Greetings everyone! Last month I made a post on Reddit asking questions about going to my first ever tournament, the Toronto Crystal Cup. Now the competition is only a few days away and I couldn’t be more excited. Before FFTCG, I had never played a TCG competitively, only at home with friends. When I started playing at locals, I could not stop, and I haven’t slowed down since. About four weeks ago, I decided to pull the trigger and buy plane tickets, book a hotel, and get my passes for the weekend. Since then, I have been preparing for the event, using my friend’s and Reddit’s advice along the way. Now some of the advice below may seem like common knowledge to you, but it is all information that I did not necessarily have or practice before. Since I have started practicing more I have seen a notable improvement in my play.
Practice There is no substitute for practice! Since I signed up for the Crystal Cup, I have been playing FFTCG an extra night a week at my local game store, Magic Stronghold, trying out a few decks, trying to narrow down my choice for the Crystal Cup. At first, I had about four decks I was seriously considering, and now I have picked my deck for this weekend. At each weekly tournament, I tried one of the decks out, to see how I felt about it in a competitive setting. I also tried decks that I am less familiar with, to try and learn how to play with a wider range of cards. If you understand how a card/s is played, it will be easier for you to anticipate it from your opponent. I have tried to play against as many archetypes as I can, although I have certainly played against Mono Ice the most. I have also been playing on OCTGN almost every night, in order to play people not in my local meta, and also with Cloud City member Francis. This has taught me to pay closer attention to the game, since that can be a difficult part of OCTGN. When you are sitting in front of your monitor listening to music with distractions in your home, I find it harder to pay attention to detail than when I am sitting in a game store playing the paper version of the game. Through this consistent practice, I have tried to cement good habits for my playstyle. Counting Another good habit I have picked up during my preparation is counting cards. By keeping track of your hand and board vs your opponent’s hand and board, you can figure out if plays you have been making are not optimal. There are times where you will sacrifice card advantage for tempo, and that is ok, but you should be able to tell when your opponents always seem to have more cards than you… like when I play against Francis (Mr. Efficiency). Home Work I am a strong believer in mental practice. When I am not playing FFTCG, I try to read other player’s blogs, watch videos of matches, and read strategies online. One of my favourite resources is a series of articles from the official Magic the Gathering website and is called Level One: The Full Course. Full disclosure: I have never actually played Magic, but the author breaks down all types of concepts that are useful across many TCGs. This includes: Tempo, Card Advantage, Linear Strategies, Threats and Answers, and Sequencing. Reading this series has helped me reflect on my own playstyle and helped me correct certain things. It is important to be able to analyse your own matches and understand the logic behind what worked and what didn't. More Strategies! I like to use acronyms, and now I have created two new ones for my FFTCG play. A.D.P.S.- Activate, Draw, Plan Sequencing: This one is simple. Slow down the start of your turn, plan out how the whole turn will go and the order you will play your cards before rushing to play anything. C.I.F.O.- Conceal Information from Opponent: When choosing the sequencing of your turn, consider how much information you want to give your opponent. If you discard one card to play a 2 CP backup, that is two cards that your opponent no longer has to wonder and worry about during attack phase. Whenever possible, try and hide information from your opponent until you have put them in a position where they must make a decision about how to react to you. Logistics and Fun! Besides preparing for playing in the tournament. I have also been preparing for the traveling and hanging out all day at the Anime North Convention. I mapped how to get from my hotel to the venue and will be packing plenty of snacks in case I am stuck without a break for food during the cup. I have also been reading up on the convention, since I play to check things out whenever I have free time. I am a huge Gundam fan, and I build the Gunpla models, so I definitely hope to check out the contest going on at Anime North. I am also looking forward to seeing all the other vendors and demos happening. If I have enough time, I might even try and get some D&D in! I am probably missing other things I have done and learned, but I am just so excited for this weekend (I have already started backing, it is very hard to pack light!). Let me know what you think of my preparation, or if you have any last-minute advice for me. I will make sure to post about how the tournament went when I get back. And if you are going to the Toronto Crystal Cup yourself, good luck in your matches and I’ll see you there! -Alex K
