Fire

Ward

The cast restriction is slightly more restricting in Sealed than Draft, but it still is such a good effect that you’re more than willing to deal with it.

B

 

Edgar

Excellent opportunity for efficient building in the early game. If you’re running the Fire/Ice WOFF package, this also gives you a second way to play out Cloud without needing to draw a Reynn. Edgar also offers the ability to cash himself in the mid or late game. Starting with the most boring options, you can exchange Edgar with another Backup, notably Minwu or Krile to take advantage of their ETF. He can play out every Monster in the set, Fomor probably the best option as it can finish off a damaged attacker with its entry effect. There’s only one Fire Forward he can play (ok Firion S too if you’re lucky). Lehftia comes packaged with an 8k burn and since you can use this to play her in combat she can turn a one-sided battle into a trade. Other cool Forwards you can play: Snow or Neilikka for a surprise haster midcombat; Penelo in a Sky Pirate deck can reactivate blockers. Ursula and Firion H let you field a surprise blocker. And Machinist, like Fomor, can finish off a damaged Forward. And Cloud can straight up break something.

B

 

Flameserpent General Gadalar

Shouldn’t be hard to get the discount. Being able to attack a bunch and still block is great, but you need to build around this a little more than you might think. After all, a single opposing 8k shuts down a lot of his usefulness (and there are a lot of 8ks). Try to pair with strong removal, either hard removal or dull/freeze style effects, and ways to buff him like Ram. This will let you use him to apply a lot of pressure and force your opponent to have an answer. This card may seem impressive at first blush, but consider that he’s just a really angry Monk. I think you’ll see as the review goes on that being 8k is kinda the standard, and an 8k has to be really really good to shine.

C

 

Cyan

Actual insane card. The 9k cleave kills nearly everything in the set without touching your side at all. Even if he gets Odin’d or something before you can get the crystals, you still get the crystals. You can even cast him proactively as a difficult to kill Forward that completely changes every combat step by threatening to drop 3k burns at will. Neon and Lehftia let you boost that damage to truly impressive numbers. Running Cyan with a bunch of other crystal generators and being able to get both the 9k wave of fire and still have crystals left over for his boosts and burns is clearly S worthy, but I think honestly even if you are completely unable to draft a single other crystal card he’s still the best card in the set.

S

 

Black Mage

Love cards that both make and use Crystals. The Crystal you get here is pretty cheap, and remember that you can activate her twice in order to deal 10k.

B

 

Samurai

Last set we had only two odd-costed Backups to smooth out early development, and this set we’re drowning in them. Samurai is a fine play if you’re discarding two, and a great play if you’re curving out. Its value certainly drops off in the mid to late game, but a lot of decks don’t end up wanting to play a fourth or fifth Backup anyway. You’re still getting the Crystal, so as long as you have good uses for it you’re not actually that mad if you don’t get the rebate. If you don’t have good Crystal cards, probably don’t stock up on these, though one or two should still be fine.

B

 

Shadow

Cyan, Setzer, and Gau. That’s it, that’s the whole list. This makes warping Shadow risky. At best, you have an empty hand at the start of the turn he warps in, so you draw 2 then discard them immediately and draw 2 more. If there were more Summons or Back Attack cards, this would be more interesting to build around, but as it is it’s really tough to make use of those two Draw Step cards before Shadow throws them away. At worst, you can’t empty out your hand ahead of time, and you end up throwing away more cards than you draw. Cid (II) offers a way to pop this on demand, and is about the only reason I’d consider actually warping Shadow, as he’s much much better when he warps in mid-turn, since you’ve got time to actually empty out your hand first. But that’s enough about the warp. Shadow’s pretty decent when cast honestly. If you can jump through some hoops and empty your hand in the process of playing him, he’s basically a 3cp 9k, which Earth gets without jumping through hoops at R.

D

 

Vermilion Bird l’Cie Caetuna

You want a developmental Backup with a great ability? How about two? Caetuna lets you plan around brutal death triggers like Feolthanos (Darkness Manifest is a Leaves the Field trigger so he’ll still go off), she lets you limit targets for future recursion effects like Trey, and lets you remove fuel for Shiva. Her second ability is an excellent way to close out a game once you’re in the final turn, don’t need Backups anymore, and want to close things out in dramatic fashion.

B

 

Warrior

Warrior’s ability is going to be somewhat hard to make use of. It’s good with cards like Ward or Haveh, where you’re losing out on a 7k in order to keep a bigger Forward around. It can be good if you have two Warriors and your opponent is trying to kill both with something like Cyan or Feolthanos. Niche abilities like this are fine things to have, Limited games tend to get themselves into wacky situations all the time. Great if you’re all in on the Taivas deck, using Taivas to play out Warrior after Warrior, and using this card both as something to play for free and a way to keep Taivas alive so you can keep playing out Warriors. I worry that 7k isn’t quite enough to compete this set, so make sure you’ve got some Neons and Lehftias so the Warriors can come out to play.

