Over tha past couple of days, I have decided to go on a crusade for new players in UFS across our town in Colchester in order to make it so that there are more people to play with. Now, our meta is by no means small with 12-14 players regularly attending tournaments, but I want more, to be frank. My first idea to do this, is to play on the sad fact that people seem to enjoy themselves more when they are winning. Between the already existing players, the idea is to create 6 or 7 equally playable decks that new players can pick up and play. I am well aware that the demo decks exist, but from what I've seen of them, Tira and Mai always win, and the characters from the demo decks aren't the most recognisable from their respective games. Not only this, but the characters in them are all female, which not all people want to play as, and when you're playing casually, you'd prefer to play your facvourite character than the most powerful. I've also found that there is something almost dissatisfactory about playing cards with the word 'demo' scrawled across them. The idea I had was to choose one or two characters from each license that are easily recognisable, while being decent and easy to run with a budgeted deck (commons/uncomons most likely) which would allow those who do enjoy the decks they're playing to ask 'how can I get these cards and how much would it cost me to build a deck like this?' without thinking it's too expensive and walking off. To go along with this, I thought about holding a small side-tournament alongside a tournament that I am already running using these pre-built decks and inviting players to play in a fun tournament that would have it's own prize support (either sanctioned or from my own collection). This, I feel, would give new players a taste of competetive play and incentive in the form of prizes which will want people wanting more.

The first question I pose to you is which characters do you think would create such a far environment? If you could select one character from each licence for new players to play with (not too wordy, too complicated to run, but still playable) to play in this tournament. After that, I'd like to have help on constructing the decks they would be at the front of. I'm thinking simple damage pump, speed pump, vanilla attacks, draw and discard. This way all the complicated negation, reversal-ing, foundation war style of play wouldn't come into being. The decks would also need to be block 3, we don't want people coming up and saying "what do you mean I can't run this card?". The characters I've thought of so far are:

Street Fighter: Domination Ryu (simple use of momentum and draw power, and extremely recognisable)

Soul Calibur: Either Siegfried or Demo Tira (again, simple damage pump, and both recognisable)

King Of Fighters: Yuri or Promo Kyo (Yuri would appea to many players as characters like her and Sakura often do, and Kyo is one of the front men of KOF)

Samurai Shodown: Haohmaru or Yoshitora (Yoshitora wold cover the control characters urges, but Haohmaru is more simple to play)

Darkstalkers: I'm stuck on this one, a lot of characters for Realm Of Midnight are either complicated or overpowered.

And more questionably, Shadowar (all the promos are extremely powerful): Yi Shan (as he's more simple than the others)

Forgive me for being picky with this, but if I'm going to do something like this, I want it to be done correctly. I need help to do this, and if it is done correctly, I think it would be a very good way of picking up new players en masse. Even if after a while someone asks to buy the deck, I could sell it for 10 pounds or so, especially if it is only built out of commons, which means that they would have soething to start them off playing. I will probably send this as an email to FFG to see if I can get any help from them, whether it's through prize support or a well known player like Hata directly helping me with the decks themselves, but any help that you guys, the players, can help me with, would be very much appreciated, and this is all being done to improve the game and bring it back to it's former immense glory! Let the crusade begin!

Joe xx

*Ahem*

Soul Calibur: Siegfried, because not only is he relatively simple, he's another character that introduces how to use momentum gain.

KoF: Yur,: state for obvious reasons, also a simple damage pump character.

Samurai Showdown: ***Yoshitora*** is a really good starting character, I would personally go with him.

Shadowar: cause Yi-Shan won't want to make people not play the game.

Darkstalkers: This is easy, I can think of two characters. *Demitri* and *Rikuo* would both serve your purpose well in starting people off.

Neither of the two Darkstalkers characters you've mentioned are Block 3 though, like I said, I don't want people to start playing and then not be able to run their characters. So ideally, they need to be either Realm Of Midnight or an easy to acquire promo. The other suggestions I think you're probably right on. I did have another thought on Street Fighter though. What about Starter Sakura? She's powerful (although maybe a little bit too powerful) and is a starter deck, therefore easy to acquire. What do you think?

