Hey everyone, and welcome to Cloud City a card highlight. If you are reading this article, you belong into one of three categories. One, you also love Shadow Lord and want to see him appreciated in all his glory. Two, you want to learn more about Shadow Lord and why he can be so powerful. Or three, you don’t like Shadow Lord and think he is just a 1 dollar legendary. If you belong in group three, I have bad news for you, you are banned from reading this article. Get out of here, like a 2-drop being thrown from the field after getting rocked by the majestic card that is Shadow Lord. Now, to be clear, I am not here to tell you that Shadow Lord is a tier 1 must include card in every deck. But I do want to highlight his potential beyond being a tech choice against Golbez or aggro decks. Alright, now that we have dealt with the non-believers, lets talk about the card that brought us all here. Shadow Lord is an 8000-power dark legendary that costs 4 CP and reads: 1. Brave. 2. When Shadow Lord enters the field, break all the Forwards of cost 2 or less. 3. When a Forward opponent controls is put from the field into the Break Zone, choose 1 Forward opponent controls. Deal it 2000 damage. He also has the job “Kindred” and is Category Lord of Vermillion / Final Fantasy XI which means he has synergy with other Category XI cards. Shadow Lord has a lot of abilities, so let’s get talking about how they can be used. Brave A 4 CP Brave forward with 8000 power is on curve for vanilla stats, but as an advantage over other 4 drops because of Brave. Shadow Lord is great against aggro since he can attack and then block the next turn. If played in Wind, he can be powered up by Maria. He is also great in Earth which has many ways to pump up a forward’s power. Some common Shadow Lord targets that would see people tech him into their decks. When Shadow Lord enters the field, break all the Forwards of cost 2 or less. This ability is the main reason people play Shadow Lord, and the main reason he is written off. This ability also synergizes with his third ability, but we will talk about that later. Shadow Lord is most often thought as a Golbez counter, since a Golbez deck plays many 2 costs and can have many out at once, especially after a Golbez ability trigger. If you think of Shadow Lord as an anti-Golbez tech, then we will only see him when we see a lot of Golbez in the meta. However, I think he has a lot more use than that. There are other decks that run many two drops (and one drops) including: Cadets, Chocobos, and Unblockable Fire/Wind. If you see these in your local meta then you definitely have a reason to run Shadow Lord. However, even against mid-range and control decks, you might find Shadow Lord coming in handy. Against Earth he might ping off an Ursula, Yuffie, or Prishe, causing your opponent to look on in fear. These are all targets that Shadow Lord could hit in a Midrange Earth Deck Here are some other possible Shadow Lord targets that you might see in the current meta:
If Shadow Lord hits even one target, he is worth a card to you in card advantage, so you can think of him costing less than 4 in your match. Once he is on the field, he can make a difference with his third ability. When a Forward opponent controls is put from the field into the Break Zone, choose 1 Forward opponent controls. Deal it 2000 damage. When Shadow Lord enters the field, every two cost or less he breaks will ping an opponent’s forward for 2000 damage. In an optimal situation he could ping off a 3 drop after breaking other forwards, but this doesn’t come up very often. Where he really shines, is using removal or trades to break an opponent’s forward so you can ping another forward. These pings can be used in many ways: 1. Ping an opponent’s forward when playing a lightning deck to use a “break a damaged forward” effect. Lightning LOVES damaged forwards. 2. Ping an opponent’s forward while playing a wind deck to finish off a forward with Barbariccia. The best way to do this is to create the situation for the ping, and then play the Barbarriccia in Main Phase 2. You can also use the 5 CP Diablos summon to a similar effect. If they have a 5 CP forward out, you can break it with Diabolos, set another forward to 1000 power and ping it off with Shadow Lord all in one play. This has come in handy a few times for me since his third ability often goes under the radar. Both of these cards play very well with Shadow Lord, and allow you to play Maria in your deck. Ping an opponent’s forward and finish it off with damage from fire, lightning, or ice summons/abilities. All three of these elements have lots of ways to deal damage to finish off a forward. Ping an opponent’s forward to discourage your opponent from blocking in what would be an unfavourable trade with a lower power forward. Would you trade your Cecil into a PSICOM Enforcer? Now if they have a Minwu, then you are out of luck, but the same applies to any ping strategies you might run. Another note with this third ability, is to always use it when it comes up. I believe it is a mandatory ability but often it goes unnoticed in matches I have seen him played because everyone forgets it exists. So always ping a forward and give your opponent another threat to think about. Watch out for this asshole. Well I hope this article has led to you wanting to try out Shadow Lord for yourself. If you have any questions about Shadow Lord or have any combos you want to share with me and everyone else, feel free to comment below. And if you don’t own a Shadow Lord... go out and buy one, he’s only a buck!
