UFS newbie here, just getting into the game and I'd like to learn more about it...

Problem is, I'm having trouble finding strategies for the game. I know I can look at the decklists a few forums up, but any kind of strategy in those threads tends to be geared towards players that are already familiar with the game, not those just starting out.

So, does anyone know if there's any more novice-friendly web sites or strategy articles I can peruse?

LinkN said:

Check out the Articles on TeamCanadaonline.net specifically by Scott Wilding. There's also new article by NjBrock that goes into the hows and whys on building a Makoto Deck.

Hopefully you'll find some of those useful!

Articles by Wilding:

UFS By Numbers Pt 1: Card Selection and Deck Construction

UFS By Numbers, Pt 2: The Resources of UFS

Articles by NjBrock:

Makoto - Very Underused and Why You Should Run Her.

The Entire TCO UFS Article Archive

BTW - For non-"newbies" who want to add their own articles, and want to get paid to do it at the same time, click HERE

This is your best bet; I'm pretty sure our forum is the most populous of UFS websites.

Strategy is a broad term. What in specific were you looking for?

I'll just give some very generic strategic advice as a preliminary to whatever it is you wanted.

#1 Consider your control checks: When building your deck, it's important to factor what numbers do you NEED to reach, and then secondly, how often are you going to reach it? For example, if every attack in your deck has a 6 difficulty or higher, chances are you're going to want to run a lot of 5 and 6 control foundations to help pass them, along with maybe some control check bonuses. However, if you run a deck with a bunch of 4 difficulty or lower attacks, maybe you don't care so much about control values. Always think about your ratios. I had a deck once that fixated on running high controls, only to realize that I was only running 12 attacks, and so control values didn't really matter.

#2 Pre-calculate potential blocking strategies: Look at your opponent's foundations. If your opponent is the type to hide their foundations, demand you see them over and over again until you know your strategy. As you play the game, you'll start to learn characters, symbols, and decktypes better, but for now, just know that the average player is going to hit you with 1 to 3 attacks per turn that they attack. Like I said, their deck determines how that number could be altered, but that's a pretty safe statisic, especially since there's a lot of really good damage reduction and life gain in our current game that substitutes for blocking.

#3 Never ever get cocky; get boastful: Cockiness is when you act too quickly or impulsively, or when you overestimate something without taking a clear, logical look at the reality. Don't do that. Ever. See what they have, what you have, your likelihood of passing, etc. When I say get boastful, I mean that in two ways. I mean boastful as in you act confident because you think logically, but also, if you actually act boastful publicly, it's likely to throw off your opponent. Most opponents will think your boastfulness is just you being arrogant and hasty, when it actuality, it's a guise. Use it to deceive, and trust me, it works.

#4 Build what you want to play: If you've ever played a fighting game, you know that certain characters just feel comfortable to you. The same really does hold true in this game. Look at the characters and the options they uniquely have, and use what you want to use. As you become more familiar with the game, you'll start to see a lot of recurring characters and strategies. It's not advised that you conform; play what you want to play.

Hope it helps. Hope you understood all of that lol.

Alright, thanks much for the advice, I'll have to look around that site some more.

I suppose I wasn't very specific with my first post, though; I'm mostly looking for help with deckbuilding; kind of explaining what makes a good deck/card vs a bad deck/card, different strategies to base a deck around, things like that.

Linkn our podcasts team is doing a new player episode next month with 2 new players joining us be sure to check that out when it airs.

LinkN said:

Well, I already covered a couple of things vis-a-vis deck building in my first post, but I guess I'll say a couple more.

*in addition to the aforementioned*

1. Know how you win: As soon as you assess how you win the game, you can start to think of what cards you may want to use. Do you want to use only 8 attacks, or a full 16? Do you have access to a lot of damage pumps that might reduce the number of attacks you need to run? Do you run a lot of momentum-dependent cards? Stuff like that. Don't just think "generic [symbol] foundation line-up, generic [symbol] attack line-up", because foundation and attack line-ups differentiate between characters.

