Level Up Sung Jinwoo, E Rank Hunter With This Budget Build
Solo Leveling comes to UniVersus CCG today! It debuts a brand new level up mechanic. Use your XP cards to unlock abilities in the Assassin Skill Tree and become the Ruler! This preconstructed deck lets you take on the role of a weak Hunter starting with no abilities. Reach level 6 however, and you’ll have more abilities than any other character. Sung Jinwoo really embodies the struggle, but have no fear; I am here to help you get upgraded without breaking the bank.
What Comes In a Challenger Series Solo Leveling Deck?
First let’s take a look at what the base deck provides to get an idea of what to improve.
Character (1)
Foundation (34)
2 Double Dungeon
4 Dungeoneering Armor
4 Fateful Decision
4 Improving Skills
4 Item Menu
4 Leveling Strength
4 Loot Box
4 Serpent Scramble
4 Timely Recovery
Attack (22)
3 Determined Cut
3 Enough of This
3 Grasp for Survival
3 Killing Intent
4 Wolf Assassin
2 Venom Fang Dagger
2 Clash with the Bloodred
2 World’s Weakest Hunter
Asset (4)
2 Hunter’s Dagger
2 Teleportation Stone
What’s Good About the Solo Leveling Challenger Deck?
By and large the Solo Leveling deck has an incredible late game. As a jumping off point for many players, you’re also going to get a good mix of defensive options: damage reduction, speed reduction, health gain, and breaker are all present in full playsets of four. Offensively you’re gonna get some very nice foundation control and conditional card advantage. Clash with the Bloodred, Killing Intent and World’s Weakest Hunter are gonna have a major impact on your ability to win games with their abilities more so than their speed or damage stats.
What’s Not So Hot About This Precon?
Starting with no abilities from the Assassin Skill Tree is really unfortunate. It really increases the risk of missing out on an XP card in your opening hand, and can even mess with that important first turn build. Sung Jinwoo can rarely afford to go a turn without leveling up. This reliance on a single keyword only found in the Solo Leveling Challenger Series taxes your hand size every turn and greatly affects deckbuilding.
Time for a Budget Second Awakening!
The first thing you’ll want to do is pick up a second Solo Leveling deck. Because the Critical Attack and Dagger Throw skills desire the Weapon keyword, budget options for the attack lineup can be pretty limited. Luckily the precon comes with a lot of great weapon attacks and all you need to do is survive long enough to compensate for losing cards to keep leveling up. That means your first upgrades are gonna focus on card advantage, staying alive, and establishing better turn-one builds.
What’s New With Offense?
Offensively you want to do more of what’s working. Venom Fang Dagger is a wonderful setup attack that can turn any other attack into a win condition with a one-two punch! World’s Weakest Hunter is the best poke that your rival will have to respect, unless they want you to draw up to three cards. Both of the results on Clash with the Bloodred‘s Blitz ability are really good outcomes. The only brand new addition is Double-Bladed Spin; it has a minor deadlock effect for later games but gives you great opportunities to reel in the card advantage.
What Does Our New Defense Look Like?
This is where you’re really gonna notice a big difference. Invincible Body and Defending Pageant Queen come through as huge stat resets to protect you from really fast or strong attacks. When the rival is trying to play lots of little attacks at you, Teleportation Stone and Eri Smiles should put a damper on those plans. Sometimes you’ll have to combine Defending Pageant Queen with one of these “stop sign” effects on block in difficult situations.
Fateful Decision‘s versatility should force the rival to think twice about using slow moves early in their turn. Try to stack multiple instances of Breaker 1 with them to really put the game in a stranglehold!
Upgraded Deck List for Solo Leveling
Here’s the deck list with our upgrades:
Character (1)
Foundation (40)
4 Double Dungeon
2 Invincible Body
2 Draw Your Swords
4 Defending Pageant Queen
4 Fateful Decision
4 Improving Skills
4 Item Menu
4 Leveling Strength
2 Loot Box
4 Serpent Scramble
3 Easily Excited
3 Floating Around My Babies
Attack (20)
4 Killing Intent
4 Venom Fang Dagger
4 Clash with the Bloodred
4 World’s Weakest Hunter
4 Double-Bladed Spin
Asset (2)
Action (2)
Now You’re Ready to Take Down the Dungeon!
At the time of writing this article, these upgrades beyond the original Solo Leveling Challenger Series deck is $54. There’s a good mix of defensive staples and threats for your rival to assess. A big strength of this deck is its versatility. Remember that leveling up is the key to success. The weakest E Rank Hunter might struggle early, but games where you can level up three or four times should make up the majority of your wins.
As you play the deck, don’t be afraid to try out different attacks that you like. Not all of Sung Jinwoo’s attacks have to be Weapons to be useful. Experimenting with Hunter’s Dagger looks like a fun puzzle but increases the difficulty of the deck quite a bit. Keep cool under pressure, keep the XP coming, and the wins will keep racking up!
Want to read more about Challenger Series cards? Check out our Top 10 list of the most wanted cards in Star Trek: Lower Decks. New to UniVersus? Check out our complete UniVersus beginner’s guide, which will give you everything you need to know which products to buy, along with the rules of the game and even deckbuilding basics!
Please note: card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.
