Man, it’s already been a YEAR since the Ultraman Card Game came out! BP05 Heroes of the Radiant Dawn comes out this Friday, 11/1, and it’s truly incredible that the game feels this good. Fresh off the first of the United States Qualifier events (More on that soon!), players are hammering away at new decks after the vanquishing of the dread invader, Alien Baltan, to try and find supremacy. Heroes that once struggled against Baltan’s legions are freed to battle in a new format, and decks that had managed to make a place for themselves in the BP04 meta now have to fight to keep their spot!
Among all of these decks, one stands out to me, a favorite I intend to use as my primary deck for the next several months, is the Son of Seven himself, fresh off his 15th Anniversary and rolling into the 60th for the series — Ultraman Zero!
Zero was a very solid deck up to BP02 Vortex of Crimson and Azure that worked well with his allies like Z and Geed, hampered only by the absolute dominance of the Mebius/Hikari deck that seemed to rule the roost until key cards were transcended. If not for Baltan, there’s a chance it would have risen back to the top of the game.
Now, however?
Baltan’s been repelled, and Mebius’s consistency cards have been sent back to the Land of Light for now. There’s nothing left to keep Zero from taking center stage where he belongs.
What Was The Deck?
Zero’s key strategy for the first four sets of the game was very simple, and in that simplicity lay its power: When fighting the right type of opponent, usually Armed, Zero gets big, raising BP Grades and allowing you to fight foes with fewer cards spent. This made him a great support Ultra, since he didn’t demand a lot of deck space while still giving out the advantage of a second Ultra. In a lot of ways, he acted like a bit of a proto-Ginga package.
However, this strategy held some limitations. Zero needed you to read your opponent’s plays in advance to succeed, and while cards like BP01-058 Ultraman Zero and BP02-012 Ultimate Zero could manipulate the opponent’s types, it was only for a single turn, and underinvesting in your character stacks in the short term could cost you if games ran longer.
What’s Changed?
Rather than rely on the opponent to make a mistake, Zero has learned from his allies Dyna and Cosmos and turned inwards, and now gains strength from his own type!
The new name of the game is Power and Speed, and Zero gets plenty of toys with both. But first, let’s take a look at the new showcase L3 the deck received:
Before we get into the card’s effects, let’s just take a moment to admire the visuals, because holy moly! This wave of Zero cards specifically depicts him during the events of Ultra Zero Fight, where Zero is travelling into the Monster Graveyard after the events of Ultraman Saga. He carries the lessons and powers of Dyna and Cosmos, who he merged with to defeat Hyper Zetton, and whose echoes of power remain within him. And that rad cloak!
Anyway, back to the effects. When this card enters play, as either a Double or a Triple, it does two things. One, it gives any Zero with the Power type an extra 2000 BP for the turn. Two, it takes 2000 BP from the opponent of any Zero with the Speed type for the turn. Together, that’s 4000 BP worth of BP alteration off a single card — that’s about as much as an entire BP grade, but split across any lanes you want, and isn’t bound by BP grade. I think this card’s effect is going to come to be known and feared in the coming weeks.
Of course, the effect has conditions! If you don’t have a power or speed, or either type on field, it’s just a 12k Double or 17k Triple. Good stats, if average. More concerningly, neither BP01-012 or this card, the two notable bosses of the deck, benefit from this card’s ability.
If they’re all you’re playing, at least.
Thankfully, Zero got two incredible cards to help make sure these effects go off as often as possible.
This is the new Zero scene. No more His Majesty’s Medal, no more Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy: The Movie. BP05-109 Ultra Zero Fight Part 1: A New Power does everything that you need for the current build. The turn this card comes down, a decisive win, or at least a huge turn, is soon to follow. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter what your Zeros on field started as; they’re both Speed and Power type for the turn now, which means you can stack and spread BP05-041’s effects as much as you want. If you’ve been saving your Level 3s for a win turn — something you will be doing when playing Zero — you’re going to get the absolute most off at once.
BP05-042 is one of my favorite cards in the set, and its deceptively simple effect belies potential nearly on the level of the deck’s finishers. To start, it’s a Speed type L3, which immediately means it qualifies for BP05-041’s effect. On a Triple, you’re tying against a natural 18k, and beating any 17k. From there, however, it gets crazier. You can give any Zero you control not only the Power type, making it eligible for the 2k boost, but then it gets an *extra* 1k. With a 3k boost? BP02-012 (which you are still playing at 4, by the way) is beating Promo Zetton in a fight, as a mono-hero deck.
