So yesterday, Erik Yaple of Sabertooth Games - *ahem*, The Baddest Man in Gaming - released the monthly State of the Game post. Aside from a previously announced occurence - the banning of Penetrating Lunge - the most significant but not really surprising piece of news announced was character rotation, and a schedule of when they will phase out. I won't re-write the whole schedule, if you wish you can find it here, but the first characters slated for rotation struck me as interesting (and I quote): "With Set 8 in February 2008, all characters with set designation of PA, SC01, SC1P, SF01, and SF1P will be removed from the environment."

In case you don't quite register what that means, let me be a bit more explicit - NO MORE *DHALSIM*. NO MORE *SAGAT*. NO MORE ***TIRA***.

Wow.

Now of course these aren't the only characters leaving but certainly they are among the most significant. Dhalsim is still the king of control, despite measures to slow his raw power down with anti-discard measures, as evidenced by the recent spate of tournament results and especially the two Assets of Power events that have been held so far. Dhalsim finished in the Top 8 at US Nationals, Top 4 at the West Coast Championships, Swiss Champion and 2nd place at the East Coast Championships, Swiss Champion and Top 8 at Singles Worlds, 2nd place as part of a team at Team Worlds, Winner at the Wonderworld Michigan AoP, and Swiss Champion and 2nd place at the Hurricon Orlando AoP. All were Void control. The only major event within the last two months that Dhalsim did not place highly in was the New Zealand Championships. This is all in spite of STG's best efforts to curb the efficiency of discard overall with answers such as Tendon Strength and Pure of Heart. With such a large starting handsize, two incredibly powerful abilities and access to Emptiness, it seems likely that Dhalsim will continue to be a major threat to win any tournament until his last stand in February. That is unless those Dhalsim players succumb to the "Swiss Champ Curse"! Of the 3 Dhalsim Swiss Champions listed above, including myself at the ECC, exactly none went on to win the event they were participating in. Spooky.

Tira has been about equally effective in general as well, as is perhaps to be expected given her meteoric rise since Matt Kohls' victory at the 2006 World Championships and her consistent presence in every major tournament since then, largely due to Matt Kohls himself taking her to top finishes everywhere (until abandoning his favorite assassin to abuse his own character card in horrifying ways of late). Her success and popularity have slowed somewhat as more and more answers become available, as well as nearly all competitive decks relying almost exclusively on throws these days, and massively pumped ones at that. Despite the addition of Vimana to her arsenal and her speed, she is still extremely fragile and none of her symbols have very much to offer in the way of damage mitigation - maybe Rigorous Training in Death and Dodge Step in Air. Regardless, she has a knack for pushing damage through and is one of the few characters that is elite in any incarnation that you could possibly run because if this ability alone. I firmly believe, though, that she is a bit of a nuisance and that many players will kiss the ground and thank their stars that she finally gets to go, even more so than Dhalsim you could argue (although I freely admit that may be wishful thinking on my part).

And then there is Sagat, Emperor and God of Muay Thai. Violent, efficient, and an extremely fast character for his entire shelf life, he has been quiet lately but I would surmise only because people have yet to figure out the latest way to abuse him. Like Tira, he has stellar synergy with all 3 of his symbols and can force damage through even the tightest defenses with his overpowered and undercosted burn ability - to which there exists only one legitimate answer, Chief Hold. It was exacerbated further by the now departed Pen Lunge but...nobody should have to eat a Glass Slippers or Overhand Throw twice in a row. The ability to dig for needed cards is rather impressive and combined with the burn, would make him a strong contender in the post-rotation environment anyway, not to mention at the current moment. He was among those characters that I personally considered too good to keep around along with the two above that I already spoke about, so I am glad to see him gone, hough I know for a fact that one of my friends will lament his passing with many tears ;-)

I don't think I really needed to describe how potent these three characters can be; if you've played UFS in any semblance of a competitive environment for even a tiny amount of time, chances are strong that you've been exposed to them. But it helps to contextualize a few things, namely - STG is committed to maintaining a balanced and fun environment in the post-rotation world; some of the early characters created were and are unreasonably powerful and tip the metagame balance too far one way or another; and that cycling out characters along with their cards, even in at a slower pace, is probably a very good thing.

