Yesterday, UVS released an insane trailer for the upcoming year. There’s a lot there and a lot still to come. Let’s jump in beat by beat and see what to expect from the coming year.

Challenger Series – Solo Leveling (January 10th)

Arguably the most anticipated anime release of the upcoming winter season (and my new personal FAVORITE anime), Solo leveling is set to explode in popularity this winter as the show hits its lore-critical material. One of the most read webtoons in history, Solo is a HUGE statement for UVSG. It tells me that they’re not just content rolling out Top 10 animes. They want the #1! Kind of a statement about Universus’ standing as a Top 10 TCG at the same time…

With the projected growth of the IP over the next several years, it’ll be interesting to see how often we visit Jinwoo as he ascends to Level 100 and beyond.

Set – Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria (March 7th)

One year ago, I had NO IDEA what Critical Role was. Soon after the addition of D&D’s favorite animated adventure (and so much more), I found out how shrewd a play this was. UVS seems very aware that their most obvious competitor is Union Arena and you can’t kill Bandai by throwing money at them. They’ll just bury you in Brinks trucks. So, you have to choose your moves carefully. Critical Role brought in part of a loyal fan base with a high crossover to TCG players. Just last week, some one at my locals was complaining “I need more Spell cards!” Almost on cue, Heroes of Exandria seems like a great offering to the people who enjoy the fantasy world. After watching Vox Machina, I was excited to play as a bunch of characters that they just didn’t have the space to print in a pair of Challenger decks. With this insane universe, get ready for a set that looks different than any other set UVS has seen so far.

Set – Attack On Titan Apocalypse (May 16th)

THANK GOD! People can stop asking me “How are they gonna fit the rest of AoT into Origins of Power!?” Well, they’re not! Apocalypse seems to come at the right time. Just as the kids are getting out of school, 2025 OP will be hitting it’s stride, and 6 months after the 2nd AoT set with a couple pallet cleansers in the middle. The conclusion to the AoT story should be an insane set. The power of Battle For humanity has already changed much of what I know to be true about this game and I can’t wait to see the team push it further. For gameplay, head on over to https://www.youtube.com/c/MyHeroMeta as I’ve started uploading my LGS matches. Smiling Titan incoming…

Challenger Series – Street Fighter 6 (July)

Listening to the community has been a priority for this game’s stewards from the days of old and seemingly hasn’t been lost on the new ownership. Talk to a UVS old head about what they want to see next and you’ll hear something about Mega Man or Street Fighter AT SOME POINT in the conversation. 😅Well, I’m not sure if it’s enough to reinvigorate the Punch or Kick package, but we seem to be getting Ryu and Chun-Li Challenger Decks coming next year. Undeniably a fan favorite, it’s nice to score one for the old heads wish list.

Dark Tournament ✔
Street Fighter ✔
MegaMan 👀

Set & “Starter” Deck – TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (August)

WHO saw this coming??? Not me. I was holding out hope for a couple Challenger decks off into the future. But this!? A full set of ninja-kickin and shredder thrashin? We can all list off the first 8 or 9 characters the set has to have (Leo, Donny, Mikey, Raph, April, Wayne Gretsky on steroids, some guy dressed as a can opener, and your brother’s cool rat). However, it’s interesting that we’re going full-on half-shell because there’s a lot of the Turtle universe that the general public has no idea about. From Usagi to Cyber Shredder, there’s some really cool places they could go. Not to mention all the time-traveling and dimension-hopping these four do! I’ll be interested to see which lore we’ll be diving into and which ones we won’t.

Set – Guilty Gear -Strive- (November)

Honestly, I didn’t see this one coming. The crossover from fighting games to TCG’s is narrow. Investing an entire set is expensive, so the Creative team must really have a good feeling about Guilty Gear to go this route. Though, it might have something to do with the fact that the game has continued to sell copies years after release, including 500k+ in the last 12 months. There is also a new anime series in the works set to debut ahead of the set’s release, so UVS seems to be continuing the strategy of releasing a product in conjunction with releases in other areas of entertainment. I’ve never played a match of Guilty Gear and I don’t know any of the characters, so I’m reserving judgment on this one. At least I’ll be able to meet them and their personalities through the show, giving me a bit of choice how I gear up for the set.

