All photos courtesy of UVS Games
2024 UniVersus National Championship Decklists and Recap
Three weekends of amazing UniVersus (UVS) action all over the globe has concluded and each one was more exciting than the last. All of the tournaments had amazing highlights and many great memories were made! Seeing the players adapt and the metagame evolve over such a short period of time was incredible to watch.
Here are the best UVS decks and players heading into the World Championship.
UniVersus OCE National Champion: Zane Landrigan – Chaos Mimic
The 2024 season’s first National Champion crowned is everyone’s favorite asset abuser. Mimic‘s response ability to pick up attacks after you check an asset solves any problems you’ll have with offensive consistency. Once he’s sculpted a hand of the best attacks, check bonuses from Smashing Stomp, Blueflame Torment, and City Rampage ensure his ability to string these high difficulty cards together.
The bottom response, combined with all of the cheap assets, gives Mimic a ton of damage pumps while also padding the below average health total.
Character (1)
1 Mimic
Foundation (23)
2 Basic Training
4 Easily Excited
4 Fast Friendship
4 Chivalrous Competitor
1 The Chivalrous Thief
2 Nice Try!
1 Incredible Display
1 Forced Quirk Activation
4 Fearsome Transformations
Attack (18)
1 Trigger Transformation
1 Un-phased
1 Gently Theft
3 Walk The Dog
4 Blueflame Torment
4 Smashing Stomp
2 Shocking Entrance
2 Determined Advance
Asset (24)
2 Cape of No Return
4 Nott’s Flask
4 Soup
4 Vertical Maneuvering Equipment
3 Gold Tips Imperial
4 Trigger
1 La Brava
1 T88
1 Battle Arena
Action (3)
Side
1 Cape of No Return
2 Incredible Display
2 Genkai’s Guidance
3 Run Away!
2 Cheerful Uppercut
UniVersus OCE Grand Finals
The finals match itself was one to behold, as Zane faced off against James O’Doherty piloting the exact same deck. It’s pretty rare for a character to face itself in the grand finals of a UVS tournament, but this is the first time I can remember a true mirror match taking place. First and second place were the same decklist all the way down to the sideboard. Huge highlights involving response chains that saw multiple abilities getting canceled made for a tense final!
Mimic’s 25 health put him in a real dangerous position within the metagame as recent six-handers have had over 30 health consistently since the Godzilla Challenger Series released. Luckily his unique ability to rely on assets instead of foundations has granted him a lot more freedom in the face of Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon‘s once-per-game abilities.
Despite knowing the conclusion, you should definitely go back and watch this match if you haven’t already seen it, but survivability was not an issue for this deck at all! Congratulations to Zane for qualifying for his third World Championship in a row!
UniVersus EU National Champion: Leo Savage – Death Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon
While Mimic served as an answer to the growing dominance of Godzilla and Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon in other regions, the EU did not see much success for the little guy. Instead the Origins of Power boogeyman lived up to the hype.
Leaning more heavily on throws than expensive ramp attacks this time around, Leo’s build was able to apply pressure early and often. The blitz abilities of Besiege and Attack Titan’s Haymaker evading blocks makes defending against this deck very frustrating.
Character (1)
1 Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon
Foundation (43)
4 Botan’s Coaching
4 Reluctant Role Model
3 Syndicate Target
3 Attack Titan’s Hardening
4 I’m With You
4 Mikasa’s Admission
4 Pull from Danger
2 Beneath the Armor
4 Feral Shriek
2 Latent Skill
3 Loss of Consciousness
3 Weapon Clash
2 Sacrifice for the Cause
1 Desperate Struggle
Attack (19)
4 Besiege
2 Close-Combat Tackle
3 Wish Hard
2 Battle Aura Release
3 Jaw Jammer
3 Lethal Slash
2 Attack Titan’s Haymaker
Asset (1)
Action (4)
3 Go For The Win!
1 Genkai’s Guidance
Side
2 Invincible Body
2 Luna Ring
2 Learning The Standards
1 Desperate Struggle
1 Hero’s Upbringing
2 Showdown
EU Grand Finals
Game one saw Liam Chawner’s Elder Toguro combo deck successfully resolve a one-hit knockout using Stomp of the Female Titan pumped up with many copies of “An Embarrassment of Dooplers”, but Leo managed to turn things around with an untransformed kill in game two. Besiege and a pair of Lethal Slashes dropped Elder Toguro below half health on turn two. While Elder Toguro is one of the best defensive decks being played, the resources spent to stay alive just weren’t sustainable. Eventually a Close Combat Tackle sealed the deal after a surprisingly grindy game. In game three the combo pieces did not arrive in time for Liam, it seemed.
