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"U.A.", short for "Ultra Athletes"[1] (U.A. (ウルトラアスリート) Urutora Asurīto), is an archetype of EARTH Warrior monsters that debuted in Duelist Alliance. It was one of two TCG exclusive archetypes to debut in that set, the other being the "Burning Abyss" archetype.

Design[]

The archetype is based on positions played in various popular team sports, with every set including monsters hailing from a different sport. The Spell and Trap Cards represent various aspects of sports, such as locations ("U.A. Stadium"), uniforms ("U.A. Powered Jersey"), techniques ("U.A. Turnover Tactics"), team contracts ("U.A. Signing Deal"), and penalties ("U.A. Penalty Box").

The "F.A." is an counterpart to this archetype, with the same design and also being TCG exclusive. Phantom Rage released cards that simultaneously support both archetypes, confirming a connection between them.

Members[]

U.A. Sport Position
Blockbacker Gridiron football Linebacker
Playmaker Quarterback
Goalkeeper Association football Goalkeeper
Midfielder Midfielder
Mighty Slugger Baseball Batter
Perfect Ace Pitcher
Dreadnought Dunker Basketball Small forward
Rival Rebounder Power forward

Playing style[]

All "U.A." monsters share the same effect of Special Summon themselves by returning a different "U.A." monster from the field to the hand. The Field Spell "U.A. Stadium" can search an "U.A." monster when another one is Normal Summoned, and gives a permanent ATK boost of 500 to all your monsters (not limited to "U.A." monsters) when you Special Summon an "U.A." monster for the first time during any turn, once per turn.

The basic strategy is to Normal Summon "U.A. Midfielder" each turn, allowing you to add "U.A." monsters to your hand via the effect of "U.A. Stadium". Summon aggressive monsters like "U.A. Mighty Slugger" and "U.A. Playmaker" during your Main Phase 1, attack using the protection that "Slugger" grants, then swap your monsters out during the Main Phase 2 for protective monsters like "U.A. Goalkeeper" and "U.A. Perfect Ace". In the event that you don't have an ideal set-up of "U.A. Stadium" and "U.A. Midfielder", Tribute Summons can be facilitated with "Heroic Challenger", "Hieratic", or "Burning Abyss" monsters, to name a few, as well as "The Monarchs Stormforth", "Feast of the Wild LV5", etc.

A Pendulum variant can be obtained by adding "Dragodies, the Empowered Warrior" and "Dragonox, the Empowered Warrior" to the Deck: their monster effect allow to search or Summon from the Graveyard some of the key monsters of the archetype, while their Pendulum Scales speed up the swarming process.

A way to make up for their higher Level monsters occasionally clogging the hand is to use them to Fusion Summon "Idaten the Conqueror Star" via Polymerization. Alternatively, one can use the effect of "Kaiki the Unity Star" which can be used after the effect of "U.A. Playmaker".

Recommended cards[]


Weaknesses[]

The U.A. archetype is extremely reliant on its first Normal Summon; effects that remove the Normal Summoned monster from the field can essentially end a "U.A." player's turn, if they control no other monsters. Likewise, cards that prohibit or punish Special Summoning can be effective, such as "Vanity's Emptiness" or "Maxx "C"".

Due to the amazing amount of searches it gives, destroying "U.A. Stadium" also deals a critical blow to this Deck. Cards such as "Thunder King Rai-Oh" and "Mistake" can also achieve the same goal in preventing these searches.

Using "Degenerate Circuit" will prevent your opponent from Special Summoning any "U.A." monsters by their own effects, since they need to return a "U.A." monster to the hand, but cannot.

References[]

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