I haven't even mentioned some of the others on their way out, like **Ken**, who at one point was THE dominant character on the UFS scene and now has slowly become less and less viable and attractive as an option. Ironically, he's simply too slow in some ways! Ken did recently make a return appearance at the Top 8 of the Wonderworld AoP but realistically, his atypical Void build which has to be loaded with attacks (leaving less room for defensive cards) along with a far greater number of shutdown answers like Armored Defense have made him nearly obsolete as it is; I won't miss him much. Tycho, another old stalwart of the game, was the first to be confirmed on his way out, but he also has became a little slow for today's UFS, in the United States at least. Apparently, the United Kingdom has yet to catch the memo, as Tycho remains extremely popular there and is still regarded as highly as Dhalsim as far as control characters go, if not higher if some of my friends across the Atlantic are to be believed. While the only significant early Soul Calibur character, **Cassandra**, is already taken care of due to her rather severe Negative Play Experience factor, there are some intriguing and little used promos that would be neat to see stay post-rotation, ***Blanka*** and ***Vega***. Both have excellent abilities and resources, and can play hybrid-type decks equally well.

This last point brings up an interesting argument that has been bandied about on the boards - why have ALL the characters in a particular set selection go at once? I mean, who really wants to utilize some of these cards? I don't hear any clamoring for *Zangief* to remain, and no one I know is rushing to exploit either of the first two Ryus when clearly there are better options available, but it seems many players seem to want to preserve the principle of the thing. Well, I say, good riddance to bad rubbish. Really, does it matter that any of these lesser used characters are going? All their support leaves along with them in the first cut. Were you secretly planning to unleash your dreaded ***Balrog*** upon us? Come on! Nobody been playing with them before and they aren't about to start now. In this respect, I can understand those who speak out of attachment to one particular character, but rationally there is no earthly reason to keep these dead weight characters around. They will still be legal in the "Type 1" format and casually, so no big loss in my estimation.

The other counterpoint is that, logically, what method would you suggest that STG employ in order to keep all of us happy? Should they ban characters on a whim? Should only Dhalsim or Tira or Sagat leave, while the other two stay? Perhaps Justin or Dave or Steve secretly harbor an intense hate Ken, and so they decide to toss only him out and keep the rest instead, and manage to give a decent cover story about why when prompted. How is that equitable? It's not. I'd rather have a fixed, easily understood and progressive character rotation than have it be arbitrary. And if you stop and think about it, there's no choice really; we should just be glad that Sabertooth has given us all this information in advance, so we aren't caught unaware.

Character rotation, along with set rotation, IS coming. And it IS here to stay. And frankly, if my experience in previous CCGs is any indication, it's a necessary and positive step toward keeping longterm health of the game and avoiding power creep. Degenerate interactions, which we've already seen a lot of, happen much less frequently with a more limited and manageable card pool. Research and Development along with the playtesters have less to worry about, and that makes design and implementation of new and risky ideas easier to contain. UFS is a game on the cutting edge as it is; STG has proven time and again that they would rather be on the edge of the power barrier or sometimes go right over it rather than a boring, stale, and safe game with very few options for explosive potential. That wouldn't be attractive to any gamer, certainly not those reared in competitive Magic like me. I applaud them for openly acknowledging that, and the inherent tradeoff that can occur, while heading forward and trying to make the game better. Can you really complain about that? I can't. New players have lower barriers to entry, old players have two exciting formats to mess around in, and the company profits. You can look at it cynically or accept it and move on. I choose the latter.

One small note before I sign off - my Hugo article last week provoked a variety of responses, from the predictable ("BAN HIM!") to the perplexing ("Nobody plays Hugo, do they?"). As I knew it would, that's why I wrote it. Overall, the feedback was very positive and I just wanted to say I appreciate it, and given the large amount of replies to my thread, I may do a follow-up at some point in the future. Also, tonight I will be hosting a Worlds Roundtable chat, with many of the top players in the world in attendance and discussing Worlds 07 and the new meta, so expect to see that Wednesday or Thursday. Until next time...

-Vik