Hello there !
I’m glad to present you my opus XIX review. I tried to get this online fast, so there might be a few mistakes, but hopefully I got everything right… or at least a good part of it.
It’s really hard to get every card right, but this is a great exercice to be honest. Let’s talk about the notation before diving in :
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- 0/5 : card is really trash and will never see play
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- 1/5 : card will not see play in any competitive format, but casual players might include it. or really strange builds
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- 2/5 : Niche card, or just generic card too weak to see play. Those cards can see some play
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- 3/5 : Playable card, might get powercrept really soon or not finish the opus in the lists.
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- 4/5 : Bread and butter card, this is your staples, and the card you will want to try or know before entering a tournament
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- 5/5 : Game defining card that will see play no matter what.
Finally, whenever you see a card dotted like : Braska 16-133S , you can hover it with your mouse and you should be able to see the card =)
Fire
Ice
Wind
Earth
Lightning
Water
Light/Dark
Multi Element
Starter
Fire
| Ifrit | 3 | Ifrit is our first summon of this cycle, which is “play a foward, get this for free”. Being only a 7k blast is a bit weak, and in this sense, it looks like we”re playing Braska 16-133S. It basically means, is Braska good in our current day and age ? If so, maybe Ifrit can be playable. Don’t forget the obvious bonus of triggering Magissa 12-017H. The card by itself is not bad, but just not enough to see play in my book. There’s a lot of possibilities with cards that deals little damage when they enter the field, like Faris, and you could probably use it to have Rain 13-017H/Illua 14-003R kill 2 targets instead of one in the right scenario. |
| Ace | 3 | The fire legendary is here, and for once, Ace is not tied to his tribe! No matter how you play Ace, you’ll have to remove 5 fire cards from your BZ. This is not a heavy cost but it prevents you from playing it too early, which seems lilke the clear intent to me. It also makes it hard to use if you keep eating breakzone removal. The only way to prevent this cost is by canceling the auto ability, which is, well, specific. Now into the good stuff. When you attack, you basically remove a forward from the field, the same Braska’s Final Aeon 11-015L did in the past, but now without the 7CP cost upfront. The special ability is a nice touch which makes Ace able to do more on the field without expending too many resources. I don’t want to be the guy that says “no entry ability, useless card”, but Ace really needs to be able to be something else that a glorified stat stick. He’ll never come early enough not to be dull/frozen by decks that play Ice, and every colour has at least one good answer to Ace. He does have some qualities though. First, as a 1CP forward, it can make Luneth hit harder without too big of an investment, making a 2 card combination. Also, Luneth is usually the first you want to take down when facing Fire, but we may have to reconsider here. I’d also like to remind you of the existence of our dear emperor Xande 10-008L, who will bring the aforementionned combo at damage 5 – your 3CP card of choice being whoever you want, meaning probably Faris? If you auto ability is not canceled and your breakzone survives, Ace is finally a good target for Xande 10-008L. In the end, I really hope it will be enough to see play, but I’m not really sure. |
| Edgar | 2 | A gorgeous art for a not so gorgeous effect. This Edgar is basically as strong as the Sabin he brings to the field, and we’re basically stuck with the most recent ones. It has an obvious sinergy with the new Sabin, but clearly looks underwhelming compared to the previous Edgar 17-002L. There mlight be some combination to do since you can use the ability even during your opponent turn. With the newest Ifrit and Sabin, this can be a good tempo swing, if stars are correctly aligne. The Auto Crossbow is flavourful but probably impracticable, baring some specific situations or combos we might want to dive into. |
| Kukki- Chebukki | 1 | At first I was gonna rate this one terribly but decided to look more closely into the whole package. I’ll give you my precise thoughts about the whole crew once we get to the pivotal one. In the meantime, this one is the weakest, even though, paired with the new Ifrit for instance, we can get a 0cp deals 9K and RFG spell, which would be great if we were really allowed to play this kind of things in 2023. |
| Sazh | 2 | This is a 2CP forward searching for a 2CP backup on color, and that’s pretty much it. This is not bad, but unfortunately probably not good enough. But if you’re playing a fire or FFXIII centric deck that needs to reach a critical number of targets to work, you may consider running it, given Dajh is good enough to see play. |
| Tifa | 1 | This is awful |
| Dajh | 2 | A 2CP EX backup that cycles 1 card is, in my opinion, barely under the bar to be playable. Being able to fetch it through Sazh and having a relevant catagory might put Dajh in the map. Just remember you actually have to discard to draw a card, which means you can’t really cheat with this one. |
| Buffasaur | 2 | Opus 5 has called and said it was missing a bomb. But since you decide when this one can go off and it deals you a point of damage, which I see as a positive thing in some cases, there might be a world where we play this bad boy. It kills every Ice/Lighning card, so I guess it’s fine ? |
| Bombo | 1 | Opus 5 has called and… Wow, already did this one! So we’re basically trying to fuse Bomb and Goblin 17-007C together, and since Full Metal Alchemist told us not to do this kind of trick, let’s not. To be fair, this could be useful if we ever wanted to get to a critic mass of fire characters on the field, for Luneth 16-019R for instance, but this doesn’t look hot. |