There are other cards in BP05 that Zero can use, but the only ones we really care about after what we’ve shown off is these two:
Man, these two. It’s so funny that, in a deck that received so much powerful tech and a whole new top-end strategy, what made me go “Oh, this deck could be the best in the game” was these two. BP05-038 Strong Corona Zero and BP05-039 Luna Miracle Zero are relatively low-stat 2s, with 9k Double BPs that tie with scene searchers and similar tech 2s. The two of them have mirrored effects — When they enter play as Doubles, if you control a Zero of the opposite type (Speed for Strong Corona, Power for Luna Miracle), you draw a card. Simple as that.
Sorry, what?
In a game where, as we once discussed long ago, the only card advantage cards that exist are either straight-up minus-1s or cost you Lead Player status, these two cards are just… no-downside draws? That if you play them both out together on turn 2, they just say “Draw 2”? That card advantage is insane!
And necessary. Original-flavor Zero worked around playing Doubles to get more out of your hand. New Zero doesn’t want to do that. You need Triples, as often as possible. Thankfully, these two cards replace themselves when you play them, meaning you’re able to keep a full hand longer, until you blow everything on a turn where you win. More so than any of the 3s, these two are the cards your deck revolves around resolving, and so you want to maximize both Power and Speed types to get the draws from these as often as possible.
And I think that’s all the new stuff! Seems pretty solid, though it may not be able to stand up to the new Gatanothor tech Belial is using, and as a mono-hero deck, you still have Promo Zetton to deal with… Wasn’t there something else we got to help with that…?
Oh, right.
Him.
In case you hadn’t been paying attention, the centerpiece of Heroes of the Radiant Dawn is the introduction of Level 4 Ultra Hero cards, representing a quintet of heroes at the peak of their power. For Zero, there are lots of potential peaks, but what we have is Shining, and what a card Shining is. BP05-044 Shining Ultraman Zero has stats that match the majority of the other Level 4s (Omega Valgeness Armor gets a Double BP of 13000 — New hero privilege!), with a 12000 Double, a 17000 Triple, and a 20000 Quad! (As a reminder, Level 4 Ultra Heroes cannot be played as a Single.)
Level 4s only get to use their abilities when they’re a Quad, so those effects had better be worth the commitment of four cards to a single lane. Geed gets a repeatable duplication of any activated effect on its board. Tiga gets to replace the top card of any other stack with a same-level card in trash. Omega gets you a whole dang Meteokaiju.
Zero? Zero knocks you out.
One line, simpler than any other Level 4. “You may give one of your Zero a BP Grade Increase of 1 for the turn.” No limitations, no cost, no downside. Play your last single Level 1 on lane 7 and set this on the Triple 3 in lane 1? That 1 is now a Double. That can win you a game in a snap, and in a way your opponent is rarely prepared to deal with. It’s big enough to tie Promo Zetton, or even beat it handily if you use any of the other cards we discussed earlier, meaning that it’s generally always going to win its lane, and the lane it’s targeting with its effect. If you have one more lane you’re taking, that’s it.
And now, for real, that’s all the important new cards. So let’s get into the actual deckbuilding, with my list going into BP05 format. I’ll break down my ratios and why each card is being chosen.
Level 1s (12)
BP01-055 (R) x4 (Basic)
This is your standard card advantage Level 1; On play, draw 2, bottomdeck 1. In this deck, where you’re trying to set up a win in multiple lanes at once, this is the first card you want to play, always, to filter your hand into what it needs.
BP03-031 (R) x4 (Basic)
This Zero obviously fills two roles — being the first card of a Double is what you’ll use it for generally, but as a card that passively gets +1000 BP for every Zero you control, including itself, in the late game, when you and your opponent get down to topdecking the card you’re going to playing for the turn, this guy will outdo any other single in the game. In addition, if you play Shining Zero on the same turn, it becomes 7k+ whatever number of Zero cards are out. In playtesting, this guy averaged a 9-12k BP on Lane 5, and tended to be enough to win that turn.