C

 

Taivas

You’ve got plenty of targets, Warrior and Guy at C, Ward, Kiros, Cloud at R, and Tulien and Firion at H (another Firion at S if you’re lucky). You can also search up Haveh (and Cloud S) though you can’t play him. 9k power is fine on it’s own, getting a card makes it strong, being able to play that card for free, then continuing to play more for free makes this a strong Build-Around. If you get one of these early, it’s worth warping your deck to play it. The Warriors are all playable anyways, so you’re hardly going out of your way. It’s a strong enough card that I wouldn’t count on being passed one, so don’t draft eight Warriors expecting your neighbors to gift wrap this for you in Pack 5. Keep in mind that Kiros won’t trigger when played this way.

A

 

Neon

Acceptable body to cost ratio, boosts damage dealt by a bunch of your cards, and synergizes well with other SOPFFO cards for a great ETF, should you happen to get some. She’s great at supplementing an existing board, but will not be great if you’re really on the defensive.

B

 

Bahamut

Perfect removal. Deals more damage than you need, can’t be stopped, and then that card is gone forever. No Refia for Squall. No Gestahl for Xande. That’s it, the end. Probably better not to try to get tricky casting this on the opponent’s turn, and just take the discount.

A

 

Feolthanos

They seem to really want counterplay for EX this set, which feels weird in draft because there’s almost no EX. Charging half someone’s life to get a burst is effectively outright banning them, so Feolthanos is an nice complement to an aggressive deck. His death trigger is huge, a massive dying middle finger. Just about every element has at least one way to deal with this threat, so don’t go thinking he’s invincible, but if you’ve put your opponent in a tight spot then Feolthanos will be a great closer.

A

 

Bomb

Thank goodness monsters don’t have summoning sickness. The natural comparison here is Goblin, who makes you pay up front but then lets you sit on them for as long as you want once you pay that initial investment. Bomb on the other hand makes you pay as you’re using it, but depending on how many you have you can chain two or three together and still be able to continue on. It’s tempting to try to burn through all your Bombs immediately, to ensure you don’t draw them later, but it’s also tempting to sit on them as long as possible to eke out the maximum value from each one. Regardless of which path you take, this card should be a great way to support the other cards in your deck, and with enough of them drafted can even stand on its own as excellent removal.

B

 

Marilith

4cp for 8k damage and I get a body afterwards? In an element with Lehftia and Bomb to make that body relevant? Sign me up!

B

 

Mutsuki

Vivi’s a good card, even if you’re paying 1 extra. If you really want to get the 8k, you’re gonna have to be in Lightning. This gives you access to Ace, Queen, Trey, and Nine, in addition to Fire’s Caetuna.

C

 

Monk

Very unimpressive unless warped. He’s top end deck filler, but he’s still filler. He’ll get you to 40 cards but you won’t be happy about it. In any other set this would probably be worthy of a C, but Beyond Destiny is kinda cracked.

D

 

Rain

Both modes are quality. One issue some Warp cards have is that they’re lackluster topdecks in the late game, where you won’t have time to wait around for them. Giving Rain Haste means even on the very last turn of the game he still gets to join in the fun. And for most of the game when you do have time to wait around two whole turns, 1/7 with 7k damage is a great rate.

C

 

Reynn

Less than impressive with Ram, but every other Monster in the set is solid. The ones with both an entry and exit effect are naturally the best, so look to pair Reynn with Fomor, Black Knight, and Sahagin. And if you’re in ice for Fomor, pick up some Squalls too, as Reynn enables his discard. Lets you cast Cloud in non-Lightning decks too.

C

 

Lehftia

+2k is huge. Punching up in combat is so, so relevant in Limited, and giving extra reach to the abilities of cards like Marilith and Rain help overcome even the staunchest foes. She doesn’t affect Characters you don’t control, so no dice for Bomb or Caetuna, but there’s still plenty around for her to boost. And in the late game she even gets to join the fun herself. And at (functionally) 7k she’s even relevant in battle.

A

Ice

Red Mage

Cool little bit of disruption. Kiros, Snow, Setzer, and Reaper are all happy to have a party buddy, so you should get plenty of opportunities to get the party attack trigger off too.