| Sabin | 2 | Yeah, new Sabin ! The cost reduction is, let’s be honest, a little almost irrelevant bonus, specifically if we compare it to the previous one, Sabin 17-017H. The art is awesome, and the trick is obviously to play this one with his twin bro. 8k is a bit underwhelming but we might be able to do some tricks anyway to use this effect. Or we’re just gonna stick to the stronger versions. |
| Miyu | 4 | Not quite Norschtalen 8-058R yet, but this is a really neat addition to any deck playing fire, combined (or not) with ice or lightning. There’s a lot of targets, and you can even get this one with Khalia Chival 5-104R. Drawing one backup that means having at least 3 backup is amazing, but Fire/Lightning never stroke me as a deck that wanted to rush to 5 backups. Hopefully we’ll be able to use this one in the future! |
| Monk | 1 | Finally a fire backup Monk. Not sure we want to really keep playing fire/earth Monks, but if we want to, at least we got a backup. The entry ability is okay for a 2CP backup, but Damage 3 is probably what makes it trash The combat trick is not great, but could be enough to warrant blockers, if we didn’t nuke them already. |
| Lilty | 1 | This is some pretty solid pack filler, this one being a Ran’jit 13-130S on a bad condition. Unless we’re playing a whole rainbow of FFCC characters, this card is awful. |
| Luneth | 2 | Luneth is asking a lot of questions here. Blasting everyone for 5k is usually not enough, but it could be enough in some situations and context, like if you already put your 3 Goblin 17-007C in the field. It’s a Warrior of Light backup, an interesting combination we really need to see the deck shine. But it’s also a card name Luneth 16-019R, and we already have a playable one, so I’m unfortunately not sold here. |
| Ruby Weapon | 1 | Finally, FFVII fans will rejoice to have the Weapons brought to life in FFTCG. If you’re just playing to be a competitive gamer, then you’ll notice this card is expensive trash paired with an awesome Special ability, not the greatest pairing. But even in this condition, never forget that niche abilities like being unkillable through damage can win games by itself in the right circumstances. Don’t get too fired up. |
| Laragorn | 1 | I’ll talk about the whole triplet here so we don’t waste time switching from element to element. The Fire one plays another one in the field, and by paying 3 element and dull, play another one from the break zone. He’s the one who brings friends to the party. The Ice one makes your opponent discard whenever one dies, making him the first one you wanna kill. Also, if the 3 of them are here, once per turn you can dull/freeze a forward for free. Nice! The Lightning one makes them bigger if there’s at least 3 of them, and retrieve a friend from the break zone. That’s an awful lot of text for basically nothing. Fire/Ice/Lightning were too strong and needed shitty heroic anyway. |
| Leon | 2 | We have another rebel, finally ! Leon is quite weak and kinda needs to be the last of the bunch to hit the field so he canat least be threatening. Being able to add a card to your hand is always nice, but I’m not sure package is good enough to see play nowadays. He’s too late. |
Ice
| Waltrill | 2 | This is the perfect backup to any cristal oriented deck containing ice. Too bad this is on a forward. 2CP 5k is the most standard and unfortunately weak statline it can have, but it can generates value over time, something Ice is known to struggle with. As all cristal generators, it’s as good as your cristal users are. I’m not sure it can see play, but it’s still a 2CP body that requires an answer someday. |
| Vincent | 1 | Vincent is probably the worst and yet best card ice players could have asked for. Standard body, fetchable through Reeve 9-098R if you’re a purple gamer too, he can force your opponent to pass a turn. Freezing 3 backup is a lot, and can basically make Vincent even in CP, unless your opponent does not care through backup reactivation or because he’s angry and playing forwards only. The other 2 abilities are useless, even though, if you can’t attack due to a stronger forward, at least you will have something to do with Vincent. I fear it reads better than it’s played, but there’s only one way to find about, and this is by slotting it. |
| Umaro | 2 | Umaro does something Ice kinda never did before, a removal on any forward with damage. Would have been awesome earlier, but in this day and age, if kinda feels outdated. Only reddeming point is you can just discard 2 FFVI characters to deal 8k to a forward from your BreakZone, which is a really slow summon with an okay cost. This also is a FFVI character, and there’s some combos there, but this one feels a bit too weak to get a slot. |
| Cloud of Darkness | 1 | This is a waste of an art and of a slot. 5CP to break a monster is way too expensive, and the Damage 3 part is irrelevant. |
| Shiva | 5 | Finally, an Ice summon that doesn’t look like the worst of its cycle. Great name, ok effect tied to a draw, we’re never gonna pay to cast this. If it’s free, this just adds a bonus dull-freeze to any ice forward you play, which looks okay. It also works pretty well with Terra 15-037L and the new Relm, so we could be up to something here. |
| Snow | 1 | This is some solid pack filler. |
| Sarah (MOBIUS) | 2 | Disclaimer, I really hate to rate card like this because they can do a lot of things with a heavy drawback. Not being to attack, i guess why not, but the card is really slow… Maybe you can drop this turn 1 with some cards to protect it, add Gogo 15-028H or something and you’re good to go… or to die atrociously depending on how the whole thing goes. |
| Sephiroth | 1 | This is our first backup Sephiroth, and hopefully the last. We’re way past the point of playing a backup to destroy a dulled forward, but I guess if Ice control would be a thing, it would be playable… Na, just kidding. Once it’s 3 cp or lower, it can be okay, and it’s probably strong in limited. |
| Curlax | 1 | I rated the first one and I’m already tired of all this. 🙁 |
| Chocobo Eater | 1 | Ice has now a solid answer to 2CP forwards like the Twins and Rydia 15-083L . Unfortunately, this is not a multiplay icon, so this is a trick that works only once, unless you break/bounce the chocobo eater yourself. Given how many random “choose a monster, break it” effects there are now in the game, this might not be the answer you’re looking for. |
