Fire

Auron

3.5/5: Back attack backups are quite rare and this is effectively summon speed protection that generates you CP later on (plus gets you to 5 for Mont). I’m concerned that you ramp so fast and don’t have efficient self breaking backups that this card ends up as dead in hand, but it seems like a simple enough 1x in decks that can afford to play fire.

Red Mage

3/5: This is the first in the cycle of standard unit backups that have “1, tap, discard element card, put this into the break zone” on top of another ability. The 8k number is quite rare on backups with action abilities, and on top of that its first action ability covers most forwards in the meta. This may not see a ton of play, but I don’t think you would be too unhappy to see it.

Ayame

2/5: I have a hard time evaluating this card because I can’t tell whether Samurais are actually going to be any good this set. They haven’t seen much play in a while, and this is the first Samurai synergy card to be printed since Opus 17. If they ever get good, this could be a 4, until then, this is likely staying down at 2, with no reliable way to pump it to 9k without playing a critical mass of Samurais.

Angeal

4/5: The biggest thing holding this card back is how few unique named SOLDIERs there are. It seems like the desired synergies are all with cards named Zack from either Opus 10, Opus 20, or the 2024 Anniversary Box. There’s certainly room to explore with each of them in their own niche, but it is unfortunate that none of the other job SOLDIER forwards have relevant and consistent damage based effects besides Zack. Also very cool that it plays Opus 11 Starter Cloud from the deck, and produces Fire to play Zack from the Limit Break deck if you need to get the chain going.

Ignacio

1.5/5 – It’s like a bigger and more expensive Opus 18 Tidus but it loses haste. That card hasn’t seen much play in a while, maybe you would throw this in as a 1x but I’d be surprised to see it entered into a tournament at all.

Garland

4/5 – We’ve seen a ton of Job Knight support in this set, which has largely always had a bit of something but never enough to be a fully fleshed out deck in the meta. Most Garlands of Yore were not used much in Knight builds besides a card with the job; this likely takes the place of whichever one you were running and is good recursion in a deck and element that doesn’t really have it otherwise. The EX is just a cherry on top. Knights had a way to produce a wide board but not great ways to actually remove forwards – this helps out a ton in that regard, and pairs very well with Curilla (who we’ll get to later). Is this what pushes knights over the edge? Maybe not, but it is certainly a net positive to the deck which got a lot of support this set!

Carla

1/5 – Bruh

Clavat

4/5 – Similar to Opus 18, we got a cycle of 1cp standard unit backups that all have the same text. In this case you look at the top card and, if you want to, put them at the bottom of your deck. For mono fire, which seems heavily skewed in analysis by Mont, you will probably play some number of this and/or the Opus 18 one just to ramp as fast as you can, and on top of that you can potentially dig yourself 1 card deeper if you don’t need what was on the top of your deck (or keep an EX there, in some scenarios).

Jecht

5/5 – I really can’t see anything truly wrong with this card. It’s a 0cp 9k that deals 9k. At its intended floor, as long as you’re playing your red cards, it’s a 0cp Summon that deals 9k damage, could be more if you have Djinn or Lehftia. This is truly just a simple, good card, no frills about it.

Selphie

2.5/5 – I’m struggling with Selphie mainly because I think the Category VIII package is extremely forward dependent and has little to no useful backups at this point besides Cid Kramer. Category VIII tends to get plagued with name clash and Opus 6 Selphie is an unfortunate casualty. It is cool that you can play it off the Ice Squall in this set, so you don’t actually need to play any fire cards to make this work, but it’s not clear who we’re supposed to give haste to anyway. Seifer already gets it from Raijin. Are we supposed to give haste to Opus 18 Squall? If we do, then we need to play Fire cards again, or we need Cid Kramer, who we can’t search. I would love for someone to crack this card wide open, I’m just not seeing it at the moment.

Warrior

1/5 – Bruuh

Foulander

4/5 – I’m going to briefly cover this cycle of monsters that are mandatory forwards on our turn only first. The positive aspect of these is not needing to pay any cost to make it a forward (or it dying at end of turn like Blue Wyrm or Zombie), but on the flip side you neither have it on defense nor can you control timing, which makes it susceptible to more removal or EX if you’re trying to push damage through. I think they present a nice optionality in adding monsters that become forwards to decks that want them, but we will dive into them individually.

This card reads extremely well. a 1cp attacker that can deal 3k is seemingly innocuous, but once you start pairing with other pings or buffs (its damage 3 ability, Lehftia, Djinn) the numbers start to add up and it can become a fairly consistent threat. Also keep in mind that at 1cp it’s likely going to be tricky to deal with this in an efficient manner. I’m actually not sure why this is multiplay, since you can party attack for multiple pings. Randomly neat that it’s a Cat 7 Forward for Opus 10 Zack/Angeal.

Machina

3/5 – A 1cp backup with actual text is quite attractive, and is really where the rating comes from, but it’s not lost on me that it opens up avenues to play Fire Lightning with a small cadet package. I’ll let someone who’s a better cadet player than me figure this one out, but it seems automatically fine in Mono Fire and otherwise a nice little ramp.

