Hi there Ultraman Card Game players! Have you managed to get your copies of Starter Deck 01 (SD01) Heroes of Hyper Space and Starter Deck 02 (SD02) The Bonds of Zero? For those of you that have, there’s a little over a week until Booster Set 1, Guardians of the Earth, comes out, expanding the card pool dramatically with 110 new cards! To help fire up your imagination (We try to make Arc proud), let’s spend today seeing what cards we can use from Guardians of the Earth to improve Heroes of Hyper Space!
Identifying your Heroes
Before we begin in earnest, let’s see what we’re tuning up in Heroes of Hyper Space. The deck consists of three Ultra Heroes: Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Gaia. These three are designed to obtain each other from your deck as part of their combo, and end with a powerful Level 3 Tiga to close out the game. This is a great strategy, a straightforward combo deck that allows you to keep card advantage from beginning to end.
To streamline the deck, we’re going to focus on Tiga and Gaia as a two-hero deck. Focusing on two Ultras can be very useful — running too many different heroes with different names can make it difficult for you to level up throughout the game, and can cost you wins!
Part 2 — Your Big Winners!
Now that we’ve narrowed things down to two heroes, let’s look at the cards that really work in the existing deck!
Obviously, the Level 3 Tiga (SD01-002) remains one of, if not the strongest top end you can pursue, not just in this deck, but in the entire game. This card’s Activate ability, discarding a card from your hand to reduce its opponent’s BP Grade by 1, is extremely strong — at a Triple BP of 17000, nothing in the game at less than a Triple Grade can contest it — and, as long as you can discard a card, nothing it goes up against can be a Triple. Better yet, as an Activate ability, it’s repeatable, essentially making it a permanent effect as long as you can pay the cost.
The other Tiga cards in the deck are also effective, providing important names for you to ensure that you can make Triple stacks and open up the Level 3’s ability for use. Cards like this Level 2 Tiga (SD01-005) also allow you to combat certain threats early, thanks to its ability to raise a BP Grade when facing a Power Type character.
As for Gaia, we’re actually not going to use the RRR Level 3 from the deck — While it does search for Tiga, its primary search targets other than Tiga are Dyna, which we’re not using in this list, and the Battle in Hyper Space Scene, which, while useful, is not the Scene we want to be using this time. (More on that later.) Instead, we will be making use of the C and U rarity Gaia cards, especially the Level 2 Gaia (SD01-011), which, like the Level 2 Tiga we mentioned, gets stronger when fighting a specific Type of opponent, in this case Speed!
Level 1s and Card Advantage
Now, we get into the new stuff! Guardians of the Earth contains plenty of useful cards for both Tiga and Gaia, that turn the already-strong deck into a competitive powerhouse!
Let’s start on your low-end, Level 1 cards that help your later turns at the cost of early-game power. Guardians of the Earth contains a cycle of Rare Level 1 Ultra Hero cards with similar effects — all of which allow you to either search your top 3 cards for any Ultra Hero and add it to your hand, discarding the other two, or draw two cards and then send one in your hand to the bottom of your deck. The Tiga (BP01-001) and Gaia (BP01-046) members of this cycle are both of the former category, and allow you to quickly run through your deck to get pieces you need… for a cost.
There are no resources in the Ultraman Card Game save for cards in your hand, and no limiting factors as to what you can play in a turn save for the base rules — you have to play a character every turn, and can level up the character you control in every currently open battle area once. At a 6-card opening hand, with a single natural draw per turn, your card use adds up quickly, and so card advantage — your ability to make use of more cards than your opponent at a given time — is extremely important. These Level 1s are practically card advantage given form — in order to use them, however, you have to essentially give up the area they are in.
Each one of these Level 1 Ultra Heroes has a measly 1000 BP, the absolute lowest in the entire game, and if you level them up to mitigate that BP weakness, you don’t get the search or draw you’re playing the card for in the first place. On turn 1, where these cards are perhaps the most powerful, playing them means you’re likely giving up your chance to be Lead Player on turn 2. The Lead Player has the advantage of being able to set a Scene, which in some cases will allow them to keep ahead of you, so keep that in mind when you’re debating whether or not you want to use them on a turn. We, personally, think that it’s worth the risk, though — When we get to our Scene, you’ll see that the Scene that’s most important for our gameplay isn’t even playable until you’ve already opened two battle areas!
