Solo Leveling Cards Revealed

CRUNCHYROLL IS HERE! UVS Games reprises (am I using that word right?) the deal it had with Funimation kicking off a partnership with Crunchyroll. The first IP on the list, Solo Leveling! Challenger decks featuring the Weakest Hunter of all Mankind (In Anime Form) show up on store shelves January 10th along with the anime returning with Season 2 the same month. While we gear up for the Red Gate & Demon Castle Arcs (🤞🏾and hopefully Jeju Island 🤞🏾), Universus is memorializing our favorite Monarch in ink. Jinwoo Sung is one of the most beloved characters in Webtoon fandom on the planet, with billions of views, a Top 5 anime, and now a record-breaking movie under his belt. So can the Shadow Monarch dominate the tables? Let’s take a look at what he’s working with.

This deck will focus on Season 1 Jinwoo from the first ~40 chapters of the Webtoon. He’ll try to level up quickly and gain his trademark skills that allow him to dominate so many dungeons. It’s a vast departure from what we’re used to. I’ve never seen a character with more than 3 abilities. The Assassin Skill tree allows Sung to reach 7! While none of them are game breaking on their own, all together they present an incredible challenge. A character that can boost speed and damage, control zones, have defense on face, and pick up cards that are removed (making him immune to decking out). It adds a lot of utility that still requires the player’s skill to pilot at a high level; a welcome sight to see.

Let’s start with just the XP keywords. I love seeing Igris the Bloodred making it into ink, albeit still in his living form. Cards like World’s Weakest Hunter and Wolf Assassin will help to keep your hand full, helping cards like Enough of This later in the string. The attacks with XP are going to be a bit weaker than the others because they’re needed to level up so they’ll

Loot Box seems like a card the devs are clearly cautious of. Cards that ramp like Always Cool, Lightning Rod, and Weapon Clash are seeing a lot of play at the top levels recently, so it makes sense this card is going to have some expensive stats. I enjoy cards like Leveling Strength. Cheap. Useful. Pressure. Having a few extra points of damage in your back pocket can be the difference in this game. Good to know Jinwoo will have that on command.

With all the focus on Leveling Up, it’s nice to see Justin Briner’s Jin-ho Yoo getting some face time. he brings with him the Armor keyword. We’ll have to wait to see what the future brings with that as it has no text and none of the other cards reference it. However if there’s a world that would use armor, it might be Exandria… Alas, the deck offers plenty of options for XP to get your level ramping up. The deck has no 1-low block, so even if you reach level 6 and gain Ruler’s Authority, it still might be a bit more difficult to cover the low stuff.

Conclusion

When I heard Solo Leveling was coming to UVS, I was hoping to see my favorite shadows. If you haven’t read the webtoon, I won’t spoil their names, but it’s a long list. But with a focus on season 1 and the level up aspect of Jinwoo’s journey, I’d have to say I’m pretty excited for how this turned out! UVS is introducing new exciting ways to play the game, trying to give players options for their favorite was to fight, but still making the characters feel like their natural selves. They did a great job of that here. Jinwoo has a heavy focus on skills and they are the thing that keeps him alive. From using Murderous Intent to defeat Taeshik to using a Stealth-Ruler’s Authority combo to complete the job change quest, they are where his strength lies in Season 1. It’s great that attaining them and relying on them is where his strength will also lie in Universus. I can’t wait to get these cards in, I have mine preordered. Until then, I’ll see you on the tables!