At Universus Nationals, I had a great time, and it was the most fun I’ve had with the game in a while! You may have noticed a lack of content over the last few months, and while I had not stopped playing Universus, the game hadn’t spoken to me in the same way since the release of AoT. That being said, getting the chance to hang out with friends, eat some BBQ, and of course play card games was too much to pass up. Sleeving up a Void control decklist, I wanted to try out a new strategy with Izuku Midoriya, On the Move. While I finished the main tournament 3-2-3, which was a solid albeit not stellar result, my games and side events made me feel happy with the deck, and it felt like a solid call into the meta that just didn’t pan out. Speaking of that meta, I’m going to break down the finish to the year here, and then offer some speculation given the recent bans for the upcoming World Championships. If you read my last article about St. Louis, you know the drill; rather than go by character, to offer some fresh perspective I want to break things down in the context of symbols. In this list, the symbols are looked at as primary symbols, and while Attune does play a large role in which cards will see play, that is not reflected specifically on this list. Fire, for instance, is a much stronger symbol when Attuned, but comes up short at the primary level. So, after Nationals, this is where we stand:
While this looks balanced on the whole, the gulf between the top tier and the others is much larger than before. Unsurprisingly, releasing several cards for some symbols and not others has led to some imbalances, and the Attune tools paired with already strong cards on symbol make for some truly outstanding decks. All of them utilize similar suites of powerful cards, but with varying speed and consistency, which is often differentiated by character. In the next tier, the ‘Strong with Issues’ symbols tend to have polarizing matchups, but are very good in their niche. Symbols in the ‘Functional but Outclassed’ group are more or less weaker versions of those higher above, but still are able to execute a strong game plan. This does not mean that decks using them cannot succeed, just that, on average, another symbol with a similar strategy would produce better results. Last, of course, is the Unviable tier, and as a lover of the Evil symbol, this brings me great pain, but there is no reason to use this symbol now as opposed to other options. With this overview, let’s dive in.
All
Where many once stood, now there is Rodan, and while he is still an excellent character, he has suffered from some of the meta developments. World’s Weakest Hunter put some wind into the Funny Punch package’s sails, but even with the full toolbox of All reactivity, Rodan lacks a decisive answer to cards like Determined Advance that present too many numbers too early. Damage reduction, Run Away, and other common defensive tools also are tough for this monster to crack, and while Rodan is likely the best character playing honest Universus, that ship had sailed going into Nationals, and the field responded accordingly. The strengths and weaknesses have more or less stayed the same in the last 6 months, but, at the end of the day, the pivotal turns of the game continue to come early, and Rodan needs a bit more defensive consistency to run with the big (Walk the) dogs.
Strengths
Deep card pool
Access to Rodan
Best aggressive deadlock
High player agency
Weaknesses
Requires multiple specific answers to react to metagame
Jack of all trades, master of none; other symbols have better attack and synergy packages
Chaos
While Krista emerged victorious, Mimic and Godzilla took the field by storm in Swiss, and Chaos made up half of the Top 16, cementing its status as the best symbol in Universus. While Armor of the Wolf and Black Abyss have fallen off, Walk the Dog is going nowhere anytime soon, and the Attune tools, Run Away, Incredible Display, and new competitive darling Determined Advance have defined the current format. City Rampage and Battle Arena also are great cards, and both Mimic and Godzilla are now using these tools, even bringing back Vast Hybrid: Chimera Kraken into the fold to address rampant Assets and control the stage. Opting less for a combo finish and instead putting out multiple large attacks, Chaos is remarkably consistent at breaking through any and all defensive concepts with the right draw, with Godzilla ending games immediately, Mimic a bit more slowly, and Krista being the queen of late game states. Speaking of draw, Horrifying Realization and Chivalrous Competitor offer more chances to dig through the deck, and alongside Award the Victor, the former’s Form speed draw is even more valuable, allowing you to pass a devastating attack more than once for massive pressure. If you intend to beat Chaos, the only option is not to play its game, instead opting to employ more consistent early game pressure or closing your eyes, pretending the early high roll won’t happen, and building a late game around shutting down deck stacking and card draw. The latter didn’t work out for me against Godzilla, but many had solid success with both approaches, so much so that half of the Top 16 was on symbols other than Chaos. Ok, that was a bit out of pocket, but Chaos is on another level compared to most symbols, and even with Mimic’s errata, these three characters will continue to be the ones to look for at Worlds later this month.
