Deckbuilding Philosophy: Do the Cool Thing! ft. Net Launcher
Have you ever seen something and just thought “that’s so cool, but aw beans there sure is something objectively better?” Maybe it’s a character in a game that is currently underpowered for the meta but has a very unique kit that is super interesting to play. Or maybe it’s a piece of equipment for a sport that looks or feels better but is just not as good as the best or optimal gear.
So following those thoughts in UVS, wouldn’t it be so cool if we gave semi-symmetrical stats to an attack plus a keyword ability? What if we could force our opponent into deadlock while helping ourselves in the process? Enter my favorite attack card that has some incredibly neat abilities in my mind, but comes at quite a heavy cost.
N E T L A U N C H E R D:
SO obviously this is not a strong card because of its high cost for its abilities. Commit 3 face up foundations with different names to give the atk decent stat boosts and stun 2? Probably better options because it’s just too high a cost. Spend 1 momentum to build any foundation from your discard, but you build one ready for your rival, too? Very specific use case. So ultimately, not great.
However…
It’s just so cool! How unique is that? Yeah, it’s not great, but it’s neat! Pale Rider and Walk the Dog are good cards because they have great stats and do very strong things. Pale rider clears the card pool and zone checks your opponent with lows (like any other echo attack). Walk the Dog has potential to string with itself on reduced difficulty, great starting stats, card draw which scales, stun, and powerful. Great cards for sure. To me, they’re just pure vanilla ice cream. They’re great, but not interesting. Tried and true, but I never feel excited to play those cards. But Net Launcher?? That’s exciting stuff.
For probably a year, I looked at Net Launcher, thinking, “This is so cool but not viable at all.” While fully wanting to make it work. One day, though, I realized there is a character that could run this card surprisingly well, and it wasn’t even the character in the card, but rather Keyleth!
THE COMBO
SO the initial whole combo between Keyleth and Net Launcher is:
1. SLAM NET LAUNCHER ON A 5
2. COMMIT THE 3 FACE UP FOUNDATIONS
3. READY 1 OF THEM WITH KEYLETH
4. W’s (and maybe die on the backswing lol)
So we reduced the equivalent cost of the ability by 1 with the character, making it a bit more reasonable. With just possible stats, that’s 7 mid for 11 damage with stun 2 for the equivalent of a 7 difficulty attack, which is pretty decent even without the other enhance ability on Net Launcher. Now let’s add to the combo. What if we had Stables Work as one of the cards we committed, then readied with Keyleth? BAM, CARD DRAW. What if we had Full Focus to discard the one we drew with Stables Work to ready itself after committing it for Net Launcher? BOOM Net Launcher 7 mid for 11 and stun 2 for only 1 extra commit overall, or an equivalent 6 difficulty (albeit more places to interact). NUTS. SO COOL. WE DID IT. HIGH FIVES ALL AROUND. And this combo just requires having 2 particular foundations on board, which is totally reasonable when one is a card we prioritize in the character anyway, and the other is just a decent card to build in a 7 hander that wants to block everything. Even without Full Focus, you traded one ready foundation for an extra card.
So that’s the start of it, but from the current meta, I did have to shape the deck a lot to survive against the “spirit surprise shotgun blast kill-you-to-death™” decks of today. I was worried 7 hand size characters die very easily to big moves unless you have a “I don’t die” button like on Mothra. SO, DECKBUILD FOCUSES: Build fast, omniblocks or reduction abilities on half blocks, card draw, and speed reduction. That’s how we live. Attacks that help build and attacks that give themselves stats (because Keyleth is just utility) are how we win. No reason to play small attacks either, if we build fast, then we’ll have plenty of resources to play higher difficulty attacks, and we have History’s Greatest Monster on symbol to support that too. And we need some deadlock abilities in case we get followed into deadlock, OR if we force them into deadlock with THE G.O.A.T. NET LAUNCHER!
The Philosophy: Do the Cool Thing!
I write all this to explain where and why I start building decks. I see a cool thing, I cosplay Tony Hawk, and run kickflips. I always want to do the cool thing first and foremost. There are so many cool cards in the game that just don’t get attention or see play because they are not ‘optimal’. I could absolutely just run all generically good cards, but I want something unique. If just running generically good cards without trying for a quirky card or combo is your thing, that’s great, of course, but I encourage everyone to try to find and do a cool and interesting thing first whenever you can. It really expands the game and keeps it fresh in my opinion, and you may find something that has some legs within the current meta that nobody sees or is ready for! Even if it is just ok and not at all groundbreaking, it gives you another perspective on the meta and on the game that you may not have seen otherwise, at any level of play. As discussed in the previous article “... So, You Built a Terrible Deck for Locals,”by Thomas Lewis,locals is a great place to run these deck ideas! And of course, looking back on my decklist, I did end up with a lot of generically good cards since Keyleth is on 4 symbols with very strong cards right now. But the part that makes this deck interesting and unique is the idea it started from. Keyleth also isn’t a meta character, and nobody is playing her because there are stronger characters on those symbols when looked at in a vacuum. But Keyleth, and likely other overlooked characters, can find a place within strong off-meta decks if you look to build for intrigue as much as you do viability. That’s where you can find hidden gems.