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.
2 Comments
Hey everyone, and welcome to a Opus VI preview article. We have been getting a ton of spoilers lately, so lets dig in to a few and see how they might be used once the set comes out. Any predictions or conclusions made here are subject to the card pool available. Some cards that look lacking now may have awesome synergies with future Opus VI cards. The spoilers have come from multiple sources, and we used FFTCG Mognet to grab the images for the cards used in this series. If you haven't checked them out, Mognet is one of the original and best built card searchers for FFTCG. Card: Yuna Cost: 6 Element: Water Type: Forward - Gullwings Category: FF X Power: 8000 Ability: “When Yuna enters the field, play 1 Job Gullwings Forward from your hand onto the field or search for 1 Job Gullwings Forward other than Card Name Yuna and add it to your hand. "1 generic CP, remove 3 Summons in the Break Zone from the game: Choose 1 Job Gullwings Forward. Activate it. It gains +1000 power until the end of the turn.” Rarity: Legendary Pros: - Nets card/ board advantage: Searches for or puts into play specific cards - Has an ability that interacts with your Break Zone: More card advantage - Has an ability that is both control and aggressive: Activating a specific forward and increasing it's power by 1000 - Relevant throughout the entire game Cons: - A build around card: Can't do much on its own. - Low stats for cost: 6 drop/ 8000 Archetype/ Combos: The New Yuna legendary is a low floor, high ceiling type of card. It does nothing on its own and is very clunky, while in it's own shell does a lot. Unfortunately with what we know at this point, Yuna only has one home to go to and specific combo to work with. Wind/ Water FF X archetype: This is the obvious one. The FF X combo was used quite a bit throughout Opus 1-2 meta. It had efficient ways to create card advantage. What made this combo amazing was its early game synergy to its mid-late game control. You use the FF X engine to find your combo pieces and then later spam summons to keep your advantage. Either by by protecting your board or removing threats. Now with more summons printed, the deck can now deal with threats it normally had a difficult time with. And the more summons played, the stronger Yuna becomes as a card. Combo cards: Fowards: Paine [1-199S]: This version of Paine wants to be played alongside Yuna. If played off of Yuna's enter the battlefield effect. Your card advantage net is 2 forwards and + 1 in hand. The advantage can be further increased if you also had a Rikku in play. If I were to play this Paine, I would play it alongside the backup Rikku instead of the forward. Rikku [1-201S]: This version of Rikku, just like the Paine mentioned above, wants to be played alongside Yuna. While the card is weak on its own, having either Paine or Yuna (or both) in play will increase its potential a great amount. It also protects itself in more ways than one. While giving it untargetable from either Summons or abilities, or both. Yuna and Paine need to be dealt with first before Rikku. Allowing you to rebuild after they used removal on your supporting cast. Tidus [1-213S]: The starter Tidus is actually amazing with Yuna. Alone, his stats are over costed being a 6 drop, with 9000 power being common on 5 CP forwards. But his cost can be reduced with more FF X forwards in play. Which, in a Gullwings FFX deck, you would have plenty of. His other abilities make him even more versatile, for example having Yuna in play will grant Tidus Brave. If your Yuna were to be put into the break zone, you draw 2 cards. Paine [2-063R]: This version of Paine is the main one that should be played regardless of deck type. As we have experienced, deck engines are extremely powerful. This is just a part of it. It allows you to search for your other main pieces, either Yuna or Rikku. Lenne [2-142R]: If you plan to play a heavy Summon package. Lenne could be a great addition. Partying with Yuna allows you to play any summon from your deck before blocks. Since it is any Summon, you could play off element summons too. Although if you cast a Summon that costs 5 or more Lenne will be put into the break zone. Yuna is still attacking, so if there is no blockers. Your opponent will still receive damage. Backups: Brother [1-197S]: Self-explanatory, Brother is just another part of your FF X engine. Allowing you to search for any FF X Category cards. Maria [1-083H]: Having access to Wind and playing a multi-elemental deck. Maria is a great Backup to pump your entire team regardless of Element. Summons: Valefor [1-198S]: Speaking of netting you advantage. This Summon along with Yuna nets you a ton of advantage. Wind has always been an element to activate your characters. This Valefor does just that. Activating all your backups to set you up for stronger plays on your turn or your opponent's can provide insane value. Monsters: Schrodinger [5-129C]: Schrodinger doesn't directly combo with Yuna. But since you could be playing a heavy Summon deck to utilize Yuna's active ability. Schrodinger has a good chance to draw you 2 cards, netting you 1 card plus a Summon in hand. Although your opponent gets to see what Summon is placed in