2. Realize your character has competition in all of its symbols: Because every character has 3 symbols (and generally, they're best at a particular 1), you have to acknowledge that they likely have competition, in that there may or may not be a character that is better-suited for the deck than the one you may want. Now, like I had said earlier, play with who you want to play with. Just know though that, as characters are getting stronger and stronger, there's a possibility your character is overshadowed by another. That's why it's important that your character is abused for its unique properties, and is not just filler to abuse the symbol.

3. Recognize your control checks and block modifiers: As I had already mentioned this, knowing your decks control likeliness and block likeliness is pivotal. If all of your cards have high block modifiers or no block modifier at all, just know you're not likely to be blocking a lot, and for the most part, that isn't a good thing. Also know that a lot of really powerful foundations have 4 control checks, and that you need to run a courteous amount of these, but not so much so that you fail control checks often. This advice also correlates to advice 1.

4. Use things that affect the actual metagame, and not the theoretical one: There's a big controversy in this game, and it's real usage versus theoretical usage. A lot of players will build decks that only look good in theory, but in practice, they are not. When I first saw the card Chinese Boxing, I remember saying, "While this card is good, it's horrible stats of 3/4 +3-MID will likely make it never see play", and boy, was I wrong. The card's stats may be horrible, but that's because its impact on the metagame is immense, and any better statusing would make it just too good. This may or may not take a lot of experimenting, but read around, play around, and learn the fundamentals of the common-day metagame, and how to counter them.

Alright, that advice will help a lot, thanks!

One thing I'm having problems finding, though, is a list of what each symbol is "good" at. What's the difference between Air and All? Evil and Death? If I want an aggro deck or a control deck, what symbols should I look for most? And, what kind of mechanics does each symbol use?

For n00bs I try and give them these deckbuilding and playing strategies... These are good for you if you are new... but i use these as well as tenets to begin with, and I've won most all the tournaments in my area (although we are only 5 months in the game)

Try to use only attacks with 3 checks... when possible, this will help. I prefer decks with less than 16 attacks, You shouldn't try and overwhelm them with tons of attacks in one turn... the game isn't made for that to work... You should instead hope to force your attacks through, and you can do this in a few ways.

1. Pump speed (plus maybe some dmg)- If you give your attack 16 speed, its going to be hard to block. Of course this works well with attacks with high dmg to begin with... giving 16 speed to a 3 dmg attack is just plain stupid... give it to a 9 dmg attack, or something bigger. There are some cards that stop this right out... (american made ) So put in cards to shut down the things that stop you.

2. Pump Damage a lot with a throw- I have a hugo deck that is full of dmg pumps and throws... throws say that even if they are blocked they do half dmg. I made one of my attacks do 89 dmg the other day... it wasn't hard to do either.... go ahead and block, but you still die. There are cards that ruin this as well, (fast food lover) so you need to put things in your deck that will shut that down too. This one is fun...

3. Strip their hand of potential blocks- Put cards in your deck that makes the opponent discard their entire hand, and then attack them without fear of blocks. There are a lot of ways to make them have no cards in hand, in water, chaos, evil, etc... While there are a lot of cards that alternatives to blocking (like a foundation that gains a lot of life) if you put through an attack with powerful 3 and then pump it to a kill level, you'll be fine. However, there are cards that stop this as well... so find out what they are (more card draw as an E- Like ready for anything) and put things in to prevent those from working....

There are plenty of other ways to kill your opponent... I would build your deck around one that you like, then make sure you do it well, and then put in cards to protect your little 'combo'.

You can build some great newb decks with those 3 ideas in mind....

Ok, thanks!

Having attacks as only a quarter of your deck is a great tip, so thanks for that. I still would like to know a bit more about what symbols can do what, but what you said is a good start. I'll have to go through my cards and find some other good tricks.

