Welcome back, Ultraman Card Game players! BP02 Vortex of Crimson and Azure is out, and players are already experimenting with ways to bring their favorite decks to a new level, and try new strategies entirely!
However, Vortex was not the only big release on January 24th — No, there was also a new structure deck released. Not just any structure deck, in fact: an Extra Deck! EXD01 Ultraman: Rising brings the fan-favorite Netflix movie into paper play, featuring Ken Sato, Emi, and a cast of colorful characters!
And while that’s very exciting, we’re going to pour a little bit of cold water on the excitement, which isn’t usually our style. It is a fact that, at this point, the Rising deck is only starting to find any success now, multiple weeks into the format. In a meta where Ultraman Mebius has come to rule the roost, the Rising deck is still early in finding its footing.
But that’s Japan. And, believe it or not, America has something Japan does not — something EXD01 really needed.
Ultraman Connection tends to handle the world outside of Japan and China, which have their own metas and Ultraman fanbases. Wonderful ones, that we deeply respect. In comparison to those countries, which have venerable histories with the Giant of Light, the western world is still coming to accept Ultraman as the cultural juggernaut it is. And so, there are a number of exclusive products to Japan and China. The UCG is no exception — as a box topper for the Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese versions of BP02, players received PR-026, The Space Monster Eleking.
While we are confident that this promo will end up in the hands of western players soon, Eleking was not waiting in the boxes that those players opened on January 24th. Instead, we got something else.
In some ways, Ultraman (PR-027) is unassuming. It’s certainly a good card, but there are quite literally 8 other cards that have an identical effect. However, what makes this card incredible is what that effect does for the Rising deck. And for that to become clear, we’re going to have to explain that to you now!
Part 1 — What Does The Deck Do?
EXD01 is both an anomaly of a deck, and one of the most straightforward decks in the entire game. Simply put, the game wins by putting the absolute biggest standard BP in the game on the field and forces the opponent to try (and fail) to deal with it. However, as a trade-off for that incredible power, the top end of Ken Sato’s Ultraman has BP downgrade effects that weaken them when fighting a certain type of foe.
To counteract that, the deck makes use of Emi, the first Kaiju capable of leveling up all the way from a single to a triple! We’ll be discussing her Level 4, 5, and 6 in the same categories as the deck’s 1s, 2s, and 3s respectively, but at her top end, she’s capable of negating her adopted papa’s weaknesses — Nothing is stronger than family, after all!
There’s also, crucially, a scene that can do the same thing as Emi, giving you multiple ways to leverage Ken’s incredible potential in a turn.
The deck, like the movie, features the entire extended family, including Ken’s dad Hayao Sato, and Emi’s parent Gigantron — Even the tortured Dr. Onda’s Destroyer Robot makes an appearance! However, like the movie, the core of our strategy today will be Ken and Emi as our two heroes. Let’s get into it!
Part 2 — Level 1s (and 4!)
Ken, like every other Ultra in the game released so far, has access to the ever-integral card advantage Level 1. Ultraman (EXD01-001), on play as a single, lets you draw two cards, in exchange for bottomdecking a card in your hand after drawing. In the Rising deck, this effect is better than the 3-card search that shows up on other Level 1s, as half of your forces aren’t Ultra Heroes!
And speaking of non-Ultra Heroes and 3-card searches, let’s take a look at the first Level 4 card in the game, Emi the Baby Kaiju (EXD01-013)! Emi functions just like a Level 1 for an Ultra, having a card advantage skill in exchange for a weaker body. However, the details are a little different for her. Her search is more limited, only able to snag a Ken Sato from her search — but her stats are comparatively something else! At 3000 BP as a Single, Emi is an ideal starter for the deck, winning fights easily against other decks’ searchers!
There are two other options for Level 1s when it comes to Ken, and of the two, we’re going to pick EXD01-003, which can swing for a stunning 9k against a Speed type opponent! We only have so many choices in this deck, but these three Level 1s are effectively a guarantee in any Rising deck worth its salt.
Part 3 — Level 2s (and 5!)
We mentioned it at at the start, but the difference-maker between the English iteration of the Rising deck from other languages is the Level 2 Ultraman (PR-027), which has the simple effect of checking the top 5 cards of your deck for a scene, adding that scene to your hand, and discarding the remainder. Scenes are of course core strategy elements for any deck in the Ultraman Card Game, but for Rising, the signature scene is perhaps the most important to the functionality of its deck. More than Champion of the Fierce Fight, more than The Man Who Created SKaRD — Those are cards that help put you into a winning position, but the scene for Rising is important to playing the game. We’ll get more into that when we cover the scene, but needless to say, anything that gets you closer to it is a must-play. In addition, PR-027 is a Level 2 in a deck that has limited options — there have yet to be any cards outside of EXD01 for this deck, and the deck itself uses a whopping *five* different characters! Being able to reduce that spread to as few as two or three.
Speaking of other Level 2s for Ken Sato, you’re making use of two of the three remaining ones from the deck itself. EXD01-005 and EXD01-006. EXD01-005 is a well-statted 2 with the ability to raise a grade if battling against a Speed-type opponent, while EXD01-006 has the benefit of an 8000 BP Single grade, making it more than functional if you don’t have the means to level up easily.
Now, let’s get into the aforementioned 5. Emi the Baby Kaiju (EXD01-014) is the first time we’ve seen a Kaiju that can level up like an Ultra Hero in the game thus far, and she even has the Speed type, like an Ultra, rather than one of the Kaiju-exclusive types like Invasion or Destruction. (Emi only ever causes destruction to her papa’s car collection!) Emi’s effect, on play as a Double, gives any Ken Sato on the field an extra 1000 BP for the turn, which can come in handy with Ken’s lower levels.