Belias, the Gigas

3/5 – Belias cards tend to always be combat tricks but this has some removal tacked onto it. At the 7k mark I don’t think you would love to play this over Opus 10 Ifrit, but this does draw you a card if you play it off backups. Maybe just the existence of the card means that going into combat with 3 backups up makes your opponent scared to block your smaller forwards, which could increase its value.

Meeth

5/5 – Incredible value. You can get rid of your backup that already produced its value to draw 2, clearing space to play more backups that produce more value as well. I would be shocked to see decks that want to build backups not include some number of this. You can also efficiently play it off 2 backups so that you’re not fully wasting the backup that you throw away either.

Minwu (FFBE)

4/5 – This card is very confusing to evaluate but I believe its potential is very high. The important thing to note here is that you can choose cards, not just forwards, so cards like Amaterasu come to mind immediately as well as cards that have discounts. From a Mono Fire lens, you get to do things like play Jecht or Rain from the break zone, play an Amat, Meeth your backup to draw 2, Culinarian for free, and the list goes on. It’s probably much worse to intentionally dump your hand to do it, but if you can seal a turn or make a very efficient play by dumping cards and then playing another from break, you might want that optionality. The action ability is a sweetener, although generally worse than Opus 21 Cyan’s 5 Crystal ability it is still nice to have.

Lilyth

3/5 – A unique named knight is great to have, category FFBE that generates a crystal has obvious synergies with Glaciela, however there’s also some other lighter crystal synergies in knights with either the Opus 16 Fire or Opus 20 Lightning Ramza (probably more of the former). 7k is an OK number for the S ability but you probably won’t use it often. It may not tip the scales for knights but it seems playable in a couple different cores (including cheap crystal generation for Cyan).

Luartha

4/5 – Probably meant to pair directly with Lilyth (and maybe Lehftia), but it’s interesting that fire keeps getting these incredibly cheap forwards that do meaningful damage. A 1cp that swings for 5k is essentially the same as a Damage 3 Foulander, and just as difficult to deal with efficiently. If you can reliably generate crystals this becomes incredibly efficient at Damage 3 to deal 5k twice.

Ice

Ice Bomb

4/5 – As long as Ice finds ways to dull forwards (if they can’t we have a real problem) this card should be a great cheap way to push in for damage. Before damage 3 it is a little harder to manage, but the fact that it dulls and freezes on attack at damage 3 makes it a force to deal with.

Vallaide

4/5 – There are some cute pairings here, notably with anything in Fire that can ping for cheap or in Wind with Cactuar. Costing 1 is not a huge issue if it means paying 1 breaks a forward, or at least forces them to respond to it. I think the bigger threat here is if you can reliably find pings, then he essentially must be removed on sight which, for a 2cp forward, can be difficult to do efficiently. His potential seems extremely high – where he goes is a mystery to me – but I will definitely look out for builds that include him.

Emina

5/5 – I honestly can’t believe they printed this card. It is surprising this wasn’t limited to backups as well. Emina can help find Armourer if you want to ramp, it can find Shinryu Celestia in this set which wants you to have 5 backups, it can find Byblos or Flan, Lasswell, the Class Ninth Moogle if you need wind, the list goes on. It’s just a fantastic card that will find a spot in probably any ice deck.

Quistis

3/5 – While I wasn’t high on Selphie, Quistis on the other hand seems to fit the gameplan a bit more with the new 8 cards coming out. While there is an unfortunate name clash with the backup, getting to 3 Cat 8 Forwards is not terribly difficult especially with the Fujin and Raijin that have come out in this set. It dulls and freezes at least 3 characters and then is a somewhat weak body, but hopefully that’s enough if that payoff is incidental rather than the gameplan.

Bard

4/5 – The more I read this card the more cases I could see this card being used. There are a ton of 2 drops that are worth dulling (such as vs 13, or vs a Fire/Wind Zidane), and the bottom action ability is playable at the same speed as Ice/Lightning Sephiroth which can make a big difference both in actual use as well as the threat of it being used.

Kurasame

???/5 – I honestly don’t know how to rate this card. The ceiling is massively high, but its floor is incredibly low. More likely than not, the discard effect will probably not rip more than 2 cards out, but the dull/freeze could be meaningful. My biggest issue is that it doesn’t seem clear how to keep reaping value from this without Unei, and Unei is both not easily searchable and incredibly expensive, in addition to Kurasame costing 7. Even if you could discard their entire hand to 0, it is highly unlikely you would have enough CP left to follow up with your discard payoff like Physalis. I’m not sure what deck will make the best use of this, but I think it will see play – whether it’s successful will need to be discovered.

Cloud of Darkness

1/5 – Bruuuh

Seymour

1/5 – Bruuuuh

Shiva

4/5 – This kind of effect on a summon has never been printed before, so at a minimum it has huge implications on a wide variety of matchups. Its impact will be dependent on each game and the relevant circumstances, but I expect to see this slotted into decks that can play it.

Cissnei

2/5 – Similar to Ayame, if the job ever gets good this will probably be great, but for now the Turks are a little tough to work with. Maybe if you resolve the 4 Turks board state with the Starter Lightning Turks, you have a theoretical OTK, but getting there is somewhat difficult and none of those cards have protection, so I don’t expect this to do a lot.

