Alright everyone there is a lot to cover this month, some bad news, some good. This month is very long with a lot of information to digest so make sure you read through it carefully. Lets get to it.

The CCG market has gone through a very rough time the past couple of years and it continues to be a difficult business for everyone, us included. We did a massive 3rd anniversary promotion that had a lot of stores sign up but sold very little product. While our sales are stable they are not where they used to be. During this difficult time we have looked at every aspect of the business and have made some difficult decisions.

First off we are not raising prices but we are making some changes. The most frequent feedback we received from retailers who participated in the anniversary event was that having two sets come out at the same time was too much product for them to bring in during hard economic times, we have been hearing this for a while now from stores and distributors.

So starting with the release of set 13 we are going to only release one set at a time, meaning that The Tekken set will release by itself and the SoulCalibur set that was scheduled to release with it will now be released 3 months later as set 14. This will also allow us to get back to releasing sets on time. Both sets are going off to the printer and I will post release dates very soon. We are working for a mid July release for set 13 but if it gets pushed into late July we will spoil/preview the entire set early July so that you can proxy cards and build test decks so that you know exactly what you need for World’s, we should know for sure by the end of this month. The pre release kit contains the following:

6 booster displays of Tekken

16 exclusive promo cards

in addition free of charge:

1 display of SoulCalibur: Soul Arena starter decks

1 display of SoulCalibur: Flash of Blades booster packs

1 display of Street Fighter: Dark Path Starter decks

1 display of SNK: Fortune & Glory Booster packs

1 display of Street Fighter: Domination booster packs

Thats right the stores pays for the six displays of Tekken and the rest is free. This is an amazing kit that should help stores grow their play groups with extra free product to use to run demos with, as extra prizes, run sealed deck events with or all of the above.

The other big change taking effect with this set is that we are dropping foil cards, even though sales are currently steady they are not where they used to be and the current print runs just do not justify the cost. I know that this will really piss some people off but it beats raising the price of the packs, like I said difficult decisions had to be made.

Ok there is the bad news. What are we going to do about it? That is where the good news comes in. We have several initiatives lined up to address problems and make the game more accessible to new players, bring back players who have left and of course make it even more exciting for the current players. The new pre release kit is a very good start, listed below are more

The first one address the other overwhelming piece of feedback we received from the anniversary event, which was that a lot of people wanted to get into the game but were overwhelmed with the amount of past sets they had to chase down to play. Looking at it you can see what they mean, if someone wanted to start playing with set 12 they would have to go back and buy cards from the last four releases (eight sets of cards, one of which is sold out!). With the set rotation we have there is never a good time for a player to start playing but it is also the best rotation block system that gives players the most chance to play with their cards in a standard environment before rotation. So what are we going to do about it? Introduce a new format to go alongside the current ones. Thats right standard and legacy will stay the same but on top of that we will also now offer a new player format, that I believe a lot of veteran players will also like. Currently we are calling it the mini block format ( I know the name needs work, give me suggestions).

This format will consist of the the current base set and the following three expansions. So new players can get into the game and be competitive without chasing the past years cards, then after playing for a year they will have all the cards they need for the standard format. Will this appeal to all veteran players? No but I have already talked to several who are excited about it. It went over really well at the POTM and has been a lot of fun in the current in house league. This will give us a very good entry point every year while not disrupting the standard environment.

The second initiative is an offer that is to good to refuse and should generate new players as well as excite the current player base. We have put together a new player recruit kit that is out of this world. It is called the Fight Night recruitment kit. It contains the following:

1 Display of SNK: Cutting Edge Boosters

1 Display of Street Fighter: Domination Starter decks

As well as all these promo cards:

2x Malicious Intent

2x Lynx Tail

2x Monster Lariat

2x Heel Snipe

2x Realm of Midnight

2x Stand Off

2x Hwang's Protection

2x Strife's Patronage

2x King of Fighters 2006

2x The Tae Kwon Do Zephr

2x Chinese Boxing

1x Blanka

1x M. Bison

1x Dariya (Exclusive)

1x Victor (Exclusive)

1x Ukyo

1x Rock Howard

1x Jubei (Exclusive)

1x Ken

Nearly $200 retail value for only $49.95. As you can see this is a great way for a new player to get into the game and I know that a lot of current players will want these too, just remember to use them to to help recruit new players. These kits are perfect for sealed deck events.

