In 2006 the UniVersus CCG (UVS) debuted under the Universal Fighting System. A collectible card game ahead of its time in many ways, it emphasized back-and-forth player interaction, push-your-luck mechanics, and the ability to mix and match your favorite characters from different licenses. The game has been delivering a high octane and deeply strategic experience for almost two decades. For the majority of those years a few game elements have existed without many differences: milling the top card of your deck to make a Control Check; the five card types (attack, action, asset, character, and foundation); completely blocking and partial blocking attacks. These elements have remained the same since almost the beginning. So what happens when you shake things up in one of the longest running CCGs out there? Where can you take UniVersus in the year 2024? The Attack On Titan sets aimed to find out!
Attack on Titan in UniVersus
The greatest threat to a card game is stagnation. Game designers and graphic designers face the challenge of delivering creative new ideas to the game you love and breathing life into their worlds. One small change here or there can completely ruin your fun or dispel the immersion of using your favorite character’s attacks and abilities. Preventing stagnation means taking risks. Doing things in a new way.
The first two of three installments featuring the Attack on Titan manga in UVS released this year (Battle for Humanity and Origins of Power) and provided some massive additions to the game. But the question is, which of the many brand new abilities, card types, and mechanics have had the biggest impact on UVS? Let’s take a look at the top three ways that the most recent sets have changed the game we love!
Honorable Mention: 4-Check Attacks
When I first thought about making this list, 4-Check attacks were at the front of my mind; they were the most eye-catching in the reveals. But because a 4-Check Attack has actually existed before, it might have lost some luster in my head. While Soul Spark wasn’t anything like the Big Titan attacks we got with Battle For Humanity, the overall tameness of their designs have them leaving less of an impact as I had originally imagined.
The plethora of 4-Check attacks does give way to the first ever archetypal deck where you can run exclusively attacks with a four in the bottom right corner, but it has only shown up sparingly, with Mothra and Godzilla being the notable leaders of that army. I do expect that if better attacks show up with high Check values, we could see them being commonplace, but for right now there’s a few other things that I find myself building decks around and interacting with in game more often.
#3: Backups
Battle For Humanity introduced a new card type for the first time in UVS‘s 18 year history. Attacks, actions, assets, foundations, and characters have all been present since the very beginning. Previously if you wanted your starting character to team up with others you needed to play assets and foundations with the Ally keyword. These cards were a cool way to add in minor characters from a series to assist you in battle. Trying to eliminate them from the battlefield required the same effects as eliminating other foundations and assets however, functionally objectifying these characters as another tool in the box.
Destroying the Vertical Maneuvering Gear from Attack on Titan was the same as getting rid of Trinket the Bear from Critical Role. With the backup card type, however, your allies joining you in battle are now targets for your rival’s attacks. This brings with them a more natural method of counter play. If you want to deny the rival access to the overwhelming power of the Colossus Titan, you can do what comes naturally: attack it!
Attacks are a core part of every UniVersus deck. They are the primary way to win, and it’s in the enhance step of said attacks where the majority of the game is played. It only makes sense that if Allies are on the battlefield helping my enemy that they’re also vulnerable as well, and backups make that a reality. Because they have to drain their stamina to use their abilities, attacking backups present an easy to understand puzzle when attempting to deny their use.
The fact that players can’t block for backups to protect them also provides a unique drawback to their use. It’s been pretty rare so far that we see attacks aimed at backups over the rival’s health total, but when the need does arrive it changes the landscape of the game in a noticeable way. Often this is a huge giveaway when the first attack of a turn is aimed at a backup that the goal is to generate incremental advantage over an attempt to win the game immediately. Backups provide a reliable target for players who might be falling behind in the board state and need to generate some value – whether it’s an effect that fires from dealing damage, or the momentum gained from an attack landing.
The characters that care about backups are pretty good and can reward you for playing a healthy number of them, but the backups we’ve been provided are at pretty healthy power levels. I know a lot of players are waiting for more flashy and powerful backups to really buy into the card type, but I for one am glad that a new card type was able to make a big splash without having the competitive format completely revolve around them. This way I don’t feel burned out on their arrival.
Instead I’m very excited to see what happens with this design space in sets going forward. Critical Role has already shown some more support for backups, with a card that’s able to restore their stamina in Healing Spell. Combine that with the core identity of fantasy RPGs and I can’t wait to assemble my own party of adventurers in my stage, each with their own class and role!
