I'm not sure wether this is the right section to ask this but, what do the resources do?

yes, I know the resourse linking rules, that's not the question I'm intending to ask. I simply mean, for example, how is a generic life card different from a generic chaos card?

the resources signify a certain quality, and a characters ability to use a given card.

take a samurai fighter. proficient with swords. useless with nunchaku.

the same in this game, the resources you play signify the character has access to a certain set of abilities - and that they can't play certain cards because it's out of their scope of training.

as far as a certain resource against another? it's flavor for the most part. life cards deal with vitality and speed, and chaos are more random, with multiples, momentum management, etc.

There isnt really any difference between the symbols except for the general idea of what they do...

Simply some symbols get different game mechanics like water and good get reversals, chaos on the other hand gets alot of the momentum generation, mountain gets alot of damage buffs or damage reduction etc.....

but as far that the symbols on the cards go there only there for purposes of chaining symbols to reduce the amount of cards one person can play by making him/her choose resources to run off of

Da_ghetto_gamer said:

now that's what I was trying to ask. what gets what?

It's hard to summarize what a resource does specifically because every card ever printed has anywhere from 1 to 6 of them, and also considering that block rotation hits in a month so some resources will lose some of their old tricks and possibly gain new ones.

This is how it used to be.

Air - Attack spam, momentum generation, speed pump, foundation readying

All - Card draw, some discard, life gain

Chaos - Momentum generation, momentum draw, momentum setup, control check hack

Death - Denial, foundation destruction

Earth - Damage pump, damage reduction

Evil - At one point had a little bit of everything, but mostly attack spam and some control and control check hack

Fire - Damage pump, speed pump

Good - Reversals, damage reduction

Life - Damage reduction, life gain, speed pump

Order - Foundation control, control check hack, card draw

Void - Discard, some card draw, some control

Water - Reversals, foundation readying, attack spam

I'm sure plenty more can be added to that list. For example, Earth now has card draw and discard, but its main theme used to be simply damage pump and damage reduction.

guitalex2008 said:

my only changes:

order actualy does a bit of everything.

all has some atack spam.

water is control.

You'll note that some resources are innately more powerful than others because of "what they do."

For instance, Evil was meant to do annoying things. So it got: Stun, Breaker, CCHax, and Negation. CCHax and negation are two of the most powerful mechanics in the game, so there you are.

Air was meant to be fast. So it got momentum gen, multiples, card pool clearing, and some card readying. Because of several air/water characters (Chunners, Felicia, and ninja, mostly), it also ended up reversal-heavy.

Compare this to Good, which got damage reduction and reversals, and that's pretty much it. Almost purely defensive. The best defense is _not_ a good defense.

Life got it even worse. Speed boosts (on wussy attacks) and life gain--in a game with a maximum vitality.

Honestly, I hope James is giving the symbols a massive retooling for balance purposes.

That said, symbols would feel a lot more distinct if the average number of symbols on a card was 2 rather than 3.

ARMed_PIrate said:

this part right here is why some say that certain resources "can do everything"

it's not the single resource, it is the resource combined with the extra (usually) 2 that grant it an ability it didn't have before.

all doesn't discard. but an all card with void? sure.

void doesn't draw. but a void card with all? sure.

Well to provide an analysis of the symbols' more "classical" themes, I'd look at the FoPs and AoPs because there's one for each symbol.

Air- Clear your card pool, occasional non-generative momentum tricks, card readying. But yes, Air can gain lots of momentum. Air's archetypical effect boundary is much better defined than other symbols.

All- I would say that All is more of any "everything symbol", but the FoPs and AoPs key into card draw manipulation and vitality gain; however, All gets a wide range of card effects (e.g., Addes Syndicate- hard negation, BRT- hard hax, Lesser of Many Evils- response disabler, Heisheng Jian- umm, it's really good!). All does maintain a vitality gain theme with off-and-on negation, but it doesn't really tap into damage oriented effects.