| Terra | 3 | 4CP EX with a +1 effect are always good news. With an ability do break a dulled forward, it provides a little bit of flexibilty that makes Terra playable. There might be some name clash though, since there’s two playable forwards called Terra. |
| Tohno | 3 | Freeze 1 forward is not the weakest entry we could have. The second ability is outdated but it makes the whole card kinda playable, since you can find it with two backups, in Lightning of Fire. |
| Norschtalen | 2 | This is one of the most interesting name in the whole game. Being a 2CP with an auto ability means you are not losing much if it gets countered. Waltrill is obviously the best target for this effect since you play it directly on the field. It means you’d play a cristal oriented deck if going this road. You can also pickup a lots of FFCC forwards, Ultimately this is sweet and nice but everything lies on the quality of your targets, as always, and this is the downfall of this card. |
| Flan | 2 | Being a monster called Flan is a boon, but its effect is not. I like the fetch when they die, but am I doing all this effort to put a 3000 on the board ? |
| Yuke | 1 | We’re back to another standard and useless unit requiring too many things to do too little things. |
| Lean | 3 | You don’t have to really discard too heavily to get your opponent this low in the early game, and Lean can be awesome if you get it to work as a 3rd backup or something like that. It can be a one of in decks that can affort the slot if you’re facing matchups where your opponent will empty their hand by themselves, with just a little push from you. |
| Nu mou | 1 | Action is trash. |
Wind
| Alexander | 1 | It appears that today, Wind has gotten the short end of the stick for summons. Unless we’re faced with a storm of monsters, but since Wind>Water already, we’re good right now. |
| Vayne | 5 | Vayne has a unique effect, which is always nice to see in a TCG. It might be kinda sad to see this in Wind and not in another element like Lightning, but it might not help the current iteration of mono wind or Storm, given how they do not really use warp. But it’s futureproof and there’s no clash name here. Can’t wait to see what Vayne will bring in, the future, right now people just want to discard 3 a turn earlier… |
| Wol | 1 | We start the strongest color by one of the most impraticable forward we could see, since you need exactly 3 colors and not 3 or more. Also, a forward searching for a forward with no EX, with a condition, will not see play. |
| Effray | 5 | This is not what we wanted. My Wind player (ex-)friends really love this card, and at first I was not really sold, but it’s a free cast the turn is comes in, like a sub-par Ochu, but then it becomes a 6th backup when you need to. No more starving for Ice if you have only one Ice backup. Althea is always available. Another target to Stilzkin. And so on and so on. |
| Emerald Weapon | 0 | I’m currently working in my new house, and I can’t wait to have some of this card so I can use them under my furnitures if I need to. |
| Thief | 1 | I have no idea why he doesn’t take damage, but this doesn’t change the fact the condition is atrocious. The effect though, if we could use it, is huge. But nowadays we mill with loops or just waiting out, which makes this forward kinda useless. |
| Cid Highwind | 1 | I’m definitely not sold on this one given how slow this is, but maybe someone with a bigger brain will figure something. |
| White Mage | 2 | Storm could not get back characters form it’s BZ unless they were 2CP, but this time is over. I’m not we’re gonna play this one even if the entry ability is lovely if you’re on damage 3. |
| Zu | 0 | What I read here is that when I do wind things, I’m rewarded with a 8k forward that deals nothing, won’t help me win nor defend myself. There’s the good Zu and the bad Zu. |
| Sarah (MOBIUS) | 2 | Basic 3CP backup that give +1000 to a category. Standard and basically useless nowadays, but it’s generic. |
| Sophie | 2 | To some people this might be a controversial one, but I think this one is not gonna see *that much* play. Putting aside the warp for now, the effects are : – Destroying a monster is niche since most monsters won’t hurt you, except Atomos 16-043H, Byblos 16-038H or Djinn 16-010H? You win vs Water anyway. – Activating all your backups : you’re an opus 8 character called Vata 7-046R – Being a 9k Haste : wrong color mate. Now we can do all 3 things together, which can be some value and a free cast. Neat. But your opponent can try do disrupt your plan by dealing with your forwards beforehand. And not sure turning your Atomos 16-043Hinto a forward to get one more effect is worth the risk in certain matchups. Finally, when you warp Sophie, the cost is way lower, but she doesn’t count as a cast and as Melvien 18-115L taught us, reactivating backups through warp is not that great. |
| Buddy | 5 | Ok Buddy. |
| Gramps | 1 | Wow Damage 5 really ? on a conditonnal effect ? Is this an Ice card ? |
| Bartz | 1 | Slow, so slow. Also not that great. |
| Makki-Chebukki | 3 | Alone, this card is tragic. Paired with its friend Cherukikki, this is another story. Mill on a dull is a strong effect that has been banned on a backup. Hopefully this one won’t since you always have an answer, but you can just put some pressure and try to clock your opponent by putting 3 forwards on the field and making him mill a few cards. You’d be playing Wind and Fire, but maybe there’s another card there to help your opponent empty their deck… |
| Matoya | 1 | This is an expensive Lusso if I ever saw one. Maybe ther’e some dancer tricks I don’t know, since I don’t play the deck, but it looks kinda weak. |
| Rikku | 3 | YRP is back. Buddy can fetch this, time to dust off Paine 1-199S ! Or just play with new cards, the choice is yours. |
Earth
| Undead Princess | 1 | It would ot the best combat trick but one your opponent as the most chance to forget in the middle of the game. While in the field, she is not that strong. Unfortunately, once she’s in the BZ, you can only use her during your main phase, meaning you will probably lost the surprise. Still useful when you cast Titan, Lord of Crags 14-062L I guess. |