Jihl Nabaat

1.5/5 – In Ice/Lightning there’s already a ton of backups that search backups (even on EX). The only other case this would work for is to find Yaag in Ice/Water and I’m not sure this is still even worth it there. I would be shocked to see this sleeved up outside of Title.

Shinryu Celestia

4/5 – Helps ice weenies push over and rewards you for building backups, and is searchable off Emina. Can’t see this not being at least 1x’d in mono ice in conjunction with Opus 14 Kefka.

Squall

3/5 – While this card has very high potential, ultimately we are left wondering how to navigate all the name clash that exists in Cat 8. Squall is the most contested name in the category and cheating out forwards is not anything to scoff at, the biggest problem is figuring out how to reliably get to the character threshold without meaningful Cat 8 backups (especially since none of them are searchable). It’ll see play in at least some Cat 8 decks but it’s hard to tell whether it’ll really prove valuable without further support.

Sephiroth

4/5 – It’s quite boring but reads very well. The important part is that the action ability is usable at summon speed while not actually being a summon nor having “back attack” akin to the Ice/Lightning Sephiroth, which makes interacting with the action ability extremely difficult. I would be surprised not to see it in Ice/X decks unless there’s meaningful name clash with a different strategy.

Time Mage

2/5 – The first ability is meh, but there’s a surprisingly higher number of standard unit backups in Ice that could make playing this an option if you’re going for some type of aggro ice weenies strategy, and dull/freezing more characters is something Lasswell keeps searching for. Unfortunately it may not get played more than Red Mage which can dull freeze a character without a condition and can attempt to reap further value, but it is nice to have the option.

Medusa

3/5 – This is a very weird card, and it seems highly potent until you realize just how many cards are only truly played for their action or auto abilities. The best part about this card is the fact that the counter is what provides the text to the forwards, so even if Medusa dies the petrification text will stay on that forward. You might be happy whenever you see it, but it is probably not a gameplan on its own and trying to repeat its effects could be a trap.

Yuke

4/5 – In conjunction with what appears to be a push to get 5 backups down ASAP in Mono, this card is nice to see and seeing that one extra card could help dig you deeper toward what you’re looking for. Would expect to see it in Mono Ice decks at a minimum or contested with Black Mage for a similar job.

Rinoa

2/5 – Its action ability is quite potent but, similar to Squall, this card has the 2nd worst name in the category especially with the Opus 13 Rinoa fitting so well into Cat 8 strategies as a free forward that recurs a card and threatens late-game kill turns at Damage 5. It is possible it will still see play in some Cat 8 decks but only further testing of the card will tell us.

Wind

Alexander

4/5 – It’s unclear exactly what synergies we’re supposed to use this card with but its potential is huge and quite cheap if you can play it off backups. Canceling damage is one thing, but actually having a summon reroute damage to kill an opposing forward has a fairly high ceiling, where to slot this is the biggest mystery. Might be worth exploring with some Earth fight effects that tend to be popular.

Wol

4/5 – Only because of its unique name and job combined, this card will find a place in Tribal Warrior of Light decks and other Job WoL variants for sure as another backup for Refia. It’s pretty boring to think about but it definitely does the job it’s designed for.

Epiornis

1/5 – Damage 3 unblockable is kind of cool, but ultimately this is probably never going anywhere.

Enkidu

3/5 – I get that they want you to play this with Gilgamesh to reactivate 3 and then use the 3CP to use Gilgamesh’s effect, but then it doesn’t do anything after that. It gets bonus points for being a job Warrior of cost 3 so maybe Taivas might want to do something with this – what exactly that is is pretty unclear, but at least it has some range so it might see play.

Kain

2/5 – It’s probably fine in Dragoons if you needed unique Wind cards but Kain is so heavily contested as a name. Worth noting that it is essentially 1cp on the first turn it attacks and then positive after that, so if there’s some way to repeat its value then this could change, but I don’t see many competitive decks that want this sleeved up over anything else.

Ranger

1/5 – Bruuuuuh

Clavat

3/5 – It’s unfortunate that a lot of wind cards are measured against the question “How well does this go in Mono Wind?”, but this has some merit in even that deck as well as, like with the others in this cycle, being a cheap way to ramp in decks that want it. Maybe interesting to see if your top card is something worth Rosa 5-ing off of it and is a cheap storm count, but it probably won’t do too much outside of being a cheap backup with a decent ETB.

Cid [FFBE]

2/5 – The card tells you how to play it: keep activating 2 as much as possible so that it’s worth paying 3 to revive him when he breaks. The question is, is that worth it? I’m not really convinced that it is. The second mode is also rough considering your opponent can simply respond with their desired summon in response to you attempting to turn off summons. Of course it prevents summon based combat tricks then, but those are quite few and far between.

Sosha

2/5 – The only reason this isn’t a 1 is because it has a relevant job and is a unique name. Otherwise the text on this card is awful.

Chelinka

2/5 – It clearly supports cards named Yuri very well, and the Limit Break Yuri directly plays this card, however it seems this is intended to support Opus 18 Yuri. Chelinka is not a hugely contested card name, but it’s hard to see just how much support it offers in a competitive environment at this stage. Looks awesome in Title though.

