The Sad Story of the "U.A."

[ABC Gun]

​ "A long time ago, about August 2014 at the start of the ARC-V Era, there was once a group of warriors dressed in futuristic sports attire, they would return from the field to the hand of those whom the belonged. Alas, they could not keep to the field, with their bulky Levels choking their hearts and bricking their souls and eventually, those whom grew fond of their ilk began to drift away, away to the winds that would take them."

 

 

​Basically the U.A. suck HARD and I was just "lamenting" ​over the fact that I once like these cards. Its a cool thing they can do; bounce 1 you control then Special Summon another from your hand, and this applies to all of them regardless of their Levels but the only setback was that all but most of them were Level 5 and higher (they were exactly 1 Level 4, 1 Level 8, then 2 each of Levels 5, 6, and 7). Some of you realize the problem then; good gimmick, even a fun one bounce then Summon, bounce then Summon I'm sure Konami would of made other cards outside the Archetype that could combo very well with them and their all EARTH Warriors so they can take advantage of many good support cards, but not enough low Level monsters to Normal Summon so you could exploit this gimmick to its fullest.

 

The weird thing is, on the artwork of "U.A. Penalty Box" (http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/U.A._Penalty_Box), it shows a few hockey players that look like they should be U.A. monsters, so why didn't we get them maybe they could have at least been Level 4 or lower?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Think a lot of us were expecting an expansion of U.A. hockey players in CORE, and not Star Wars [Kozmo] / Kaiju. But yeah, they stopped doing it because the 4 pack thing for them expired. (As you probably realized, U.A. were supposed to be the "budget player" Deck compared to BAs as the money / metagame one.)

 

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Admittedly, I do like the Deck as well (and was a lot kinder on my wallet when I built it; still have it), but yeah, relying on Midfielder / Stadium and other techs isn't going to help much. I have seen others using a slight Pendulum engine lately. I mean, yeah, they do have Midfielder and Signing Deal to help them make it suck less [albeit with an LP cost on the latter], but that has its limits.

 

I know someone made follow up monsters in CC a while back that were Level 4 and helped them out (both in speed and dealing with common threats). 

 

As much as we'd like to hope Konami throws them a few legacy toys in future sets (though they have done this to a select few), it's unlikely they're getting any (but could be proven wrong). 

[Bringerofcake]

Noble Knights have gotten support. There's hope for us all.

 

But in actuality, UA honestly has ways of dealing with the no level 4 thing, and their spells are all broken. They just need protection from getting blown to smitheroons and/or some negation and they could be solid tier 2. They can OTK out of nowhere, and have a lot of really solid support. They also benefit from Missus Radiant, which is something.

[Delibirb]

I did very well with them at locals during Nekroz Format. The Nekroz matchup itself was an uphill battle, certainly, but I could handle Yosenju, Volcanics, and Qli if they didn't have Skill Drain, with some effort. Split for 1st once and 2nd two or three times.

 

That isn't to say it wasn't a struggle. I did much better with Ritual Beasts at the time, but U.A. weren't wholly unplayable.

[VCR_CAT]

I resent this thread. U.A.'s do not suck ass, and working in the right techs it can be an extremely competent deck to play. You have sheet like Foolish Burial Goods to make use of Penalty Box better, you have cards like Symphonic Guitaars and Miccs to put an extra body on the field and increase your Normal Summon count for additional searches and additional bodies, you've got so much to work with and the resulting fields are actually pretty dang strong. It's a very fun deck that can go pretty hard.

 

If anything, I wouldn't say the problems are a lack of normal-summon-for-free targets. I would say the three strongest problems are:

- Effect-base Removal

- Consistency: Searching and getting cards in-hand

- Consistency: Draw power and resource upkeep.

 

For the first, U.A.'s are an extremely battlephase-reliant deck. While right up my field, it makes for a glaring weakness that has screwed me over hard in the past. They lack easy and cheap means of removing cards without resorting to battle, and additional support in that area would be a big boost.

 

For the second, U.A. as a deck isn't a deck of one-card plays; many of the monster plays require having a U.A. in hand, and with RotA hit the deck doesn't have an easy means of getting a U.A. from your deck to your hand. You have cards like Signing Deal to get them on the field, and other efficient ways of getting them out, but in order to do your plays you always need at least a U.A. in the hand. Having that wild-card searcher would greatly assist in fixing those bricked hands where you have nothing but means of getting U.A.'s in the field, but no way of getting them in hand to make use of the tag-out mechanic. While Stadium is great for searching, that, again, needs a U.A. to be in the hand for you to Normal Summon to begin with. There isn't really anything to fix that problem.

 

Finally, the deck has no draw power. Absolutely none. A lot of searching, but no means of deep-digging to get those cards you can't search, such as the U.A. monsters. Having that extra draw power would assist a lot in the previous point.

 

 

 

But yeah, this deck doesn't at all suck ass, and all you need to do is put some strong lateral thinking to use and figure out how to best use these cards, because this can be a scary competent deck if done right.