Urban Rivals is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) browser-based card game, similar to traditional trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Legend of the Five Rings. Your goal in Urban Rivals is to collect as many cards as you can and use them to defeat your opponents. The following is a guide to help you understand the finer details of the game and get on your way to becoming an Urban Rivals champion!
Game formats
In Urban Rivals, there are four different game formats to play. Each of the formats has rules about deck building and play. Type 1 and Type 2 formats differ by the number of “stars” or character points allowed in your deck. Type 1 decks allow a maximum of 25 stars, while Type 2 decks are for 26 stars or more. The Survivor format is an offshoot of Type 2, and the goal is to have as long a winning streak as possible.
The most popular format is known as ELO, which has a tournament ladder. Its rules are similar to Type 1, but it includes a list of cards that have been banned for being dominated. The ELO format has weekly prizes depending on how well you rank in the tournament. Each game format will have its own deck building strategies, but this guide provides general deck building and game strategies that should be applicable to all game formats.
Roof construction
Your deck of 8 cards, of which 4 will be used at random in each battle, is the key to winning battles. No matter how good you are, a bad deck will almost certainly cost you the battle. As such, deck building strategies are very important, and most of the decision making happens before the battles actually take place.
* Clans: the first thing you have to decide is which clan to choose. Each clan has a bonus that applies to all of its members. The Bangers, Junkz, Rescue, Sentinel, and Ulu Watu clans have attack power bonuses. The All Stars, Montana, Sakrohm and Uppers give their opponents penalties for attack power. The Fang Pi Clang and La Junta clans have damage increases, while the Pussycats reduce opponents’ damage. The Gheist, Nightmare, Pirana, and Roots clans cancel their opponents’ powers, while the Skeelz clan protects their powers from cancellation. The Freaks clan deals poison damage to their opponents, while the Jungo clan gives themselves more health. The clan you choose will depend on your preferred play style.
* Clan Identity – Not only does the Clan Bonus have to be tailored to your play style, but you also need to think about which Urban Rivals Clan identity, backstory and ideals resonate with you. If you don’t like gangsters and guns, Montana’s Mafia Clan will definitely not suit you, no matter how good their Clan Bonus is. Similarly, if you like the idea of military superiority and guerrilla warfare, then the La Junta clan will appeal to you.
* Mono vs Dual: There are 2 deck comps that are played the most frequently: Mono-Clan and Dual-Clan. Mono-Clan means that your deck of 8 consists of characters from a single clan (plus perhaps a Leader). Dual-Clan means that your deck contains cards from 2 clans. The choice between the two arises because the clan bonus of a card only works if you have at least 2 cards of that clan in play. Therefore, using a Mono-Clan deck ensures that your clan’s bonus is always active, but suffers due to a lack of diversity. A dual clan deck, on the other hand, will face battles where one of the cards will not have its clan bonus. However, this disadvantage is offset by the fact that you are using 2 clans whose bonuses work well together or cover each other’s weaknesses.
* Card Cost – Once you have decided which clan you want, the next step is to choose which cards go into your deck. When you are starting out, you are sadly limited by the cost of the cards. Powerful cards typically cost a large amount of Urban Rivals money in game, but you can pay for them the more you play and the more tournaments you participate in.
* Star allocation: In Type 1 and ELO games, you have a limit of 25 stars or points in the deck. Choosing which combination of star levels goes into your deck is important. Do you want more 5-star powers in your deck, knowing that you will have to put a lot of weak 2-star cards to balance them? You could get lucky in battle and have all of your 5 stars up for grabs, or you could end up playing with 3-4 2-star cards, practically turning the game over to your opponent. The other option would be to fill your deck with mostly 4- and 3-star cards to ensure you have a decent team in every battle. Again, the choice will depend on your style of play.
* Card Skills – The next step is to figure out which cards work best in your deck. It is best to choose cards whose abilities complement your clan bonus. For example, if your clan bonus gives you a large attack bonus, then you can use cards whose attack power is not that great but deal a lot of damage, since the clan bonus is already boosting your attack. You should also add cards that are more specialized, such as those that stop skills or bonuses, or walls that reduce damage taken. In general, you should have an overall goal for your deck, and most of your cards should support or work toward that goal.
How to play
Now that the deck is ready, the next thing to focus on is how to fight well. Both you and your opponent start with 12 life and 12 pillz, and your goal is to finish the battle with more life than your opponent. As you might expect, there are many ways to achieve that result.
* Poker: You can treat an Urban Rivals game like a poker game. The person who is able to read his opponent better and bets wisely usually wins. The pillz you use to increase your attack or damage are like poker chips. Are you going for all with a powerful card? Or do you save your pillz for a time when you expect your opponent to launch his big attack? Just remember that pillz are actually more important than life, and should be kept and used wisely.
* Objective: When the battle begins and the cards are revealed, the first thing you need to do is decide what your objective and plan of attack are. Do your cards have enough damage to do a 2 hit KO (i.e. deal 12 damage using only 2 cards)? If so, then you should focus your pillz on those 2 cards. Do you intend to open with a poison card and defend yourself while it deals its damage? Next, you need to make sure you have enough defensive walls and cards to do it. In any case, you should also know your opponent’s plan of attack and be ready to counter it.
* First turn: the first turn of the battle is possibly the most crucial. The player with the most stars / points at the table will start first, giving the weaker player a chance to watch their opponent play before deciding what to do. It is common to open with a bluff, playing a strong card with very few pillz. If the opponent reacts using a lot of pillz, he could have won the first round, but he would be at a disadvantage. If the opponent didn’t spend pillz to defend, you would have done a fair amount of damage with just a small investment of pillz.
* Pillz Advantage – During each round, the player with the most available pillz generally has the advantage and can dictate how the battle will unfold. The player with the fewest pillz has fewer options and generally must go all out or concede a round. So it is very beneficial if you can spend pillz more efficiently than your opponent (as long as you keep winning battles). This is derived from the strategy of the first turn of bluffing: if you bluff successfully, you will have a pillz advantage and can extend it throughout the battle, constantly putting your opponent on the defensive.
We hope this guide clears up some of the less obvious aspects of the game and makes your experience playing Urban Rivals more enjoyable! As you might expect, practice makes perfect and you will start to see how others play and you will be able to change your strategies accordingly. And don’t forget that there are almost 20 different clans you can experiment with, so don’t be afraid to play with them!
