Are you new to FFTCG? Or are you a veteran looking for that extra edge when battling it out head to head during your weekly locals? The following tips have been verified by our Cloud City team to be effective at improving your overall gameplay without making a single change to your deck. Read on. 1. Read the FFTCG advanced rules. You know when your parents/teacher/mentor told you that knowledge is power? They were right. Having a clear understanding of the game rules will give you an advantage over the next player because you will know what’s possible and what’s not. Having a good grasp of the rules will also help you identify misplays from your opponent, reveal potential combos between cards and identify the best possible plays each turn. I can’t stress how important this is. You can find the rules here: https://fftcg.cdn.sqexeu.com/files/downloadables/fftcgadvancedrules.pdf 2. When to play your cards. When was the last time you had a forward on the field, played another forward on your main phase 1, and attacked with the first forward only to reveal an exburst named (insert devastating exburst here) to remove/bounce your 2nd forward? It happens more often than not but there is an easy fix to prevent this from happening at all. Most of the time you should skip Main Phase 1 and attack first with your forwards. Then play your backups/forwards/monsters in Main Phase 2. Not only does this prevent your opponent’s ex bursts from landing, you can also keep your opponent guessing what battle trick you have in store for them! Attacking with all your backups active and a full hand is much more intimidating compared to dulled backups and one card in hand. You get the point. Attack first and drop your hand after! 3. Anxiety
Have you ever had your hands tremble or have your feet bounce during your games? Do you worry that you’re not making the best move or that the next forward you play will only fall victim to Al Cid’s wrath? You are not the only one! (Cue FFIX music) Anxiety will always haunt us in some form or another, and feel the effects more than others. There are ways to calm your nerves and focus your play so that you can ease your jitters during your next match. A. Experience! The more you play, the more experience you will have with your cards and with counter plays. You will start to anticipate your opponent’s moves which will reduce the number of times you’re caught off guard. Just keep playing with various people with different decks and you will soon find that your shaking leg syndrome is a thing of the past! B. Study your deck! Before you find a decklist online, build it and challenge your local FFTCG player, take the time to read over all the cards and their abilities. Think about how the cards interact with each other and which combos make the deck work. If you do this mental prep prior to your game, you won’t need to think about it during your game! C. Take a deep breath! Stop focusing on yourself and look across the table. I bet you that your opponent is sweating bullets as well! Sometimes you just have to fake it till you make it and this means that you’re gonna have to suck it up and pretend as if you’re as chill as a 2cp Shiva. Take a deep breath, gather yourself and remain focused. Have your opponent worry about your plays instead. A great example of this is Cloud City team member Brandon. Whenever I play him, no matter how far ahead I am, he looks completely calm. He is so unphased that I assume he has answers to my plays. Even when I swing in for the final damage he hasn’t conceded that he is worried at all. This poker face gives him a mental advantage in close matches. I hope you enjoyed this article and can add that extra edge to your FFTCG game. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at [email protected].
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Deck List (Fire and Earth)
Deck Summary: Cloud City here with another deck breakdown and tutorial, this time from one of our most creative deck builders, Yuda. The main idea for this deck is to break your opponent’s forwards while aggressively building up your board and swinging for victory. This Fire/Earth build uses summons, back-ups, and forwards to capitalize on two key forward’s abilities: Machina 3-022H and Vermilion Bird l'Cie Zhuyu 5-011H. The deck has a dozens of ways to get er’ done and encourages skilled play. Read on for explanations of the deck’s gameplan in the Core Cards/ Combos sections. Enjoy! Core cards/ Combos: Core Cards #1 Cinque: Combo enabler Core Cards #2 Machina: Clearing forwards Core Cards #3 Vermilion Bird l'Cie Zhuyu: Clearing forwards Core Cards #4 Hecatoncheir: Combo enabler Core Cards #5 Raubahn: Combo enabler Core Cards #6 Shantotto: Back up plan and elemental fixing Core Combo #1: Machina A) Cinque: Forcing a forward to block Machina with Cinque’s ability can help get his passive ability to trigger. This will cause a chain reaction of 4000 damage pings if your opponent plays low power forwards. i) Cinque + Manasvin