining them. The odds weren’t amazing, but they were pretty good for a fledging strategy. With an opening of Stadium and Midfielder, you pretty much unlocked the rest of your team from the start.
I would be giving Midfielder a disservice if I only talked about his status as a Level 4, because Midfielder also boasts one of the more unique effects out of the U.A. tribe. With the ability to swap out U.A. monsters without relying on their inherent summoning effects, you could finally begin to inflict even more damage to an unprepared opponent. During the Battle Phase, you could attack with one U.A., use Midfielder to swap it out with a new U.A. in-hand, then attack with Midfielder and your new U.A. for even more damage. The power of extra attacks in this strategy cannot be emphasized enough! For any aggressive strategy, you need to storm down your opponent in the windows that they give you. But since Midfielder served the role as the offensive Football U.A. (soccer for us USA nubs), you really only had Slugger as your main attacker. So the offensive capabilities of this monster had to be put on ice until the release of the next set of U.A.
So what else did Midfielder offer at this point? First off, a very important note is that Midfielder allowed you to trigger Stadium during the opponent’s turn. The first 500 ATK boost is pretty much nothing, a 1700 monster is easy to get over. But 2 boosts, and Midfielder can clash with Winda. Add a third during your next turn, and Midfielder begins to get really scary. Even your defense-oriented U.A. monsters can chalk up some heavy ATK power with the help of Stadium on both turns. In football, the midfielder straddles the line between offense and defense, and that’s exactly what U.A. Midfielder offers. Since its effect can be used during the opponent’s turn, you actually have the ability to swap out your defensive U.A. for the other after using its effect. So if you ended your turn with Perfect Ace and Midfielder, after negating a card with Ace, you could always swap that Ace out for the next U.A. card released in 902 – U.A. Goalkeeper!
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Goalkeeper”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Goalkeeper” once per turn this way. Once per turn, during your opponent’s turn: You can target 1 “U.A.” monster you control; once during this turn, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects (this is a Quick Effect).
U.A. Goalkeeper
I realize we are already 5 cards into the article, but I am going to address this now – I am going to be discussing the U.A. cards that are fighting for slots in your deck, and I have no intentions to waste your time talking about worthless cards. Foreshadowing – Every monster has its uses and therefore I will be discussing all of the U.A. released to date. So when I am dedicating a section to U.A. Goalkeeper, you should realize that this card does have potential and that reading this section is not wasting your time.
Now that the required disclaimer is out of the way, let’s talk about the benefits of our first Level 6 U.A. monster! He still requires 1 tribute, like the first U.A. duo, but at first glance, his effect doesn’t appear to be as potent in the deck. This dissapointment stems from one issue – he cannot protect your Stadium with his effect. At the end of the day, his entire purpose and existence and relevance in the deck is tied to Midfielder. Goalkeeper’s job is to keep multiple U.A. monsters on the field. At this point of the strategy, getting 2 U.A. monsters to the field was difficult, therefore Goalkeeper stepped in to keep Midfielder from being destroyed by battle during the turn, before being swapped back to the hand for Perfect Ace.
So why is hitting that 2 U.A. monster point so important? While it will become more relevant with the 903’s set of new U.A. support, it is still important for the offensive capabilities of Midfielder. You cannot pull off the triple attack combo with only 1 monster, since Midfielder requires you to return another U.A. monster you control to the hand. But there is one more benefit you may be overlooking – keeping multiple U.A. monsters face up gives you the best odds of being able to summon multiple Perfect Ace on your next turn. For most decks, especially at this time, it was hard enough to get over 1 Perfect Ace. But 2? That may be a bit of a tall order. As I have said multiple times already, U.A. is an aggressively-oriented strategy, so the main win condition is not defense but offense. As the saying goes, “The best defense is a strong offense” and that surely was the guiding principle behind one of the most aggressive Equip Spells ever printed.
Equip only to a “U.A.” monster. It gains 1000 ATK and DEF, also if it battles an opponent’s monster, any battle damage it inflicts to your opponent is doubled. If the equipped monster destroys a monster by its attack: It can make a second attack during this Battle Phase. During your Standby Phase: Banish the equipped monster. If this card is sent to the Graveyard because the equipped monster returned to the hand: You can return this card to the hand.
U.A. Powered Jersey
If you needed another reason to test out this deck when this card was released, this was your reason. If you return back to the paragraph on the offensive capabilities of Midfielder, yes this card can supersede those capabilities. To put it simply, Jersey + Slugger = OTK in many situations if your opponent leaves an Attack Position monster on the field. If they leave a 1700 or lower ATK monster, and you special Slugger with stadium out, that’s exactly 8000 damage with slugger preventing any cards or effects from ruining your day.
Perhaps you are taking the stance that it is just a situational use, it won’t happen to often in a duel, etc. And maybe you’re correct. But back when this card was released, what deck liked to leave weak monsters in attack? Oh right, Tellarknight. And Deneb clocks in under the 1700 benchmark. If Tellar couldn’t stop your summon or the activation of Jersey, that was game right there. But as you may be thinking, it’s rare to draw Stadium, Midfielder, and Jersey. And you are correct on that one, but as I have been saying, the main win condition for U.A. is just constant attacks to whittle down the opponent’s LP. Jersey isn’t your only option to win the duel, it just makes the end of the duel come a lot faster. Don’t forget that it can be equipped to Midfielder in a pinch as well, to allow Midfielder to attack over a bunch of threats. The benefit is that Midfielder does not have 1500 ATK, so “Bottomless Trap Hole” cannot be used in response to its summon.
