Greetings everybody. I haven't really written or contributed anything to the community in a while, so I thought that I'd toss together my opinions on the new sets and get to posting

This is my ranking of characters from each set, attempting to take their support and the current meta game in mind.

Warrior's Dream

1) Hugo: Being essentially a 6 Handsize, 40 Vitality character with access to mass amounts of soak and some FANTASTIC attacks in this set (Earth), a solid range of control cards (Death), and Recursion/Card draw/MOAR Control (All). Hugo is going to be a nightmare to deal with. Remember when I said that Silent Step was going to take over the meta for a while and it did before Havoc introduced the monstrosity that essentially got Promo Hugo banned? Yeah, this Hugo has a Mini-step built in….

2) Balrog: Ridiculous stats, amazing abilities, and an incredible symbol spread. What else is there to really say? We've never had a character that can nullify blocks before, but with Vision's of Destiny Balrog is going to be doing it no problem. Then after he nulls your block he'll just BRT the one after that. Good luck taking him down before he +4Punches your face into the ground.

3) R. Mika: Mika and Chun Li are very similar in the respect that they can play the ever so formidable Feline Spike on the opponents turn at almost no effort (and not having to Reverse with it). I chose to give the edge to Mika because she's got a built in Battle Disc System (and we got a 5 check attack in High Tide), her R is playable while committed, and I feel she has a better "big" attack in Sardine's Beach Special. Chun-li has the better stats and arguably the better symbol spread (having Air instead of Earth), but with how diverse the symbols are becoming I do not think it's going to matter as much.

4) Chun Li: See Mika

5) Remy: Punish the opponent for playing multiple copies and benefit from the same idea? Sounds great, but Remy truly sits above the other characters left on this list for the ridiculous round of offensive support he brought Death. Rising Rage Flash is 6 damage off zone, Supreme Rising with Remy is 10 raw for 5 (lead into it with Rising Rage?) and Lost a Sister gives +5 damage. hHs Action gives Death a bit of card draw. Death salutes you Remy.

6) M.Bison: M. Bison clocks in at number five due to his amazing symbol spread and a solid backing of foundation/asset support (and his attack lineup isn't too shabby either). While I don't expect people to play Bison as a character, his foundations are going to see play every where (Mini-Addes!) and his attacks could find their home as tech positions.

7) Elena: Behind Balrog, probably the best aggro character in the set, and she sits this high up on the list because she's different from every other character. She encourages the use of various Assets of Power to crank up her third ability (or give her a wider range for her other abilities), and her support gives her some good attacks but otherwise generic or narrow foundations focused pretty much on Elena. Another problem with Elena is that the back support for her is kinda limited (Mignon's stuff is essentially it) so she will be confined to her own cards, or forced to get clunky with her deck, until more support drops.

8) Dhalsim: Water on Dhalsim? Certainly an odd choice, especially since he focuses on Speed and none of his symbols really have anything to do with Speed. His attacks are kinda techish, but where he really shines is his asset. Non unique Idyllic Kamui Kotan? Dhalsim (Whether this one or the Promo) is probably going to cause a lot of head aches.

9) Guile: Good symbols, decent ability, decent support, but being a defensive combat tricks character in nature is going to knock Guile down a couple points on this list. He's great because you can hack an attack with Blood Runs True then use Guile's enhance to BLOCK with that same BRT (then move it down with his static ability), but if you're looking to do something like that, you should honestly just run Victor and abuse Reanimated.

10) Alex: He certainly brings something new to the game doesn't he? Could be abusive with multiples (Feline Spike/Lunar Slash/Spinning Beat) but I think the risk you take is not quite worth the pay off. You'll spend so much on the gas to setup the next turn for all his effects, and you may find yourself unable to capitalize. Alex looks incredibly fun as a casual character, and I'll certainly be building him to give him a few spins. FFG: DO NOT LET THIS MECHANIC DIE. There are dozens of things you can do with face down cards, and Alex is a toe in the water of possibilities.

11) T.Hawk: A step in the right direction for people wanting to play a Tokens oriented game, but I don't think it's quite there yet. Great stats mean nothing when it's going to take forever to get your offense off the ground. With how many Tokens characters we had this combined set (3) you'd have thought there'd have been a bit of a overarching backbone to support the three of them and speed their game up (while encouraging synergy between the three) but there's nothing there.

Now it’s time for a best of!

Best Asset: Shadaloo Crime Syndicate. Here because it’s best ability is not character specific (as opposed to amazing effects for some character only). Perhaps the destroy was a bit costy, but it’s not unique and sniping a Chester’s Backing after running a gauntlet of BRT’s is incredibly satisfying.

Best Action: Flashy Leg Work. I might be a bit biased because I’m an Elena fanboy (drool), but the speed boost on this card can reach absolutely disgusting levels of HUEG which opens up some silly interactions with cards such as Cobra Blow’s action side or a Tradition of Fighting as Elena. Honorable mention goes to Power of the Light for having a good block, a good split, and the potential for absolutely ridiculous card draw.

