Designing UniVersus: Outwit

Welcome! I’m here to introduce you to a new mechanic coming to Attack on Titan: Origins of Power. In the world of AOT, many characters excel at outsmarting and surprising their opponents. Characters like Erwin and Armin are known for their excellent tactical minds. In UniVersus, we wanted to capture the themes of strategy and subterfuge that run throughout the Attack on Titan story. With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you all to Outwit.

Outwit modifies responses in a way similar to Deadlock or Combo. In order to play an Outwit response, you need to meet a certain requirement: the card with the Outwit response must be face down and ready in your stage for the ability to be played. As you play your Outwit ability, the card unflips and commits itself, coming out of nowhere to surprise your opponent!

Let’s see an example of what an Outwit ability can do.

When you are on the defensive, managing resources is crucial. Buying Time gives you the ability to quickly expand your board or to gain information about the top card of your deck. Then if your opponent builds out a huge board, it turns itself face down to feed you more options, resetting its Outwit ability for another activation and giving you a dangerous back and forth between its Outwit and Deadlock abilities.

So now we have an example of what an Outwit ability can do, but how do we get cards with Outwit onto our stage without our opponent knowing? Well, for example:

No better place to lay low and develop a plan to counter your rival than in a remote Cabin Hideout! Cabin has Infinity, so any character can take a moment to plot their next move in secrecy. Cabin Hideout lets you stash Outwits or other useful tools during your turn, but what if there were characters able to quickly strategize on the fly?

Armin is known for his brilliance in and out of combat. This version of Armin pressures his opponents while figuring out exactly the counter he needs for the situation. Armin is a flexible and disruptive character that has us excited to see what our players cook up.

Let's look at one last Outwit card. This one shows off some ways of getting one up on your opponent and causing them problems in both the present and the future.

Having a plan is crucial to success in combat. Battle Plan waits for your opponent to walk into your trap, and then puts them on the back foot, taking away one of their resources and providing more pressure from your own attacks to take control of the fight.


There are more Outwit cards to be revealed in this preview season and many other exciting things to show. The tactics of battle and political subterfuge on display in Attack on Titan are crucial pieces of the world. We wanted to do our best to properly capture those elements in UniVersus for the fans of the series. So thank you for reading, and we hope you are excited to give Outwit a try!