The Evil Problem

Now, anyone who has been following the metagame in the past month or so since Set 8 can tell you that Evil is where it's at, if you're a serious competitor. Thusfar, all of the reported top 8s in AoPs since Set 8 have been dominated by Evil decks, sometimes taking up more than half the slots. It was almost a given that we would have to fight Evil decks to take home any kind of a respectable finish. Thus, in order to perform well, one would need a solid anti-Evil game plan. Evil vs. Evil, however, will always boil down to which player has the most expensive deck, or which player has the better luck of the draw. In order to have solid match-ups against Evil, we needed to come up with ways to attack from an unexpected angle, with threats that weren't available to Evil. Naturally, the problem with this approach is finding threats of this kind that have the raw power to attack Evil this way. It's not easy in any sense of the word.

So, one day, when preparing for the SCC, Alex Costa and I are sitting around trying to come up with decks to play, as both of us felt it would be necessary to attack other Evil decks from outside the symbol. Now, he may have been a bit biased, but he felt that Order was the best bet for us, and from there we developed 2 separate decks to try our hand at the theory.

Deadly Rave ..Sophitia.. by Carlos Javier Brito/Alex Costa

This is the deck I piloted for the SCC teams event. Since we were working on attacking from unexpected angles, we needed to make sure we were doing something Evil couldn't do, but more importantly, something Evil couldn't stop. Sophitia's discard ability went almost unopposed during both days of the SCC, and the few times it was opposed by cards like Pieces of Eight, the fact that the E: was free out-muscled the foundation-based negation every time. Sophitia's second ability breaks up Chain Throw loops, and stops Starter Mai dead in her tracks as I always have 6-7 momentum as early as turn 3. Armored Defense + Tough Outer Shell were employed early on to prevent the degenerate recursion of Military Rank and Gorgeous Team, and Holding Ground is in to fight Absurd Strength. So far, so good right?

My experiences at the GCC left me searching for an answer for problematic characters like Talbain, Demitri and Astaroth, that could absorb attacks with little to no ill effect. As an added bonus, any strategy that is good against them, is good against characters that gain massive amounts of life. To solve this problem, I turned to Harold Ellis, who paved the way with his Ivy burn deck, and Tristan Del Valle, who in his last day with our playgroup revealed his Deadly Rave tech to me. The problem with Deadly Rave, of course, is getting it to hit, as it is quite slow, and aims right down the middle. Sophitia seemed to be made to Rave, as it were, and the 1CC found a good home with my deck. Fortune Teller+Chobi Jishi means I take no damage from my Deadly Raves, while my opponent burns for every stack control check. With Adopted, it is quite easy to stay at full vitality, meaning Deadly Raving for 24 damage is almost always an option. As an interesting side note, the Promo version of Sophitia, when stacked also reduces the damage I take from Deadly Rave by 2. Meaning a 24 damage Deadly Rave only does 16 damage to me. It ended up being quite useful in the long run.

So, day 1 I played this deck, with my teammates Aulden and Osei, an honorable member of Team Southtown who came all the way from New York, but I suffered from a distinct lack of decent match-ups. We lost every roll day 1, and I think Aulden and his Promo Cody was the first player to get tied up every single time. That left me and Osei's Earth Zangief build to determine who we had to play, but more often than not, I ended up playing the character Osei didn't want to face because his Earth deck had really terrible match-ups. I even had to take the single worst match-up in the game for my Deadly Rave strategy- Rare Donovon - because Osei's deck was just a face-beater with no real tricks. I only lost 2 matches the entire night, however, and both came at the hands of Starter Akuma off of Evil, both against Southtown players that knew my deck inside-out, and both of whom saved Pieces of Eight exclusively for the Deadly Rave enhance.  Overall, I would have to call the deck a great success, but unfortunately, I never got the chance to collect the more valuable singles data, because I misplaced my Fortune Tellers day 2, and had to enter the singles event without Deadly Rave, making my deck a sub-par aggro-dependent hybrid.

