A Format Breakdown of the 2024 EU Nationals!

The second 2024 National Championship has concluded, with the sun setting on the EU National Championship that occurred this past weekend. Although some things remained the same in some of the characters and decks we saw in the OCE Nationals, Europe gave a whole new roster of characters that we need to take a deep dive into, as we consider the format as a whole. Today, we’ll take a closer look at some of these decks in the event we see more like them for the upcoming NA National Championship, as well as the upcoming World Championship!

Leo Savage’s Death Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon//Bertolt, Colossus Titan Advancing

Let’s kick things off with the format boogeyman himself, Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon! Many believe this character is the deck to beat in the format, as he is such a powerful character, oriented around hand-filtering and damage reduction. Leo Savage took down the entire tournament with his very own list, with the character having three total representations in Top Cuts from this past weekend. This is such a drastic difference from what we saw in the OCE, with Bertolt not even making it out of Top 8.

Across the three Bertolts that made top cut this past weekend, all three of the lists were different in a variety of ways. Leo’s list specifically felt like a combination of the other two that were in top cuts, utilizing a couple of high-impact Throws and powerful 2-check Attacks such as Lethal Slash. The character benefits from a lot of the other strong damage-reducing cards across the Death symbol that we have seen have success in previous formats, such as Weapon Clash, I’m With You, and Desperate Struggle. The rest of the Attack package includes high-impact Attacks such as Battle Aura Release and Attack Titan’s Haymaker to draw cards and Commit your rival’s Stage all while being high-damage threats.

We can expect to see more Bertolts at the NA Nationals, as he is a strong gatekeeper of the format. It will be interesting to see, though, if players will adapt and potentially play characters like Mimic to take him down like we saw at the OCE Nationals.

Liam Chawner’s Death Elder Toguro

The St. Louis Regional-winning character has returned in full force with Liam’s Elder Toguro list that he brought to a 2nd place finish in the EU. The last time we saw this character have such success was with Travis Tangeman’s combo list during the Season 2 Regional for NA. Liam took a modern approach with the deck since Twisting Azure Inferno was banned, and was able to topple titans such as Mimic and Bertolt in Top 8 and Top 4 respectively.

Liam’s list uses the same key combo to have a high-speed and high-damage attack at early turns by using Elder Toguro’s interaction with Sports Festival Champ. The newest attack to get to such high numbers is Stomp of the Female Titan, since it lets us double up on our first three damage pump abilities. The new damage pump of choice is An Embarrassment of Dooplers, which scales in potency with the amount you have in your Stage. 

This deck may not be highly represented in the format, but it is now a deck on a lot of people’s radars. This is a deck that incentives you to play cards like Evade and Copy or Run Away! to survive against it, or you may find yourself trying to climb up an insurmountable mountain in the middle of rounds or top cuts.

Richard Plummer’s Earth Pony Tsunotori

Full disclosure, this is my favorite character in the entire format. I won’t let that get in the way, though, as I discuss Richard Plummer’s Pony Tsunotori deck that we saw him pilot on stream during Round 4. Pony is definitely a deck that we have to consider in the format as a whole, because she is a similar aggressive character like Bertolt Hoover, Living Weapon, and can clear attacks out of her card pool while cycling cards in and out of her hand to find a powerful Attack string.

The deck typically leads her Attack turns with Electric Moth to draw bonus cards and find as many options as possible while setting up early Horn counters. After that, Attack packages typically vary in player preference, but are not limited to Battle Aura Release, Lethal Slash, Falling Skies, and Beast Summonings. Pony essentially functions as a transformed side of Bertolt, and offers the ability to play pretty strong defense when you don’t find the cards you are looking for.

Pony does have some weaknesses against heavy damage-reducing characters, but can sometimes overcome those rivals by sheer amount of Attacks. She is also a 7-Hander, so some players don’t enjoy having such a low amount of Health to fall back on when blocks don’t go well. But with all of those factors, she is still going to be a strong contender for NA Nationals and Worlds.

Max Waters‘s Death Reiner Braun//Reiner, Armored Titan

Max got to kick things off on the EU National stream this past weekend with his Reiner list, which is a damage-reducing king in the format. Since his errata, he hasn’t had the same kind of popularity that he had in the beginning, but he is still a powerful board-control character as well. He benefits from cards that destroy your opponent’s Foundations, or even just flip them–once he transforms, he is able to Ruin your rival’s stage on every Attack Reiner plays.

Reiner enjoys a wide variety of attacks, even from mono-4 Check attacks like in the past, or even more high impact Shift attacks like Armored Titan Rush. He enjoys other damage reducing foundations like Weapon Clash and Invincible Body, but Max really showcased Chaos in the Streets on stream as a high-impact damage pump or damage reduction card.

I don’t know if I would consider a high amount of Reiners at NA Nationals or Worlds, but he can be quite annoying to run into if your deck doesn’t output enough damage, or is reliant on key Foundations in your Stage. Board control and damage control are very powerful into other characters in the format, so Reiner could even be someone you are considering to play right now for upcoming tournaments.

Joel Costa’s Life Momo Yaoyorozu .III

Watching Joel’s Momo list during Round 2 of the EU Nationals stream made me very happy. It was a classic Life defensive wall style of deck that had a level of inevitability to take down decks that were overly aggressive or low life total 7-Handers. Joel showed us calculated and decisive defense to survive against high stat output characters and Attacks, and slowly take down his opponent with Throws and damage pump.

Momo Yaoyorozu .III is a unique character that enjoys playing a large number of different named Foundations. She builds in a Foundation she doesn’t already have from her discard pile as a First Form, and uses them to set up Researching the Answer and Canister Creation Strike. Playing Throws like Overhead Reversal and buffing them with cards like Carbo Loading also help get your opponent lower while also making your Stage larger.

Although Momo is not a popular character in regards to the format, the deck plays very similarly to Recovery Girl, who may be represented at NA Nationals more so than she has been at EU or OCE Nationals. Be on the lookout for other Life wall-like decks in format.

Coran Sloss‘s Fire Woman

Coran truly showcased the high-level explosivity that the Fire symbol has on a high-damage output character like Woman on stream during Round 2 of EU Nationals. Even as a 5-Hander, Woman is able to put a large amount of stats on Attacks seemingly out of nowhere, and can catch rivals off-guard if they don’t have the correct block zone or not enough speed reduction to block effectively.

Coran’s list used the iconic Woman package such as Rupture Driver and Increased Hostility to put a lot of speed and damage on her own moves by themselves. This, in conjunction with the bonus speed that Resounding Screech can give, will make her Attacks hard to block and land for a third of a character’s life total. Coran even made the game speed up even faster with Sugar Rush Power-Up, which functioned as a bonus +2 Speed and +4 Damage, just like Woman’s Enhance–at the hefty cost of removing ten more cards from your discard pile.

Woman is probably more popular than I think she is, but the Fire symbol alone has always been explosive enough to take down titans of a format in competitive events since the early days of UniVersus. Expect other Fire characters such as Ymir or Reiner Braun, Warrior in tournaments near you sporting a similar explosivity like this Woman deck.

Two Down, One To Go

Thank you everyone who tuned into the EU National livestream, and for those that attended the event and made the event possible! We only have one more National Championship to go before we head into Worlds. I can’t wait to see more fun and competitive decks at the NA Nationals, and who will take home the crown as well!