The Assets of Power season is in full swing and so today I decided to take a look at what the results so far are telling us about the current state of standard UFS, if anything. A cursory look at the winners shows that Void *Dhalsim* (Michigan), Death **Nakoruru** (Florida), Fire ***Adon*** (Canada), and Evil **Ukyo** (California) have managed to achieve victory in their respective areas amongst fierce competition.

It is interesting to me that, despite all of STG's efforts to punish higher handsize characters and curb the natural disparity between 8HS characters and those with smaller starting HS - as evidenced by Defender of the Empire, Mr. Karate, Absurd Strength, Way of the Mightiest, and more and more excellent 6HS characters in the tradition of ***Rose*** and both of the popular Yun-Seongs - the fact remains that these characters still seem to come out on top. Both Dhalsim and Nakoruru are overpowered for their large handsizes, featuring two remarkably synergistic and frightening abilities apiece, while Adon is violently, unapologetically fast and benefits from the all those lovely damage bonuses that any of his symbols are capable of providing. That leaves Ukyo, with a printed handsize that is often nothing more than a sick joke, as he is frequently at an effective 13HS on his kill turns, with the ability to discard your whole hand as he pummels you into oblivion with control check cheatery in Evil (Psycho Focus, Float Like a Butterfly, etc.) or card pool-clearing effects in Water (Deathly Ill, Fluid Adaptation, Ibis Minuet). So really, from what these results demonstrate at this point, there has been little if any incentive among the top players to try and of the newer characters with more balanced power level. After all, the concept of balance is rather weak by nature; who really wants that? Well, probably everybody, in the near future; that is to say, post-rotation. But it's clear that, given the choice between the old dogs with new tricks or the new dogs, the people don't want to put down their favorite pets just yet.

Is it just the characters themselves that are relevant to understanding the metagame? No, I think the resources play a major factor. Though I firmly believe every resource is capable of winning a major tournament, it's an unavoidable truth that certain symbols are just overall better equipped than others to deal with all of the possible permutations that one could reasonably expect to face in a major tournament setting. It's something I call the viability factor, an index of the chances of any given resource to win over the others. There is probably no statistical method of measuring such an index that I am aware of, so this will be based on pure reasoning and past history, and my own estimation for whatever that's worth. Let's examine each resource in turn and see what we can glean from their respective results (in alphabetical order):

Air (viability factor: Medium) - Air is intriguing in that it's become weakened in some respects due to momentum control yet arguably remains among the top resources simply due to it's blistering attack lineup. There is barely any symbols out there capable of competing with Air's vicious attack base, whether it be the numerous massive and painful Throws - Overhand Throw, Strike Heads, Air Backbreaker - or power utility attacks like Shadow Banishment and Sky High Claw, or yet a third option in ridiculous Multiples such as Bo Rush and the near-ubiquitous Criminal Uppercut - Air has it all. And I didn't even mention the great character-only bombers! Air's momentum generation suffers greatly against Absurd Strength/Mortal Strike, yet the resource offers a fair amount of flexibility with very strong anti-control pieces (Whimsy, Instant Hell Murder, Envy) and some control of it's own in newer cards like Brethren of the Coast. Shane Duckworth took 3rd at Worlds with Air *Yun-Seong* despite Mortal Strike being legal, and while his power has been curbed a bit, both he and a his close cousin ***Yun-Seong*** are a threat to win any tournament they enter, and thanks to DotE, they aren't the only ones.

All (viability factor: Medium) - All was often competely neglected as a resource until very recently. Since the release of Blades of Fury and Extreme Rivals and the following sets and Battle Pack, that has changed in dramatic fashion. All has gotten more and more power pieces; some obvious, some less so. I've already mentioned Defender of the Empire in context of Air, but it bears repeating that this card alone has probably made All markedly better. That's not the full extent of it, though, not by a longshot. There is Dodge Step and Shotokan Style for action-based damage mitigation, Mortal Strike for momentum control, Evil Shunned and Grieving For the Master in foundation-based damage redux, Heisheng Jian as the jack of all trades (and anti-Start Over and Lost Memories), and The Curse Broken to counter Yoga Mastery and LM negation effects. Combine all the recent stuff with Yoga, Unorthodox Style, and a judicious selection of powerful attacks, and All is easily capable of dealing with most anything out there. While so far an All deck has yet to win a major tourney, Jeremy Ray's *Dan* deck that was Top 8 at Worlds was a significant breakthrough for this resource and, I believe, a harbinger of things to come.