Warmech/ Sage: Same as above. But being able to increase Machina's damage by +2000 will allow for an easier chain reaction of clearing your opponent's board. B) Hecatonchier: There are two main uses of Hecatonchier with Machina. One is during Main Phase 1 and the other during combat, both have separate conditions in which you would use them. During your Main Phase (or your opponents if you have the opportunity to respond to something) you can cast Hecatonchier to hopefully break a forward with Machina’s power and then ping off a second forward. The second use of Hecatonchier is harder to pull off, but it gives you an idea of how to use your cards to their full potential. Lets say your opponent has two 8k forwards and one 7k forward.You attack with Machina and they block with one of their 8ks to trade. Before damage calculation, you cast Hecatonchier targeting their 7k, triggering Machina's passive ability dealing damage to the 8k that is not blocking. Once combat damage has resolved, Machina and the blocking 8k will trade and you deal damage once again to the non-blocking 8k. This combo uses two of your cards for three of theirs. It is much more impactful than it sounds, however, since it is three of your opponents forwards and only one of yours. i) Hecatonchier + Manasvin Warmech/ Sage: Same as above. But able to deal more damage. C) Raubahn: Same idea with Hecatoncheir. But more safe but with less of an impact, since he cannot be used during combat. i) Raubahn + Manasvin Warmech/ Sage: Same as above, with more damage. Core Combo #2: Zhuyu A) Cinque: One issue with Zhuyu is that your opponent’s forward will choose not to block when he attacks. Use Cinque’s ability to force a forward to block Zhuyu enabling him to attack again. A lot more appealing if they are forwards lower in power. i) Cinque + Parivir: Cinque is used in the same way as above. But you play Parivir Main Phase 1 to prevent Zhuyu from breaking during combat. This is especially relevant if your opponent has multiple strong forwards. ii) Cinque + Belias: Same as above. Gives +1000 power to Zhuyu in case your opponent plays larger forwards. B) Hecatoncheir + Momodi: Zhuyu can attack for every forward dealt damage by him that has been broken that turn. By giving him brave during Main Phase 1 and using Hecatoncheir on a forward that will break to Zhuyu's power, he will be able to swing for 2 attacks during combat. C) Raubahn + Momodi: Same idea as with Hecatoncheir, but a safer play since Zhuyu does not receive damage. Core Combo #3: Gadot (5-005R) A) 2CP Forwards: The deck plays 10 total 2CP forwards to apply pressure early. Playing them alongside Gadot gives them continued playability throughout the game from his ability “The forwards of cost two you control gain +2000 power”. He also threatens to give any recently played low cost forward haste by attacking. Interchangeable cards: Interchangeable Cards #1 2CP Fowards: All of the 2CP Forwards can be swapped out for other 2CP forwards. Interchangeable Cards #2 PSICOM Enforcer: Meant to deal with Hill Gigas/ Clione. Swap out for another 3-drop if you aren’t seeing many monsters in your meta. Interchangeable Cards #3 Warrior of Lights (Job): This is a powerful package and has Sarah to bring them back from your break zone. The Fire Warrior of Light can trade favourably with big forwards your opponent plays. The new Earth WOL is able to boost your Zhuyu or Machina and give them Brave. If you take a more aggressive approach, WOL can stop ex-bursts from clearing your board. Can be swapped out for one equally as strong, for example, the Yang-Ursula Package which offers a big tempo swing for 4 cp and the ability to use their specials. Good Matchups: Fire/ Wind Aggro: Most of their forwards are low in power or they dump their entire hand constantly. If you deal with the first 1-3 threats, they will have a rough time coming back. Considering how many 2CP Forwards we play, we could race them if necessary. Ice control: Most of their forwards are low in power and costly. Biggest threat is having your forwards frozen rather than dulled. We have many ways to deal with that. Bad Matchups:
Water: Minwu and power reduction will stop most if not the entire deck's strategy. If you realize your opponent is running these counters, adopt a more aggressive strategy rushing your 2-drops. Wind untargetable: Most of their forwards can't be targeted by abilities, therefore stopping our strategy of clearing the board. Again racing with 2CP Forwards for an early win will be the game plan here. Conclusion: Why you should/ shouldn't play this deck: Why you should play this deck: It is a fast, engaging deck. You can often overwhelm your opponents. There are lots of cool combos and interactions that raises the skill cap for the deck Why you wouldn't play this deck: Your meta has a lot of minwu or untargetable players or you are tired of winning locals every week. About the Author: Yuda Phath is one of the most creative deck builders at Cloud