Duel 1, Fight! It is with great pride that I am introducing a project I have been working on recently and have been dying to show off. As many people know, I love game design and have created a Guilty Gear set in the past. While I was proud of it then, I have grown to dislike many of the designs featured in it. Of course that doesn’t mean that some of the designs weren’t bangers (Bridget, Nagoriyuki, and Zato-1 were some of my favorites I’ve ever done!), but I was dissatisfied with many of the cards leading me to want to redo the set. I designed it a while ago and have grown as both a player and designer immensely since, so I knew I could do much better on a second go around.
This article will serve as both an introduction to the set, the design principles behind it, and a showcase of many of the upcoming characters! The set is slated to have a whopping 20 characters, each with 9 support cards each, bringing the total up to 200(!) cards. This doesn’t include a backpage, which is likely to end up with between 20 and 40 additional cards, bring the set up to a monstrous 220 to 240 cards. I will also likely run a small competition for the community to design some cards, some of which would be featured in the backpage as well, so be on the lookout for that!
And what is the purpose of this? Well, obviously I want to flex some of my design skills, but I would love to create an alternative format for the game utilizing it, with the goal of eventually running events in this format! I need to finish the set first, I am about 45% done as of publishing this article and hope to finish it sometime in the next month or so, showcasing all the cards along the way. Throughout I will be looking for playtesters to make sure nothing is too egregious in terms of power, so if you’re interested feel free to reach out via discord and I’ll keep you updated!
Lastly, I want to mention that it will be a decent departure from the UVS you know (and hopefully love). The complexity of the game is going up (hopefully not in a bad way), and the variety of effects are going to also be increasing. There will also be some fundamental changes with the approach I am taking with design in ways that I hope will work out, though of course with any large changes there are sure to me knock-on effects and things I cannot foresee. One of the reasons for the shift in direction is that the mechanics of this game can offer so much more depth than what is being represented in the current iteration of the game, and I wanted to embrace that. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s launch into how I designed the set!
Design Philosophies, and Why Things are Changing
As mentioned in my last article as I discussed my views on the metagame, I mentioned several key points;
Playing lots of cards is fun
Drawing lots of cards is fun
Playing powerful cards is fun
While this is in context of the skewed power level of the current top dogs of the format, one of the design goals is to extend those strengths to the entire cast, allowing everyone to partake in the fun part of the game; playing cards and interacting with the rival. The primary way to accomplish this is to add much more card pool interaction, allowing players to play many more cards in a single turn than usual for the MHA iteration of the game. On top of this, reliable ways to generate card advantage and increasing card velocity helps with players having enough resources to accommodate the increased game pace.
This is a scary prospect from an offensive point of view, as giving everyone access to wild combos and strings means that offense is likely to greatly outpace defense if nothing is done. It sure wouldn’t be fun to play a game where every deck has the potential to go off with turns reminiscent of Ryukyu or Mirio, so to combat this I am making defensive options not only more available, but also stronger at handling this style of gameplay. To do this, a wide variety of new defensive effects will be present, including two new keywords (more on those later!), as well as an effect that has been keyworded for ease of use. Expect widespread access to defensive mechanics to allow players to interact with their rival’s offense, leading to more engaging gameplay.
Spring boarding off of this, one of the risks of adding an abundance of card advantage and ways to smooth out turns is that decks could end up feeling “same-y” if certain tools are too strong, leading to less fun deckbuilding. It would end up with players finding the most optimal “packages” and running them regardless of synergy. How could I stop players from playing the same pile of the best cards available?
The answer? Limit these strengths to primarily characters! One of my gripes with the current game is that characters often don’t greatly impact how you play the game at a base level. Everyone plays the game fairly similarly, which makes it easier to hop onto new characters but reduces the unique playstyles available to certain decks. Some of the most fun characters in my opinion are ones that fundamentally change how you approach the game, with examples being All Might I, Mandalay, and Mirko being some of the best examples of characters that make you play the game in different ways unique to them.
With this in mind, every character is designed to not only have self-contained ways of playing and drawing many cards, but will have a unique playstyle associated with them. This will make each character feel different from each other, making it easier to find a stick with a “dedicated main”. This does come with the caveat that learning a new character will be an undertaking and something that will require practice, just like learning a new character in a fighting game. While this will cause a higher learning curve, I feel that the benefits outweigh the cons, while also making each character feel special and like they can do something the rest of the cast can’t. Of course players will still be able to pick up and play a deck, truly dedicated players will be able to find unique lines by putting time and effort into their specific character, increasing the skill ceiling of the game.
