Yo coming back from the prerelease and looking at the new characters I have to say in my opinion these three out of the females stand out:

Promo Nakaruru V2 : Cause look at that **** enhance E: If your attack as a reversal deals damage destroy one of your opponents foundations. They had the nerve to give her water with all of Sesuka's support out there.

Elena: Ok kinda spicy cause she has only two symbols but look at her second enhance E: discard 1 momentum. your attack gains a keyword ablility(your choice) if it doesn't already have one (except throw). If the keyword requires a rating it is 1. Only playable if your character has at least three symbols. Are you kidding me you give her access to SOC and she's a beast with spinning beat.

R. Mika: Nuff Said i,m sorry her off of water says people will be waiting for you outside in the parking lot wanting to fight.

Your thought on this ?

Hugo

6Hs 40Vtitality

All the ways to stop Tag Along/Inhuman Perception

Built in obscene damage pump

Has All, and it's it's card draw and life gain.

Hugo owns your soul. That is all

Don't forget Elena has 3 E's, and that those spinning beats will also come at +2 dmg, +1 speed. Not bad for just free E's. Right now, I'm looking at fire/good attacks, because Warrior Princess will give her the 3rd symbol she needs for her third E. Oh, and don't forget about Father Bull with Ruru. That, along with A Means of Self Defense and her own E means 3 foundations tapped, and 2 destroyed off one reversal.

I think most of the characters are really decent and playable, but also agree that Hugo will break ahead and just get fat off hate.

Ralf...

nuff Said

Balrog got paid, y'all.

Paid.

My picks are :

Hugo

Chun Li

Nightmare Geese looks like he could be very good. I mean be pretty much says your opponent checks a 3. He also shares two symbols with Galactica Phantom, which with his ability gives it an almost auto +8 damage.

While I agree that the new Chun-Li is definitely a step in the right direction, she is most competitive with an arsenal of incredibly expensive and/or hard to acquire cards. Hugo is a beast, and I think he's definitely the one to watch, because he can throw down with mostly commons and uncommons...

My not-so-obvious sleeper choice is Kim, because of his *free* damage pump, and overall damage/speed potential. Good is slowly morphing into an unholy combination of Fire and Water, with solid speed/damage pumps, and a host of nasty reversals. Kim may be the one to bring Good into the top tier.

My calls for this are Remmy Chun-Li Hugo and Nakaru be the ones to go with the most. All have solid abilities. Elena gets an honorable mention I think there is potential there but just take a bit more work than the others to really hash out. But thats just my take on it.

Not M. Bison I tell you that much!

After reviewing all of the candidates, I'd say that the following characters have the greatest potential mostly based on their inherent qualities:

Elena- Yeah, the combination of her three (low-costed/restricted) abilities, 7HS, and 20Vit make her a aggressive competitor in the right hands.

Hugo- 40Vit with rather advantageous abilities should turn him into a foretress before he gets below 20Vit, which he can then gain back. He would have to play lots of foundations (at least 40) to avoid getting his 4HS clogged with non-foundations, or else he would need to play draw/recursion tech.

Ralf- I can easily see 20 attack decks with really low difficulty spam foundations. The part that I really like about Ralf is that he grabs his attacks back at the end of his turn, which he can use as blocks on his opponent's turn.

Sogetsu- his discard enhance, whose cost can usually be minimized to only one (free-ish) Tide Token, is quite beefy. I really like that the new discard effects allow us to discard our opponent's cards on their turn, which easily comprimises and deters their non-lethal attack strings by providing you with an opening to attack on your following turn.

Having said that, lots of the new characters have potential in more limited yet easily deducted and created circumstances. Still, I miss the plethora of radical characters from the first Block. Some of them carried over to the second Block. I feel as though the new trend of cards will constrict the format to a point that is less enjoyable than my "original" format (started playing at SF04), but James' handiwork is definitely an appreciable improvement over recent sets. This shift really breaks down to more rewards for more technical play, but it also creates a noticeable and arguably measurable divide in player skill... and so expands my perception of new vs. old UFS. Cards need to rock my world-- that is all.

ctr2yellowbird said:

Quoted for a strange combination of truth and disagreement.

