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Universus (sometimes styled as UVS) is a collectible card game designed by UVS Games. Characters in game are drawn from original properties as well as several licensed ones, such as Mega Man, Street Fighter, The King of Fighters XIII and Darkstalkers. Regardless of license, or branding, all cards are cross-compatible.

The game play of Universus primarily deals with two players, each represented by a character with their own starting statistics, battling each other. The main objective, reduce their vitality (as defined by their character) to 0 or less or force them to draw cards where not enough cards are able to be drawn. (There may also be additional abilities in game which may in turn create a victory.)

Unlike most CCGs, UVS does not have monsters, creatures or similar. Damage is dealt by playing attack cards, which the opponent may try to block with using a card from their hand. Each attack has stats for speed, the damage it will deal, and a zone (high, mid or low) that the opponent's block must match to avoid taking damage. Attacks often have abilities on them, and may be enhanced by abilities on other cards.

Also unlike other CCGs, the cost to play a card in UVS is not a set number of some resource. To play a card in UVS, players must pass a "control check". A player discards the top card of their deck, and compares its control value (typically in the lower right corner) to the difficulty of the card he or she is trying to play. The cards difficulty is determined by adding the printed difficulty of the card that is attempted to being played and adding one for any card in the "pool" area (or cards successfully played earlier in the turn). If the control is equal to or above the difficulty needed, the card is played at no additional cost. If the control is lower, the player must "commit" (turn sideways) a number of foundation cards equal to the difference, or else the attempt to play a card fails, the card is discarded, and in most cases the player's turn ends.

Players draw up to their character's hand size at the start of each turn. Due to the large number of cards drawn and played, the risk-reward nature of the control check system, and the importance of guessing at and playing around the opponent's hand, UVS is generally considered to be one of the more complex and skill-intensive CCGs currently active.

UVS has multiple formats, but most events are standard. Draft and sealed is used for release events, side events, or local change of pace, and there is also a smaller constructed format called Turbo.

A standard UVS deck consists of a minimum of 60 cards (including the character), and no more than four copies of a given card may be in a deck. Due to the large number of cards drawn during a typical game, it is common for decks to exceed the 60 card minimum in order to increase the variety of cards available. For turbo, a deck consists of exactly 41 cards (including the character) with the same restrictions of no more than four copies of a given card. In draft and sealed, players build decks out of random booster packs they either draft, or are given respectively. Draft and sealed decks are also a minimum of 41 cards, but any number of copies of cards may be used.

Deck building in UVS is driven by the resource symbol system. Each card has 3 symbols on it, representing various elements or concepts. Cards can only be played if they share a symbol with the character, and only if that symbol is on all prior cards played that turn. Therefore, it is normal when building a deck to choose one symbol on the character, and include in the deck only cards that have that symbol.

There are five different card types in UVS, indicated by the color of their border and other traits:

• Characters – A card representing the combatant a player is fighting as. This is the centerpiece of a deck.
• Attacks – Attacks have an orange border. They represent punches, kicks, weapon strikes, and other moves used to deal damage to the opponent.
• Foundations – Foundations have a grey border. They represent a character's training and background, and are the primary resource used to help pass control checks to play cards.
• Assets – Assets have a green border. They represent locations or objects, and provide abilities more powerful than those on foundations.
• Actions – Actions have a blue border. They represent various maneuvers and have immediate effects when played, allowing a player to use abilities that were kept secret in their hand.

• UVS Games Home Page