Level 2s and Utility Tricks
Level 2s are the bread-and-butter of your decks — higher BP at Single Grade than a Level 1, and still capable of leveling up into a Level 3. On average, Level 2s should probably fill the majority of your roster. Luckily for you, Tiga and Gaia have two incredibly strong Level 2s to make use of!
Firstly, this Level 2 Tiga (BP01-004) is a force to be reckoned with — with a Single BP of 7000, it’s an effective asset in battle even if you can’t level it into a Double — and more importantly, it has an extremely powerful on-play effect. Much like the Level 1s we discussed earlier, this Tiga grants card advantage, searching the top 5 cards of your deck for any Scene and adding it to your hand, discarding the rest. As we’ve said a few times, we’ll get to Scenes later, but long story short — we will be running four copies of a single Scene and it’s very important, so the ability to dig for it matters a lot.
As for the Level 2 Gaia (BP01-049)... At some point, some point very soon, this is going to get its own spotlight article. BP01-049 Ultraman Gaia is potentially the single strongest card in the Ultraman Card Game thus far (at least, in this writer’s opinion), and allow us to explain why. Simply put, the vast majority of effects in this game at this point in time are on-play effects; that is to say that their effects only activate upon being leveled up onto or placed for turn. Many of these effects are balanced by their ostensible single-use nature — after all, you generally can’t remove cards from your board, and you can’t level a 2 onto a 2, or a 3 onto a 3.
This Gaia changes that. It bounces the top card of any of your Double or Triple stacks, and then gives any Ultra Hero on the field a +1000 BP boost for the turn. The BP boost is gravy, and can let you steal a win, but the real prize is the “cost”, as you gain the ability to replay cards with powerful on-plays, rapidly accelerating your gameplay.
As for the remainder of your Level 2s, you’re mostly looking for stats over anything else at this early point in the game’s lifespan. We’ll always recommend picking cards with effects like this Gaia (BP01-051), that can boost themselves in power in the right situation, and this Tiga (BP01-005) that simply have higher than “average” stats.
Level 3s and the Final Blow
Level 3s, as we’ve mentioned, are the strongest cards in a deck. Both from the perspective of stats and effects, Level 3s tend to eclipse all cards of lower levels. When it comes to effects, however, many Level 3s require you to have a Triple stack, which means they’re a commitment — after all, you can only level up once a turn, which means making a Triple stack will almost always take you two turns outside of specific strategies that require their own deckbuilding commitments.
That being said, the Tiga archetype in particular has a few Level 3s that are so powerful, so worth playing, that we absolutely must recommend them.
The RRR Ultraman Tiga (BP01-007) is a win condition all on its own. Maybe the strongest win condition in the current pool of cards, as a skilled player with a bit of luck can take a game as early as turn 3 with its help. Because you can move this card’s stack to any battle area as soon as it’s played, you can move it from area 1, where you’ve had time to set up, to the latest area, where your opponent cannot play a stack larger than a Double. The difference between a Double and a Triple is often 3000 BP or more, guaranteeing you a win, and at least taking the Lead Player spot, or sometimes scoring the crucial three wins in a turn to take the game!
Why is taking the Lead Player spot by this point so important, you ask? Don’t worry, all will be revealed soon… Either way, we recommend playing 4 copies of this card and 3-4 copies of the SD01-002 Tiga.
As for Gaia, we’re playing it as a bit of a support system for Tiga, so its Level 3s are slightly less important to our actual win-condition. Still, we’re lucky enough to have two solid Level 3s to use when we have them! Gaia V2 (BP01-053) is a great follow up to the BP01-007 Tiga, converting into an extra card when you’re the Lead Player. We talked earlier about how important card advantage is, and this is a free draw with no downsides!
Gaia Photon Edge (BP01-052) is slightly more limited, bouncing an opponent’s Scene back to their hand. Against some Scenes with Activate effects, this can absolutely gut their planned turn — all on-play effects of both players have to finish resolving before either player can use any Activate effects, so you will always have priority against a couple of otherwise very dangerous matchups! For Gaia, we recommend 3 copies of BP01-053 and 2-3 copies of BP01-052.
