Positioning
The first thing to consider when preparing for a major tournament is actually not what deck you will be playing, but what deck everyone else will be playing and then select your deck accordingly. Let's take a look at some of the Worlds lists, as those may be a very good indicator for what the AoP has in store.

Void Control
Characters: Promo Rock, Ultra Rare Dhalsim, sometimes Promo Ryu

The goal of these decks is simple: keep the opponent from doing anything significant, and wait for the big turn. These decks usually win in 1-2 hits, and usually only play 1 complete game before time is called. This is especially true in the case of Rock. All of these decks have the ability to ‘board into Yun-Seong, it should be noted. 

Aggro /Control
Characters: Ultra Rare Vega, Promo Nakoruru, Promo Tira, Promo K', sometimes Promo Cody, Rare Yun-Seong and Promo Bison

Most of the time these guys come out swinging early, chipping your life away with attacks like Chain Throw. Everyone except K' has access to Start Over or Infiltrating, which comes in handy against just about anyone. Particularly vicious with this action is Vega, as his asset can put you away in short order. While these aren't as fast as "true" aggro decks, they are much more resilient in the long game against control.

Aggro
Characters: Matt Kohls, Promo Adon, most Yun-Seong builds, and others

The goal is simple here: Leave the opponent dead at the end of turn 2. Turn 1 is even better. Almost any and all fire builds feature the Dark/Empire combo these days, which is something you need to consider when positioning your deck. Yun-Seong builds just tend to abuse Whereabouts Unknown, another factor you should take into consideration.

Other Misc Builds
I think most understated these days is the Death resource, as it is very versatile, and yet has been overshadowed by Void almost constantly. Evil aggressive decks have only gotten better with the release of the battle pack, which is something you should have at least an awareness of. There are also any number of Stamp decks floating around that are very non-interactive. Most of these feature Promo Ukyo.

It seems like the aggro/control hybrids are the most popular decks at the moment, with "pure" control decks being the minority group. This is not to say that you won't face control in at least a third of your matchups at the AoP, however. The aggro decks, in my opinion, are the hardest to play properly, as those decks are more dependent on the top of the deck than any of the other builds. It can be terribly frustrating when you leave your opponent alive at 2 after flipping a 3 or less. Expect only top-notch players to be playing these in the final stages of the tournament, making them all the more dangerous. 

Yun-Seong
Yun-Seong was the most popular entry at the World Tournament, and it's easy to see why. Yun-Seong can do almost anything, from  pure Void control to turn 1 Air aggression. Expect to see more of him than anything else. 

UR Vega
Seeing as he was the weapon of choice for the World Champion, expect to see more of Vega based on that merit alone. 

Conclusions
At least ½- ¾ of the decks you will face will try to beat you in turns 1-5. The rest will either control you until the perfect opportunity arises, or try to Stamp combo you out of the game. I have pretty much given up trying to beat Stamp combo, as it is a minority and a dog to Void decks in general. That leaves us with an extremely aggressive field, with a couple of control mainstays at the top. That said, Promo Rock seems to be positioned perfectly for this type of metagame. He seriously dampens aggro, and IS control himself. However, you can expect at least 2-5 players to be running him, and as we all know, there can be only 1 in the top 8.

Personally, I tend to favor the hybrid build, as there is more I can do if things turn south, particularly against control. Here's a deck I've been tossing around that might be worth a shot:

***Mai***

Based on Evil

4 Chain Throw
4 Kunai
4 Messatsu-Gorasen
4 Blossom Storm
16 Attacks

4 Impetuous
4 Pieces of Eight
4 Constant Training
4 Won't Settle for Second Best
4 Float like a Butterfly
4 Shinobi Tradition
4 Lost Memories
4 Beginner's Luck
2 Japan's Best!
34 Foundations

4 Absurd Strength
4 Actions

1 *Miser*
1 *Ibuki*
1 *Necro*
1 *Leona*
1 *Astaroth*
5 Character Blocks
60 Cards total

Sideboard
3 Recurring Nightmare
3 Start Over
2 Grim Stride
8 Cards total

I really wish I had access to Trade your Passion, but I don't, which saddens me a bit. Still, there's a lot of "good stuff" in this deck. Let's get started with the character:

***Mai***

7 HS, 21 Vit

Evil, Life, Order

All cards without Breaker get "Breaker: 1"

E: Your attack gets +X speed. X equals the last block modifier in your opponent's card pool.