Another small point I would like to make is that with each character having their own style of card velocity, one of the ways to further differentiate characters is that each one should cycle their deck at a varying pace. This is another way to add different playstyles with each character, as well as putting increased significance on the cycle mechanic. This means that some characters may be more prone to cycling than others, adding additional pressure on the player to control a resource that players don’t often think about game-to-game. With the game length increasing it compounds on this factor, making cycling an actual threat to some of the characters adding another small layer of complexity to the game.
As a small nod to enhanced character complexity, a character's difficulty stat will well, scale with their difficulty! For example, a character with a difficulty of 1 or 2 will be easier to pick up and play than one with a difficulty of 5 or 6. This allows players to quickly tell at a glance how intensive a character is to play without having to read and digest their effects. Character difficulty has always been a useless stat, so repurposing it to quickly convey how challenging a character is to play is one of the small quality-of-life changes I will be making in this set. Keep an eye out if you are looking for a character that is easier to get into versus one that will require some mastery to play properly!
Another issue I have with the game is the fact that players’ agency is often determined but the hand they draw into at the beginning of the turn. This leads to having turns decided based purely on what cards you draw. You get a hand full of grey and you’re forced to build, while the opposite is true for attacks as well. While this is a core pillar of creating unique gameplay from turn-to-turn, many characters will have options to sculpt their hand in order to have more control over how they want to play out turns. This will give players more agency within the game by allowing them to decided if they want to aggress or not, regardless of the type of hand they draw. This will often come at a downside however, as there has to be some amount of restriction to prevent players from having too much control over the game, so filtering through cards will often come at the cost of card advantage.
Lastly, a small but significant change will be that characters will have varying block zones and modifiers, as well as defensive keywords on their face! This is one of the more out-there changes, however I have a good reason for this. Within the context of the full set, the number of playable maindeck cards is deceptive due to characters being the face of the deck and having little reason to run others within the deck. “Buddy blocks” has been a concept to save on sideboard space while also packing a useless card that is only good on defense, and I wanted to expand upon this concept. This small change allows players to include extra characters as powerful “defensive actions” within their decks, to both shore up block zones while adding additional 6-checks into their deck. This also evokes a concept of having assists from fighting games, allowing you to feature multiple characters within your deck for a reason given their defensive abilities are incredibly potent and likely to save you in a pinch!
With all of this in mind, the power level of the game will be going up, though rising tides lift all ships, which will hopefully lead to a more balanced and engaging game. This is something I will continue to monitor closely throughout design and as I head into playtesting, but overall expect less generic card advantage as it will be tied primarily to characters. Offense and defense should both be interactive, and I hope to create an environment where the game feels good to play for everyone, regardless of whose turn it is.
Stats Stats Baby!
Something that I have been scrutinizing more and more recently is the abundance of available stats in MHA. Moves can often reach unblockable speeds or ridiculously threatening damage outputs, and the frequency of this makes the base stats of cards less significant. Mirio and Overhaul and pump each move by two damage while Jiro and Shoto IV get scaling stat pumps, leaving characters who can’t increase the stats of their moves in the dust. The concept of characters having different stat outputs has fallen by the wayside as it is the most generic way to give characters additional power, leading many characters to feel similar in how they apply their pressure.
One of the primary differences with my iteration of the game is that generic stats will be much more difficult to come by and will further differentiate characters and their playstyles. Certain characters will have an identity of being hard hitters or difficult to block, adding further factors to make them feel and play differently from each other. This also means that fewer characters will be poor picks due to their lack of granting stat bonuses, creating more diversity in terms of what people would like to play.
This also means that the base stats of attacks will matter more, creating potentially more decisions within deckbuilding. This could manifest in wanting to run certain attacks over others due to having more threatening stats even if they synergize less with your deck, opening up more options. To offset the loss of generic stats granted by characters, attacks will generally be a tad more juiced than usual, so take that into consideration when evaluating cards in this set!
Block modifiers will also be lowered overall to assist with defense as well, with attacks trending towards having better blocks than foundations. This makes holding attacks for defense feel better given their stronger defensive applications, while also making attacking riskier due to the leftover foundations in hand being worse for blocking. While this won’t be true for every card, it will be a general trend you will notice as more cards get revealed.
