Today is the day! The Ultraman Card Game has appeared on store shelves around the world! As of October 25th, SD01 Heroes of Hyper Space and SD02 The Bonds of Zero will be available for people like you to purchase, letting you finally compete with your friends alongside the legendary heroes that have defended Earth since 1966!
There’s no question that you should pick up both — the Ultraman Card Game can’t be played alone, after all. The question that does remain, however — which should you grab first? Let’s do a quick breakdown of both decks so you can see which playstyle appeals to you more!
SD01 — Heroes of Hyper Space
Heroes of Hyper Space is a deck focusing on the three Ultra Heroes that heralded the beginning of Generation 2, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Gaia, as depicted in the 1999 movie, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna & Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyper Space.
How the Deck Works
Heroes of Hyper Space is a traditional combo deck, focused on continuously generating card advantage and keeping your hands full by utilizing SD01-001 Ultraman Dyna Flash Type and SD01-003 Ultraman Gaia V2 cards to keep adding the other two heroes in the deck.
Once you have your perfect setup, finish your opponent by playing the SD01-002 Ultraman Tiga Multi Type card, which, when fully assembled, can push your opponent into a lower power grade, regardless of the size of their stack!
What Makes the Deck Strong
A fundamental rule of the Ultraman Card Game is that, since cards are the only resource you use in the entire game — no mana, not even any life — draw is extremely powerful, and thus very rare. The cost of building a stack to make sure you win over your opponent can reduce a strong 6-card hand at the beginning of the game to almost completely empty by as early as turn two — or even worse, if you can’t get the right pieces to actually level up your heroes, you might end up with multiple SINGLE stacks you can’t level up!
Heroes of Hyper Space is exceptionally well-designed to counteract this. Because SD01-001 and SD01-003 can activate their effects to search the top 3 cards of your deck for other Ultras on a DOUBLE stack rather than a TRIPLE, while still being attached to powerful BP cards, you can keep filling your hand while winning or tying battles. You can feel safe committing to putting these powerful cards on the board often, because you can always count on another card getting into your hand pretty fast!
SD02 — The Bonds of Zero
The Bonds of Zero is a deck focusing on the Son of Ultraseven, Ultraman Zero, and his friends and contemporaries in the New Generation Ultraman Series, Ultraman Geed and Ultraman Z, as depicted in their battles together in Ultraman Z.
How the Deck Works
The Bonds of Zero is the Ultraman Card Game’s equivalent of a straightforward beatdown deck, featuring individual power cards that strengthen themselves depending on their opponent. SD02-001 Ultraman Z Alpha Edge and SD02-002 Ultraman Zero Ultra Zero Mantle strengthen themselves when fighting against foes of specific types.
Meanwhile, SD02-003 Ultraman Geed Galaxy Rising can make any Geed stack stronger against any foe, if only for a single turn, making it ideal to finish off a game!
What Makes the Deck Strong
As we mentioned when talking about SD01, card advantage is key. You need to win battles and become turn player to play Scenes, and that requires commitment. If you hold back your cards towards a bigger combo, you may end up losing battles and fall behind, but trying too hard to win early battles may mean you end up not having the resources to clinch the game later!
The Bonds of Zero has a simple solution — make your single cards strong enough to hold games on their own with a little help! Ultra Hero cards have four types that they can come in — Basic, Power, Speed, and Armed. When your opponent plays the right type of card, your cards can raise their BP grade to DOUBLE if they’re a SINGLE, or TRIPLE if they’re a DOUBLE! Rather than having to commit to get the strongest heroes out on the field, you can make it to the top with less effort!
And if you’re worried that your opponent will intentionally play around your cards and avoid a type that strengthens them, don’t worry! The His Majesty’s Medal scene card lets you take your opponent’s choice out of the equation, turning whatever a Zero, Geed, or Z card is facing into an Armed Type for the turn!
In Conclusion… Why Not Both?
Both SD01 and SD02 are incredible starting points for your Ultraman Card Game journey! Each of these decks is not only competitive right out of the box, but has plenty of support coming when BP01 Guardians of the Earth drops on November 8th, 2024!
When you pick up YOUR starter decks, make sure to tell us! Tag us on twitter at @UltramanConnect, and tell everyone on our members-only discord channel! And for more Ultraman Card Game news, stay close to Ultraman Connection!