Although she's a bit on the frail side, there's a lot to admire about the newest incarnation of Mai. All cards get breaker 1. This will definitely slow up aggro. Also, it will bait out blocks from your opponent, so you can use the speed enhancement on your next attack. Alone, however, it is not enough. We need to break the symmetry on this card, so let's get to it.

 Float Like a Butterfly, Shinobi Tradition, Beginner's Luck, Full Power, Won't Settle for Second Best, Japan's Best!

These are the cards that will help break the symmetry of Mai. Breaker 1 hardly matters to you when you have Shinobi or Float set up. Beginner's Luck also helps conquer that handily. Won't Settle is what really breaks symmetry against your opponent. You block them, breaker them, and then pull off a crazy Promo Yoshitora impersonation. Imagine having 4 of these out! It never happens, but 2 tends to be bread and butter every time. Combined with breaker, Won't Settle is positively sick, I pray for one every single game. Japan's Best is really just piling it on, but it also helps break symmetry. My opponent has access to Breaker 1, while I have Breaker 2-3. The math is simple.

Impetuous, Constant Training, Pieces of Eight, Lost Memories

Here is the control element of the deck. Impetuous makes for a great game of cat and mouse, particularly in favor of the one playing Impetuous. Constant Training stops multiples, Material Advantage, so on and so forth. Pieces of Eight, namely to team up with Impetuous, and Lost Memories for just about anything.

The Attacks
The deck has the potential to open up with Chain Throw, Kunai, Messatsu-Gorasen. It's not something anyone near 20 vitality wants to see, which is perfect for some of the controlish decks. Blossom Storm was a stretch for me, I really didn't like it at first, but the ‘Storm, and Chain Throw are perfect targets for Absurd Strength. There's not much else to say about the attacks, except, don't fear the 1 check. It almost never comes up, and most of the time you'll draw 1 in your opening hand. If it does come up, Float, Shinobi, and Green, can save you. You should not be failing control checks with this deck.

The goal is to set up fatal Messatsu-Gorasens, preferably with a Chain Throw lead in, in order to bait out a block, and allow you to give a free speed boost to your multiples.

Absurd Strength
If find this card is quite aptly named. It's sort of like Mow the Men down, only infinitely more versatile because it is a fine counter to "flash" momentum strategies in addition to just being a straight-up game ender. I hear it's nicknamed "the Hammer" or "Hammer Time!" both of which are actually quite amusing.

The character blocks
I specifically listed the character blocks because each of them could be a relevant switch-in. This is more than just "sand-bagging" to dodge diversity, this is aggressive repositioning with the goal of securing a better match-up, a strategy which I feel is generally underdeveloped in UFS at the moment, one that could use some pioneering. I've got my machete, try to keep up.

Miser
With all the Ruler of Southtown abuse going on lately, throwing in a Miser is an excellent way to throw their strongest weapon right in their face, and perpetually negate their entire staging area.

Ibuki
Ibuki is the aggro switch-in. She can turn 2 just about anyone with a decent Float set up, plus she's immune to Megalomania, Ring Veteran, Trade Your Passion antics and partially immune to Void foundation control. She really shines against multiple Yogas, or opposing Lost Memories. On top of that, she can Float, destroy a foundation to ready Float, and then Float again. A neat trick when you're in a hurry for that K.O. I tend to side her in if I lose the first game in a drawn out match with time approaching.

Necro
I have yet to take full advantage of this Street Fighter, but his abilities seem so powerful in the abstract. Perhaps I will find a use for him before the AoP. Perhaps not, we'll find out.

Leona
Leona erases the text on your opponent's character. A fantastic switch-in, perhaps my favorite. I tend to switch her in on decks that heavily rely on their character, like Starter Ken, Kohls, or Seichu Ryu. Sometimes even Yun-Seong, to make him fight fair.

Astaroth
Big Evil makes a spot in this deck as the complement to Ibuki. If the first round of a drawn out game sees me come out on top, Astaroth is coming in to make it as hard as possible for my opponent to win the game he needs before time. His Messatsu-Gorasen is particularly nasty.

The Sideboard

Recurring Nightmare 4/3 +2M

Chaos, Evil, Order

R Destroy this and 1 other foundation:

Before a control check is made, that control check may not be modified, and your opponent may not commit foundations to make that check successful. Failing this control check will not end the turn.