Chaos (viability factor: Low) - Perhaps no resource has been crippled in recent releases like Chaos has. It wasn't a very big symbol to begin with, and now with AS/MS present everywhere, it gets hurt even more. If you look closely at Chaos' base, it does have a lot going for it aside from creating and molding momentum - Soul Power, Fortune Teller, Whimsy, CC Hax like Dark Hado and Unbridled Rage - but with extremely limited damage control and not much in the way of options to explore, along with very few answers to either speed aggro or reset/methodical control, it's really bleak for Chaos in general at the moment. It would be somewhat manageable if Chaos' overall attack base wasn't so weak or momentum-reliant, but even with some recent solid additions like Ken's Low Roundhouse and such, it's arguably the worst attack lineup in the game (maybe Death is a bit worse, but that's about it). Both versions of K' are very good and very powerful, as is any version of Vega and Promo Blanka and Cammy, but aside from that and one-shot fragile trick kills like Moonbeam Slicer and Tsunami Sabre, Chaos doesn't really have much else going for it in a really competitive environment right now. Hopefully that will change in the future, as STG grooms Chaos to be the next control symbol of choice (and it's already happening, with Pieces of Eight, Brethren of the Coast, and Control the Present).

Death (viability factor: High) - Death has always been a power resource and until rotation in February, I don't see that changing anytime soon. Death has a fantastic selection of characters to choose from, is extremely flexible in aggro and control options among the foundation base, has access to Start Over and Power of the Edge, and even with a fairly pathetic attack base and extremely poor blocking, it has plenty of answers to deal with anything you can conceivably toss at it. While you should know the traditional power pieces at Death's disposal by now - Yoga Mastery, Lost Memories, Friends and Rivals, etc. - two recent boons to the Death arsenal have increased it's pure power stranglehold even further. I speak of Higher Calibur and Rigorous Training, of course. Both are ridiculously useful in all facets of the game and can be autowin cards depending on the matchup, and the only resource shared by both is Death. How convenient! As Christopher Barber's classic Orlando AoP-winning Nakoruru deck illustrates, even with minimal updates Death is a strong contender to take any crown.

Earth (viability factor: High) - No symbol in the game fascinates me like Earth. It's always been my favorite, despite my well-known fondness for Void, and nowadays it has so many metagame answers that Earth control is more and more feasible. Oh yeah, it also has access to Absurd Strength, which from what I hear is kinda good. Earth is, in my estimation, the single most adaptable resource in the game and can play as a fast beater or pace itself with control elements in the same deck with ease, even at the same time. No other resource can really do that as effectively, save perhaps Evil. But even Evil doesn't have the ridiculously large number of throws that have always been a hallmark of this resource. O-Throw, Witch Hunt, Close Throw, Air Throw - yeah it gets gross. Especially with Hammer and Way of the Hammer (err...Way of the Mightiest) on top of that. The true power of Earth, however, lies in it's deceptive control suite. Armored Defense and Mortal Strike by themselves wreck half the field, Ring Veteran is solid against just about anything, and Heisheng, Rigorous T, and The Curse Broken handle other control and are pretty flexible. Earth has it's damage pumps in Fierce Competitor and so on, and also damage chopping with Chief Hold, Awakening and Tendon Strength, which also functions as anti-discard. Combine all that with the strong characters out there - **Adon**, *Sagat*, *Twelve*, ****Astaroth****, ***Zangief*** - and you've got a lot of tools to win with.

Evil (viability factor: High) - It's clear, even if you only tangentially follow the goings-on of major tournaments in the UFS scene, that Evil is the predominant resource in UFS and has been so for quite a while. Evil has all the tools to consistently defeat most other resources and can do so in any number of differing methods - whether it be control check hacking (sharing a large number of pieces listed in Chaos above), speeding up it's own kill turns considerably (Psycho Focus, Kunai), or simply bashing your head in with efficient attacks like Chain Throw, Buffalo Headbutt, Shoulder Rush, and the like, Evil has few if any weaknesses at the moment. From the traditional powers such as Lost Memories and Power of the Edge to the new makeup of Evil that features more CC Hax in the form of Ruler of Southtown and Won't Settle For Second Best along with damage boosts Hammer and Way of the Hammer, of course, and any number of cheap and useful foundations...Evil isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Evil also has a fantastic slate of top tier characters to select from, everything from *M. Bison* to ***Tira*** to Matt Kohls to *Vega* to **Ukyo** and any Ibuki, and the new ****Astaroth**** is catching a lot of folks' eyes, like my writing buddy ceejaybee for instance. Oh, did I mention Evil has plenty of asset control - Grim Stride - and both universal reset buttons in Start Over and Infiltrating? Even without significant damage mitigation to speak of, you can expect any Top 8 to have some sort of Evil presence (and I don't mean those filthy players who refuse to shower...ugh).