Without Sports Festival Champ, the overwhelming damage reduction available to death and fire attuned characters prevented any of Elder Toguro’s honest attempts to win. Bertolt’s transformation disrupting the necessary pieces to combo gave Leo many turns of uncontested offense.
While surviving for even a single turn against Bertolt, Colossus Titan Advancing is impressive in its own right, the colossus titan is famous for breaking walls. It’s pretty rare to see games go long after Bertolt’s once-per-game is utilized, and Leo’s deck definitely rose to the challenge. Congratulations to Leo on his first National Championship!
UniVersus US National Champion: Travis Tangeman – Krista Lenz
The biggest surprise of the Nationals season has to be Krista Lenz. She’s a character with a very powerful ability to control the top card of both player’s decks using wall counters. Discarding cards to generate those counters can be costly though. Chaos has no problem generating card advantage, and Team Metagame Liberation Army (MGLA) found the right blend of payoffs with discard outlets.
Petty Squabble and Don’t Do This trading extra cards in hand to lock down the rival’s stage are obvious additions to the game plan. Long-Range Support however hasn’t seen much play at all, as it’s a conditional ability that doesn’t generate actual card advantage. It does however share great timing with Award The Victor adding more ways to recur attacks akin to Horrifying Realization. Both of those cards shine a lot brighter when the discard element is something you want to be doing.
Character
Foundation (39)
4 #23 Pro Hero
2 Award The Victor
4 Basic Training
4 Easily Excited
3 Fast Friendship
1 Nejire-Chan Of The Big 3
3 Petty Squabble
3 Struggling With Studies
3 Long-Range Support
4 Don’t Do This
4 Horrifying Realization
4 Fearsome Transformations
Attack (20)
1 Armor of the Wolf
2 Double Trouble
4 Frog Strike
4 Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken
3 Walk The Dog
4 Wall Maria’s Might
2 Dimensional Sphere
Action (6)
3 Run Away!
2 Wound / Restore
1 Genkai’s Guidance
Side
2 Blueflame Torment
2 Incredible Display
1 Genkai’s Guidance
1 Run Away!
1 Dimensional Sphere
3 Disarming Glance
Most genius however might be the inclusion of #23 Pro Hero. Originally support for characters that must discard cards during the review step to use their abilities, and every turn Krista doesn’t review that is a game action that could have generated more counters. Counters that are then referenced to gain bonus speed during attacks. It being a 6 check that Krista can stack on top of the deck is the cherry on top.
Being a deck that can go find Run Away! from the discard pile and use it multiple times via Struggling With Studies might be the best defensive trick in the format as well.
US Grand Finals
Team MGLA had two players in top cuts with the same Krista list, but it was a third teammate who made it to the end in Cory Nelson. Cory has been on a tear with Recovery Girl winning the Webcam Warriors tournament at the beginning of the year. Luckily Krista’s overwhelming amount of stun made it difficult for Recovery Girl to use foundations she builds with her response.
On top of that, Krista’s second ability can stack useful foundations on top of her rival’s deck, making it hard for them to be recurred from the discard pile. A lot of times the biggest factor in facing a deck like Recovery Girl is recognizing how the win condition changes for most decks, and that didn’t seem to be an issue for this Krista list. It helps that Travis is also a seasoned Recovery Girl player himself. Congratulations to Travis; his hard work paid off.
The Road to the UniVersus World Championship
These National Championships were some of the most interesting and enjoyable events I’ve been to in my decade of UVS. Seeing the player’s adaptations to one of the most unforgiving, high powered formats of all time has been a true joy. There was more time than ever for side events and a great prize wall to go with it.
The only thing left to do is figure out the last remaining entrees from the Last Chance Qualifier in Orlando the day before the World Championship kicks off. From there 64 players will have to lock in and give it their all if they want to be recognized as the best in the world. That lucky person will become a playable character in the game with a design of their own!
Wanna learn how to play UniVersus? Then check out our complete beginner’s guide here.