#2: Outwit
Outwit is a deceptively simple mechanic introduced in Origins of Power. Like Blitz, Outwit is a new ability type similar to Enhances and Responses. It allows a player to respond to a specific game event, but this time with a facedown foundation. To use Outwit, a player will unflip that foundation and commit it as a cost before resolving the Outwit ability. It represents the strategic acumen of characters like Armin Arlert and the problem solving abilities of characters like Hange Zoe. The second arc of AoT introduces a lot of intrigue and mystery, so having an ability for the deep thinkers of its world is very fitting!
Similar to backups the Outwit ability type was introduced with a measured approach. They mostly have some simple abilities you’d expect for their respective symbols. Battle Plan’s repeatable +1 speed enhance is incredibly strong and playing it is made easier by generating facedowns to use the Outwit ability. The SR Titan Injection provides one of the most powerful defensive responses, but with the twist that its coming from a private zone instead of a public zone. This adds a massive layer of complexity and strategy to a game that was already brimming with possibilities just from the public information alone.
I’m surprised it took longer for an ability that flips a foundation face up with a Response ability to be created than it did for an all new card type to be created. There is a lot of joy with setting little traps for the opponent, and getting to reveal that ultimate gotcha moment on your path to victory is a core part of the card game medium. Outwit plays really well with bluffing strategies, ramp strategies, and flip/unflip focused strategies. It’s also wonderfully countered by large amounts of the Ruin ability.
Analyzing the best ways to not only use the Outwit ability but how to get it into play or reuse it adds a satisfying wrinkle to deckbuilding. Having to worry about why the rival would leave a facedown foundation ready over a faceup foundation or every card that Hange Zoe, Four Eyes adds to their stage facedown is a brand new addition to gameplay. Like backups, I’m very excited to see what happens with this design space. I could see it going away sooner than others, since keeping track of private information and the shuffling of facedowns is an unintended hurdle for playing through matches. But for now I’m excited to see what kinds of traps and pitfalls I can set for my opponent!
#1: Double Faced Cards
Double faced cards are definitely the biggest game changer UVS has ever seen. While DFCs are no stranger to the card game space, it did take an incredibly long time for them to appear in UniVersus.
DFCs are a really practical mechanic to bring out flavor in all sorts of ways. Especially with the emphasis on anime and manga IPs entering the game, being able to flesh out transformation sequences was a huge win. Recently this was achieved by having multiple character cards in your deck. Characters like Fat Gum would transform his abilities and even hand size part way through a game. In the first set of My Hero Academia there were multiple All Mights potentially detailing different eras of his career as a Pro Hero, leading to the True Form All Might which could lay a copy of any other All Might over your starting character to effectively transform for a single turn, a huge flavor win and an excellent use of UniVersus‘ card types and a callback to previous “Character Stacking” rules.
With DFCs the transformations can be completely unique printed on the card. Losing the abilities on the flipped side creates a much better picture of a character becoming something totally different. It has much better gameplay implications leading to some tense board states. We’ve already seen the incredible success My Hero Academia gained from DFCs with Izuku Midoriya, On the Move // Izuku Midoriya, Quirks Unleashed, so far the only character card that can transform back and forth between the two sides.
I really enjoy the different transformation requirements from the character cards and would love to see what kind of variety we get in the future. This can help make the transformations feel very personal to the characters. It’ll also allow designers to translate different themes into gameplay. The Titan Shifters were a great way to introduce DFCs and it’s not just the character cards that transform! Shift is the new keyword ability that allows your attack to transform at the end of the turn. So far, we’ve had attacks that become backups or foundations, and with that comes a hefty price tag. It’s pretty rare that players want to pay more than five for an attack, but if you get to build a card in exchange it’s hard to complain.
All in all, DFCs not only have the most impact from the many powerful characters introduced, but also for the Shift attacks that make high difficulties more appealing, and also for all the potential the future holds. I expect to see shapeshifting characters from other universes, maybe a dormant artifact asset that becomes energized and transforms into a game breaking asset, or an Echo attack that transforms the second time you play it! The possibilities really feel endless at the moment, and of all the things introduced in 2024, DFCs are not only my favorite but something I hope to see much more of in the future.
The Attack on Titan sets have brought a ton of new mechanics to the game. Whether its the powerful double faced Shift attacks, the brand new backups they transform into, or the cunning Outwit abilities; they have done a great job of fleshing out this new universe. It captures the utter hopelessness of humanity that enthralled fans of the manga in the first place.
There’s a third set from the world of Attack on Titan coming in 2025. If this year was anything to go off of, I have to imagine we’re in store for some more UniVersus firsts coming our way. I for one am very excited.
Wanna see what else UniVersus has in store besides Attack on Titan? Check out our breakdown of All Upcoming Universus TCG Sets. Street Fighter returning in July 2025 is what I am most excited for!