C

 

Astos

This is the only way in Ice to use Crystals, and Scholar is the only other card that makes them. It’s a powerful effect for sure, but getting three Crystals is gonna be a little tough. Wind is probably your best bet, it has two cards that make Crystals, Evil Weapon and Dragoon and no way to use them. Skip this guy if you’re starved on Crystal cards, as a bad version of Monk is not where you want to be.

B

 

Ultimecia

She can’t be chosen by Summons, which would matter if there were any, so she’ll have to stand on the power of her ETF. There are plenty of 5s around to fuel her magic, and the more you pick up the more you get to compress your opponent’s board. Wind and Lightning only have one target each, so optimally your other element will be Fire (4), Earth (4), or Water (7). Remember that you do have to exile at least one card to get the discard, and you don’t get more discards the more cards you remove. Since she hits Character and not Forward, her ceiling is pretty high, and a full five targets will almost completely shut down your opponent when cast as a late-game finisher. Don’t get too greedy waiting to maximize her though, sometimes you’re gonna have to drop her on Turn 3 to stop something like an early Neilikka or a Flameserpent. You can’t use her in the late game if you don’t survive to the late game.

A

 

Scholar

Astos, an H, is the only Crystal payoff, and Scholar isn’t the only Standard Unit Backup like in Fire and Lightning. Of this cycle, Scholar is on the lower end, but it’s still absolutely serviceable.

C

 

Kiros

Synergy with Warrior tribal and Warp, and decent all on his own. Being able to hit a character means he will never end up without a target, and can slot in nicely if you happen to have spare CP on a developing turn. There are only three other cards with Warp, Shadow, Rain, and Monk, so it’ll be a little hard to really build towards abusing his Warp trigger.

C

 

Bard

Flameserpent. Black Mage. Warrior. Neon. Feolthanos. Lehftia. Squall. Snow. Machina. Ash. Dark Knight. Guy. Stoneserpent. Haveh. Irvine. Gunbreaker. Gilgamesh. Queen. Man in Black. Nine. Neilikka. Firion. Ashe. Sage. Jed. Springserpent. Bikke. Faris. Rhus. Leila. Skyserpent. Darkness Manifest. Several of the Starters. Anything with Brave. You can even remove abilities from your own Forwards to negate Tulien and delay Lich. What a list.

B

 

Griever

Ultimecia’s also an L so you’re probably not getting both, but if you do then Merry Christmas. Can’t attack into Griever without losing the attacker, but not attacking means Griever gets to rip a card every turn. Griever will be best supported in a defensive, grindy deck looking to leverage the long game. 6 is a ton of CP to lose to something like Ward + Bomb, so be aware what options your opponent may have to grief you.

A

 

Shiva

While this is absolutely playable as is at 1cp, the real power is in its recursion. Late game, casting this twice or even three times in a turn will often end things on the spot. In the middle game, you can use it to lock down key attackers to buy some time to regroup. And if you need to deal with some huge threat like Feolthanos or Darkness Manifest, you can cast it every other turn for as long as you have resources to exile. Very flexible and very cheap piece of “removal.”

A

 

Squall

Why is this card so good? I would be slamming this into my decks even without the WOFF ability. First Strike is a powerful force, especially if you can pair it with a source of on demand damage like Bomb, or Evil Weapon, but you don’t need to look that far because Squall can just do it himself. Not only does his 3k to a blocker help him attack into 10ks, it also helps smaller Forwards like Reaper attack up. Add on top of that this incredible discard ability and you’ve got an insane attacker. All you need is one other WOFF character, too. You’ve got The Girl Who Forgot Her Name in Ice (who very conveniently also tutors Squall) then a ton of other WOFF cards in Ice and elsewhere. Keep your eyes out for Backups like Edgar, Reynn, Princess Goblin, and Refia. They’re very reliable since Backups are so hard to interact with. If you’re looking to make sure your Squall gets his trigger, you don’t need to look far.

A

 

Snow

Nice aggressive little dude. Good early when it’s hard to field more than one blocker, and good late when he’s full-sized. You only need one other WOFF card, so it’s pretty easy to play a WOFF Backup in the first turn or two and cast this guy alongside it to give your opponent’s Backups a snow day.

B

 

Setzer

Incredible cheap recursion. 5k is just enough to dodge most of the cheap removal like Bomb, Evil Weapon, and Neilikka, so your opponent will have to throw a real card at Setzer to stop you. PSA Setzer has a Field Ability that lets you play the removed Forwards. If he leaves the field, any Forwards still removed are lost to the ages.

A

 

Terra

Actually useless first ability since there’s only one Ice Summon, so let’s investigate her S. If you draft multiple copies of a nigh unplayable card, and want to throw away Shiva which is premium removal, then you can have an extremely expensive Marilith. Terrable.

