UFS: Fight School
Getting Started in Universal Fighting System
In this article, I will discuss the simple, yet not so simple, procedure of starting Universal Fighting System Trading Card Game (UFS from now on)! First, the obligatory introduction:
Hi! I'm Alexander James, a Scout in Columbus, Ohio. Scouts help people learn how to play UFS, run events, and to provide more of a challenge for those of you that get too confident. Regardless of how strong you may think you are, there is always a stronger challenge ahead!
That is the essence of competition and is the path of a Universal Fighter. Ryu (from Street Fighter) wanders the world looking for a stronger opponent to hone his skills in becoming a better fighter. You will soon walk this path yourself, after you have had some starter training.
You already know what a card game is, and that you have a rough idea of the rules. If you don't know the rules that well, the best way to learn them is to dive right in and play with what you know! Do this by getting ahold of a rulebook. Use the beginner section for some of the basic aspects to the game, and then get some cards together! There are people in your area and online that are willing to provide you a free 30-card demo deck. This is good for a little bit, but you'll want to get more than just a few cards.
What to Buy and Why
Some would say the best way to start playing with your own cards is to buy a few booster boxes of some recent sets. These would be Soul Calibur III: Flash of Blades, and King of Fighters: 2006. Others would say to invest in boxes of the base sets that are released in February of every year. For 2008 that was Street Fighter: Domination, and SNK: Cutting Edge. These are the recommendations people try to give you if you want to turn professional Universal Fighter in the matter of a week or so.
I would recommend that you buy a UFS starter, and some packs from a set that would compliment it. Every card you play a card must match the same resource with every card in your Card Pool and Character Card. So to fine-tune a Starter deck (whose every card shares one Resource) slowly, it is best to find sets that will provide more cards for that resource. With this method you'll appreciate and understand a few cards, rather than have the temptation to drown in boxes and boxes of cards that you might not be ready to digest in a short time.
Starter is a good (or Evil) Resource
The Starters in 2008 come from the Base Sets. For Street Fighter they are Ken, Sakura (every card in these two decks have All), Sagat and Akuma (Fire). For SNK we have Mai, Yoshitora (Evil), Haohmaru, and Rock Howard (Order). Each Starter has cards from the sets they were released with, but also two copies each of three cards that are unique to that Starter only, one of those being the Character card. Almost every card in the sets that the Starters come from also share the two Resources that appear in the Starters.
Even with the cards you get from, say, the Yoshitora Starter (Evil resource themed) and three Booster packs, you'll have many cards that share Resources that aren't Evil, as most cards in UFS have three Resources per card. That's one of the great things about the game — a card may be great for a deck running mostly Evil cards, but it will probably work well for many other decks not using Evil as well! Now you're well on your way of building an Order deck!
Now you have cards, and you have a general understanding of how to play. Your first focus is to learn the game a bit better. But the best way to do that is to have a deck and keep playing it.
Starter Victories
I bought the Yoshitora starter, three packs, and proceeded to wreck face!
Ok, not entirely true, but I did well. I fought Felicia from Dark Stalkers: Realm of Midnight in an epic brawl. This Felicia has a really easy way of getting momentum by taking everything in her card pool once during her turn. I was facing two vicious sources of attacks each turn. After she'd clear her card pool, she would throw a an attack that would make use of her momentum. Thankfully I had four Ichi No Tachis in the deck that say NO to multiple! The game came very close, with us both down to 3-5 Vitality around turn 5. I eventually failed a critical attack which left me overextended. This was a simple mistake that I should have foreseen. Felicia took advantage of that and nailed me with a multiple swinging several times for 5 damage each. It was a great match.
Now I have 90 cards of fighting to use until I get comfortable with what I have. One must master the simple before one can master the complex. It was a lot of fun, and annoyed my opponent, as he knew I was just using those few cards. I encourage all of you to pick up a starter, buy some packs and play with just these cards. Let me know how starter training (all over again?) works out for you!