Dorgann

2.5/5 – I don’t know why I don’t love this card. It has quite versatile modes, but I don’t love that you’re being asked to Storm 3 for only that. It may be slotted in generically as a 4cp RFG 2 cards, draw 1 card since that is a fairly neutral play but even with that in mind, the impact is not huge. I hope I’m wrong because the art is great, but I don’t know where we can reliably use this card.

Nanaa Mihgo

1/5 – I’m sure someone will use this card to steal something impactful and tell me I’m wrong on this, but ultimately it’s all random. Some decks don’t run any / any generically good 2cp forwards, same with summons (regardless of cost) as most of those end up being situational. Maybe if they floated this would be a different story, but having the right target at the exact right time that you have this in hand doesn’t seem great. At least Zidane steals the cards which a) helps them deck out faster, and b) you can cast them at any time at a minimum if they were even playable in that game in the first place.

Bartz

5/5 – Tribal Warrior of Lights were already quite good, this card gives a nice bump in consistency by being able to search out whatever pieces you’re missing and has a name that wasn’t largely played in the deck before. The theme with these 5s is they’re plainly good without having too many frills and that’s just what Bartz is.

Geomancer

1/5 – Opus 3 ranger got a little more expensive, a little stronger, and can maybe reactivate backups…cool?

Hope

2/5 – If wind cards are ever playable in FF13 decks, this card will be incredible, until then this is probably going to continue standing in the shadow of the Lightning S Hope (as is the Wind L Noel which probably stands in the shadow of the Lightning S Noel). Has potential somewhere down the line though. Incredible in Title.

Helena Leonis

4/5 – In any decks that play wind cards and generate crystals, this card seems incredible. The variety of decks that meet those criteria can be quite wide. Digging 2 and discounting a card’s cost by 2 (the “can’t become 0” is very interestingly not on this card) seems like one of the most useful uses of a crystal outside of Glaciela and Robel Akbel.

Lilisette

2/5 – Maybe once in 20 games this card will actually kill a board off EX and it’ll feel great, unfortunately its inconsistency means it may not do a whole lot otherwise. Also sad as not real dancer support.

Reddas

3/5 – It’s neat that he can become free, and blanket summon protection is nice. It’s hard to tell what we’re supposed to do with Sky Pirates exactly, and it’s not clear that it’s a standout deck, but it will be a welcome addition to that deck regardless.

Earth

Vossler

4/5 – I may be overrating this card, but anything that is an EX Search for a very relevant job (especially backups) and has repeatable cost reduction on itself (unfortunately tied to its attack, but still) reads very well. King targets are widely varied, and after it has attacked once it has paid for itself, so I expect to see this to see play.

Exdeath

2/5 – Might see 1x play somewhere but this kind of effect is a bit niche especially in Earth where there aren’t easy ways to force the dull – the EX gives it a bump though.

Carbuncle

2.5/5 – Making a target unbreakable and untargetable, this could see some level of play as a protection spell but it likely won’t have outsized impact over other protection summon that exists.

Qator Bashtar

4/5 – A quick search of targets for this card that don’t have ETBs reveals a surprisingly wide number of valid targets – some clear options that come to mind are the L Porom and Palom as well as Leo (which is in Earth already). It’s hard to say what decks this will go in exactly, but its text clearly reads well. Random backup sacking on an action ability is quite neat as an option regardless of how often it’ll be used.

Gabranth

4/5 – I think if you’re playing earth cards and not playing aggro, you’d be happy to sleeve a couple of these in your deck. Being at damage 1 is quite innocuous except that this makes Gabranth a free backup. Boring but good card.

Ghido

3/5 – Building around this card seems incredibly fun but it’s not clear what ultimate advantage it’s supposed to give you after you’ve dedicated a ton of card slots to make this absolute unit work. If abusing his text becomes simplified, I expect to see people draw at least 6 extra cards off him, but until that’s proven I don’t see how he is more than a trap yet. Probably the most fun card to build with though and his ceiling is incredibly high.

Gilgamesh

5/5 – Bypassing clean breaks is something many forwards wish they could do – and the reward for being at 5 is definitely worth it. Control decks that want something to do with their CP will probably be very happy playing this guy, and if he does happen to break, he is in the recursion element so he’ll likely find his way back to the board. 3cp for the ability sounds like a lot, but having the option to delete monsters repeatedly and demand an answer before he starts to destroy everything is quite good for a 3cp 9k who has some protection.

Glaive

2/5 – Except for his name and job this card is dog. The 1k brave is nice I guess but having to go to break just to recur 1 card, on a 5cp forward, is asking a lot. I get that you’re supposed to try to free play him off Nacht, but he doesn’t even do anything when he does enter, he needs to die to reap any card value. I really want to be excited for the Warriors of Darkness that came out this set but this guy is not it.