BP05-037 (C) x4 (Power)
This is your last Level 1, and it’s decidedly less impressive than the other two. 5k BP, only Single grade, no effects… What makes it a must-play, however, is the type. This is the only Power-type Level 1 Zero has, and since we’re running 0 Power-type Level 3s in the list, it’s important for making up the numbers. If you have a Luna Miracle Zero in hand on turn 2, this is an option for the Power type it needs to trigger that all-important draw that you can level up later.
Level 2s (16)
BP05-038 (R) x4 (Power)
BP05-039 (R) x4 (Speed)
We talked about Strong Corona and Luna Miracle earlier in this article, and they remain your most important cards in the early game. Your best opening hand will give you one of each of these, and 2 Level 1 Zeros, with at least one of them being BP01-055. All those pieces mean that by the end of turn 2, you’ll have drawn five cards in two turns — two from BP01-055, one for your draw on turn 2, and one more for each of these two 2s. Taking your opening hand into account, you’re drawing 20% of your deck!
BP01-059 (U) x4 (Power)
This card exists to be another Power type to enable Luna Miracle and the BP05 RRR, but it’s also an 11k Double, with the ability to raise a BP grade against a Speed type. A good choice to take Lead on turn 2 if you need to play your scene!
BP02-009 (RR) x4 (Speed)
Corresponding to BP01-059 above, this is your secondary Speed Level 2 to enable Strong Corona’s draw, but this is also just generally a more powerful card. Against Basic and Armed types, two of the most common types, it gains +1000 BP, making it a 12k BP Double. That’s on par with most Double 3s, and taking 2000 BP away from this card’s opponent makes it very unlikely that you’ll lose if it’s in the latest lane.
Level 3s (14)
BP05-041 (RRR) x4 (Basic)
We talked a lot about what this new Zero can do in a vacuum, but in practice, this card is doing most of its work to support your 2s, where most of your Power and Speed types live. The exception is, of course, when you get to use your scene, or the other Level 3 from BP05. Even when you can’t use all of this Zero’s effects in a single turn, even using one of the two can net you a win. Also, at 17k, it’s your second strongest Level 3!
BP05-042 (U) x4 (Speed)
In an ideal game, you’re playing this card on the same turn as BP05-041, to give Power type to any Zero that needs a boost. It activates even on a Double, so it’s never a bad idea to play it if you have the RRR to go with it! Sometimes, it’s even enough to win on its own, either by making itself a 17k, or giving that extra 1k to your latest lane to eke out a narrow win.
BP02-012 (RRR) x4 (Armed)
Ultimate Zero’s been the premiere finisher for Zero since BP02 and frankly, that’s not changing. Giving an opponent’s character Armed type is less relevant than it was previously, but it’s a fool who turns down a BP grade increase and an 18k Triple. The card that synergizes best with this in the deck is also from BP02…
BP02-013 (U) x2 (Speed)
Can you say one-card triple? This card was already a late-game finisher in the original Zero deck, but being a Speed as well as compatible with BP02-012 means you’re going to tie at least with any Triple Ultra Hero in the game, with one card!
Level 4s (4)
BP05-044 (RRRR) x4 (Basic)
There’s only one choice for a Level 4 for this deck, and we’ve gone over why it’s so great already. The only thing worth considering is reducing this card down to three copies in the deck to add one more BP02-013, not because this card isn’t fantastic, but because you can’t play it by itself, and if you find yourself with a handful of just Quad Rares and scenes, that’s an automatic loss!
Scenes (4)
BP05-109 (U) x4
As discussed earlier, Zero has 3 scenes you can use, but we’re only using this one, both for the strength of its effect, but also to reduce your chance of bricking. It’s happened before, and there’s no feeling worse than having to throw your hand down because you can’t play a character for the turn.
Conclusion
Man, it’s so good to be talking about UCG again. A year after release, and the game feels no less fresh or exciting than when I picked it up. In many ways, it’s even better, with tons of deck diversity and ways to win. The BP05 format is the wild blue yonder, with the sky being the limit now after Baltan’s semi-transcendence. I’m hopeful that Zero takes a top spot, but it could be anyone — Ginga/Victory, Gaia/Agul, the returning Tiga, or Geed — Genuinely, who knows how the meta will shake out?
Expect more UCG content from UC in the coming weeks as we pay attention to what’s working, and what hidden gems are still being missed. See you then!
