Pippa is back with a new article, this time under her new banner of Coping With Cardboard! She breaks down the concepts of difficulty and complexity, as well as the ever-present new player problem in UVS.

Austin Breaks down his Recent Tournament Experience and how his recent success has caused him to reflect on his evolution as a deckbuilder, as well as explore the idea of what truly makes a deck "Good".

High Rolls and Safety Nets explores two core deckbuilding mindsets. The Optimist and the Pessimist. By comparing these philosophies, the piece highlights how personality and risk tolerance shape not just decks, but the way players approach the game itself.

Attending my first UFS event was pretty scary, but its given me unforgettable memories. Come take a look at what a UFS World Championship looked like in 2016!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is finally out, and Dani has a day 1 deck for you to try out! They go through all card types and point out how the strategy plays out for Raphael, the Muscle.

Keenan Meadows is making his debut on Coping with Cardboard, coffee in hand, to call out one of the sneakiest problems in deck building right now. Sweeping Daggers is quietly punishing risk taking players, stifling creative builds, and making low check strategies harder to justify. With sharp humor and pointed examples, Keenan argues for a simple errata that could bring the thrill of bad checks back into the game.

“Peak Universus” is something that’s said often in the UVS community today. Dani pontificates for far too long about what Peak Universus is, what it may be, and what it can mean to you.

In between Regionals and serious testing, there is a perfect window for chaos. That is when the brews come out, not to break the format but to break the routine. I brought Mina III to locals on Death, slapped together a janky ranged build, and immediately regretted my decisions. But that is the point. Locals are where you get weird, fail loudly, and maybe, just maybe, find something worth keeping. This blog is a love letter to those beautiful disasters and the lessons they leave behind.

The Louisville Major Regional has come and gone, and Dani gives us a recap of how the main event unfolded for them. New things are on the horizon, but first we need to close this series out!

Playing Universus is hard. 

Universus is one of the most complex card games out there where player skill is highlighted more than ever. For me this is a huge draw; I love being able to express myself with skill-based play, card selection, and deck selection. On the other hand, for newer players just picking up the game, no amount of conversation or warning can help push this fact forward. The retention rate of Universus, no matter how cool a player thinks it is, isn’t as high as we want it to be. Whether that be because of poor outreach programs, lack of grass-roots community level organization, or a lack of game stores it doesn’t change the fact that if you play this game, you do it because you love it. 

Richard comes with an article that talks about some statistics of Universus that most players might not think about!

After a period of self-reflection and experimenting with the decklist, Dani realizes it’s time to go back to basics and work the fundamentals. The ban list was empty, the stage is set for a clash of titans - the final preparations begin now.

Andrew Holder writes about his perspective on growth in UniVersus, intentional practice, and being patient with yourself as you learn and improve in the game.

Dani returns to the drawing board after the StarkDark Open Series 2.5K. In this article, they discuss trying to incorporate new ideas, the pain of failure in testing, and finding a new way forward as the clock ticks down to Louisville.

A short article discussing how Hange, from my recent Deck Techs article, squared up at the StarkDark event!

Dani gives their tournament report from the StarkDark Open Series 2.5K, and how their expectations differed from reality.

Dani examines game psychology as they mentally struggle in the lead-up to the StarkDark Open Series 2.5K.

Andrew Holder returns with an exploration of burnout, balance, and finding your way back to a game on your own terms.

Welcome to Flight School!

You’ll learn to pilot Dani’s Annie Leonhart, Awakened deck, with analyses of the first hand, opening turns, and maximizing your play with specific examples and tips!

Welcome to the Rogue’s Gallery, where we celebrate the strange, the scrappy, and the stuff that probably should not work but sometimes still does. This series dives into the offbeat ideas that keep the game fresh when the meta starts to feel a little too familiar. If you are looking for something different or just need a reminder that decks can be fun and still hit hard, you are in the right place. This week’s feature brings some serious heat.