Strengths
Big attacks, lots of attacks, City Rampage, Raawwwwrrrrrr
Kraken, Run Away, Cape of No Return, and other delay tactics
The best 0 difficulty foundations and early stages
Powerful characters that require specific answers
Weaknesses
Early game consistency and late game power are somewhat at odds
Death
If Chaos is the king, then Death is surely the second in command, and its players are here for a good time, not a long time. Combined Firepower continues to be one of the Universus cards of all time, and with Attack on Titan’s Attune support from Fire and Air, Death gamers can hit the slots like a Nevada retiree, spinning the wheels every and anytime they can. Avoiding the Conflict, Lost in Thought, and I’m With You can stack up the numbers fast, and all it takes is one Besiege to punch through even the best laid plans. While some players were surprised, those in COUPLE were not when our own Josh Adkins reached Top 8 with Mirko, using this package to go as fast as possible with an all-in aggro approach. More of the field preferred Bertholt’s more measured approach, and taking advantage of his response to prolong the early game state could help him throw a wrench in other decks’ plans. But, without damage reduction or the ability to explode until Deadlock, it’s a rabbit world and we’re just living in it. Mirko, Eren, or other characters with similar symbols should be carrying the flag forward, and we’ll see if they get it done with the best of the best.
Strengths
Damage on face for characters, good early potential
Combined Firepower
Strong card draw on both foundations and attacks
Incidental Seal and damage reduction
Weaknesses
Awkward late game in best builds
Weak defense early
Particular vulnerability to card pool clog, Breaker, and incidental tech
Evil
RIP Bozo, my beloved. Evil is still an option, but it lacks the consistent defense to survive the aggro onslaught, and it lacks the punch to end the game that other symbols have. Receiving no competitive-level support since the Godzilla Challenger decks, there is no reason to play this symbol, and it is outclassed even by suboptimal control builds from All, Air, and Death. Incompatible Quirks and Ghidorah still are great, but they lack the ability to compete with other symbols that have received dozens of new, powerful cards.
Strengths
Late game power
Ghidorah offers extra lives, consistency, stats
Weaknesses
Low lethality early
Relatively weak 0 difficulty foundations
Defense can flounder early
Late game too slow compared to meta threats
Earth
Earth is alright, no more, no less. Chivalrous Competitor, Fearsome Transformations, Incredible Display, and City Rampage itself are all excellent Universus cards. Wait a minute, doesn’t this ring a bell? It sure does, all of those cards are on Chaos. With Earth, like Evil, not receiving new cards in months, it leads one to believe that UVS games really has taken the hatchet to my favorite symbols. Clearly, this is not actually what is happening, but still, Earth is more or less inferior Chaos at the moment, lacking critical pieces like Run Away but attempting to support the same set of powerful tools. Even Referee Juri is not enough of a draw for the symbol to do its best work. Still, the symbol did enjoy one appearance in the Top 16, with Connor Eldridge’s Earth Pony riding the aforementioned City Rampage to victory. With only 1 representative to Chaos’s 8, it is clear that Earth is not the horse players are choosing to back, and with its return in Heroes of Exandria, I hope to see more facedown building, damage reducing, high octane gameplay.
Strengths
Excellent card draw
Foundation ramp
Game warping character cards
Strong actions and cancels
Weaknesses
Less consistent in strengths than Chaos
Vulnerable to stage disruption at Enhance speed
Shallow card pool
Order
The bird is the word, and Ryan Levine has carried Hawks back to relevance once again, sporting an updated version of his St. Louis deck. With all of the cards it received from AoT, it would make sense to see more Order, but with only one representative in top cuts, it seems a bit less prevalent than one might expect. It is there lurking though; Krista leverages solid Attune cards from Attack on Titan and Star Trek: The Lower Decks, and many other characters in the meta opt for this instead, eschewing Order’s earlier cards in favor of a more powerful primary symbol. Clearly though, the game plan works well, and with several great control tools, Order can find its combo finish and protect it very reliably, albeit with less early high roll potential than Chaos. Bionic Menace and Paul Phoenix get to tag along in the background, leveraging Fire’s Attune prowess to discard cards, commit foundations, and get em’ dead. Following the bans, this symbol loses some of its natural prey, but if it can find a way to solve the Determined Advance problem, Order is a prime candidate for Worlds success.
Strengths
Unreal card selection engines and tools
Solid Deadlock
Great cancels and tech
Weaknesses
Vulnerable to stage control
Limited means to cheat progressive difficulty and snowball early
Low natural hand size
Good
Good is back, baby! With no new cards for the symbol itself, one might wonder how we got here, but once again, Attune is putting in the work, bringing characters new tools they may not have had otherwise. Recovery Girl is still the poster Good character, leveraging Spirit Gun Mega and Tasty Riff to pound opponents into the ground while becoming immortal with the help of Last-Second Rescue. Genkai also is on the radar, sporting a few solid finishes despite coming up short of a cut. So, why didn’t we see more? As always, Recovery Girl has been powerful but unpopular, and with her new errata is more or less a non-factor competitively in the future. Even at the peak of her powers in this event, though, she still had issues against Chaos stalwarts Mimic and Godzilla, and could be dominated late game by Krista’s card selection and strangely large health pool. Still, being able to shut down Ymir, Toga, Pony, and other aggro builds was a huge niche, and her absence in the meta come Worlds will surely be felt. It is possible that Izuku Midoriya, On the Move or Toru Hagakure could pick up the control mantle, but this is unlikely given their power on other symbols. If players get a read on an aggro field for Worlds, Good could be the answer, but it is a risky bet. Maybe a Death player will switch on over.
