BP04 Umamusume Guide (Patreon)

Despite the nerfs in the English edition of Shadowverse Evolve, Uma Musume remains a viable deck in the BP04 environment due to its strong matchups against board-based decks such as Hero Sword and Midrange Forest (!!). It struggles against decks with excessive board clear and healing, such as Ramp Dragon and Egg Haven, but there are ways to mitigate these disadvantages through various tech options.

Note: Originally, I intended to keep guides only for the Shadowverse Master Tier and above. However, I want to test a format where I alternate between guides for the Supporter Tier and the tiers above it. I will land on a final decision sometime in the future.

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, 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

While the Smart Falcon list was a sleeper pick in BP03, I do not find it suitable for play in the current metagame, especially due to the faster metagame and the deck's lack of storm finishers.

I currently favour a list with a strong early and mid-game that can chip away at the opponent until Oguri Cap can be used to finish the game.

My Solo Drawn to Raindrop Drums was cut in BP03 due to the lack of threats that required hard removal, but in BP04, this is once again essential, as King Elephant's existence necessitates it. In the late game, you will definitely have 10 cards in the cemetery, so holding onto 2 play points is sufficient to prevent any King Elephant plays from the opponent (and should they ever run into it, they will lose).

Seiun Sky is a card which I think has great performance in BP04. Situationally, it can be very difficult for the opponent to answer efficiently due to its intimidate ability, and the damage stacks up significantly throughout the game. If it is not immediately answered, the threat of it gaining stats from Flowers for You and Vodka is particularly painful for the opponent to clear, and can create win conditions that no other Uma card is able to pull off.

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 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 and Hero Sword

Smart Falcon - This card is good in heavily board-based metagames where the opponent has limited ways to clear this. I do not consider it in this list because you need to specifically tailor your entire build to running cards like Systematic Squats and Will to Overtake.

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

Matikanetannhauser - Was essential in previous metas where Leonidas and Discard Dragon were prevalent. There are too many decks in the meta now that do not run amulets, so this card is not useful enough for inclusion at present.

Silence Suzuka - The biggest weaknesses of this card is how difficult it is to find evolve deck space and its overall vulnerability as a storm card with only 2 health on evolve. Its upsides are obvious, but it has always been a somewhat risky inclusion.

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.

Mejiro Ardan - An underrated Uma card that is particularly strong against aggro decks like Hero Sword. Playing this early can completely shut down early chip damage, and can be used in the late game as an emergency ward tool against cards like Forte and Genesis Dragon. The reason we do not opt to play this is simply due to a lack of deck space.

Mulligan Strategy

Here's the variety of mulligans I recommend:

Any hand with Daiwa AND Vodka in it except vs Dragon. Even if there is no playable early game drops, I would still keep it in hand and just pray to top out. The upside is just way too high as few decks have efficient outs to the combo.

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, as 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). 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 - 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 with 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 - Unfavoured/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.

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).

BNB Forest - Slightly unfavoured. Ah, another shameless plug for my pet deck. many of Uma's biggest advantages are significantly weaker against BNB Forest. Cards like Flower Princess allow them to control the board from the early game, while Lilac is one of the few perfect answers in the game against Daiwa + Vodka on turn 5 (token from Alice in EX or Woodland Band). It's also much more challenging to leave 2pp open for Raindrops, as the Aura from BNB completely ignores all removal, so they don't need to rely on King Elephant at all.

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.

Spellchain Rune - Even/Slightly 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, with the most effective one being RNG based (Heinleinn and milling enough spells for the PP to clear). All Uma needs is a single turn to snowball the match. With all that being said though, the current build of Spellchain runs a lot of healing, which can make it difficult to find lethal opportunities. In addition, by leaving 2pp up, the Spellchain player can threaten Rimewind, which can bounce Oguri Cap back with only 2pp. As a result, this matchup can be surprisingly difficult to win.

Control Haven - Slightly to straight-up favoured. You are on the clock to win before Aegis + Guardian Sun combo, but you can frequently win before this point on Uma. If they don't open perfectly, they will usually take face damage from your tempo curve. You can answer every single one of their early and mid-game plays. You can play around with their open pp count and storm when it's safe to do so. One of the big power plays is waiting until turn 7 for Daiwa + Vodka to storm the enemy face (You can play 3 1-cost spells and Daiwa + Vodka on turn 7 to get 8+ storm damage to face). Even if they do have Acolyte's Light, they always take at least one of these to the face. Be wary of their AOE (Themis/Jeanne), and also take advantage of its predictability. For example, if you have Daiwa + Vodka storm combo, deliberately flood the board on turn 6 to force them to Themis. With only 2 play points left over, you can storm their face for 8 and they won't have the pp available to clear it. For them to clear Daiwa + Vodka on the following turn, it opens them up to Oguri lethal! This is why Uma does totally fine into most variants of Aegis Haven.

Eachtar Abyss - Favoured. The early tempo is practically non-existent and one of their best ways of preventing aggression, Surefire Bullet, doesn't work properly on Uma followers as racing followers are not considered evolves. Any game where you open Daiwa Vodka should be a fairly free win, as there are practically no real answers to the combo on turn 5. In addition, Uma has so many ways to clear a standing Azazel, that turn 7 OTK is very hard to reach for Abyss. The only combo that would really threaten you is an extremely early Israfil cheated via Death's Breath, and even then, that isn't necessarily a lost game (you can just Eishin Flash it or Raindrop)

Gameplay footage:

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. I don't think it'd be strange to see an un-nerfing of the deck in BP05, which means its longevity might be extended for 1-2 more sets as well. I think it's well placed in the BP04 meta, with a relatively strong matchup spread into popular decks of the format.

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!