This card is a powerhouse, to be blunt. It adds a ton of extra damage, it adds a second attack, but the most valuable aspect of the card is the final effect – it returns to hand when your U.A. returns to hand. Yes, that means that once you attack, you just tag out for a Goalkeeper or a Perfect Ace and you get your jersey back for next turn. This gives the deck not only a solid offense, but longevity as well. My favorite combo is actually using Midfielder with this ability, since you can attack with a Jersey’d U.A. monster, bounce it back to hand with Midfielder for a new U.A., add back your jersey, and continue your battle phase. This simple play gives you 4 attacks from 2 monsters, without losing any card advantage. Not too shabby, eh? Just another reason why Goalkeeper making sure you have 2 monsters is so important.
At this point, the deck was picked up by many players. It had search power, it had a win condition, it could disrupt the opponent’s plays. But then many fair-weather, bandwagon U.A. players stumbled back when they saw the support from 903, because it wasn’t the Jersey-oriented, aggressive support they were expecting….
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Playmaker”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Playmaker” once per turn this way. When another “U.A.” monster you control declares an attack: You can have this card lose exactly 800 ATK, and if it does, your attacking monster gains 800 ATK.
U.A. Playmaker
Considered by many to be the runt of the team, U.A. Playmaker is undervalued by most players picking up U.A. for the first time. He may be Level 8, but he still packed a mighty punch upon release as the second offensively-oriented U.A. monster to hit the TCG. This beast of a monster clocks in at 2600 attack, the highest of the U.A. monsters, and he quickly raises to 3100 with the help of Stadium. The first rule of Playmaker is simple – Never attempt to Tribute summon him. The second rule of Playmaker is the reason for running this monster – Always pair it with Midfielder. The last rule of Playmaker – If you cannot get out Midfielder and Playmaker simultaneously, there is no sense searching out Playmaker.
So what exactly is his purpose? In simple terms – Making your attacks hurt. When most Playmaker plays occur, it is because you just began your turn with a Perfect Ace or Goalkeeper that survived after Stadium is on the field. Simply Normal Summon Midfielder, search Playmaker and Special Summon it using your defensive U.A., gain the extra 500 ATK on each of your monsters, then enter the Battle Phase. Attack with Playmaker first, then Midfielder being boosted by Playmaker. Then return Playmaker to Special Summon your defensive U.A. back to the field. Like Stadium, Playmaker’s ATK boost is permanent, which means midfielder is now at a sizable 2500 ATK, which is nothing to scoff at. The next turn pretty much guarantees victory without spell or trap intervention by the opponent. If you don’t see the point of Playmaker yet, his role on the team is to give your weaker U.A. monsters a stronger offensive to get a stronger defense during the opponent’s turn. Playmaker can also boost your Slugger to guarantee a stronger attack to which your opponent cannot respond. But sometimes that isn’t enough and you need to rely on your defense, and that is where Blockbacker comes in.
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Blockbacker”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Blockbacker” once per turn this way. Once per turn, when your opponent Special Summons a monster(s): You can change their battle positions, and if you do, negate their effects.
U.A. Blockbacker
Alright, so if you’re still feeling like Goalkeeper was a letdown in the disruption department, this card more than makes up for it. Blockbacker is the second disruption-based defensive U.A. monster, and he definitely puts in work. With an effect similar to the trap card “Memory Loss”, Blockbacker is the only defensive U.A. that can use its effect during either player’s turn. Although there are currently only a select few cases, this effect can still be impactful whenever your opponent Summons a monster during your turn, such as through “El-Shaddoll Fusion”, “Call of the Haunted”, or Artifact monsters. But during your opponent’s turn, this guy really shines. Blockbacker and the overall playstyle of the deck is the reason why this deck has such a good Nekroz matchup: your opponent will have to rely on Decisive Armor or multiples of Valkyrus/Trishula (while you don’t have Goalkeeper or any traps), OR they have to rely on Trish actually resolving. Yes, these situations are possible since the same counters to Djinn lock break Blockbacker, but that all changes if you have Blockbacker AND Perfect Ace… so yes, you should be aiming for that.
His effect is fairly straightforward – negate a Special Summoned monster’s effect(s), and change its battle position. While the negation seems to be the big part of his effect, the battle position switching is actually a tad more important in some regards, especially with the release of the next batch of U.A. monsters. As I said before, this American football-themed batch of U.A. monsters were not well received, since they were considered to be against the OTK-heavy, Jersey-dependent variant that initially turned the spotlight on the U.A. archetype. But if Jersey was the kickass offensive spell, it only makes sense that a kickass defensive spell came out with the football athletes!
If you control 2 or more “U.A.” monsters with different names: Shuffle as many monsters on the field as possible into the Deck, then Special Summon “U.A.” monsters from your Deck that have different names from each other, up to the number of cards shuffled into your Main Deck, but those monsters cannot attack this turn. Then your opponent can Special Summon monsters from their Deck, up to the number of cards shuffled into their Main Deck. You can only activate 1 “U.A. Turnover Tactics” per turn.