What are you spouting about now, Joe? (just kidding)

Hmm... characters that are fair yet easy and fun... **Dan** comes to mind, and I'm not joking. :*:Zangief:*: could also entice mill players to UFS,

As for DarkStalkers, I'd say **Anakaris** fits the slot with a simple speed boost and a simple damage boost, behind a wall of vitality. **Yang** is a faster version of this idea. **Jedah** could work here for players who like both aggro and control in one character. And **Hsien-Ko** is also a speed based character.

Sticking with the simple yet effective idea, *:::Mitsurugi:::* could be of good use. So could ::Raphael:: and possibly ::Setsuka:: and *:::Taki:::*. With King of Fighters, Possible candidates are *Jivatma*, ***Hanzo***, *Mignon*, ***Terry***, **B. Jenet**, ***Iori***, and **Kula**. ***Yumeji*** also springs to mind.

Just keeping things open for ya!

Morning Joe:

SF: Ryu - Makes sense, Ryu is iconic. Is the artwork a problem? It's not the greatest Ryu picture ever. If you want an alternative, ::M.Bison:: is a "boss", has one simple ability and has (arguably) cool looking art.

SC: Promo Tira is easy enough. Not convinced with Siegfried, seems not to be as simple as Tira. Alternatives, maybe .:Seong Mina:. (two easy abilities and demonstrates different hand sizes), or .:::Taki:::. who is simple. Also both Mina and Taki are recognisable SC staples.

KOF: Yuri works. The only major trap with her is as much as Yuri/Sakura encourage certain players, these types of characters can also sometimes put off other players.

As an alternative, either .:Terry:. or ::Terry:: are simple and iconic for SNK. Not too sold on Kyo, while he's recognisable, he always strikes me as a bit clunky, especially for new players to figure out.

Samurai Showdown: Both Haohmaru and Yoshitora work.

Don't know if this is a worry or not, but neither are shiney (being starter deck). For attracting new players, having one character not shiney and the others being shiney might be a downside. If this is the case, .:Galford:. is very recogniseable and simple. Kyoshiro is perhaps less recogniseable but is very different to Yuri/Ryu/Siegfried which may interest some players simply through being different. Also Kyoshiro has a different HS/Vit ratio which might demonstrate the different ratios in UFS.

Darkstalkers: Ouch, my love for Darkstalkers far exceeds the other licenses, but finding a beginner friendly one is a nightmare! The best three I can think of are promo Bishamon (who demonstrates Mill), promo Demitri (Vampire with great artwork) or promo Lillith (great artwork and simple ability). I'd base your DS character choice on your other choices. If you have too many male characters, go with lilith. If you have too many strange characters, don't go with Bishamon. If you need iconic from Darkstalkers, the main ones seem to be Demitri, Morrigan or Felicia.

Balanced lineup wise and looking at all the above, maybe?

Domination Ryu - FotB Seong Mina - KOF Terry - Cutting Edge Galford (shiney card) and Promo Lillith.

That way you have draw/momentum manip (Ryu), cycling (Mina), flexibility/regen (Terry), reversals (Galford) and mill/tap (Lilith). You also have 3x 6hs, 1x 5hs and 1x 7hs. Symbol-wise, you have a spread between these characters of Air, 2x All, 2x Chaos, Death, 2x Evil, 3x Good, Order, Void, 2x Water.

Street Fighter- ::Zangief:: I think would be good. Good damage pump ability, but not over powered, because of handsize.

Soul Calibur- Tira may be the best choice, but for some reason I feel Siegfried may be the best way to go. I just played that deck recently, and other than Lord of the Makai, you can make a pretty tier version of the deck for rather cheap.

Samurai Showdown- New Nakoruru. Even though I personally am not fond of her myself, she gives Speed boost, which could help show the importance of speed in the game, and also the importance of blocks.