F

 

The Girl Who Forgot Her Name

Gets Squall then enables Squall. There are situations where you want to get Snow instead, especially on Turn 2 where you can curve into Girl then play Snow and turn your opponent’s development into The Backup Who Forgot To Reactivate.

A

 

Fomor

4 to a dull Forward is tough to make use of on its own. You can’t use it to finish something damaged in combat, because a dull Forward couldn’t have blocked. This means you’ll most likely have to pair with Fire, Wind, or Lightning in order to make the ETF relevant (or play an Y’shtola). Without that, you’re still able to just use the second ability to deal 8k total (or 11k), which is a great amount of damage to get for only 2cp.

C

 

Minwu

A nice little bit of interference to throw out. In the early turns, this can help win the resource race by taking away CP during crucial developmental turns. I’m always in the market for Backups that can be cashed out in the end game, and Minwu’s got an excellent (and cheap) way to do that.

B

 

Y’shtola

Haste is always appreciated, even if it is conditional. Y’sh is a great card to sit on until you get the chance to drop her, swing, and kill something all at once. There’s not too many discard effects around, so it’ll be a bit tough to force the issue, but at some point there should be an opportunity. Squall and Fomor are great ways in Ice to help push her damage to more lethal numbers.

A

 

Reaper

5k’s a little small, and Ice doesn’t have too many ways to really make use of it. Reaper is Multiplay, though, so you can always just play two and party them. Both his effects are good, if you can break something and get a body, you don’t really care how big the body is, and the discard can help enable Y’shtola and Rursan Arbiter. He’s certainly a role player, just make sure you have ways to support him once he’s done his job.

C

 

Rinoa

There’s not too many summons but if you have them then Rinoa is a good way to get more use out of them. Awkward as a developmental Backup so make sure you’re not relying on her for a smooth early game.

C

 

Lufenian

Just assume you’re not getting the effect, and be pleasantly surprised when you do.

C

 

Rursan Arbiter

Thank goodness this isn’t a dull ability. It would be much harder to get off if you couldn’t activate it the turn it comes out, since there’s so little discard this set. Arbiter is strong, but extremely conditional. 5/8 is a bad statline, so you need to kill something to make it worth your while. That may be easier said than done, unless you really stock up on Reapers.

C

Wind

 

Evil Weapon

If you’re in the market for extra reach and crystal generation, then Evil Weapon is the card for you. Evil Weapon is a great way to make use of errant 5ks you may have lying around, letting them bully Forwards nearly twice their size. Two of these and you can even take down an 8k. Keep in mind when you do that, you’re not trading 2cp for their card, you have to factor in that you used two cards to do it, leaving you down more resources than single card removal. It’s nice to see a trend towards these types of effects doing 3k or 4k damage, too many of them in the past were only 1k or 2k and much more difficult to find a use for. I was originally going to say here that Evil Weapon’s drawback is that it only works in conjunction with other cards, but the more of the review I’ve written the more I noticed I kept saying “make sure you have some Evil Weapons or this card sucks” and I realized that Wind as a whole is totally reliant on this card to function.

B

 

Vaan

Not hard to make this a 4cp 9k, which is solid. Anything cheaper than that and you’re groovin. Somewhat hard to get the card draw. Don’t go out of your way to draw a card here, it’ll be easy to want to maximize Vaan and accidentally waste more resources than you get back. While he may be efficient, all he does is Big, so don’t go expecting miracles.

B

 

Viera

One of Loporrit’s biggest strengths in Opus 20 was the rarity of odd-costed Backups, with Miner being the only other one in the set in any element. Viera isn’t even the only 3cp Backup in Wind. Loporrit’s other biggest strength was that it was just a really really good card, and the Viera collective do a great impression of their bunny brethren.

B

 

Dancer

Nice little ETF, gets you a little rebate, lets you reuse abilities like Sarah (MOBIUS) and Galeserpent. Even better in multiples, but this isn’t really the kind of card you want to fill your deck with. Penelo makes Dancer attractive as filler for Sky Pirate decks, at least.

C

 

Princess Goblin

If you have Princess Sarah or either Warrior of Light L or Warrior of Light S, then sure, pick up a couple. But don’t pick this up expecting those very rare cards to come to you.

C

 

Cid (II)

There’s not much Warp, Shadow, Monk, Rain, and Kiros, and Shadow is the only one you really want to be losing a Backup over. Rain and Kiros are both pretty decent cards, so having easy access to them is nice, and having elemental fixing in your Backups is also nice.

C

 

Summoner

This would be nice if there were more Summons. Pandemonium is good if conditional. Tutoring for a tutor always feels weird, but sometimes you need to do it, and Pandy does have the damage effect too. Threatening to turn this into a 7k is not scary in the slightest.