| Vanille | 3 | Vanille is a 2CP backup, and as an Ice/Earth player, i always have in mind Serah 16-032H. This Vanille had an okay entry ability, and a pinpoint removal in the breakzone is always a nice thing to play. Its second ability is quite potent and it can make your opponent think twice before trying to cast 12 card this turn. |
| Vincent | 0 | Not today. |
| Eiko | 5 | I won’t dwelve in the specifics here, but there’s an easy loop milling your opponent to death with only 4 baclups in the field and a few Summoners… And I’m not a genius deckbuilder. So you all know what Shikadi is doing right now, right? Hopefullmy she’s just 5k |
| Graph | 0 | Pretty sure we already add things like taht in the past and it was not playable. |
| Kefka | 4 | Look at that! Who’s the awesome devil ? Kefka takes us to another trip, today he’s there with a comeback mecanism when your opponent just spams the board. 0CP 9k Brave is okay, but being able to cast a 4CP or less summon can make the difference. In earth, you have Hecatoncheir 1-117R or Cactuar 16-074C, but when you dive offcolor, there’s a lot you can do. Finally at worst, you’ll just use Cu Sith 10-068C, which sometimes is all you need. 3 forwards looks like a lot, but unless it’s Ice/Lightning playing with Al-Cid 14-122L and another friend, people tends to play more than 2 forwards when they go for offense. |
| Jenova SYNTHESIS | 3 | Card is actuaally quite good, and I did not expect that. It sure needs to be mono earth (Shantotto 1-107L or Tyro 11-072R shenanigans), but if you ever reach the goal line of 5 backups, here comes your reward, cleaning your opponent’s board. In the meantime, it produces 2 earth CP when you discard it. Card by itslef is okay, not sure we’re able to pull off the trick. Also, 8k is a lot, but sometimes not enough… |
| Aster Protoflorian | 3 | This is an interesting one. Who’s gonna pay 7cp to destroy a forward and a backup at the same time ? Paying 5 for just one effect is bad, so you really want to use both at the same time. You can also cheat it in with Mira 16-081R or the new Larkeicus. If you divide the cost, it’s a 3.5CP for the backup, 3.5 for the forwards, meaning you’re playing an unrestricted Hecatoncheir 1-117R and Cactuar 16-074C at the same time. I quite like it since it’s easy to do it again, if you can manage to get rid of your copy of Aster Protoflorian… which is not that easy. |
| Animist | 2 | Cute little boy brings back a 2CP monster from the dead, and can add a 4CP or less in our hand. Nice in theory, maybe hard to use in reality. There’s not that many monsters important enough to make us use slot for this. |
| Doga | 2 | The infamous Doga is back, and this one will not be as oppressive as the last one. Gaining 2 cristal on entry for a 4CP cost is kinda like Engelbert 17-127H, just we haave to pay with a summon and he’s not Light. But Doga wants to be paired with another element to use its abilities, and he needs to dull. Hard pass even if the abilities are potent. Maybe you can make Doga live long enough to start doing some work, but I’m not so sure about that. |
| Nacht | 3 | Nacht is a new friend for some decks, mainly the one that wants to play warp and to break opponents forwards. He can work alone as long as you plan on using Warp, so even if this might not be his time yet, he might be useful later on. 1CP 9k + break something on entry is strong |
| Barret | 2 | Alone, Barret is quite weak, since getting a forward when you die is not a good effect for 2023. The first ability looks promising but you’ll need to cast two forwards to make use of it, or at least Multi-Elemement forwards that would deal some more damage when they enters the field. |
| Fenrir | 2 | Fenrir is the kind of card I really like because it’s a precise and situationnal good card. 3CP to break a problematic forward is sometimes all you need. Being able to play it for free makes it a good summon, if you’re willing to do so during your turn. Unfortunately, most of the targets of Fenrir are just too strong on entry for Fenrir to do his work correctly, and it might just get you behind in economy. Also art is awful. |
| The Deathlord | 3 | A 2CP backup is always good, right? This one makes you get 2 cards for 4CP, which is a good trade off even considering the point of damage. In a pinch it can bring what you need from the Breakzone, which is always a good thing. |
| Behemoth | 1 | A gorgeous art for a not so hot looking effect. Card is pretty blank, and turning into a forward even costs 1 earth CP. Damn. |
| Monk | 0 | The more I read those cards, the more trash they appear. |
| Rydia | 5 | Now we’re talking. There’s so many things to say about this card it’s frightening. Yeah, it’s one of the worst name to have. Yeah it’s 5CP. But boy, look at that effect. Sure you can’t bring Yuna 1-177R and Syldra 12-097H together. But it can bring whatever else you need. Feelink like loop is your thing ? Here comes Valefor 1-062L and, well, everything ? Eiko or Grenat for instance. |
Lightning
| Emperor (FFL) | 2 | Funcard, if you can resolve it you basically win the game on the spot, since a wipe board might be enough in an element that has no such thing. D/F all character is awesome, and drawing 4 is unheard of. You need to be able to give him haste since it’s so slow, but Lightning has a lot of (bad) ways to do so. Finally, if you reveal Zapt 9-093C, well… I guess you won ? it won’t be played, but I’m not writing this one off too quickly because the sheer power of the special will make people try it, at least casually. |
| Edge | 1 | No haste, requires to dull to do something barely relevant, no added bonus or relevant abilities, we’re sticking with our previous Edge 11-045H. |
| Ergo | 2 | This is a 4CP EX get one card from your breakzone. We had Cid of Clan Gully 17-094C previously, and before that, opus 1 sage. None of them saw play recently. Not sure this one will be better. Only EX helps there since we may want to play a deck that inflicts itself lots of damage |
| Eald’Narche | 0 | 7CP to break a forward, at this point this is not even funny anymore. You can play it with Ranperre 10-104R |
| Kain | 1 | Kain is a new kind of combat trick, one that expends your backupline at the same time you do nothing. First strike is not the best keyword to have, and Kain is not the easiest name to wear. 🙁 Maybe a dragoon deck will play it to stick to mono-lightning. |