your hand. If its removal, your opponent has to be cautious about it. Which could lead to them playing scared. Rating 2.5/5 Card: Kuja Cost: 5 Element: Ice Type: Forward - Genome - EX Category: DFF - FF IX Power: 9000 Ability: EX BURST "When Kuja enters the field, choose 1 Forward or Monster opponent controls. Dull it and Freeze it." "Put 2 Ice Backups into the Break Zone: Return Kuja to your hand. You can only use this ability during your Main Phase and if Kuja is in the Break Zone." Rarity: Legendary Pros: - Great ETB/ EX: Like many Ice Forwards, dulling and/ or freezing are great abilities. - Permenant threat/ card advantage: Once Kuja is in your break zone. It needs to always be considered. - Fair Stats: 5 drop for 9000. Cons: - Expensive ability early game. Although great in the late game. Kuja's recurring ability is very expensive. Archetype/ Combos: Ice has been a strong element early-mid game. Kuja greatly adds to the element by giving it some late game pressure. Combo cards: Backup: Gumbah [5-033R]: Kuja wants to break Backups. Gumbah is a backup that replaces itself once broken. This may not be the most powerful combo, but might be relevant for you to keep your backup count up, especially if using Kuja's ability puts you below 3 back ups. Fusoya [2-116R]: Fusoya allows you to recover a forward from your break zone to you hand when destroyed, allowing extra value for Kuja to come back with another forward that can potentially be used for CP to play the Kuja. Kuja can also be used with any ETB backup that you would like to replay. For example Raubahn, any searcher. Seymour, Sage (Fire or Lightning), and many many more. Rating: 4/5 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! Hey everyone, thanks for checking in to hear about my Crystal Cup experience!
Because of the time difference between Toronto and Vancouver, I woke up at 5am (8am Toronto time) daily, and I got home Sunday night at 2am Vancouver time. Going to work on Monday was pretty rough, but make no mistake, it was 100% worth it. This weekend was a total blast, and if I could get the price of plane tickets down, I would say I am going back again for sure. In Canada, two airlines have a monopoly on cross country trips and prices are much higher than US cross country. The First Hiccup I should mention the night before my flight I went 1-3 at my Vancouver Locals with my planned Crystal Cup Deck (Earth Wind, click here for an FFDecks link). I was pretty choked afterwards, and I didn’t know what to think. I had practiced so much with this deck and had undoubtedly become a better player. I started to second guess my deck. Should I change my deck list? Maybe I should switch to Mono Ice? I went home feeling very uneasy that night and needed to reflect on my matches. In the end I decided to go with the exact list I had prepared. So what if one Locals hadn’t gone well. This was the deck I knew how to play, and the deck that I thought I could do the best with. I had chosen not to play Mono Ice for a reason (I figured there would be a lot of it and people would want to counter it). After the tournament I can say that I am happy I stuck to my gut on this one. Was my deck the best one at the tournament? No. But I worked hard on it and wanted to test my abilities as a player. Packing I packed a backpack and a small drawstring bag for this trip. Just my clothes, some granola bars, dried mangos, and my cards. I brought two decks (Earth Wind and Mono Ice) just in case something happened to one of them. I also brought a small trade binder in case people were looking to trade. I also printed deck lists off ahead of time and double checked the decks and lists, this way signing up at the tournament was a breeze. The Day Before In case you didn’t read the first blog post, this was my first ever big tournament in a TCG. When I arrived in Toronto around 2 pm, I could not have been more excited. I registered for the convention and checked in to my hotel. Afterwards I went back to the convention halls and scoped out the place and started making a bucket list of all the merch I wanted to buy! Later on in the evening I met some players from the US and others from Ontario. I watched them play some matches and started to get very nervous. All of a sudden, my prospective opponents had faces. As I watched them play practice matches and I started to doubt myself and my deck. I am not sure why it happened, but I needed to relax. When I got back to the hotel that night, I started to read the articles on Magic: Level One about playing in a major tournament, and soon enough, I calmed down and realized why I was there. I also decided to set my goal for the weekend and planned when I would reflect on my matches. My Goal: Play to the best of my ability and avoid making mistakes in my matches. Day 1 I arrived 2 hours early on the first day (10 am). At 12 I filled out my deck list and triple checked it. I had brought a printed deck list with me, which I had double checked, so it was very easy to make sure my list was correct. After noon they posted the first-round matchups and had a players meeting. They basically told us to make sure out lists were correct and that they would spot check random decks in-between rounds. They also told us to leave our end