Sandworm

1/5 – Bruuuuuuh

G Assassin

1/5 – It’s not that awful but it’s just not good

Sieghard

4/5 – If you read this as a 7cp Forward that revives a 6cp Forward, it is quite good isn’t it? It’s easy to say “why pay 7 for it over 11cp Mont who can usually get to 6cp purely off backups in mono?” And in mono earth that would be a fair question, but it’s really cool that this works for any element. It may not be the most impactful thing in the world but if you plan to be a 5 backup deck, then it seems to be a quite reasonable option. Didn’t need the action ability but it’s nice to have.

Summoner

2/5 – I love that you can play Mist Dragon from your break zone on your opponent’s turn. Other than that this probably sucks.

Nacht

3/5 – I want to love this card. I really do. Imagine getting Amat’d after you play it though? I wish there were better WoD backups to play off this mega expensive dude. I am hard pressed to see it make a splash in a tournament setting once the meta starts to work its way through the early aggro. It clearly has standout potential for playing characters, and if we ever get WoD names that aren’t the same 4 from FFL, maybe this will see a massive upgrade – until then, this is probably one of those “strong in a casual setting” cards.

Prishe

2/5 – Probably just worse than Dorando? I guess it recurs monsters which is neat.

Baelo

3.5/5 – Love that it’s a unique named Knight as a backup and is essentially 1cp. With Ramza also coming up we might be seeing a small earth package in Knights, but it’s also just playable in any Earth/X or Mono Earth deck as a soft 1cp backup.

Ramza

2/5 – I would rate this card much higher if its name were “Azmar” or something. One of the worst name clashes with Knight job, but it is incredible that it’s playable for free off one attack. If Knights becomes a competitive deck this set, this card might make it in there, but it will take a lot of convincing to not put in the Warp Ramza, or either of the crystal ones.

Lich

2/5 – Ehhhhhhh. It’s strong in Mono but do you really need this? Maybe it’ll see play somewhere but seems strictly less impactful than the SOPPFO one.

Lilty

4/5 – Great 1cp backup as the others are in a deck that probably wants 5 backups ASAP.

Lightning

Ultimecia

4/5 – The thing that gets me about this card is that you can play it without having to commit to a self mill plan and it seems like it would still be impactful. 15 cards in BZ is not terribly hard to hit as you’re simply playing your game out, but if you commit to self mill you can get there a lot quicker than it seems. Additionally it’s playable off Griever and the S ability not requiring a dull or any other cost makes it extremely clean removal. Perhaps one of the best things about this card is that you get to choose – most other steal effects allow your opponent to select what they give up. The thing holding Ultimecia back the most is that Mist Dragon is just generically strong and people may play them preemptively and that, because the ETB chooses, it could be protected against with a number of effects. It clearly reads well and will likely make an impact in a deck regardless of whether it’s built around or not.

Alba

4/5 – It’s obviously meant to be played off Nacht, and its effect is probably the strongest. The EX is a nice cherry on top. The number 3 is also quite interesting as an option in Wol 7 if the deck can afford to move some slots around.

Edea

4/5 – The fact that it enables all the other self mill Cat 8 effects is already quite good – layering on that it enables itself is what makes this stand out. As mentioned with Ultimecia, getting to 10 cards is not actually that difficult if you’re committing to it, but even if you’re not this is really just a few turns of play and suddenly you can 8k things every turn. Generally shrinking has always been better than dealing damage, so I expect this to see play in self mill decks and stand out there.

Odin

4/5 – Sorry for the 4th 4/5, but man this card is just plainly good. Drawing a card back is fantastic in an element that doesn’t have the best card draw and being able to target monsters is just a nice addition. There are some relatively “sticky” monsters of those higher costs that tend to just stay there until they become a forward like Phoinix, Hippokampos, and Ahriman among others, so having the mere option to deal with them on your terms makes this a card worth including in lightning decks.

Garuda (III)

2/5 – No more 4s then. It’s kind of like a one-sided Exodus, but it’s also not since 8k may not actually break all the forwards you would like to get rid of. Would you really take something else out of your deck to put this in, then pay 5 to blow up maybe 2 forwards? Assuming they had no other buffs too? Probably not seeing much play if any.

Sice

4/5 – 1cp kill a dude is just amazing when the text counts characters and not forwards. It’s probably not “the thing Cadets needed” but if there are small Cadet packages I expect this to be a standout in those decks.

Seifer

3.5/5 – My biggest problem with this card is the fact Opus 18 Seifer is so good. New Fujin and Raijin grant the text to cards named Seifer so it doesn’t need to be the same self mill one, but this one does add +2 to our mill which we’re desperately looking for. I expect this to be tested heavily as Cat 8 has gotten a ton of new toys, ultimately I don’t know if “break a forward” was anything this deck needed given how strong Edea and Ultimecia are (and how big the Disciplinary Committee becomes when they’re online).

Selkie

3/5 – Lightning tends to like backups that search or playing tech options, so I’m not entirely sure this will see wide play there, but at a minimum it helps ramp if desired and the scry could be incidentally useful for the Cat 8 mill stuff.

Diana

1.5/5 – Only because it can be played for free, it’s not a 1. The backup is probably just better as it is also an EX and can search Firion which probably does the job this forward wants to do better anyway.

Drace

5/5 – I’m a sucker for very broad card design like this and 2 or less is an extremely wide net to cast. If a deck can play this and has 2cp forwards it probably will.