Fire (viability factor: High) - Fire was always good, just not great, until a few months ago. You could argue the turning point was when James Hata beat me with his fantastic ***Cody*** deck in the ECC Finals. Up to that point, Void and Death tended to dominate Fire, but James' deck was not very enhance-reliant and tended to play conservatively for a Fire build, with a lot of great techy answers like Hell Slayer. Nowadays, hardly any Top 8 lacks a Fire build, whether it be **Adon** or *Adon*, Matt Kohls, Elena, or some other nasty speed kill fueled by AS. Morrigan has already become a popular character, and she has a ton of answers vs. Matt Kohls and other blazing aggro decks. Fire's card pool is filled with terrific attacks of all variety, tons of damage pumps, some great defensive answers in Idyllic Kamui Kotan and Friends and Rivals, and Hop for quickie momentum. Fire's attacks are second to none, whether it be the universally irritating Chain Throw, a brutal early Seichu Nidan Tsuki or some other such nonsense. The speed of Fire, currently, is off the charts so far in the short history of UFS, and aside from autokills or degenerate combos there really hasn't been a symbol that is as capable of consistent first and second turn kills overall. Until now. You could argue that Fire alone has forced control to adapt face the possibility of being left in the dust, and has all but killed Order control.

Good (viability factor: Low) - I like Good, I really do. It's really...good. Underrated, even. However, it has some serious problems that have so far prevented it from winning much of anything, let alone coming close. In fact, no Good-based deck cracked the Top 16 of this year's Worlds. To be fair, the resource has a lot of potential and is getting better, slowly. It finally received a true answer to Yoga Mastery/Lost Memories in Rigorous Training, if on a somewhat limited basis, and Profitable Opportunity allows another out to both of these potential trouble cards. Good's strengths are very relevant in the current meta - namely, reducing damage to practically nothing or occasionally even below that. Battle Disc System and The Ninja Computer Geek combined with fantastic splits in Echoing Roar and Forsaken are rather nasty, don't you think? Chief Hold and Nagase's Blog help a lot, too. The Don's Right Hand Man and Investigations both allow for looping attacks, particularly Reversals which can quickly get out of hand with Compassionate Heroism (another card with dual uses). Challenged and Mission of Peace allow for repeated abuse of any of the aforementioned cards, and the attack lineup for Good is pretty potent, featuring a great number of Throws and Reversals that hit quite hard and are very cost effective (Air Backbreaker, Witch Hunt, Strike Heads). Combined with the two big general Infinity answers, Trade Your Passion For Glory and Seal of Cessation, Good may finally have enough to warrant a second look. The wonderful trifecta of Morrigan, Elena, and Nakoruru to choose from can't hurt either.

Life (viability factor: Medium) - In terms of competitive viability, Life suffers from many of the same problems that Good does. It has plenty of damage redux, as described in detail just a few sentences back, since most of it shares the same resource. Life is significantly faster, though, and due to much of Ibuki's support in general it has far better options available for dealing with control. With the rise of SoC, Ninjitsu in particular has become more and more useful. Life has the staple Widow Maker/With Hunt combination, as well as Close Throw for additional bang, and solid finishers such as Sophitia's Guardian Judgement, Treacherous Ballade and Lela Mutsube. Life has good solid ways to push through attacks, either via zone-changing with F and R and Aerial Combatant or with large speed pumps like Silent Movement and Unrequited Love. Life's defensive suite, attack base, speed, and anti-control abilities - in conjunction with solid characters in Ibuki, Nakoruru, ***Xianghua***, and others - makes it likely that it is only a matter of time before a pure Life deck steps up and wins a major tournament. Joshua Lowen's hybrid Life/Water Ibuki managed to win the New Zealand Championships and eke into Top 16 at Worlds, and Nick Snider's recent Top 8 at the Orlando AoP with Life Xianghua offers further evidence that Life is gaining ground on the other top resources.

