Before I begin, I feel it's only fair that I present my angle, especially to you newer readers who aren't accustomed to my style. Reactions to my last article have been rather mixed, which to me, it means I'm achieving my goal. I feel a lot of people tend to be rather soft on the game's developers; so many in fact, that I tend to stick out like a sore thumb, if you'll pardon the cliché. Admittedly, no one likes a critic, especially one that magnifies every little mishap, but I feel it's a very necessary evil. If I come across as negative, I'm just being honest, both to you and to myself. Trust me, it wasn't always like this, and if the signs pointing towards the future are as promising as they appear then it won't always be like this. I enjoy singing praises and stinging satire equally, but at this point I feel one is more deserved than the other. And yes, I make a lot of allusions. Sue me.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

Evil Ibuki by James Hata

Character: 1
Ibuki 4

Attacks: 12
4x Chain Throw
4x Infiltrating
4x Kasumi Suzaku

Actions: 11
4x Rejection
4x Absurd Strength
3x Kung-Fu Training

Assets: 7
4x Addes Syndicate
3x Olcadan's Mentoring

Foundations: 35
3x Pieces of Eight
3x The Gorgeous Team
3x Shinobi Tradition
3x The Red Lotus of the Sun
3x Oral Dead
4x Blood Runs True
4x Higher Calibur
2x Cutting Edge
3x Unrequited Love
3x Megalomania
4x The Anti K'

Total: 66 cards including Character

Sideboard:
3x Ninjitsu
3x Chinese Sword Style
2x Begin Anew


Ladies and gentlemen I give you the deck that took worlds by storm. A glance at this deck shows some very original stylistic touches. For one, the deck seems to be completely devoid of attacks. Instead we have the two best attacks in the game, Chain Throw and Kasumi Suzaku, clearly showing an emphasis on quality over quantity. In a pinch, Infiltrating can come across the board, and it is possible to enhance it with Absurd Strength. Kung-fu Training and Blood Runs True is also available to make Infiltrating connect. 

There is almost no chance to pull ahead of this build, as there is literally no way it can fail first turn Infiltrating without outside interference. If Seals and other forms of negation are put up to stop Infiltrating, Ibuki sides into Ninjitsu to force the issue.

At first glance you'd think this is "just" standard Evil power cards, but the low number of attacks and the odd numbers of foundation sets clearly shows a careful design that is perfectly teched out for survival in the current metagame.

Evil/Water Yoshitora by Jon Herr

Characters (1):
 Yoshitora 1

Assets (7):
4x Addes Syndicate
3x Olcadan's Mentoring

Attacks (12):
4x Chain Throw
4x Kunai
4x Feline Spike

Actions (13):
4x Absurd Strength
3x Rejection
3x Kung Fu Training
3x Tag Along

Foundations (30):
4x Megalomania
4x Manifest Destiny
3x Red Lotus
3x Oral Dead
4x Higher Calibur
4x Blood Runs True
4x Trade Your Passion For Glory
4x Pieces of Eight

Sideboard:
4x Contemplation
3x Unknown Cards
1x Tag Along

As far as genuine tech goes, this deck is all about committing out its opponent. Note the full complement of Megalomania, Manifest Destiny and Trade Your Passion for Glory. Even Yoshitora has a commit effect on him that works really well against opponents like Ukyo, Alex or Nakoruru.

If I were to describe this deck in one word, I think "ambush" would be appropriate. The deck admittedly lies in wait for the opponent to throw an attack. Yoshitora's response makes it so that anything can happen (as long as it's not fatal), but Feline Spike still comes out, and activates all the Megalos and Manifests on the opponent's turn. If all goes well, another Feline Spike, or merely a Chain Throw can seal the deal the following turn. Regardless, the opponent's turn is hopelessly disrupted, as he is forced to block with a considerably devastated staging area.

It seems like the entire strategy to this deck can easily be foiled by a single Addes Syndicate, however, and I don't have any data on how the deck itself plays, but I'll bet that a top 8 loaded with the $50 asset is a very hostile environment for the deck indeed. Even worse, Yoshitora is on the verge of rotating into another format, which means this deck may never see play again.