The final note on stats is that character health has been increased across the board. With pop-off turns increasing in frequency and power, additional health will allow players to be able to weather the storm of attacks rivals throw easier. It will also increase game length by requiring a tad more offense in order to win, usually adding an additional attack or so in order to close out games compared to the MHA format, not including the general reduction of damage within the game. This also means it is more difficult to blow the rival out with an insane pop off turn, meaning that aggressive decks will likely need two turns in order to kill the opponent. An additional side effect is that it lets players be punished less for extending, and letting players leverage their health as a resource easier. This means that players will be able to engage more with the fun part of the game; the back-and-forth tug-of-war of aggressing and defending.
With all of these changes, card balance may be in slight disarray. I will of course try my best to keep everything in-line, however I am a single person and balance mistakes could happen. One of the benefits of being an unofficial format is that I am able to go in and make adjustments to cards, meaning that I will be able to balance cards that are either too weak or too strong. In a more serious case where the stats aren’t the problem, I can also go in and rework and errata cards easily. I truly would love for this to become a format that people can play and find games for, and I will do my best as a designer to promote a fun and healthy environment!
Words that are Key!
As mentioned above, I will be introducing several new keywords with this set. One is a purely defensive keyword, while the other has both offensive and defensive potential. In addition to the two new additions, I will also be keywording effects that already exist within the game, to both simplify effects and add additional use cases for them. I will also be explaining the reasonings behind the keywords and their use cases in game, as well as showing off some cards featuring the keywords, so buckle up!
Parry: X - Response: After you block with this card; Your next check gets +X. Perfect Parry: X – Response: After you completely block with this card; your next check gets +X.
Parry will be one of the two completely new keywords introduced in this set as a defensive counterpart to Breaker. While Breaker is focused on disrupting the rival’s offense, Parry exists to smooth out your defense by easing your next check. Perfect Parry is another variation of it to reward good blocking while also limiting the defensive potential of certain cards, and will usually have higher values than the regular Parry keyword to reward good defense.
With stronger offense being introduced, more defensive mechanics were required to balance that out. Parry technically isn’t my idea, with its origin being with Ace Maneuvers, though it was too perfect a fit as a new mechanic to be introduced. This also gives another different way of interacting on defense that isn’t aggressive, given Breaker’s ability to disrupt rival offense. The trade-off is that Parry will be more widely available and oftentimes feature higher values than Breaker. This allows the rival to continue running their offense while giving the defender more breathing room to withstand the onslaught.
Exert – Enhance [Card pool] Destroy 1 foundation: Build this card face up committed, or flip it and draw 1 card.
Exert is the second keyword of the set and features both offensive and defensive potential, while providing a ton of potential decisions and use cases. It allows you to clear the card on both offense and defense, or alternatively cantrip to dig for either more attacks or blocks. This keyword was partially inspired by the set 6 card The Return of the Kings as another way to add additional defensive tricks to the game. The offensive portion came about as it provides an additional use case for it that trades a foundation for a single card draw, furthering the card velocity of the set.
One thing to note however is that because the card builds both face up and committed, any foundations built will not be online until your next turn unless they have Tenacious, while any attacks built will immediately be sent to the discard as you can’t build face up attacks. This gives a trade of resources allowing players to get creative with their usage of it, whether it be to clear progressive to keep blocking, or to weave it into offensive turns to get around Breaker effects or to find more cards to open up their options for the turn. Additionally, since it is an enhance it requires an enhance step to be able to be used (obviously), allowing counterplay in the form of either not playing any more attacks, playing attacks with Flash, or interacting with it in the card pool via Flip, Seal, or Discard effects.
The cost of destroying a foundation is also a bit hefty, as while a foundation will replace itself, other card types such as Actions, Attacks, or Characters will leave you down a resource going into future turns, assuming you try to build it. If you use the effect to draw a card it means you go down a resource and it remains in your card pool, potentially disrupting any combos you may have planned out with your turn. That last point is especially relevant given how certain characters interact with their card pools, making different characters want to use it in varying ways adding another skill-testing element to this keyword!
With the two new keywords out of the way, I also have introduced new keywords to already-existing effects, which are as follows:
Burn: X – Your rival loses X health. This cannot reduce your rival's health below 1.
Stuff: X – Add the top X cards of your rivals discard pile to their card pool.
Burst: X – Response: After you block with this card or this effect is triggered; Your rival’s next check this turn or the current check, gets –X. Failing this check does not end the combat phase.
