Welcome back Heroes, and I hope you are ready for a second helping of spicy new deck lists powered up by the wealth of great cards in My Hero Academia’s third set, Heroes Clash!
If you missed the first installment, click here to see decklists for Mashirao Ojiro 2 on All, Toru Hagakure 2 on Good, Ingenium on Order, Hanta Sero 1 on Void, and Fumikage Tokoyami 1 on Fire.
In today’s installment, our five new lists are built around five new characters from across sets 1 through 3: Ochaco Uraraka 2 on Death, Katsuki Bakugo 1 on Fire, Ibara Shiozaki on Water, Mei Hatsume on Evil, and Tomura Shigaraki 2 on Chaos! Having only reused Fire, that means we just have 3 symbols to use in Set 3 deck lists – if you’d like to see a third installment including decks for Air, Earth, and Life, let us know in the comments or on our socials!
Just like last time, these lists are largely untested, but the theory is sound. They are best used as a starting place and tweaked to your liking from there. With that all said, let’s jump in!
Deck IdeaOchaco Uraraka 2 - Death
The first deck we need to talk about is this Ochaco Uraraka 2 list on Death. I’ve played several versions of “O2” and generally love her playstyle (reminding me in some ways of Seong Mi-Na from the UFS of old!). But with Set 3 – and especially the new Season 3 Provisional Promos – she’s got some scary new tricks she can employ that are sure to catch your opponents off guard.
Her kit in this deck is basically a mix-and-match of powerful 2- or 3-attack strings, whose main goal is to poke through a massive hit or two by combining potent hand and board disruption with her speed buffs. There are two general lines – using Villainous Waylay to disrupt the opponent’s hand, and in a best case scenario, removal their last/only Mid-block, then following up with a powerful or disruptive hit, or using Corrosion Lunge to set up big stat boosts on a second attack (or accept the opponent taking the poke damage and move on with your turn). The follow up us usually either Flamethrower or Merciless Rush for disruption and damage, or Hulking Grimace to smash their face in – all of which will greatly appreciate being able to set up either no relevant blocks in hand, or big speed stats!
The beauty is in how flexible the deck can play. It’s easy to get locked into Uraraka being able to hit and the replay that same attack for value, but she also has the option of hitting with something, bouncing it to hand, then using the check modifier to play a different attack, potentially saving the first attack for another powerful string next turn. The fact that it’s an optional use is the best part of this – imagine the opponent does indeed hold two mids against you, and you start a sequence with Waylay. You discard one of their Mid blocks, and now they have to make a choice: If they don’t use their other mid block to stop this Waylay, you can just replay Waylay and force it out of their hand anyway! If they do – now you can using the bounce to smash in twice with a Hulking Grimace or Flamethrower to decimate them! This deck is full of win-win situations for Uraraka and could be an absolute menace at the table.
It’s worth noting that the foundations for this deck are skewed a bit more towards 0- and 1-difficulty foundations and missing some powerful cards like Excited for Blood. This is intentional – as a 5-hander, missing foundations on T1/2 because of checking a 2-check like Waylay can be back breaking, so the deck is skewed slightly to help it have more clean T1 builds on 2s!
Deck IdeaKatsuki Bakugo 1 - Fire
Our second deck is good old Starter Deck Bakugo! I’ve played around with Bakugo 1 builds a fair bit in sets 1 and 2, and I have to say that the new tools he gets in Heroes Clash I think really push his power to the limits. I actually have been testing this deck a bit as well and have been impressed by its potency and surprise factor. It’s able to secure T2 kills against 6 handers and has even been inches (1 speed or 1 better check!) from securing an OTK against the bulkiest Mineta 2 you can imagine. So I can assure you, with a better pilot than me, this Bakugo has the potential to really explode!
Bakugo benefits in two main ways in set 3: Most importantly, his attack suite now contains roughly a million ways to draw new attacks to pop off with in a string, and his foundation kit benefits from a wealth of new numbers and some tricky ways to manipulate his biggest weakness – managing his resources. Central to his new toys are Ignited Arrow and Stun Grenade, two attacks which often dig out more attacks, and the former being perhaps just as a good a way to start an attack string as Nitro Explosion Ignition. Blocking Ignited Arrow not only gives you an attack, it allows Bakugo to clear it, and obviously not blocking it means…you know, damage. The other new toy that is putting in some serious work is Prominence Burn, a destructive attack that can clear out those unblocked attacks earlier in the string while pushing huge numbers and more guaranteed life loss on its own. With life loss alone from Burn, Burst Speed, and Keen Observation, you can sometimes consider your opponent to start with a good 8-10 less life than it says on their card, which starts to reveal how few attacks really need to connect for Bakugo to close the game out.
Opponents who choose to play the blocking game against Bakugo will usually run out of blocks far sooner than Bakugo runs out of attacks, though Breaker blocks and card pool stuffing – things that are becoming even more common place in Set 3’s metagame – can pose a threat since Bakugo lives on the edge with resources already. We try to account for that in here with a total of 8 6-check foundations and tools like Press Conference, League Interview, Cool Student, and Go for the Win! to help Bakugo manage his resource use even as he starts to eat up his own foundations for damage. Despite that, you still have to be very careful with when you choose to destroy for damage: Sometimes you need to do it to force a block out (I recommend it generally on Ignited Arrow to increase the punish if they choose not to), but sometimes you know the opponent will block anyway and you can’t waste your precious resources. But clever piloting and sequencing will allow keen players to reap some massive rewards with one turn kills out of nowhere!