This really sums up the new set well, it does seem more technical and really is an improvement of what's gone before.

I'm not sure I agree that the characters aren't radical though. For me, the characters and their mechanics are the most unique they've been since Darkstalkers base set (mill, burn, opponent's deck manipulation, etc).

I'd put this set up with the best of the best of the UFS sets so far.

Some characters such as Chun Li and Mika allow attacks in opponents turns.

some characters introduce new or little used mechanics such as Basara and Alex.

Some change the normal character format such as two-symbol Elena.

Tokens have come into their own with Sogetsu, Kazuki and Hawk.

Going back to the thread topics as to who will be the top characters:

Huge'o - As mentioned for every reason mentioned so far. 6/40 with draw, manipulation and pump.

Chun Li - Because attacking in opponents turns is really strong. Chun Li will be break through just so long as her 20 Vit can support this super-aggro strategy.

That's the two of them for me. The others are good and very playable (I've already built Mika and want to build either Basara, Guile or Remmy), but these are the two that I think may have what it takes to hang with the best of the best.

Chun-Li will be the top character from the new sets, as she has 8 other Chun-Lis to back her up. No other character in the game has that many. Not even Ryu, we may be on Ryu9, but they haven't released Ryu8.

Fanboyism aside, I do think like everyone else that Chun-Li will be a strong contender alongside Elena, Hugo and Remy. Honourable mention goes to Ralf and Kim, Ralf for having re-useable attacks, Kim for having Dread Carnival's E on his character card. I think Sogetsu will be a good control character when combined with Seong Mi-Na's draw/recursion cards.

tuggs said:

Just because she might need some high money cards to be busted doesnt mean she wont see play go back and see how a ibuki or alex deck costed back this season . I think she is the one to watch for she might take OTK to the next level i guess regionals will be exciting !!

Chun- Li

Easily the best char from these sets.

Hugo will be interesting and could cause a bit of a scene on the scene.

Chun Li is huge. I mean HUGE (and not just her legs) with the symbols, hand size, and 2 first digit health ^^ in block 3...

I agree that Hugo is nice. Problem is the 4 handsize, even if it 'becomes 6', it won't always become 6. And hey, 6. 6 with cards in the pool may or may not be competitive???

Definately an interesting set though, there are some really weird (see new and exciting) techs that are going to be prevalent in block 3. That is, these techs will exist and only see play if they are supported by 'i can live through early feline spikes and even earlier infinte loops (see Hanzo)' as the main tech...

And. I would like to second what MegaGeese has already pointed out, and the character that may just sneak by as a top contender and very very mean dude. BALROG might 'get paid'

To sum up the best character in the set... is the 'character' at FFG that decidedly did not put stupid life gain or obviously broken cards into the set or it's promos (I love the promos, share symbols with Lord of the Maki, but aren't so free you feel like you stole a win like Lord of the Maki). Yay for vast improvements!!!

- dut

I'm just going on record here as saying I dont think hugo is all that like everyone is worried about. we all know how bad 4 HS can be in reality and lets face it, Alex is probably alot worse with a base 6 hand size +2/3 every turn. lower life is easliy made up by access to rejection.

As far as my thoughts on ALL of the characters:

SF:

-Alex
Man o man. Alex is once again a tanking behemoth. This time around, though, he gets a new mechanic that has plenty of support and will be VERY nasty when properly built. His cards make playing things easier and gives them damage pumps while clearing the card pool of the very spammable attacks he has access to. EWWWWWWW. I'm already not looking forward to Shelby beating my face with it (and knowing him, he WILL).


-Balrog
I've been wanting a good, playable Balrog for a while. Once I played Capcom vs. SNK, I became a believer - he's one of my favorite SF characters (along with Sagat, Ken, Guile, and Yun). The new promo was the first "good" Balrog I've seen, and this new one breaks the five handsize barrier with an EXCELLENT symbol spread (he matches at least one symbol with at leat half the cards across both sets!) and very solid abilities and possibilities - I can't wait to push a Monster Lariat through, F with Sting Like a Bee, and proceed to play out 6-7 foundations on turn two. Not to mention Crazy Buffalo's very nice setup, being a 10 damage attack at 7 difficulty (assuming you have 1 punch before it in the pool). The Powerful was just icing on the cake. I fully intend to play him as one of my "serious" characters - he might be making an appearance at the GCC.


