What makes Coach Sebastien (and all the top players) so good ?

When I came back to Urban rivals, I was looking for a path to follow in order to get better at this game. Unfortunatly, none of the best players were able to express how they became this good.

After playing the game the bit, watching Coach Sebastien's stream and talking to him, I think I now know what it takes to become one of the best at this game.

This article is not a simple tips to implement and immediatly make your level skyrocks. Rather, it what I think are the steps you will have to follow in order to become better.

 

2 tips to reach Polit arena in EFC

 Hey everyone, two quick tips to help you climb in EFC and get that sweet Pulp LD

1 : don't focus on winning the round, should focus on winning the game

Many times I see opponent missplay and overpillz on a round they don't really need to win. Before playing the round, don't ask yourself how to win the round, but what scenarios can result from your actions.
You can read my article on empty rounds for more information.

2 : don't focus on winning the game, focus on winning most games

In Urban rivals, winning all games is not possible. Even if all draws were even, there would still be a bit of "luck", or rather yumis. And in EFC, winning all games, is not necessary : as long as you win more games than you loose, you climb.

When climb to Polit arena, don't look for mind games and trying to read your opponent : look for the safest plays.

Versus ability

 Damn, yesterday was hype. The build up to Queen Naliah was so cool !

The artwork is just gorgeous oh my lord.

It is always nice to have a new ability. It is not the most interesting ability and it will definitly not change the game like Infiltrated did (probably nothing ever will), but an aditional gameplay tool is always nice.

The versus ability is a deckbuilding/counter ability. You pick it to counter specific clans. Chances are, the first versus cards released will counter Occulus (who is the clan present in 70% of the biclan decks). It finally gives us a reason to not play an Occulus in our deck. Which is nice.

The issue I have is that counter ability have never been exciting and never will be. Sometimes they play to their strenght and look very good, sometimes they don't and look bad/tasteless.

I dont play Survivor, so I have no clue how strong Queen Naliah really is.

The way I see Versus be implemented in EFC is on uncommon/common cards. They will have strong vanilla stats, and an okay Versus skill. For instance 8/4 3* Versus:Power +1.

Yeah that looks bland, but I dont see how Versus could be better without beeing too swingy and very annoying to play against. It is the issue Brawl has (very frustrating/one sided when fighinting mono) and versus will probably have too.

Mechanics review : What is symmetry ?

There are a lot of new and interesting conditions brought to the game recently. Let's look at them and see how they do. Starting with Symmetry.

Symmetry and Asymmetry are two mechanics that came together. I wanted at first to release one article to cover both, but I finally decided against it : the two mechanics work extremly differently.

EFC player bans : a system that proved its uselessness ?

First of, Ggs to all the top 5 EFC seasons. It is so exciting to seee those players have such a high score weeks after weeks.

Oh man, the announcement of the staff was so exciting !! The semi evo leaders ? Oh they are so nice to see !
I never played much leaders since the broken ones were removed from EFC but I know some like to play them (especially MEMEnto). So I am glad those players will get a new toy to play with.

The one news I am not that excited about is the unban wave. I actually believe that the wave is very interesting and can bring new faces to the meta. My worry is that all of this is nothing but a washout.

Here is what will happen :
step 1 : all the cards gets banned in next player ban list without beeing played for an extended amount of time.
step 2 : one of those cards will actually stay unbanned for a week.
step 3 : said card dominates the metagame as all the other powerful cards are left banned.
step 4 : the cards get banned by the staff.

A card is only good compared to the rest of the pool it is in. And with the system we currently have (weekly bans), said card pool varies quicky and many of the best cards get banned while many are left unchecked. Which mean instead of having 10  "op" cards in the meta, you only have 2. And you have no other option than to play those.

 From what I heard last week looked like, it was a clear example of this issue : you either play Berzerk or a counter to them.

Also, no. The system does not prevent catastrophies like the Freak pussy week we had. If anything it exacerbate the problem when it happens.