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For this article we invited Francis, a player at our locals, to write about his 4-0 Ice/Fire Moogle build. Francis has an incredible mind for deck building and is very thorough in the logic behind his decisions. We hope you enjoy this article as he breaks down his deck! Hello there, and welcome to another deck breakdown tutorial. This is perhaps the most consistent deck I have ever played in FFTCG, featuring the ever-so-broken FFVI Ice engine as well as the new Moogle engine featuring Serah from the Opus V Final Fantasy XIII Starter Deck. The main win condition of the deck is to overwhelm the opponent with card advantage through the Ice discards (i.e. Locke, Genesis, and Glasya Labolas) and the powerful board control of Fire (i.e. Vivi and Phoenix). One important factor to note is that the deck runs a remarkably low number of back ups, which means that in the mid to late game, your top decks will be significantly better than your opponent’s. This deck has a lot of details to cover, so read on for a full breakdown of its mechanics. DecklistEngine 1: The FFVI Package By now most experienced players, regardless if you have played Ice yourself, should be quite familiar with the FFVI engine we received in Opus IV. The main early to mid game combo of this package involves Locke, Setzer, Gestahlian Empire Cid, and Celes. The most crucial of the bunch is Setzer and Cid because they are capable of searching for each other. Due to this fact, any hand where you open Cid is a playable hand (although not ideal) because you can play Cid turn 1 to search Setzer, play Setzer turn 2 to search Locke, and Locke turn 3 should Setzer survive. We will cover more on opening hands in later sections! If you are unfamiliar with the FFVI package, check out Cloud City’s article detailing it here. Engine 2: The Moogle Engine This is the main reason why the deck works with only 13 back-ups. The combo involves four cards: Serah, Mog (XIII), Hurdy, and Montblanc. Upon entering the field (and EX burst), Serah searches for any Moogle in your deck which, most of the time, would be Hurdy due to his ability to search for Montblanc and secure both colour back ups. On top of that, Mog (XIII) searches for Serah, which means any hand with Mog (XIII) is a hand that will guarantee 3 back ups. Again, in the mulligan section below, I will have a detailed guide on some opening combos. The Ideal Sequence: Mog (XIII) --> Serah --> Hurdy --> Montblanc One important thing to note here is that when Serah attacks, she activates all Moogles, which means she is a serious problem that the opponent has to answer as soon as possible. However, do not tunnel vision on Serah’s activate ability. Her main job is to search for back ups and allow for a smooth transition into mid game. If you can get a hit off and get some free CP, that’s great, but don’t commit a ton of resources to saving her. Serah’s last ability to discard a Moogle to dull a forward is not as consistently used in this deck due to the lower Moogle count (compared to the Ice/water versions of the deck). However, there are situations where this can come in handy. For example, you can dull your own forwards to dodge Al-Cid. It’s not always worth it to discard a Moogle to dodge the Al-Cid combo, but depending on how much momentum you have built during the mid game, it could make a world of difference. Engine 3: Phoenix Phoenix is so important to this deck that I decided to consider it as the third engine of the deck. The only reason why I’m running 2 instead of the full set is due to space constraint, but I am seriously considering cutting a Zalera for a third Phoenix. It’s that good. Phoenix is the only reliable removal the deck has. It also allows you to revive powerful cards like Vivi, Locke, Zidane, and The Emperor. Often times, a well-timed Phoenix can seal the game. Here are some notable combos:
How to Pilot the Deck: Mulligan and the First Few Turns Ideal opening: Mog XIII + Fire card Keep any hand with Mog (XIII) because it’s playable. Any hand with Mog AND any fire card (ideally another Montblanc) is a great opening. Yes, it’s that easy. Here is an example of how the first three turns will play out if you open with Mog (XIII): Turn 1 (draw 2 if you’re second) Hand: Mog, Montblanc +5. Discard 2 to play Mog, search Serah and pass. Hand: Montblanc, Serah +3 Turn 2 Discard 2 and dull Mog for Serah to search Hurdy --> Hand=Hurdy, Montblanc +3 Discard 2 to play Hurdy, search Montblanc, then discard Montblanc to play Montblanc --> Hand=1 This sounds like an incredibly risky opening, but let’s analyze the situation closely:
Turn 3 Dull 3 to play Cid, search Setzer --> Hand=Setzer+2 Declare attack with Serah, activate three moogles --> MP2 discard 1 and dull 3 to play Setzer, search Locke or Celes Hand=Locke+1 At this point by turn 3 you have 2 forwards and 4 back ups with 2 cards in hand, one of which is a Locke which usually means a discard follow up play. That is an incredibly explosive opening that can snowball the early to mid game in your favor to the point where your opponent simply cannot keep up with the resources that you are gaining from Serah and the cards you are denying them with Locke. This optimal opening is why I mulligan for Mog XIII aggressively because it is just that consistent. Of course, there will be games where you have to adapt, but the general rule of thumb is to try and mulligan for Mog XIII. Playable Openings: Playable opening 1: Gestahlian Empire Cid This is a playable opening, but not the greatest because it can’t take advantage of the Moogle engine. However, being able to secure your FFVI package turn 1 is nice and can potentially apply a good deal of pressure if you are playing against a slower deck like Mono Water. Playable opening 2: Hurdy + any fire card This is a classic 2 back up opening, but again not optimal because you lose out on searching Hurdy with Serah. However, if you draw into Cid or Mog XIII next turn, you can catch up pretty fast. For example: Turn 1 Hurdy +5 --> discard 2 to play Hurdy, search Montblanc, then discard fire to play him --> 2 in hand Turn 2 (draw into Mog XIII) Mog XIII + 3 in hand --> dull 1 and discard for Mog XIII, search Serah --> dull and discard 2 to play Serah, search a moogle --> moogle in hand The net result for this is the same as the ideal opening, except the last card in your hand is guaranteed to be a moogle whereas in the ideal opening it could be something else. This can be relevant, for example if you had drawn an Empire Cid instead, you would end with a Setzer and a Locke in hand to follow up, or you could wait a turn to play Setzer depending on the match up. Playable Opening 3: Serah Worst case scenario, you will have to discard 3 to play Serah and search for a Hurdy. It sucks to play so inefficiently, but at least by searching Hurdy you are effectively securing 2 back ups in the next two turns, and hopefully you can recover from there. Also, if you happen to draw into Cid Turn 2, don’t forget to take advantage of Serah’s activate ability by playing Hurdy first, then activate him with Serah to then play the Cid MP2! How to Pilot the Deck: The Mid Game If Serah sticks to the board and you have your Moogles set up, you will most likely be able to overwhelm your opponent because you’re likely getting ahead by 3CP every turn. Abuse the 3 CP by playing your Empire Cid and Duke Larg and/or expanding the board state with Setzer and Locke. Don’t focus too hard on saving Serah; if you developed 3 back ups because of her searches, then she did her job, you don’t need to play her again. From this point onwards, the FFVI package is what you should be spending your CP on. It is important that you don’t try to be greedy and play Serah again. If she didn’t stick the first time, she is unlikely to stick the second time around because the longer the game goes, the weaker she is. 3CP during the first few turns is a huge difference, but by the time both players have 5 back ups, it can be a bit trivial. Vivi can punish slow decks incredibly hard by either straight nuking one of their forwards or forcing them to play summons sub-optimally to reduce damage and save their forward. Glasya Labolas + Cid Raines can also make for a 11k nuke on a dull forward, and add on 2 discards, which is often a game winning swing. Basically, try to keep their forwards off the board or frozen, and you should coast to an easy victory. If you didn’t get a good opening, then try to force your opponent to match your pace by dropping an early Locke, even if it means he doesn’t get his enter the field discard ability. Force them to play a forward to block Locke, then follow it up with a Genesis and a Locke attack to create some pressure while you wait to draw into your engine starters. If they play a 7k forward to block Locke, you can also follow up with a Sabin instead of Genesis and make Locke unbreakable to either force an unfavorable block, or free damage and a discard. Then next turn if they play a stronger forward, you ideally will have Genesis for the dull and freeze. How to Pilot the Deck: The Late Game If the game drags on to a 5 back up stage, you have 3 main ways to swing the board state and pressure your opponent for a win:
Match Ups (Listed by Difficulty) Easy – Most water decks, low back up fire variants, low power rush decks (looking at you Chocobos) We love slower decks that lack reliable early removal, such as mono water monsters. These decks tend to have trouble removing a turn 2 Serah, which means you will likely snowball hard off the free CP she nets you during the first 3-5 turns. Any decks that are resource intensive, such as mono fire with low back ups, is also a relatively easy match up as long as you know how to manage their early aggression. This version of moogles is much more resilient to faster decks that dump their hands early because of your access to Vivi, and between him, Cid Raines and Glasya, you should have no problem dealing with early aggression while setting up. Medium – Lightning, more grindy fire variants like fire/water, Earth without 5CP Yang, most Ice Variants Lightning: Focus on setting up, don’t give them early Al-Cid pressure plays, and you should be able to grind them out of their resources. Illua is a bit of a problem since you can’t efficiently remove her with anything, but thankfully everything else in lightning is easy to kill. Play around Illua special, don’t greed for a Zalera play unless you are absolutely sure they don’t have the Illua special. If you can force them to use Illua special then play Zalera on the stack, you win the game. Late game Fire Variants: This match up is a bit harder because they can easily deny early Serah pressure with cards like Vivi and Brynhildr. Instead of prioritizing a Turn 2 value Serah play, set up your back ups, and most importantly set up Duke Larg ASAP to get everyone out of Brynhildr range. Always assume they have a Vivi in hand and control your hand size so they can’t get a free Vivi trade on a forward, but be careful not to dump your hand for no reason. Discarding heavily to play back ups in this match up will win you the grind game because the FFVI package is more efficient than anything fire has to offer. Earth: Unless they are running the 5CP Yang, this match up is relatively easy. Don’t commit too many resources on any single forward, aka don’t spend two abilities like Vivi+glasya to try to kill one guy. This is important to consider because if they have a cockatrice, you lose the trade HARD. Instead, focus on controlling their hand with Locke and Genesis, and keep their forwards frozen instead of trying to kill them. It doesn’t matter if they have 4 forwards at 10k each if they are all permanently frozen. Setzer is your best friend in this match up, try to make him stick and wait for a big Orphan play to push back. Don’t try too hard to make a Serah stick, Hecatoncheir makes it too easy for them to remove Serah meaning sometimes you get almost no value from her. Mono Ice/Other Ice Variants: This match up requires a bit of practice, but basically try to match their aggression. If they drop an early discarder like Locke or Genesis, match their aggression with your own Genesis and find chances to set up. Because of the Hurdy Montblanc engine, you are much better at setting up your economy than Mono Ice. If they play an early Thaumaturge, bait them into attacking and Cid Raines that little bugger for a huge swing. Like any mirror match, try to set up Duke Larg before they do because it swings the match up incredibly heavily both ways. Save your removal for Vayne if you managed to make Serah and Setzer stick, he’s the only chance for Mono Ice to beat you. Hard – Fusoya decks, Earth with 5CP Yang Fusoya – Any variant of this deck is REALLY hard because almost every forward in the deck is 7k. If you suspect Fusoya, do NOT discard Duke Larg. Play it as soon as possible and try not to play any forwards that is at 7k until you get Duke Larg up. It sounds silly but the last thing you want is for them to kill a forward for free whilst getting zero value from playing said forward. If you absolutely need to play a Serah to set up Hurdy/Montblanc, that’s fine, but don’t commit to the board until you can make a big push. Fusoya excels at dealing with decks that can’t explode onto the board. Try to wait for a turn where Fusoya is dulled, and ruin their day with a Celes (freezing the Fusoya) and Setzer/Locke. Serah is never going to stick in this match up, just use her as a Hurdy searcher or not at all if you already opened Hurdy. Trade intelligently with Phoenix and Glasya and try to grind out the match. Earth with 5 CP Yang – My god this is a hard match up. Yang is a huge problem for the deck, but thankfully the other earth forwards are not as difficult to deal with. The deck doesn’t run Mateus, the Corrupt, so your only chance against Yang is to try and develop multiple forwards, and chip down the Yang by attacking with a weakling, then playing a phoenix to kill him off or attacking with a different forward and Belias if he tries to go for a value double block. Both scenarios they can save Yang with Cockatrice, which is why you need to be patient and try to develop 4-5 forwards first before going for an attack to make the most out of one turn. Interchangeable cards Unfortunately, to run this deck optimally there isn’t much you can change. One thing that I can say is that the summon slots are very flexible. Belias is not necessarily needed (although I have had a couple of games where his EX burst sure came in handy), so you can use a fire summon of your choice. I might add a copy or two of Mateus, the Corrupt to have more answers to the dreaded 5 CP Yang. In terms of forwards, 1 copy of Orphan might be enough because you would rarely need to play 2 to win. Sabin can potentially be replaced by Garland 1-036H since Sabin’s main role is to be the deck’s late game beater. You do lose out on his unbreakable ability that can make Locke/Genesis an absolute nightmare to deal with, however. Closing Remarks