Ninja

3.5/5 – In Ninja decks the backup line is inherently mostly Standard Units, so this card is effectively a 1cp 8k with haste. That’s nothing to scoff at considering how flash in the pan Ninjas can be and kill you out of nowhere. It’s also in approximately the right color to be playable in that deck rather than praying Edge gets you there.

Fujin & Raijin

4/5 – I’m rating these cards together because they’re both basically the same. Raijin is probably slightly better for giving haste but if you’re playing one of these then you’re playing both at 3x. The card plays itself – you just want to mill as much as possible and try to play them for free from your break zone and then run your opponent over with all your potent self mill effects. They’re also mostly strict upgrades to the older versions of themselves so it’s mostly a no brainer if you have any desire to self mill.

Moth Slasher

2/5 – The best part about this card is that it plays itself upon dying and even at its base 7k could run into combat and be a bit scary to deal with, but it’s hard to see where we want this to go. The multiplay becomes kind of irrelevant because if you put 2 out, the 2nd one that breaks will not even have a target. So you play 3 and you just have to hope you only see 1 and that it dies on your terms? Probably “something something Cloud Pod” since it’s a Cat 7 forward but that’s not a deck I understand well enough to consider its implications in.

Yaag Rosch

2.5/5 – This might be a tech option if choosing backups becomes meaningful in the meta such as if you’re trying to avoid Kurasame D/Fing your entire backup line, but generally choosing backups doesn’t happen all that often outside of Ice. Other than that it might be blank in a lot of matchups.

Rygdea

3/5 – This is like if Kuja and Cid of Clan Gully got fused and lost EX in the process. Optionality is always nice so I would expect it to see at least some level of play.

Dragoon

1.5/5 – This is not the card Dragoons needed but it gets a +0.5 for having a maybe relevant action ability.

Lulu

2.5/5 – I don’t see this card making a huge splash, as the 7k threshold was passed a long time ago. The action ability is also strictly worse than Braska, so I’m not entirely sure what the deckbuilding requirement is to make this card busted. It is cheap though so if you just really need to 7k something this could be fine, I don’t generally expect it to do a whole lot though.

Water

Blue Mage

1.5/5 – I want to know which deck really wants to play this and use its effect, but I’m currently hard pressed to see it given the cost essentially just pays for the monster while costing you a backup. The +0.5 is really just because it doesn’t restrict it to your own turn, so maybe that’s cool.

Agrias

2/5 – It’s semi-playable for its effect and 2 knights (i.e. itself + 1) is a fairly low threshold, but it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t just play Sahagin in a non-knights deck. In Knights there are typically other far better cards named Agrias so it’s not clear why we would play this. It might see some experimentation at a minimum.

Anima (X)

4/5 – This is the first water summon that can unconditionally delete a forward (without the weird delay that Opus 17 Cuchulainn has). The draw 1 for your opponent may read like a big drawback but I tend to think mono water decks actually want their opponent to not be so far ahead on deck count that deckout becomes a relevant lose-con. Also highly relevant that it only costs 2 with Yuna.

Vaan

2/5 – In only a Vikings deck this card is extremely cool, as that deck didn’t have a ton of unique and cheap removal (unless you were running a Viking focused Mono Water and had Ashe and Lenna/Levi) so this at least opens some avenues to move some of the deckbuilding costs around. I really hope that deck becomes meta competitive but, as an option in only that deck this probably won’t see the light of day until that deck breaks out.

Warrior of Light

2/5 – This whole Standard Unit support thing seems to build up to this card in this set, but the text is not really all that great even in comparison to older cards named Warrior of Light that support Standard Units (see Opus 1 Water, Opus 6 Earth, Opus 8 Wind, Opus 10 Earth). Also one of the hottest names in the market, unless you build around this guy you might have a hard time justifying sleeving this up, and even if you do build around it you might be putting in a ton of chaff just to pull off his measly 2k buff.

Clavat

4/5 – Sweet in water decks that want to ramp, nothing too fancy.

Curilla

4/5 – I have a very hard time evaluating this card because the quality of Knights has not gotten so out of hand good, but there may be something to be said about just pooping out a huge board and asking your opponent to deal with it. Some of the key targets here are Beatrix, ice Lasswell, the new Garland, and others (also very cool that it plays Backups). Its text is clearly good but it will be gated by how good other Knight cards are more likely than not. It’s also the right number to be played off Warp Ramza.

Siren (V)

2.5/5 – Card seems fine in control decks where you are playing a much lower quantity of forwards but its low power make this a bit of a tough sell. You might throw these in just on the off chance you find some protection but I don’t personally like to gamble in these kinds of decks.

Severo

2.5/5 – The bounce and gain a crystal is clearly potent but I hate when a backup asks you to interact with a forward in order to get value because sometimes there just isn’t one, and that backup in hand could have been any other backup that searches or draws/recurs a card. The action ability is incredibly expensive and I wonder why they felt the need to gate it behind 5cp and self-crack when you already paid 3 for it, but maybe you could justify 1 as an option that you’d be otherwise happy to throw away.