KOF- KOF Terry. Life Gain is important. Terry's good at that. If he gets overpowered, make the street fighter character Vega Promo.

Darkstalkers- Huitzil or Anakaris could likely be construed as all right.

Shadowwar- Yi Shan is simple and pretty darn good.

quarzark said:

No, no, no no and no.

Yuri causes enough problems in terms of card interactions that she shouldn't be placed in anyone's hands.

Yeah, I also disagree with Yuri. She's a simple damage pump character, but I really wouldn't want to put Battle Prowess into a deck for people who don't know how to do control checks yet.

Adon-4 could work, he's relatively fragile but with well-supported symbols and a very easy to figure out ability [tell them to ignore the 2nd one lol] I'd go with an Air base, White Magic, Chinese Boxing, maybe uses Prova Dei Cervo + attack string to win?

I like Realm of Midnight Victor, his ability is simple enough and synergizes with the new Chaos split support we got. It wouldn't be quite as straightforward a deck as what you're talking about, but I have faith in people . Plus he looks cool.

If simplicity is a goal, Terry-3 is about as good as you're gonna get . Hit them and you gain life, and at the end of the turn you get some more cards to block with.

You could throw Talim-4 into the mix, and pit her against damage pump heavy decks. Basically introduce them to the back-and-forth of oofs. Talim can throw several fast attacks for medium damage, while her opponent tries to put one or two big haymakers into her jaw.

I like the idea of putting together a Morrigan deck for this kind of thing, just because the artwork is so awesome. Her ability isn't exceedingly helpful most of the time, but her stats and support are both good.

Night Terror would be a sweet "boss character" deck... It might be more difficult to balance against the others, but he could also benefit from the chaos splits from the new SNK set.

Wafflecopter said:

Plus, it teaches one of the fundamentals of UFS - paying attention to what your opponent is doing and what he has in his staging area.

Other options -

::Felicia:: - Lots of momentum easily, symbols are pretty easy to build decks off of. You don't need Feline Spike to play her. People also like cat girls.

::Talim:: - Her abilties aren't that complicated, and it's a pretty easy build. You don't even need rares in the deck if you want to build it aggressive only. People also like younger females... NOT LIKE THAT.

Soul Caliber - Raphael he has a good concept of how to work with speed pumps.

SNK - The new Sogetsu his card draw is great and his support combos really well .

Dark Stalkers- The new Felica is great with being able to show them aggressive aggro just dont use things like feline spike it might be a little too much .

Street Fighter- I think the new promo blanka would be good since he fuel his own ability between his form and his enhance so you can show them how to combo with characters 2 abilities.

Shadowar - Zi mei or YI shan both have great abilities and great symbols either way will be fun.

Street Fighter- Promo Guy. Helps teach speed boast and momentum control.

KoF- Air or Chaos Terry3. Simple abilities are simple.

Samurai Showdown- Haomaru or Maxima. Aggro and turtle characters.

Shadowar- Yi Shan

Darkstalkers- Viktor or Felcia

I think having two or three characters from each licence is a good way to go.

SF - You hit the nail on the head with this one. Domination Ryu is an exceptionally good character (highly underrated, imo). Other good options: Promo Alex, Cammy8, Chun-Li6, **Dan** Dhalsim4 or 6, Promo Gen, Promo Karin, M. Bison4, Yun2, and **Elena**.


Soul Calibur - Siegfried sounds like a bad idea to me, due to the complicated manner of the math for himself and his cards. Mitsurugi7 is a terrific idea, being extremely recognizable, as well as very simple to play (and still effective). Raphael4 is a solid speed pump option. Seong-Mina may not be the best 5HS option, because she doesn't really have a 5HS. Taki would work for aggro/draw, as well as Talim4 for speed. Demo Tira would work fine, too.

KOF - Chae works well here, Terry3 is an excellent option. Soiree is very strong, so I'm not sure he'd be such a good idea. Leona might be worth a shot, just like Yuri. Kim would work, too.