City. He works at our local store Magic Stronghold, and regularly competes on Thursday nights with his home-brewed decks. Yuda is also a major part of how and why the FFTCG community in Vancouver expanded and reached the size it is now. Through recruiting players, mentoring, and running local tournaments; Yuda has contributed a lot to FFTCG. Yuda’s favourite Final Fantasy is number 10, as you might guess from his +1000 hours of gameplay. Yuda is also a streamer, StopnPlay on Twitch, where he regularly streams Dissidia Opera Omnia. However, he is always willing to give FFTCG advice, so check him out! Hello, I’m David Ninja (my real last name is Nguyen but my nickname is Ninja), one of the proud members of Team Cloud City and I’m going to give my take on the most common “C” word that is used, consistency. Before I begin, I’ll start by telling you a little about my TCG background. I come from Yu-Gi-Oh, a game I have played since it first came out in 2002 where I piloted the Kaiba starter deck. Ironically, I still have the Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck from 2016 where it had new support cards from the Shining Victories set, and of course Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Movie Pack where it contains the key card, Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon that basically acts as another Blue-Eyes White Dragon while it is on the field! To this day, I still play fun duels with my friend who I’ve met from Yu-Gi-Oh – we’ve been friends for about 10 years and we still hang out from time to time! It’s crazy what a “children’s card game” can do! I’ve also played Cardfight!! Vanguard (when it first came out!) with Link Jokers and Royal Paladins, and Pokemon TCG piloting Dark Turbo (Darkrai and Yveltal Maxie) for a period. Prior to FFTCG, I would usually just play Yu-Gi-Oh with my longtime friend and when I saw on the announcement about a new TCG, Final Fantasy Trading Card Game, I was immediately interested. I’ve been a huge Final Fantasy fanatic ever since I was a kid so it was a no brainer! I feel the skills I’ve learned over the years from playing multiple TCGs and being knowledgeable about them has given me my own advantages especially with strategy, and consistency. Because this game is fairly new, it gives an opportunity for players out there, myself included, to be competitive. Now to talk about consistency from my point of view. Every deck you play wants to be as consistent as possible, which is why we have cards that are considered staples. Usually with those, you want to run maximum copies in your deck (in our case, three). My definition of consistency is “the ability to do the same thing your deck is supposed to do most of the time.” I say most because on rare occasions, you’ll have a brick hand, meaning an unplayable hand. This usually happens with combo decks due to requiring key pieces in your hand in order to pull the combo off, and therefore you have to supplement the deck with other cards to support the main playstyle. If you do find yourself drawing poorly too often, your deck may not be optimized, a clear sign that you can increase its consistency. You may ask, “How do I put this advice into action?” Well read on, and I’ll share what I’ve learned and what my structure for deck building is. META CALL From a competitive standpoint, let’s say there’s an upcoming premier event like a Regional. When planning and making a decision on what deck to play, you should ask yourself the question, “Can this deck win/top the event?” If there is any lingering doubt in your mind, then it probably isn’t the right call. The next step would be to ask yourself, “Why is this one of the best decks?” And the answer you want to be looking for is along the lines of: versatile, fast, it can OTK, it is CONSISTENT, can deal with the most situations, low risk, can hold back and outplay them at the same time, doesn’t matter if you go first or second, can still protect yourself, etc… That to me is one of, if not the ideal deck. KNOWLEDGE When I talk about knowledge in the FFTCG world, I’m talking about the trending topics in the Facebook group Final Fantasy TCG Fans, podcasts like The Crystal Tower – Final Fantasy TCG Round Table, Facebook pages like Ban’s Final Fantasy Corner, FFTCG Mognet, sources like FFDecks, and video content from Josephyr. Also knowing and staying up to date with the Final Fantasy TCG Advanced Rules is absolutely critical, especially knowing how they will affect the game. In the future, I’m sure we will have a platform that will contain event coverages and feature matches. I also like to inquire about the game with good players all the time. This is not only to get better as a player but also to get their point of view of what works for them and what doesn’t. Having an open mind is what allows you to learn and understand a broad spectrum of skills that are available. I truly believe knowing certain interactions with cards, even in the slightest detail is what separates a good player from a great player. I’m always willing to debate with my friends and fellow teammates, which is also a great asset in order to get consistently better. For example, sometimes you might feel a “cutesy” card would fit in, but after careful consideration it isn’t actually the right fit. There’s a saying that “team work makes the dream work”, and having that second opinion is not something to take lightly. After a new set comes out, read the entire list, do some thinking (alone and with friends!), theorizing, analyzing, testing, problem solving, and have a grasp of the format. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE, PLAY PLAY PLAY I look at Final Fantasy TCG as another outlet to escape from reality and have fun. When I say practice, I mean come early to your locals, ask your friends to come down early in order to get that practice time. Maybe find a buddy you can practice with whether it’s at a card shop, each other’s places or even online. The OCTGN program is great for play testing online, and there are even browser testing sites available. The more time spent practicing, the more your play will become second nature. If you can afford to spend the time to attend your locals you should. Same goes for traveling out to premier events. You can’t be consistent if you don’t put the time in to practice and play. NINJA’S TIP I like to using analogies to explain concepts. If I were to approach FFTCG in a Beyblade point of view, there would be an Attack type, Defense type and Endurance type. When I build decks, I go for the Endurance type hands down. In terms of what I like to play and my playstyle, I like to slow the pace and control the board state, play out the options in my head (I like to play a deck that has a set of cards that are versatile in their own dimension) and play that always fun grind game. A deck that is only good early to mid-game to me is a gamble, where it’s “all or nothing”. The problem with that is if your opponent can get through your board, you’re hooped. I believe in a deck that can play a late game and can win from there simply because it can get to that scenario. Another thing that helps me effectively is staying calm and calculated. It’s like driving a car, where if you get emotional and distracted, an accident may occur. The same applies for sitting at the table across from my opponent, if I show signs of weakness psychologically and rush my plays without thinking, a misplay is likely. It’s normal to be nervous, I always like to think of this neat saying: if you feel the butterflies, let them fly at their formation. CONCLUSION Being consistent helps tremendously if you know the Meta. You want to have a good idea of what decks will be played. You want to know the strengths and weaknesses of each deck, not just the viable decks, but even the rogue decks too. It’s super rare that a deck is not only consistent but has a lot of fire power at the same time, the common debate is either consistency > power, or power > consistency. At least it was until way back in Yu-Gi-Oh in 2013, where the hype was centered around the archetype Dragon Rulers aka “the new dragon deck.” As soon as I read about it, I believed in the hype too. Never before have I seen a deck where all the dragons have three effects and they all do something when they’re banished, special summoned from the graveyard, AND in your hand where you can discard a particular card element and another card of the same element and it triggers an effect. Specifically, one is like a Monster Reborn (which is like Devout 1-048), one is a Foolish Burial effect (you send a card from your deck to the break zone), one you search (like Gramis 2-106, Duke Goltanna 1-134, Steiner 3-137, etc), and the last one destroys one card on the field (like Odin 1-123, Odin 1-124, etc). It’s fast, can OTK, spam the field, revives from the graveyard, versatile where there’s so many options, consistent, and most importantly, you are highly unlikely get a bad hand from this particular deck. I remember the days where the top lists for like 3 or 4 formats it was dominated by mostly all Dragon Rulers! Literally no matter what you do, they just keep coming back and even after limiting the big dragons to 1 copy it didn’t work, then they banned the baby dragons it still wasn’t enough, then finally they banned them altogether. I don’t know what the future holds, but I wonder if we will get this kind of trend at FFTCG. A good friend of mine from Yu-Gi-Oh, who is very established and skilled but most importantly a humble player, once said that “you probably want to get close to about 80 hours of playtesting if you want to practice for an event and get really good at the deck.” I can attest to this when I first started this game in the very beginning during Opus 1. At this point I was playtesting myself for a very long period and looking at hands to get an idea of the objective of what the deck is constructed to do. Until next time, the power of GOLBEZ lies in the darkness!
