Part 1: Evolution, No-Eggs style ("I'm not fat, I'm festively plumb!" - Eric Cartman, South Park)

First of all, what is it about Hugo that seems to polarize so many players? There is apparently very little middle ground as far as the big man is concerned - you either love him, or hate him. Most seem to favor the latter opinion, and those who don't likely are the ones playing and winning with him. Some people have never been "fortunate" enough to play against a Hugo deck, so they may not understand what makes him worth playing. Yes, he has the largest printed vitality in the game, and the 3 hand size isn't much of a limitation because of his ability to search for specific cards every turn, but still...is he really that competitive?

The answer, I'm afraid, is emphatically yes. It may not have necessarily been true when he was first released as a promo, largely because there was a lower range of foundations to dig for, along with Overwhelming Strength and Start Over pretty much ruining Hugo's day (which is still true to an extent today). He was still effective, especially against an aggro matchup and primarily because of recurred Replenishments with the Collector + Unorthodox Style combination, but he had trouble against specific kinds of control decks and those decks running either Start Over, Infiltrating, or both. Most early decks Hugo decks focused on setting up some basic control elements first (Yoga Mastery and the like) and then playing a Silent Step or two to mitigate his hand size and draw into a Replenishment that much quicker. Then Ryan Riley, better known as HavocRmR, who was already a noted Hugo player in his local meta and beyond, posted a deck that incorporated the then newly-released No One's Ever Going To Keep You Down into a monster deck list that incorporated Emptiness along several other one-shot off-symbol answers as necessary to shut down whatever to opponent could send your way while giving them an extremely low hand size of their own to work around. The fact that Hugo now had access to every symbol was more degenerate than ever, and the NOEGKYD + Emptiness lock was brutal and brilliant, since Emptiness has absolutely no effect on Hugo anyway; worse still, the entire setup was achievable by the second turn and easy to protect (thanks to the staple Ring Veterans). Still, even in this form, he was not able to take a major tournament victory, as the combo was frail despite its effectiveness and subject, once again, to mass removal. Set 5 brought another answer to Start Over in Heisheng Jian, along with even more great split attacks for Hugo to utilize since he could search for them anytime, and Defender of the Empire but Heisheng thankfully was not a foundation and therefore had to have a little work put forth to find. Emptiness Hugo was vicious and still is, but it still was not the tipping point most expected to push Hugo over the edge. That would come later...

It is notable, however, that in light of this combination, many players started openly and vigorously expressing their outright hate for Hugo. Vitriol is a powerful thing, and in this case it was made painfully loud and clear that not only was Hugo absurdly overpowered, but that hearing about him was enough to twist most stomachs. New Zealaner Chris Leifi, aka floating_fatman and probably the most famous Hugo player in the world added some fuel to the fire in June when he wrote an impassioned and eloquent defense of Hugo's place in the UFS world along with those who actively supported the jolly pink giant. The entire piece is very well-written, whether you agree with the content or not, and I encourage all of you to read it. One part is very significant to me - I quote, "Hugo is not an easy deck to play and some argue that this is its most glaring and obvious weakness. Moreover, it seems a deterring factor most prevalent in discouraging others to play him not to mention the apparent boredom aspect of Hugo’s play-style. I could argue that Hugo demands a certain type of operator meaning someone with heart and intelligence. But that would be both prejudiced and irrational eh? Responding to how your opponent plays and selecting the right cards to field via tutor ability is not as easy as it seems. Both card and meta knowledge must be up to scratch. There is an ethos shared amongst the Hugo-naughts...one mistake...and you're dead."

This WAS true, at the very least, for a long time, and maybe it still is. But it is the most compelling point in understanding what attracts top players to Hugo in the first place. Despite some of the card interactions being so simple-minded, the whole of the deck is anything but, and requires patience and great understanding of board position in order to play correctly. I would wager that every top level player has at some point experimented with a Hugo deck, and that the biggest attraction in playing him may not even be winning and losing - though lately there is plenty more of one than the other - but rather the simple pride and joy that you can take in making the right decisions over a game and then a match. As Chris says, one mistake can be fatal. Even I ventured into Hugo territory for a bit, and I can attest to the difficulty level of the deck. Most would say that it is the single hardest deck in UFS to play. Or at least, as I alluded to earlier, it WAS that way.

