Top-performing cards from our Creator Invitational Pre-release

On October 20, we hosted a livestreamed Pre-release tournament at CD PROJEKT RED HQ, featuring 16 TCG and Cyberpunk content creators! If you missed the stream, you can catch up with all the games and announcements over on the Cyberpunk TCG Youtube Channel.

Not only was it the first-ever livestreamed Cyberpunk TCG event, but the tournament also gave fans everywhere some early insight into the Welcome to Night City Pre-release experience.

We saw amazing games, with some unbelievable plays. If you’re preparing to head out to a Pre-release tournament next weekend, here’s a quick recap of some of the standout cards from our creators’ decks, and a few tips to help you utilize them yourself.

Gorilla Arms

Every Welcome to Night City Pre-release Kit includes a beautiful Gorilla Arms promo card that players can add to their deck. So, it’s a card you’re going to see a lot of across your Pre-release games!

Gorilla Arms creates some very explosive turns. First, it gives an equipped unit 3 additional Power, which can open up some very profitable attacks. Maybe your rival thinks they have the edge in combat, and they attack you with a big unit like Animals Wrecker, which has 10 Power. They pass the turn to you, you equip your Rockn’ Rockerboy with Gorilla Arms, and suddenly your Unit can cleanly take theirs out.

But that’s just the beginning. Gorilla Arms also gives the equipped Unit the ability to steal an extra Gig. So, in that same scenario, let’s say you decide to ignore the Animals Wrecker altogether. You can equip your Rockn’ Rockerboy with Gorilla Arms, push its power to 11 so that it steals an additional Gig when attacking, then steal ANOTHER Gig with Gorilla Arms’ ability.

2 extra gigs and 3 extra power. To paraphrase Lead Game Designer David McDarby, “I’d buy that for 4 Eddies.”

Maelstrom Zealots

Maelstrom Zealots is a card that (ironically) hasn’t made much noise in Constructed yet. But in our Sealed Pre-release format, just like their abundant chrome, the Zealots really shine.

These Zealots embody Maelstrom's reckless, violent reputation. They’re going down, but you’re absolutely going down with them. As soon as there’s a Maelstrom Zealots on the board, you have to think very carefully about your attacking decisions. If you leave any strong Unit spent, the Zealots can immediately attack them, lose the fight on purpose, and flatline their target.

In one of our feature matches, French creator Maxildan utilized Maelstrom Zealots in an incredibly creative way. He waited for his Rival to attack, then in his React window, used the Quick ability on River Ward: Detective on the hunt to equip a Mandibular Upgrade onto his Maelstrom Zealots, giving the Unit Blocker! Then, he made the block, and took out an extremely powerful Unit by surprise!

Safety Override

Speaking of taking Units out by surprise, Safety Override created some of the biggest swings and most impactful turns seen across the Creator Invitational. Any time your Rival (assuming they have Yellow cards in their deck) leaves 2 Eddies up, you need to think extremely carefully about attacking into their spent Units or Blockers.

One Safety Override can completely flip the outcome of a Fight. In the tournament, we saw AIBO Academy pull off a brilliant sequence of Quick effects, first Calling Muamar Reyes: El Capitan to prevent his Unit from being defeated, then playing a Safety Override to take out the Attacking Unit instead. Even though his Unit survived thanks to Reyes' protection, it still technically lost the fight, so Safety Override still works in that scenario!

Animals Wrecker

10 is a pretty important number in Cyberpunk TCG. As soon as a Unit hits 10 Power, it will steal 2 Gigs from a Rival when it attacks instead of 1, effectively doubling its impact. While Animals Wrecker has no special abilities, its raw Power makes it an exceptional card in our Sealed format.

At a cost of just 6 Eddies, Animals Wrecker is simultaneously one of the best offensive and defensive Units you can play on your third turn. If you’re ahead, it threatens to steal multiple Gigs every turn. If you’re behind, it can force your Rival to pump the brakes a little and effectively “freeze the board”, where they simply stops attacking because anything they leave spent can immediately be cleanly defeated by the Animals Wrecker.

Adam Smasher: Ender of Legends

Our 16 players all took different directions with their deckbuilding. But one of the things they mostly agreed on was that any good Pre-release deck needs at least one Go Solo Legend. And among those, Adam Smasher: Ender of Legends was the most popular by far.

Going Solo is one of the best things players can do in the final turns of a Cyberpunk TCG game. It gives you an additional attacker to either steal Gigs or clear blockers, and Adam Smasher does that PLUS directly defeats a Rival Unit as soon as he’s played.

True to form, Adam Smasher is a real game-ender. If you’re lucky enough to open one in your Pre-release kit, there’s a very high chance you’ll want to include it as one of your three Legends.

Now that you know which cards to look out for, find a Pre-release event near you

Welcome to Night City Pre-release tournaments are happening around the world on the weekend of October 30. If you haven’t signed up for an event yet, check out our Store and Event locator to find one near you!