Deck IdeaIbara Shiozaki - Water
Next up – the (self)-righteous Ibara Shiozaki has received some new direction thanks to a new tournament promo called Piercing Thorn Lances! Under the water symbol, we’ve built a Shiozaki deck that throws exclusively low attacks, but thanks to Lances, the opponent will constantly feel in a bind where not also saving High blocks will mean guaranteed damage for you! Combining Water’s powerful defensive tools and breaker blocks with Shiozaki’s damage buffs and card pool/resource management, this under-respected deck can effortlessly swap between offense and defense and will absolutely surprise your locals – or beyond.
Shiozaki’s damage mod enhance can read a little unusually to players at first, but it’s really a very clever and elegant system once you figure out her tools. Effectively, your first attack is always at-1 damage, your middle attacks are always +2, and your final attack is always +3. The key, of course, is to maximize the value of this. Leading with Creeping Vine Eruption and giving it -1 damage is actually beneficial as it guarantees you’ll be able to snag a Faith’s Shield to hand whether or not it’s blocked. And ending with Piercing Thorn Lances or Ice Storm can put a squeeze on your opponent’s blocking options, maximizing the amount of damage you are dealing. The momentum from Lances can also set up for the Powerful on Ice Storm to take you to lethal territory!
While that’s one optimal setup, it’s not the only one. A very cheeky play I’ve seen used in other decks already is the innocuous First Villain Encounter with Invisible Infiltration. This is a spectacular way to start a string as well, allowing you to buff up the infiltration while making your next check easier, then reset the Encounter to use again on that next attack or just to help pay for a bad check. Shiozaki’s ability to manipulate these check requirements while still outputting serious damage and holding back massive defense makes her a surprising threat that is worth looking at more closely in set 3!
Deck IdeaMei Hatsume 1 - Evil
These last three decks all have something in common – they are all flexible decks that can play very defensively when needed, or output some solid offense in a variety of ways! Our next list is Mei Hatsume on Evil, a character who was poised to be a break-out in Set 2 but ended up falling just a bit short in the competitive game. However, with more of her symbols seeing many more useful cards to fill out her numbers and some very cheeky new tricks, she may have the tech she needs to compete once again.
While I think many may (rightfully) start to look at her All lists thanks to Eraser Head’s massive new Weapons kit, I wanted to start with Evil because the defensive toolkit feels more robust, and the key to Mei is to live long enough to build out all 4 of your Boxes so you can overwhelm your opponent with advantage. Evil allows us to play cards like Super Regeneration and Excited for Blood to help us hold on to the game, while Creepy Realization and Sticky Balls can head off longer string decks. I’m also a fan of a new foundation called Nothing to See Here, which lets you convert your momentum to massive speed reductions on your opponent’s turn.
As far as attacks, Set 3 was kind to Evil Weapons as well, giving Mei a variety of options. New cards like Blood Moon Rending can help clear the way for a game ending string after getting in a few turns of solid pokes from Ignited Arrow and Piercing Needle. With enough Boxes out, any single attack can already be a huge threat, so generally poking and playing defensive while you build can still be productive. One of my favorite new tricks in the deck is Electromagnetic Stomp with Battle Arena – Stomp lets you string out multiple Stomps from your momentum, and by paying for each with Battle Arena and readying the Arena with Stomp’s Enhance, Mei’s able to manage her resources like never before going into that KO.
Deck IdeaTomura Shigaraki 2 - Chaos
Finally, I wanted to make sure we got to take a look at a Set 3 character in this article, so I whipped up a very interesting Shigaraki 2 list on the Chaos symbol! Chaos is Shiggy’s new symbol with his second version, and it’s a very sensible symbol given how momentum-oriented this Shigaraki is. This build ended up having a number of very cool tricks, so let’s take a look at ’em!
The attack lineup for this build is relatively familiar aside from Shigaraki’s new attack – this is very similar to the popular Uraraka decks that built up to Meteor Shower strings for game. As it turns out – Shigaraki can do that too! If you get jiggy with the new shiggy, you’ll be able to commit your foundations to build up large amounts of momentum, either through guaranteed damage with cards like Electric Jolt or stringing with Double Jab Pummel. Rockin’ Attitude and Wealthy Aspirations give you even more ways to dial up the Momentum, and it all fuels the new UR Sudden Death Assault for a scary 5 life drain (possibly with an Electric Jolt to finish them off at the end of a game), a long Meteor Shower string, or a classic Home Run Comet for a million damage!
While several characters can pull together a similar list and make it effective, Shigaraki somewhat uniquely brings access to crazy resource management if he wants it. Committing a single foundation to remove a card from your pool creates a compounding resource gain the longer the string goes, preventing you from having to pay that resource attack after attack as progressive difficulty builds, and we have Requesting Assistance to help back up those commitments. This even works well with Double Jab Pummel, as you can use the Combo enhance, then sequence Shigaraki’s enhance afterwards to remove the first attack in the pool and maximize the benefit (and easily string several DJPs together). Shigaraki also gets the title of one of the few characters (similar to Mina Ashido 1) who can gain huge advantage from provisional promo Award the Victor. While not as potent as Mina’s double-use, after connecting with an attack, Shigaraki can respond with Award the Victor to place it on top of his deck (and get a +2 to the next check), and then respond with the character response to commit a foundation (even the just-flipped Award the Victor) to place that card right into the momentum where it belongs, making it easier to check a nice 7 on the next attack if needed.
This deck thrives on its inevitability, so don’t be afraid to play it defensively and late into the game where you can have a built up pile of momentum, and then swing for the fences with your choice of any of the closers. Your opponents will wish they were packing more momentum hate after the see it pop off!
That’s it for our second set of 5 Heroes Clash decklists! If you want to see a third installment, make sure to let us know! You can always feel free to leave a comment below, hit us up on facebook, or – and this is definitely the best of the three – join the Maindeck discord to chat with us, discuss decks, and join our free to play webcam leagues for MHA and other TCGs!
Until next time, heroes!