D

 

Princess Sarah

Developmental Backup with slight upside. There are two other princesses to cast aside, Sarah (MOBIUS) and Lenna, so if you do have enough to use her damage reduction your opponent won’t see it coming.

C

 

Sarah (MOBIUS)

Both other princesses are H/L so like Lufenian, assume you won’t get the ability and be happy when you do.

C

 

Sophia (SOPFFO)

Summoner if Summoner were good. OK good might be pushing it. You do need to jump through an extra hoop of having a Tiamat or getting SOPFFO from another element, and you do have to actually have drawn the Summon already, but the “cast a summon” trigger is actually relevant. And she’s cheaper. Pandemonium going up to 13k is huge, there’s a lot of things it hits that it doesn’t kill, and Sophia will help ensure those. She is very reliant on having Summons though, making her less than reliable.

D

 

Tiamat

Great answer for some of the best threats in the format. I was originally gonna say that even if you don’t have a target it’s still a 4/8 but there’s a lot of 4/8s in this set that are extremely medium so I don’t think that’s a great fallback anymore.

B

 

Niini

If you have a bunch of Evil Weapons, a Galeserpent, and also a bunch of weak Wind Forwards that need a friend to party, and a Balthier, then sure ok I guess you can make a case for running a 3k. Like Vaan, drawing one single card is not enough of a benefit to jump through hoops for. Unlike Vaan, a 3k fucking sucks.

F

 

Balthier

Wind’s best card by a country mile. Evil Weapon and Galeserpent both are happy to have a cheap, repeatable source of damage they can build on. Cards that are conditionally cheaper or can reactivate Backups so you can play more cards let you string two or even three of these triggers together. And honestly, reactivating all your Characters is way more useful than anything else Penelo or Fran were gonna do. Your attacks are all so much more threatening when you can follow them up with bonus damage for free.

A

 

Pandemonium

This card, an H, literally only gets Vaan, another H, and Tidus, an S. So instead we’re gonna look at what all this kills without needing help. Terra, Rursan Arbiter, Gau, Kraken, Ninja. Now, Gau and Rursan Arbiter can be pretty important targets, but for most circumstances you’re going to need to combine Pandemonium with another source of damage in order to get it to break anything. It’s definitely worth running, and if you can get the double then you’re pretty happy, but I just feel like I shouldn’t need to put this much deckbuilding into making my removal playable.

C

 

Penelo

Completely dependent on having either Vaan or Balthier already in play (I am ignoring Fran, we’ll get to that train wreck in a minute). And even then your reward is a cheap 5k and the ability to recur exactly specifically only the card I’m refusing to acknowledge the existence of.

F

 

Galeserpent General Najelith

Cheap, hard to interact with, with strong utility, especially in conjunction with damage from Evil Weapon or Balthier, and reactivation from Dancer and Balthier.

B

 

Fran

With so few Summons, giving Balthier protection from abilities is significantly more in demand. Fran also gives you a cheap way to get 6k damage total the turn you play Balthier, rising from the dead to join him. She also is extremely cheap if you want more Balthier triggers, and also discards to Balthier to reactivate your whole board. Did you notice how every single thing I just said there was dependent on having one specific L? And how all of that only made her marginally playable, maybe?

F

 

Machina

The natural draw here is to Lightning, the only other Element with Cadets. It looks playable without Lightning, as it’s a really good S, but that means you need to be playing an otherwise vanilla 5k in multiples to do something you can already get from Tiamat and Pandemonium. Stick with the Cadets.

B

 

Dragoon

The only Wind card that can use Crystals is Warrior of Light, a Starter, making Dragoon the worst of the cycle. Evil Weapon, a card you want to be playing anyways, makes Crystals too, and Viera has much stronger card selection. Still worth playing though.

C

 

Rikku

Entirely reliant on cards like Evil Weapon and Galeserpent to get her to a relevant power, even after her Damage threshold. She needs a ton of Wind cards to be reliable, and Wind cards just aren’t very good this set. If you’re all in on Balthier, then go for it.

D

Earth

Ursula

Even a sometimes 2/8 has a lot of power. Because of the Brave, your opponent has to deal with this at some point, so if they’ve been avoiding attacking into her and then suddenly change their minds and swing, assume something is up. The more crystals you can get the better. The only two EX you should really be concerned about are Ward and Palom. +3k puts Ursula out of Ward’s range anyways, but it can be nice to make sure he can’t hit your other Forwards either.

