UNIVERSAL FIGHTING SYSTEM

The 'Universal Fighting System' is a collectible card game from Sabertooth Games. The system is composed of cards from different gaming universes, including Street Fighter, Soulcalibur, King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown, with a Darkstalkers release coming soon. While the official product launch was in April 2006, the first set released in February 2006 was a special "battle box" based on the Penny Arcade online comic.

Contents

Gameplay

Card types

Card rarity and distribution

Card symbols

Card sets and products

See also

External links

Gameplay

A game in the Universal Fighting System represents a battle between two adversaries. Each player controls one of the two characters, with the objective being to defeat the opponent (typically through loss of vitality). The two characters need not be from the same universe; for example, Chun-Li from Street Fighter could battle Cassandra from Soulcalibur.
Players take turns, with each turn consisting of multiple actions. With each additional action a player takes in a turn, the difficulty of successfully completing that action increases. Players can continue to take actions until they choose to stop or until they fail an attempt. The game structure typically involve players building up ''foundations'' over successive turns, which then allows a greater number of actions before failure. Management of these becomes crucial, as players must strike a balance between using their resources for offense and defense; going "all out" for a series of attacks can leave one vulnerable to retaliation during the opponent's turn. The system relies heavily on card combinations, where one card enhances the effect of another.
As with many of Sabertooth's games, the Universal Fighting System is an advanced or expert level product (owing in large part to the fact that every card has at least one special ability), primarily aimed at older or more experienced gamers.

Card types

The 'Universal Fighting System' has five different types of cards:

★ 'Characters' - A card which represents the combatant whose role the player is currently assuming. Character cards contain information about the character's hand size, special abilities, symbols/alignment, and starting vitality.

★ 'Attacks' - Orange-bordered cards which represent attempts to directly inflict damage on an opponent. Successful attacks that deal damage are added to your momentum, which helps towards enhancing certain attacks and other cards.

★ 'Actions' - Blue-bordered cards played from the hand which allow the character to perform some non-attack action or maneuver.

★ 'Foundations' - Grey-bordered cards which signify intensive training and reserves of inner strength upon which a character can draw to power attacks or abilities.

★ 'Assets' - Green-bordered cards which represent places or objects which are in play.

Card rarity and distribution

Each card has rarity information printed on the card in order to help determine how rare a given card is, without having to resort to checking a separate card list. The rarity is denoted by the number of small dots appearing at the bottom of the card, according to the following legend:

'•'	'Common'
'••'	'Uncommon'
'••• (non-foil)'	'Starter deck exclusive'
'••• (foil)'	'Rare'
'••••'	'Ultra Rare'

Starter decks are semi-random, with 29 fixed cards and 31 random cards. This includes some exclusive cards which are only available through that starter and not available in booster packs. In each 10-card booster pack, there are 6 commons and 3 uncommons. The remaining card will be a rare or super rare card. There are also very rare boosters made up entirely of rare and super rare cards, colloquially known as "god packs". Lastly, each box of starter decks or booster packs contains a single "box topper", which is a super rare promotional card and not part of the standard card set.
Promotional character cards (either rare or super rare), foil variants of commons and uncommons, and other special cards (such as the Foundations of Power) are only available by participating in hobby league tournaments and/or special events.
The 120 cards provided in the Penny Arcade "battle box" follow a fixed distribution, without any element of randomness.

Card symbols

Cards in the Universal Fighting System include small symbols or graphics representing attributes of the card. There are 13 symbols in total, consisting of 12 defined symbols and the wildcard "Infinity" symbol. Three symbols appear on most cards, although some have one, two or four. These are used as a game mechanic to determine which characters are able to use which moves or powers. In order to play a card, at least one of the symbols on the card being played has to match a symbol on all of the other cards previously played during the turn, as well as matching a symbol on the player's character card. Hence, this prevents characters from using abilities which are not a match for their character, and prevents mixing abilities (in a single turn) which do not fit together. The symbols and their meanings are defined as follows:

Element (description)	Attributes
'[AIR]' (A white whirlwind)	Intelligence, Deliberateness
'[ALL]' (A red circle)	Existence, Fullness
'[CHAOS]' (Three arrows pointing out)	Disorder, Instinct
'[DEATH]' (A white skull)	Destruction, Finality
'[EARTH]' (A grey mountain)	Stalwart, Strength
'[EVIL]' (A red pitchfork)	Ruthlessness, Villainy
'[FIRE]' (An orange flame)	Passion, Speed
'[GOOD]' (A yellow halo)	Compassion, Heroism
'[INFINITY]' (A Möbius strip)	Eternity, Timelessness
'[LIFE]' (A growing plant)	Beginning, Creation
'[ORDER]' (A golden justice scale)	Law, Structure
'[VOID]' (A dark-grey vortex)	Emptiness, Space
'[WATER]' (A blue wave)	Adaptation, Fluidity