Making a Scene
We’ve kept alluding to a certain Scene throughout this article, something more worth playing than Battle in Hyper Space, worth running a searcher for… Well, here it is!
Legend of the Stone. Perhaps the most powerful Scene in BP01 (There’s one we’d argue is comparable, but we’ll talk about that in a few weeks), this card rockets the combo potential of the Tiga cards to the absolute limit. Both of your Level 3 Tigas are extremely powerful cards that require a certain amount of setup — but what if you could loop them? Play your BP01-007 Tiga and move to the latest area, then activate Legend of the Stone to swap it out for SD01-002 and open up its Activate effect, actually guaranteeing a win for whatever area the Ancient Giant is occupying. (Against a Double stack, putting a Triple stack in front of it and then forcing it down into a Single Grade BP? What a nightmare!)
Perhaps even more powerful is your ability to swap SD01-002 for BP01-007! We mentioned earlier that Activate effects turn on after all on-play effects resolve, but if you somehow put a card with an on-play into play later on, that effect will immediately activate. In a situation where your opponent has used all his on-plays already, you can suddenly drop in your Tiga to let you move your strongest card into their weakest matchup!
Just keep in mind, however, that Legend of the Stone is a Round 2 scene, meaning that you need to be Lead Player on the turn where two battle areas have been opened — meaning it can’t come out sooner than Turn 3. All the same, this is a definite 4-of. There’s no situation where you don’t want it waiting in the wings!
Kaiju Korner
Ultra Heroes aren’t the only kind of Character card you can play — there are also Kaiju cards, powerful monsters with situational strengths. At the very least, it’s always worth having a few in your list to fill out the roster — and we have a pretty clear favorite Kaiju going into BP01.
Spheresaurus (BP01-094) is an impressively powerful card that gets even stronger when playing against a character with the Basic Type. As Basic is currently the most common type in the game. On average, you will be dropping a terrifying 15000 BP against your hapless foe — so what if Kaiju can’t level up at this point in the game? This thing is almost as big as a Triple against the right foe!
Keep in mind, though — Kaiju are not Ultra Heroes. That may sound obvious, but it means that your BP01-007 Tiga won’t be able to swap places with cards like Spheresaurus or Dinozaur (BP01-093). Choosing the right area for them is critical!
Sample Decklist
With everything we’ve discussed in mind, here’s a quick sample decklist for you to try when BP01 becomes available on November 8th!
Level 1- 14 Cards
BP01-001 Ultraman Tiga (R) x4
BP01-002 Ultraman Tiga Multi Type (U) x4
BP01-046 Ultraman Gaia V1 (R) x4
SD01-010 Ultraman Gaia V2 (C) x2
Level 2- 18 Cards
BP01-004 Ultraman Tiga (RR) x4
BP01-005 Ultraman Tiga Power Type (C) x4
SD01-005 Ultraman Tiga Multi Type (U) x2
BP01-049 Ultraman Gaia (RR) x4
BP01-051 Ultraman Gaia V2 (U) x4
Level 3- 12 Cards
BS01-007 Ultraman Tiga Zeperion Beam (RRR) x4
SD01-002 Ultraman Tiga Multi Type (RRR) x3
BS01-052 Ultraman Gaia Photon Edge (R) x2
BS01-053 Ultraman Gaia V2 (U) x3
Kaiju- 2 Cards
BP01-094 Spheresaurus (R) X2
Scenes- 4 Cards
Legend of the Stone (U) x4
For all of you who are missing Ultraman Dyna, take heart. While he doesn’t have a support wave in Guardians of the Earth, he’ll definitely get great support in the future! Feel free to build and tinker with this when the first Ultraman Card Game booster set, Guardians of the Earth, drops around the world on November 8th, 2024! Next week, we’ll go under the hood of The Bonds of Zero, helping you tune the deck up just like this article. And for all the news that’s fit to print about the Ultraman Card Game and the Ultraman Series in general, stay close to Ultraman Connection, and make sure to check out the official Ultraman Card Game website!