-Chun-Li
Pretty much covered already. Not a big fan of her art (not that that's a big surprise - I think I've only liked the second promo's art). She's the most obviously good character of the sets, and will undoubtedly see plenty of play. Watch out for Feline Spikes on your turn...


-Dhalsim
A total sleeper. Decent stats with a weird symbol setup. He has access to negation and discard, as well as some of the moe interesting Death cards like Float a Brick, Ichi no Tachi, etc. Matches two symbols with Soiree's suite of readying tech, meaning he can speed pump his stuff, then ready it for further abuse. And when people start switching numbers on, say, Ryu's Shin Shoryuken, before OR after he's given the attack +5 or more speed...yeah...


-Elena
HA. Elena is stupidly good. She reminds me of promo Adon's +1s - not much on their own, but they REALLY start to add up. Playing Fire/Good attacks means they get a free +1/+2...and there's plenty of useful Fire/Good attacks. Barring that, we all know +1 to every attack she plays will get annoying quickly (Melancholic Mercurius as an example). The other ability requires an extra symbol...but when you can just toss on Seal of Cessation (like you weren't already playing it...) to get it, and give your random attack Stun or Multiple, good times are ahead. The artwork is also good - and I don't like Elena.


-Guile
Guile is one of the other Street Fighter characters I fully intend to explore. He's always had Order, once again has Air, and also gains Void - a VERY good symbol mix for the types of things I like to do. Where he shines, though, is his ability to build while defending himself. Playing out Olcadan's, Assassination Arts, BRT, whatever, as a block, and then bringing it down is very, very powerful. Being able to block with committed foundations is also very helpful. I really like this character. A LOT. Shelby saw his text and the first comment he made was that "he seems like [my] type of character".

(doesn't hurt that I'm a Guile fan, though)


-Hugo
What's so bad about a 6/40?

Sarcasm, of course. Hugo's a hoss. Odd symbol arrangement means there's not a lot of linking going on, but he doesn't really need it - he's a 6/40 with a very cheap and effective damage pump built in. Imagine how bad he'll be playing out Float a Brick into another Brick into, like, Ichi no Tachi, then failing the block with BRT. With only a self-pump and being at max vitality, you're looking at 10, 20, and then 28 damage, for a total of 58. And did I mention he can discard your hand with TWOP?


-M. Bison
Who says characters with good symbols and stats has to have good abilities? If that first ability said "...negate that Enhance, and no more...", then he'd be pretty darn viable. But it doesn't. And he's not. He's the very definition of a sandbag character - he'll be fronting all kinds of Zi Mei and Balrog decks at the very least. Take THAT, diversity!


-R. Mika
Ew. Some people say she and Chun-Li are the best of the lot. I give the edge to Mika. The ability to play a Darkness Blade (example) before taking damage from Random Attack X, tapping out their staging area, and then playing out Feline Spike as a Reversal (because you partial'd the attack!) is going to be used a lot. Ew. Good stats and a VERY good symbol spread again spell top contender. And did I mention she has access to committal, discard, lifegain, Rejection looping, and card draw?


-Remy
Another sleeper. Built in "free" commit power and foundation destruction with good stats and a solid (though unusual) symbol spread mean he is going to have a lot going for him...especially since EVERYONE plays multiple copies of their foundations. One of his support cards, though, is far nastier than he is - Omega Jacket. Think about it.


-T. Hawk
A good Hawk?! Le gasp! Free damage pump that can get kinda stupid, alongside a beefy 6/30 and good symbols. He gets access to discard and negation, as well as other forms of damage pump, lifegain, and a little draw power. Very nice.





-Basara
Wow. I like Basara. He's much better than his original version which, while possessing good abilities, was an auto-loss due to 6/21 (those are terrible and you know it!). This one has solid stats, good symbols that give him access to negation, damage pumps, discard, and solid attacks, and two VERY playable abilities. One is a combination of discard, momentum control, burn, and vitality gain lockdown. The other is friggin' **Cassandra** all over again (albeit somewhat toned down)- and I approve of this most highly =D

An excellent character, and one to absolutely watch out for - he's going to be like *Donovan*, I think - a character just waiting for someone to bust him.