Best Foundation for a control player: Charismatic, hands down. Taking the place of Addes, this card will be a 3-4 of in every control deck. There are plenty of ways to protect it from Olcadon’s so the unique stamp doesn’t hurt that much. Honorable mention to Marksman for dealing with things before you ever have to actually deal with them

Best Foundation for an aggro player: Lost a Sister. +5 damage is nothing to scoff at. Honorable mention to Former Champion, because after a round of punches, your Chaos character gets those punches back for another go! Know what else Punches tend to have? Blocks!

Best “Finisher”: Spinning Beat. Hard to pull off, but absolutely worth it when you do.

Best “Mid Range” attack: Rising Rage Flash. 6 damage for 5 difficulty. Three check, block, solid enhance ability. This card will staple itself into probably every deck that can run it.

Best Poke/Utility attack: There are honestly too many excellent cards to give this award to right away. This is THE SET for poke/utility attacks, so here’s my top five in no particular order.

Hakkei, Dash Low, Air Stampede, Yoko Sen Kyaku, Hand Stand Kick.

Closing Thoughts: This is a good set, with things for both fanboys and competitive players. I feel that they fibbed a bit when they claimed that every card is playable, but I feel that well over 75% of the set is worth giving a go. Hugo worries me a bit, but otherwise there is nothing in this set to complain about.

Hugo is slightly worrying, certainly, but I love the new Chun-Li. She certainly gives Hugo a headache while he's filling his own card pool up with foundations.Being Spike'd or Lunar Slashed or Kuzuryu Reppa'd on your own turn when your card pools full is not the most pleasant of things. I would put her slightly above Mika for no other reason than the fact that she doesn't have to wait for her opponent to attack her to get the most out of her effects. Although thats not to say that Mika is far behind. After having played against her in the Aldershot pre-release, I can tell you for sure that she's an irritating witch who you need to be very careful of.

I wouldn't have put T. Hawk on the bottom of the list. I'm personally not all that keen on M. Bison's new character card. Although I do think that his support is really rather good, I think now that his support is there, that M. Bison:: will see more play. T. Hawk is surprisingly powerful if you play him correctly. He won our pre-release in Colchester, and did really rather well in Aldershot too. I'd say that Thunderclap is reason enough to at least give him a try. I think his spport got the duff end of the deal though (Ancestor Spirits? Really?)

Supreme Rising Rage Flash and Omega Jacket are enough to make me want to play Remy alone. It helps that he has awesome effects on his character card and access to a lot of committal cards like Manifest Destiny. I like his support like Lost A Sister and, again, Supreme Flash, as they've given Death a very needed damage pump system. Power Of The Light is pretty darn awesome too.

I never thought I'd see the day where Balrog would be considered to be the most powerful of the 4 Grand Masters, but yet, here we are, with this new version being superior to Vega, M. Bison and even Sagat. His Visions Of Destiny combo worries me a lttle, especially when paired up with the nastiness that is Crazy Buffalo: ...

Alex, to me, is both the most interesting and the least interesting character in the set. Personally, I would never run him, but I'm waiting for the point where he gets cracked. Times Square, Chop and Boomerang Raid all scream ABUSE ME to me. I won't be the person to break him, but I think it will happen. I also like how, in the most bizaree of ways, he's made starter Rock Howard REMOTELY playable.

Elena, is the character I've decided to build (purely because I have 2 Spinning Beats and only one Hoyoko-Sen and Alex (Squall14) wants to build Chun-Li too. She's the closest thing in terms of quick damage pumps there is to Adon:. and can end up being more abusable. playing 4 Warrior Princess, Seal Of Cessation (and Flashy Leg Work if you're stuck) means that you should be able to play out the second abbility at least on every attack. My attack lineup is Beast Hurricane, Lynx Tail, Wind Storm, Ichi No Tachi and Spinning Beat. Playing Seal of Cessation alone gets me the Death E on Spinning Beat and the 2 resource ability on Ichi No Tachi, making it a 4M5 with no effort whatsoever. And besides, anyone who can make Spinning Beat have Feline Spike's stats with a 3 check is decent in my books In short, I'm loving Elena almost as much as Chun-Li

Loving the sets, in general. I think they've brought a lot to the table that wasn't there before. I also think that some dark horses are going to show up where they hadn't before. Don't count out Alex and T. Hawk just yet. I think they might surprise you

I am digging the card Hulking Brute. It gives Earth some actual card draw that it desperatly needed to make up for all thr 5 and 6 handsizers. I can see my self using it in an Astaroth deck. play a foundation draw 2, play an attk astaroth enhance.

Sadly none of the cards in the set could make me retract my statement that adopted is the most broken card evar.. but you had it right, the set (ignoring hugo) is fairly balanced and the vast majority of it is at a vast level.

Oh by the way, Hai arch!

I have to say this set has so many nice things in it. I personaly think that the new Chun-Li is the best to her date. The ability to disrupt turns with attacks or just play out needed foundations before your first turn...awesome. Her with some card draw and card pool clear total awesome just have to figure it all out now.