BRAWL: Club Foglio
Club Foglio was released in the summer of 2000, and introduced three new cards: Hold, Reverse, and Null. It also introduced a new function for Press, namely to deal with Hold, Reverse, and Null! The deck recipes are in the table below, followed by detailed descriptions of each character.
The six characters in Club Foglio are Alex, Crane, Gina, Mischo, Rent, and Tess.
| Deck | Alex | Crane | Gina | Mischo | Rent | Tess |
| Blue Hit | 5 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| Blue Block | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Green Hit | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| Green Block | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
| Red Hit | 7 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Red Block | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 |
| Base | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Clear | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Press | - | - | 2 | 3 | - | - |
| Hold | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - |
| Reverse | - | 2 | - | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Null | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 3 |
| Freeze | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
"Alex is a close personal friend of Mister Foglio, and visits his Club nearly every night. She has a simple and well-balanced fighting style. Skill Level: Easy. Advantages: Balanced. Good color mix, several Clears. Weakness: Limited. Very few special-function cards."
If Alex had been a basic deck, she would have had a Moderate rating. Still, she's about as simple as it gets in Club Foglio: Her one Hold and one Null don't interfere too much with a straightforward, color-balanced deck with five Clears. That's the most (along with Gina) of any of the Club Foglio decks.
"Crane is a bicycle messenger and karate instructor, as well as the most popular DJ at Club Foglio. He has a complex and powerful fighting style. Skill Level: Advanced. Advantages: Versatile. Some of almost every card type. Weakness: Unstable. Very few Hits in Blue and Green."
Crane has a little bit of everything: 2 Holds, 2 Nulls, and 2 Reverses. His monochromatic Hit assortment (9 Reds but only 2 in Green and Blue) is his greatest weakness, though few players are fast enough to close him out in both Blue and Green. It takes a good deal of skill to play Crane correctly, given all his various cards. But it takes an equally skilled player to defeat him!
"Gina is the bartender at Club Foglio, and is also a talented songwriter. Gina is a strong and unpredictable fighter, with a very unusual style. Skill Level: Moderate. Advantages: Strong. Multiple Holds, Presses, and Clears. Weakness: Narrow. Not many Hits in Red and Green."
Gina's "unusual fighting style" comes down to her weird color mix (9, 4, 1) and her abundance of Holds and Presses. Like anyone with a single weak color, Gina is easy to close down in Green. But she has five Clears and five Bases to avoid being closed down for long, and Presses for last-minute scoring adjustments. Her biggest asset is her Hold cards, which she can use to control the few Bases she decides to hit in Blue. While she takes some getting used to, Gina can be a powerful fighter in the right hands.
"Mischo started the first big fight at Club Foglio, and also finished it. Now he's the bouncer. Mischo can force his way out of nearly any jam. Skill Level: Moderate. Advantages: Vicious. Plenty of Hits and Presses. Weakness: Vulnerable. Only one Block."
Blocks aren't the best cards to have anyway, and Mischo doesn't miss them. Some players refer to Mischo as "Darwin all grown up," with his mix of Presses and other special cards and his balanced set of Hits. But unlike Darwin, Mischo also has a reasonable collection of Clears for those moments when things aren't going so well. Maybe it's just because they have the same background color....
"Rent is a die-hard beach bum and Mister Foglio's eldest son. He has his father's famous knack for turning any situation to his advantage. Skill Level: Moderate. Advantages: Tricky. Good color mix, three Reverses. Weakness: Lazy. Few Blocks, only one Clear."
Rent's "famous knack" for survival refers to his three Reverses; it really doesn't matter who's winning the game until Rent's Reverses are accounted for. His main drawback, as described on the box, is that with only one Clear he's forced to make the best of what's already on the table. He does this admirably, of course, with a very nice balance of Hits (7, 6, 5). (In case you're curious, the real Mister Foglio's son is named Victor.)
"Tess works the night shift at Club Foglio to help allay the tedium of her melancholy life. Her fighting ability grows from her boundless ennui. Skill Level: Advanced. Advantages: Aloof. Average color mix, three Nulls. Weakness: Fragile. No good counters to a strong attack."
Tess' three Nulls make her the most often tied player in the game. You will not lose a lot of games playing Tess, but you will not win many either. The game is almost always a draw! That's probably appropriate for this melancholy goth, who is far and away the most popular of the Club Foglio decks. It's true that with only 1 Reverse and only 3 Clears, she has little to defend herself from a strong attack. But with 3 Nulls she really doesn't need much else.
Beat People Up, the Button Men and BRAWL Home Page, is (c) 2002 James Ernest and Cheapass Games.