About the Author: David Ninja is one of the founding members of Cloud City, and our resident Golbez player. David’s background features a lot of TCGs including: Yugioh, Cardfight Vanguard, and Pokemon. When he isn’t playing FFTCG he can be found working out, swimming, reading, and playing video games. His favourite Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy IX and his line-up is Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner (classic!). David works as an actor and has a youtube channel called David Ninja. Check it out! "Get ahead, stay ahead" - is the game plan of a FFTCG deck with a bevy of small, efficient characters sneaking past it’s opponent's monstrosities. If that description appeals to you, then you will love playing "aggro" decks. Almost every trading card game has some sort of deck that seeks to move as quickly as possible to swarm and overwhelm your slower-moving target's, and Final Fantasy TCG is no exception. I am excited to share a few different styles of decks here on Cloud City, and how they have worked for us here at the local meta here in Vancouver. First though, let's take a look at WHY aggro decks work, and what important text to look for on the cards that we play in them. Speed, Haste, and the 7-damage timer Unlike games like Magic, FFTCG players don't have a large health pool that reacts to the size of attackers - a 3000 power Forward does just as much damage to a player as a 9000, and we can take advantage of this. By including cards that sneak past those slower cards, we can put fast damage on our opponents. This type of playstyle is hard to respond to fast enough when you are playing a slower deck. Opponents often end up trading their more expensive cards for our cheap ones, which gives us an instant advantage. We can accomplish all this by including the most efficient cards that fall into one of the following categories. What cards are these? -Cards with Haste -Cards that disable blockers -Cards that can't be blocked by large Forwards Let's take a look at a deck that I've played a few times at the local Magic Stronghold Weekly constructed tournaments. The deck I have chosen to breakdown is a Fire/Wind build as you'll find these two elements contain many cards that work with the categories we outlined. However, there are many viable colour combinations for aggro decks, so don’t feel limited by this example. https://ffdecks.com/deck/6250913865924608 Take a look at this deck! With a whopping 31 cards at 2-cost and only 7 cards totaling more than 2 CP, we should be able to get at our opponent pretty fast. Cards with Haste One of my favourite openings in FFTCG is Gadot (1-007R) into Tifa (1-016C)- one card discarded for Gadot, who drops Tifa who, because of her “haste” text, can instantly come in for damage. Your opponent now only has 6 damage left to go, which puts a huge amount of pressure right away. If they're running a long-term control deck, they'll have to abandon their plans very quickly to deal with the threat. Neither of these cards are particularly scary, but you're not looking to slug it out with their big cards - you're sneaking by them. Don't worry about taking a point of damage or two, as we want to keep the pressure on. The faster you play, the more your opponent may panic, causing them to make sub-optimal payments or plays. This is especially true when they haven’t set up their back-ups yet. Cards that disable blockers This deck also has many option to sneak past the large Forwards that will often block it’s way. The obvious combo in this deck is Zemus (2-148H) paired with Nono (4-066R) - this makes all of your Forwards unblockable, every turn. Because all of the cards in this deck are so cheap to play, you'll often be able to out-pace your opponent. If this combination doesn't pan out, we have several other ways to consistently sneak in for damage, from Spiceacilian to the real game-winner of the deck - Shemhazai, The Whisperer (2-070R). Shemhazai may as well read "deal damage equal to your forwards" to your opponent - I've found it very unlikely many opponents have 1-cost Forwards on the field. If they do, Ifrit (2-002C) is all you'll need to break them as their power will be lower. In other decks, blocker-disablers can be options like Imaginary Brawler (3-005C), Tifa (2-011L), Snow (1-043H), Kuja (3-030L), any of the Shivas that dull, or the new Ninja (5-017C). Cards that can't be blocked by large Forwards The final piece of the puzzle for this deck are the "Ninja" cards of FFTCG such as Tsukinowa (3-060R), Edge (2-054R), and Zidane (1-071L). These cards will sneak past your opponents every turn, and will force your opponent to abandon playing their main strategy to dump other small Forwards on the board in order to defend. Zidane himself is maybe your best weapon, as he is generally tough to remove from the board. In Opus V, Adelle (5-050H) brings another great tool to the table - she can reliably sneak through for "free" damage without needing any other cards to set her up. If you can get a turn or two of her attacking through, you'll find it easy to sneak in for the last few points of damage early. Efficiency is key! One of the most important things that aggro has going for it is efficiency. I'm going to highlight a couple different decks I've played here in Vancouver, and the one thing they both have in common (other than Fire) is efficiency - because so many of the cards are 2-cost’s that means that you're almost always playing something. We want cards that do as much as they can, as cheaply as possible. A great cheap blocker is Llednar (4-024R), as he often results in your opponent spending resources when they don’t want to. Vivi (3-149S) is also another very efficient way to remove threats. Vivi can block and immediately "explode" to remove a small blocker. These types of cards are key for aggro in FFTCG. Efficiency is so important because aggro has only a short window to get on the ground running - if you're not playing forwards on your first or second turn, you may already be too slow. Opening Hands Every deck wants a great opening hand, but aggro in particular needs a fast and efficient opening play. Don't be afraid to mulligan an opening hand if it doesn't have a Haste option like Sage (2-005C)/Belias, the Gigas (2-019R)/Tifa/Adelle, or Gadot with a friend. Finally, diversify Last thing to note about this deck is that it has several ways to get moving mid to late-game. You won’t always be able to set up Nono/Zemus, but lots of cards in this list can sneak through by themselves. If you have several Forwards out, a well-timed Shemhazai can put several damage on the board at once. Maybe you have Zemus but not Nono; Vaan (2-052C), Edge, and Oracle (3-070C) can all activate Zemus for the next forward to swing through. And if the opponent plays some small Forwards to try and stop you, Ifrit and Vivi are great spot removal.The key idea is that even if your match starts to slow down, you still have ways of closing out the game. The better you know your deck the better you will be able to play to your outs and set up to draw into a win. Thank you!