Burn is a simple keyword simplification which will be used to condense effects, especially with it being featured more prominently in this set (again, more on that later!), while Stuff is in a similar boat to reduce the number of words needed for a simple effect. Burst however will require a bit more of an explanation. I wanted to simplify the term given how clunky the wording currently is, and it presented an opportunity for me to not only include it more often in effects, but to add additional functionality to it.
Burst can be either a keyword on a card, or part of an effect. When included as a keyword it acts as another variation of Breaker, though less punishing given the rival has more control over whether they want to pass the check or fail it. This allows for another way to interact while on defense, and in a way that is less punishing than Breaker. This lets it be included on cards more frequently than Breaker as it is a less disruptive version of it, which comes as the downside of the rival having more agency in terms of how they want to play around it.
When part of an effect, it simply works as advertised, simply giving your rival’s next check a speedbump. The primary use case however is when it can be triggered multiple times (primarily on offense) to grant stacking speed bonuses that your rival must interact with in order to clear, providing a unique form of offensive interaction that isn’t present in the MHA iteration of the game. This gives the keyword dual offensive and defensive utility, which some characters will showcase to its fullest potential.
Lastly, while not a keyword, the effect zone of [Discard] will be featured prominently within the set! This gives another dimension to the game allowing certain effects to be activated from the discard pile! As a note, an effect with the [Discard] zone will only be playable if it is the top card of your discard pile, so no need to rummage through the trash checking for effects! As part of this I wanted to remind everyone of a quirk of the rules, where if a number of cards enter your discard pile at the same time you are able to choose the order of them. This means that if you mill a large quantity of cards and find one with a [Discard] effect, you can order it so it is on the top to take advantage of the effect!
Quality of Life
With my set I also wanted to introduce a few quality-of-life adjustments. You may have already noticed one of them in the above section, but I have adjusted how effects are worded slightly in order to provide more clarity to the game. Effects will now follow the following format;
[Effect type] [Zone (if necessary)] [Cost]: [Condition]; [Effect].
The primary update includes the condition of the effect with a semi-colon to make reading effects simpler. As a note conditional effects only apply to that sentence, except for Responses as it is the trigger condition. Effects tied to the semi-colon have to meet the condition in order to activate, but some effects may activate regardless of if the condition is met, so be careful when reading! While only a small grammatical change, I hope it will provide additional clarity with the increased complexity of this set. Effects with multiple effects may also be grouped using commas in order to make it clear of what triggers when and what effects are grouped together.
Another small update is that keywords on cards will not be ordered alphabetically but will instead be sorted by keyword effects and keyword traits, and then alphabetically within those groups. This is to ease the readability burden of cards with many keywords, allowing players to quickly identify the more important gameplay-related keywords at a glance. This also allows players to mentally shortcut which parts of the card are where when checking for things like Combo abilities or keyword-specific effects.
As I mentioned above, characters’ difficulty will scale with how much work they require to play properly, both as a singleton card but also within the context of their kit. Characters that may seem simple could have their difficulty bumped up due to the interactions they create within their kit. It will also allow players to mentally categorize characters by difficulty easier, giving players jumping into the format a reference as to who they may want to consider playing based on how much time they are willing to invest to learn a certain deck.
What is a Symbol?
One of the biggest criticisms I have with MHA card design is the lack of true symbol identity. For those unaware, each symbol has a soft gameplay style associated with it, though those conventions have been tossed to the wayside as of recent in favor of more generic designs. Examples of characters with strong symbol identities exist, such as Eraserhead 3 and Overhaul, though for the most part this has been tossed to the wayside. I wanted to bring this concept back to the forefront of design, as it gives symbols distinct playstyles and related mechanics. As with the character difficulty change, this allows players to generally shorthand information by assigning different effects and playstyles to symbols, allowing players to get an idea of how cards interact with the game just from seeing what symbols they are.
Of course this means I had to go through and refine the identities for the symbols, both expanding and refining them, making sure each one has a unique playstyle and shared effects. From there I was able to start designing the set keeping this in mind. With the heightened complexity and power level of the game, the most important parts of each symbol were how they interface with the core parts of the game; playing cards and how they obtain their card advantage. Symbols should interact with the game in differing ways, and that will come to light with how each one plans and plays their cards throughout a turn.