Shodown - Haohmaru and Yoshi are terrific ideas, and so is Galford. Rera2 would be good, as she has draw power as well as keeping people informed on those resource symbol. New Naks is a solid alternative to Galford, and more recognizable, too.

Darkstalkers - Promo Bishamon is a very good idea. Either of the block 3 Demitri cards would work well, one being a 5-hand aggression character, and the other being a non-ridiculous damage reducer and momentum generator. Jedah is a decent option for control (sort of). You may end up having to put Morrigan in there to appease people like me, who like to play as their favorite characters - Promo or Realm Morrigan would be a solid option. Promo Anakaris would be an interesting way to stir things up.

Shadowar - Yi Shan. Duh.

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=27&efcid=5&efidt=35716 -

Is my idea for a Terry ( mostly) uncommons/commons deck, Just thought i'd contribute something to thsi brilliant attempt at rallying forth some youngbloods.

Secondly whoever mentioned building a `boss` Night terror deck, this may not be so bad! The idea has potentail let taht be said.

My only concern would be the symbol spread and trying not to make it `too` difficult, if you undertand where i'm coming from.

Over the past few days, myself and my group of players have decided upon the characters to be used for this, and the first three decks have already been built. We've gone about doing this by building it primarily out of commons with a few select uncommons and 3 easy to acquire rares or foil commons/uncommons. Each character is built mono-resource and all done differently. So far, I've also made it so that there are no two cards the same in any deck in order to demonstrate the diversity that is available is UFS.

SF: Ryu built off Void with Double Mittwoch as the rare.

DS: Lilith built off Good with foil Primitive Instinct as her rare. (She demonstrates a 7HS character who integrates control and the possibility of mill)

SCIV: Seong Mi-Na built off Water with foil Checkmate as her rare (She demonstrates a playable 5 hs character who is easty to acquire and play)

KOF: Terry built off Air with Mark Of The Wolf as his rare.

SSV: Galford built off Evil with Imeru Shikite as his rare (We chose Galford over the two starter characters after Hewittzil made the good point of people liking shiny things more than non-shiny things)

SW: Yi Shan built off Earth with Superhuman Strength (as he's the lesser of many evils, no pun intended, of the Shadowar characters as far as I can see)

Ooooo how about a Seon-Mina loop deck with defender and LotM as the the rare? Thats an easy combo. Well Jonathan plays it; so it must be simple as.

/sarcasm

Seriously though, what you've put down seems reasonably solid, You need to throw in a few busty characters though, to appeal to certain gentlemen out there. Promo Morrigan does this, plus as mentioned above somewhere her mechanic is a simple one to start out on.

R.Fluxing said:

if it is the promo morigan with E: remove a card for - dmg she has horible artwork. horible.

I figured Lilith would be more applicable as with Morrigan's promo, she's really not fun to play against, and we already have a damage reduction character in the form of Yi Shan, so another would stale the meta a little bit. Also, the big busty girls for some reason don't get anywhere near as much attention as the slightly more.... modest of the girls in UFS, or at least in our meta they do. And besides, Seong Mi-Na's there for that.

Anyways, Ryu, Lilith and Seong Mi-Na have already been built up:

Ryu built off Void:

4 x Son Of A Tycoon

4 x Light On One’s Feet

4 x Saikyo-Ryu

3 x Aim High

4 x Red Cyclone Of Mother Russia

3 x A Samurai’s Life

3 x Mind Over Matter

4 x The Glare From The Abyss

3 x Moving On

4 x No Memories

3 x Siberian Training

3 x Shadow Acrobatics

3 x Double Mittwoch

4 x Ryu’s Denjin Hadoken

4 x Hurricane Punishment

4 x Hakkei

3 x Handstand Kick

Lilith built off Good:

4 x Nine Lives

4 x Lone Wolf

4 x The Harder They Fall

3 x The Voice Of The Land

4 x Savage Fighter

4 x Superlative Gymnast

3 x The Tae Kwon Doe Treasure

4 x Detached

3 x Holding Ground

3 x Narcissistic

3 x Primitive Instinct

3 x Tag Along

4 x Kim’s Neck Crunch Drop

4 x Swooper Kick

3 x Shadow Blade

4 x Soul Fist

4 x Ichi No Tachi

Seong Mi-Na built off Water:

4 x Soul Of Ling Sheng Su

4 x Quest For Vengeance

4 x Schoolgirl Innocence

4 x Natural Leader

4 x Rapid Ares Style

4 x British Subject

3 x Tool Of Destruction

3 x Chinese Boxing

3 x Rookie’s Fortune

3 x Hybrid Style

3 x Nafarious Deeds

3 x Natures Force

4 x Wingless Aeroplane

3 x Checkmate

4 x Omni-directional Cluster Bomb

4 x Dhalsim’s Crouching Roundhouse

3 x Rera Kisha Matek

So yeah, I put together a list for everyone's favorite winged incarnation of evil, Night Terror!

4x tsuji hayate +3M
4x monster lariat +2M
4x ichi no tachi +2M <multiple hate>
3x shadow blade +2M
15 attacks + 6 splits

3x primitive instinct +2L <foily!>
3 assets

2x no memories +3M
2x look inward
2x hulking brute +2H
3x refusal of power +1M
4x god of metal +2M <foily!>
4x instinctive sword swinging +2L
4x detached
4x free will <foily!>
4x trapped in a nightmare +3H
4x adoration +2M
4x huge wrestling army
4x irresistable +1H
41 foundations

Explanations:

There's a few reasons to use Night Terror over someone else. He will appeal to the more control-minded players, both through his foundation-destruction ability and his ability to negate other characters. His art is badass and shiny. And there are a number of counters to his abilities (although not so much the negation one), so the new players can get introduced to the world of silver bullets.

The attack lineup is basically meant to be synergistic with Night Terror's ability. Ichi No Tachi lets NT destroy any foundation his opponent has, even if he's trying to keep it by leaving it ready. Tsuji Hayate helps NT out when he's getting outbuilt by someone with bigger hand size or better draw power, and Shadow Blade does all kinds of awesome things [reversal chief among them]. Monster Lariat makes it possible to come back in the race for board position. The split attacks aren't very good as attacks, but they work in a pinch, and the flip sides have helpful abilities (RoP serving as a backup commit to let NT destroy things, PI helps keep you alive).

The foundation base only has 6 uncommons . No Memories, Hulking Brute and Look Inward are all only 2x because of their high difficulty (don't want a clogged hand!) and to prevent an NPE to an enhance- or speed-pump-based deck. Hulking Brute stays at 2 for the obvious reason, extra copies are utterly useless and the stats aren't too good. God of Metal, in addition to having an awesome name and pretty cool, is vital recursion and lets you introduce newbies to the unique logic of the UFS rules (as they stand). Instinctive Sword Swinging and Huge Wrestling Army both serve as easy fodder for Night Terror's ability, and have a cool mechanic anyway. Irresistable and Adoration both help get attacks to deal damage (and go to momentum for God of Metal to recur), and have great stats/blocks. Detached and Trapped in a Nightmare are disruption pieces, plain and simple. Free Will lets you grab Shadow Blades or blocks, as much as I dislike the card [2/5 no block that only works once to not-always get the card you need?] it's fine for this deck.

Thoughts?

Now actually Block 3 AND a legal size =D. I honestly couldn't find any rares to put in this deck [with the exception of Charismatic, which is too much a $$ card for me to consider. I sure wouldn't want to come up with 3x Charismatic every time I met an ex-Blue player who showed interest]

Comments on Joe's decks: Overall they look pretty good, have you tried testing them against one another yet? I'm particularly curious about how well the Ryu deck flows without any specific source of momentum (only dealing damage). Pairing him with Lilith is a good idea, since he can shut down her recursion by hiding her important cards on the bottom of the deck. I'd up Aim High to 4x [he needs all the momentum he can get], drop A Samurai's Life [he's got a pretty good set of options for card draw; it just seems a bit over-redundant], and maybe add The Power of the Shadows (Taki support, lets Ryu clear his pool for an attack string]. Attack-wise, Charlie's Fierce Punch is way too good to pass up, and Ryu's Denjin Hadoken is kinda nice for flavor but bland as an attack.