U.A. Turnover Tactics
Introducing the Quick-Play Spell Card released in 903… and this is quite the niche card. While Jersey could inflict massive damage and create OTK’s in specific situations, Turnover Tactics can heavily shift card advantage into your favor in specific situations. So in other words, Turnover deals with the card advantage resource, while Jersey deals with the LP resource. It’s kind of interesting how each support Spell or Trap in the archetype fits into one of those two perspectives. This gives the deck an extremely non-linear playstyle, and with the release of turnover, the builds began to split as the U.A. fanboys went into different camps. Looking at various guides across the interwebs in many YGO communities, Turnover Tactics came to be considered as ‘personal preference’. Yes, that dreaded phrase which can be immediately translated as ‘Causal ONLY’. I would like to argue otherwise – Turnover is a key card of the deck that needs to be considered. Like its namesake, Turnover literally turns control of the duel over to you; therefore, I would like to argue that this is a strong flexible response to a variety of threats, similar to “Book of Eclipse”. While this has an activation condition, the benefit is more than worth the risk; however, this is a card whose usage is defined by the meta. The decision as to running this card falls to your playstyle – do you like powerful cards that have specific windows to win you the duel? If you answered no to this, then you are probably someone that also prefers to skip out on Jersey, since it can be considered just as situational.
This card’s defensive uses cannot be highlighted enough, but I would really like to connect with the unique effect of this card. In simple terms, it is a “Morphing Jar #2″ in Spell form, but it can be much more than that since each player gets to specifically choose which monsters to summon. In the older days, this would be considered so weak due to letting your opponent set-up, but in a deck that thrives with disruptive capabilities, this card is a godsend. Don’t get me wrong, there are also offensive uses to Turnover, such as attacking with your U.A., then swapping into a Midfielder and another U.A. to use Midfielder for an additional attack. I could list quite a few combos, but those are the two main uses for this card.
At this point, I would like you to take a second and decide which camp you are a part of: running Turnover or omitting Turnover. I’ve given the arguments for each side, but before you keep reading, you need to make a preliminary decision on whether or not you like this Quick-Play Spell. This is because how you analyze the next batch of U.A. support will vary greatly depending on that. So let’s advance to 904, currently the latest pack with U.A. support!
U.A. Dreadnought Dunker
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Dreadnought Dunker”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Dreadnought Dunker” once per turn this way. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it.
So we started out our offense strong with Slugger, added more combos with Playmaker, and now we’re hitting home with Dunker. This card allows you to be so aggressive and influence the duel to such a degree, yeah, he’s epic. Unfortunately, he lacks the immunity powers of his Slugger cousin, but instead has a killer effect that allows him to pierce through Defense Position monsters, AND destroy a card on the field when he inflicts damage. Clocking in at 3000 ATK under Stadium is nothing to scoff at either. Equipped with our lovely Jersey, we have a 4000 ATK, double attacking, piercing monster that inflicts double damage and destroys a card when damage is inflicted. To put this in perspective, Shaddoll instantly lose if you attack a set Dragon with a Jersey’d Dunker. Instead of the 1700 ATK benchmark set by Slugger for the 8000 damage Jersey play, Dunker raises that mark to 2000 ATK or 2000 DEF. Yes, you trade a tad bit of security for more muscle. Much more muscle.
Now Dunker may seem like a solo-act, but he has friends in every set of released U.A. monsters. Dunker and Slugger form a perfect pair, one to go more aggressive when applicable and the other to play it safe. Either way, one of these two athletes will be your main source of offense on the team. As to a friend from the second set, Midfielder is key in the summoning of this guy. Since Dunker boasts a Level 7 status, you cannot maintain card advantage when Tribute Summoning him; therefore, you need to be bouncing a U.A., and Midfielder combined with Stadium can lead to a wide open court for Dunker to strut his stuff. In addition, Midfielder can also allow Dunker to ‘dodge’ battle traps by chaining Midfielder’s effect to an opponent’s card effect such as Mirror Force or Dimensional Prison, which is always a great thing. From the American Football support, Blockbacker is the perfect U.A. to pair with Dunker, since it can render monsters vulnerable to Dunker’s piercing. And there is one more monster that pairs well with Dunker, so let’s introduce the other Basketball star that throws the ball into Dunker’s court!
U.A. Rival Rebounder
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Rival Rebounder”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Rival Rebounder” once per turn this way. If this card is Special Summoned during your opponent’s turn, or Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 “U.A.” monster from your hand or Graveyard, except “U.A. Rival Rebounder”. You can only use this effect of “U.A. Rival Rebounder” once per turn.
Remember how I asked you a couple sections back to pick a camp on Turnover? This card is the reason why, because what you think about Turnover will influence your thoughts on this card. For those of you who actually listened to me, I have split the introduction to this monster into Pro-Turnover and Against-Turnover sections, because each section will resonate more with that group. It doesn’t hurt to read both sections though!