If you like consistent decks that focus on resource advantage, then this is the deck for you. It is deceptively difficult to pilot the deck, not because the combos are hard, but because you need to make the right decisions against different match ups. If you make a bad choice, such as playing a turn 2 Serah into Mono Lightning, and they Al-Cid you, you can easily just lose the game from that one misplay because the deck’s resources balances on a knife’s edge. The deck also lacks big board swings barring a value Zalera, so if you play poorly during the first 3 turns, it’s hard to make a big comeback. Depending on your meta, you can easily make changes to the forward and summons line up (not so much the back up, it’s pretty set in stone in my opinion). If people at your locals love running water, play a second copy of The Emperor to punish any drawing mechanics like Steiner L. If there are a ton of Fusoya players for whatever reason at your locals, and you REALLY want to play this deck, it might be worth it to take out some summons for Jihl Nabaat 2-037R and ruin their day (although this makes your end game back up line up slightly awkward as you won’t be able to play one of them). If your locals play a lot of Mono Earth, Mateus will do the job for you, or even Moomba. Hope you enjoyed this article, and good luck out there crushing people with the power of Moogles! It is pretty common to hear that a Final Fantasy TCG player’s favourite Final Fantasy is VI. It had many intriguing characters and a very interesting story, as well as, cool battles and an esper system to learn magic. In Opus I-III we had a few characters from FFVI printed as cards; two versions of Terra and two versions of Kefka. When people found out in Opus IV that the entire cast of main characters and Kefka would be printed as cards, there was a lot of excitement. We also found out that all of these cards would be Hero and Legendary rarity, making them significantly harder to collect, especially as a playset. Ice, Fire, and Water all received five Final Fantasy VI cards, and Earth received two. There was also a Light Terra and a Dark Kefka printed. During Opus IV, I would argue that the Water and Fire Category VI cards saw more competitive play than Ice, but now that we are in Opus V, we are seeing Category VI Ice cards making up a package that is played in practically every Ice or Ice Variant deck. This is in part due to how economically sound the package is, and also, its effect once on the field. The package has become stronger than it was in Opus IV because of the printing of Orphan, and to a lesser extent, Mateus the Corrupt. What is the Category VI Ice Package? The package consists of the 3 CP Gestahlian Empire Cid backup and the forwards Setzer and Locke. Ice also has two Terras, a Celes, and a Umaro (not commonly seen) forward that can be part of the package. When running the package, a player will try to draw/mulligan for Gestahlian Empire Cid or Setzer, both of which search for Category VI. The key is that Setzer can search for a character, meaning he can search for the backup Gestahlian Empire Cid. Meanwhile Cid just searches for forwards, which you use to search out Setzer. Whoever you search into first, then searches for Locke. With the first two on the field, Locke will cause your opponent to discard upon entering the field himself. Sample Plays: Setzer ---> Gestahlian Empire Cid ---> Locke Gestahlian Empire Cid ---> Setzer ---> Locke How Does the Package Affect Your Hand? This package is so powerful because you are able to build backups and a board, while maintaining your hand size and possibly even causing your opponent to discard. Let’s say your opponent was matching your CP expenditure per turn. If you went first, by turn three you would be ahead of your opponent by one card since Cid and Setzer bring a card from your deck into your hand. When you play Locke in Turn 4 you would have a net +2 card advantage over your opponent since they discard. Now let’s look at if you went second and pretend again your opponent is matching your CP spending. You would have to overpay to play Gestahlian Empire Cid or Setzer on turn one or play both in turn two to keep your hand size at five or lower. By turn three you would have a +1 card