I stumbled upon an interesting sideline vs. the Universal:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 (3...Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bd3 b6 transposes)
4.e5 Nfd7 5.Ngf3 Be7 6.Bd3 b6!? reaching the following position:
6...b6 is very rare, but seems to score nicely. I only found 8 games in my database, with M.Adams playing with white in the only game on GM-level vs. Rivas Pastor.
Black threatens to exchange Bd3 with 7...Ba6, so 7.Qe2 or 7.c4 (as played by Adams) seems forced. After 7.Qe2 black could continue with 7...a5, renewing the threat of an exchange, or play 7...Bb7 with the standard plan of c5, 00, keeping the option Qc8 followed by Ba6 in hand.
It seems that white will not be allowed to get his universal setup, which could be good news for black.
Has anybody more info on this variation, comments or recent high-level games?