Pairing the deck up in teams is a dream, however, as the deck is almost immune to aggro decks without the ability to shut down Sophitia. Sophitia+ Armored Defense means they get 1 attack per turn, and it's doing printed thanks to Holding Ground. Sophitia's E: is also a great way to snatch those pesky I Forces and Absurd Strengths from their hand. Every now and then you eat a Dodge Step or a Chinese Sword Style, but as long as it's on their turn, it all good, because they have no hand for yours. The deck also has a great strategy against tanks, that they'll never see coming.

Rare Yun-Seong by Alex Costa/Carlos Javier Brito

This deck was piloted by Alex Costa to a first place finish in the Team Event. At a glance, both decks have a lot of similarities, but a closer inspection reveals that Alex's decks is tuned to the strengths of his character, as it should be. A single Iceberg Circular sets up N-Type Human for the rest of the game. Alex doesn't have to worry about losing a foundation, because a momentum is just as good to Rare Yun-Seong. N-Type reduces the dependency on Whereabouts as well as providing hand disruption for Alex. After a resolved N-Type, Alex is also left with a brand new, readied momentum which he can use for his control checks. If all goes according to plan, Alex never has to commit a foundation in his staging area to pass control checks, leaving his with all of his abilities when he passes his turn. Alex's deck, unlike my own, takes full advantage of Military Rank, using it to loop Iceberg Circulars again and again, crippling his opponent's key foundations, while gaining new ones (in his momentum) for himself. When the game is ready to be mopped up, Alex can fish up Kuzuryu Reppa, which in turn can draw him into a fatal Bird of Prey. That was the plan and it worked out rather well, I must say.

Life Nakoruru by Efrain Costa

It wouldn't seem right to talk about the SCC team event without talking about what I consider the best deck in the room that day. This masterpiece is the product of Efrain Costa's silent fury, and one of the co-champions of the team event. You would never know the man was in the room until he shows up across the table from you for the finals. Many people like to talk about their decks at the slightest opportunity. Efrain likes to beat you with his.

Tricky, tricky, Efrain. Anyways, the deck kills you with ridiculously fast Senkyutai's pumped by Unrequited (or the speed boost of your choice) + Deceptive Look. Ninjitsu and Senkyutai work together to make sure nothing can stop what's coming, and Nakoruru stops their character and their best foundations from ever being a relevant factor. The entire deck is like an arrow that only flies in one direction - for the throat. There's really nothing else to say about it, except this is the benchmark that all aggro decks need to live up to from now on.

Can your aggro deck do all this?

No?

Then move on. It's actually really useful to think of it that way.

Rare Donovon Foundation Lockout by Ryan Riley

It's interesting to see that Ryan's anti-evil approach was very similar to mine and Alex's. Order was the symbol of choice for Ryan, but if you look closely you'll notice that Ryan is using all three of Donovan's symbols to their full extent, enabling him to do things Alex and I could only dream of at the time. Looking at this deck makes me believe that Ryan has a better grasp of the block 2 metagame than anyone else. One of the things I didn't count on for the SCC was the overwhelming popularity of Bloods Runs True. They are in every deck that sports its symbols, and the card itself randomly just gets you there. It would be no understatement if I called this card the best card in the format, as I honestly believe it is. Ryan planned for it and against it, using his maindeck Martial Arts Champions to negate opposing BRTs while allowing his own to resolve. Fight for the Future means that Ryan can use Experienced Combatant without fear to lock up his opponent's best foundations and Terrible Discovery makes for a fine Nakoruru impersonation.

Order is proving itself to be as fine a symbol as the game has to offer, providing significant advantages over Evil with its unorthodox style of control. Against aggro, Ryan uses his Terrible Discovery to set up Assassination Arts, and if things get hectic, in comes Happy Holidays. Armored Defense? Meet Oral Dead. The deck has a plan for everything, and if anything comes up that Ryan doesn't have a plan for, Blood Runs True runs it straight into the ground. Thanks for playing.

Obviously the deck tries to kill you with one really large Shin Shoryuken, which you're not going to block, because of Blood Runs True, a card that, as it turns out, does everything, including your homework, because you don't need a plan against things that your opponent won't be passing. I honestly felt like this was the best deck in the room for the singles event. Ryan did very well, finishing first in the Swiss rounds, and netting himself a top 8 for his troubles.