Lilith definitely looks to me like the strongest deck. Her E and handsize let her easily block to survive, and her damage pumps and attacks (Shadow Blade is ri-don-ku-lous) give her an edge on offense too.

Seong Mina looks pretty good, although she is the only one without a card draw ability [her abilities don't really "draw", they recur, while Lilith grabs cards she might've checked, Ryu draws cards period] and she's a little weighted down by 2ccs and harder foundations. The Bigger They Are would be fantastic, but maybe a bit overpowering (I can already hear "how do I beat through 34 life?"). I was thinking she could run 3x Sardine's Beach Special as her only 3ccs, and add 3x Human Weapon of Steel in place of the other throw. Schoolgirl Innocence could go out for Altered Mind and Body, although that card might be in there as much for name/art as effect.

i like the deck. i think joe is trying to keep the deck at 3 rares but other than that nice.

@ Wafflecopter: I'm trying to keep as much flavour in the decks as possible by having at least one card (preferably an attack which is obviously no longer possible with Lilith, so Primitive Instinct went in) that has the character in the artwork. I would have put Ryu's Shin Shoryuken, but people like to hoard those, so I don't want people wanting cards early on that they can't have. I did want something else that was well flavoured to replace Ryu's Hadoken, as it is a bit crappy, but Ryu's Roundhouse didn't seem like the greatest option. Also, I think you;re thinking of the other Lilith. This is the one that lightly mills while commiting her opponents foundations. Seong-Mina is monstly showing how throws work and how painful they can become, which is why cards like Wingless Aeroplane are in there to demonstarte that.

Also, as cool as Night Terror is, I'd rather not make my new players bawl over how powerful he is. I mean, geez, he makes me cry occasionally!

viewtiful joe, why is ryu built of void? that is his worst symbol. good has good (pun intended) momentum generation, and all has great momentum gen, but void only has white gi, which you don't include.

Void has both Aim High (which is in the deck) and Light-Hearted (which is just OK) for momentum generation. Plus, I think the deck is meant to be as basic as possible - huge momentum generation ability in it would lead to possible NPE of "OMG, how am I supposed to kill you with all those cards in your hand?" or something.

i realize the error of my ways. i haven't realy used aim high, so i forgot it's efect.

Just as an update to show people all over that this scheme IS indeed working. Over the past week, our meta in Colchester has managed to pull back in at least 6 people who played the game around Block 1 but stopped for whatever reason and have pulled in another 4 or 5 players who have never played in our group before.We've also had more people show interest on the pure reason that so many other people are playing it. This means that our (by no means tiny) meta of 14 has grown to around 24, which goes to show that if the effort is made, it can be done.

The people who used to play were actually pulled back in by the newest set. I showed them that this set had dragged the game away from walls of grey and one shot kills if you buikld the deck to stop them and that keywords like Punch, Kick etc actually started to matter again through things like American Made and Former Champion. Although the biggest way I've noticed to pull players in (this works especially well if you have a games venue where you see people playing games other than UFS) is just to simply say to them that it would be nice to have more people to play with and that they would be welcome in our group. We've gotten Yu-Gi-Oh players to start, Magic players and others who've never played a card game before, and it feels really good.

I've already gotten someone to handle the Terry deck and the Lilith decks, and I've been asked to make by various people to build them Yuri, Hugo, Alex, Night Terror, Ralf as they are characters who appeal to them. The Terry deck in particular is already starting to take down the people who regularly play! So now the help to build the decks I wanted to build for people has shifted to build the decks THEY want me to build for them. If everyone made this sort of effort, the game would be as big as it ever was, if not bigger, and thats through the price rise. Our local venue ordered 9 boxes of each of the new set over the past two weeks, and they're almost gone, which is really pleasing to see. So lets get it on!