Chime

4.5/5 – I want to give this card a 5 so badly but there’s something wrong with it I can’t quite put my finger on. It obviously asks you to be set up in order to start getting value out of it. Once you’ve drawn 2 cards it’s equal to a 3cp that draws you a card and at 3 this card is CP positive. Its ceiling is extremely high and I’m convinced some control deck will manage to draw like 6 cards off this due to intentional backup fixing – someone prove me right please!

Paladin

2/5 – I think this card could very well see play somewhere if it really needs to abuse some kind of 2cp ETB, given the deckbuilding cost for Water to have standard unit backups is fairly low as Water backups are comprised of a ton of Standard Units. It probably won’t do much of anything though.

Piranha

3/5 – I was very low on this card but I’m warming up to it the more I think about it. Assume the ETB and the Exit ability were both gone, treating it as a unique named forward of a different cost that has protection on your opponent’s turn could mean that you have extra chip damage power which Water sometimes struggles with knowing the Blue Wyrms will die at the end of turn. Also maybe randomly relevant that it’s Cat X for Yuna or Rikku things.

Faris

3/5 – I just want someone to animate a blue wyrm, go in for damage, and then play this card. I don’t love that your opponent selects but if you think of cards like Luzaf which do something similar (at summon speed, however) this can perform a similar job but at least Luzaf gives you the forward back – surely that’s worth more than this? The only reason this is a 3 and not a 2 is it has the right job for Refia as a backup if there were ever a Refia deck that wasn’t 4 Color.

Folka

3.5/5 – At baseline, the RFG ability can help stave off aggro in a pinch and this kind of effect has never really existed, so it at least presents some cool optionality. At Damage 3 it gains some really sticky text that, while it doesn’t make it any stronger of an attacker or blocker, keeps its action ability live for longer and maybe that’s all you really need her for. Even if you had the ability to blank her or clean break her, she could still use her action ability on the stack. She has strong potential for sure and will be a cool tech option against aggro decks where desired.

Miwa

4/5 – I’m a lot higher on this card just for its implication rather than its inclusion in decks. Sheol used to do the same thing and playing around just the existence of Sheol was always a toughie, but that required the Illua to at least be on the field for you to have to worry about it. The mind games of holding up at least 2cp to play this card on your opponent’s turn seems amazing – not even thinking about if we get to Damage 5.

Yuna

3/5 – This probably would be a 4 if it had a different name, but Tidus being a Limit Break card means you can slot this into some decks and always have the option to play a Tidus. Unfortunately Yuna is a highly contested name in many Mono Water or even Water/X decks, but it will likely still see some experimentation and it starts to be positive as soon as you cast your first Tidus. Probably incredible in Title.

Yuni

1/5 – Bruuuuuuuh

Lenna

4/5 – Except for its name this would probably be a 5/5. It’s a clearly fantastic include in Wol 7 decks as well as other multi color decks that don’t play the backup. The fact that 4c Wol meets all of its conditions by itself means this will see at least some amount of play and have impact.

Light/Dark

Eden

3/5 – If Cat 8 ever gets a slew of backups to make this cheaper, I could see this card being a 5/5, but the fact that it will mostly get its discount off forwards is a little rough. It will really vary in value game to game as the resilience of your forwards can vary, and you may tend to not have enough CP left after you slam down a ton of forwards. 30k is an astounding number though and effectively reads “Kill 2 forwards” so it will definitely see some amount of play in Cat 8 decks, I’d be surprised to see it anywhere else.

Citra

2/5 – This card really confuses me. Would it have been so bad to just play the summon for free without needing to have 5 of the same element? A lot of the best 3cp summons tend to be more reactive than proactive (probably more of a blanket statement on summons in general, rather than just ones of 3cp) so tacking it onto the ETB is a bit strange. I don’t know how meaningful the top auto will be either, 2k is not that big a deal and it’s not like we have access to infinite summons in hand that we could ever kill anything with it. Overall I feel like someone will play this as a 1x just to play a Mist Dragon from deck or some iteration of Ifrit, other than that I am really surprised this was an L.

Raegen

3/5 – Probably goes really well with Kirin type “poop out every 4cp forward” decks – whether those are competitive or not is to be determined, but it’s worth noting that you can still play this in mono decks that contain Warrior of Light since he counts towards all 4 colors (or any other combination of multi color cards). Just as vulnerable to BZ removal as Citra with an even lower floor given he costs 3 more, but at least has the option to play more proactive forwards.

Limit Break

I’m going to preface this by saying that evaluating Limit Break cards is a bit strange given the impact of cards is usually quite obvious and you’re not going to face much decision making in which 8 LB cards to sleeve up as your options may be limited to the deck you’re playing. Since a 5/5 Regular card can’t be compared to a 5/5 Limit Break card quite the same way, I’m going to make a slightly new LB rating below. Don’t be surprised to see generally higher numbers as the key for a lot of these cards is “if you have nothing better, you could just play the LB card”, but their relative rating to each other may help distinguish the good from the great.

5 – This card will have an outsized impact on your game, removing it would have a noticeable detriment

4 – This card is generically castable in a variety of situations and doesn’t require you to change your deck around to be able to play this card and reap value from it.