Promo Xianghua by Nick Snider

Finally, we move on to what is my favorite deck of the SCC, that of Nick Snider, and his Promo Xianghua. Nick was very wise to include Death foundations in his new build. Without them, he would have never beaten me. As many of you know, I'm quite partial to Roam the World, a card that requires more than a little work to fit into a top-tier deck. Here we have another take on Life aggro, only Nick chose to forgo Deceptive Look, perhaps because Xianghua herself, as well as Shallow Swipe handle the damage problem quite nicely. Trust me, being on the receiving end of Xianghua's wrath is nothing to be taken lightly. I highly enjoyed my match with Nick, as we exchanged a lot of friendly banter about the metagame, and Death's place in the new format as we tossed attacks back and forth.

In the end, Nick took me down after sideboards by switching in to Nakoruru, a move which I knew spelled my doom, as dependent as my deck is on Sophitia to make it work. It was a wise move, and a powerful one as well, one that doesn't mess with the deck's symbols, as Xianghua and Nak both share Life and Death. Out of curiosity, I asked Nick why Ibuki was in the deck, to which he replied that it was his anti-mill tech, as Ibuki can commit the mill player's entire staging area during a Contemplation spree. As a bonus, Ibuki trades in Roam the World for a set of Contemplations of her own, a cagey move that many mill decks are quite weak against.

What I really like about Nick's deck is just how well Nick uses Roam the World. A single Roam is really like two in Nick's staging area, as he can Roam, play a card, ready Roam, and Roam again. A move he used to shut off Sophitia, and then Holding Ground, again and again during our match. That's just the kind of abuse aggro needs to stay afloat in the world of Evil negation, especially with the coming of Red Lotus. In addition to that, Nick also has a plan for others with the same plan of committing his key cards, Extreme Rivals.

Talking with Nick, he informed me that he wished he had packed some Martial Arts Champions somewhere in his deck, as they could have helped him more against Blood Runs True, one of the dominant cards of the SCC.

Impressions

The game has changed a lot since the GCC. Set 8 has, in some ways, behaved exactly as we expected, but it has also done a lot to surprise us. Here are some of the impressions I gathered as I floated around the room, watching games.

Blood Runs True is everywhere

You NEED a plan against this card or you NEED to be playing it, or BOTH. This card is far more powerful than I can describe to you. You WILL fail important cards, and then you will fail important blocks. This isn't exactly a budget card either, which means all of us poor players out there will have to work twice as hard as those Haves out there running around with it. This card actually does everything, which leads me directly to my next point.

CC Hax is ridiculously powerful

Akuma + BRT = Game Over

And let's not forget seclusion either...

One of the coolest decks I saw at the SCC was an Andrew Olexa build by Omar Chavez, which at one point I saw set up with 3 Blood Runs True in his staging area. It's safe to say he won that game. Honestly, CC Hax was the entire story of the SCC. If you weren't making your opponent fail stuff, you probably weren't winning. There were far less of the intricate combo decks that the GCC offered, and much more decks that simply won off the back of making opponents fail their blocks. It's almost disheartening, as Evil Plans and Ayame's Scarf are not up to the task of stopping this brand of CC Hax. Once again we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as a new archetype rises to power with a distinct lack of answers to it. CC Hax has never been this easy to use, or this amazingly powerful.

Commiting card is still grossly powerful, and almost out of control

Red Lotus was printed for a reason. I'm sure someone at STG noticed that Roam the World and Trade Your Passion handle just about every problem card in existence. So, Red Lotus was printed, but it isn't enough is it? Especially since it was only given 3 symbols, and one of those just happens to be Evil... I recently met fellow writer Vikram Sareem and the SCC, and managed to get in a friendly match with him and his Void Ibuki. His kill turns were ridiculous. Roam, Trade, Roam, Ibuki F, blowing up 5 foundations, ready Roam x2 + Trade, and commit two of your foundations, Roam again, Roam again, Trade again, Seichu. That kind of muscle will always beat Red Lotus. The same story happened with just about every Akuma deck I played. It was obvious from round 1 that I was positioned in the wrong way for this tournament. All of my answers were always committed, and committed answers are useless answers.