Strengths
Best in class damage mitigation and resets
Reasonable synergy package with Charges
Amazing 2 control attacks
Weaknesses
Discard is core to symbol but undersupported
Too vulnerable to damage mitigation rampant in meta
Lower impact characters across the board
Life
The player base refuses to give up on their darling, but even a massive play rate and theoretically favorable field could not cope Toga III into Top 16. Recovery Girl continues to do her thing on this symbol as well, but it is Ymir who best takes advantage of what Life has to offer, using Attack on Titan’s Attune package and Immortal Shapeshifter to rubber band back to full health as she pumps her attacks to the moon. Dual Needle Lunge also is an aggressive all star, clearing progressive and allowing Life’s other great attacks to seal the deal. Sure, Life still struggles with answering big attacks honestly, but if your answer is simply blowing the opponent into a fine red mist before they can hit, that’s a great plan. New Training Method and Wild Wild Pussycats also return to the fold, solidifying Ymir’s early builds and making her flip on schedule a near certainty. After Jacob Johnson and Andrew Porat earned her two Top 16 slots, expect to see Ymir in even greater numbers at Worlds, where her antics are more likely to pop off into a field without Recovery Girl or Berholt at the peak of their powers.
Strengths
Most efficient cards
Big life gain
Outrageous damage pump and reduction on wide strings
Weaknesses
Minimal resets and scam defense
Low access to cards outside of character effects
Unimpressive stage control
Void
The biggest surprise of the tournament, Clinton Thomas’s Edgeshot list was another aggro killer, earning a Top 16 spot with a truly innovative build. Teaming with the Attack Titan and Feral Shriek allowed for consistent, long strings, making Fire attune once again enter the fold. Void normally chokes the life out of opponents in other ways, though, and these decks were more common throughout the field. Disarming Glance was the pillar for the symbol, and it represented a way to shut down Bertolt, Krista, Mimic, and more or less every deck that adds cards to its hand. Ghidorah and Midoriya both do this very well, and even Jin is fantastic in this role. Blinking attacks out with Cape of No Return, Genkai’s Guidance, and Dissolving the Conflict feels great, and giving them functional Flash with Izuku Midoriya, Quirks Unleashed is also a great feeling. The addition of Midoriya gives the symbol far more inevitably late, and all it takes is one Gently Theft pumped to the move to put opponents 6 feet under. Unbreakable, Locking the Building, Pass Through Walls, and of course Combined Firepower are excellent catch-alls, and the symbol has tools to address anything except 3 attacks from Godzilla on turn 2, which Wall of Pain astutely delivered to my chin to send me home from Swiss. All in all, the archetype is good if the field expects more Krista or control, but with Disarming Glance’s errata, it may make more sense to head in Clinton’s direction for Florida.
Strengths
Fantastic defense and damage reduction
Reactive answers to most meta gamplans
Powerful Deadlock
Weaknesses
Cannot break stages that set to defend without building to Deadlock
Slow to set up defensive wall
Early lethality contingent on character and costly build around
Water
You know her, you love her, Recovery Girl is best girl, at least for Water. Cory Nelson drove this point home, nearly taking the entire tournament with a Water list taking advantage of Life’s Attune tools and massive Titan attacks fueled by Sword Get Longer. Beneath all the damage-reducing armor, though, lies a question: where do we go now? For control, Midoriya seems to be the answer, leveraging Tasty Riff, a similar suite of Life tools, and some Air attune to shore up the board with assets and facedowns, build to the moon, and blast them from orbit with a Freezer Burn or Acid Chop. This strategy can work, but it certainly lacks the consistency and early threat of Chaos’s all stars, as well as the phenomenal scam defense in Void. Still, the symbol is worth exploring without question, and Godzilla, Hagakure, and maybe even Fresh Cut Grass could be next to succeed.
Strengths
Hyperefficient attacks and damage reduction
Incredible defensive potential with Breaker and card pool clog
Solid disruption
Weaknesses
No Deadlock presence
Minor vulnerability to damage reduction
Lack of character direction
Air and Fire
Why is it always these two? If it wasn’t for Mitchell Cimino being so good at Universus and getting Top 4 with a Fire Bertolt teched out for Krista, it would be completely uncontroversial to put these here as afterthoughts. In Fairness, though, to call One Man Inferno a major competitive draw to a symbol really speaks volumes to the awkward position in which Fire and Air have found themselves. Many of their Attuned cards see widespread play: Feral Shriek, Wish Hard, Besiege, Covert Assault, Strategic Maneuver, Marco’s Potential…. I could go on and on. But, due to their past shortcomings, these symbols don’t have what it takes to enter the competitive fold outside of fringe relevance, and with Bert’s trip to the farm upstate, I don’t see them seeing use in Orlando when one could opt for Earth or Order with Fire Attune instead. Curse you once again, Mitch, and congrats on the excellent finish!
Conclusion
Thanks for reading, and I know that I’ll be cheering on my Ohio boys in Worlds later this month. Let me know where I’ve gone wrong in Discord and on Bluesky, and I’ll see you next time!
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