| Scholar | 1 | The effect is like the card, when you see it, it’s blurry. If you’re trying to put yourself at a high damage count, this is a possible inclusion in your list. Its exit ability is sad. |
| Chimera | 2 | This is a card that asks a lot of questions and I don’t have all the answers. It obviously have some synergies with card like Melusine 18-081H, but this is not all there is to it. When a card has finished performed what it had to, you can sacrifice it without mercy, but are we willing to do this for a mere 8k foward ? Chimera needs to have a useful break, not a “ok i can sacrifice this” break. The obvious answer is also Ranperre 10-104R, an old king that some people still want to play occasionnaly. Anyway I’m not sold on this, but as a purple player I really hope I’m wrong on this one. |
| Kuja | 3 | Replayable Pest control card, it will help to face cards like Rydia 15-083L or the twins, even though you’re in an element that already deals quite well with small forwards. Having an EX and being able to develop a backup while interacting with the board is really potent, so the card will see play as long as 2CP forwards see play. |
| Golbez | 2 | Warp 4 is quite long, but since it plays archfiend and get you to draw, this is a bonus, unlike cards like Garuda (III)18-073H. Basically, we’re playing this cool looking man with a cape in an archfiend deck, which is clearly out of my area of expertise. I’m not sure the current archfiends will get the job done, but the value the card will provide might be enough. The targets need to be in your hand, chich means you’ll have to search for them, draw them or maybe have some Golbez’s triggers without target. Ultimately, Golbez will join the party and add a solid 3000 power to those who survived waiting for him, and nothing stops you from warping another one while you already have Golbez in play. |
| Jinnai | 0 | Beautiful packfiller. Maybe in ninja there’s something to do with it ? Did they forget to add Haste ? |
| Moebius | 1 | See Laragorn |
| Vivi | 3 | Finally a Lighning card that makes you want to play mono Lightning and keep some cards in hand. This looks pretty specific but this is a possible deck, if you can find a place in the meta for this deck. There’s a lot of name clash, but there are a Vivi for every kind of deck. Which is a great feat. I’ll happily play this one if I find him a home worthy of him. |
| Behemoth | 1 | This is a really weird looking Odin 13-072R to be honest. We’re trading all the side effects of the summon to get a dull on every turn, an effect we already have on the Spectral Keeper 17-098H, so I’m not sure I want to play this big dude. |
| Lightning | 4 | Another Lightning ! Finally, after all this time : I’ve been wondering when we would finally see this name printed on a card. So, this is a 9K 5CP forwards that makes you play some category XIII characters and probably some Odin. Let’s see with more details. As far as playing a XIII character on the field goes, we have a lot of targets. The one you will probably try to play are the latest Cid Raines 19-135S, any relevant Serah for you deck or Lightning herself. Orphan 15-024R is also an option. Being able to play any forward for free is still really strong, and you can combine it with her second effect, meaning it is always expensive to get rid of her. You may have to play Odin, and their problem has always been that it’s a bunch of terrible card unless you can use Odin 12-077H for a small cost. Now, whenever Lightning might fall, you can discard a useless Odin to at least get some value out of it. Bonus : if your opponent saves its forward through bounce or something like this, the whole effect will Fizzle and Lightning won’t break. Lightning is a good card, maybe a bit too restricted because if you want to slot her, your deck will take a specific turn in deckbuild, but she can probably still make the whole thing works, since even freezing her won’t stop her. |
| Ramuh | 2 | Our cycle is not an Odin, because why would we want to make Lightning useful in limited ? As every lightning summons, there’s a condition on this one, and it’s always the problem with Lightning and Ice cards. 8k is anough to kill almost every 3CP forwards baring a few, but it’s a really niche use case. Lightning has some pretty neat small cost forwards that can make the whole thing inexepensive. It won’t unfortunately solve all the problems the element has right now, but it’s better than nothing. Also, since we can recurr it with Man in Black 17-096H, you may be able to destroy 3 drops a lot, but since we already have Ixion 17-090Ror Black Waltz 3 16-088L it’s really hard to justify slotting this. Also, main targets have usually already done their deeds… |
| Ricard | 4 | Awesome art, Good effect, unused name, potentially relevant job, situationnal (but weak)exit ability, there’s nothing wrong with this purple card. I’m not used to say this, but this is a good card. There’s even an effect to get rid of it if you ever need to play it again or just needs the slot. Also, since it’s a reveal 5, you’re not tied to mono. Great, finally! |
| Dragoon | 0 | Ok let’s move on to water please. |
Water
| Ashe | 3 | This new Ashe is quite interesting. Beside the obvious interaction with Alys the Ensorceled 17-118R, This Ashe is a Princess that you can bounce if you need the extra CP or the extra cast. You can try it with Nerine 18-093R, and of course Sara 13-093H. Not sure it’s worth the trouble, but this card opens up a tons of possibilities and at worst is a nice on color target for Sara 13-093H, which is always nice to have. |
| Wol | 0 | Beautiful pack filler. |
| Aerith | 2 | I’m not sure I want to slot a card to retrieve a light card from my Break Zone since there’s no Light card strong enough. |
| Gau | 3 | Gau is your emergency combat trick, not the thing you really crave for usually. If you don’t want monster and still want to pump your number of cat VI characters in your deck, I can see it played, but that’s all. The action ability is in fact nice, since you get 1 CP this way. |
| Clavat | 1 | This is another pack filler. At least it cycles one, which Lena loves. |
| Sapphire Weapon | 1 | This Weapon wants you to play all of its friend for it to see value. Also, it has to die, which is never a good sign. In a perfect land, you cast if for free, break it to your own benefit and reap the rewards of living the dream. In reality, you’ve been dead for a while with your multicolored do-nothing deck paved with big useless dudes. |
| White Mage | 1 | For this cycle, Water gets the most boring one. I think this is a heavy powercreep on some unplayed backup from opus 3 |
| Strago | 3 | 3CP EX forward that draws 1 when they enter are good. Cards that brings a card when they die are okayish. S is anecdotic, meaning we went over the card. We canna lay this if FFVI and Water are our things, but there is already Strago 8-119C in town if we want to play our latest Ice/Water goddy. |
| Sanctuary Keeper | 2 | I really fear this monster is underwhelming, even if it can help play Alys the Ensorceled 17-118R too. There’s a few other synergies, mainly characters with action abilities requiring to dull themselves. But it’s so slow you better have some crazy value while being able to dodge all the things that loves to randomly destroy monsters. |
| Sophia | 0 | Let’s be real, we’re definitely not playing this one. |
| Tidus | 1 | Pricey and not great. EX is good though, but this is not opus 1 anymore. |
| Tomberry | 3 | This Tomberry really feel like a tomberry, in the sense that if it touches you, you die. But he will probably not touch you, because I’m not sure we can slot this. The draw is great though, and he’s difficult to block given his ability. I’m not a monster game, but maybe someone will play this with success in mono water or water oriented deck. Having to discard to activate him is a heavy cost, but if it were free, would we play other monsters ? |
| Yuna | 0 | An Atomos 15-106C on a backup. This is pricey and there are far more superior Yunas |
| Joseph | 1 | Joseph lost himself in a strange place, in the wrong color. He can play a friend, which is great, but do we want to play this over the old one ? |
| Larsa | 2 | Searching for FFXII forwards is a strong text. This is not better than Gramis 2-106R but it’s a good card with an exit ability. Also this is not Lightning so it’s playable. Unfortunately, he does not have the mandatory job Prince he needed to shine brightly in the sky. Might be useful in a specific deck, I guess. |
| Leviathan | 3 | The water summon of this cycle is the usual Wyrm, and is basically an upgraded bounce. I don’t really know how useful that might be, but being able to lock Ice/Lightning out of Al-Cid 14-122L for a turn can give enough tempo to get back in the game. The summon is still usable outside of the discount effect |
| Refia | 3 | The final water card of the day is Refia, the legendary. This is quite sad to see another legend Refia wanting to put lots of WoL on the field since the previous one was already doing this. But Refia 10-128Lwas light and had aan awesome power, and this is not an easy task to succed in her shoes. To be fair, this one is kinda straight forward and is there to provide an awesome value to whoever can use the best her reactivation effect. Her removal is not as strong as removing from the game, but this is as close as we can get. Alas, Refia wants ton hit a critical size of WoL in the field and this job is plaggued with lots of forwards with the same name and too few backups. I don’t believe in Refia. Maybe someone will. |
Light/Dark
| Tidus | 4 | It’s always hard to slot a Light card that does not really push your game plan. We used to play generic one like Citra but they clearly became obsolete. Tidus is a really strong removal tied to an EX and a strong body. I have no idea how this card got printed to be honest, even if some forwards are out of reach. When your deck asks for a removal, Tidus might be all you need. He gets the job done solidly. Finally, being able to come back from the dead at just the cost of your break zone is an unexpected touch that I like. But being Light is necessary, but so sad. |
| Madeen | 5 | Madeen comes with a decent deal : play a light forward, maybe sub optimally, and if you draw me with it, then I’m the removal you need. This is also a reason the new Rydia says that the cards she gets can’t share the same element. Yuna 7-127L would be too much with this, and let’s not forget Syldra and Yuna 1-177R. Madeen is really strong, like enough to make you consider playing light forwards and summon recursion. Will we be able to play this card ? Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Whenever a light forward becomes essential to your strategy, Madeen will get out there and play. |
| Arkh | 5 (kinda) | Oh, hello you. Have we met ? I quite like the way you read, but I can’t depart of some strange feeling when I see you. Looks like your friends are not made for you, my love. I know you love your pet, Nidhogg 6-130L, but he looks pale and should be put to sleep. You talked to me about Kadaj 11-140S, but it wasn’t really meshing well. Don’t worry, we’ll find you friends and live happily ever after, I promise. It might take months or years, but we will. |
| Sin | 2 | This is definitely a card for the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. This really looks like a sub optimal Veritas unless you’re on damage 6. Then it’s just unfair. Hopefully you can’t try to cheat him in or just flicker him. I guess if you’re rushijng yourself to 6 with a way to play him at the correct moment, this is a good comeback, but I’m not sure it’s even enough. |
12-097H
Multi Element
| Vaan | 2 | Starting off the worst element combination ever (who would have thought ?) with Vaan. He’s a 4CP EX that can either deal some damage (that’s his fire) or activate all you backups (the wind part then). The card looks quite potent but really achieve nothing. Unless you really want to play euh Storm Fire/Wind, in which case this is a glorified Vata 7-046R. If you’re here for the ping, there might be easier way to get the job done. Card is not bad by any mean, but it’s just lackluster, unless you find him a real strong home. |
| Zidane | 5 | Zidane is probably the strongest of any words ever printed in this TCG. Whenever you slap this on a card, you’re in for something awesome. I’ll be completely honest, I’m not sure I like this one, because even though this is what I want in an element combination I like, this might bring a new level of toxicity. It really reads perfectly well, and it can turn any deck you build into a winning control machine. Every line of text is strong and works well together, and Zidane even has the power to back all this up. You can just target whatever you want according the state of the game (and it’s RFG too) or just use your copies of Zidane to agressively mill your opponent. Play+Attack twice and taht’s +4 on deck, not accounting for the intel you gain by doing this process. I’ll gain some new friends playing this, that’s for sure. |