PRO-TURNOVER:
This card is the godsend the U.A. deck has been waiting for – Finally we have a way to get 2 U.A. monsters onto the field off of a single summon. With the help of any of a slew of enablers, Rebounder is just a card away from beginning to win you the duel. By Normal Summoning Rebounder, you can trigger Stadium (searching an offensive team member) and special summon a second U.A. from your hand, preferably Midfielder. Then, progress immediately into your Battle Phase, attack with your Rebounder, then tag him out for the offensive U.A. you just searched using Midfielder and continue attacking. Off of one Normal Summon, you get 3 attacks, and this doesn’t even require you to have Goalkeeper protecting a U.A. during your opponent’s turn. Follow the offensive play during the opponent’s turn with Midfielder’s effect, tagging Rebounder back into the game to get an additional Special Summon from the Hand or Graveyard. Just remember, there is a specific benefit to the interaction between Rebounder and Stadium, since the chain is built so that the newly summoned U.A. gets the ATK boost from Stadium as well. For a rulings refresher on SEGOC and why this is mandatory, check out THIS ARTICLE by Bil.
While that was the offensive side of Rebounder, there is also a potent interaction with our dear favorite Quick-Play Spell Card, Turnover Tactics. The Normal Summon of Rebounder alone now fulfills the condition to activate your situational, advantage-based, themed disruption support card. Rebounder makes its ‘situational’ condition easy as pie to fulfill. More importantly though, you can also make Turnover an even trade in advantage even if your opponent controls only monsters that can return to the main deck, such as in the Nekroz matchup. Use Turnover in the opponent’s turn and Special Summon Rebounder, that way you get an additional U.A. monster straight from your Graveyard, offsetting the spell itself. Lastly, note that you can abuse the effect of Rebounder to Summon a U.A. pretty much straight from the Deck if you have Stadium on the field. When you Normal Summon Rebounder, make its effect CL1 with Stadium’s Normal Summon effect as CL2. This way you can search whatever U.A. you would like, then summon that monster immediately from the hand. That play may not always be the best, as you are not getting another +1 in card advantage due to it, but you are getting 2 high ATK U.A. monsters straight to the field.
AGAINST-TURNOVER:
Many individuals who are against Turnover simply see it as a “win more” card; if you can set up 2 U.A., then you should be able to win the duel. Therefore, Rebounder simply serves as an additional player on offense, recovering U.A. summons from the Graveyard. Finally, the deck has a decent form of recovery that does not require sub-par spells, such as “The Warrior Returning Alive”. Since we have Rebounder, we can actually discard U.A. monsters with Perfect Ace for its negation, only to recycle those discards right back. This play allows you to expand your monster count while disrupting your opponent’s plays! But as the main role of Rebounder is just to recycle, it is not as important as Perfect Ace or Midfielder, therefore your early Stadium searches should still go to the main U.A. monsters.
Without Turnover in the mix, you will have some room for additional tech options as well, the best of which with Rebounder is “The Monarchs Stormforth”. Rebounder turns this card into a +2, removing your opponent’s monster, adding a U.A. with Stadium, and Special Summoning a U.A. from the Graveyard. So even though you aren’t running the ‘advantage-centric’ support card, you still have a really strong advantage game to work with and stick with the top decks of the format.
Those are the two main points of view on Rebounder, but perhaps you may see differently. That’s perfectly fine, as I’m hoping that everyone walks away with a new appreciation and understanding at the inner workings of the U.A. archetype. So let’s dive into the last of the support cards in 904, eh?
U.A. Signing Deal
Special Summon 1 “U.A.” monster from your Deck, but its effects are negated, also it cannot be used as Synchro or Xyz Material for a Summon. Then you lose LP equal to the Level of the monster you Special Summoned by this effect x 300. You can only activate 1 “U.A. Signing Deal” once per turn.
Talk about more reworks for the U.A. archetype! Signing Deal is “A Hero Lives” for the U.A. archetype with less of a restriction on activation, and their themed Midfielder searcher. Simply Summon out Midfielder while you have another U.A. in hand, and you have your Midfielder to Normal Summon and then search out a new U.A. with Stadium. While RotA still remains important, this card helps out the U.A.’s early game, since it can be a bit rough for the athletes. You have to get warmed up for a big game after all, but once you get a solid momentum… it will be difficult to stop you from scoring. Don’t forget, you can even activate Signing Deal when you already control a field of U.A. to add a Stadium boost or simply to add one more attacker!
The other main use of Signing Deal is to search out whatever U.A. that is needed at the given time, when you have no Stadium to aid you. Simply Summon it, use the negated one as fodder to special summon another U.A., then re-summon the one you needed. While this is generally very costly in the LP department, it is last resort tactic available to the U.A. when needed. Signing Deal is great and all, but wouldn’t it be better if the themed monster searcher of the archetype was searchable? Oh right, about that…
U.A. Penalty Box
At the start of the Damage Step, if your “U.A.” monster battles an opponent’s monster: You can banish that opponent’s monster until your opponent’s 2nd End Phase. You can only use this effect of “U.A. Penalty Box” once per turn. You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 “U.A.” Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.