B

 

Ash

There are eleven other Forwards with Brave in the set. The bulk of them are in Earth, Light, and Dark, leaving Monk, Astos, Gilgamesh, and Firion in other Elements. Guy, Stoneserpent, and Haveh are all C or R so if you get an Ash it’s pretty easy to load him up with cards that automatically get the boost without him having to dull. Having access to Brave (and more importantly +3k) on demand helps you to be extremely aggressive without compromising on defense. Bonus points for also acting as a combat trick, and for helping protect other Forwards against damage effects. Oh and if you have another SOPFFO when he enters you get to recur any Character.

A

 

Dark Knight

Not only does his power get out of hand quick, he’s also one of the best Crystal spenders in the set.

B

 

Ingus

Vaan but good. Easy to get down to 4cp or even 3cp, gets a card of your choice instead of 28/30 chance to be a stinker, all without having to cast a million cards, and has EX to boot. Not to mention there are a bunch of great targets in Earth.

A

 

Onion Knight

In a set full of 4/8s, be a 3/9.

C

 

Guy

Good synergy with Taivas, Ash, and Galuf, and all for different reasons which is cool. Pretty unimpressive on his own.

C

 

Galuf

Ice has Red Mage and Snow, while Lightning has Machinist, Cloud, Neilikka, and Firion. Wind actually has five cards that Guy enables, but they’re all really bad so I’m much less inclined to lean that way. You’ve got Guy and Ursula in Earth too. One issue here is that most of these end up being 7k, which still falls short of the 8k it takes to really compete in combat in this set. Still, getting two Forwards for the price of one is a great start, and his S is perfectly serviceable, rewarding you for taking several Galufs and truly building around him.

B

 

Qiqirn

Very reliable odd-costed Backup with Multiplay and a strong exit strategy. Even if it looks like it should be a Monster.

B

 

Krile

The summons are few and far between, but if you do have some then both her abilities are on point. And if you don’t, well, she’s still only 2cp.

C

 

White Mage

Black Mage, Warrior, Red Mage, Reaper, Dark Knight, Machinist, and Dragoon. Two options in Fire, Ice, and Lightning, and none in Wind or Water. Happy to get two bodies for one card, even if one of those is a 5k.

B

 

Titan

Hell yeah this is the removal I’m here for. If you’re not in Earth at all, or in a three element deck, then I guess you’ve got an excuse to pass this. Best Summon in the set imo.

A

 

Tulien

Finally, battle damage gets referenced again after the nearly unused Kain (Sky Soldier and Shiva don’t count because I said so). Tulien is a really cool way to force exactly the combats that you want. I’ve seen a lot of tcgs approach this problem, and Tulien might be the cleanest way I’ve seen it done (FFTCG’s system mechanics of only one attack at a time helps). The nice thing about “This Forward must block if possible” is that it isn’t limited to once, so if you really want to trade two 3ks with an 10k, you can.

S

 

Stoneserpent General Zazarg

Zazarg really wants a Ram for support. This lets him threaten to be an 11k on both offense and defense, and almost any non-combat method to deal with him will trigger his direct damage clause.

B

 

Neo Exdeath

Just to make sure y’all know exactly how targeting works, if you don’t have two Backups then you can’t put the ability on the stack. At least one of the Backups needs to still be a legal choice when it resolves, which means feel free to use something like Emperor Gestahl in response. It’s an expensive board clear, but it’s one-sided, and it leaves you with the biggest baddest dude around. Even has Brave to rub salt in the wound.

S

 

Haveh

Helps limit your opponent’s shenanigans on multiple levels, and grows to massive size halfway through the game. Haveh’s viability is pretty reliant on your opponent’s cards. If they don’t have many power boosting abilities, or all their removal is damage based, dull/freeze, or bounce, then he’s just a big chungus. Gaining Brave is a big bonus, especially if you can pick up an Ash to really push Haveh’s power into the stratosphere. And being Job Warrior is relevant with Warrior around. His protection is going to be less relevant than you want, as there are very few break effects in the set. Most removal is damage based, or moves things to hand, deck, or RFG.

B

 

White Tiger l’Cie Qun’mi

There are a ton of 4/8s around, and if Qun’mi didn’t trigger when YOU choose her too, she’d be relegated to the pile. Runda is going to be her most reliable friend, but Ram, Ash, and even Tulien can do it too. Keep an eye out for cheap Summon-speed triggers in other elements, like Caetuna, Bard, Shiva, Squall, Minwu, Dancer, Ace, Nine, Sage, Springserpent, and Refia. It’ll be worth it to hit your own Qun’mi with a negative effect like a dull/freeze if it means she eats a 9k, and many opponents may find themselves overlooking them, not connecting that those abilities can boost her power.