This card is listed at $0.25 right now, though I can't understand why. This card is Power of the Edge on a foundation with no momentum requirement. Start Over? Infiltrating? Better raw dog a 6. Ultimate Volcano, Shadow Banishment, Shoryuken Extra? Not on your life. Play this card. It is THAT good. I am only saddened that I don't have room for a  fourth... Don't ask me how it interacts with Float, because I don't know.

Start Over and Grim Stride are self explanatory.

As a final note before I move on, I would really like to fit some Blades of Fury in this deck, but I really don't see where it can go. I am already lamenting the loss of Full Power from earlier versions... What I really want to stress, however, is how a deck can be repositioned to attack from all these different angles, or in the case of Astaroth, just preserve the status quo until the round timer tells you what you already know, which in itself is a valid strategy, and thus a form of attack.

**Sophitia**
Based off of Order

4 Moonsault Slayer
4 Ryu's Shoryuken Extra
4 Psycho Sword
4 Burning Knuckle
16 Attacks

4 Ring Veteran
4 Armored Defense
4 Megalomania
4 Dirty Pool
4 Constant Training
4 The Hero of Southtown
4 Whereabouts Unknown
4 Blades of Fury 

32 Foundations
4 Block
4 Chief Hold
2 Psychic Teleport 

8 Actions
4 Character Blocks
61 Cards total

Sideboard
4 Recurring Nightmare
4 You Will Not Escape

8 Cards total

Once again, I revisit one of my favorite characters, the often overlooked Sophitia. Every single time I play her against someone for the first time they stop the game to figure out how I make them discard their entire hand every turn. It's a silent pleasure. The goal is simple, throw out a big attack, disarm the opponent and connect. It's academic after the first few hits. It used to be that I ran a complement of Life foundations to reduce any attack's damage to 0 in order to keep the opponent from drawing cards again, but Armored Defense takes care of that handily, as does Block 9 times out of 10. The deck is brutally effective, as it can stop Dark Empire tricks with Armored Defense, as well as dodge Penetrating Lunge with timely Chief Holds. Against control, it sideboards into a turn-ending nightmare with You Will Not Escape coming in alongside a full set of Recurring Nightmare. Sophi's own built-in abilities make her resistant to combo-dependent opponents. I don't think I would be too far off base if I said this girl is a solid contender. Some of you might prefer more attacks, but I find that 16 seems to be the magic number for me in terms of drawing attacks and control check consistency.

It should be noted that many believe discard decks to be an extreme liability these days and I won't say they're wrong at all. Facing hate, and especially powerful hate, is one of the risks you take when you position yourself within a certain strategy. A lot of people are running 4 Pure of Heart or Chinese Sword Style in their ‘boards to defend against discard. I think Moonsault Slayer is a fine weapon against these cards. More problematic are foundations with discard hate, but the Ring Vet, Megalo, combination seems to be enough to stave those off as well. Still, it doesn't hurt to be cautious. Dirty Pool makes a fine back-up plan, and can win games all by itself.

The Brawler in all of us
Now that all that serious tourney prep is out of the way, let's have some fun. Namely, let's beat up several other players, at the same time. What do I have in mind? A little alternate format I call Team Brawl, inspired by Marvel vs Capcom 2.

The idea here is that the battle is 3 on 3, like MvC, however, it avoids most of the confusion of conventional brawls and team formats by allowing only one player from each team to play at any particular time as the active player. The active player may "tag in" a team mate of his choice a by committing his character card as a form during his turn, or as a response to an incoming attack. The trick here is that Inactive players start the game with their characters committed, active players don't. Therefore it is possible to set up two players on the opening turn. Inactive players gain 1 Vitality at the ready step, however, Inactive players may only ready their character card and two foundations during their team's ready phase, during the draw step, they only draw up to three cards if their handsize allows. This keeps every turn from being a "triple attack". Additionally, Inactive players cannot play cards at all until they become active players. As an interesting game rule, if an opponent takes 10 or more damage from your attack, you may commit your character card as a response to commit their character card and force them to tag-in an inactive player of your choice. If a player takes damage from an attack, an inactive player may commit their character to tag-in in response to another attack being played. This keeps one player from getting stranded alone, character committed, facing three attackers. Card pools do not clear for inactive players until the end of their teams' turns. Finally, Inactive players are not affected by opponent's cards, but continuous effects like Mortal Strike and Armored Defense will still affect a new active player if one tags in. Cards like Emptiness and Start Over only affect active players. If the active player is K.O.'d then the last teammate who was active player becomes the new active player. An easy way to avoid confusion with who comes in after a K.O. is to assign each player a number (1,2, or 3), and just have the remaining player with the lowest number come in. Agree on the exact terms beforehand. The game ends obviously when there is only one team left.