game state alone when reporting the match to a judge. After each match was finished, the players would call a judge, record damage done, and sign their names. The judge would sign their name as well and take the score sheet. In the case of tie breaking, damage dealt would be used to rank players. As I sat down for my first match, my heart was beating so fast I could feel it throughout my body. Luckily, my opponent was a super nice dude. We talked about how we got into FFTCG, and it turned out he started around the same time as me. I started to calm down, but when I went to draw my cards and start the game, my hands were visibly shaking. I drew into an average hand, and my opponent played first. He played a Dycedarg and a back up that I can’t remember. However, I do remember thinking, he is setting up a knights deck. I played a Guy, which he then hit with Al-Cid and Onion Knight before swinging in for some damage with Dycedarg. The damage turned over was Shantotto, and my other copy was in the break zone after I discarded it for Guy. This turned out to be decisive as I drew into mostly back ups (drew and played one Zidane but it wasn’t enough) and lost in two turns. And that was it! People around me were starting their second or third turn and I had already lost. I was completely shell shocked. I just sat there staring blankly, I think my opponent realized this and asked me to play another match. It ended up going a lot better for me and really helped me relax. We didn’t have time to finish but I was in a very competitive spot when we stopped. After that initial scare, each match became easier and I felt less nervous. By the end of the day my nerves were almost completely gone, and it felt like I was playing at my regular old Vancouver weekly. One major factor that helped me settle down was that all my opponents were friendly people. Overall, I have been so impressed by the Final Fantasy Trading Card community. We rock! My Tournament Matches: Round 1 vs Water Lightning Knights: Lost 7-0 Round 2 vs Mono Lightning: Won 7-5 Round 3 vs Mono Earth: Lost 7-3 Round 4 vs Mono Ice: Won 7-5 Round 5 vs Lightning Wind: Lost 7-6 Round 6 vs Cadets (Tri-Colour): Won 7-? (unfortunately I forgot to write down his score) Day 2 On the second day I woke up much more well rested since I wasn’t nervous about playing. I did, however, go out for drinks with some of the players the night before and had a bit of a headache! I arrived around 10 am again and was first in line for the side events, which I will describe below. Gunslinger: This was the coolest side event. You waited in line to play against Square Enix employees, one of them being Kageyama-san, the creator of the game. If you won, you got to pick two cards randomly out of a huge selection of Japanese foils. If you lost, you only were allowed to pick one prize. These guys cycled through a ton of decks and played from 10:30 am til almost 5:00 pm with pretty much no breaks. In general, Kageyama was such a cool guy. He always said yes to signing cards or other things. He even took photos with a ton of players. I was lucky enough to play a match against him and he beat me with mono-wind (it was close though!). I can say from that match that he is a very efficient player. His sequencing was perfect, but I suppose that makes sense when you created the game and play a ton! Wolves Den: Six spots at a table were set aside for three matches. The winners of these matches stayed in their chairs and played again, the losers went back into line to eventually get a match again. We had sheets to record our matches (which you gave back to the judges if you weren’t at the table, no cheating!), and there were a ton of prizes based on different criteria. -If you were last on the table when the day ended you got a prize -Most wins and most losses throughout the day got prizes -If at any point you had the most Scions, or Standard Units, YRP combo etc, you would call over a judge and they would record the biggest amount in that category. The winner at the end of the day got a prize. (Sad note: I was playing a Y’shtola in my deck and no one ever claimed the Scion prize, if I had told the judge I had played a Y’shtola at some point I would have set the record at 1 Scion in play and won some swag) Draft: At any point on the second day, players could make groups of four and pay $20 to draft a set of their choice. Then they would play a round robin tournament with the winner getting a free draft or $20 store credit. At the end of the day, while the convention was closing, a bunch of us gathered around the featured table to watch the finals. It was super exciting! Overall, I had such an amazing weekend. I wish I could tell you more about the tournament and convention, but I have already typed way too much. I highly recommend you check out a Crystal Cup if you can, I will most likely be going to Seattle! Finally, I just want to say how great it was meeting everyone in the community, it was very cool meeting people you have watched online or have seen post on Facebook or Reddit. P.S. Let me know if you have any questions about my experience in the comments below or on Reddit! I am happy to answer. Cheers! Alex K |
AuthorCloud CIty FFTCG Writing Team: Archives
November 2018
Categories |