Part 2: Seeking Fortune, and Glory ("I have what Doctors like to refer to as...a little bit of a weight problem." - Chris Farley, Saturday Night Live)

Now? Hugo is a top tier deck and there's no other way around it. The reason why is rather simple. Back when Set 6 was previewed for us scouts, many of us noticed a little card called Fortune and Glory, the box topper for the SNK set. It had All on it, and in conjunction with Hugo, your opponent would have a 3 hand size for the rest of the game, with only ONE TURN of setup! Yikes! And, unlike the No-Eggs/Emptiness combo, you only needed to get one at a time, so even in case of a massive reset button, there was almost no recovery time required.

That was what we said then, and it fell on deaf ears. Part of me believes that STG deliberately wanted to include this card in an upcoming set in order to see how powerful Hugo could really be (the other part of me, the rational part, realizes that the set was likely already being printed when we got our preview and therefore could not be altered in time). The fruits of our protests are becoming apparent now, though. For a long time the rallying cry of the anti-Hugo faction was that Hugo had never won a major tournament, despite the very vocal proclamations about his elite status. He hadn't even placed in the Top 8, not even in Auckland at the New Zealand National Championships! But scouts knew that F&G was looming on the horizon, and I myself was quietly thankful that Set 6 was not legal for Worlds, otherwise there would have been some serious contenders playing Hugo, I would wager my car on it. Shortly after Worlds, however, at the UK Team National Championships, Daniel Eggle was able to pilot F&G Hugo to victory along with his team and in doing so, crushed the hopes of many that Hugo would simply fade away into oblivion - or Bolivion, as Mike Tyson would say. Jon Herr, who was 2nd at Team Nationals and Team Worlds and the Swiss Champion at Singles Worlds riding to a Top 8 finish, just took second at the first AoP event this past weekend with a Hugo build - and he lost in the final to his own Dhalsim deck, even then only after the pilot sided in 4x Infiltrating and 4x Overwhelming Strength!

So, after the long preamble, I finally arrive at the main focus of this little article, and that is what to make of Hugo today. The threat that he poses is very real, and rather fast in the setup. There aren't many decks that even stand a chance against him, because even with massive damage output being what it is at the moment, Hugo can stall quite effectively until he finds a Replenishment and usually once that occurs, the opposing player has already expended far too many resources to overcome the sudden vitality reset and can only flail about helplessly as the Hugo player searches out multiple attack splits and achieves victory. In addition to F&G, Set 6 brought along the frightening False Pretenses, a risky proposition in some decks but not in Hugo where it can be searched out; and Long Reach, a very powerful attack that's cheap and easy to spam and push through. It all combines to make Hugo the literal 800 pound elephant in the room that represents the UFS metagame. You could make the argument that the entire meta is either Absurd Strength-assisted aggro, anti-AS tech, and Hugo and whatever can possibly be considered as anti-Hugo tech. And there isn't much; even cards like Armored Defense and Martial Arts Champion, which should stop abilities like Hugo's cold, merely delay the inevitable if they hit OR are easily played around. MAC doesn't even really do anything against him. How convenient.

Some words from notable Hugo players on the current dilemma:

Daniel Eggle - "I went into the Team Nationals to just have some fun, with one last chance to rep my shop, mine and JJ's (his teammate's) last tournament as he was moving away for university and to say goodbye to Kevin Beadle (former head of European STG). I really didn’t see Hugo to be too much of a problem, 7 hours later I was unbeaten and Team Nationals Champ. The only game I lost all day was against K' but I forgot to kill him, I could of killed him the previous turn and he did over 100 damage to me the next turn (!!!). I just thought it was shock factor like the Rose deck that came 2nd at UK Nats but then I gave one of my local players Hugo to play at our local event. He hasn’t lost since Team Nats and I don’t think anyone has taken a game off him. The only deck that has beaten that Hugo deck just about every game is Order Tycho packing YWNE, Ruler of Southtown, Start Over ,OS, Devil Reverse, and Close To The Edge so I think Hugo is a bit overpowered. I think STG had to be really careful when they printed Hugo; something was going to break him. It wouldn’t be so bad if F&G didn’t share any symbols with Hugo. It's simple; there are some decks that can deal with Hugo but most of the decks need a good player at the helm or cost more money than people will spend and everything else is just a boring NPE. I have had so many of my players asking for Cassie back just because it beats Hugo and in their eyes it's less of a NPE."