I hope you enjoy Aggro decks as much as I do - if you're like me, you don't have the patience and timing for some of the late-game control and combo decks. Aggro offers a great option that really lets you dictate the pace of the game, and piss off that one mono-earth player at your locals, you know the guy. Have fun! About the Author: David Nowak, or “Unblockable Dave” as we know him, is an original Cloud City member. He is also our aggro expert, and regularly frustrates us with his efficient gameplay at locals. His favourite aggro combinations are Wind/Fire and Fire/Ice. David is part of the 501st Legion, a charity club that builds Star Wars props and costumes for charity events and fan conventions. His favourite Final Fantasy is the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 due to it’s compelling story and social interactions (and Triple Triad!). You can follow Dave on Twitch at twitch.tv/baronvanawesome as he streams Destiny 2 and other games frequently! Hello everyone, welcome to another Cloud City FFTCG guide. This time around we will be talking about the discard card mechanic. In FFTCG many cards have the ability to make your opponent select a card(s) from their hand and put it into the break zone. In the case of Zidane 3-056H, he allows you to see your opponent’s hand and pick the card yourself. Discard walks a fine line between being an effective or ineffective use of your resources. This is because forcing your opponent to discard cards doesn’t directly affect the state of the board. You can however cut their resources off, and stop them from being able to answer your board state. To understand why discard can be such a useful ability, we first need to talk about “Card Advantage”. Card Advantage: A Predictor of Who Will Win the Match? Card advantage is a term used in most TCGs. A player with card advantage has more cards in their hand than their opponent, and therefore have more resources and choices of how to interact with the board favourably. Card advantage is usually achieved by drawing more cards than your opponent, or by spending less cards to compete on the field. If one player has overwhelming card advantage, they will be able to make the most optimal plays, and should have an advantage for the remainder of the match. Now you shouldn’t assume that card advantage is always superior, as other deck styles can take hold of the match in different ways. Often times card advantage is sacrificed for a higher tempo of play, that forces opponents to respond with their own cards. How do Card Advantage and Discard Interact? Put simply, if timed properly, discard has the ability to give you card advantage. Let's pretend a two CP summon existed that read “Your opponent discards one card from their hand”. If you discard a card to pay for this summon, you would have a loss of two cards, while your opponent would have a loss of one. Doesn’t sound great does it? Of course this could be more beneficial if you used backup CP to pay for the summon, the result being that each player lost one card. Now if you used this at a critical juncture where you needed to attack with forwards and had to get rid of any combat tricks an opponent might be holding on to, then this card could be even more advantageous. If we look at discard in a vacuum (meaning there are no combat tricks or payments to worry about), your opponent must have a net loss of cards compared to yourself for discard to grant you card advantage. However, card advantage isn’t the only thing we are looking for when we play discard decks. Next we will look at what type of cards discard can be bundled with. Discard Options: Many Styles Available In FFTCG, the discard effect can come on every type of card: forwards, backups, summons, and monsters. Depending on what type of discard cards you use, it will change the direction of the deck you are building and therefore the cards you pick to play. Please note that the vast majority of discard abilities are on ice cards, as this is one of ice’s themes as an element. Discard on Forwards When discard comes printed on forwards, those forwards generally have less power or are costed differently compared other forwards with similar power. Let’s look at Serah 1-195S. At 3 CP and 6000 power, she is slightly weaker than a vanilla 3 CP forward (a forward with no abilities), which would generally have 7000 power. Serah’s text reads “When Serah enters the field, your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand.”. If you dulled one backup and discarded a card to play Serah, she will “net” back 2 CP by having your opponent also discard a card. This keeps your hand size similar, even though you played a forward. This is a “fast” card, since its ability acts immediately. Nooj 1-051R is similar to Serah, but has 7000 power. His downside, however, is that when he leaves the field your opponent can draw a card. Forwards are also very valuable, since you need to attack with them to win a match. Having discard on forward is a very valuable effect, and provides tempo to keep up with a fast game. There are many forwards (Imaginary Champion 2-029C, Sephiroth 1-044R, and Squall 1-042R) that make both you and your opponent discard a card upon entering the field. However, if you don’t have any cards in hand, only your opponent will discard. This is also one of the biggest weaknesses of the discard mechanic, since the same rule applies to your opponent. Discard cards drawn when your opponent’s hand is empty will have no effect if played. One final card with a “fast” effect worth mentioning is Cid Raines 1-192S. His ability reads “When Cid Raines enters the field, choose 1 dull Forward opponent controls. Deal it 4000 damage. When it is put from the field into the Break Zone this turn, your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand.”