The final support card released for the U.A. at the time of writing, this is the one and only trap of the archetype and it offers a lot. First, it is the absolute best card to discard with Perfect Ace, since it then searches out a new U.A. Spell when its in the Graveyard. Yes, that’s right, the support trap is a searcher, but only from the Graveyard. While this seems a tad gimmicky, which I have to give to you in all fairness, it opens doors for many different variants of U.A. that I will discuss later in this article. As with many of these cards, I would be doing this card a disservice if I only talked about its advantage capabilities, but its effect on the field is potent as well.
With the ability to banish your opponents monsters for 2 turns, this forces your opponent to begin playing around your monsters even more. If they want to attack over a Blockbacker or Perfect Ace, they have to invest multiple strong monsters to be able to do it. Also, Penalty Box allows you to get out of many monster locks, such as Vanity’s Fiend, the Djinn Lock, or even the El-Shaddolls. Out of all of these situations, my favorite use is just to use Penalty to strip an Xyz Monster of its materials. Feels nice, especially against “Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction”. Just remember, this card is best used as the discard fodder for Perfect Ace to get your early game moving. Oh, and when you make “Lavalval Chain”, you basically get a free U.A. Spell with its effect, something to keep in mind. Penalty Box may not be the best search card, or even the search card U.A. fanatics were expecting, but it fulfills the role quite well in its own unique way.
I hope you stayed on board for most of that introduction, because I certainly gabbed for a while. I’ve talked about each card, their role in the deck, and their overall role in the archetype. But I haven’t quite begun to talk about many of the main tech options, therefore I’m going to devote the next section to tech cards and various engines that work well with the U.A.
Tech Cards and Engines:
The Cards that Define the variant:
The Monarchs Stormforth
Introducing the Spell Card that is easily seen as one of the most powerful enablers for the U.A. deck. Stormforth is the answer when you do not have Midfielder, but would still like to trigger Stadium with a Normal Summon. Stormforth allows you to tribute summon Perfect Ace, Mightly Slugger, Goalkeeper, or Rebounder just using your opponent’s monster. When you summon this way while Stadium is face-up, it becomes a +1 in card advantage, except for Rebounder, which becomes a +2! Yes, card advantage is a game in which U.A. can compete at the highest level.
While it is an enabler for higher leveled U.A. monsters, I actually prefer Stormforth for its role as non-targeting, non-destruction monster removal. Say goodbye to “Vanity’s Fiend”, Djinn lock, Unicore, etc. While this is a combo card, it tends to have a stronger impact earlier in the duel when you are less likely to have the Midfielder/Stadium combo. Therefore, since you want it earlier, it should be ran in multiple copies, if you choose to go with this enabler. There are many other tech options that fill this role, but Stormforth is the only true ‘removal and enabler’ tech card for the U.A. archetype.
The variant that runs 3 Stormforth is currently considered by most to be the most consistent build of Pure U.A.; however, in a format dominated by Nekroz, Qliphort, and BA, consistency alone isn’t enough when each of the other main decks bring another defining aspect to the table. In all fairness, the pure Stormforth build has the absolute best Nekroz matchup, due to the ability to tribute away threats, Blockbacker tackling Ritual Summons, and Perfect Ace striking out attempts to win back the duel, but you don’t necessarily need Stormforth to defeat the blue cosplay troupe.
Reasoning
“Reasoning” defines the U.A. variant that is best known for its explosive plays, by trading away some of its consistency. Due to the large variance in levels, it will be unlikely for an opponent to guess the correct Level, and even if they do, that U.A. can still make it to the field quickly with the help of Rebounder. “Reasoning” is especially potent on your first turn of a match, since your opponent will probably expect that you are playing Infernoid, the only other competitive option that runs Reasoning at the current time.
So if the downside is losing consistency, what is the point? Isn’t consistency supposed to be the main highlight of the U.A. archetype? The point is that you very easily get multiple U.A. monsters to the field quickly. Also, it is sort of like a cost-less Signing Deal, since you still get a U.A. monster summoned to your field. Both “Reasoning” and Signing Deal can be considered your enablers in this variant, since they both give you a way to Special Summon high leveled U.A. monsters from the hand. This variant may be more powerful on the surface, but as it is less consistent, it is also more prone to floodgates than the average U.A. deck. “Vanity’s Emptiness” and “Vanity’s Fiend” both shut down Reasoning variants hard, because you simply will have less outs to either of those lockdowns. But there is one redeeming quality, and that is the other reason for running a Reasoning variant – the mills.
While “Reasoning” intends to Special Summon out a needed U.A. monster, it also has a secondary benefit – milling every Spell or Trap that is excavated before your first monster. Remember, there is a themed Trap card that specifically activates in the Graveyard – Penalty Box – which means that the U.A. can benefit so much from milling a few key cards. If you happen to mill a Penalty Box during the resolution of “Reasoning”… You are definitely in a good spot. To be fair, you do run the risk of milling the Spells you wish to search. In many builds that feature “Reasoning”, the duelist also chooses to run many other Graveyard-activated Spells and Traps, such as “Breakthrough Skill”, “Galaxy Cyclone”, “Mischief of the Gnomes”, and sometimes even “Skill Prisoner”. This allows the deck to have many ways to quickly gain advantage, if you’re lucky. If you’re not, “Reasoning” only serves as a means to setup Rebounder for the U.A. duelist. That’s the hidden power of the “Reasoning” build – Either you win big or you simply prepare for a future … unless the small chance that your opponent calls Level 6 and you don’t mill any of your Graveyard effects and result in a Rebounder being sent to the Graveyard. Just remember, don’t activate Stadium until after “Reasoning”: that way, you do not waste the +500 boost on only that one monster. Moreover, on the first duel of a match, your opponent won’t have a clue as to what deck you are running when calling a Level. They will probably expect Infernoid in this day and age, so you will just have to hope your opponent doesn’t guess the right Level to hit your deck as well.
