BP05 Uma Musume

We have updated the BP04 Uma Musume guide to be relevant for the BP05 format. Though some of the content is the same, I have added notes to the decklist and matchups.

Uma has always been strong since its release, and it is arguably a Tier 1.5 deck right now. It is likely to fall to the wayside in BP06, so this is the last chance to pick up some tournament wins.

Notably, the deck has a strong matchup into decks like Usurpation Sword and Midrange Forest, with an average (or slightly unfavoured) matchup into Aegis Haven and Egg Haven respectively.

Overview

Uma Musume is a strong mid-range deck with a large number of removal options and strong tempo plays throughout the entire game. Utilising cards like Agnes Tachyon, Eishin Flash and Daiwa/Vodka to control the board, before finishing them off with Oguri Cap, Narita Brian (we no longer run this), or Outrunning the Encroaching Heat.

One of the key strengths of the deck is that the opponent is heavily incentivised to clear your board on every single turn, due to the risk of losing to Daiwa + Vodka combinations. The deck is also highly consistent due to many draws, tutor abilities and recursion from the grave.

Decklist

After the release of BP05, the prevalence of Egg Haven and Aegis Haven in particular necessitate the usage of the Outrunning the Encroaching Heat package. If you allow either of these decks to complete their game plans for free, you will definitely lose.

Outrunning the Encroaching Heat allows your Tachyons to become 4/4 storms and your Sakura Chiyonos to become 5/5 storms. It is also difficult for the Haven player to prevent you from getting a Daiwa + Vodka storm combo in the later game (typically turn 7).

Against every normal board based matchup, you will have a fairly good time due to your many quick removal options and constant ability to pressure the board.

Alternative cards in the deck that can be considered:

7cm ahead - If your meta consists heavily of control decks, this card can be considered. It's particularly good against decks like Ramp Dragon and Aegis Haven, which can eventually run you out of resources and put out huge statted threats. Generally, I don't like this card without tailoring the build to run several mill cards, as it is too slow vs faster decks like Egg Haven.

Although you will have games where you think "if only I had 7cm Ahead", and this will psychologically stick out in your mind, it's probably a small amount of games in reality where the card will actually matter. I think to run 7cm Ahead, you need a build different to this one. This one is more aggressive and aims to finish the game relatively quickly via storm damage, while a build using 7cm ahead would run more mill cards and aim to "outresource" the opponent. So I do not believe it is a "41st card" for this particular build.

Maruzensky - Excellent against aggro decks in particular. Shuts down decks like Aggro Abyss and Hero Sword early, and has additional strength after 10 Necrocharge. The main issue is that the 3-cost slot is highly competitive and tech card space is limited. Considering the current meta, Sakura Chiyono is preferred due to her role as a storm option in the late game.

Mejiro Dober - One of my favourite 2-cost uma cards which barely doesn't make the cut. Often, I find myself wanting just one extra 2-cost follower so I can mulligan more aggressively, and this card's performance is quite good, given its ability to become a 3/3 with racing and being one of the only forms of chip healing in the deck.

Mulligan Strategy

Here's the variety of mulligans I recommend:

Any hand with Daiwa AND Vodka in it except vs Dragon, Egg Haven and Aegis haven. Even if there is no playable early game drops, I would still keep it in hand and just pray to top out due to the heavy upside.

Any hand with Special Week - this is generally the safest mulligan strategy. It fully covers you for turn 2 and draws you a card. 2-cost is often that chokepoint where sometimes you might sort of "brick", as the deck runs so many 3-cost followers and above that, you're usually "set" after you have the turn 2 play.

Against aggro: Agnes Tachyon with Lamplit: The killer of aggro. It is not particularly easy to remove for most decks, and it can recur the same removal spells to continuously control the state of their board.

Against control decks going first (it's actually good vs every deck except Forest due to Elf Child May): Mayano Top Gun with Special Week is an exceptional opener against many control decks. You can generally get in 4-6 poke damage off the 2/1 continuously swinging face if they do not open with perfect spot removal on every turn. For many decks, they don't have great ways to clear multiple followers until at least turn 3. If they don't have it, all the Themises in the world aren't going to save their hp total.