. This ability is often used in decks to ping off small forwards, or to finish off large forwards with damage on them. He can also be used first, and the forward can be broken later, as long as it is in the same turn as Cid Raine’s effect, your opponent will have to discard. Not all forwards make your opponent discard right away. Some force a discard when they are affected by abilities (Kuja 1-037H, Capricious Reaper 2-039C) and others when they damage your opponent (Genesis 3-033L, Locke 4-084L). Another version of Serah (4-037H) is slightly faster than the aforementioned cards since she forces a discard just by attacking (the discard happens at the declaration of an attack, before a block). The downside, is that her ability requires 2 Ice CP every time it is used. If you were to use her ability without utilizing backup CP, your opponent would have no net loss of cards, since you would both be discarding for the effect. Again, with proper timing, this detail is not as important. Learning the optimal timing and having a sustainable gameplan are vital to being a great FFTCG player. Discard on Backups Whenever you play a backup, you are at the very least investing in having a +1 CP return in resources each turn. However, if you play a backup that has no impact on the field, or your opponent’s hand, then you can fall behind in a match. This can be dangerous if your opponent is pressing the field themselves. Many of the backups with discard options require the back-ups to be dulled and put into the break zone. This means the effect cannot happen the turn you play the backup, and you are losing one of your CP resources once you detonate the ability. These types cards can be considered “slow” cards since it takes time to reap the benefit of their abilities. If you play too many slow cards, your opponent will overwhelm you and win the game before you can activate your abilities. Playing these cards benefit from a controlling type of deck, that has ways to handle the board and set-up for the late game. When we play discard backups, we also have access to Edward 3-029R that allows you to force your opponent to discard each turn, provided you can pay for his ability. Using this card each turn, ideally with backup CP, would continually put you in a position to gain card advantage. Unfortunately this requires time and CP that could be spent competing on the board. Unless you are properly set up, this card can be more harmful than helpful. There are only two backups that makes your opponent discard upon entry to the field. These are the 3 CP Edward 5-031H and the 2 CP Kazusa 3-026C. Edward also has an special ability that cancels a summon’s effect for the cost of discarding one card name “Edward” and dulling your Edward back-up. This fast card is easy to play while setting up your backups early game, and can provide support in combat later on in the match. Ideally you would run 3 copies of this Edward to use his special. If you wanted just his discard ability, it would be better to run Serah 1-195S, since a forward that can attack and block is generally more valuable than a blank back-up that generates CP. Now lets look at Kazusa. He not only causes your opponent to discard but also makes you discard a card from your hand. By dulling him and putting him in the breakzone, you can use this effect again. Ideally you want to use this ability when you have no cards in hand. Kazusa riskier to play compared to Edward, but offers extra discard for a lower price. One key note is that many of these backup’s abilities (and monsters for that matter) have the text “You can only use this ability during your turn”, meaning you cannot force discards on your opponent’s turn at a critical juncture. Discard on Summons There are only a few summons that have discard effects: Glasya Labolas 5-032H and Hades 1-052R. If we look at the “Doom Train”, Glasya Labolas, it reads “Select up to 2 of the 4 following actions. "Your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand." "Choose 1 Forward. Dull it." "Choose 1 Forward. Freeze it." "Choose 1 dull Forward. Deal it 7000 damage." This card recently came out in Opus V and has a ton of utility. It saw a decent amount of play at the Crystal Cup in Boston due to its flexibility. At worst it can be a Shiva 1-038R without the ex-burst, but players at this competition were using all of its abilities, including using it to make their opponent’s discard at critical points of the match. Hades reads “Choose 1 Forward and 1 Backup opponent controls. Dull the Forward and return the Backup to its owner's hand. Your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand.”