Game Design Article: Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament Draft Archetypes
Jeremy Ray
Greetings Universus players! I am here today to talk about the Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament draft format. I want to talk about some of the draft archetypes you can look for, characters that shine in those archetypes, and cards that will have the biggest impact! The Dark Tournament had limited formats in mind from the ground up, with lots of cards designed to help facilitate effective draft decks on multiple symbols. So let’s put a spotlight on some of the things you can do.
The first draft strategy I want to talk about is what I like to call “Spirit Matters”. Character wise, the obvious character is Yusuke to front the strategy, but really any member of Team Urameshi can make the package work nicely. The backbone of this strategy is Spirit Uppercut, a scaling off zone common that can pack a lot of punch in the right conditions. Cards like I’m Old Yusuke and Spirit Detective bring additional big support pieces in both from the rare slots. There are plenty of quality support pieces at common and uncommon rarities for the strategy like Spirit Beast Puu, Yusuke’s Spirit Wave, and Spirit Charged Kick. Spirit is an easy to build strategy with lots of quality options for your specific characters that you can mix easily with non-Spirit options.
Next up, let's talk about Weapons. Weapons get some excellent tools, primarily behind the support of Shishiwakamaru! Generally when playing this strategy you want your character to have the Water symbol, which will let you reach into some of the Bui and Toya support, giving you access to solid commons like Ice Sword Slash, Spirit Slash, and Arena Stone Toss. The real meat of the Weapons strategy in limited play is Call of the Reaper and Crowd’s Darling. Both letting you create long weapon attack strings at just uncommon rarity. With Cards like No Restraint, Banshee Sword’s Shriek, and Beneath the Armor, you can find commons and uncommons that help you pile on the damage. The big bombs of this archetype are Shishiwakamaru’s Rare and Ultra Rare, Chorus of a Thousand Skulls and Cage of Hell, both providing huge support for the weapon strategy.
From here, we can talk about a card advantage focused strategy that is a bit narrower than some of the others, but has some great tools when it comes together. That is the Ranged trait. Ranged really centralizes on the Suzuki support, with the key card being the uncommon Beautiful Energy Blast. A simple but tricky draw 1 combo attack that keeps your hand filled and your opponent guessing. How you support this combo comes down heavily what character you choose, but cards like Genkai’s Spirit Shotgun, Beautiful Card Strike, and Cursed Ice Breath provide solid low rarity options to lead in with, and at the rare and ultra rare slots, there is a wealth of powerful options that stand tall on their own, like Dragon of the Darkness Flame, Walk The Dog, Double Spirit Blast, Genkai’s Spirit Gun or Spirit Gun Mega.
Going into another team focused strategy I just call this one “Toguro Draft”. It varies a little based on which character you choose. Karasu would try to assemble a much different deck than Bui, but both of them would be grabbing some of the same key pieces. Those pieces include the uncommon Sakyo’s Gamble. The owner of Team Toguro brings a big damage pump or momentum generation in a pinch depending on your needs, letting you close out games out of nowhere. The uncommon Enormous Axe and Demon Energy Manipulation are pieces nearly every member of Team Toguro can use. Providing additional resources for the many destroy costs the members of the team carry with them, such as Immortal Shapeshifter and Frightening Calm. Younger Toguro’s support provides the backbone for the team, offering several card draw options at low rarities. On top of that he provides the powerful defensive piece Invincible Body at just uncommon rarity. No matter which Team Toguro character you choose, there will be strong options available to you.
The last strategy I want to talk about is one I call “Commit Matters”.The key is just building a draft deck that wants to commit all of your rival’s foundations on offense. The heart of this strategy revolves around 3 characters, the two members of Team Rokuyukai, Chu and Rinku, and the Ice shinobi Toya of Team Masho. All 3 characters offer Stun and committal tools at the common and uncommon rarities with cards like Acrobatic Leap Kick, Ice Sword Slash, and Ogre Killer. Support pieces like Stumbling Warrior, Elemental Advantage and Master of Drunken Fighting all come in at low rarities that help you put even more pressure on their foundations with your own. This archetype features some support cards at higher rarities like Rokuyukai Huddle and Power of the Serpent Yo-Yos to feed stats and hunt for tools. Last but not least, this archetype features some of the biggest UR bombs you can get from your packs with cards like Knife Edge Death Match, Walk the Dog, Zeru’s Flames and Ice Sword Execution. This is not a strategy to be slept on and really the biggest challenge with drafting it is the competition with other players for the valuable Stun cards in limited play.
There are many strategies you can adopt in Dark Tournament draft, while you are welcome to try some of the ones mentioned here, there are several more out there waiting to be found. The Dark Tournament awaits, and we hope to see you there!
Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament hits shelves on February 23rd! Make sure you’re in talks with your local game store and signed up for Dark Tournament. You don’t want to miss out on getting into the Wish Tournament! Find events near you on the UGN.
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Product information: Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament Product Page