Urban Rivals is a browser-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) card game, similar to traditional collectible card games like 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 put you on the path 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 regarding deck building and gameplay. The Type 1 and Type 2 formats differ in 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 on the tournament ladder. Each game format will have its own deckbuilding strategies, but this guide provides general game and deckbuilding strategies that should apply to all game formats.

terrace construction

Your deck of 8 cards, 4 of which will be randomly used in each battle, is the key to winning battles. No matter how good you are, a bad deck is sure to cost you the battle. As such, deckbuilding strategies are very important, and most decisions are made before battles take place.

* Clans – The first thing you have to decide is which clan to choose. Each clan has a bonus that applies to all its members. The Bangers, Junkz, Rescue, Sentinel, and Ulu Watu clans all have attack power bonuses. The All Stars, Montana, Sakrohm and Uppers penalize their opponents’ attack power. The Fang Pi Clang and La Junta clans have damage boosts, while the Pussycats reduce opponents’ damage. The Gheist, Nightmare, Pirana, and Roots clans cancel opponents’ powers, while the Skeelz clan protects their powers from being canceled. 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 play style preference.

* Clan Identity – Not only does the bonus clan have to fit your playstyle, but you also need to think about the identity, backstory, and ideals of the Urban Rivals clan that resonate with you. If you don’t like gangsters and guns, the Montana mafia clan is definitely not going to suit you, no matter how good their bonus clan is. Similarly, if you like the idea of ​​military superiority and guerrilla warfare, the La Junta clan will appeal to you.

* Mono vs Dual: There are 2 deck compositions that are played most often: 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 a card’s clan bonus only works if you have at least 2 cards from that clan in play. So using a Mono-Clan deck ensures that your clan bonus is always active, but it suffers due to a lack of diversity. A dual-clan deck, on the other hand, will find battles where one of the cards won’t 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’ve decided which clan you want, the next step is choosing which cards go into your deck. When you’re starting out, you’re unfortunately limited by the cost of the cards. Powerful cards usually cost a lot of money in the Urban Rivals game, but you will be able to pay for them the more you play and the more tournaments you enter.

* Star Allocation: In Type 1 and ELO games, you are limited to 25 stars or points in the deck. Choosing which combination of star levels goes in your deck is important. Do you want more 5-star power in your deck, knowing you’ll have to put a lot of weak 2-star cards to balance them out? You could get lucky in battle and have all of your 5 stars on the line, or you could end up playing with 3 or 4 2-star cards, pretty much handing the game over to your opponent. The other option would be to fill your deck mostly with 4 and 3 star cards to ensure you make a decent team in every battle. Once 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’s best to choose cards whose abilities complement your clan bonus. For example, if your clan bonus gives you a large attack bonus, then you could use cards whose attack power is not that great but deal a lot of damage, since the clan bonus is already increasing your attack. You should also add cards that are more specialized, like ones that stop abilities or bonuses, or walls that reduce damage taken. As a whole, 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 end the battle with more life than your opponent. As you might expect, there are many ways to achieve that result.

* Poker – You can treat a game of Urban Rivals as if it were a game of poker. The person who is able to read his opponent best and bet wisely usually wins. The pillz you use to increase your attack or damage are like poker chips. Go all-in 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 pills are actually more important than life, and should be stored and used wisely.

* Objective: When the battle begins and the cards are revealed, the first thing you need to do is decide on your objective and plan of attack. 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 while dealing damage? Next, you need to make sure you have enough walls and defensive cards to pull it off. In any case, you must 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 see their opponent play before deciding what to do. It is common to open with a bluff, playing a strong card using very few pillz. If the opponent reacts by using a lot of pillz, he could have won the first round but would be at a pillz disadvantage. If the opponent doesn’t spend pillz to defend themselves, you would have done a fair amount of damage with only a small investment in pillz.

* Pillz Advantage: During each round, the player with the most pillz available usually has the advantage and can dictate how the battle will play out. The player with the fewest pillz has the fewest options and usually has to go all-in or concede a round. Therefore, it is very beneficial if you can spend pillz more efficiently than your opponent (as long as you keep winning battles). This stems from the first-turn bluff strategy: if you bluff successfully, you’ll have a huge advantage and can extend it throughout the battle, constantly putting your opponent on the defensive.

Hopefully this guide clears up some of the less obvious aspects of the game and makes your experience playing Urban Rivals more enjoyable! As you would expect, practice makes perfect and you will start to see how others play and will be able to change your strategies accordingly. And don’t forget that there are almost 20 different clans that you can experiment with, so don’t be afraid to play with them!