-Billy
I think the word I'm looking for is...underwhelming. Honestly, I can't think of a single use for his First F, and I've been racking my brains for one. Why? Because his stats are very good - a 6/28 is good enough, but with Air, Chaos, and Water, three of the "top tier" symbols of Block 3, the sky would be the limit if he had some way to use that First F. His E, while costly, is still fairly decent - one of the few methods of attack recursion available (and it can fetch the ubiquitous Feline Spike). I think the tipping point is the word "First" on that F...if it was a regular ol' F, o Lord would I be able to break that!


-Gaira
Eh. Anyone who thinks they can turtle behind **Bishamon** to mill the opponent will probably lose to him. Other than that...yeah...he's based solely on what the opponent does to you. Not a good start. A decent 5/36, and a pretty good symbol mix, though, might help a bit...but probably not much.


-Geese (I refuse to call him by THAT name)
OHO, and well met! Finally a VERY good Geese! His original Rare was pretty good, just ahead of his time (he's actually a very good character at the moment, given how people play decks with such low attack counts - good luck passing that Feline Spike, sucker!). Anyway. This one features another of his fun control check abilities...this time at a mere 2 foundation committal cost. He screws with Visions of Destiny, and decks in general - he's not very different from the old one. As someone else has opined, "He might as well read 'this control check becomes a 3'". People play decks with high control values to help pass those high difficulty kill cards, which themselves have lower checks. As such, he's going to be a very nice tech character, I think. He's got GREAT symbols (three of the best in the block) and solid symbols to back him up. Best of all? He can run iSpin and stuff your opponent's staging area (read: high control cards) into their momentum for his ability =D

Very nice. Again, I pln on playing him seriously.


-Kazuki
Eh...really? He'll gain tokens like mad, of course, but beyond that, he's underwhelming. Having Fire and Order means those attacks are going to hurt a LOT, though, since he can play out both Ready for Anything and Personal Style. Wait until you start getting hit with 3 speed 10 damage Mega Spikes turn two...he seems like a good choice for "weeny aggro", kind of like Set 10 Mitsurugi. Good stats and symbol allotment, and it helps that he's 5'7" - a very good height for whoring out The Bigger They Are.


-Kim
They finally made Kim! I'm so happy I could cry! Unusual symbol spread is backed by good stats (note that height again!), a very nice free enhance (a slightly toned down Yi-Shan), and as was previously mentioned, a Dread Carnival enhance as well, and you've got a great character. It's worth noting that there are several good Kicks available at the moment for Block 3 (including the very underrated Soul-Piette). He just needs a Kick with a Multiple rating and he'll be off to the races.


-Nakoruru
Hm, where have I seen this before...?

Face it - she's going to destroy your foundations. If there's one thing she has access to, it's Reversals. Shadow Blade, Yugao, Soul Fist, Soul-Piette, the list goes on. And that's not including her own new SR that doesn't require a block to play. It's Magic Shop all over again. But you were packing answers to Olcadan's anyway, right? Anyway, solid stats and symbol distribution, but she unfortunately matches two symbols with Rejection and Gorgeous Team, as well as one with Hybrid Style, meaning you're going to be getting hit with those Reversals a LOT...


-Ralf
He's very solid, period. Solid stats, very good symbols, and the ability to beast you over and over (or using those attacks as blocks) means you're in for a rough ride. He's kinda like Seong-Mina, except only for attacks. He lets me play iSpin every turn, too! Hooray!

Second ability is also very nice, though a little situational (since not everyone is going to play momentum shenanigans). Don't forget to use that ability once they get two momentum!


-Rock
Hey, not bad! Great symbols, good stats (and height!), and the ability to make blocking multiple attacks (Multiple attacks or not) easier makes a nice package. I rather like the ability to block with a 2-difficulty foundation, and then give my check for my next block +2 while also clearing the card pool, making that block (and subsequent Reversal) easier to play at the same time. The speed reduction would be really good if you were to stack **Rock**, but that requires you to have one and for him to be...y'know, legal. Another character I see myself playing, but in a different and (for me) new way - you don't build a deck around him, per se, you simply have a character with abilities that will generally be useful in every game, regardless of how your own deck is setup to win the game. That is, he's equally good for heavy-handed Order control like iSpin and Experienced Combatant, as well as Defender loops, or evern building to Neo Raging Storm or Personal Style shenanigans. Hard to explain, I suppose. I really wish he'd had some support for Ranged attacks (see his actual support cards) printed on him, but you can't have everything, can you?


