Hay I'm chris, I'm from the UK and have recently made the decision to come back to playing UFS after almost a year

I was once fairly active, playing in the patch tournaments and UK national events=] sadly exams and a new job got in my way but now college is done with and work is balanced i thought I would come back.

I noticed block rotation happened in April so it seems like a good time to start fresh, what i would really like is for someone to direct me to an article or fill me in with information about what major things have happened in the last 10 months or so, what new play styles are around, what major deck types are causing trouble=]

I used to play damage reduction/ sort of GOOD control.

thanks guys, i hope not alot has changed because i remember this community being a good one=]

Well we still mostly bicker about the game being broken, but that's been going on since day 1 with yoga mastery, and void control...

Feline Spike, Ira Spinta, Blood Runs True, Chun Li are popular. Olcadon's Mentoring, Chester's Backing...

Many are running Zi Mei with some of those new nightmare attacks...

Omar is trying to exhaust with a deck type still... IDK... just read tournament reports to get an idea of what's being played right now.

With a few exceptions (Zi Mei, Akuma, some forms of Chun-Li, Jon Herr) the top level meta is basically dominated by various forms of the 3-7 attack control deck. Pretty much the same spot it was at a year ago, except that instead of every such deck using CSS, now they can work in any number of ways - Spiral Arrow lock, Hanzo Kick loop, just-kill-with-FelineSpike, Deadly Ground or some other mill, Ira Spinta lock, and a couple others.

Whoah, dude, are you from Wales? Is there much of a Welsh scene anymore? It would be sweet if it were revived, I only live an hour away and some tourneys would be SWEEEEET!!

Good time to restart, the game is heading more towards the aggro, although control is still very very strong. I'd look at the two latest sets (particularly SCIV) as this has some great attacks in it that will get you up and competitive fast! As fer characters, depends on what you like to play: aggro has Zi Mei and Chun-Li (although she has plenty of control!), Akuma has CC haxx, Donovan has ridiculous card draw and lock downs, and Hanzo has the loop of doom!!

Um I'm not sure, me and my mates used to play in cardiff games, did you guys come down from swindon once????

Ahh that's good=] From what i have been reading not alot has changed from when i properly packed in the game, which is kind of good to hear as i don't have to buy crazy new cards=]

it depends on what you mean by not needing the new sets if you like control and like slow exhausting games then no you dont need any of the two new sets althought there are some hot tech cards like torn hero that good(the symbol) just need.

but mostly the new sets are about bringing back aggro and balancing the game out if you still have cutting edge and domintation stuff you should be pretty good though

That's great thanks=]

I think i'm going to check out all the cards in the new sets and see what's going on, i'll probably buy a box or something.

Yer cutting edge and domination are the sets i went out on=]

Yeah, best bet (for future viability) would be to invest in the newest stuff, being SCIV or Shadowar. Rather interestingly and frustratingly compatable with Dom and Cut Edge...

If you were into Good control, you might really like the new Lu Chen off any of his symbols. He specializes in reversals, and in filling the opponent's card pool with cards from their hand or staging area. The ones from the staging area return to the staging area committed, so it's like a much better version of stun (though it usually only works if the attack in question does damage).