C

 

Monk

Dark Knight and Ursula are both solid, so Monk ends up being perhaps the best of the cycle.

B

 

Ram

The true power of Ram is that, very often, you won’t actually have to use it in order to make use of it. Let me explain. If you attack your 7k into my 9k, and you have Ram up, I’m not blocking. This means you get to keep the threat of a Ram activation, you get to keep leveraging the potential of having +3k at a moment’s notice. If you’re trying to fight through your opponent’s Ram, try to engineer a trade, even if it’s favorable for your opponent. Having your 8k trade with their 5k will feel awful, but that gives you a lot of breathing room before the Ram is online again. It’s much easier to use Ram on offense, as if you don’t use the CP to activate it, you can use it to cast things in MP2. Using Ram defensively means you’re holding back CP from your Backups, or overpaying by discarding an Earth card. Neither of these things is bad I’m just warning you not to throw too much of your economy into Ram, lest your opponent outdevelop you.

B

 

Lich

Big dude that kills anything it can choose. Choosing smaller Forwards will work out best, as Lich can block that Forward the next turn, but even if you take one more attack from that pesky 9k you’re happy to have it gone.

B

 

Runda

Help keep your Forwards safe at no additional up front cost. Remember that this doesn’t flat prevent the next 3k, it lowers the next chunk of damage by 3k, so if they fire off a Machinist the whole damage prevention is used up.

B

Lightning

Irvine

Well I guess one nice side effect of not having any Summons in the set is that Irvine is going to be pretty dang reliable. Attacks as an 11k First Strike the turn he comes out, then swings for 9k First Strike every turn after, all while interfering with your opponent’s recursion. Irvine only does offense, so make sure you either have other ways to defend yourself or don’t need to defend yourself, and you should be set.

B

 

Red Mage

Be careful here. Lightning only has four Backups. Gestahl is an H. Shantotto wants to be played late. Trey needs you to have drawn a Cadet. Red Mage is your workhorse. Take Red Mage earlier than you think you need to, and abandon Lightning faster than you might other elements if you think it’s being cut.

B

 

Ace

With both a way to make him cheaper and a cheap, repeatable ability that protects him, increases his battle potential, and functions as temporary removal, Ace is one of the best 4/8s in the set.

A

 

Odin

Plenty of impactful 3s and 4s around for this to smoke off the board. Drawing a card is nice, but don’t wait around hoping to enable it someday if you’ve got something serious breathing down your neck.

B

 

Emperor Gestahl

Effects like this are significantly better in Limited than in Constructed, where they’re still very good.  This is because the difference between your worst card and your best card is so much bigger. Imagine taking a useless Niini in hand and converting it into a Xande. The nice bit about Gestahl is that usually this is baked into the card by making it cost 4, meaning if he isn’t your 5th Backup you had to discard a card anyways. With Gestahl, it’s optional. If you really like your hand, you can just opt out. Granted, you could just discard a Forward and then return it, but that opens you up to potential Break Zone interference. Speaking of Break Zone interference, we’ve got that too! Most of the time your opponent is messing in their Break Zone will be on their turn, so you’ll have to leave Gestahl’s CP unused that turn if you really want to snipe cards while they’re being targeted. The optimal play here is to wait around for an effect like Setzer or Ultimecia, but sometimes you’ll have to be proactive against cards like Shiva. One issue with leaving him open so you can interact on your opponent’s turn is that I think many decks won’t actually do anything he can stop.

B

 

Gunbreaker

If Queen or Neilikka start a fight, he’s gonna finish it. If you’ve got the Crystal, he pairs well with Dragoon too.

C

 

Machinist

Budget Gunbreaker. Largely does the same stuff, except you get to do it the turn she comes into play too, at the cost of not being as relevant in combat. Big fan of Wind’s reactivation effects. High synergy with herself, as she enables the ETF for other copies of her. Her 5k puts her a bit over Gunbreaker in my book, especially because it’s much less telegraphed since she’s hiding in your hand and not sitting on the table.

C

 

Gilgamesh

Good surprise attacker. Haste + double attacks gives you a lot of power to change combat math. Think about how many times you’ve ended a turn thinking “ok as long as my opponent doesn’t play two hasters, I’m not dead.” Well, here’s two hasters in a trenchcoat. Now think about how many times you’ve ended a turn without thinking that. Boy, that number’s a lot higher. Not to say this effect is super niche, it’ll come up a lot, just to remind you that before Damage 3 all they gotta do is put an 8k in his way. Lightning has lots of ways to sideline blockers, and after Damage 3 he’s significantly scarier, and he’s Lightning’s best Crystal processor, so he’s certainly worth running a few cards to enable. Just don’t draft seven of him and wonder why your deck doesn’t function.