Hand Destruction
This is probably one of the main tech options you have never heard of being associated with U.A. before, so let me explain before you chalk it up as stupid and silly. This concept actually came up with it in a theory-oh discussion during the writing of this article, as we tried to figure out a way to more consistently get to our Midfielder + Stadium combo on turn 1, and since it tested well in practice, we decided to stick a section in the article about ourfindings. “Hand Destruction”, the Quickplay Spell that is never found outside of bad Exodia variants, is notorious for being a bad draw card. When Exodia decks abandon a draw Spell, there is a problem. This profiling of the card as a bad option is due to the fact that it is an inherent -1 in card advantage, PLUS your opponent can use this opportunity to set up their hand and Graveyard simultaneously for free. So why in the world would we possibly consider this as a solid core for a U.A. variant? Let’s see if I can convince you of its potential.
The fact of the matter is that U.A. have a ton of searching. But draw power? None. U.A. should not even use “Upstart Goblin” (in other words, don’t try), because the extra LP you give the opponent is often just enough to push them out of OTK range. While your defense can put you in position to win games, your offense needs to be strong enough to end them, and Upstart makes the required power level that much higher. So on your first turn, Destruction is great at getting you to your needed combos to setup a Perfect Ace and/or Blockbacker on your first turn. Or perhaps even the fabled ‘Double Perfect Ace’ 4-card combo that U.A. duelists dream of. (Needed Cards: Stadium, Signing Deal, Midfielder, other U.A. monster).
But why “Hand Destruction”, why this specific “bad draw card”? Because this U.A. variant, when built properly, gets to abuse the cards you send to the Graveyard to turn the -1 into a +1. Send Penalty Box, and you get to make up for the -1 by searching out the Stadium or Signing Deal that you may need. Send a U.A. monster, and you get to Summon that monster back to the field with the help of Rebounder. With Destruction, you can make a build that specializes in abusing Rebounder, noted earlier as the advantage-centric monster of the archetype. Similar Spell and Trap card support also work amazingly in this version as in the “Reasoning” variant, except your sending of Spells and Traps is more controlled with this specific variant than random milling. On paper in an controlled environment, this should be the best of both worlds in terms of U.A. variants: consistent, fast and powerful. However, I haven’t mentioned the one crucial part of this tech choice – the opponent.
In the current meta, every deck loves sending things to the Graveyard or digging deeper into the deck. For Nekroz, it’s literally a no-brainer that they love sending Releaser or setting up a “Nekroz Cycle” Ritual Summon. Against Tellar, Destruction lets them set up Altair before their first turn. Against BA or Shaddoll, it lets them trigger their effects extremely early. Against Qliphort, Destruction just means that they are 2 cards closer to a Scout. Against HERO, it allows them to trigger Shadow Mist for a free search and maybe prepare the Graveyard for “Call of the Haunted” if they didn’t have a way to do so already. This trend continues for pretty much any other semi-competitive deck in the current meta. At the end of the day, you have to weigh your odds. Do you trust in the power that Destruction gives your deck, to the point where you are content to set up behind double Perfect Ace or Perfect Ace/Blockbacker to inhibit your opponent’s setup? Or would you rather go with a less opponent-dependent version? Any way that you slice the pie, this is a key decision that needs to be made during deckbuilding before you even get into a duel.
So that was the basic introduction to the three main ways to run U.A., at least the 3 that show the most competitive merit. If you are really interested in building a U.A. deck for yourself, you will need to figure out which of these styles fits your meta the best. But don’t let the meta be your only factor, you should try testing each U.A. variant a bit, and learn how each variant fits into your playstyle. For example, I am someone who does not like the random milling element to the Reasoning build, so I avoid it with a ten-foot pole. However, there are many U.A. duelists that swear by that specific variant, so do not count my word as law on this matter. After you make this initial decision and work out how you like to play the deck, it’s time to learn about augmenting your deck through various deckbuilding choices. Let me be the first to say, I simply love smoke screening by having a second U.A. option hiding in the Side Deck to bring in for specific matchups. Before you can get to that level of comfort with the deck, let’s introduce the complement engines which can augment whichever main strategy you choose!
The Engines:
Nekroz
I know what you’re saying, ‘this is a U.A. deck’. And when I put Nekroz here, I am going to specify even further into two specific routes – the Nekroz Hybrid and the Nekroz Engine. The Hybrid features an even split of U.A. and Nekroz, allowing you to have the power of Trishula and Unicore backed by a Perfect Ace disruption. This is definitely an option, but to put it in the words of people in discussion guides across the interwebs: “You are playing with 2 half decks each playing at half potential.” While this is true, it is also kind of interesting because the Nekroz help to make up for poor U.A. setups, while U.A. setups can stall until you have your Trishula play ready. The two engines complement each other, as Unicore fills the role of Blockbacker, and Clausolas can lead to some fun OTK’s with Jersey.