If you were to analyze the cards in the MHA format you might be able to get a feel for some of the symbol identities, though you wouldn’t be able to exactly pinpoint what they are. This is one of the main failings of design in my opinion, allowing more overlap between symbols and homogenizing most of the cast. With this in mind I wanted to truly express symbol identities clearly and create shared gameplay mechanics, which has the bonus effect of allowing increased crossover between cards within the same symbol, allowing specific gameplans to form between the varying attack packages for each symbol.
With the explanation for why out of the way, let me begin diving into each symbol, showing off not only the themes of each, but I will also be showing off a character for each that especially embodies the symbol! I will also explain where each part of their effect comes from in terms of their symbols, though this will naturally spoil some of the symbol identities within the first few showcases of characters, but I hope that once you’ve gone through the symbols you can appreciate the references to different symbols from the initially revealed characters.
And as an additional reminder, these characters will seem to have bonkers effects and inflated health pools when compared to ones of the MHA format, so keep that in mind when evaluating them. And of course, all of the numbers on the cards are subject to change, the only constant will be their hand sizes. This means that from now to the final version of the set some of these characters may have adjusted health pools, block modifiers, or effect outputs. On the last point, any effect changes will keep the core identity of the character intact, but some of the outputs may change in order to preserve balance. With all of that out of the way, I am glad to introduce my take on symbol identities within this set!
Air
Air’s symbol identity is best characterized by a quote from one of the dev articles released by UVS games a while ago; Air as a symbol is all about movement of cards! Not only does this mean moving cards between zones, but smaller effects as well, with Refresh being one of the staple keywords of the set. In relation to their interactions with the card pool, Air as a symbol loves clearing the card pool rapidly, usually meaning that they either have a lot of small effects to clear single cards at a time, so expect the symbol to try and keep their card pool nice and clean. Lastly, Air’s signature keyword is Flash, giving the rivals less time and ability to react to their plays to catch them off guard!
The character that I want to show off that embodies the Air symbol is none other than Bridget, the yo-yo wielding youngster! Her primary effect is wanting you to chain attacks and foundations together representing her yo-yo tricks, with the reward being a draw, the Air signature Refresh, as well as Burning the rival, one of the primary effects of the Fire symbol! On top of that she gives you the freedom to build cards from your card pool, a primarily Good effect, allowing you to pick and choose what goes where giving you ultimate control over your stage! Lastly she is able to remove her built foundations to make attacks easier or harder to block by adjusting the block modifier based on the difficulty of the removed foundation, both of which showcase some mainstay mechanics of the Good symbol! And as another small nod to the Fire symbol, she removes her own cards meaning you have to manage your resources carefully if you end up cycling!
All
All in! That is one of the largest tenants of the All symbol, with them usually featuring gigantic game-altering effects! This usually takes the form of abilities providing a massive swing of resources, meaning that if you love doing a single huge thing, All is the symbol for you! Of course this isn’t without its drawbacks, as with great power comes great responsibility, making All one of the best symbols for showcasing risk and reward within the game. The symbol also tends to interact with their deck more then others, from topdeck manipulation to having a tad more draw power than other symbols. The last big thing about the symbol is that they often care about the difficulty of cards, so be on the lookout for effects referencing that!
No character showcases the gigantic swings the All symbol can produce better than the secretary of absolutely defense, Goldlewis Dickinson! He can generate the biggest swings in the game, clearing his entire card pool and refilling his hand at the same time. It is at a steep cost however, requiring the destruction of a huge quantity of foundations, as well as managing the difficulties within his card pool. It also requires an enhance step, meaning you will have to risk playing the final card as an attack on +3 progressive difficulty, but the reward is well worth it by clearing your card pool, indirectly refreshing your stage, and refilling your hand to effectively take a second turn! His Earth influence is shown by his enhance relating to the block status of attacks as well as his interactions with face down foundations, while Order is represented by his potent stage control and “symmetrical” effects with both of his enhances having equal costs and effects!
Chaos
Chaos as a symbol is all about taking advantage of the inherent randomness of the game and using it to overwhelm the rival! Chaos as a symbol is all about resource transmutation as well, converting resources between each other, allowing them to have flexible gameplans that can adapt throughout the course of the game. They also love adding bonuses to their checks, which is their primary way of insulating their turns from bad RNG! Lastly, Chaos is the primary momentum symbol, boasting ways to not only snag momentum easier than other symbols, but using that momentum in cool and unique ways!
