I'm new to the game of UFS and just started buying a few booster packs but the problem is that the place where I buy my booster packs from only has a limited selection of them (mostly the older booster packs, but pretty cheap) So before I start buying more boosters to create a deck I wanted to know which packs would give me the best value for my money? Also I'm a fan of Soul Calibur (Siegfried, Nightmare, Yun Seong & Taki) and DarkStalkers (Felicia, Talbain, & Morrigan) So which packs would benefit those characters the most I guess?

The boosters that my local comic book shop carries are:

-Flash of the blades

-DarkStalkers

-Fight For The Future

-Fortune And Glory

-Higher Calibur

-Extreme Rivals

-Blades Of Fury

-The Next Level

-Soul Calibur III

Any suggestions would be appreciated

- Thanks in advance

Welcome to the land of casual UFS!

Its a crazy one. Because many UFS players (that I know) are tournament fairing players. Though that's slowly beginning to shift. ... What am I talking about? Why formats of TCGs!

Presently the Standard Legal format is what we play for most of the tournaments, including 'the big ones' at the big conventions and at stores for mad prizes * (note: Though technically the format for local tournaments is up to the tournament organizer).

Standard format, right now, and for a while, includes everything that's been printed from 2009 and on. This includes Shadowar, Soul Calibur IV, and Tekken6 (you won't know what Shadowar is... just keep reading). You may ask, "why so few sets? Do they make illegal for Standard tournaments all sets prior to a year?". Good question. This year was a total reset, but along with it, 1.) tournament organizer freedom to run wahtever format they want 2.) a change of prize support 3.) the next time the standard format is going to begin excluding ANY sets will be after Gencon of 2011.

The cards your local store has, for cheap, are older UFS cards, from the games long history. If no one cares about the 'standard' format, you have a LOT of cards to go through...

I recommend some online card searching database... however, all of the characters you have detailed are rather... different. And they each have a few versions and have multiple symbols on them...

I recommend buying some packs from the set that a character comes from, and then from there, looking up some sets main symbols on an online card database. Try http://www.twoheadeddragon.com/ufs/index.html that has a list of most of the game's history. You can search by symbol and pretty much everything. It will be updated with newer cards soon enough.

Game on. Hope that was usful!

Thanks for the heads up on the different formats of play, had no idea about that. I guess I'm more of a casual format player as right now its only me, a friend of mine and one of my neighbours who are getting into the game. But hopefully I'll get more into the standard format once I learn more about the game. Also the link you gave was very helpful in looking for/ matching the symbols to cards. Well I guess now I know why the cards were so cheap then...since they're pretty old...=/

Yeah, but don't be afraid! I think there's a new resurgance in "playing with old stuff" and honestly, many local tournament organizers don't mind that players show up with older cards. 1.) they'll either lend you a deck, or let you play in the tournaments anyhow 2.) give you a ton of cards that are 'standard legal'.

Either way, the game is good. Its a bit intense at times, and it may seem... really really unfair (back in those days Chain throw loops. lol woo!), but for as much broke jank there is in one area, there is usually another broke jank counter (sometimes in one really easily accesible and popular card(s)).