The Nekroz Engine on the other hand has been the go-to Nekroz addition to a U.A. deck, even as it has adapted over time. It originally began with triple Tour Guide, Scarm, Releaser, 3 Clausolas and 2 Cycle. The purpose of this specific addition was twofold – TGU into Scarm allowed you to Xyz Summon “M-X-Saber Invoker”, which then allowed you to summon Midfielder from the deck. TGU acted as an enabler for Midfielder, while thinning your deck by another copy. You can think of it functioning similarly to the prior role of TGU in Koa’ki Meiru, if you are familiar with that due to my previous articles.
But that was the past, now TGU is limited. So now, the Nekroz engine simply features 3 Claus, 2 Cycle, and 1 Releaser. While this doesn’t seem to be extremely impactful, everyone and their brother knows the potency of the Djinn lock, especially those of you who play competitively. In a U.A. deck, you already run 3 RotA, so all it takes to setup the lock is Releaser and RotA. This engine does work best with a couple tech cards to be discussed later, such as Foolish Burial; however, it is effective enough to just run the engine. Remember, in the current meta that has developing over the last few months, people started running options to break the Djinn lock, but you have a Perfect Ace up your sleeve. However, if Nekroz isn’t an option you want to consider, there are definitely other engines to pair with the athletes, so let’s meet the other contestants!
Heroic
Hands down, this is the most popular archetype to pair with the U.A. and for good reason. Assault Halberd is simply amazing at providing Tribute fodder and being a magnet for your opponent’s trap cards. While it alone is not much of a threat, many duelists will respond to its attack with a “Mirror Force” or other trap cards to prevent the free search. Remember, every single trap used on Heroics is a tiny victory on the way to a Jersey-empowered OTK. If your opponent does not stop your Assault Halberd’s attack, then you just set up a free “Lavalval Chain”, which then can dump Penalty Box, which then searches out a U.A. Spell that you may need, such as Signing Deal to then set up a Perfect Ace. So in other words, one monster can become an Xyz monster, netting you a free U.A. Spell card in the process. At the end of the day, this simple play is an overall +1 in card advantage that will quickly snowball if your opponent cannot get Lavalval Chain off the field.
While all of those combos sound well and good, Assault Halberd is an enabler for your Level 5 and Level 6 U.A. monsters while being a monster itself. That is its main role, be a magnet for Fiendish Chain and easily be tribute away when needed. Remember, a Tribute Summon makes up for itself if Stadium is on the field, and it especially works out if you are Tribute Summoning Rebounder. But if Assault Halberd was the only Heroic monster worth running, this wouldn’t be much of an engine. So let’s introduce the second Heroic monster that makes an appearance in U.A. builds – “Heroic Challenger – Thousand Blades”.
Thousand Blades has a simple use – damage sponge that keeps summoning itself back. It can be Special Summoned to the field from the Graveyard whenever you take damage, and sometimes that is all you need to mount a last-second defense to fend off your opponent for a Tribute Summon to regain control of the game. While it is extremely uncommon, you can also use its first effect to make a Rank 4 Xyz such as Lavalval Chain if you have an Assault Halberd in hand and your opponent does not have a monster. Good luck ever accomplishing that play though. As a preliminary warning, its effect cannot be paired with “U.A. Signing Deal”, since the “losing LP” part of that card’s effect does not qualify as taking damage.
As I said in the beginning of this segment, this is the most common engine to pair with the U.A. due to how the Heroics complement the various weak points of the U.A. archetype at the current time. You don’t need combos, you don’t need a clear field, the Heroics are simple and sweet. This fact is often overlooked in decks with wide play options, but a straightforward option is always an amazing thing to have at your disposal. But if Heroic is not the engine for you, there are still more options.
Striker
While the Heroic Engine is designed to give you ways to play without combos required, the Striker engine keeps the same enabling abilities and instead adds additional combos. The Striker engine is composed of 3 copies of “T.G. Striker” and 2 copies of “Spell Striker”. This engine pretty much serves as monster tribute fodder when needed, but its main purpose is enabling Synchro monsters if you happen to draw into multiple Strikers. “Naturia Beast” is powerful against everything but BA in this current format, so it only makes sense to try out a build that can make it.
Many duelists who swear by this build call the locks more powerful and potent, especially in a meta of Ritual Summoning, Pendulum Monsters, and Fusion Summoning. However, I do not think that this engine benefits U.A. enough in the current metagame, due to the fact that it is an inherent -1 to use the Strikers as Tribute Fodder or as Synchro material, and there is no way to make up that advantage on their own, outside of 600 direct attacks until you reduce your opponent’s LP to 0… which will take a while. In addition, it just adds more strategic complexity when the deck already has a wide array of plays at its disposal. If the Striker engine does not float your boat, perhaps you will consider the other Synchro engine.