The fun thing about this format is that it doesn't specifically require a deck for Brawling, only three decks per team, since the format is essentially one on one. Some players like to build decks to take advantage of the "10 Damage" rule, others like to build their decks with effects that ready their characters in order to make intricate three-player combination attacks. The typical team set up is one control player with two aggressive players. Another strategy is to have one huge tank like Hugo or Astaroth, as being inactive doesn't particularly harm them. You'd be surprised to learn that games don't end in 2-3 turns, but are not insufferably slow and often revolve around team tactics and maneuvers. Games usually last 30 minutes to an hour.  If  you wanted to organize a tournament utilizing this format, I would NOT make it best out of 3. 

Summary:

• - Battles are 3 on 3 although 2 on 2 is possible.

• - During the first turn of the game, the active player starts with his character ready. The Inactive players of the team going first start with characters committed.

• - Only the active player can play cards to his card pool.

• - Active players may only attack the opposing active player.

• - The active player can commit his character card as a form to tag in a team mate. That team mate becomes the active player for his team.

• - The active player can commit his character as a response to an attack being played to tag in a team mate. This is only playable during the opposing team's turn.

• - Inactive players cannot be affected by card effects or abilities.

• - Inactive players gain 1 vitality during the ready step.

• - Inactive players may only ready 2 foundations during the ready phase.

• - Inactive players may only draw up to three cards during the draw step.

• - Inactive players may commit their character card as a response to an attack being played (multiples don't count) to tag in. This is only playable if the active player has already taken damage from an attack this turn.

• - If you deal 10 or more damage with a single attack, you may commit your character as a response to commit your opponent's character card and force him to tag in an inactive player of your choice.

• - Cards pools do not clear until the active player passes his turn. It is possible to play cards, tag out, then get tagged in again and play more cards. When you are tagged in again this way, previous continuous effects (Float Like a Butterfly, etc.) are no longer in effect and will have to be activated again. Abilities that can only be activated once per turn cannot be activated again. Any new forms played cannot be considered your "first" form.

• - The game ends when each player on a single team is defeated.

• - Continuous effects like Emptiness only affect active players, and have no affect on inactive players, even if an inactive player controls said foundation.

When I introduced this format to Armada Games it was met with plenty of praise as the best multi-player format available to UFS. Everyone had lots of fun. The first game I played in was a 3 on 3. I jumped in with the Mai deck posted above, with my team mates consisting of Dan and Nightmare Geese. Across from us were Rare Galford, Promo Ukyo and Rare Seong Mi-Na. Unfortunately, Galford was stranded and isolated early. Unable to switch out, he met a Seichu Nidan Tsuki from Dan, who then tagged me in, and I followed with Chain Throw, Kunai, Messatsu-Gorasen for the kill. Afterwards, Ukyo and Seong Mi-na managed to stabilize a bit and survived a few more turns, but it quickly became apparent that Mi-na was the weaker player, and the three of us converged on her in a very similar fashion as Galford. Ukyo, however, proved to be much harder to kill. Piloted by my good friend Brandon Bravo, Ukyo managed to dig himself in with quadruple Awakening, Ancient Insight, and a half a set of Yoga Mastery. He held us off for 4 or 5 more turns alone, and almost killed Dan before succumbing to overwhelming numbers.

Later on, back at my home, we played another match to iron out the rules, this time 2 on 2. The teams were Akuma and Ukyo, the same as before, against myself piloting my Mai deck with Astaroth as the starter, and Ultra Rare Dhalsim. This fight was much more even, but failed control checks from my teammate saw me lose maybe 3 or 4 turns of development. 30 life, however, is 30 life and I ended up played offensive lineman for my delicate teammate. In the end, Dhalsim started blowing up his foundations to disarm each opponent, and we would both proceed to unload on the poor soul. Akuma was the first to fall. Ukyo fell several turns later. However, the prolonged periods of my inactivity in this game earned me the nickname "benchwarmer". In the end, good times were had by all. Everyone seemed to like the format. The rules are very clear and quite intuitive, you'll find, much more so than traditional brawling. This may very well be the future of multi-player formats. By far, the best and most inviting aspect is that just about any deck can play without any trouble at all. Try it out, and let me know what you think at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .