Hey everyone, now that Vancouver (Canada) finally has Opus VII (we received it one week late), everyone in our community has started building decks like its their job. I myself have already crafted 6 decks including:
*Disclaimer: I am not a super competitive player, and I don’t claim to be. If I miss a combo/interaction or am not using a card to its fullest potential, go easy on me! Number 1: Tidus 7-117CThis guy has been boatloads of fun to play with. My main use for him has been clearing backup space in decks that use a lot of permanent backups. Depending on the situation you replay those backups or just toss them for CP. My favourite way to play this golden god is to replay the new Lulu or the legendary Vivi. He is also great for bouncing a sage (2-005C) that can be replayed to give him haste. In the past we have had cards printed that can do similar things with their abilities, take a look at Miounne (5-067R) for example. The key difference between these two cards is that Tidus is a forward. Miounne can bounce a back up to be replayed, and you even get to draw a card, but she takes up a slot on your backup line. Tidus can be played when you have 5 backups, which is when you can usually afford to lose some of your CP production. Even before Tidus, we have had forwards that can return backups. If you look at the old Rikku (1-090R) from Opus 1, she could also return back ups to your hand. However, she was a 4 CP 7k forward. Tidus being above curve for a 4 drop at 9k power makes playing him worth not directly interacting with your opponent’s board or hand. It is also worth mentioning that Tidus can bounce any friendly character, whereas Rikku could only bounce backups (although up to 5!). If I can make one suggestion with this card, it is to not get overzealous with your bouncing, and not to bounce too early. The plays may look flashy, but always make sure you are being CP efficient. That is that you are gaining a virtual or actual CP advantage by the play you are making. Some of my other favourite Tidus targets are: Eiko (3-127R), Merlwyb (2-137H), Irvine (2-001H), Black Waltz 2 (3-015R). Number 2: Noctis 7-077LThis card is insane, and definitely worth the hype and wait for a FFXV card. I won’t go too in depth with this card as it is being covered by a lot of content creators. Noctis can stave off any aggression by pinging off cards when you take damage. Even though Noctis is from Final Fantasy XV, he must love Final Fantasy IV as he plays great with both Earth Cecils (1-108H and 5-086L)and Fusoya (2-146H). Noctis can also be used with Cactuar (4-058C) and Bahamut (6-017C) to trigger his ability, setting up plays where you can clear two forwards. If you get his EX-Burst on 6 damage… good for you! (Hasn’t happened for me yet) Number 3: Ultimecia 7-133SThis card is very fun to play with, as are most of the cards that give you multiple options to choose from. The most fun (and useful) this card has been is when I play it to freeze all of my opponent’s backups. This leads to them having a slow turn late in the game, especially if we are in top deck mode, and it frees up a big turn for me where I don’t have to worry as much about combat tricks. Even if they have lots of cards in their hand, they will have to use those cards as CP to cast anything, netting you some serious late game advantage. She can also be used similar to Orphan to dull two forwards for a big damage turn, but she can also dull any character (backups, monsters) instead of just forwards. She comes with a smaller body and no impact once she is on the board but can be a very fun Rinoa (6-041L) target. I have tried to run her as a 1-of in my ice decks, but I have seen people try her in mono lightning using Edea (6-087R) as a way to play her from the break zone. If you are on 6 damage this card picks two of its three effects and can really swing a board state in your favour. I have always really liked the idea of dulling your opponent’s backups so that they cannot use combat tricks. This has made me want to run Bard (2-032C), for a big turn where I dull my opponents’ backups and leave them stranded unable to cast that Diablolos. However backup slots are so competitive, it is much nicer to have a similar ability on a forward. The creators of this game know how powerful it is to interact with your opponents backups and have been very careful with options available so far. This Ultimecia has some really cool applications, I can’t wait to see how talented players use her! Number 4: Lulu 7-020CDon’t kill me, but this Lulu and the common Tidus are the two best job Guardian cards printed in this set. At least they are the most versatile guardians that can be used in other decks. Lulu is another great way to clear out backups so that they can be replayed. Unlike Tidus, she takes up a backup slot herself. This is good because you don’t lose any CP production as you keep the same number of backups. This is bad because she is just a plain backup once she is on board. The best part about Lulu is how fast she is. 7k is a good amount of damage and can kill most 3CP forwards if they haven’t played a booster. It can be used in mono fire to combo with other ping effects, and also to remove your Irvines and Black Waltz’s so they can be played again. Number 5: Jecht 7-010LJecht may be a terrible father but he is a great card. At 4 damage he costs 1 CP and is a good tempo play even if his second ability doesn’t go off. If you are able to get him to hit your opponent for some damage, then all the better. This card just feels good to play and fits perfectly in A) slow decks or B) in decks that self damage. I am currently working on a Fire/Earth deck with Cecil, Noctis, Bahamut (6-017C), and this ace blitzballer. Closing
That’s it from me. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what your favourite Opus VII cards are in the comments below. If you have any tips for how to play the cards I listed above better, then please share that as well! -Alex K
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Hey everyone, welcome to the relaxing “Card for Thought” corner of Cloud City where discussion on certain cards that have hidden potential come to bare. Each week we will post a different card that may have sometimes been overlooked but still has some good usage depending on the build or combos it features in. Let's start shall we! We shall keep this short starting with the man, who I honestly believe does not want to have a plan, Squall 2-038H from Opus 2. So just by looking at the card you can say “Its a 5 cost at 6k power, hmmm does not seem quite useful but he does have First Strike”. However, Opus 1 Squall could gain First Strike and deal additional 6k damage when blocking and attacking, all at 3 CP. That certainly seems like a better card, however, Opus 2 Squall’s ability can be just as competitive as Opus 1 Squall’s. First off I am a huge fan of cards already having an ability like First Strike printed because this makes them immediate threats without any further investment. Second: dude gets 1k for each dull character your opponent controls so immediately this guy is getting stronger on his own. Third, when Squall attacks he dulls all the backups your opponent controls so that is a 1k boost but can climb as high as 5k. That’s like a kaioken boost as far as I’m concerned. Now yes maybe early in the series Opus 1 Legendary & Opus 1 Rare Squall were the best choice for your deck but I’ll be honest, this card can catch a lot of people off guard. I have personally played this card a lot and the dull all back ups ability has made my opponents focus fire on Squall pretty quick, which has helped me setup my other combos. That being said, you can also be defensive with this card. Squall can be a pretty good wall depending on what elements you run or how you set up. For example if you are running wind where after attacking with him you can reactivate him and defend on your opponent's turn. Or with earth using 2 cost hecatoncheir or 4 cost atmos to deal damage. And if you are playing earth, a nice golem to boost his power (especially if he is blocking) is very potent with the first strike ability. If possible I always play Squall with Rinoa due to the power boost that could be provided when her effect dulls all your opponent’s forwards. Thanks to monsters coming out in Opus IV, that's additional power being provided to synergize with Squall. Such as Swampmonk who can dull forwards or bombs that can help with the First Strike damage or Goblin (Earth) to boost Squall’s power further. Since monsters are also characters, when your opponent's monsters are dull, they also power up Squall. All in all with how the game has been growing since Opus 2, Squall has gained a ton of utilization. Earth/Ice in particular has added benefits for Squall such as providing and maintaining Brave so he does not dull after he swings. First Strike also adds that extra danger and if you keep pressure on your opponent they will fall victim to it quite often. You should also keep in mind how many times your opponent dulls their own board through creating CP and attacking with forwards. Anyways before I drag on I just wanted to say I adore this card. It helped me when I was starting out and made me enjoy playing Ice. I definitely recommend trying this card out, you will not be disappointed. Plus it boosts Rinoa and Laguna if needed. Have a great day everyone and hope to see you all on the board. See ya! *Update* In regards to turbo ice the new Opus 6 Squall has been seeing a lot of play, however all these cards are quite useful in their own builds and constructions making them still quite aggressive cards depending on how the setup is just know at the end of the day meta is normal no judgement there but if you want explore do it sometimes the risk is worth it. That being said enjoy the game and have fun! Brandon Dosanjh is a founding member of Cloud City. He mostly plays Ice decks, but has also dabbled in Wind, Water, and Lightning. Brandon loves reading comics and playing video games. His favourite Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy V, maybe that’s why he plays Bartz 3-L. Brandon works in sales, and has the best poker face you’ll ever play against. Even though Brandon loves the Dragon Ball franchise, he will never leave us for their TCG, because Goku never turns his back on his friends.
As I sit at my computer on my first day of summer vacation, I find myself drinking coffee and editing deck lists on FFDecks listening to the Gustaberg Theme from FFXI. When I look at each card in my deck I ask myself “Why is this card in my deck?”, if I cannot provide a reason, or enough synergy from other cards to support my reason, then it is a candidate for being cut to make the deck more consistent. Reflecting on your deckbuilding process like this will not only make your decks stronger, but also make you a better player. As you justify a card’s presence in your deck, you confirm its synergies and the goal of your deck. This helps you remember your game plan in a match and keeps you from straying from your best lines. So what does this reflection process look like? I will list a few examples below! Obvious Includes and Why They Work: When you look at a card like Al-Cid, he is almost a necessity in competitive lightning decks. The tempo he provides from potentially breaking an opponent’s forward and bringing out two of your own is massive. However, like his character in the game, Al-Cid must be surrounded in your deck by some beauties. When you add Al-Cid to your deck, you will of course put in Onion Knight (what a babe) and maybe even a Rygdea (that hair) or two. Illua (actually a female) is also a great choice. For awhile we were even seeing Black Waltz 3 come up in many lightning decks. By playing many 3 cost or lower cards, most of which that combo with the damage of Al-Cid’s entrance ability, we increase the amount of times we will draw him and get full value out of him. We can also play cards like the 2 CP Black Mage 2-108C to reduce a forwards power, therefore letting Al-Cid bring out a forward without a damage ability and still getting the kill. When you ask yourself “why” you put a card in your deck, can you back it up with support like we did in this Al-Cid example? Here are some examples of questions to help your process of asking yourself “why” you included a card in your deck:
Partial Packages: Let’s say you wanted to run a splash of lightning in another colour. You have to put Al-Cid in, right? But you don’t want to compromise the other element in your deck, so you only add 3 Onion Knights. Is that enough targets for Al-Cid’s effect to go off reliably? The answer is debatable. You might not always be able to use him when you draw him. When you are adding cards to your decks because you like their abilities, make sure to ask yourself how reliable it will actually be in practice. Sometimes you can be split across many ideas for a deck and it will dilute the consistency of your list. Boosters and other “Staples”: There are cards in this game that when you build a deck with their elements, you add them into your deck automatically. This is because they are strong cards and you see lists everywhere running them. However, it is very important that these cards do not receive any preferential treatment when questioning their place in your deck. “Because all Ice decks run Duke Larg” is not a reason to keep him. However, his ability to put your 7K Ice forwards out of Fusoya range is. When you play an elemental booster in your deck ask yourself “is power important in my deck?” and if it isn’t, then don’t run a booster. 3-CP back up slots are precious, and there are a lot more to choose from in the game these days, just look at Earth as an example. Enna Kros, Graviton, Momodi, and any 3 CP searcher are all desirable 3 CP back ups to play. You could also look at a card like Shantotto, which is an amazing play to stabilize if you start off slow or your opponent gets ahead and overextends. I mean, you should ALWAYS play Shantotto if you are playing Earth right? Well maybe not. Does your deck ever plan on being behind? If you have a tempo, forward oriented strategy, you might not play Shantotto that often. Next time you build a deck think to yourself:
Homer Cards: This is my biggest weakness as a player. There are cards that I love that I want to include in any given deck. Opus 1 Kuja for example. And while he is a pain in the behind for people, he doesn’t do anything on his own, and there are more proactive 5-costs to play in Ice. Other cards that I have tried to play include 3-CP Songstress Yuna and 5-CP Opus-1 Orlandeau. Both are powerful cards, but when you ask yourself why they are in your deck, you will find that their upsides are out-weighed by their other versions, or in the case of Yuna, running Ashe as your 3-cp water forward. I am by no means telling you to not run your favourite cards, or the cards listed above. But think about what situation they would need to be successful. Can you support them? Yuna can remove all abilities from your opponent’s characters (except for Light and Dark characters), for example back up Minwu, allowing Orlandaeu to swing in with his ability. But if Yuna isn’t strong enough, she will be blocked and end up in the break zone. When you are building a deck and ask yourself “Why”, you will more than likely cut some homer cards to optimize your deck’s goal. It can be easy to dream about throwing in all these powerful cards in your deck, I am certainly guilty of it myself, but if you try it out and things aren’t going your way, ask yourself "why" and refine your list. Your deck will become stronger and you will be a better player for it. If there is any advice that you have for me or others for building decks feel free to comment below. Let me know what types of questions you ask yourself when you are deck building. Cheers! EDIT: I originally stated you could bring the new rare Estinien out with Al-Cid, that has been confirmed as an illegal play. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I have removed that sentence from the article. 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. 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. 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 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 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. 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]. |
AuthorCloud CIty FFTCG Writing Team: Archives
November 2018
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