Tell your retailer to contact us if they want to offer this in their stores, if not you can order it direct from us on our online store. We will be making a front page announcement about it today.

Next bans, yes it is sadly time for me to bring out the ban hammer and smash the hell out of some problems with it. The following cards are banned starting July 1st, so yes they will be legal for Nationals:

Olcadan's Mentoring

Lord of the Makai

Chester's Backing

I know that no matter what we do when it comes to this people will be upset, meaning that any card we ban will make some players mad and others will be up in arms because we did not ban the card they hate the most but that is to be expected, so we have to do what we believe is the best for the game overall.

A lot of people have been asking about when the new reprints will be legal, Cursed Blood and Mark of the Beast were legal as of June 1st. Close Throw and Martial Arts Champion will be legal July 1st.

Now OP. Starting in October the Fight Life Championship series will start up with store championships. Every store that runs OP can run one of these a year. These events will have an exclusive promo card participation prize along with other cool stuff. This will lead into City Championship events which will begin early next year, which will also come with an exclusive promo card. The monthly tournament and league kits will get a complete overhaul starting in October resulting in one very robust kit that can be used for both tournaments and leagues.

I know this is a lot to digest but with all of the dramatic changes the industry has gone through the past couple of years these steps are necessary to make sure the game is healthy and strong so that we can keep enjoying it for years to come.

Wow, surprisingly, I'm not upset at the bannings. Sweet.

Also: first.

FFGSteve said:

Does these mean rares/URs are no longer foil? what about promos after this set? just no more foils in the game at all?

Also with the bannings, I have a feeling we are going to have another fun worlds of Evil dominance since these hit air more then anything and bitter rivals is even worse now since at least I used LOTM as a way around it.

i still think air will be very viable, order will still be nuts:

program malfunction, exp comb, chinese boxing, dormant for millions of years, blood runs true, psycho style, tenacious, spiral arrow.

i think order will win worlds. evil gets hurt bad with no chesters or birdman but it's good. and yes bout time air took a beating

steve i like the city champs idea, sounds schweeet, i want to pwn in dif states. will the scheduling of these be spread out for people to travel?

Time to maindeck Destiny in every deck that I can splash it for.

seriously still no chun-li.....i dont know what to say to that other then i guess she wont be as bad without those 3 cards maybe thats why they decided not to ban her because she just took a serious hit in power level

and im pretty sure bitter rivals wont get banned because its a common and accesible to everyone it doesnt make the game broken or anything its just really really good

I'm 100% for banning LOTM and the owl, Chester's to me should not have even been considered, but I'll live.

Also Yay for new tourney format.

Everything else im still trying to figure out

Boo on banning Chester's. There is so much other stuff that should have gone before that, if anything. But yay for only one set at a time!

FFGSteve said:

1) uh... ok how to say this and be nice about it... ok 1 set at a time = HORRIBLE decision; reason being, ok 4 sets a year and we have lemme count: SF(which is on hiatus for now), SNK, SC4, Tekken, Darkstalkers and Shadowar 6 licenses and we get 4 sets a year, that means 2 are gonna NOT get released, leading to a stale environment for those sets... this is by far the worst possible thing in this SOTG, if anything i would say base sets should be 3 Licenses then 2 for each expansion or 1 maybe, this was the WRONG move in my opinion.

2) I'm guessing that means outside of certain promos that have already been in print we are gonna get non-foiled promos from here on out... which i've got mixed feelings about if thats the case, yes it's good because i keep my cards in a cool/cold room and this will prevent the bending of the cards from the way my room's environment is, but still... the shinyness will be gone... meh...

3) Spot on on the bans to an extent, i do wish we would have gotten 1 card errata'd that being spike, maybe defender... but we cant get them all, at least now we no longer have to have 10 minutes added to each match thanks to Owlface any more. Chesters, never had a single problem with it, LOTM, yes please never let this of the banned list.

but i'm thinking my opinions wont matter in the long run, but it's at least worth a shot.

N.J.

City champs...I can use that....Oh and requesting different Boroughs in NYC are counted as different areas lol.

The bannings...the one card I hated in Olcadan's is gone, as for the others... don't matter to me, but I'm glad I had 5 Chester's out in the field with Lynette's one recent time . With Lord absent, it will be interesting to see what happens to other sources of momentum gen. I think Natural Leader at least will be played with. Evil, Air, and All are all still very good though! Death also just got better imo with this too!

