Best Cards from Cookie Run: Braverse — Brave Beginning

Brave Beginning is where the English game started. It's the first Cookie Run: Braverse booster in English - it bundles two card-number waves, BS1 and BS2, which the official card database dates to October 30, 2024 - and it reached U.S. retail on July 11, 2025 (the game itself first launched in Korea in September 2023). The core mechanics - the five colors, the break area, support resources, FLIP cards - are all here from the start. Which means two things at once: a lot of it has been gently power-crept by the sets that followed, and a handful of these cards are still quietly excellent because they did something timeless on a clean stat line.

This is a set review of the booster, not a "best in the game" list - we're ranking the standouts from Brave Beginning specifically, the ones still worth owning whether you're a player or a collector. Costs, HP, and skill text below are quoted off the official card database. The {R}/{Y}/{G}/{B}/{P} symbols are each color's resource, {N} is any color, "Mix" means you can pay with any colors, and a number after an attack is its damage. New to the game? Read the five colors explained first, then come back.

What Brave Beginning is

Brave Beginning is the foundational booster - the set that taught the game its vocabulary. It's where the five colors first got their identities: Red's aggression, Yellow's healing and recursion, Green's support-stacking, Blue's card flow and bounce, Purple's removal and trash payoffs. The headline cards are its seven Ultra Rares - two each in Blue and Purple, one each in Red, Yellow and Green - and they're where most of the lasting playable value sits.

Because it's the first set, the power level is honest. There are no Beasts, no Ancients-as-a-tribe, no Dragon cycle yet; those came later. What Brave Beginning has instead is a set of clean, format-defining role-players - a 4-damage Blue bomb, a Purple board wipe, a couple of removal Cookies - that still slot into modern decks because their effects never got worse. That's the lens for this review: not nostalgia, but which Brave Beginning cards a 2026 deck would still run.

How we ranked these

Same discipline as our overall card ranking: raw effect impact (what the card does, read off the official text), how well it has aged against everything printed since, and how playable it still is in a current deck rather than how splashy it looked at launch. A card that was a launch-day chase but does nothing a newer common can't ranks below a quiet role-player that still earns its slot. As always, this is our read, not an official ranking - and none of these cards is banned or limited in the official card database.

1. Sea Fairy Cookie (Blue)

Sea Fairy is the best card in the set because she does the two things Blue most wants - tempo removal and a hard hit - on one efficient body. The BS2-029 printing (Blue, Ultra Rare, 5 HP) has a mob skill: discard 1 card, then select a LV.2-or-lower Cookie from your battle area and return it to your hand. That bounce reads as defensive, but the way you actually use it is offensive tempo - reset an opponent's developing threat, or pick up your own Cookie to re-trigger an On Play. Then her attack just deals 4, which is a top-end number off a single-color body.

Five HP, a 4-damage swing, and a repeatable bounce that messes with the opponent's curve every turn: that's a card that would be playable if it were printed today, let alone in the first set. Blue is the value-and-tempo color, and Sea Fairy is the cleanest expression of it in Brave Beginning. She's the Brave Beginning card I'd most want to open.

2. Poison Mushroom Cookie (Purple)

Poison Mushroom is the set's board wipe, and board wipes age well. The BS2-055 printing (Purple, Ultra Rare, 5 HP) has a skill that, for {P}, places all LV.2-or-lower Cookies from both battle areas into the trash - a one-sided-ish sweep that erases the entire early game. Against a go-wide deck built on cheap LV.1 and LV.2 Cookies, that's a reset button that buys you the whole midgame. Her attack deals 3 off three resources, so she's not dead weight after the wipe either.

The catch is right there in the text: it clears both battle areas, so you sequence it to land when your board is light and theirs is heavy. In a Purple control deck that wants to grind into the late game off removal and trash payoffs, a 5-HP sweeper that also swings for 3 is exactly the kind of inevitability the color is built around. It ranks second only because it's narrower than Sea Fairy - it's a punish-aggro tool that's awkward in the mirror against other control decks. When the matchup is right, it's the best card in the set.

3. Wind Archer Cookie (Purple)

Wind Archer is the set's premium spot-removal, and the other half of Brave Beginning's strong Purple core. The BS2-058 printing (Purple, Ultra Rare, 5 HP) has a skill that for {P} places an opposing LV.3 Cookie into the trash - and LV.3 Cookies are the biggest, most expensive threats on the board, so this kills exactly what Poison Mushroom's sweep can't reach. Between the two, a Purple deck answers the small stuff (Poison Mushroom) and the big stuff (Wind Archer) with two Ultra Rares from the same set.

His attack is the trash-payoff flourish that defines Purple: deals 4, then if there are 15+ cards in your trash, deals 1 more. Off a four-resource cost that's a 5-damage swing in the late game, when your trash is naturally stocked. A 5-HP body that point-removes the opponent's best Cookie and then hits for up to 5 is a genuine finisher. He's third behind the wipe only because targeted LV.3 removal is slightly more situational than a board sweep - but in a control mirror, Wind Archer is the better of the two.

