Death. Death comes for us all, even in UFS. This time around we tackle the Grim Reaper of robot Masters, Skullman. The one robot master forcefully built entirely for the sole purpose of destroying Mega Man is now in the game. We look a just what the macbre master of the dead is like as he comes for your hand. So hit that link and be ready, he's coming for you.
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| Skullman Death Deck |
So as you can see Skullman is a deck that thins itself and disrupts the opponent's hand through discard this limiting their options. For this reason I choose to build him off death as it has more access to discard effects. First off we'll look at at his two big attacks in Skull Buster and Skull Barrier
Skull Buster is one of his go to cards and not just because it's his actual weapon attack. The card has good versatility with it's first enhance be it your turn or theirs. The enhance itself is can rip two cards and give them a card for 1 momentum. Now on your turn this takes two cards from them and gives them potentially a card that can block with. If your good at reading opponents this can be followed up with skullman's enhance to further ensure they get dead cards. Now when played as a reversal this is actually quite a bit more devastating as they go into your turn with one less card in their hand while you get to draw more cards. It's second enhance so long as you block and reverse a ranged attack actually feeds the first enhance by giving you momentum. It has respectable stats at a 3 mid for 5 damage. The new league promo dragon goddess helps by giving it a free plus 1 speed as well. Plus this is a great way to set up a discard combo with Second shell making them discard potentially their card they just drew off buster's enhance.
Skull Barrier is his big attack and has quite a bit of uses. First off it's a low difficulty attack sitting at a 2 meaning it's an excellent string ending attack with the right conditions. It's also a block that turn's itself into a reversal with a +0 mid block and that's always cool. Like Buster it's more of threat when played on the opponent's turn rather than on your own turn. The ability to nuke an attack when played at the right time will make the opponent have to rethink their attack strategy. While it's true that they can just bait it out by playing a poke or crap attack to get you to use barrier's ability. However remember that in death Skullman your objective is to get rid of their hand leaving them with limited options on your attack. So either way you profit off barrier. Now if you do choose to reverse it we do have the chance to go lethal depending on either how successful you are are discarding or the length of the game. Naturally I'm talking about mourning the lost. Needless to say a properly timed reversal with Barrier and mourning the lost leads you to kill them should they have nothing to do with it.
Further along in attacks we have Second Shell, which further enhances our ability to discard so long as we can combo off a ranged attack. So as mentioned above comboing after skull buster makes the opponent lose 3 cards in hand while playing skull buster during your offensive turn. Now more than likely they are just going to toss a 0 to 2 difficulty foundation attack to Shell's combo E, but again we're going for to hand destruction for free attacks, so either way free damage or free pitch in your favor.
We have another personal preference in the next two attacks. First off We have Ryuugaku-sai which is a pretty decent attack sitting at 3 mid for 5 again. It's combo is more easily played than shell as all you need is a mid attack to activate it. So your opponent can either pitch a card or the attack is now 6mid for 5. Now we do have a greater amount of speed reduction so this attack isn't as good as it used to be. However the real reason this is in the deck is it knocks off 1 difficulty off our next mid attack. And for the most part the attacks in the deck are mids, so playing 2 of these then either a buster or shell for only a 5 when it should be a 6.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Shield Ram. Now we've talked at great length about how this card is amazing. So to be brief again we are looking at easier longer attack strings with possible discard from the opponent vs an attack that discards and gives you draw. Both options are great, but ultimately the choice is yours.
Now onto to the stand out foundations and he's got quite a bit. First off we have Balanced Fighter. This card has crazy synergy with Skullman, just ask Phil Birch or Garrett Brett(only ask if you have several hours to spare). Since Skullman's primary ability is to pitch draw 2 and pitch again this card is the most ideal card to pitch. Since discarding the card allows for a free draw. Now right there that's discard 2 to draw 3 so that's a plus +1. Should you be lucky enough to draw into a second Balanced fighter that's now pitch 2 draw 4 for a +2 card advantage, that's pretty nuts. Not only that, but this card's R is really good. Since it's a hard speed reset that happens before block, though honestly in all the games I've played I've only used it for the pitch ability.
Reactive style while giving us a mediocre +3 high block does have it's uses. The ability to flip and get rid of a momentum of an opponents helps keeps certain characters in check or slows down their kill potential. While the second ability if you know how to use it is nothing short of amazing. Since it doesn't matter who does the damage your can respond and add reactive style to your momentum then reversal with buster and have the fuel needed to make them lose 2 in hand.
Young Rising Dragon has been a staple in most of my death decks and that doesn't change here. The ability to give them two bad options has always been really good to me. Here it's even better forced discard or forced committal is a great thing. While sadly, it can't be done on your opponents turn this played at the right time will either get rid of a block or tap them out forcing them to hard check. Yes, there are better options out there like Silent Assassin, I still prefer this because the ability is detrimental so long as you know when to use it.
No other purpose is where we finish out this nifty little article. So No Other Purpose serves multiple purposes here in the deck. First it's a +2 Low block which already is amazing even if this is a 3 difficulty foundation. This gives us a damage pump based off the number of times we've discarded to a max of 4 . It's quite easily achieved in Skullman by just playing attacks, so your second attack is getting +4 damage added to it. Probably the best part is more than likely the least looked at ability is the cards response. After they draw due to an effect look at their hand, and knowing what the opponent has in hand is crucial in any game, even more so in Skullman. They have a Templar in hand after you make them pitch and draw. Well time to use Young Rising Dragon or Second Shell to pitch it. Learn they don't have any low blocks? Time to kill them with Blizzard Sword. The key point to this card is to learn when it's time to kill them, unless of course they aren't holding cards, in that case, just use it as the damage pump.
Cover Image and Robot Master Profile by Hitoshi Ariga Author and artist for Mega Man Mega Mix &Giga Mix
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