Thank you for not raising prices again Steve, and I don't mind the one set per release (makes it easier to collect in school, where I have to compete against stubborn and poor YGO and Mtg players all the time), but we can't at least make Characters, Super Rares, OR promos foil? Ah well. If it can't be helped, can't be helped.

Also, thank you very much about the Tekken spoilers to prepare incase of a delay. This is still caring about the competitive enviornment's need to try to test decks all the while in this new player recruitment drive. And I'm once more, very appreciative of it.

tl;dr - Upset at the lack of OMG SHINY, Guilty Gear and Blazblue as usual, everything else is fine.

I'm really glad some of this has happened, one set per release makes its leaps and bounds easier to keep up with the current environment (especially if your a student)

The lack of foilies upsets me, but i guess i understand the reasons why, its just a sacrifice. Maybe we can get foily promos still??

The bans......YAY!!!!!!!!! owlface gone.....thank god/buddha/any other religious figure.

Overall.......i approve=]

Overall a good SotG, times are tough, and I think the non-foil decision is significantly better than another price rise. New style pre-release kit looks interesting too. This did pique my interest...

FFGSteve said:

Victor and Jubei are known characters, but who is Dariya? Is he/she a Tekken 6 character, or another Shadowar promo (the elusive missing one from the initial batch of 7 promos maybe?)

Wow, the bans hit cards that weren't on top of the threat meter (outside of Olcadan's). Spike and Spinta should have been banned or erratad. Chester's is an odd choice, but LOTM isn't a big loss. Olcadan's definately needed to go, so I'm happy there!

I actually like the one set at a time and the "mini-standard" idea as they make it easier to collect the game (this could lead to bigger sets...) and help new players out (we have one in our group who just started). The lack of foiling stinks, but I can live without it.

Very nice job Steve.

I do not see any "bad" news here. Keeping prices down and helping players afford to play the game while trying to expand is 'Good" news.

I would rather the art be good and not have foils. One set at a time is great, you may even look at 6 releases a year with them every other month. But that also might be a bit much. 4 sets a year would be awesome.

As for the bans. Would love to see two more things in that area.

1. Errata for "Butter" Rivals so it commits. Bitter Rivals is harsh and distructive to anyone trying to play aggro in this control meta.

2. Reprint Blood Runs True in Tekken as a rare to help get that card out to more people. Power Nine mentality is harsh too.

3. Can we ban Scott Gains, you know the player.

This is all in my opinion tho.

HK (Paul)

If i get banned, the legacy meta won't be the same, ban me in standard let me play in legacy

A very interesting STOG for June 09!

Bannings are cool, the LOTM being gone tones down all of the other cards people complain about (defender, spinta, spike, etc.)

Owl being gone is expected, but I don't know if a lot of people know how to play without him in their deck, and with Chester's gone, foundations are that much stronger (fewer direct answers).

Chesters gone, interesting... It is overpowered, no doubt about it. And it was a 'era' of broken stuff card. It also gave AIR a huge advantage that it maybe didn't need.

I think ALL and AIR get hit the hardest here. Any symbol that doesn't have a LOTM symbol benefits greatly from the bannings. EVIL is still strong without Chester's, albeit not as strong. I think ORDER momentum decks took a hit, but 'lock' order might be a bit stronger after the bans.

re: the change to formats, change in shininess, etc. Makes sense.

Oddly enough, even though people say sales are down we have a huge influx of players lately. Like our playgroup has gone for 6-8 to 12-14, and I'm sure we will have even more post-bans and release of kits.

- dut

HamanKahn said:

Ive been saying that since day one....reprinting the funnest cards or the harder to get ones in sets later on so that they stay in circulation and it helps designers not have to design as many cards at a time and keeps ideas fresh

it also keeps the game interesting and legacy cards usuable

I do like the Fight Night kit, kinda with CE starter displays were included so newer players could get BRTs easier, though the Domination ones are by far more balanced.

BRT only comes in the SNK Starter as the topper... I do not see than in the Fight Night kit.

But, I am about blind

HK (Paul)

Interesting SOTG. Its been a long time since I played UFS and I'm slowly getting my old group back together (finally got reapproved as Tournament Organizer/Scout). The mini-block sounds like a pretty good idea, it might help push my playgroup to stay up to date and get new players. My playgroup is pretty casual, and we've been playing since set1 so we're primarily running Legacy decks.

