How does a pre-release in UFS work? It does not seem like a limited type of game...is there a standard way to do a pre-release for UFS.

With Tekken looming on the horizon how will it work? Do people get like a precon and maybe a couple packs? Is there a universal way to do these...do they even have them?

I look forward to the new set any idea when it will be out?

Pre-releases are done with just booster packs. Each player gets six packs to build a deck. Some rules are changed for pre-releases:

1. Symbol matching in the cardpool is ignored.

2. If you don't pull a character card in your packs, use a card with the symbols you want to play off of and that's your character (no ability) with a 6 hand size and 25 vitality.

3. You only remove five cards when you cycle.

4. The minimum card count in a deck is reduced to 30.

5. You may play any card in your hand face down in your card pool as a 2/5 foundation with no abilities.

Other than that the set up and flow is like any other standard tournament.

I would just the TO because its pretty loose from my experence. Honestly With the way the decks are set up right now our last pre release was a starter and 3 boosters and we just played standard rules for deck constuction and it felt perfect.

Bringer of the Black Dawn said:

Actually for #2 it's a 30 vitality character. And for #5 it's a 3 difficulty foundation. Also anything that isn't in your main deck is considered in your side deck.

Base sets that come out once a year are usually run with a starter and 2 or 3 boosters (and usually when you play this way you ingore rule #1) and non base sets are usually run with 5 or 6 packs per person. The next sets coming out won't have starters. But it's really up to the store owner/scout on how you want to run it, but these are the main guide lines.

With base sets you get a starter and 3 packs. Sets with no starters you get 6 packs. Some places require you to match a symbol with your character on cards you play but don't make you follow chains, but I hate doing that since it makes it less fun, so during my prereleases I just tell my players to ignore symbols. If you don't pull a character, you're given a Universal Fighter who is 6/30 with no abilities, though nowadays some places who don't have any more of those in stock will have you use a foundation, the stats are up to the scout iirc. There's a 60 card minimum when starters are involved, 40 when they aren't. Cycle 10 when starters are involved, 5 when they aren't. As BotBD said, you may play any card in your hand face down in your card pool as a 2/5 foundation with no abilities, though most places I've seen have it as a 3/5. Scouts can decide if their players should ignore chara only abilities or not, and after all that it's played out like a regular tournament.

Actually for #2 it's a 30 vitality character. And for #5 it's a 3 difficulty foundation. Also anything that isn't in your main deck is considered in your side deck.

Base sets that come out once a year are usually run with a starter and 2 or 3 boosters (and usually when you play this way you ingore rule #1) and non base sets are usually run with 5 or 6 packs per person. The next sets coming out won't have starters. But it's really up to the store owner/scout on how you want to run it, but these are the main guide lines.

Sorry, it's been a while since playing a prerelease and I guess I got some numbers screwed up.

However, I've never played a base set prerelease with starters, I've only ever played with packs so I wouldn't have known that it was done any other way.

Actually , there are no standard or official rules for limited play, actually .

When doing Sealed Deck (Starter + 3 boosters, 40-card deck minimum), I do a 5-card cycle rule. With newer sets, you can keep the resource rule intact as is. (With older sets, I recommend modifying it to "Resources in the card pool must match your character but not necessarily each other.")

When doing Sealed Booster (6 packs, 30-card deck minimum), I do a 3-card cycle rule, which I think is much more appropriate for the smaller decks. Modify the resource rule to "Resources in the card pool must match your character but not necessarily each other."

When doing Draft (5 boosters, or 6 boosters if you prefer, 30-card deck minimum) I do a 3-card cycle rule. With newer sets, keep the resource rule intact. (With older sets, you can modify it to the "Resources in the card pool must match your character but not necessarily each other," though I don't know if I'd recommend it.) Otherwise it just becomes "grab the best card in the pack," which is dumb. Also, allow players to pocket a Godpack if they open one, and immediately purchase an additional pack to replace it in draft.

As far as Universal Fighter (for Draft of Sealed Booster) goes, I prefer this:

If you use the Universal Fighter as your character, it is a 6-HS, 30-vit. character with no text in the text box and ONE resource symbol (chosen by you at the beginning of each game, when you reveal Universal Fighter as your starting character). You can use any card you opened/drafted, face-down as the Universal Fighter. Sleeving it to distinguish it from your momentum is preferable. These stats are taken from the Universal Fighter promo card, which was printed a long time ago.

To add some flexibility to Draft or Sealed Booster, I also allow a Foundation Character rule:

You may reveal any foundation in your deck as your starting character. That foundation is considered to be a 6-HS, 25-vit. character with a blank text box and ALL RESOURCE SYMBOLS printed on the card. It should be sleeved to distinguish it from actual foundations.

The lower vitality is to keep this option from being strictly better than the Universal Fighter (who has only one resource symbol).

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As ShadowDragon mentioned, some places now do a 60-card minimum in Sealed Deck (with Starters). This is really a recent development, because the Set 12 Starters are actually well-put-together decks. 60-card decks were terrible with the old sets.

As ShadowDragon said, if you make 60 cards the minimum, the cycling rule should be the usual 10 cards removed, just like Constructed play.

Both options are worse than most actual printed character cards, but in Sealed Booster or Draft, there's no guarantee you'll have an actual printed character card. (Universal Fighter and Foundation Character should not be available for Sealed Deck, as the Starter provides a character.)

One rule I've implemented that's a bit of a middle ground to the "no symbol matching in card pool required" and the standard format is that you assume that your character has the infinity symbol as well as their normal symbols. This allows you to potentially play any card without having it be too powerful (Playing cards off-symbol is hard but doable still) plus it doesn't dilute your choices by either forcing you to play the Universal Fighter or a character you don't like due to the symbols he has. I did this in the Recent pre-release as well as the 3rd anniversary sealed event and it met with success in both cases.