NOW, DECKLIST TIME!!
https://uvsultra.online/deck.php?deck=wyuMgMBZfGqyChKgnEZlJHieSdFhsu
Broken down by their effective usage, all of the cards serve a main function, but some have secret text that can cover a wider range of situations. Very small example, but did you know Keyleth is a Warden? Hunter’s Ally secret text UNLOCKED. This deck was able to get into top 8 at the Counterspell Round 2 LC recently, so I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out! And whether it was because of or despite Net Launcher, I had a fantastic time playing it.
1. Build Fast
-Net Launcher
-Team Hero XV
-Queen of the Monsters
-Hunter’s Ally
-Warden’s Protection
These help filter my stage to be only the cards I want there at any moment, as well as just building fast. Team hero can filter the hunter’s ally fetch, warden’s protection can filter the queen of the monsters build, and net launcher can just build a foundation or Mondo Gecko. These build your stage fast to stay alive against aggro longer, and give you important foundations going into the late game. And of course, Net Launcher shines again with building any foundation, and can either force your opponent into (or at least closer to) deadlock, OR build a copy of a unique foundation, forcing it to explode on entry into the stage.
2. Stay Alive
-Shobijin’s Message
-Armor Clad Faith
-Mikasa Defeats the Female Titan
-Funky Breath
-Substitute Member
-Moment of Normalcy
-Mondo Gecko
Stop attack strings, prevent tension or throw, effective onmiblock, and speed reduction. These are the cards with the sole purpose of staying alive, but there are some cards with overlaps from other categories as well. I also really enjoy blocking in this game, so I do not run much damage reduction. Especially right now, a single attack can go for a majority of Keyleth’s life total. No amount of damage reduction, outside of a heavy backup deck, will help me more than just being able to block a lot.
3. Control Their Battra Arrives Board
-Radiant Visage
-Toguro’s Dominance
-Destructive Heat Ray
-Heat Ray
Momentum control and foundation control are the name of the game right now. Each of these deals with something meta-relevant. Tension is strong, Battra Arrives can only be stopped with another Battra, Toguro’s, or a flip, and both heat rays are target flips. Additionally, I think the original Heat Ray is overlooked at the moment, since it has a high starting speed and is a target flip of 2 foundation on damage. The other neat part of Keyleth is that we can always unflip whatever we really need if our board, so we can reasonably win the race of flipping each other’s foundations.
4. Deadlock Threats:
-History’s Greatest Monster
-Tail Trip
-Heat Ray (again)
Since we are expecting either our opponent to follow us into deadlock or we can force them into it, I wanted to run enough dedicated deadlock to be threatening, especially when I’m running a high difficulty attack package.
5. Tech and Utility:
-Fully Charged Blast
-Warden’s Protection (again)
-Tusktooth’s Crew
-Full Focus
-Stables Work
-Guardian Angel of Chinatown
-Low Guard (soon to be Dumbfounded)
-Analytical Observation
Stables Work and Full Focus combo with Net Launcher in the way I mentioned before, but are also just good in Keyleth. Stables Work is a staple for the character, and Full Focus just helps string attacks and blocks longer in a 7 hand size character. Fully-Charged Blast is interesting because it can slightly combo with the power token generation from destructive heat ray, but is also just a big, strong move that can get me out of deadlock if I need it. Tusktooth is for hand filtering, but with so many ‘build from discard pile’ effects, it can also help set up the targets for those builds as well. Definitely not its main purpose, but a nice side effect! Analytical Observation is pretty important in a high difficulty attack package to guard against breaker abilities. Guardian Angel of Chinatown is just nice for the attack turns when I’m playing fewer, bigger moves. Low Guard was filling out the low blocks in the previous iteration, but I ended up having space for more mid blocks, surprisingly, allowing me to swap it for the dumbfounded after the LC.
So those are my thoughts and ideas along with the decklist that came from them! This deck is probably one of my favorite decks to play at the moment because it gives the pilot so many options at any given time and feels fast on offense and precise on defense. Feel free to give the list a try and make your own variant(s), and let us know what you think! Either way, thanks for reading, and keep coping!