All Ryu by Danny Fung

Characters

Ryu 9

attacks (12)
2x Ryu's Shin Shoryuken
2x Seichu Nidan Tsuki
2x Kuzuryu Reppa
3x 8th Bill of Punishment
3x Shadaloo Doll Attack

foundations (36)
4x Blood Runs True
4x Lord of the Makai
4x The Curse Broken
3x Bitter Rivals
3x Make a Diffrence
3x Fight or Flight
4x Lesser of Many Evils
3x Mortal Strike
3x Psycho Style
3x Military Rank
2x Saikyo-Ryu

assets (13)
3x Olcadan's Mentoring
2x Basket of Tricks
2x Seal of Cessation
3x Addes Syndicate
3x Heisheng Jian

actions (8)
3x Kung-Fu Training
2x Revitalize
3x Tag Along

sideboard
2x pure of heart
2x begin anew
1x revitalize
1x seal
2x yoga adept

It's always interesting to see a deck come out of left field and place well. Danny Fung's Ryu is an example of such an occurrence. Again, we see the pretty much standard Addes/Olcadan's/BRT set-up, which is undeniably a powerful cornerstone of the deck, but with a shift towards All as the main symbol, the inclusion of its power cards, Military Rank and the Curse Broken is now possible. Even more interesting, is the inclusion of some set 9 tech with the use of Fight or Flight and Make a Difference, as well as Lesser of Many Evils. Each card undoubtedly serves a very specific function, but perhaps the most interesting is the way Make a Difference can be abused to destroy an opponent's kill turn by "negating" key attacks. When played correctly, your card pool has no attacks, and no one draws any extra cards. I can't think of a better way to cancel out Chain Throws and Suzakus.

While the attack line up looks a bit unpolished, there's no doubting the power of the list. Seichu continues to be a monster in the hands of Ryu, who now has Kuzuryu Reppa and Shin Shoryuken added to his arsenal. All of these play extremely well with Fight or Flight, opening up the possibility for extreme damage.

Evil Ukyo 2 by Ben Shoemaker

Attacks (17):
4 Chain Throw
4 Kunai
3 Hidden Base
3 Infiltrating
3 Scourge of Zeus

Assets (6):
3 Olcodan's Mentoring
3 Addes Syndicate

Actions (7):
4 Absurd Strength
3 Kung Fu Training

Foundations (29):
2 Cutting Edge
2 Pieces of Eight
3 Oral Dead
3 Red Lotus
4 Blood Runs True
4 Higher Calibur
4 Shinobi Tradition
4  The Anti K'
3 Megalomania


Side Board
3 Trade your Passion
2 Rejection
3 Ichi No Tachi

2^nd place finisher Ben Shoemaker once again shows his strong hand with his signature Ukyo deck. Easily the first notable characteristic is the higher number of attacks when compared to every other deck so far. From there we have standard Evil tech, aka, the mandatory Addes/BRT, as well as Absurd and Kung-Fu. The difference maker here is obviously the character and the player. Ukyo strategies should be quite well known by now, but if you are new to the game, it goes like this:

Ukyo combines both of his abilities on his kill turn, which is usually right around turn 2 or 3 to drain your hand and then draw himself a new one. This particular version uses Kunai to clear its card pool (unlike his earlier version that used Ibis Minuet), and Scourge of Zeus pumps up the rest of his attacks in order to make the kill easier.

A full set of Shinobi Tradition is a must in this deck, because you want to check well on your kill turn otherwise the entire deck stalls out hard, which will be fatal if you use Ukyo's form and don't immediately win. Ben has been playing this deck since January and it's safe to say he's quite accomplished with it. While it's not the hardest deck in the world to play, a bit of experience will go a long way, because you have to know when to go for the win and when you just can't do it. Going for it at the wrong time will often prove fatal as will taking too long before trying.

Wrap-up

Well, what can we learn from these decks? I think the most blatant lesson is that Addes + Olcadan's + BRT is a short recipe for success. The word "overpowered" comes to mind, but if there's anything I've noticed playing UFS is that players that can afford to own the most powerful, most rare cards and perform well are very reluctant to have anything happen to them, whereas the people who cannot own these cards for one reason or another feel that they are an insurmountable advantage for the more priveledged. The whole situation reminds me of the same problem Magic had a while back with Umezawa's Jitte. Players that owned and used them felt the card was awesome, and fair. Players that didn't felt the card was overpowered and cheap. This presents us with an interesting dilemma. Who do you listen to?

Personally, I feel good players will always be good regardless of the cards they have to use, and taking cards away from them will only leave a bad taste in their mouth (and their wallets), but it's something you won't have to do often, if at all, if cards are more balanced in power level.

From a competitive standpoint, either you're running the Trifecta (Addes /Olcadan's/ BRT), or you're teching against it, which is, unfortunately, much harder to do than the former. However, if you don't own these cards, then teching against them is your only recourse, really.

The problem is, the Trifecta protects itself really well. Most of the answers to Olcadan's are responses, which Addes handles deftly. Most of the threats to Addes are foundations, which just happens to be Olcadan's specialty, and the remaining subset of answers in attack or action form are managed through timely BRT activations. It's unfortunately really, especially when Addes pops up in multiples. Solving the problem only becomes more complex when newer foundations like Chester's Backing enter the picture, which I can guarantee it will.

It almost seems like the Trifecta is invincible once it's set up. Thus, it would appear that the best way to counter the Trifecta would be to keep it from ever forming (kind of like how villains used to fight Voltron), perhaps with cards like Yoga Adept. Remember Addes is the most important target, as Olcadan's and BRT can be handled efficiently through responses on foundations if Addes is missing. Unfortunately, consistently negating key pieces will become harder to do if anything happens to Military Rank. To further complicate the issue, one needs to be rather intuitive in order to predict how Set 10 will affect the Trifecta, if at all, and act accordingly.

Another, if seemingly less attainable strategy would be to build your deck so that you have no "irrelevant" foundations, thus nullifying Olcadan's and freeing you up to deal with the other two cards exclusively. It's safe to say that this is hard, if not impossible, but the hypothetical benefits are enormous if such a strategy is really possible.

Finally, I'd also like to point out that Soul Wave may actually be a viable threat against the Trifecta, because it knocks out two-thirds of the pieces, but you'll have to watch out for Kung-Fu Training and BRT, which one look at the lists above should prove are a constant factor.

In summary, you're either playing the Trifecta, or you're fighting an uphill battle.

Other Tech

The Anti-K has been around for quite some time now, but it seems as though the competitive metagame just discovered this gem. It's hard to grasp its effectiveness when you're just looking at decklists on paper. I actually had to hold a mini-meeting with the rest of the team to figure out why the card was so widely used.

The Anti-K is a card that preys on and compounds your opponent's bad luck. The key to the card's effectiveness is that it hacks a check after the fact, which can cripple an opponent's opening turn if a 3 or lower is flipped. In the later stages of the game, flipping an attack to play an attack virtually amounts to committing out your entire staging area if you want it to stick.

Fortunately, this tech is pretty easy, if annoying, to counter. Build your deck with fewest amount of 3 and 4 difficulty foundations possible, and then avoid playing those high difficulty foundations on the first turn at all costs. Remember, the Anti-K is purely an ambush waiting to happen; a good opponent will hide it from you until he can do the most damage with it, which usually amounts to a skipped turn, so you have to be very careful it your opponent is in-symbol with this card. If you're not against it, some scouting out in the earlier rounds of a tournament will be a big help in keeping an eye out for this one.

Moving on, I'd also like to talk about Making a Difference, which is among the best cards Set 9 has to offer. It's so good, I can see it brought forth regularly as a card needing the Ban Hammer in future forum threads. This foundation is very one-sided, and the drawback is virtually non-existent. Basically, the card reads E: Cancel all attacks.

You should never have an attack in your card pool, so your opponent never gets to restock his hand. This is excellent against decks that run very few, very powerful attacks, or decks that don't run Pieces of Eight (or Chester's Backing), which is still a surprisingly large subset of decks.

Unlike the Anti-K, its applications are very, very broad, and learning how to loop it will give you a frightful defensive weapon.

Other/Misc. Stuff

A lot more writers have popped up since I've been away. Some articles are very good, like Vermillian's interview with Steve Horvath, which I highly recommend that you read and rate. It makes me hopeful that Steve can admit his mistakes. It means he knows about them and that we are less likely to see them again. You, however, might get something else out of it. Check it out.

-Ceejay