The Chaos character I wanted to show off would be the Zato-1, the technical shadow wielder! While checking attacks usually hinders decks, Zato is able to commit a foundation to add them to his momentum, which then he can convert back into attacks! Then using the attacks he is then able to clear his card pool further and cantrip off of the discarded cards by drawing and Refreshing his board. I will note that while the previous attack in the card pool is gone the stats of his face down attacks are set when it is played, so it won’t reset the stats! He also shows off one of the main mechanics of the Evil symbol in playing cards from varying zones, while his Water symbol manifests as both the Refresh keyword and having face-down cards in his card pool, as well as the playstyle of having his power fluctuate throughout his turns!
Death
If you enjoy filling both players discards, Death is the perfect symbol for you! Death craves destruction and achieves that by aggressive going through its own deck through a variety of mill effects. In order to take advantage of that one of the hallmarks of the symbol are effects that trigger when being milled or discarded, allowing you to sneakily surprise your rival with additional benefits from going through your deck! Not only does the symbol fill the discard, but the symbol also often uses it as a toolbox and brings resources back from the grave! They are also adept at destroying the rivals' foundations, giving them a unique form of board control by being able to answer threatening foundations permanently. Expect Death decks to clear their card pool with potent discard effects, allowing them to fill up their discard while chaining their attack turns together!
Jack-O showcases the Death symbol to a T, as not only does she go through her deck at a breakneck pace, but she also has selective foundation destruction on her face at the cost of compromising her own board. Her Life symbol showcases her primary way of chaining her cards by ignoring progressive, and also factors into her ability to recur resources from her discard. Order is known for its symmetrical effects as well as heavy usage of using X as a placeholder value, which truly shines given the costs of all her abilities!
Earth
The unshakable Earth symbol is here and not messing around! The symbol's primary claim to fame is having heavy interaction their both players stages, with face down foundations being one of the core ways to express it. Earth features a variety of powerful flip effects and synergies, and their primary way of interaction is flipping the rival's board. The symbol loves messing with the board in unique ways, and one of the big ways they do that is by oftentimes having huge effects to swing the momentum of the game in your favor! Another staple of the Earth symbol is the wide variety of on-block effects, making it a tricky symbol to handle on both offense and defense. Earth as a symbol is one of the primary symbols that interact with the damage of attacks, whether it be buffing their own or reducing the potency of rival attacks, making it one of the most durable and hard-hitting symbols!
Giovanna is one of the characters that shows off many of the strengths of the Earth symbol, working with her wolf spirit Rei to be a queen of stage manipulation! Not only can she pick up flipped foundations, she can flip her assets to transform them into foundations! She also threatens the rival by making them flip their own board if attacks get blocked, while also having the rare damage modification. She can chain together cards by ignoring progressive difficulty, courtesy of her Life symbol, which also shows off the resource recursion that symbol is known for. Lastly, her Good symbol is represented by her ability to consistently build cards throughout the turn, though at the downside of them usually being committed, another Good symbol staple.
Evil
The most villainous symbol, Evil is here and not messing around! The best way to describe the symbol is cunning, plotting, crafty, and tricky. Evil loves to mess with the rival, from negatively modifying their checks to interacting with attack and block zones, the symbol will keep your rival on their toes throughout the game! As a symbol it also isn’t afraid to play on the edge, sacrificing their health for especially potent effects, but the symbol also packs a plethora of synergies relating to low check values, making it the best for people that love to run 1s and 2s! It also loves playing cards from varying zones, making their turns more unpredictable than other symbols to catch their opponent off guard. Evil also requires a bit more effort as a general trend and falls pretty high on the risk spectrum so the symbol tends to skew towards the more complex side, so be warned!
The rockstar witch I-no is the featured character for this symbol, and she is sure to dazzle the rival with her musical talent! Every time she plays a chord with her block zones, she is rewarded by enabling a powerful filter ability and hacking the rivals’ next check to continually fuel her musical rampage. And if you manage to play a variety of attack zones you get a massive surge of card advantage, clearing your card pool, and Burning the rival with your sick riffs, some of which might be described as tasty! Both the Burn and remove effects show off her fiery tendencies, while the card draw and discard let her blast through her deck and fill her discard as part of her Death side of her identity.