There is another possible Level 5 to run, but we’re going to touch on that a bit differently, when we get to the Kaiju section.
Part 4 — Level 3s (And 6s)
In the Ultraman Card Game, Level 3s, especially RRRs, are the centerpieces of decks. They usually have a powerful, unique effect that the deck revolves around.
Ken Sato… does not have that, strictly. What he does have is the biggest Triple BP in the entire game, at a whopping 19000! Nothing short of one card, in one specific situation, can take it on and win without using extra effects.
That is, as long as it isn’t Power or Armed Type. If that happens, Ken comes crashing down a grade. Armed is relatively common among Level 3s, so doesn’t that put Ken at risk of losing battles?
Thankfully, that’s where the deck’s primary Level 6 comes into play!
Isn’t she adorable, folks? EXD01-015 is on the low end for a Triple, but at either a Double or Triple, has the very, very useful effect of simply… negating one Ken’s effect! Nothing like a daughter to help cover for her papa’s weaknesses! There’s one other card in our list with a similar effect, but this one has no costs, and is the top end of the Emi package.
Ken also has a pair of other Level 3s at his disposal. EXD01-009 is a vanilla that tops out at 17000, but EXD01-009 hits 18k, matching the strongest Level 3s in the game, like Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Arc! It has the same downside effect as EXD01-008, but that’s what you have Emi to counteract, right?
Part 5 — The Scene
We’ve kept mentioning a certain scene, and discussed heavily how important PR-027 is because it can search that scene — but what is that scene?
How fitting that the card that brings so much of the strategy together is named Spacium Beam Together! A Level 2 scene, Spacium Beam Together lets you negate a Ken Sato’s weakness once per turn by pitching a card. This ability to clear the downside from your Kens is incredibly important, as we mentioned in the previous section. Emi can only clear one Ken’s effect once per turn, and a high-end Rising board will often have a few of those potent Level 3s, so having a second one of those effects is necessary to close out games most of the time.
In addition, Spacium Beam Together is a much easier card to set up than the full Emi stack — and if you feel like having Ken team up with another Ultra rather than his own family, this scene will be your only way to shore up Ken’s weaknesses!
Part 6 — Kaiju (Featuring AN INVASION!)
This section is for the Kaiju that aren’t Emi, and in a list like this, The best choice is to fill out the family with Gigantron (EXD01-016) and its unwilling upgrade, Mecha-Gigantron (EXD01-017). The primary purpose of these two is to get you more searches for Spacium Beam Together, and is your only real way to search it in the Japanese meta. We have PR-027 now, though, and it’s a much better searcher, so… Do we not run Kaiju other than Emi?
Well, we have a potential alternative, though one we can’t really recommend due to how hard it is to obtain right now…
Oh yeah, baby. It’s time to talk about Zetton.
Zetton is the bane of any Ultra that fights alone. At a respectable 9000 for a single, its real power comes when your opponent only has a single Ultra Hero name on the field. Suddenly, with one foe to focus on, Zetton’s BP climbs… and climbs… and climbs, going to EXTRA, a BP Grade we’ve only ever seen as a downside to other Kaiju when they face the wrong type. Zetton, though? Zetton hits 20,000 BP. That’s even bigger than Ken’s Level 3, and basically nothing is winning a fight against that, even with boost effects.
Ironically, the biggest downside isn’t that it can’t hit that sky-high BP against any decks that run two or more Ultras, like the various Mebius decks in the meta — It’s that, if you’re an English-language player, you probably haven’t been able to get Zetton! Right now, it’s only available at certain events — We’re suggesting it here purely as a hypothetical, and because we haven’t gotten a chance to talk about this specific promo. Hopefully, your chance to pick up the Space Dinosaur will come soon!
Part 7 — Sample Decklist
Level 1 — 8 Cards
EXD01-001 Ultraman (R) x4
EXD02-003 Ultraman (C) x4
Level 2 — 12 Cards
EXD01-005 Ultraman (U) x4
EXD01-006 Ultraman (C) x4
PR-027 Ultraman (RRR) x4
Level 3 — 8 Cards
EXD01-008 Ultraman (RRR) x4
EXD01-009 Ultraman (R) x4
Level 4 — 4 Cards
EXD001-013 Emi the Baby Kaiju (R) x4
Level 5 — 7 Cards
EXD01-014 Emi the Baby Kaiju (C) x4
EXD01-016 Gigantron The Queen of All Kaiju (C) x3
Level 6 — 7 Cards
EXD01-015 Emi the Baby Kaiju (RRR) x4
EXD01-017 Mecha Gigantron the Mechanical Dragon (U) x3
Scenes — 4 Cards
Spacium Beam Together (C) x4
This list is made under the conditions where the only cards you have outside of the base EXD01 deck itself are four copies of PR-027. If you’re interested in trying out the Zetton package we mentioned earlier, replace the EXD01-016 and EXD01-017 with three copies of the RR Level 5 Zetton (BP02-090) from Vortex of Crimson and Azure, and 3 copies of PR-015. Tell us what you think!
That’s all for this deck, but next week, we’re diving back into the wild, wonderful world of BP02 Vortex of Crimson and Azure by delving into one of the all-new decks introduced — and we’ll tell you now: It’s a real brother of a deck! See you then! To learn more about BP02, EXD01, and the Ultraman Card Game as a whole, make sure to check out the Official Ultraman Card Game website!