3 – This card is fine but you don’t expect to play it over other cards in your LB deck – might have more niche use cases but still be good at their job.

2 – You will play this if you absolutely have to, otherwise these are the first to be flipped up

1 – Oof

Zack

4/5 – The 3k ping is not hugely important except that it’s essentially a small finisher if you ended up trading a weenie off in combat. It also has a variety of implications with cards like Angeal, Mono Fire, or Cloudpod decks. It’s extremely important that this card is always available and therefore requires your opponent to think a bit differently when they block your 5k with their 8k.

Mont Leonis

5/5 – The fact that this card can play a meaningful role in Mono Fire decks without actually warping your deck building to do it is a testament to the strength of this absolute unit. Also important is that you get 2 shots at this throughout a game, so if 1 fails due to a prompt Mist Dragon or Amat, you can try your luck again next time. Theorycrafting for this card seems to be extremely high and its ceiling is off the charts, and the thing that seals this as a true 5/5 is its permanent availability at the exact moment you want it.

Viktora

4/5 – Clearly meant for Mono Ice or Ice/X decks, 7k is not a huge number but similar to Zack can help your weenies trade off very cleanly. Access to an extra unique named forward is always nice and the 10k is a decent payoff for when you’ve controlled their hand sufficiently.

Serjes

2.5/5 – It’s like, fine? It’s nice to have access to it but purely dulling or freezing a forward is not a major accomplishment. Consider that Ice Bomb does both of those on attack at Damage 3 and is 1cp without eating into your LB slots.

Ace

4/5 – Mono wind didn’t really need this but it will definitely be glad to have it. Off a typical no-forward board Ace will deal 8k (5 backups, Atomos, Evrae, himself) which is the going rate for Fat Chocobo albeit Fatty costs a bit less. If you end up actually needing such a big board wipe by the time you can actually afford to have all these forwards out then you’ll be glad this is chilling in your LB deck, otherwise you are likely accruing more value through your typical storm stuff than hoping he can attack and draw you 1 card.

Yuri

2.5/5 – Weird card to evaluate since it seems like it was really only built for Title – otherwise a 5cp 9k with Haste (off the 2cp Chelinka in this set) is something quite strange for a wind card to have nowadays. Playing Chelinka in your deck just to give him haste is where I find pause – however the earth/wind Chelinka is quite decent as a tech option and you may find yourself playing Yuri just to pull her out and break a monster. Most likely this card won’t be played but is a 9k blocker if you really need it.

Shantotto

3/5 – The most obvious drawback is the fact that you burn your entire LB deck to do this, so you really better hope all the cost you paid allows its effect to go through. It reads like it was meant for Mono Earth, but as long as you have some mass of earth cards and backups you could manage to pull off paying the full cost. While the cost reads like it is huge, consider that Shantotto from Opus 1 costs 7 but you lose the card from hand, i.e. 9cp which is just equal to this, so you’re somewhat picking whether you want the backup or the forward. Also noteworthy that the backup has a bit more protection against cancels since some Auto Cancels reference forward ETBs only.

Maat

2/5 – You probably won’t ever play this unless you’re in some weird situation where you are thinking to yourself “if I had just 1k more I could win all the combat here”. That scenario isn’t all that likely, but at LB1 you might throw it out every once in a while. Also a monk from LB that you could sac to Ursula, I guess. This would probably be a 1 if we went through more sets of LB cards.

Cloud

4.5/5 – Obviously its ETB is at a good rate, and LB2 means it’s not destroying your LB deck, but the most interesting thing is the fact that it has an S ability. Cloud is in the upper echelon of “number of cards with the same name” so it opens up avenues to attempt to integrate this as part of your plan to some extent. Very neat that it’s the only LB card with an S ability to begin with and it has some high potential for sure.

Lightning

3/5 – Lightning summons tend to be quite situational, but if you’re playing a deck with any you probably know exactly which one you’re pulling out of your break zone and you will love knowing that this card is always there ready to recur the summon you need. I tend to think the 4cp cost is a bit high here for its otherwise very low power (even Cloud was 8k) and also costing LB2, but for now you may be hard pressed not to put at least 1 in your LB deck if you think you have the slightest possibility of using it with the low number of LB cards we have.

Tidus

5/5 – Tidus is far more reactive than Mont for example but fills a similar role of “there will likely be a natural time for you to play this card in the course of your natural game plan”, while being incredibly powerful. Even if they don’t have a forward, paying 8 to chuck a backup and draw 2 cards is an effect we don’t currently have access to and only needing 3 water as extra cost is a lot easier to achieve in Water/X decks as well.

Leo

5/5 – Unlike Tidus this is the most boring good card printed this entire set most likely. As long as you’re not playing 1cp Leo decks this will be an immediate slot into any deck that can play water cards as a way to dig through your deck if needed and represents another body that can deal damage.

Little Leela

4/5 – I kind of hate that they made such a generic LB card because, at this stage, it’s very difficult to justify not playing at least 1 in your LB deck. The body relative to cost is decent and shrinking 7k can kill smaller forwards outright or make combat otherwise more difficult to navigate. I don’t love this design choice but hopefully as LB expands further we will see this card come out of decks that don’t immediately want to use it for a specific reason.