While not many of the new cards from set 7 have been adapted into our current decks, it seems that SR Guile has risen to power with a solid top 8 finish in northern California. His deck features the Ruler of Southtown, which makes all control values whatever number he wants (it really doesn't matter) and only allows you to play one card a turn. If that card happens to be a foundation, he can pretty much cancel it out with Cursed Blood, another set 7 card. He also uses Buddhist Devotion to cheat on his turn, baiting you into dumping your hand out of the frustration of not being able to play anything, before dropping something silly, like Double Somersault Kick, which you won't be able to block, because a card has already been played this turn. Note: the Guile player can play as many cards as he wants. His opponent, however, can only play one. This is, thus far, the newest competitive deck to come out of set 7, and if you haven't played against it yet, prepare yourself. I expect to see many iterations of it in the coming months. Rumor has it, that SR Guile was the final nail in the Ruler of Southtown's coffin, as he abuses it in way Miser can only dream of.

Next up, is a list of all the characters to place top finishes in all the AoP reports I could gather. While some of the information is a bit sketchy, mainly because I had to gather it from a number of different sources of varying quality, most of it should be correct. The message boards were swimming with AoP reports, but the sum of that information can be found here. Winners are marked by an asterisk {*}.

D.C. Regionals Top 4

Promo Hugo
Promo Adon
Promo Tira
Promo Cody* 

Cape Coral Assets of Power Top 8

Promo Xianghua [Life]
Promo Morrigan [Life, Death, Good]
Promo Tira [Evil]
Promo Nightmare [Death]*
SR Ibuki [Water]
SR Vega [Evil]
Rare Yun-Seong [Air]
Rare Sankuro [Fire, Evil] 

Arlington Assets of Power Top 8

SR Dhalsim*
SR Dhalsim
Starter Ryu (5 dot)
UR Yun-Seong
Promo Matt Kohls
Starter Abyss
Promo Tira 

Washington (?) Assets of Power Top 8

Rare Seth [Death]
Rare Dimitri [Death]
Rare Sankuro [Evil/Fire]*
Promo Sakura [Order, Void, Water]
Promo Chester [Void]
SR Vega [Evil]
Promo Yun-Seong [Order]
SR Sagat [Earth]

San Antonio Assets of Power Top 8

Starter Ryu (Dark Path)
Promo Adon
Promo Rock
Promo Nakoruru
Rare Demitri
Promo Matt Kohls
Promo Mai
SR Dhalsim 

New York Assets of Power Top 8

Promo Elena*
Promo Matt Kohls
Promo Elena
Promo Tira
Promo Tira
Promo Chun Li
Promo Adon
SR Dhalsim 

Northern California Assets of Power Top 8

SR Dhalsim
Promo Nakoruru
Promo Matt Kohls
SR Guile
Promo Hugo
? Abyss
Promo Xianghua
Promo M. Bison 

Louisville Assets of Power Top 8

Promo Hugo*
Rare Astaroth
Promo Matt Kohls*
Rare Akuma (5 dot)
Promo Dan
SR Ibuki
Promo Ukyo
Promo Yun-Seong 

Orlando Assets of Power Top 8

Promo Nakoruru [Death]*
Promo Elena [Life]
Promo Xianghua [Life]
SR Dhalsim [Void]
Promo Cassandra [Life]
SR Twelve [Earth]
Promo Dan [All]
Promo Tira [Evil, Air] 

Green Bay Assets of Power Top 8

Promo Tira [Evil]
SR Sagat [Air]*
Rare Ibuki [Evil]
Promo Elena [Death, Fire]
Promo Yoshimitsu [?]
SR Zasalamel [Order]
SR R. Mika [Earth]
Promo Mina [Good] 

This is an awful lot of information to be sure, but it's also quite vague. People are hesitant to post decklists, so the community continues on in the dark for longer than it should. However, what useful information we can glean from all these names and symbols, is something of a tier system within UFS. Those of us who are familiar with the fighting games UFS is based on know something of tier systems. What they are is an objective analysis of the capabilities of any given fighting game character. In a theoretical environment, characters of a higher tier have more natural advantages than characters of a lower tier. In practice, these advantages (or disadvantages) can be made up for by the players, because players also have varying levels of skill that can nullify tier systems to a certain extent. An obvious example, however, would be perhaps most easily seen in Street Fighter 3^rd Strike. A master Ken player is going to have to work very hard to defeat a Gill player, even though his opponent's skill is lower. Gill is obviously banned from tournament use because his abilities place him on a tier above every other fighter in the game. The same concepts can be applied to UFS. I've compiled a list of what I believe to be the top tier of playable characters within UFS. This doesn't not mean you can't do well with other characters, as you'll notice many names from the lists above are not on the list below. What this means, objectively is that any deck you have that runs off of any given symbol, might just be better using one of the characters below. Your chances of doing well may rise slightly with the adoption of one of the names below.

UFS' current top tier of characters

SR Dhalsim [Death, Void]
The old bat is still hanging out with the new blood. No surprises here. He's cutting through all the red tape of discard hate, and working harder than he's used to is all. 

Promo Tira [Evil, Air]
Tira has only gotten scarier with the additions of Vimana and Ippachi to her already impressive arsenal. Nothing new here, Tira still beats face.

Promo Matt Kohls [Evil, Fire]
Poor Matt is getting his kicks in while he's still got the chance. When he's not looping Fireballs for fatal, he's looping Infiltrating to wall you in.