Early game strategy

Turn 1:

Trial initiation: Using this to guarantee a curve is always fine, especially if you have no other turn 1 play.

Mayano Top Gun: Good vs every deck that doesn't have efficient poke damage (mainly Forest with Elf Child May). It can chip enemy leader quite a bit while trading efficiently with 2/2s.

Lamplit: The main thing with this card is what you do when going second. In some cases, you might deliberately take their first 2/2 hit and then save lamplit for the potential end-phase upside of clearing a 2/2 or 3/2 2-cost follower that wants to evolve the next turn. This requires matchup knowledge to pull off effectively though!

Turn 2:

Almost always Special Week if you have it available. Pre-evo going second is also fine, but only if there's actually upside to a 3/3 (against some decks, it doesn't matter at all).

Turn 3 tip:

Don't get too fixated on saving your 3-cost followers for evo effects. For example, it's perfectly valid to curve a 3/3 and force the opponent to clear it or risk you evolving it and hitting the face for 4 damage. Just be mindful of situations where you have no turn 4 plays if they do clear your board.

Early game tips:

Against some matchups, it can be worthwhile not to attack the enemy leader with your followers in the early game. For example against Sword, if you are going first, you might deliberately choose not to attack the enemy leader with your Special Week on Turn 3 with the expectation that they may opt for a Floral Fencer Evolve on their turn 3. This way, their Floral can't trade into Special Week, and you can follow up on Turn 4 with an Eishin Flash evolve on their Floral Fencer, making it harder for them to process your board on their Turn 4. You could even opt to leave your cards standing on turn 4 and threaten Daiwa Vodka on turn 5.

It is therefore worth assessing questions like: What is my opponent likely to play on the following turn? What are my likely plays if I leave my follower standing rather than not? This is a useful framework to follow against decks that require follower combat to clear your board.

Mid game

Your key objective in the mid-game should be to take control of the board and chip away at the enemy leader until you create space for an Oguri Cap lethal. Uma is a deck that places followers down every turn and demands the opponent to have an immediate answer. If they don't have it, boom, 4 damage to enemy leader.

Your mid-game will usually follow 4 distinct patterns:

1) Daiwa Vodka Combo on Turn 5: One of the ideal play patterns. If you had any followers on board before this combo, you could potentially win the game on the spot. In other cases, using Lamplit for free to clear their follower and holding a 4/5 + 4/4 is too difficult for the opponent to clear both, leading to unavoidable damage on the following turn.

2) Rice Shower to ping off an enemy follower. THEN leave Rice Shower standing. The reasoning is that it isn't easy for most decks to clear a standing 3/5 follower. You are forcing them to make a choice. Do they ignore Rice Shower and develop board as per usual? If so, then next turn, they take 3 face damage at minimum AND they risk you buffing her with Vodka. In addition, if you clear their board using something like Eishin Flash + Make Some Noise -> Then they have to clear a 4/4 and a 3/5 ward. The problems on their end just keep stacking up!

3) Against passive decks: Storm face using cards like Outrunning the Encroaching Heat to force the issue. If the opponent doesn't have play points open, it allows you to hit their face safely. This can then be recurred using Agnes Tachyon to repeatedly push damage. Very relevant against decks like Control Haven

4) Develop board/hand while clearing enemy board: Very boring, but it's usually just racing your 3-cost Umas and using removal spells to clear. This can sometimes happen multiple turns in a row - you are really just "checking" if they have an answer - and if they do not, nice, you get the damage on their face and advance your lethal condition

Late Game

There are four main ways to finish the game in the late game.

1) Oguri Cap - 10 damage poggers. Just be careful of quick spells - based on their deck, you will know how likely or unlikely it is for them to have an out to this. In particular, watch out for cards like Acolyte's Light (4pp), Execution (4pp), Lightning Blast (5pp), Rimewind (2pp), Raindrop (4pp/2pp), Mark of the Six (1pp). It is game-losing to run into any of these cards while going for lethal. As such, you usually do not play this card if they have enough play points open to stop you.

Tip: It is not necessary to play this "only" when aiming for lethal. Vs some matchups, if the opponent is tapped out, it might be the best option to "cash in" your 10 damage early, as it doesn't matter when you damage them.

