Your trainee matters far less than the six cards backing her up. This Umamusume: Pretty Derby Support Card guide covers how the system actually works, which cards are worth building around in the current Grand Concert scenario, and how to put together a deck that produces winning runners. Here is what you need to know.

Why Support Cards Matter More Than Your Trainee Cards?

New players tend to focus on which Umamusume they are training, but that is rarely what decides a run. Trainees start with fairly similar base stats, and the gap between a 1 star and a 3 star Uma is smaller than you would expect. What actually wins races is your final stat spread, and that comes almost entirely from your support deck.

There is also a detail worth knowing early. Career mode gives every trainee a flat 400 point boost across all stats, which is why an Uma that dominated her career run can suddenly start losing races afterward. Every Uma gets that same padding, so it is not a shortcut, and it explains why raw stat building through your deck is what carries you outside Career mode.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby Support Card Tier List

How Support Decks Work in Umamusume: Pretty Derby?

Every deck is six cards. Five come from your own collection and one is a borrowed guest support, pulled either from trainers you follow or from a rotating pool of random players. That borrowed slot is effectively your most flexible card, since you can use it to cover whatever your account is missing.

Support cards come in three rarities:

• R (Rare), shown in silver
• SR (Super Rare), shown in gold
• SSR (Super Secret Rare), shown in rainbow

Cards are also sorted by which stat they train, covering Speed, Stamina, Power, Guts, and Wit. Two additional types exist outside that split. Pal cards, like Light Hello, are usually tied to a trainer or scenario, and Group cards run Recreation events involving several characters at once.

Duplicates let you Uncap a card, which the community calls Limit Break. You can uncap four times total, taking a card from LB0 to MLB. Each uncap raises the level ceiling and improves the card’s bonuses, so an MLB card is meaningfully stronger than a fresh copy.

How to Analyze Support Cards Properly?

This is where most players lose value. It is easy to look at rarity and stop there, but the Support Effects list is what actually decides whether a card earns its slot.

The effects worth checking closely are:

• Friendship Bonus, which multiplies training when you train with that card.
• Mood Effect, which increases how much your mood swings your results.
• Training Effectiveness, which boosts training output directly.
• Initial Friendship Gauge, which decides how quickly the card starts paying off.
• Flat starting stats also matter more than they look, since 20 free Speed early is roughly a free training session.

Specialty Priority tells you how often that card shows up on its matching facility. A card with 30 Specialty Priority appears in its stat’s training around a third of the time, which affects how reliably you can build around it.

For normal stat cards, Friendship Training only begins once your bond gauge reaches at least 80 and the card appears on its matching facility. That threshold is why fast bonding cards are so valuable, since they start multiplying your training earlier in the run.

Support Card Skills Matter the Most

Every support card carries its own skill list, and support decks are the main way your trainee learns skills that are not innate or inherited. If you never meaningfully train with a card, you never unlock its skills, and even then RNG decides whether the hint appears.

Skill lists are usually themed around the card character’s own racing identity. A card built around an End Closer offers End Closer skills, which are largely wasted on a Front Runner. This is why a slightly weaker card with the right skills can beat a statistically stronger card whose skills do nothing for your race plan.

Best Umamusume: Pretty Derby Support Cards for General Use

These cards work in almost any deck regardless of running style:

• Kitasan Black (Fire at My Heels) is the best all round Speed card. Very high Specialty Priority at MLB means constant Speed Friendship Training, and she carries Professor of Curvature plus strong energy and mood events.
• Super Creek (Piece of Mind) gives Swinging Maestro, still the best gold recovery skill in the game and usable by every running style. Aim for LB3 or higher.
• Fine Motion (Wave of Gratitude) fits any deck, brings high Training Effectiveness, and has a chain event with a guaranteed Practice Perfect option.
• Tazuna Hayakawa (Tracen Reception) is a Pal card with excellent energy and mood events, reduced failure rates, and Tail Held High plus Concentration.
• Biko Pegasus (Double Carrot Punch!) has very high Training Effectiveness, making it strong for boosting stats outside Speed training too.
• Maruzensky (Speed) gives 5% Training Effectiveness per level in its facility, which is a huge payoff for low investment.
• Narita Brian (Two Pieces) is an easy story card that gives Lone Wolf and solid Medium to Long skills.

Best Umamusume: Pretty Derby Support Cards by Running Style

Skills are themed around each card character’s own racing identity, so a card built for End Closers is largely wasted on a Front Runner.

