Taking it old school here folks, especially with Vintage worlds coming up in a few days and ALL the character cards (sorry Hugo*** and Ibuki* not you two) are legal or play. I'm taking it back to the days of UFS being ran and operated by Sabertooth Games. Back when the STG staff made a tour of stops in several "brick and mortar" stores, including the one I work for now. I remember that I didn't have any cards at the time to make a deck but when I did want to make one, one of my fellow New York players asked me which character did I like from the Street Fighter of Soul Calibur series. I didn't have many options at the time but I chose one card in particular... Ryu (Type 2). Being that this was my first character card, I pretty much stuck with it for at least a year and a half. (Until I discovered Starter Deck Mai from Domination and R. Mika from Extreme Rivals... now that's my favorite character :) But more on that another day.)

 What makes this card so good? Well let's take a look at it.

Now for starters, this card in my opinion was a very underrated card for many different reasons. First of all, many players scoffed at Ryu's 6 Card Hand Size. Players either felt that they need more cards, at a cost of less vitality, or less cards, with some cases of gaining vitality in return.  Ryu's 6 Hand size and 25 vitality basically is the generic standard bearer for all the characters in UFS. For basic beginner players, he's not that bad to start off with but unlike many other 6/25 characters. Ryu can actually DRAW cards. (In this iteration, and his other iterations.) So having 6 handsize to start isn't too bad.

Ryu's first ability:

    E Commit 1 Foundation: If your attack deals damage, you gain 1 vitality.

Isn't very much by itself, but when you combo him off with other cards from the original Street Fighter base set and several other cards including some Foundations of Power (remember I'm talking vintage here... Block 2, this Ryu doesn't stand much of a chance.) and Ryu can sit back and gain life all day long, which is kind of needed for his second ability.

    R: After you fail an attempt to play a block, draw 1 card.

And so begins the insane possibilities of drawing cards with Ryu. And that's just Ryu on [ALL]. Running Ryu on [VOID] also has even more advantages. Running [Ryu] on void unlocks Vast Resources (come on, commit a foundation, draw a card) and Ryu's Ashura Senku (yes you know I had to mention this card when I'm talking about drawing on Ryu). One can essentially build a deck for Ryu that does nothing but sit back and draw cards all day long while whittling their life down to 0. (Ahh Nationals 2007, I feel bad for my first round opponent that day. HAHA. Especially )

Overall Ryu is probably the most overlooked character in the card pool based off of his 6 handsize. However, when you combo Ryu properly with the right cards and build him on a well-supported symbol, I guarantee you... Ryu can win you a few matches... and your opponent will regret underestimating you when turned him face side up.