4. Timekeeper Cookie (Yellow)

Timekeeper is the break-area Ultra Rare, and the most Yellow card in the set - it plays with the game's loss clock rather than just trading bodies. You lose when the Cookies in your break area add up to LV.10 or more, so the break area is effectively your life total. The BS1-037 printing (Yellow, Ultra Rare, 5 HP) has a skill: discard 1 card and pay {Y}{Y} to select a LV.2-or-lower Cookie from your own break area and place it in the trash - which takes up to two levels off your own break-area total, the closest thing Braverse has to gaining life. Its attack deals 3, then for {Y} places an opposing LV.1 Cookie straight into their break area - removal that skips the damage step and pushes their break-area total up at the same time.

That pairing is the spicy part: one half rewinds your own clock, the other advances theirs, on the same 5-HP body. It's a clock-management piece, not a beater, which is why it's fourth - but in a Yellow deck that wants to survive a long game, a card that both undoes your losses and snipes a small Cookie still earns its slot.

5. Roguefort Cookie (Green)

Roguefort is the set's engine card - the one that doesn't win games but makes the rest of your deck run smoother, which is precisely what Green wants. The BS1-053 printing (Green, Ultra Rare, but only 2 HP) has a mob skill: for {G}, if you have 6 or fewer cards in hand, return a support card to your hand, then bank the top card of your deck into your support area as rested. Your support area stays the same size (one card out, one card in), so the net effect is an extra card in hand every turn - the slow, grinding advantage Green decks are built on.

The body is the problem and the reason he ranks fifth: 2 HP dies to almost anything, and his attack only deals 1, so he's a pure support piece you have to protect. But a recurring card-advantage engine on a LV.1 Green body is genuinely good plumbing, and Green's whole identity is winning the long game off a stocked support area. Roguefort is the BS1 card that makes a Green deck consistent - it just needs the rest of the deck to do the killing.

The rest of the honor roll

Not everything that's still playable cracks the top five. A few more Brave Beginning cards earn a mention:

The pattern across the honor roll: Blue and Purple got the deepest playable benches in Brave Beginning, Red got clean beaters, and Yellow got utility. Green outside Roguefort is mostly support glue - fine, but rarely a chase.

GingerBrave: the mascot tax

You can't review the first set without GingerBrave (BS1-014, Red, Ultra Rare). He's the franchise mascot, and for a lot of collectors he's the card they want most out of Brave Beginning. He's also, mechanically, a 2-HP body whose skill pumps himself +1 attack for {R}{R} and whose attack deals 2. That's a fine early aggressive Cookie and a fun nod to the source material - but he is not a top-five competitive card, and it's worth being honest about that on a set-review.

So treat GingerBrave as two different cards depending on why you're buying. As a collector, he's the heart of the set and arguably its single most desirable pull. As a player, he's a curve-filler aggressive body that the better Red cards (and later sets) outclass. Both things are true at once, and a good set review says so instead of pretending the mascot is secretly the best card.

Is Brave Beginning worth buying now

Honest answer: as a player, you don't chase sealed Brave Beginning in 2026 - the format has moved on, and the handful of cards you want from it (Sea Fairy, the Purple removal package, Timekeeper) are a known, short list you can target as singles instead of gambling on old packs. As a collector, it's the opposite: it's the first English set, and GingerBrave and the original Ultra Rares are its foundational cards - the kind of first-set cards collectors tend to want.

The smart play for most people is singles. Pick up Sea Fairy and the two Purple Ultra Rares (Poison Mushroom, Wind Archer) if you're building Blue or Purple control, grab Roguefort if you're on Green, and buy GingerBrave because you want him on the shelf, not because he'll win you games. For how these slot into real decks, see our deck-building basics and deck archetypes guides.

Quick Action Checklist

• Brave Beginning (BS1/BS2) is the first English booster - in U.S. retail since July 11, 2025, with the five colors, the break area, support resources and FLIP all in place.
• Sea Fairy (Blue) is the best card in the set - 5 HP, a 4-damage attack, and a repeatable bounce. Still playable today.
• Poison Mushroom (Purple) is the board wipe - clears every LV.2-or-lower Cookie from both sides. The anti-aggro reset.
• Wind Archer (Purple) is the premium spot-removal - trashes an opposing LV.3 and swings for up to 5 with a stocked trash.
• Timekeeper (Yellow) is the break-area piece - trashes a small Cookie from your own break area to lower your total, and its attack sends an opposing LV.1 straight to their break area.
• Roguefort (Green) is the engine - an extra card in hand every turn, but a fragile 2-HP body to protect.
• GingerBrave is the collector's card, not the competitive one - the mascot and the heart of the set, but outclassed as a player.
• Buy singles, not sealed - the playable Brave Beginning cards are a short list you can target directly; chase sealed packs only for the collectible value.