Front Runner picks:

• Silence Suzuka (Beyond This Shining Moment) for Front Runner Savvy, Unrestrained, and Focus
• Twin Turbo (Turbo Booooost!) for Moxie plus Leader’s Pride and Taking the Lead
• Seiun Sky (Foolproof Plan) for Escape Artist, Dodging Danger, and Pace Chaser debuffs
• Smart Falcon (My Umadol Way! ☆) for Groundwork and Prudent Positioning
• Mihono Bourbon (The Ghost Finds Halloween Magic) for Taking the Lead

Pace Chaser picks:

• Special Week (The Setting Sun and Rising Stars) for blue recovery skills like Gourmand
• Mejiro McQueen (Your Team Ace) for Long focused recovery and Cooldown
• El Condor Pasa (Champion’s Passion) for Medium yellow skills, Killer Tunes, and Hawkeye
• Tokai Teio (Dream Big!) for Rushing Gale! and Pace Chaser Straightaways

Late Surger picks:

• Eishin Flash (5:00 a.m. Right on Schedule) for yellow skills plus Late Surger Straightaways and Corners
• Vodka (Wild Rider) for Slick Surge, Homestretch Haste, and Nimble Navigator
• Agnes Tachyon (Experimental Studies on Subject A) for Late Surger Savvy and Front Runner debuffs
• Grass Wonder (Fairest Fleur) for Late Surger Savvy, Furious Feat, and debuff coverage
• Manhattan Cafe (My Solo Drawn to Raindrop Drums) for Studious and Stamina Eater
• Nice Nature (Daring to Dream) for On Your Left! and 15% race bonus at max uncap

End Closer picks:

• Hishi Amazon (Reach to the Top!) for End Closer Savvy, Masterful Gambit, and Straightaway Spurt
• Narita Taishin (Poolside High Tides) for Lone Wolf and Intense Gaze
• Sweep Tosho (It’s All Mine!) for better stats than the SR version plus Straightaway Spurt
• Gold Ship (Breakaway Battleship) for End Closer Savvy and heavy Long distance yellow skills

Debuffer picks:

• Marvelous Sunday (A Marvelous ☆ Plan) for Hesitant Front Runners and Hesitant Pace Chasers
• Nice Nature (It’s Just Water) for Hesitant Late Surgers, Sharp Gaze, and Murmur
• Air Groove (Nothing Escapes the Vice Prez) for Hesitant and Flustered End Closers
• Rice Shower (Showered in Joy) for heavy Pace Chaser debuffs plus Adrenaline Rush

Rainbow Training and Deck Ratios in Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Rainbow Training is where decks pay off. Once a card’s friendship gauge maxes and it appears on its matching facility, training there gives enormous bonuses. Stack several maxed cards of the same stat into one session and those bonuses multiply, with late game Speed training capable of pushing past 100 points in a single turn.

This is why running six different card types looks balanced but performs badly. Spreading thin means weak Friendship Training everywhere and no Rainbow sessions. Cluster into two or three stats instead.

Early on, prioritize training spots holding two or more supports to build bonds quickly. Once Light Hello appears, any training with three Umas becomes your top priority.

How to Use Your Flex and Guest Slots

Your last card and your borrowed guest should fix whatever your deck cannot already handle. Assign them based on race distance:

• Sprint and Mile: extra Speed or Power, or a card carrying the distance and running style skills you need, assuming Stamina is already covered.
• Medium: Stamina if your growth rates, Sparks, and recovery skills do not cover the target track.
• Long: Stamina is usually the correct flex. If you already own a usable Light Hello, borrowing a strong Stamina card is often the cleanest fix.

Avoid spending these slots on a famous SSR that repeats something your deck already does well. A second premium Speed card does nothing for a Long racer who keeps running out of Stamina.

Support Deck Restrictions That Catch People Out

If a card will not select, check these rules before assuming something is broken:

• You cannot use a support card featuring the same character you are training.
• You cannot run two cards representing the same Umamusume in one deck, even if they are different cards or different types.
• You cannot select the same card twice.

These block otherwise strong picks, so confirm before planning a run around a specific borrow.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby Stat Targets Worth Hitting

Most trainees want 300 to 400 Wit so skills activate consistently. Aim for around 1200 in your primary stat, meaning Speed for Sprinters and Milers or Stamina for Middle and Long racers, then back it with Speed for longer races or Power for shorter ones.

For inheritance, hitting 600 in a stat improves your chances of generating a Spark for it after the career ends, which is a good secondary target.

Players can enjoy playing Umamusume: Pretty Derby on a bigger screen of their PC or Laptop via BlueStacks along with your keyboard and mouse.