Chaos- distinctly the momentum generation symbol, and it has cards that can make good use of that momentum too. Chaos, however, is also like All in that it doesn't really have one focused theme beyond momentum generation (mild CC Hax theme), but I'd just like to say that Chaos is usually "moderately useful" as a "theme."

Death- potent discard and negation. Death says "no" in a variety of ways but it's consistent, and Death boasts some of the most powerful UFS cards (not necessarily top-tier though).

Earth- damage manipulation, which is always to its player's benefit (Yi Shan is an epitome of this). Actually, I believe Earth has been printed on every substantial damage bonus card to date, but if not, Earth certainly has most of those cards in its arsenal. Lately, Earth has shifted to include some negation, which may be considered anti-control, and vitality gain. Overall, Earth seems to characterize a "solid" symbol.

Evil- well, the Evil AoP and FoP only use control check manipulation, but Evil does much, much more. An Evil deck has won every Worlds Singles tournament, so clearly it gets the privilege of many of the best powerhouse cards. Anything overtly strong may just get the Evil symbol, which may emulate "evil's" sadistic and dominant qualities.

Fire- lots of attacks, damage boost, and speed boost. Fire seems oriented around attacking relentlessly, but, oddly enough, the very limited group of Fire control cards, when played, has given the symbol a real boost. Fire is the attacking symbol.

Good- tries to "declaw" every other symbol. Good gets lots of Reversals and, of particular note, the three "now you have to deal with your attack" cards-- Reversal (the action), Come to the Aid, and Turnabout. I guess Good minimizes the potential for damage and can punish players for attacking; however, those themes don't usually fuel a victory.

Life- vitality gain and speed boost. Life wants to represent vitality, the word when applied outside of UFS or gaming contexts. Unfortunately, like Good, Life doesn't really help with direct assaults.

Order- in this case, the Order AoP and FoP don't provide an accurate context for generalization. Order tries to control the game by dictating what happens and when it happens, so Order really attempts to structure the game in favor of the user, which is extremely relevant to Control in UFS. Perhaps I can say that Order enables its player's command of every game by allowing them the option to say "yes" or "no" to any situation.

Void- at its roots, discard and/or hand destruction, but Void also has a strong denial presence. Lately, I think Void lost its identity because it seems randomly placed on many cards without any distinct theme, but the discard theme is returning.
Water- the combo symbol, Water seems to allow for a repetitive barrage of whatever its user wants, but it doesn't really give a controlling edge.

Waters main weapons is that it boasts some of the best attacks in the game and the attacks are hyper efficient at dealing damge for thier difficulty, some examples are genkotsu stamp, high plasma beam, feline spike. Water is also known for it's card clearing that gives it the edge in throwing it's barrage of low difficulty attacks in an attempt to finish the opponent early game. Ukyo decks of block 2 were able to throw upwards of 5-8 attacks in a single turn while keeping thier card pools clear. Another example would be the new promo Ukyo and Water donovan decks that are able to unleash a barrage of attacks while keepin thier card pools clear. Water is also known for it's combo like qualities where it uses attacks that return themselves to the owners hand ex-. aghoni geri, reverse waterfall, kubi ori, these attacks were used in thier respective blocks to loop people and kill extreme quickly.

also i've noticed historically that life has an abudant amount of stun cards

chaos has more powerful and multiples (powerful usually paired with evil)

all mountain and void moutain usually deal with damage negate (zhangief)

all attacks usually are 5 difficulty

life and air has an abundance of 3 difficulty attacks

order and good both have had themes of drawing cards (donovan, ..ken.., block 3 ryu)

chaos and evil not only cc hack, but deal with CC either in card pool or staging are to do random effects

death also had a sub theme of bleeding but those cards are very few to find (basara cards)

water and once in a while good did some foundation support (like british subject)

water also use to clear card pools

air use to help with CC pumps but still has card pool clearing (beginner's luck, luise)

i think there's more subtle themes that i missed but that's all i have for now.