Evil has disgusting lock-out power

I watched most of the finals between Vikram Sareem and my friend Steve Kline. Both games that went to Vik, Vik had overwhelming board control with multiple Addes Syndicates, Red Lotuses, Higher Calibers, Pieces etc. The only negation that Vik wasn't sporting as far as I could tell was Oral Dead, and it honestly didn't look like he needed it, either. The Evil Brick Wall will only get tougher once cards like Giradot's Leadership and Revenant's Calling start circulating, and really, at that point there will really only be one choice when making your deck for any tournament:

Evil?

Or

Something weaker that will be harder to play?

UFS has gotten more expensive

As if it weren't bad enough that Evil decks were running around unchecked, we now also have to deal with the problem that these chase super rares are absolutely vital to the highest level of the game. When asked about this specific situation, Dave Freeman, formerly of STG, replied that these-must haves can become dead cards if you build around them. The specific card in question was Addes Syndicate, about which Dave said that Addes becomes a dead card if your deck doesn't pack responses.

Seriously?

Now Dave, I don't have the same privilege of having met you like some of the other players I know. My impressions of you are only what I get from your writing, so forgive me if this stings, but you honestly don't know how to play UFS, at least not competitively. What else will you tell us? Infiltrating won't be good against us if we don't play foundations? Or perhaps that CC Hax won't be a problem as long as we don't make control checks? Many of the players I've spoken to are agreed that the STG office lacks a proper grasp of the metagame, and top-tier UFS in general.

This is how cards like Ruler of Southtown and Noble Scion escape playtesting entirely unnoticed.

There is NO WAY you can play UFS without responses, otherwise, your opponent simply slaps you around and can do whatever he wants to you. Cards as stupid powerful as Addes and BRT should not be so inaccessible to the masses. Yes, it takes money to play this game, no pay no play, we get that. But why make cards so rare just for the sake of keeping with tradition of CCGs.

And just so you don't think I'm exaggerating, here are some numbers:

Vikram Sareem's tourney-winning deck will cost you $500+ for you to build.

Ryan Riley's really cool Donovan $500+

Omar Chavez's Andrew Olexa $500+

And that's by the card, I can't imagine how expensive it would be if you were trying to pull them out of boosters, because you'll never pull the super rares you need.

Money is the way to success in UFS if your playskill is up to par. Without it, you have to work twice as hard as those who do. And even if you do have it, there's no guarantee that you can get your hands on a playset of chase Super Rares, as GCC winner Steve Kline admitted to me. He wants to shell out some cash for a set of Addes, but the option simply isn't available because the cards are so rare.

I don't even want to mention the rumor I heard of an undisclosed rarity within Super Rares...

Bitter Rivals is just as balanced as any other card in Set 8

Moving on, I felt I should end the article on a more positive note. When preparing for the GCC, Bitter Rivals was the focus of most of my efforts. At first I wanted to play it, but as I continued to test, the card seemed to impress me less and less. Really, it doesn't matter what blocks are in your hand, because you'll fail them anyways. The best card from Set 8 is not Bitter Rivals, it's Blood Runs True. Most of the time, Bitter Rivals will be worse than Unrequited Love even, because your opponent has a block in every zone, and no keywords to be seen. That was the case throughout the SCC. Sometimes you get caught with all low blocks, and the card makes you suffer, but the scenario is rare and luck-dependant. I'm glad nothing happened to this card before the SCC, because nothing really needed to be done to it. More impressive in general were the wide variety of Life foundations that grant speed boosts, like Adoration.

Conclusions

It doesn't seem like there's all that much variety in UFS anymore. Either you're playing Evil CC Hax, which could include Aggro or Control, Order CC Hax/Control, Void Mill, or Life Aggro. Death is freely splashed throughout the mix, as is Fire, particularly within Evil builds. Other than that, your deck has to be truly special (and powerful) to stand a chance. It may seem frustrating at first, but it seems like UFS is finally falling in line with all other CCGs. Take heart, my friends. Even through the meta is currently looking a bit stagnant, the fact is that metas exist to be killed by innovative and creative individuals. Are you the sort that steps up or walks away from a challenge? Rest assured that a more in-depth analysis is on its way, complete with meta-killer tips.