Jon Herr - "Mostly I think Hugo is a huge force to be reckoned with. The fact that he has 40 health, a ridiculous tutoring ability (that can now search for some really good split attacks) as well as an ability that artificially increases his hand size (as long as cards are removed from game) means Hugo has huge strengths and very few weaknesses. Add to that the support he got with Fortune and Glory, any deck is going to have a hard time killing him with only a 3 hand size and typically half the vitality.

It's a deck that isn't fun to play against and not all that fun to play as. I think one of his saving graces is the fact that people don't really enjoy the character. Since they don't find the character compelling, they're not inclined to build his deck regardless of the inherent power. As such, people can go to a tournament and simply hope no one brings him. He's gotten by flying under the radar, but with the onset of "hand size matters" cards like Absurd Strength and Way of the Hammer, there's quite a push into running these low hand size characters.

There is only one deck I've lost a match to (Dhalsim) and the one game I played against Matt Kohls' new deck (that can Infiltrate every turn), I won. I'm not sure if that's indicative of that matchup, but it happened. I took it to the AOP to hopefully do well enough to have it evaluated by STG. If nothing else, I'll take it to STG's headquarters when Matt and I go down in a couple weeks and see their reactions to it.

Basically I don't like the deck/character and am tired of worrying about him in tournaments. As such, it is my crusade to break him and get him evaluated by STG."

Ryan Riley - "I believe that Hugo, while he can be NPE with Fortune and Glory (And Emptiness) is definitely something that UFS needs. Not exactly Hugo itself, but a character with a three hand size (The only one at that) that is viable in a highly competitive environment. There will never be another character that can say that. Tutoring abilities are very rare in UFS (As they should be), and Hugo shows how powerful these effects can be. In the fast paced world of professional events, Hugo is one of the only ways you can see specific card interactions that you will probably never see anywhere else. Hugo is also one of the only characters that can be run effectively with all three symbols (and sometimes even a fourth or fifth symbol). I really want people to take a closer look at the inner workings of Hugo and try test driving him once. Hugo is one of the only control decks that consistently beats Aggro, and has a good match-up against Control and Combo. He is probably THE most consistent deck there is right now.

Lately he has become a bit auto-pilot, and I don't know if I'm at fault, or if is just obvious. Tutor Fortune and Glory. Tutor random foundations. Tutor Long Reach. Tutor Demon Hunting/Clones. That is the standard play for Hugo. There is a lot more to Hugo than this. All the testing and planning put into my personal builds take everything into consideration. There is literally an answer for everything. What puts Hugo over the top is the new Asset of Power, the Seal of Cessation.
Cessation nullifies Hugo's one weakness: board sweepers. Not only does the new seal negate Infiltrating, it also punishes you for playing it. Come rotation, this will be the biggest problem. The cards that make up Hugo are almost all block two, and after rotation, there will be functional replacements for everything that is rotating plus more. Not wanting to give too much information away, set seven has already shown us (Scouts) that these replacements are coming.

What it boils down to:
I believe Hugo is on a thin thread. Whether casual or competitive, he can be a pain that’s for sure. We are already seeing in the latest AoP that Hugo is a powerhouse. He can run almost any foundation effectively. Has access to all of the best metagame silver bullets, and can both out-race and out-control even with his three hand size. In the future, Hugo will eventually have to be dealt with somehow. He does force Research and Development to check every card interaction and he even hinders the foundation split cards. He may cause certain mechanics to work differently. He may be able to put cards together that were overlooked due to symbols and effects. He has the potential to become a true NPE in the future. Only time will tell."

There you have it, folks. Hugo is here to stay whether you like him or not, and I expect we'll hear a lot from his friends and enemies in the near future. As Ryan alluded to, Seal of Cessation looms on the horizon and it will make playing against Hugo even more of a chore than it already is. That's all I got to say for this week; I no doubt will receive a lot of feedback on this in the coming days so feel free to drop me a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or as always, via PM on the STG boards or on one of my threads. Till next time...

-Vik

Oh, and if you're wondering what my actual opinion on Hugo is, I leave you with these words - I. HATE. HUGO. Very very much.