Card sets and products

'Announced Universal Fighting System card sets'

Name of set / game universe	Release date	Unique cards	Starter deck characters	Booster characters
'Street Fighter'	April 2006	143	Chun Li, Dhalsim, Ken, Ryu	Sagat, Zangief
SF: World Warriors	July 2006	126	(none; boosters only)	Balrog, Blanka, E. Honda, Guile, M. Bison, Vega
SF: The Next Level	December 2006	90	(none; boosters only)	Akuma, Cammy, Dudley, Fei Long
SF: The Dark Path	February 2007	144	Chun-Li , Ryu, T. Hawk, Twelve	Adon, Charlie, Rose, Sakura
SF: Extreme Rivals	May 2007	90	(none; boosters only)	Cody, Dee Jay, Ibuki, Ken, R. Mika
'Darkstalkers'	November 2007	??	(none; boosters only)	Felicia, Pyron, Rikuo (so far)
'Soulcalibur III'	April 2006	143	Astaroth, Nightmare, Taki, Voldo	Cassandra, Mitsurugi
SC3: A Tale of Swords & Souls	July 2006	126	(none; boosters only)	Ivy, Kilik, Raphael, Setsuka, Tira, Zasalamel
SC3: Soul Arena	February 2007	144	Abyss, Cervantes, Lizardman, Yoshimitsu	Mitsurugi, Taki, Talim, Rock
SC3: Blades of Fury	May 2007	90	(none; boosters only)	Maxi, Nightmare, Tira, Xianghua, Yun-seong
SC3: Higher Calibur	August 2007	99	(none; boosters only)	Astaroth, Cassandra, Cervantes, Ivy, Seong Mi-na, Voldo
'SNK Playmore'	December 2006	144	Haohmaru, Mai, Terry, Ukyo	Alba, Athena, Charlotte, Galford, Gaira, Hanzo, Iori, Kyo, Lien, Nagase, Nakoruru, Yoshitora
Fortune & Glory	August 2007	99	(none; boosters only)	Billy, Genjuro, Jubei, K', , Mai, Nightmare Geese, Sankuro, Seth, Tam Tam, Ukyo
'ShadoWar'	???	???	???	???

'Promotional Characters'

Name of game universe	Characters
'Street Fighter'	Dan, Elena, Hugo, Necro, Yang, Yun
'Soulcalibur'	Amy, Chester, Demuth, Greed, Miser, Revenant, Strife
'SNK Playmore'	B. Jenet, , Kazuki, Kula, Kyoshiro, Leona, Lilly Kane, Mr. Karate, Sogetsu, Yumeji
'UFS'	Matt Kohls, Nicholas the Saint, The Universal Fighter, Wess "Flawless" Victory

Some characters have only appeared as promotional cards, available through various outlets. These promotional cards are used as a preview for upcoming sets, letting players know who will be appearing in the future. The above list is all of the characters that have not appeared in any of the expansion sets through the release of the Extreme Rivals and Blades of Fury sets.

'Other Universal Fighting System products'

Name of product	Release date	Total cards	Unique cards	Characters
'Penny Arcade Battle Box'	February 2006	120	45	Gabe, Tycho
'Soulcalibur III Battle Pack'	November 2006	120	44	Sophitia, Siegfried
'Street Fighter Battle Pack'	July 2007	120	36	Akuma, Ryu

Sixteen of the forty-four cards in the Soulcalibur III Battle Pack are reprints from previous Soulcalibur III sets.
The number of cards listed above for each set indicates the number of unique, non-promotional cards. Additional promotional cards are available in various ways, including for placing favorably in a tournament or other event. These promotional cards include character cards which in many cases are not otherwise available (although expansion sets do generally include additional characters).
In terms of number of cards of each rarity level, each set generally consists of an equal number of common and uncommon cards, with a slightly fewer number of rare cards. There are roughly half as many super rare cards as rare cards. As an example, ''Soulcalibur III: A Tale of Swords & Souls'' has 41 commons, 39 uncommons, 32 rares, and 14 super rares.
Sabertooth Games is offering free demo decks for people to try out the Universal Fighting System. These cards are for demonstration purposes and are not tournament legal. You can find the form for the free demo deck offer here.

See also

★ List of collectible card games

★ The King of Fighters

★ Samurai Shodown V

★ Soulcalibur III

★ Street Fighter

★ Darkstalkers

★ Penny Arcade

External links

★ Sabertooth Games' Universal Fighting System homepage

★
★ Rules

★
★ Online Demo

★

★ UFSCards.com: Fan site

★ Cardboard Dojo: A UFS E-Zine

★ Team Canada Online: A UFS/CCG fan website