My Chaos/Death decks are all very excited by this SOTG. Since I did not own any of the banned cards, my wallet is happy, and I already knew about most of the other stuff.

As far as foilies are concerned? can we get a specification about that? No foils PERIOD? No foil UR/R in packs? No foil characters/promos?

All in all good stuff for the game. The only thing that slightly concerns me, and admittedly doesn't really become a concern until next rotation, is the smaller amount of characters in the format. With only 1 set every 3 months, and it being reduced to 4 characters a set I believe was said(correct me if I'm wrong), when we come to rotation next year we have 16 from this base set, +4 characters x3 sets is 28, plus whatever we get next base set and promos. So 36 + promos may not seem like a small number, but it's going to be a lot smaller of a pool of characters to choose from than we are used to, and Diversity may end up becoming a bigger issue.

Am I alone in this concern?

NJBrock22 said:

I wholeheartedly agree. With 6 licenses it was already bad that so many characters would have to be dropped from games with large rosters (soul calibur, SNKm and SF mostly). Lets face it, with only 4 sets a year now and each set holding at most 8-10 characters we're looking at 80% of the characters in each game being overlooked (meaning only the poster characters get in, ie: ryu, mitsurugi, taki, mai, chun-li, etc). It'll probably be a cold day in hell before I see another version of Talim (one of my favs). I was already noticing this with the addition of Tekken and Shadowar but I figured you'd still get a set of each lisence per rotation with promo versions of the characters to fill it out, but now I'm not so sure.

The loss of foil cards is pretty annoying when you consider that half the prize support will now be pointless (league kits). The only reason why they were made was to have foil versions of common/uncommon cards and provide a nifty thank-you to players that didn't require the design of a new card. Granted I hated the bendiness of the cards like anyone else, but it was a necessary evil for the cool job they did on a lot of the foils.

Lastly, the bannings. I have to say that this disappoints me the most. Bitter rivals, feline spike, chun-li, defender, and Ira-spinta are causing no end of problems in the environment and they opt to choose Lord of the Makai to ban? Seriosuly, it's just a slightly altered whereabouts uknown and that wasn't griped about. Hell I though wherebouts was worse because of the speed. Nothing sucked worse than seeing a fully multipled crinimal uppercut turn 2, except maybe a powerful 6 tsunami saber on turn 2 as well. Plus the number of good alternatives to momentum gain have been pretty slim. Sure there's natural leader, but what about chaos? The one symbol that has lived off of momentum from day 1 of the game is being outdone by water...

Chesters? Not really sure why this was the source of so much ire. It was a SoC that only targeted foundations and could easily be baited using chinese boxing, program malfunction, and so many other cards (plus cancelled by Prominant noblewoman) that I almost don't think it was worth running in a lot of decks. Certainly things like Yoga Mastery were MUCH worse offenders back in the day, yet nothing was done about that.

Olcadan's? Here's the one card I agreed on. Way too good for a 0/6 asset that only a handful of people managed to get.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who saw this STOG and saw nothing good in it. As of right now I'm debating whether or not the game is worth playing anymore. After supporting the game for the whole 3 years of it being in print, buying well over 20,000 cards from 50+ boxes, and going so far to become a scout for my area to help develop the game I wonder if it's worth it to keep on playing. I saw the releases of set 12 as a huge step in the right direction but now it seems that it's gone a few giant leaps back and I can't say I'm enthusiastic or hopeful about the future of the game.

Honestly, with times as tough as these I was already conisdering getting out of the game. Now it's looking more and more certain.

Dreco said:

Not at all sir. I do have a concern as well, but I'm waiting to see how that bridge is crossed in the future when it becomes an issue.

Dreco said:

Dreco said:

Although I'm not 100% sure of the actual number, currently how many characters are actually played in tournaments out of the current available roster?

As long as the reduced number of characters are all playable (or at least the inevitable discrepancies are down to a minimal level), it shouldn't affect diversity too much.

For reference, Raw Deal traditionally had far less characters per set than UFS and used the diversity system. While diversity did happen, the smaller character pool (when compared to the UFS character pool) was never really a factor.

The example I always use for characters and the diversity system is one of the Worlds tournaments for Warlord ccg (I think it was Worlds 2003). The top 16 decks at the time contained 7 decks fronted by one character, and 8 decks fronted by another character, plus 1 random.

In UFS terms, imagine a top 16 consisting of 8 Chun Li's, 7 Donovan's and 1 Kula.