2) Outrunning the Encroaching Heat - The damage you can get off this is usually pretty low, but it can get the job done. You can search for this with Daiwa and recur with Agnes Tachyon.

3) Narita Brian (we do not run this, but it is worth consideration in board based metas with lots of Forest (And also Rune) - Many decks don't have healing, so sometimes you can make a very aggressive play to drop them to 5 or less health. This allows you to pick up an uncontested victory against any decks with limited healing (but many wards)

4) If your opponent can't answer your standing followers, you can just kill them the normal way

5) This is fairly unlikely in practice, but Daiwa + Vodka + 3 spells can also be lethal

This phase is where all of your poke damage translates into actual lethal conditions. When making plays in the late game, try to assess which win condition you are trying to achieve. For example, you might play much more aggressively when your opponent is close to the 10 hp threshold for Oguri Cap. If you have no real lethal options in hand, you might aim instead to grind out the opponent in a resource game. It is essential to consider what is realistically possible considering your hand and game state.

Tip: Special Week is especially strong from Turn 7 onwards. Its evolve effect buffs your field by +1/1. This is especially powerful in any scenario where your opponent failed to fully clear your board on the previous turn. In this scenario, aim to build a wide board and buff it with Special Week. This can often be game-winning!

Matchups

*Just go first in every matchup. To be honest, though, Uma is a deck that can win regardless of going first or second.

Mirror - Even. I prefer to go first in this matchup, as I highly value the option to tempo aggressively in the early game and access Turn 5 Daiwa Vodka before the opponent can. Although their Turn 3 play may involve Eishin Flash, the turn player is always able to answer back with it on turn 4, allowing you to reset all of their evolve point advantages. I highly recommend watching the analysis I did of my Worlds match as I provide thorough insights on how many matches can play out.

Ramp Dragon - Unfavoured. I prefer to go first as you can poke significant damage in with a Mayano Top Gun opener curve - and you also get extra time before conflagration is an issue. In a typical game, you want to get as much free damage in as possible, while being careful of their Dragon Warrior turn. Conflagration is the main enemy of this matchup, and if they fail to draw it, they will often lose. The issue since BP04 is that they now run a significantly higher amount of healing (Dragon's Nest being a key culprit), as well as Israfil, which heals and also clears the board by itself. Therefore, a long game is often unfavourable to Uma, who will eventually run out of resources and lethal range options due to the onslaught of healing and Olivias.

That said, it is possible to win this matchup by teching 7cm ahead. This is one of the matchups where you can reach 20 cards in the cemetary, and this card can then be searched by Daiwa and looped via Agnes Tachyon. This means that in the end game, they will be unable to keep a board, and your hand will be replenished repeatedly.

Egg Haven - Even/Slightly unfavoured. Go first, make it hard for them to drop Alice safely - and force them to use Humpty Dumpty on turn 4. The current Uma build runs more storm damage, which means that you can still push damage through even if they clear your board via the Egg. The main issue with this matchup is Andromeda. When coupled with Humpty Dumpty, facing off against a 4/4 and 2/2 is very annoying, but not completely unbeatable. The deck doesn't run many ways to prevent you from killing them via Oguri Cap, as their only wards are Bellringer and Snow White, which can be cleared easily in the end phase.

As for BP05 Egg Haven, the addition of Epitaph and Feena is not as bad for you as other decks. Epitaph is easily cleared with Make Some Noise (if you go first) and you don't run enough 1-costs for Feena to blow you out (it's probably still worth slamming Mayano Top Gun early tbh). With the new build of Uma, once you do have a tempo lead, Outrunning the Encroaching Heat puts repeated pressure on the Egg Player, unless they happen to draw the Humpty Dumpty + Andromeda combo.

Midrange Forest - Favoured. Go first as it prevents a majority of early-game snowballing options. The key to this matchup is Agnes Tachyon and Eishin Flash, which can clear even the most challenging boards from the Forest player (Eishin Flash clears Crystalia Eve in particular!). Despite its buffs, Forest still lacks answers to Daiwa + Vodka on turn 5 (if both are standing), which can snowball a victory by itself. Previously, it was possible for the Forest player to chain Silver Bolts for lethal, but to fit King Elephant, this has been cut to 1-2 copies. This means that their primary victory condition is King Elephant, which cannot be safely played by the opponent as long as you have 2 play points open (due to raindrops). In general, this means that unlike other decks, you can afford to take a little bit more chip damage against Forest, because at the end of the day, they can't rely on Elephant for lethal.