LinkN said:

Aggro: If you want aggro, it depends on what type. There's speed pump, damage pump, and a bit of both. I'd say the top three symbols at aggressive game are Earth (damage), Life (speed), and Fire (both).

Control: A LOT of symbols are control-oriented. The top control symbols are Death, Order, Evil, and Water.

I'll give you some explanations for each symbol, and how they are used in the Block 3 format.

Air: Air stands for intelligence, and most Air decks focus on calculating how to play their turn because most Air decks only take 1 turn to kill. Air has always had a lot of options, and continues to right now. It has a lot of aggro, control, draw, life gain...it does a lot. If you want a fun deck of unpredictability that requires thinking, but not enough to make your brain hurt, pick Air. To me, Air is the ninja symbol.

All: All is basically the symbol that has no obvious goal. All does exactly what it says: All things lol. It can draw, damage pump, CCHax, the list is huge. If you're the type who loves variety and options, and finding ways to exploit them, All is the symbol for you.

Chaos: Chaos has always, and probably will always be the symbol for momentum generation. Thankfully though, it's starting to find other uses. Right now is a really good time to use Chaos because of that fact. But anyways, if you like momentum abuse, as well as a symbol that borrows control elements from Death and Evil, then Chaos is for you.

Death: Death used to be such a feared symbol, and lately, it is having a resurgence. Death is the premier symbol for control, most particularly, negation. It is all about canceling what your opponent tries to do. It's a nasty, annoying symbol to deal with, and lately, is getting a lot better. If you like stopping your opponent from doing things, then Death is for you.

Earth: Earth is the strong mountain the symbol is meant to be. Earth is all about damage pumps and damage reduction. It's all about being strong to hurt, and being strong to protect. Earth isn't all a one-trick pony though; lately, it's getting a lot more control methods to help its high damage attacks go through. If you like big, strong decks, then Earth is for you.

Evil: Evil is the most notorious symbol in UFS history, having won all 3 of UFS' world tournaments. Evil is so good because it has the control of Death and the momentum of Chaos, but it also has a lot more options, most specifically, CCHax (the ability to reduce control checks). Evil has always had really good attacks, and really good control support. Evil is pretty much a sin, but if you want a symbol you know is good, Evil is certainly for you.

Fire: Fire is the symbol of beating face relentlessly. Fire is all about setting up turn 1, then going wild turn 2. As such, it has primarily speed and damage pumps. Nothing else to say, if you know you enjoy pumeling the opponent over and over again, then Fire is for you.

Good: Good used to be the premier symbol at countering the meta, but it's having a harder time doing that these days. Never the less, Good is all about justice, and countering the popular metagame. It has the most reversals, and abuse surrounding reversals. If you like messing up your opponent on their own turn, then Good is for you.

Life: Life is the symbol of beginning and creation. As such, Life has the most amount of vitality gain. Life also has a lot of speed pumps, making it a very fast symbol to compete against. If you like a more peaceful symbol, but still has enough speed to push the damage through, then Life is for you.

Order: Order, as of right now, is the best symbol in this game. Order is all about balancing out the game in your favor. It's generally about committing your opponent's cards so they can't use them. Order has generally been the thinking man's symbol. So, if you're the type who likes some intelligence, but also some raw, committing power, then Order is for you.

Void: Void is like a lovechild of Death and Order. It has the negation and control of Death, but the thinking properties of Order. It's the most unorthodox symbol in this game and has a limitless list of how to play it. If you like a symbol that truly requires thought in the deckbuilding, then Void is for you.

Water: Water is as fluid as it sounds. It's all about attacking, discarding cards from your card pool, then attacking again. It also has a nice supply of control, draw, life gain, and damage reduction at its disposal. If you like a symbol that is reliable and has plenty of aggressive and defensive options, then Water is for you.

Hope that helps, albeit it was all very brief. In time you will find what symbols suit your playstyle.

Ah, pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

Now to pull apart my cards in order to build a working deck... think I might go air with :Felicia:, see how I can do there.