. This card does a lot, but doesn’t see much play. Ideally you can return a backup you don’t want to play against to an empty hand, forcing them to discard it. When you use summons to cause a discard, you have to look at what you invested and think “was this an optimal play?”. In the case of Hades, they may be able to replay the back-up you returned fairly quickly, making 5 CP a lot to pay for a dull forward and one discard. Discard on Monsters There are four monsters with discard mechanics: Flan 4-043C, Buccaboo 5-046R, Gesper 5-034C, and Aloeidai 5-05H. Each of these monsters work differently, and some use similar abilities to what we have seen on forwards and back-ups. Flan is the most commonly seen discard monster. It breaks itself to cause a discard, but it also has an ability to search for another Flan, giving you the option to keep the discard going and refill your hand with potential CP. Flan currently sees the most play out of the four discard monsters. Aloeidai has also seen some play recently. He is able to become a forward with similar abilities to Locke and Genesis. The benefit of running Aloeidai is that you can choose to turn him into a forward only if an opportunity arises where he can definitely cause a discard. When he is a forward his category XIII status is a combo enabler with Serah 4-037H. He also plays well with Lightning 4-115L. Gesper causes you and your opponent to discard after dulling him. This effect does not put him in the break zone, and can be used once he is active again. This would be most effective in a deck where you constantly keep your hand empty. However, if you do take that line of play, you are liable to have the board turned on you and lose your assets. For example, if you play out your hand and overextend, you are likely to have a Shantotto played against you. It also leaves you unable to respond to anything your opponent throws at you. Buccaboo is a very interesting card. For two CP he sits on the field and waits. If your opponent plays a character (forward, backup, or monster), then Buccaboo makes them discard two cards from their hand and goes to the break zone. This can effectively empty an opponent’s hand and when timed properly is devastating. In the early game, if your opponent has few backups, this can cause a CP shortage, since they are only drawing two cards a turn. In the later game, it can result in key cards being discarded that your opponent was specifically holding on to. Buccaboo does have a few weaknesses. First, if your opponent has no cards in hand when a character enters the field, Buccaboo still triggers and goes to the break zone, but your opponent will get off free, with nothing to discard. Second, if you don’t play Buccaboo using backup CP, he is effectively two cards lost from your hand as well, although you do control the timing. He also takes up a slot in your deck, which could have been a more optimal card. I have seen this card cause some serious damage, if it is played properly. Wind Discard
The wind element has two main discard options: Thief 5-055C and Zidane 3-056H. Both allow you to see your opponent’s hand and pick which card is discarded. Each of these cards can be used to supplement an ice discard deck, and offer the added benefit of seeing your opponent’s hand. Another useful card from wind is Miounne 5-067R. She allows you to return a friendly character to your hand and draws you one card. This effect can be employed to reuse fast discard cards that have already been played. This is an expensive combo, but since Miounne draws you one card, you will have extra resources to pay the CP to replay another Zidane or Serah. Mill Decks- Not the Same as Discard. I wanted to add a quick note on mill decks. In FFTCG, wind has many cards that have abilities causing your opponent to place cards directly from their deck into the break zone. The effect seems similar to discard, but has one major weakness. It does not affect the field directly or indirectly. You may cause your opponent to mill some valuable parts of their deck, and eventually lose the match due to a deck out, but the effect is very slow and their field and hand will continue to grow steadily. Without serious stalling mechanics, it is impossible to maintain the mill strategy. Discard Summary That concludes our guide on the discard mechanic for FFTCG. Hopefully now you have a good understanding of how to use discard properly! I will link below some example decklists that use the discard mechanic. Keep in mind you need a very specific idea of what your goal is and how you will accomplish it, if you plan to play discard. Will you use a discard package, to add to an existing deck? Or will you build a control deck aiming to bleed your opponent dry. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Until next time! Sample Decklists
About the Author: Alex Kelsch is one of many contributors to Cloud City. He mainly plays the Ice, Earth, and Lightning elements, and has a soft spot for the discard mechanic. His favourite Final Fantasy is probably 4, but he doesn’t like having to choose. Alex works as a high school teacher, specifically teaches PE and Science. He also loves playing Tennis and Soccer, and coaches several youth teams. |
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November 2018
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