-Sogetsu
Sogetsu is hax. Period. He is the most under-the-radar overpowered characters in the set, period. Commit two foundations to A)draw a card, B) recur an attack from your momentum (iSpin again!), and add a token to him for C) free discard. On top of that, he's got 30 vitality (wow), and, possibly most importantly, that free discard ability reveals the opponent's hand. Factor in some of his support, and you've got a character who was MADE to abuse the crap out of Personal Style (think about it). An excellent symbol spread, which gives him access to a crapton of card draw, as well as some negation and discard, along with commit effects...yeah. Another of my serious play stable members.


-Terry
Someone mentioned playing out Neo Deadly Rave with that ability. Ew. Old boy has access to lots of fun toys, as he has very nice symbols. He also has discard (or BRT), which is unforunate, since no-one really cares about attack speed when their opponent has nothing in their hand. Also has a nice 6/28. Thank goodness he has to discard for that ability...




Worth noting is that EVERY character in the sets has access to at least 1 answer to Olcadan's.

IMO - Basara, Dhalsim, Elena, Chun-Li, and MAYBE Sogetsu with his support are Standouts from this set. The problem that I see is that, apart from Chun-Li and Elena, the characters are underwhelming when compared to the other B3 Characters available at the moment. Basara may prove to be up there eventually.

Chunny is most likely at the top of the list, purely because of her ability to keep the opponent on defense. The fact that she has the potential to kill on the opponent's turn, after they have already clogged their cardpool, is definitely the reason to run her. Her symbols are great, and her stats are decent. TWoP definitely works overtime for Chun.

Elena brings back something we haven't seen in quite a while. Pure Aggro. She is definitely reminiscent of Adon, and if eveyone can remember how fast you could die back then, hopefully Elena can do it just as big. We will definitely see some tricks with her, but I think we will eventually see a pure rush deck rise to the forefront, utilizing ONLY the first two enhances. I'm a bit scared of her potential but at the same time, it is definitely an archtype I want to see in the competitive scene.

Dhalsim can create some crazy attacks, but in all honesty, I don't see it as a very suitable effect with all the mitigation running around. The switch would have been more powerful if it was Impossible Contortion's Character Enhance, but since you have to actually play the asset to get the benefit, I would much rather go with the Promo Dhalsim.

Sogetsu is a strange one. He definitely makes up for the 5 Handsize pretty easily with both his ability, and his awesome support. I would love to see what I can do with him in the future but right now I really don't think I have the drive or the finances to build him properly.

Basara is quite a challenge. I think he has great potential, which is pretty obvious. It will take some effort to come up with the best utility to create some type of synergy between his effects, his new mechanic, and the definition of his symbols. I think I may have found my new project, but I am still up in the air on how viable he can really be. The biggest problem will definitely be the handsize. He definitely has abilities that could work with todays meta, but there is quite a big sacrifice. The first ability definitely can be advantageous since it works so well with the current environment. It is an ability we have seen before, as was stated by MGeese.

I will come back to this a little later. I'm going out to get lunch.

I don't know why every forgots about all those other AoPs we got. Just look at Elena's support. If you play the void seal you can do some crazy stuff. Only have one attack and Spinning Beat? No problem, just throw it out and make it multiple. Still got 2 momentum? How about giving that Spinning Beat another multiple. Sure you are using a three check for a mediorce asset, but I think it will pay off in the end.

Also, Chun-Li is too stupid to not be the best. Mr. Olexa's version is ridiculous at the very least. Unless you can throw a spike very early you are going to get spiked with two cards in your card pool and it is going to hurt.

Well the thing about the other AoP and Elena is that it does work, but is it fast enough to win? It is great casual play stuff as far as I can tell, but time will tell if it is fast enough to compete. I'm thinking that its way too slow and inconsistent to be on the top seed.