Thoughts on New U.A. Support

Kyle’s thoughts on the new U.A. support being released in Secrets of Eternity.

Hello again, I’m back from the holiday break with another article! Over said break a majority of the new pack, Secrets of Eternity, to be released in about 3 weeks, was leaked. Of the leaked cards was the 3 TCG exclusive U.A. support cards, so rather than bore with Shaddoll deck profiles or meta talk I figured I’d give some quick thoughts on these new cards and what potential they may or may not bring to the archetype that I’ve taken an interest in.

First, as a precursor to the article, I’d like to say that this technically spoilers for 3 cards that are not released yet. So, if you would like to be surprised with what they do once the pack comes out, do not read further. Also, in a similar fashion, the only leaked versions of the cards are in spanish, so there’s the potential that the names I refer to the cards by in this article may be inaccurate once the pack is officially released.

Like the previous two packs, we received 2 monsters and a spell. They’re all rares, despite previous spells being commons. These new cards are based around American Football. The first is U.A. Playmaker:

U.A. Playmaker

Level 8 / EARTH / Warrior

2600 ATK / 2000 DEF

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.

His effect makes him seem like the Quarterback, but he looks a little like a Running Back too, so it’s a little vague as to what position Playmaker is. Like every U.A. monster, Playmaker has the bounce summon condition. At first glance I would say this card is quite underwhelming and really doesn’t offer U.A.’s what they want in anyway. Upon further inspection there’s a couple interesting facets to the card, but it’s still not that great an addition.

The first thing I notice is this is the strongest off the bat of all the U.A. monsters. Previously, when doing attacking plays you where limited to Slugger alone, and even when doing pushes with Midfielder and Slugger, the monster you would summon off of Midfielder was usually not a very strong monster, so there wasn’t a ton of damage output, and this could increase damage output by a lot. Second, I notice the ATK boost is permanent, so Playmaker can attack with 2600, then boost another monster permanently, and then tag out to reset his attack. For example:

• Midfielder and Slugger on board.
• Slugger attacks.
• Midfielder bounces Slugger for Playmaker.
• Playmaker attacks.
• Midfielder attacks and gets boosted by Playmaker to 2000 ATK.
• You bounce Playmaker again for another U.A.

If attacking directly this does 2300 + 2600 + 2000 = 6900. With U.A. Stadium it does an additional 1000, for 7900, sadly shy of an OTK. The combo would likely OTK quite easily when combined with U.A. Powered Jersey attacking into a monster.

Two, other things of note about Playmaker. Playmaker also has really high defense despite being a primarily offensive monster, which is a nice addition. It lastly is a Level 8, which opens up the possibility for Trade-in. The other potential level 8 for the deck would Malefic Stardust Dragon to protect U.A. Stadium. Trade-in would allow the deck to more quickly see the cards it needs and potentially allow cards like Call of the Haunted or Oasis of Dragon Souls to be run, which has the potential to be good because as a U.A. player previously I was strongly yearning for extra ways to get U.A.s on the board, being sorely limited by “normal summon syndrome”, a problem where a deck needs to normal summon too much. Trade-in would most definitely make Soul Charger a staple for the deck.

The next monster is U.A. Linebacker:

U.A. Linebacker

Level 7 / EARTH / Warrior

1600 ATK / 2700 DEF

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by returning 1 “U.A.” monster you control to the hand, except “U.A. Linebacker”. You can only Special Summon “U.A. Linebacker” once per turn this way. Once per turn, when your opponent Special Summons a monster(s): You can change their battle position(s), and if you do, negate their effects.

Linebacker is of course, the linebacker position in football, being much less ambiguous than the Playmaker’s position. This card is immediately a good card upon first inspection, which is nice to see. It starts with the second highest DEF of all the U.A.’s but also has one of the highest attacks, and after a single Stadium boost it has 2100 ATK, which is really high for it’s similarly good DEF and effect.

First things to note, Linebacker can be used during either player’s turn, this means it can negate things summoned during your turn, and even during the damage step. This means Artifacts, Shaddoll Fusions, Call of the Haunted in Satellarknights, Gorz, Tragoedia, etc. It can be also used during the opponent’s turn for more obvious things.

Linebacker is inherently a weaker defensive effect than Perfect Ace, but has the benefit of having no cost, which is fantastic. This basically makes it the ideal tag out using Midfielder when swapping out a Perfect Ace. For example, you use Perfect Ace effect during the opponent’s turn, then use a Midfielder to swap it for Linebacker in hand and also get boosts off of Stadium. This essentially replaces Goalkeeper’s purpose, at least as far as the reasons I was running it.

On the negative, this card is level 7, meaning it doesn’t support Feast of the Wild LV 5 or XYZ summoning in general, and also will almost never be Normal Summoned when in a pinch like you could with Slugger or Perfect Ace. This alternate level does bring a very interesting, and potentially powerful new element into the equation though, being the card Reasoning. On the most recent ban list Reasoning went back to 3 for the first time in a while. Now with addition of 2 new U.A. monsters with levels different than the rest of the deck, the deck’s level diversity has become very wide. The best part is the deck really doesn’t care which U.A. gets summoned off of Reasoning, it just wants more U.A.s on the field. The cost of running Reasoning though would likely be cutting the Tour Guide and mini BA engine, because they clash severely.

An honorable mention goes to the card Sacred Sword of Seven Stars.

The last card is one I’m a little torn about, U.A. Winning Tactics:

U.A. Winning Tactics

Quick-Play Spell

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 with different names from your Deck, up to the number of cards shuffled into your Main Deck, but they 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. Winning Tactics” per turn.

This card immediately turns me off by starting with a clause that is not easily nor consistently met in U.A.’s, having 2 U.A.’s on the board. On the other hand it has a very interesting and potentially amazing effect.

Continuing with things of note, this card only allows both players to summon from the deck up to the number of monsters returned to the “Main Deck” meaning it completely obliterates Extra Deck monsters, because they won’t be counted towards the number of monsters you get to summon back from the deck. This is absurdly good when thinking about decks like Burning Abyss or Shaddolls, who frequently just leave Extra Deck monsters on the field that want to go to the graveyard.

This card works very nicely in combination with Linebacker. The most obvious thing for the opponent to do would be to Special Summon something that will get an effect from the deck, but Lineback easily will negate that.

The next application for this card would be for protecting your monsters. This card is essentially an ultimate form of Forbidden Lance. Your opponent makes uses a card to disrupt your plays while you control 2 U.A.s and you can essentially negate whatever they do and also nuke the board of Extra Deck monsters and simultaneously get exactly the U.A. you need from the deck. Which is interest, but I don’t actually know how effective that will be. Notably, this is an easy counter to Fire Lake, because it can save all of your cards, even the non-U.A. being targeted.

Honorable mention goes to Serpentine Princess.

So in short I see the addition of all three of the new cards being a high possibility as well as Reasoning, Trade-In, Malefic Stardust (which thankfully does not clash with Reasoning), and the removal of pretty much every non-U.A. card they where running in the past. If not that, just the addition of a 1 Playmaker and 2 Linebacker and dropping Goalkeeper, 1 Perfect Ace and one other card is the lighter option.

QOTW? Question of the Week:

What are you going to run during next format? Me, I’ll be running Shaddolls, U.A., and maybe some Frog Monarchs.

Written by: Kyle Oliver