Chelmsford Regional Format Breakdown

The second regional of the 2025 competitive season has come to an end and with it Mike Hardiman, a longtime UniVersus player, has locked in his Day 2 invite to the World Championship. We will get to Mike’s Ymir list here shortly, but a lot of familiar characters showed up in the Top 8 of this event even after the most recent changes of Immortal Shapeshifter getting banned and Combined Firepower getting errata’d. Today, we will talk about some other decks in the format that not only performed well, but are decks that you should keep an eye out for in formats to come.

1st Place: Mike Hardiman’s Life Ymir

It was no surprise to me that a well decorated player like Mike took down the 1st regional in EU this year and with a strong character to boot. Ymir is a character that has been making waves in the competitive scene since she was introduced last year and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down even after Immortal Shapeshifter got banned. She took a hit too from rotation, but Mike used some new tools from Heroes of Exandria to lock in his 1st place finish.

I was personally a big fan of Mike’s addition of Hunter’s Ally in his deck because it answers some questions on how to get to 9 foundations on turn 2 or 3 more effectively. After losing New Training Method from rotation, sometimes the deck struggles to hit the high roll of 8 foundations going into your Turn 2 or 3, but building in strong Ally foundations like Wild Wild Pussycats that were already a staple in Ymir decks. I also really enjoyed his inclusion of Falling Heel Strike that doesn’t see a lot of play in Ymir, but I like the use of unflipping cards like Meeting Hange for more draw options or reusing defensive pieces like Keiko’s Aid as well.

Ymir saw a lot of play at this past World Championship, but didn’t place higher than 5th place overall. No one has truly forgotten about this character because she still is a premier aggro 7 handsize character, but more eyes will definitely be on her now that she has won a more recent event.

2nd Place: Liam Chawner’s Chaos Devil Jin

Liam for sure gave Mike a run for his money though, sporting the fresh new look that Devil Jin has in the current format. The biggest new tool the character has gained is the ability to cancel enhances or blitzes by adding Aerial Goblin Bolt to the card pool with Devil Jin’s enhance. Devil Jin was already a strong aggressive 5 hander in the game, but now having access to offensive and defensive cancellation, makes this character a much stronger force. 

The deck still has access to potential to loop Camouflage Counter like it always has even with Award the Victor rotating, but Liam included some other strong cards to have a strong card advantage engine with The Manipulations of Zeke Yeager and some powerful Ranged attacks like Mega Burst and Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken. Other powerful foundations like Exam Strategy and Inspiring Song also help make this deck flow better and faster in stats and also with checks to make this already strong character even stronger.

Devil Jin was already very popular when he came out but really hadn’t made a strong appearance up until now. Aerial Goblin Bolt is being added to other characters in the format like Rodan and King Ghidorah so it’s no surprise that the deck that plays it the best made a 2nd place finish in Chelmsford.

3rd Place: Nathan James’s Death Reiner Braun

I want to kick this section off by just saying that I really love this character. My hat goes off to you Nathan for taking Reiner Braun to a 3rd place finish because it seemed like ever since this character was errata’d, no one really played him anymore. Nathan incorporated an all ‘4 check’ attack package while still focussing on controlling your rival’s stage in an aggressive manner. It makes a lot of sense too because when you can’t check lower than a 4, it helps you build a larger stage to outpace your rival’s stage.

The most interesting part about this deck is that it could’ve been played in the last format because this list specifically doesn’t have any new tools from Heroes of Exandria. It does however showcase cards from Origins of Power like Too Big to Contain and Grisha’s Transformation. This deck also uses strong stage control cards like Split Body Control and Chomp while also having lots of cards with Ruin on them to synergize after you transform to Reiner, Armored Titan

I know a lot of players really enjoy deckbuilding with the ‘4 check’ attacks and have since they came out. This deck by Nathan is no exception for a deck that excels at using those attacks and even has room to grow with the upcoming Attack on Titan: Apocaplyse set.

Dimitris P’s Air Mirko .II

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure this character was still going to catch some players' eyes after Combined Firepower got errata’d. Although Deimitris didn’t get the win against Luke on stream during Round 2, he still got to showcase what Mirko .II could look like on a symbol other than Death that this character has had success on historically. This character does directly synergize with clearing the card pool effects that is prioritized from the Attack on titan sets, but the fact that she also has 3 highly represented attune symbols, makes this character a constant contender.

My favorite addition Dimitris used was Sweeping Daggers. This is an incredibly powerful attack from Heroes of Exandria that many people are including on decks that have its symbols. The fact that it also has Fury means that it also directly works with Mirko .II. The deck also still benefits from cards like Luna Tijeras and One For All: Full Cowling 8% Falling Roundhouse to help have strong finishers after clearing enough cards out of your card pool.

Although the character did not top cut, I’m glad we got to see Dimitris pilot his deck on stream and show us that Mirko .II can still compete. I’m excited to see what players will continue to do with this character in the future.

Andrew D’s Earth Grog Strongjaw, Mighty Half-Giant

One of the more popular characters that people want to bring to the competitive scene is for sure Grog from Heroes of Exandria. We got to see Andrew pilot this on stream during Round 3 and showcase some of the strong defense and offense that a character like this can put out. Earth is a strong pick for this character as well because of strong damage reduction effects and a key foundation from the Critical Role Challenger Decks like Elvish Tutoring.

Andrew was using strong attacks such as Smashing Stomp and Beseige, but one of the nicest parts about Grog is that you aren’t locked into any specific mechanics or keywords and can play any attacks you want. He does benefit from Throws though because they will more often than not deal damage to your rival to help continuously generate Rage counters.

I plan on seeing plenty more of Grog in other tournaments in the future and honestly he is quite good on all 3 of his symbols. Death has very strong damage reduction like Earth and might just depend on what players believe is the best call for the format. 

Ian H‘s Order Krista Lenz

We saw Ian have the Order symbol battle when he had to go against Matthew B’s Mitchell Cimino deck during round 5 on stream. Krista has been a character on people’s mind ever since Travis Tangeman won the US Nationals in 2024 and also took her to a 2nd place finish at the 2024 World Championship. Now we saw Ian take the same character to this regional and gave a showing with her as well.

Krista is a strong character that uses Wall counters to stun your rival’s stage while also getting specific cards on top of her and her rival’s deck by spending 4 Wall counters. Whether you use that ability to grab attacks from your discard pile, or stack good checks, she plays very good fundamental UniVersus while getting Wall counters by just using discard effects. The main goal is to establish a large hand size with Wall Maria’s Might and establish stage control with Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall.

Although Ian didn’t get the win on stream, he did remind us all how good of a character Krista can be and she is only going to get better as more cards come out that synergize with Wall counters and also discard cards.

Out With The Old, In With The New (Mexico)

We are only 2 regionals in for the 2025 competitive season, and this upcoming one will be the last regional before Attack on Titan: Apocalypse is legal for tournament play. I’m excited to see what players will use to get the win in Albuquerque for this last part of this format before things get flipped on their head with a brand new set release.