Promo Hugo [Every symbol in the game]
Public enemy number one is still doing what he does best. Walling you in and then smashing your face.

Promo Elena [Good, Death, Fire]
A relative newcomer, she specializes in going second and taking opponents down in the early game. She is a notable Hugo-killer.

Promo Nakoruru [Death]
Nak was the first to step up to defend control's viability in the new aggro environment. Her popularity in the current tournament scene shows she won't be going anywhere until STG chases her into Legacy format only.

Rare Astaroth [Earth, Evil]
Another newbie, but a rather powerful one. If 6/31 wasn't good enough for you, his ability allows him to smash you with high-damage throws, or simply heal off of said throws, making him almost impossible to bring down. Bonus points for being nearly immune to Absurd Strength, and yet being able to toss the same card back at you. Twice off of one card.

Promo Morrigan [Good, Death, Fire]
The brilliant creation of Chris Kovaz is absolutely stunning. Go long against him only to find your deck has no attacks in it. Go for broke and get your attacks thrown right back at you. Expect Morrigan to remain in the top tier as the rotation occurs.

SR Vega [Evil]
Vega the Void killer is still alive and well. When he's not winning world championships, he's destroying people in game stores near you.

SR, Rare Ibukis [Evil, Water]
She can combo you, she can counter your control foundations, she can turn 1 kill you, she does just about everything. Easily the most versatile character on the list.

Rare Yun-Seong [Air]
A.K.A. The people's champion, Yun-Seong is a strong reason to buy Blades of Fury packs, and easily the most accessible character for people who are just starting the game.

Promo Cody (blue) [Evil, Death, Fire]
Once the Red Cody was printed, the usefulness of this guy flew through the roof, and yet his popularity steadily declined. This guy is still awesome, folks.

SR Guile [Order]
The newest of the new guys. There's an awful lot of speculation that this Guile got Ruler of Southtown banned. Guile of Southtown is such a ridiculously controlling deck, it makes Hugo look like a girl scout. Initial indications seem to show that he might fall out of favor once rotation hits, however.

Promo Xianghua [Life]
The greatest champion of the Life symbol has remained true to her roots and continued to post Top 8s. Solid, and consistent as ever.

Promo Adon [Fire]
Quite possibly the best aggro character in the environment right now, second only to Promo Tira. An 8 Handsize Fire character with ANY ability is one to be taken seriously.

I'd also like to leave you with my impression of the tier structure of the symbols in the game. Some are obvious, others are a bit more obscure. I settled on four tiers for the symbols. The top tier represents symbols in widespread use with a history of dominance. Characters with these symbols are quite easy to build and perform with. The second tier represents symbols that have done well consistently, except only with certain characters, in the case of Air, we have Yun-Seong, and with Life, Xianghua. The third tier represents the symbols that are better than the bottom tier, as they see more play, and more success. Finally, the bottom tier represents the symbols that are hardest to play, for lack of powerful/playable cards. Often times, the character cards will have to pick up the slack for the rest of the deck, but that character has to be immensely powerful to justify using that symbol.

Tier Structure of the Symbols

Top Tier - Evil, Death, Void, Fire

No surprises here. Fire has been destroying everything in its path since Blades of Fury/Extreme Rivals. Evil, Death and Void have been doing the same for far, far longer. It took a bit for Death and Void to fall back in step with Fire's newfound dominance, but once they caught up they proved to be (still) just as powerful.

Tier 2 - Air, Life

You can't deny the fact that sitting across from Yun-Seong is a scary situation. How fast will he kill you this game? Turn 2? Air Yun-Seong is one of the most powerful aggro decks available right now. No one really knows how Life Xianghua wins so much, but she just does. It's science. Kubi Ori for 4? I'll take it.

Tier 3 - Earth, All, Water

Of the three, I would have to say Earth is the most powerful. Water still has its combo shenanigans with Ukyo Stamp decks, and of course Kubi Ori lock. Water is THE symbol for infinite combos, and would be listed higher if those combos were more reliable. All has a handful of solid finishes under its belt, but no real champions for its symbol, and nothing consistent enough to be called a dominant deck. I really don't count Hugo as an All character, because most of the time he's running off of multiple symbols and only borrowing the best All has to offer.

Bottom Tier - Chaos, Order, Good

Ah, the bottom of the barrel. Someone has to finish last, you know. As much as I hate to see Order lining the bottom of the bin, I think it's a fitting place. Every Order deck I've ever heard of is far too slow to be anything more than a cute tool box deck. Chaos' fortunes seem like they might change for the better very soon, and Good is already getting some solid cards from set 7. Look for it to be on the rise.

A couple words before I leave this table behind: Fire seems to have an expiration date on its success. Defender will be gone soon, and Red Gi will be less powerful. Life and Water lose Kubi Ori, meaning they might also fall out of use. Good has gotten what is arguably the best card in set 7 with Roam the World, as well as Spirtual Center, which might see it hop up to playabilty with certain characters. It might hop up as high as tier 2, but is limited by the fact that Roam the World is so much better in Death. Chaos seems to be on every new card these days, perhaps someone will figure out how to put it to use. Also, All seems to be exactly in the right place to host THE mill deck that will come out of set 7, however, for the time being, I stand by my assessment. Feel free to PM me on the forums. My username is Ceejaybee. I hope this information helps.

-Ceejaybee