Psychic
This engine is probably more aptly called an E-Tele engine, but it does feature multiple Psychic monsters. The typical engine runs 3 “Emergency Teleport”, 2 “Re-Cover”, and 2 “Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit”. This setup gives the U.A. deck more answers in a difficult matchup (Qliphort) while also giving access to Synchro monsters and Tribute fodder when needed. “Re-Cover” is awesome, as it makes “Naturia Beast” with Midfielder, “Naturia Barkion” with Slugger, or “Naturia Landoise” with Rebounder, so you can effectively split your negation from relying on just Perfect Ace to relying on the best Naturia monster for the job.
On one hand, this engine is a lot more versatile than the Striker engine, but it does require additional cards to function at its best. The most alluring ability of this engine, at least in my opinion, is “Re-Cover”, since it doubles as both a tuner and a recurring tribute fodder when needed. The unfortunate part is the LP cost, since 2000 is quite heavy in a deck that already uses Signing Deal in addition to other Trap cards that require LP as a cost. Unlike the Striker engine, the Synchro combo of E-Tele + Midfielder is a lot easier to arrange, it does not set back your strategy by searching non-U.A. monsters, and it is more beneficial for your card advantage since you can still get a Stadium search to offset the -1 for the Synchro Summon, especially in comparison to relying on the Strikers. This is in the perspective of making “Naturia Beast”, since the Beast is obviously the best Synchro for the current meta. If the Synchro options did not convince you of their potency, let’s see if a flexible option is more appealing to you.
Trap Monsters
You read that title correctly, I am referring to the Continuous Traps that Special Summon themselves as monsters. You know, that theme that managed to top a few Regional events here and there? Perhaps you are asking the question – how may they help the Ultra Athletes? Well each Trap Monster is an enabler, that’s a start, but the newest Trap Monsters actually bring a Draw Engine, Stall, and Spot removal as secondary roles when used as an engine in U.A. So let’s talk about each of these qualities in turn.
The Draw Engine that comes hand-in-hand with the Trap monsters is simple – “Magic Planter”. It is an extremely straightforward 2 for 2 Spell, until you factor in one specific U.A. support card – Penalty Box. No longer do you have to wait by keeping Penalty Box in hand hoping to discard it with Perfect Ace for a search, you can simply activate it, Planter it away for 2 draws and immediately search the U.A. Spell you need. A neat combo in this regard is to activate Planter, send Penalty to the Graveyard as a cost, then chain with Penalty Box’s effect from the Graveyard, giving you better odds to draw into non-U.A. Spell cards that you may need from your deck. It’s just simple deck thinning theory at work.
The Stall comes in the form of the uncanny ability for Trap Monsters to stick around for quite a while. The main Trap Monsters that work the best in this variant are the two most recent Trap Monsters – “Abyssal Stungray” and “Statue of Anguish Pattern”. Stungray comes with an immunity to battle, which is always a nice touch, and in this meta where MST isn’t always Main Deck worthy, it tends to stick around a while until your opponent gets up a Castel (which you should be tackling with Blockbacker’s effect by the way). On the other hand, Statue is untargetable while you control another Trap Monster and boasts 2500 DEF, so it will take quite a bit to get over the Statue. Most duelists choosing this engine choose to run one final Trap monster, to round out the number of Continuous Traps at 10, warranting 3 Planter. “The First Monarch” serves as tribute fodder even for your Level 7 U.A. monsters, “Metal Reflect Slime” basically can never be killed in battle, “Tiki Soul” will protect your other Trap Monsters and “Tiki Curse” gives you some battle domination (which you really don’t need, since you are using U.A.). Also, the last two monsters are Level 4, which means easier access to “Lavalval Chain”.
The last point is spot removal, and “Statue of Anguish Pattern” provides that as well. Each time you summon another Trap Monster while you control Anguish, you get to destroy a card your opponent controls. This is amazing for the U.A. archetype, as they don’t have a safe option for removing backrow, so Anguish becomes your answer. In addition, it is a Level 7 monster, allowing for you to go into Dragossack or Big Eye when combined with Dunker or Blockbacker. On a similar note, Stungray happens to be a Level 5, which nicely combos with your Perfect Ace and Mighty Slugger, both of which you should be running multiple copies of! “Number 61: Volcasaurus” and “Shark Fortress” say hello.
I hope that this massive advertisement for Trap Monsters of all things being featured in U.A. has won you over a bit. There has to be a downside though, and the downside is that all of your enablers need to wait a turn. You cannot draw your enabler then immediately Tribute Summon for a Level 5 or Level 6 U.A. monster that turn. In some duels, this can be overlooked, but it can have an effect and will force you to adapt your play pattern based on the opponent. This variant is also hit harder by backrow control, such as MST, “Galaxy Cyclone”, or “Royal Decree”, which means that it functions best when used as a smokescreen variant (aka siding out into a different sub-engine or complement strategy). In most cases, this second strategy tends to be a more standard Stormforth version ready to enter the fray versus monster Floodgate-heavy opponents. Now that we’re done with rogue options, let’s return to another archetype that definitely is known for making a competitive splash.
HERO
Similar to the Nekroz engine, a HERO engine in U.A. done right will take a considerably larger number of cards in order to perform optimally. In order to actually make this work, you need to be running 3 “Elemental HERO Shadow Mist”, 2 “Summoner Monk”, 3 copies total of “Mask Change”/”Mask Change II” (the number of each you decide), 3 copies of “A Hero Lives” and then 2 other HERO monster