Order (viability factor: Low/Medium) - I'm not sure what to make of Order at the moment. Top to bottom, it's still loaded with fantastic options for control. It wasn't too long ago that Order decks dominated the format; the Canadian Nationals featured no less than 5 Order control decks in the Top 8. Still, even at that event, Simon Tang was unable to deal with the speed of Fireball Matt Kohls and since then, Order has become less and less successful in UFS of late. It shows in the decline of Tycho, who went from one of the premiere control characters in the game to a near non-entity at this point; he didn't even place at Worlds! Order has exactly zero real options for dealing with Absurd Strength, and since the Hammer all but defines the meta, this is a major hurdle to clear. Yeah, using Ruler of Southtown to drop all checks to zero while you take your sweet time setting up helps a lot - except you have to be able to get it out and manage to live through your next turn, no small feat with Hammered Throws everywhere. Order and Law is incredibly risky with Pure of Heart floating around and most of Order's other stellar cards, even Ring Veteran, have become minimally useful. That attack lineup is also mostly awful, with only one or two standouts to speak of, namely Moon Sault Slayer and Ryu's Shoryuken EXTRA. Even with Start Over/Infiltrating to hang it's hat on and Whereabouts Unknown for momentum, Order is in a transition phase and might need a bit of a boost.

Void (viability factor: High) - They used to call John Gotti the "Teflon Don", because nothing that he was charged with ever stuck to him. Void, similarly, is the Teflon Don of resources - give other symbols answers, ban it's best characters, announce rotation which will eventually seriously hamper it - bah, who cares? Void is indifferent and undying. As long as my favorite Yoga Master, *Dhalsim*, remains legal, along with Backflip, Void Trinity, and especially Emptiness, Void isn't going to lose it's effectiveness anytime soon. And it's gotten even better thanks to the Ryu/Akuma Battle Pack - Constant Training and Mortal Strike are already staples. As I outlined last week, the recent history of Dhalsim alone at recent tourneys is remarkable and perhaps it qualifies as the most consistently exemplary run of any character to date. That's not even considering ***Rock***, who has become equally effective if not moreso. He took 2nd at US Nationals, New Zealand Nationals, and Worlds, and it seems only a matter of time before he pulls through and finally wins. Void's complete eminence over the game has eroded significantly, I grant you, yet it's raw power has not diminished one iota. While the future of Void brings great, sweeping changes on the horizon, in the present it's viability remains just fine, thank you very much.

Water (viability factor: High) - Last but not least, we have one of the more transient resources, Water. Water went from ill-defined and poorly supported early on to extremely lethal and loaded with excellent cardboard at every turn right now. Hell, any card that features Ibuki on it makes Water dangerous - Kasumi Gaki, Kubi Ori, Kunai, Ninjitsu, Shinobi Tradition, etc. - and Kasumi-Suzaku is one of the best character-only finishers in the game, if not THE best. Water has lots of great damage redux, good recursion like Hero of Southtown, Waterfall's Momentum, and TDRHM; and Impetuous, which makes Hugo wince and sometimes outright weep in agony. Strike Heads, Clones, Forsaken, Dee Jay's Crouching Roundhouse - Water has definitely been blessed with cheap and effective attacks and spamming them at your opponent's face is easy with all those lovely high rolls to choose from. With fewer and fewer weaknesses to exploit, Water is clearly in the aggro elite and can potentially play control pretty well too. With either *Ibuki* or **Ibuki**, *Twelve* or **Twelve**, *Yoshitora*, Tycho, *Dee Jay*, **Ukyo**, ***Sakura*** and many others to choose from, Water may have the best character selection on the planet as well. While susceptible to mass removal, that's about the only thing, and therefore a solid Water deck is easily capable of victory in any setting.

You'll notice I barely touched on three important cards that probably impact this discussion quite a lot - namely, Hugo, Trade Your Passion For Glory, and Seal of Cessation. One, I covered in extensive detail already (the fatman, of course) and frankly, since he's still legal - either plan to deal with him or risk your own peril, there's not much more to discuss. The two Infinity answers can be used by anybody and have saturated the meta to the point of near-ubiquity; they can shore up weak areas in your decks as needed, so again - there's nothing else I could say that would convince you to use or not use them; it's up to you. They are both excellent, easily accessible general answers to all sorts of problems and so is the under-utilized Final Countdown for that matter. If you have space for any, it makes sense to make use of them.

This isn't rocket science, and obviously most of you experienced players probably intuitively know all this already. For those that don't, I hope this was helpful and somewhat instructive in better understanding the resources and their abilities relating to winning it all in UFS. It wasn't meant to be a complete guide to each resource and it's clearly tempered by my opinion, but hopefully not too much! Either way, feel free to disagree with my thoughts and as always, drop me a line via PM on the boards or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , no matter what you have to say. Till next time...

-Vik