BP05 additions don't change this matchup too much. Spinaria can be a bit of free tempo for them depending on the situation (if they hit an early Elven Princess Mage), but they still lack great answers to turn 5 Daiwa Vodka (as Cassio is rarely enough to do 9 ping damage on turn 5) and you can generally snowball wins from there.

Most players don't run stuff like Mark of the Six, so it's still reliable enough to use cards like Oguri Cap to secure lethal after getting the first couple of swings in. Of course, the Forest player will start to use cards like Spinaria and Ancient Elf to prevent this outcome, but the thing is - if you are playing normally, you are also building boards that typically have to be answered by large pp investments that seal off their ability to play a ward on the same turn. Eventually, the opportunity will come.

Hero Sword - Favoured. All aggro decks have issues against Uma, due to the heavy amounts of removal and the existence of Agnes/the Daiwa Vodka combo being practically unanswerable by all aggro decks. All you need to do is survive, and then eventually, the Hero Sword player runs out of gas and you can develop a board that threatens lethal with Oguri Cap or Narita Brian.

With the addition of the Usurpation package in BP05, I recommend being careful of Disciple Of Usurpation's 5 damage storm (can be countered with lamplit) and Leonidas evo on turn 6/7 repsectively.

Usurpation Sword - This matchup is generally pretty good for Uma. You have plenty of outs to their early game tempo as well as their late game storm. They don't have any real ways to clear Daiwa Vodka early, and them putting cards into your grave for you is typically good due to your high amounts of recursion (Sakura Chiyono grabbing you the Daiwa Vodka combo because of their milling is so, so delicious). As long as you don't run into Leo or Disciple of Usurpation, both of which are easily played around, it's very smooth sailing.

Lishenna Rune - Favoured. It can be difficult to close the game if they open heavy removal and never give you a chance to build a board. The reason why we are favoured is because of the Daiwa Vodka combo. There still remain very few answers to this, and Uma is one of the decks that will heavily punish a Turn 4 Lishenna (for example, if you have a 4/4 on board and they play Lishenna, then you drop Daiwa Vodka, they lose instantly). Just be careful of cards like Craving's Splendor, but honestly, with how much storm and tempo you have, as long as you don't brick early game, should be a good matchup.

Control Haven - Even/Slightly favoured. This is one of those matchups where you want to go first for sure, as this makes their curve significantly harder to play. For example, Evoing Marwynn going second vs Uma is potentially suicidal due to Daiwa Vodka getting multiple buffs and massive face damage.

You are on the clock to win but it is doable. Save Daiwa Vodka for turn 7 so you can go for the 3-spell storm effect. Generally, the way you want to play this matchup is to force them to use their pp during their turn, which allows you to safely use Encroaching to poke damage. If you can Daiwa Vodka on turn 7 or 8, they will be forced to use something like Themis, which puts them to 3pp, allowing you to finish with Oguri Cap. Just be careful with the Guardian Sun + Aegis Combo, but you are generally aiming to win before then.

In the ideal scenario, you are aiming to curve out your board in the early game to force them to have removal. If they don't have it, this is great news, as it gives you free early chip damage (making it far easier to secure lethal later). But overall, this is a winnable matchup with the decklist in this guide.

Gameplay footage (BP04)):

https://youtu.be/Uv2R6Hd5MUE - Uma vs Midrange Forest

https://youtu.be/N_1IO5mfOEs - Uma vs Dirt Spellchain

Final thoughts

Uma is a fun deck with a variety of different game plans and options. With the unrestrictions in BP05, the Storm Recursion build is in my opinion the strongest, as it has access to the always powerful Daiwa Vodka Combo, and access to multiple storm tools to close the game. This may be the last expansion where Uma is competitively viable, after which, you'll need to play the Eng edition of the Uma Musume app for that horse girl fix.

For those in the Shadowverse Master and Young Cat Tiers, feel free to ask me for Uma advice that isn't already explained within the guide!