| Cherukiki | 3 | The reason to play the two little friends we saw earlier is this little one here : put him on the field and play the other two from your deck. You’ll probably gets their effect too if it goes well. They’re not strong, but we’re paying 5CP to put 3 forwards in the field, which is great depending on your gameplan. I know some people will try to spice things up by looking at all the action abilities for XI characters. I’m not sure this is a good idea, but please do, I’d love to see some funky deck doing some crazy stuff with this one. |
| Emperor | 3 | This card is really interesting because it’s a warp that does not require any element to be warped, meaning you can play it everywhere. It gives access to a break zone removal to any color, or to a delayed Cu Sith 10-68C. Its text also means you won’t play it “normally”(you know, with a cast) since it would not trigger its autoabilities. Warp 2 is a pretty long time, especially when you’re explicitely stating you will interfere with a Break Zone : your opponent will be able to pick what it needs from their, or banish from yours. If not answered, this is a nice effect and a nice body. It can also, obviously, be played with more emperors, because we already have a huge package that would require a full length article to explain thoroughly. To be honest I think this one will see play, even as a one-of, in some decks that want to have access to a break zone removal, even if it’s delayed. |
| Prishe | 3 | Even though it’s a Monk, we’re probably better with the previous legendary Prishe 17-074L in a monk deck. But this Prishe has some solid potential. Ice/Earth has usually been a control deck, aiming to maintain a cleared board state while discarding its opponent hand, then playing big effect and winning from resource discrepancy. This Prishe does exactly what we need there, being able to remove a forward while setting up a good entry ability on a great body in the near future. There’s not much to add, you could even pay 3 to put her in the field if you don’t need the removal part, since it’s basically White Tiger l’Cie Nimbus 13-112L there. The main issue there is the 4 cost for the warp, quite a heavy cost all things considered. |
| Larkeicus | 4 | The old doctor got quite the powercreep since the opus 9, since now it directly plays the monster in the field. The only limitations are the quality of your 3CP monsters and the fact Break Zone removals are becoming more common by the day. Even though the old Scale Toad 8-034R is getting old and does not guarantee wins anymore against control decks, if we can find good combinations and utility across our targets, Larkeicus is a formidable threat in the deck. |
| Gilgamesh | 0 | No matter how hard I try, I can’t unread it 🙁 |
| Cloud | 4 | The poster boy himself. Cloud has a cost reduction just like Locke-12-116, but he has way less flexibilty on its effect, just going to break up to two forwards. If you got his full effect, even with little to no cost reduction he will feel fine, but with only one target his doesn’t look so hot. He can also be played for free in Avalanche, and I’ll let it at that. He’s kinda easy to play in some setups, notably Ninja that plays those colors and has a lots of small forwards. Otherwise, he has no home yet but I know some dedicated players will find the best way to use him. Last thing I’ll talk about is the ceiling on this card. Given it’s a wind card, we could see Cloud going in and out of the field a lot, destroying every forward in his path. And this is nuts. |
| Veriaulde | 3 | If we read it a bit more quickly, the card says it’s a 9k dull all on attack with haste on damage 3, for 2CP. I’m fine with this text. Removing 5 cards from the deck is just like not drawing the 5 final cards of your deck, and unless you were playing to mill, they would not have mattered anyway. |
| Paine | 3 | Sometimes all you want is to be able to clear a bit of your opponent breakzone, to slow down Lenna 18-100L, cut off Terra 10-1332Sor just stop Man in Black 17-096H from playing with you. Paine can achieve that in colors that could not, and can still draw too. The card has a bad name but great effects, and if FFX makes a return, she might see play in there. |
| Hilda | 1 | We’re lacking a card there, so the review will probably be inaccurate. But hey, it’s a forward that sit stills while waiting a bit then it can look for its lover, or just its friends even though they’re usually in fire. |
| Yuna | 4 | New Yuna is a Gullwings and this is no detail. When she comes into play, it should mean your opponent loses a forward, which is a nice tempo swing for just 3CP. This is not your standard break either, but the best thing possible besides straight RFG. At damage 5, madness descends to the field and I won’t elaborate more. Do not let your opponent search for a 6 cost character in their deck to play in the field. directly. |
| Unei | 2 | Unei really wants to be a 4CP forward, and the cost to make it so is not so huge, especially if you don’t eat a Break Zone removal pre emptively. When it comes into play, you bounce 2 targets, 1 forward and 1 backup, which is usually a nice tempo swing, even if it’s not the best one. The real threat is the action ability that can bring 2CP a turn, and not just random CP but the summon you need. If you’re playing a deck that needs to get back summons. I’ll be honest, I find this one to be really lackluster. If it had Brave, I guess there could be case for it even if it’s usually not the Earth/Water gameplay, but I don’t know what to do with this one. You can’t even cheat since it’s only one time per turn. |
| Grenat | 5 | Maybe this one is the real legendary. The effect are quite simple, but being able to bring one summon from the break zone in the element combination is always appreciated, but getting abck 2 summons ? This is something else. Grenat also has a nice body (no pun intented there) with 8k, far more than the 5k we’re used to for this effect. Finally, there’s a loop with this one, quite an easy one to find and Shikadi is already working on it, so… |