advantage after playing Locke, and you would have one extra forward out on the field. This example was to show the math of how the search cards help with card advantage. Your opponent may play a 4 CP forward, multiple 3 or 2 CP forwards, or maybe even develops more backups. But without drawing/searching for cards, they will be spending more of their hand resources than you. The Optimal Way to Play the Package Now the above example is great for looking at card advantage, but when actually playing the package, you will want to play more optimally. For example, if you can play a 2 CP backup with Gestahlian Empire Cid on turn 2, you will be set up to only discard one card to play Setzer the following turn (assuming you played a backup turn one). You might also consider searching for Celes if you think her special ability for canceling a summon may be crucial in your matchup. If you have played three backups into Setzer, you will be able to dull two and discard for Celes, and keep one backup active for her special. If you have both Celes and Locke, you can use two backups and a discard for Celes, and one backup and a discard for Locke, making it more likely his discard effect will off. Once the Package is in Play When you finally have Locke, Setzer, and Gestahlian Empire Cid in play they continue to pose a threat to your opponent. For example, every time Locke hits your opponent for damage they will be forced to discard a card. To help with this ability, or to close out a match, Locke has a Special Ability (Mirage Dive) that only costs one card named “Locke” to make Locke unblockable that turn. Furthermore, Setzer also has a second ability. When he is placed in the Break Zone Setzer dulls and freezes one forward. Using Setzer to trade with an opponent can cause Locke to swing in for some damage and a discard. Follow Up Plays Once this package has hit the field, you will often see Genesis come in to dull and freeze a forward. With Locke and Genesis, who has the same discard ability as Locke, attacking each turn, it is likely your opponent will have to discard at some point. Since your opponent will want to block Locke or Genesis, you can follow up with a 1 CP Mateus the Corrupt summon to break your opponents forwards without losing your own, putting you at further card advantage. Finally, one of the most significant parts of the Category VI Ice package, is the card Orphan. When Orphan enters the field, he dulls and freezes two forwards. The freeze part of his ability only activates when you have five or more Ice characters on the field (Orphan can be the fifth). By playing the Category VI package, you are only one Ice character away from being able to play Orphan for his full effect, and chances are you played a 2 CP backup during the early turns. Your hand will still be relatively full from playing the package, so it is easy to have the CP to drop Orphan on the board You should also keep in mind that Setzer and Gestahlian Empire Cid can also be used to search out Terra or Celes (and Umaro if you run him). If you play multi-colour decks then they can be used to grab any of Cyan, Sabin, Edgar, Shadow, General Leo, Gau, Relm, Strago, Mog (VI), Gogo, Kefka, Dadaluma. Setzer can also grab the Deathgaze monster from Opus V since it is a character. Counters to the VI Package Of course, this package has weaknesses, but they may not be as weak as you would imagine. Your opponent will know exactly what is coming once you start to chain the search cards, so do become more predictable. They may try and break your Setzer as you play Locke, voiding the conditions for his discard ability. They may also try and play out their hand to avoid having to discard at all. Unfortunately for them, this can sometimes lead to sub-optimal plays and give you a big card advantage depending on what cards they played. It also puts them into top deck mode where they are hanging on by whatever they can draw. If you don’t draw a Duke Larg to power up your Ice forwards, Locke and Setzer will be sitting at 7000 power each. This means that you will have trouble contesting a strong board, especially against Earth if they have Brave. Mateus can come in handy here, since they will be pressured to block Locke if they have cards in hand. Earth’s Guy and Opus V Yang cannot be dulled by Setzer’s ability and take the value out of him blocking. Conclusion There you have it, the magic behind the Category VI Ice package. Although these plays or draws might not always happen exactly as I have described, this package does replenish your hand once you draw into it and has powerful effects on the field. Always remember, search out Cid first if you have Setzer and search Setzer if you have a Cid. The final card to play is Locke who can really devastate your opponent's hand if they aren’t prepared for it. 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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