Fire
Moving onto the most explosive symbol, Fire is here to burn everything down! Known for its volatile playstle, Fire is another high-risk high-reward symbol, with pop off turns rivaling the All symbol! Fire is one of the more combo-centric symbols, not only utilizing the keyword to great effect but also in the general way it plays, building towards a raging inferno of a turn. It singes its cards and heavily interacts with the remove-from-game pile, leading to burning bright rather than long. Of course of the Fire’s signature mechanics is Burn, giving the symbol ways to always move the gamestate forward, and thus often leans more towards the aggressive side.
Of course this set had to feature one of the prominent villains of the series, and Happy Chaos is here to sew his namesake! You will need to load some foundations into your card pool, but once you do, he not only eases his next check but also reduces your rivals, truly showing his Evil side. And once loaded, he can fire said foundations to snipe down rival foundations while chipping the rival down with repeatable Burn. He also thrives on Chaos, insulating his checks with giving them bonuses but also can also snap a momentum to make use of powerful effects sooner than other characters!
Good
The Good symbol is here and ready to save the day! The hallmark of the Good symbol is being able to reliably build cards during the combat phase, allowing them to juggle their stage to an incredible degree. In addition to this, they love having effects that commit both players foundations, and pummeling the rival gets easier with the ability to modify block modifiers for both offensive and defensive utility! The last big identity of the symbol is their love of foundation difficulty, often converting high-difficulty foundations into bigger and better effects!
No Guilty Gear set would be complete without the cowboy-samurai-pirate captain himself, Johnny! Always remaining cool, he extends his blade by utilizing foundations, Refreshing his board with small ones and adjusting block modifiers with big ones! This gives him incredible versatility showing he is truly a jack-of-all-trades! His Good symbol also manifests with him building in cards from his card pool, and when combined with his top enhance lets him find the perfect answer for any situation! His Air influence should be obvious with the heavy movement of cards, while Water shines through with love of filling his card pool, and both of them show off the reason for his dual Refresh abilities!
Life
Life ‘s claim to fame is its signature mechanic of ignoring progressive difficulty, allowing it to grow its card pool from a small start to a towering menace! It allows players to play out their hand and fill their card pool with constancy, while also showcasing one of the primary mechanics of the Life symbol, which is scaling effects! This can take the form of becoming more potent based on different factors, or even ramping up throughout the turn to make for some truly massive plays even towards the end! Life also enjoys recurring resources to reuse powerful effects, which can manifest in various ways, and the symbol boasts deceptive bulkiness through a variety of life gain effects to keep their health topped off!
Of course I had to include the posterchild of the Guilty Gear franchise in the set Sol Badguy, and he shows off the strengths of the Life symbol perfectly. Not only can he scale throughout the turn by ignoring more and more progressive difficulty, but he ramps up as well making his long strings truly monstrous! And once you’ve emptied your hand you get to enter the second phase of your turn by supercharging your momentum and refilling your hand, showing off his Chaos and Fire symbols working in tandem!
Order
As with everything, there must be balance, and Order is here to enforce that! Order’s claim to fame is being the premier board control symbol, having a plethora of Stun, Commit, and Seal effects to control the pace of the game. Order is also known for maintaining balance and is a highly reactionary symbol, boasting a variety of response effects that keep the momentum of the game balanced. Order also has many “symmetrical” effects, though this doesn’t necessarily mean the effects apply to both players, but instead the inputs and outputs of effects tend to be equal, though the outputs tend to have additional bonuses to make it skewed in favor of you. And as mentioned, the symbol loves effects using X values, giving both flexibility and variability in their usage.
Sol’s counterpart in Ky Kiske is another shoe-in for the roster, and is here representing the Order symbol! Once you’ve played your third card in a turn you get a litany of powerful effects, and shows one of the Order symbols’ signature “symmetrical” effect styles by letting you do three things by counting to three! A lot of his consistency comes from his take on the All symbol however, given his interactions with the top of his deck, with the stats based on the block modifier of the card showing off his Good symbol in addition to being able to build in a foundation during the combat phase.
Void
When peering into nothingness, what would happen in the abyss gazed back? Everything eventually turns to dust, and the Void symbol embodies that. With a plethora of discard synergies and effects the symbol is perfect at sculpting hands while denying the rivals the chance to do so. Void has some of the highest card velocity in the game letting them find cards incredibly reliably, as well as packing answers in the form of Seal effects and Cancels. Just like with Order, Void also has a ton of reliable stage control, to shut down any plans the rival may have throughout the game.
