A Louisville Regional Retrospective
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.
For me this love has changed a little bit. Some days I feel as if I’m in a toxic relationship. I just get so overwhelmed at the depth and vastness of UVS that I don’t fully understand how to cope with it, so I do what I’ve always done and play anyway. It’s not that I don’t have fun while playing, but I’m not sure if that fun comes from the social interactions I have with my rivals across the table or if I’m actually having fun playing game actions. I think the simple fact of the matter is that I’ve hit a wall with Universus, and it really started to show this past weekend at the Louisville Regional.
Story Time!!!!!
So I got back from London on Tuesday at 1630 and left for Louisville on Thursday morning at 0430 with Dani, Anna, and Paul. I was fully intending to play King Ghidorah for the event but I was exhausted. On Friday night we headed to a minor league baseball game at Slugger Field (GO MILKERS!!!). It was the bottom of the 6th when I finally said “I can’t possibly play King G this weekend. I’m going to play something else.” We got back to the hotel, and my team and I built a Jamie deck from extra cards we had laying around from other decks. It was very far from the best deck in the room, but I had zero play testing time anyway so did it really matter?
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I sat down for round 1 and my opponent revealed Izuku Midoriya (V). Spoiler alert, I love Midoriya.V as a character. I think he’s cool, and my opponent had a super cool deck. As Jamie, I just got to pump out a lot of stats that my rival couldn’t deal with here. They got a few good reversals off, but due to my experience on and against the character, I had a pretty good idea of how to navigate the matchup. I took this one 2-0.
Current Record: 1-0
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Round 2 was against Lane! This was a toughie vs Pony. I did the best I could here, but my deck didn’t fully cooperate with me. Lane played a solid match for sure. Game 2 I thought I had stabilized after building double broken Psyche and holding a breaker:3 with a momentum in the tank. Lane found 2 of 3 Vast Hybrid Chimera Kraken and that was all for that one. I lost this one 0-2.
Current Record: 1-1
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Fresh off the Round 2 lost, we went straight into Round 3! This time my rival revealed Overhaul on the Life symbol. There was some really cool tech in my rival’s deck. I was super excited to see the U.S.S Cerritos, and somewhat surprised by Stalling for Time. They almost got me on turn 2 in game 2, but they failed the final check after their Midst of Despair. I got to backswing with +4/+4 to all my moves while my rival had no defensive resources, after they had to commit Overhaul to pass a check last turn. I took this one 2-0.
Current Record: 2-1
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Round 4 I got to play against Rocky on Hange Zoe on the Fire symbol. I’ve had a lot of practice vs Hange on the life symbol, and this list isn’t much different than what I’m used to as far as the attack line up goes. Thanks Richard! In the end, I just didn’t have enough gas to get through the DR and barrier shield breaker:2s that came out of Rocky’s list. Had a great game though and later on Rocky went to the barcade with us to also kick my butt in some Tekken Tag and MK3.
Current Record: 2-2
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Round 5 was vs a Rodan on the Void Symbol piloted by Skylar! Really cool stuff going on here with the new Street Fighter cards that were added to the format. The Rising Uppercuts did well at blocking my highs but at the end of it, I just had more attacks with too many stats for him to block. He took game 2 after a bit of a battle, but couldn’t quite find the defensive legs to deal with Jamie’s incredible stat output in game 3.
Current Record: 3-2
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I played vs Carlos on Godzilla, King of the Monsters in round 6. I knew this was going to be a tough one going in. My deck really needs to build out to really guarantee those long Falling Skies strings, and Unyielding Destruction stood in the way of that. This one was a bit heartbreaking as I played my heart out for it. I got Godzilla down to 4 both games and just couldn’t find checks good enough to close it out. My analysis was right for the current iteration of the deck. I could do 30, but doing 34 outside of a vacuum was asking a bit too much from this version of Jamie.
Current Record: 3-3
Long story short, I ended the day 3-3 drop. For a deck built from scraps in 30 minutes it was a pretty respectable finish. I was fully intending to play all the rounds but I was socially wiped out. So I went to take a 35 minute shower, and my meditation was interrupted by a screaming fire alarm.
The next day, I cheered on my teammates Richard and Austin for their incredible runs this weekend. I’m extremely proud of both of them, and we are going to do our best to clinch that top cut spot next time. Meanwhile, Paul, Buck, and I played in the standard team event and ended it in a fantastic 3rd place versus some stiff competition! I got to play some sick lines in Beast Titan and played Ross to a draw on his incredible Pumat Sol list. I ended that team event with a personal record of 2-1-1, and a team record of 2-1-1.
After a fantastic weekend at the Louisville Regional, I think I’m finally realizing what’s important to me in Universus. It’s not winning, having the best deck, or making cool plays. The most important thing is my friends. I enjoy jamming games on silly decks, or picking up some old retro boxes for chaos drafting. I just want to spend time and make some memories with the people I play with. If you’re feeling the same way I am about Universus right now, I hope that you come to the same conclusion that I have.
Before I sign off for some much-needed rest this week, I want to give a huge shoutout to the team at RochesterCCG for managing a great event, and our favorite Cardslignin’, Jacksonville native UVSGames designer Derrick. The CwC team will see you all in ATL.
Keep your friends close, your rivals closer, and remember to keep coping because after all, playing Universus is hard.