The reason the system was put in the first place was (I believe) because the staff did not put much effort into balancing ELO back at the time. They would ban once every few month and leave it to the players to handle it week to week. Now we have a dedicated staff member that keeps a close eye on the meta and can ban every week if needed.

I believe, it is time to let the player ban system go and leave it to the staff to handle it. We will have a more stable and cleaner EFC meta every weeks.

In my spare time, I am a volunteer facilitator for the game "Climat Fresk". Climat Fresk is a serious game which lets you learn about the climat change. Please try it, you will learn a lot of things thanks to it ! => https://climatefresk.org/

Ps : "but the players vote can get ride of random cards". not really, it mostly extends the process between the release of the card and its definite ban. Instead of waiting weeks not seeing the card in action, without bans, if a card causes too much problem it can be banned after a week or two by the staff.

Weekly update : the new bonus cards are so cool

 

 I wasn't playing much this week, but I wanted to write the weekly article because the latest EFC update was sooo good.

Answer : it is a split

 

Here are all the basics options I have : old Cortez => Is covered by Nami 3 pillz (8 pillz left for me, same for him). Beats Nami 4/5.
Full pillz Serleena => is covered by Nami 7 pillz (4 left)

If I cortez 5 pillz => beats Nami 3 pillz. If he Nami 7 : I have 2 + 4 pillz gained from Vx bonus => wins 6 pillz to 4. Beats Nami3, Nami 8. Looses to Nami 4/5..

The situation is a 2/3 in my favor.

Dont worry if you were incorrect, I also did not spot the distribution during the game !

In my spare time, I am a volunteer facilitator for the game "Climat Fresk". Climat Fresk is a serious game which lets you learn about the climat change. Please try it, you will learn a lot of things thanks to it ! => https://climatefresk.org/

Sabader on how to build a DT deck

Awesome DT deckbuild guide by Sabader posted on Reddit


(archiving it here so the link does not get lost)

Follow up : End games

Thank you for the positive feedback of my previous article. No weekly recap this week as I did not play much. previous week. I used Tontonisgod's decklist. I am trying to understand how him and others reach top 10 without a dedicated differencial reductor.

Talking with Sabater, I renamed distribution to split. Shorter word.

Can the staff please reconsider their stance on erratas ?

Last time I checked, the staff was against changing existing cards.

End game : auto-win, 50/50 and split

Something that makes a great better is that he (or she) has the ability to forsight how the game can play out. Visualising how the game can end and play his first rounds according to this.
There are three ways a game can finish : Auto win (or auto loose), 50/50 or split.

Weekly recap : Highlight on Serleens

 Hi everyone, how was your week. Mine was good. Barely finished z palace with 688 points piloting a Sakhrom Komboka deck, I really wasn't sure I would not get kicked out of Z palace by the end of Sunday. It looks like some weeks are much more competitive than others (the week before I z palace'd comfortably with barely 500 points).

Quick rundown : EFC update 26/07

Quick rundown : I have not tested those cards and those are only my opinions.

Follow up : empty turn

Thank you everyone for the feedback on my previous article. The amount of positive response is heatwarming and I also enjoyed the discussions stemmed from it.
Here are two follow ups from it.

Empty rounds and meaningless damages

 Here is a very interesting game to review (for multiple reasons). What do you think is the good play for me to do here ?

 

 Futoshi - Shifou (opened) - Benicio - Zip
Mulligan (no bonus) - Chang - Komandon - Marjory

 

EFC bonuses are broken and you need to take this into account when deckbuilding.

 EFC bonuses are a really interesting addition to the EFC deckbuilding challenge. Right now I think efc bonused cards are a must in every decks. That is right ! I would go as far as to say that +bonus should be taken into consideration when choosing the clans you want to play this week.

You need counters for Dominions in your deck

 Just a heads up for everyone. I am currently playing Dominion, and the amount of freewins I get is incredible. Not a diss to my opponents, it's just they have such a thin rope to walk to win. All this because of Dominions bonus.
So keep this in mind when building your deck : if you don't have good options to stop Dominions during turn 3 and 4. You expose yourself to loosing to all Dominions players.