To showcase the symbol, we have everyone’s favorite ninja Chipp Zanuff! The immediate thing to note about him is his incredible hand size, matched only by his incredible-ly low health. 8 handers have always been an issue when it comes to balance due to the sheer number of cards they can see, but with the heightened power level of the game I feel like it would be a perfect time to test the waters again! This power comes at a great cost however, requiring him to discard a card every time he wants to play something, limiting his potential baseline output. The real power comes from when he is able to weave foundations and attacks together in his turns to rapidly go through his deck and find the exact pieces he needs to break through rival defenses! His gameplay style is heavily influenced by his Air symbol, while he shows his Order colors with his consistent board control with his constant pressure!
Water
Last but most certainly not least we have the Water symbol! Water’s primary gameplay identity is categorized by wanting to fill up both players’ card pools through Stuff effects and adding in cards during the combat phase, while also often enjoying have face down cards in your card pool. The power of the Water symbol manifests by having their turn ebb and flow like the tides, having fluctuating effects based on cards in your pool! Just like the Air symbol, Water features plenty of Refresh effects as well to keep your board ready throughout the combat phase, but also features plenty of [Card pool] effects to take advantage of filling theirs up!
Anji Mito shows off these mechanics perfectly, with his top response getting the most value out of having full card pools, while his enhance changes modes based on how many cards he has in his card pool, swapping between Refreshing his board or adding cards to the rivals’ card pool! He shows off both Air and Earth as well with his bottom response triggering on block allowing him to pick up cards from his card pool, assuming you’re able to play around block zones!
Who else is coming?
With all of the symbol explanations out of the way and the first 12 characters of the roster revealed I wanted to mention the rest of the characters coming to the game. For the characters not shown off in this article, we have;
Asuka R#, Axl, Baiken, Bedman?, May, Nagoriyuki, Ramlethal, and Testament
While some of the characters shown off today are some of my favorites (I-no and Johnny come to mind), I can’t wait to reveal some of the other characters as well, so look for updates in the coming weeks! I will be releasing articles deep-diving into how I designed the characters and why they ended up as they did, as well as showing off their support and all the cool combos within each character’s kit! As another note, kits for this set will be 1 character + 9 support cards, making each kit an easy 10 cards. As always some of the numbers may not be final, but the general concepts and effects will be.
While the main roster is missing some characters (Faust, Leo, Potemkin, and Sin), I am likely to include them within the backpage of the set along with a small set of supporting cards. That is up in the air though given I still need to complete the main set, but I will keep y’all updated as I make progress!
The End (For Now)
Whew, that was a lot. It’s been a long journey getting here to the end, so let me do a rapid-fire review of everything discussed;
A higher power game is more fun, so the power level and complexity of the game is increasing.
Characters will feature distinct playstyles and ways to play more cards and generate card advantage, with their difficulty scaling with the difficulty stat on the card.
Players will be given more agency within the game, both offensively and defensively.
Speed and Damage pumps will be less common and potent, but attacks will have higher base stats to make up for it.
Character health is being increased across the board.
Two brand new keywords in Parry and Exert.
Three keyworded effects with Burn, Burst, and Stuff.
Quality of life changes to ease card readability.
Symbols have received honed identities and will be a larger consideration in terms of design.
The full roster of characters includes Anji, Asuka R#, Axl, Baiken, Bedman?, Bridget, Chipp, Giovanna, Goldlewis, Happy Chaos, I-no, Jack-O', Johnny, Ky, May, Nagoriyuki, Ramlethal, Sol, Testament, and Zato-1.
With that all out of the way, I am so glad to have this project out in the open, and I plan to consistently share updates here in this blog as well as on discord. I truly appreciate everyone who is interested in this project, and I cannot thank you enough. As mentioned I will be hosting a card design competition in the near future to give players a chance to have their card featured in the sets backpage, and will be uploading the cards to Tabletop Simulator when I can so people can play with them. As I’ve said I also plan to host events using this format once the set is finished or nearing completion, and if you’d like to help playtest it feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me a message on discord!
I can’t wait to show off more of the set as I complete it and will be releasing showcase articles to both spotlight characters and how I designed them, as well as going through and revealing their kits and showing off the various synergies available! As always, take it easy, and until next time!
Do you have any articles you’d like to see? Any topics you wish were discussed more? Any questions, comments, or feedback on this article? Well let me know down below, or shoot me a message on discord! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to follow me on twitter or leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
Have any card game needs? Well visit UnFunStuff to stock up on any TCG supplies or cards, such as any of the newly release Jetburn cards!
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