| Meia | 3 | Meia has a lots of text, but it’s actually quite simple : she’s there to support your tribal MOBIUS, whaterver it looks like. Being a 9k is never a bad thing, even if the 5-cost kinda hurt in a land where you see Fina 16-058R and Leviathan 18-096C being played. The +1K and brave is an added bonus that may or may not be useful, but the reveal 5 -> add 2 MOBIUS cards is pretty strong, as long as you can find good targets. As always, it just comes to how good the cards around are. There are a lot of targets, but Wol 16-044L and Sophie 16-076R are usually your most sought after. Possibilities are endless since you could bring back the “play big MOBIUS card” deck. Not going to go to deep in there, but someone will be able to deckbuild something nice with Meia. the MOBIUS category has lots of different cards since it’s usually spread out to lots of different cards that appeared in the game. |
| Zack | 2 | Card is quite weak, I can see the appeal but I don’t want to slot this. If warped, it’s better but nothing game breaking, and the element combination needs more than this to work. |
| Fal’cie Anima | 1 | Being tied to the Anima and not to “Card name Anima” makes this pretty bad, not gonna lie. There’s no protection to keep it in the field, so this is an expensive lightnind that removes card from your deck… There are some card to try this, but I do not believe in this card at all. |
| Y’Shtola | 3 | Tired of Wind and Earth, my dear Shtola is expending her horizons with Lightning, now with a touch of Fire. The whole effect is nice, meaning you’ll deal damage to your opponent and breaking a forward, but she really looks like she wants to get EX to get more value out of it…. But Lightning/Fire EX Burst are pretty grim. I tried and did not crack the decklist, but I hope there is an answer, lying somewhere. |
| Mog (VI) | 2 | Mog can cost 0, 2, 3 or 4, but never one, given how cost reductions are handled for multi elements. The attack trigger is really bad unless you really ahve something to use it for, but this is a 4CP 9k First Strike, which is always nice when attacking and fighting, if we ever do that. The damage 3 is probably the only relevant text here, but card might be okay if we really play the dedicated list. It can play Cloud of Darkness 14-130H, and, oh, well. |
| Shadow Lord | 1 | I thought card was bad, but it’s in fact a 2CP 9K, right ? Who wouldn’t want to play this in 2018 ? This is busted. There are some use case, mainly playing Cloud of Darkness 14-130H for free, but I’m not sold. |
| Relm | 5 | Relm has a relly high ceiling and it’s easy to see why. Did you ever lose to mono water playing 2 Syldra 12-097Hin a row? Well now it’s worse, since the second one is free. There are tons of combinations, mainly with summons like the newest Shiva, but also Terra 15-037L for instance. When she’s in the field, she does nothing, so you can just try to say attack phase and let her work or die. Finally, if your opponent was preparing their breakzone with some monsters, you could just steal the game. Which is nice. |
| Warrior of Light | 2 | The famous quadcolor boy. I don’t thing it will work, but hey, it’s a great color fix. 5K on attack is not enough, but maybe the statline+keywords will be enough. If you can manage your backline to cast it correctly, then you feel like you’re playing wind, but the rest of your deck is not. Too bad. |
Starter
| Vanille | 4 | We start our stater cards with Vanille, who makes her first step in Fire. This is a 3CP EX +1 forward, which means as long as you have a correct target in your deck, the card is exactly what you need. The targets are in the fire and lightning part though, which means if you want to do fire+ice, you might lack targets beside Lightning. FFXIII looks like a deck that wants to reach a critical mass of fowards on the field to get the most of Lightning’s effect, and Vanille is there for this. |
| Bahamut | 2 | So-so summon tied to the category, there’s one good way to play this, and this is when you’re bashing your opponent with forwards and you want to add more pressure by killing their forwards. |
| Fang | 3 | Good old Fang, still trying to make us play Bahamut. This time though, she may be able to do so since the target and the effect is nice. This is a 2 card combo that can just kill your opponent quite quickly, without investing too many resources. |
| Snow | 2 | Snow has this tendency to act like a big boy, but all he wants is to be with his pals. Not sure this is what we want, since the Ice side is quite weak for the FFXIII themed deck. |
| Serah | 1 | Too many Serahs, so many line of text and in fact, not that much is accomplished by this one. |
| Mog (XIII-2) | 1 | If we’re in a meta where we target cards to get rid of them, and we have a Serah we want to protect on the field, I could see this played. Otherwise… |
| Cid Raines | 3 | At first I thought Cid Raines was not really playable, but after carefukky reading it, he looks like a generic forward we can slam to gain tempo on the board, especially if behind in damage.At damage 5, the card is nuts, and maybe there’s something to do with this. But not sure it’s enough before damage 3… so, Average I guess ? |
| Noel | 2 | Noël looks quite weak, but will help deal damage. With the new Fang, if you ever cast Bahamut, you’re sure to deal your damages. It’s basically a good way to get your damage in, and at worst it’s another 2CP forward, that the deck lacks to be able to attack as often as possible. |
| Hope | 2 | Basically another search effect tied to a forward, this is just worse than Vanille, but still a FFXIII forward… |
| Lightning | 5 | The queen that makes the whole deck functions, everything revolves around getting her effects. I’m not getting into the details here, card is a reason you pile 47 other cards together for her. |
At the end of the day, i quite like this opus. Not a huge powercreep, but lots of new design space used there.
As always, please tell me in the comments or through social media anything that comes to your mind when you read all this, and sorry for the potato english. Help me improve there too !
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