A Recap of the 2025 Denver Regional!

Hello again, everyone! I have returned to bring back format breakdowns following UniVersus events. It’s only been one short month between now and the World Championship, but I am refreshed and ready to kick off the 2025 Organized Play Cycle. MHA sets 2 and 3 have rotated, and the Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria set has been brought to the world of UniVersus. Players did not hold back when changing their decks with new and shiny toys of course, and I am here to talk about those decks and cards to keep an eye on what the 2025 meta will become.

1st Place: Andrew Porat’s Void Rodan, Giant Monster of the Sky

He has finally done it! Andrew takes down the first Regional of the 2025 cycle after having multiple top cuts from 2024. Andrew was Swiss Champ after day 1, and was able to go 1st throughout Top Cuts. We saw Andrew on stream at the beginning of Top 8 and also in the Finals, and had the pleasure of interviewing him after both of those matches.

Based on his own words, Rodan is very much the bread-and-butter character that he most enjoys playing. Andrew made a run at the 2024 World Championship playing Ymir to little success, but I do believe strong chain-blocking characters like Rodan are much better suited for Andrew’s playstyle. Making a run back with the character since the St. Louis Regional in 2024, the deck has evolved and gained new tools from multiple sets. Sweeping Daggers and Violent Animus Shot are powerful 4-difficulty attacks for stronger aggression to end games while still playing strong defensive cards like Barrier Shield, Nonagon, and Mikasa Defeats the Female Titan that make blocking a breeze, keeping our 7-hander healthy and alive against aggro decks.

This is a very well-deserved win for Andrew, and with this victory he's locked in his Day 2 invite to the World Championship for 2025— I can’t wait to see what deck he might end up bringing to that event.

2nd Place: Justin Martin’s Order Mitchell Cimino

Justin Martin kicks off 2025 with a strong 2nd-place finish piloting the Mitchell Cimino Champ card. We also had the pleasure of having Justin on stream multiple times through Swiss and Top Cuts. Justin played this incredible machine of a deck so well, and had such cool plays that could only be played with a character like Mitchell.

I called this a “combo” deck a lot on stream, only because this deck does a really good job of assembling very powerful turns defensively and offensively by using Mitchell’s response to have the perfect hand when needed, and using your momentum as a “second hand.” More accurately, this is just a very strong deck engine that plays a strong Stun gameplan, with cards like Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall, Patchwork Baby, and Walk the Dog. Also, if you spend any Momentum during the turn, all that Momentum spent is returned to your hand to try and attack with next turn (or for blocking). Along with storing strong Action cards like Showdown and Koenma’s Task, this is the only deck that can pull off the legendary third use of the Koenma’s Task Form ability. We saw Justin pull it off multiple times on stream, and it’s so exciting every time.

With this 2nd-place finish, Justin has all but locked in his Day 2 invite to Worlds, and he did so by showcasing such a cool deck with a Champ card.

3rd Place: Cayden Gilvin’s Death Hange Zoe, Four Eyes

The 2024 World Champion character has returned to the competitive season, but in a very different version as Cayden Gilvin showcased for us this weekend. Immediately gaining quite a few fans after his match that was on stream during Swiss, Cayden built his Hange Zoe, Four Eyes deck to try and finish his rivals on Turn 2 as consistently as he could.

Cayden had success through Swiss by taking down opponents left and right with this powerful Combined Firepower Death Casino-style deck, trying to mill cards like I’m With You, Unabashed Manner, and Avoiding Conflict to get a ton of damage on your powerful attacks like Sweeping Daggers and Jaw Jammer. Along with having a bit of defense built in on Hange’s character, the deck is strong and is a powerful strategy to remember still exists.

Cayden had an excellent showing in Denver, only losing out to the event winner himself. Death Casino-style decks such as this one are important to keep in mind for any Death player and is a gameplan that can be used in new Critical Role characters as well like Percival de Rolo III, Vengeful Sharpshooter and Vax’ildan, Dagger Master.

4th Place: Nick Ragan’s All Nick Ragan

I know the title of this section looks weird, but I promise it's accurate. That’s right, Nick Ragan himself piloted his own Champ card Nick Ragan to a 4th place finish proving to everyone else that Nick Ragan is the best Nick Ragan player. We saw Kalvin Harrigal’s Nick deck also on stream throughout the tournament, but I wanted to focus on one that finished higher and was doing some fun stuff in it.

Nick Ragan (the Champion card) is a rollercoaster of emotions when playing as—and also against—him. Sometimes he gains strong Enhances on his Attacks like Death From Above and True 100% Unleashed, and sometimes he gets nothing and just +2 Speed and +2 Damage on his attack as a 5-hander. Nick also included unique attacks like Hate Fish so that if you attack with them (or the Attacks that gain stats themselves), you can use the Hate Fish enhance to double a stat bonus. We even saw Nick use the Nick Ragan Enhance on defense, and being able to ready strong defensive foundations like Invincible Body or Defending Pageant Queen to surprise your rival into thinking twice about their aggressive turn.

Many people are talking about how strong Nick Ragan is even with the crazy up-and-down variance the character has, seeing some crazy turns as well as some standard, expected plays. Regardless, Nick Ragan is a character to contend with in the 2025 season. Also, Nick Ragan the actual UniVersus player.

6th Place: Barlow Guess’s Order Taryon Darrington, Naive Creator

We did not have the pleasure of watching Barlow pilot this deck on stream, but I had to talk about it because the deck was strong enough to take to a 6th-place finish, and to also convince your current reigning World Champion Kevin Broberg into playing almost the same deck as well! We did see Kevin play Taryon Darrington, Naive Creator on stream during Swiss, but that deck was very close to Barlow Guess’s deck.

Taryon is the newest and coolest "Assets matter" character from Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria. Most Taryon decks wear away at your rival by accumulating a ton of Momentum from hitting your rival or using Gold Tips Imperial to get enough Momentum and Assets on your Stage to land a killing blow with Powerful: 5 on Bedazzled Helm Blast. Also, Badgey, Vengeful Pal is one of the coolest cards in this deck because it builds down when you play it, and can be used to give +3 Damage and +3 Speed, while also denying the +3 Damage enhance from your rival.

Taryon functions as an incredible toolbox character by using strong Assets in the game for their own effects, and also for plus or minus Speed. If you like green cards, I’d recommend characters like Taryon because he is going to be a force to be reckoned with for the 2025 Cycle.

TC Dervartanian‘s Life Ymir

The life-gain queen is back from the ashes of rotation, as we got to see TC pilot this Life Ymir deck. People have been wondering if this character would get hit too hard from rotation and losing cards like New Training Method while trying to get to nine Foundations as soon as possible to transform into Ymir, Jaw Titan for scaling damage based on how much life you have gained during the turn.

Based on the stream match, Ymir is still very powerful and has settled into a very powerful Turn-3 aggro deck. Still having access to Desperate Plea discourages your rival into attacking you early, as it may help you build more Foundations than your rival anticipated for. Replicator Enthusiast also helps build extra copies of Immortal Shapeshifter and Recuperation Time to sneak closer to that key nine Foundations to transform into the bread and butter of the deck.

Although Ymir didn’t make a top-cut appearance, this character is still a contender this year, and I bet players are cooking up different builds as well using cards like Hunter’s Ally to help build more Foundations. Maybe some players will even show us some Ymir decks on the Fire symbol as well this year!

More to Come

The 2025 Organized Play Cycle has only just begun, and there are plenty more characters that can mix up the format. With at least one Regional every month, I am looking forward to continuing to write these and watching top-tier UniVersus players bring exciting decks and characters to try and earn points to become the next UniVersus World Champion!