UniVersus Design Team - Learning About The Symbols

Greetings, gamers!

In this Design Team Article we will be discussing the core deckbuilding mechanic in UniVersus, the Symbols!

There are 12 different Symbols in UniVersus, which each represent different fundamental concepts both mechanically (what cards do) and thematically (how they do it).

Every UniVersus card has a number of different symbols (usually three) in the bottom left corner. Those symbols are referenced during deckbuilding, as when you choose your Starting Character to build your deck with you must also choose one of the symbols on that Character. Every card you put in your deck needs to share the symbol you choose. It's easy to imagine as your character picking a specialty to use in combat!

Let's dig into it!

Air

The go-to aggressive symbol for players who enjoy moving their cards around. One of the common ways this is represented is through “clearing” your attacks from your card pool to your discard pile during your Combat Phase.

Tsuyu Asui (I) embodies many of the "Air Symbol" principles, including fast attacks and card-pool clearing to avoid progressive difficulty.

Strength A: Clearing

• Ricochet Charge

• Schoolyard Smackdown

• Blast Rush Turbo

• Explosive Rebuke, coming out in My Hero Academia: CCG Jet Burn next month!

Strength B: Speed pump

• Moonfish

• Into The Fray

• Like The Wind

All

A mid-range symbol, which could be classified as a “toolbox”. The All symbol specializes in manipulating your deck’s luck, as well as heavy card draw.

Valiant Assault is a bonafide "All" card - it draws you cards, and lets you peek at the top of your deck!

Strength A: Topdeck manipulation

• Foresight

• Celebrity Status

• Tracking Device

• (JetBurn option: Caring Mentor)

Strength B: Card draw

• Brutish Swagger

• Counter-Sweep

• You’re Finished

• (JetBurn option: Glamour)

Chaos

The aggressive Chaos symbol creates their own good luck -- when you can boost your own checks, it feels good to go all-in! Charging up a large pile of momentum is fairly easy and allows you to have a malleable gameplan with an explosive finale!

Battle Arena makes for a very "chaotic" situation in any game it's played! Providing free Momentum to both players is a good way to up the ante in a game, and using Battle Arena's Response to play through a bad check is a Pro Gamer Move!

Strength A: Momentum generation

• Humble Hero

• Kinetic Air Cannon

• Earth Beast Golem

Strength B: Positive check manipulation

• League Interview

• Self Doubt

• Honorable Forfeit

Death

As one of the more control-intensive symbols, Death decks will tend to feature ways to reduce their opponent’s resources and put them in pressuring situations.

Tomura Shigaraki uses his Decay quirk to wither away your Rival's resources every time they touch him!

Strength A: Destruction

• Brutal Explosion

• Red Gauntlet

• Soramitsu Tabe

Strength B: Burn

• Deadly Fire

• Sudden Death Assault

• Mina Ashido (II)

Earth

Earth decks can be some of the most damaging decks around! Be prepared to witness attack damages reach double digits, and your entire foundation base may just get flipped on the way there!

Earth wins games through simplifying the board and leveraging big numbers with cards like Tutoring Kirishima.

Strength A: Foundation flipping

• Taking The Gloves Off

• Finishing Blast

• Seizing The Advantage

Strength B: Large Damage Manipulation

• One For All 1,000,000% Delaware Detroit Smash

• You’re So Obvious

• Nomu (I)

Evil

The evil symbol knows that you have to pay for true power! Though you may have to pay health or discard cards, Evil players will find themselves able to interact with your Rival's checks to keep their choices restricted!

Strength A: Negative check manipulation

• Convenient Timing

• Stain (I)

• Sudden Appearance

Strength B: Health costs

• Slap Mr. Compress

• Endeavor (II)

• Compression Sphere

Fire

The premiere aggressive symbol, Fire decks aim to finish the game before they burn out. This tends to manifest in a lot of one-use stat pumps that help burst them forward, as well as abilities that get stronger with the more cards they have in their Discard pile. 

Flamethrower comes in hard and fast, and with Powerful: 3 as well to threaten big damage out of the blue!

Strength A: Self-mill

• Flashfire Fist

• Blue Flame Palm Strike

• Freezer Burn

Strength B: Aggressive stat pumps

• Fat Grapple

• Haymaker

• Dabi (I)

Good

One of the most defensive symbols, Good is happiest when it has a large wall of foundations to hide behind. Its abilities can let you get ahead on foundations, as well as help you secure the win once you're comfortably in the lead.

Manly Passionate Guy is a very "Good" card -- it helps keep your card pool clear during your Rival's turn, while gaining you a foundation at the same time!

Strength A: Quick build

• Unbelievable Skill

• Gecko Stomp

• Quick Thinking

Strength B: Block modifier usage

• Rescue Counterattack

• Determined

• Bubble Girl

Life

As a mid-range symbol, Life decks build towards a large and impactful turn to turn the tides of a match in one shot! Health gain and defensive abilities help Life decks stick around until they can pull off their magnificent turns!

Energy Suction doesn't count towards progressive difficulty, letting its Card Pool response gain you plenty of life during big attack turns.

Strength A: Health gain

• Recovery Time

• Spiral Blasts

• Bench Press

Strength B: Progressive difficulty manipulation

• The Future Is Now!

• Showing Off

• Ibara Shiozaki

Order

A control symbol focused on the simplest way to stop someone in their tracks: committing their cards! Order symbol decks will be aiming to lock their opponent in place to ensure their win!

Crawling Ice Geyser provides free speed if you've used a Stun ability, and you even get to freeze a rival foundation to restrict their next turn!

Strength A: Committing resources

• No Time To Waste

• Influencing The Youth

• Engine Trouble

Strength B: Freezing cards in place

• Twin Sword Slicer

• Chronostasis

• Locked Up

Void

A control player’s home, Void decks tend to be considerably proactive in their ability to tell someone “no.”

Strength A: Hand discard

• “Borrowed” Goods

• Blood Moon Rending

• Chainsaw Nomu

Strength B: Negation

• Pass Through Walls

• Stopping For Breakfast

• Nullify

Water

A defensive symbol that can block better than most, and features abilities that can be malleable to defense or offense turns!

Manifest's versatile Enhance lets you block very efficiently, but can also be used to set up a Momentum for an aggressive turn!

Strength A: Pool clog

• Water Pump

• …So Manly

• Cheerful Uppercut

Strength B: Refresh

• Human Garbage

• A Refreshing Slice

• Sludge

Jet Burn's Prerelease is coming up soon! Jet Burn's official release is November 17th, 2023 but the first chance you'll have to get Jet Burn is at your local game store on November 10th, 2023!

You can find a Prerelease event near you here  !