Challenger Decks

Well that’s a ton, no doubt! And the trailer was absolutely sick! Check it out in my previous article: UVS RoadMap 2025. But there’s still more to ponder. 2024 saw 4 Booster sets, 8+ Challenger Decks, and 4 Starter Decks visiting 7 different worlds (not counting promos). The Challenger Decks seems to be the secret weapon for the UVS team, allowing them satisfy their player base’s wide pallet of tastes pretty quickly. I’d expect more Challenger Decks coming out solo, maybe even building up to a monthly thing. I expect Solo Leveling will be a 1-deck experience, and that’s ok. Solo is forecasted to be a Top 3 anime in the coming months battling Union Arena’s Blue Lock for anime supremacy. What a time to be alive. 😁With Solo hitting the Red Gate arc just as the Challenger decks are hitting the shelves, it’ll be interesting to see what shadows make it into the deck.

Sets

This was obviously a HUGE moment for UVS. TMNT (any version) is a shot in the arm alone, but to add a full commitment to Critical Role for the new D&D fans and Guilty Gear for the old fighting game fans, the balance of give and take UVS is trying to find is something to watch. Speaking to the team this summer, they are very excited to branch out and tackle new IPs that haven’t been explored. Paul and Louhan are seemingly ready to crack open the pocket book and let the chefs buy the groceries. So, it’s really something to see them look back as often as they look forward and say “We hear you want that. We haven’t forgotten. In fact, we’ll go a step further. Here you go!” I am interested to see if Apocalypse covering the show’s finale lowers any expectations for Origins of Power. That being said, good card design is all that matters at the end of the day!

The Future of MHA

I have no information on this. However, logic would suggest that with SO much MHA in recent memory, a break was due. There’s so much else to explore. I honestly didn’t get excited for Girl Power the same way I was hyped up for League of Villains. Let that one sink in. I don’t think they’ll forget about the climax to the show, but it seems the art team could use some time after the show airs to know what the source material even is. With the long lifecycle of making a set, I would hope/expect MHA: The Final War to hit store shelves in 2026. And don’t forget, MHA has an 18-month release schedule. so, season 8 likely won’t debut until winter 2026, making a spring 2026 set the best bet from where I’m sitting.

OP

Well, the thing we just don’t know anything about is the MOST important thing about 2025… THE OP CHANGES! If you’re unaware, the head of Organized Play, Josh Massey, has been at the helm somewhere close to 6 months and has a lot of improvements in mind for the coming year. Personally, I would like to see a departure from the LQ/LC system. I think Store Championships are a great thing, but the current system incentivizes crushing novice-level players for having fun and somehow doesn’t award much for the biggest local tournament of the year outside of a mat that, as I look at my mats on my wall, doesn’t crack my Top 5. I’ve seen the creative team make INCREDIBLE art, so I hope they get the time and resources to make some awesome mats for winners too. This year, the mats you can buy have been FAR better than the mats you can win.

I hope they continue giving prize cards for those tournaments and ratchet up the playability of the card that’s chosen. I think if you win an LC/LQ and get an ALT Ravages of War, people would naturally come out to more events than if we give out something less popular.

I hope the judge program gets launched at some point in 2025. I know that’s not a simple feat, but it’s in such an awkward spot right now. We’re depending on a few committed, brilliant individuals that routinely answer questions in the discord to figure out rulings and that’s just not gonna cut it as the game grows. We need some way of telling who’s a judge and how highly are they rated. We need a system for applying to go judge a regional that’s better than “Just email Sean.” That being said, I’ve talked to Josh a few times about all this and I’m confident the judge program is coming and is in good hands.

Lastly, the road to Worlds is a biased mess at the moment. Every game strives (and struggles) to find a system that rewards the best performing players that year with a trip to Nationals/Worlds, do it early enough to allow time for travel, and be fair enough that anyone has a chance to win their way to the biggest stage. This year’s rules make a clear attempt to hit all these goals, but sadly falls short of all of them. Currently Colby Cram sits atop the NA (aka global) leaderboard with 129 Championship Points, 17 ahead of his closest competition. Nothing wrong with that. Colby’s great! I had the chance to judge with him in Las Vegas. However it seems a bit skewed when you see it’s because he’s been able to play in 28 LQ/LCs with a 57% win rate (of the event, not a match) and Kalvin Harrigal in 7th place has 83 points playing in 10 LQ/LCs with a 70% win rate with an MR Top 2 and Top 16. Seems that availability of events is determining who gets to Worlds more than who’s having the best year.

All that being said, I am even more excited for the OP announcement because I know there’s gonna be awesome changes that’ll allow us to play the way we want and for prizes that get us geeked! Welp, I’ve got to edit another Live on the Tables video. Until next time, I’ll see you on the tables!