B

 

Queen

While having a second Cadet around pushes her over the edge, she’s absolutely a great card on her own. Queen’s attack effect is a field ability, not an auto, which means it cannot be responded to. Cards like Fomor have to wait until the next attacker is declared, or MP2 to choose her. Being undamageable is really cool, and helps set up things like combo kills with Neilikka, Evil Weapon or Tulien, Queen’s best friend. It gives you a great party partner, which cards like Cloud and Neilikka really appreciate. Her Cadet ability though is the cream on the cake. It turns her from a nuisance into a menace. No longer will she need help to break through tough blockers. And with Trey at C, it will be incredibly easy to enable it.

A

 

Cloud

On his own, Cloud is really unimpressive. You really need to be hitting with his ETF, in which case he’s very good. Since there are no other WOFF cards in Lightning, my bet is that he’s mostly going to be used in either Ice/Lightning decks since Ice has four WOFF Characters, or in Fire/X decks as Reynn allows him to be cast without needing Lightning CP. Fire/Ice WOFF looks like it’s going to be a strong archetype, and honestly I’m going to think of Cloud not as a Lightning card, but a Fire/Ice card.

B

 

Black Knight

Love that this can target Monsters too, as you can put your opponent in a “use it or lose it” situation, and it makes it so much more reliable than just hitting Forwards. If you’re not getting value on the ETF, it’s hard to justify this card. 7 to break something is just so much. There are some great 2s in every element, so hopefully a target will show up sooner or later, but don’t hesitate to pitch this if it’s not looking good.

C

 

Man in Black

“Each player’s turn” is what makes this so devastating. Man in Black demands removal, lest he snowball a game. He’s not going to help you if you’re already dangerously behind, but if you’re only slightly disadvantaged he can help turn the tide, and if you’ve got the advantage then it can be crippling for your opponent to have to pay into him constantly. So it follows that Man in Black wants to be in a slower shell, a more methodical deck, that can take the time to turn the screws tighter and tighter turn after turn.

A

 

Xande

A little elbow grease and you should be able to make this break reliably. Two Backups, a Black Knight or a Forward, and you’re set. Play big dude, kill a dude. Hell yeah, dude.

A

 

Shantotto

Easy 9k in Sealed and easy 6k in Draft. Neilikka and Queen are both excellent ways to ensure that 6k goes the distance. Be a little careful drafting Backups that you only want to play in the mid to late game, especially when they’re Common, as it’s very easy to overload yourself and have a difficult time in the early game.

C

 

Trey

My friend, have you seen this dynamite S? Let’s ignore his ETF for a second, look at this S! And he’s Common, too, so there’s a bunch of Treys in the draft. You get to just kill whatever the hell you want all day, constantly. OK back to the ETF. My friend, have you seen this dynamite ETF? Let’s ignore his S for a second, look at this ETF! And there’s multiple quality Class Zero Cadets too, so there’s a bunch of targets in the draft. You get to just recur great cards all day, constantly. OK, that’s enough of the S and the ETF. My friend, have you seen this dynamite EX Burst?

A

 

Nine

A nice little protective ability paired with excellent temporary removal. Don’t forget you can use this on your opponent’s turn too, effectively sidelining one attacker and two blockers. Make sure to snap up some Treys so you can ensure his 0 is online as often as possible.

B

 

Neilikka

Neilikka’s a great, multipurpose tool for an aggressive deck’s arsenal. Can sideline a blocker, can finish off something that’s blocked already, or follow up on another source of burn to make it lethal. Tulien and Queen are great companions, able to force exchanges on your terms. She helps smaller Forwards like Cloud be relevant in combat. The problem is that she’s really small herself, and can be completely stonewalled by your opponent doing something absolutely crazy like play a second Forward. Sometimes getting the 3k off is worth sending her on a suicide mission. Sometimes she just has to sit on her (giant) hands.

B

 

Palom

Doesn’t kill major threats, but helps keep minor threats from piling up. There’s plenty of sources of damage in Lightning to make the 7k body fight up and deal with 8s or 9s, so he even leaves you with a relevant body after he does his thing.

B

 

Firion

4 dull Characters is not a lot. Granted, some aggressive decks are gonna play between 0 and 2 Backups and may barely even have 4 Characters total. But most decks are gonna have a lot. Firion’s second ability not only helps hit his 4 Character threshold, it also joins Nine and Neilikka as incredibly cheap ways to dull their dudes and dudettes. 8k isn’t that hard to stop (and 3k is even easier) but you’re only paying 1cp for it so if they have to pay at all to stop him you’re feeling pretty good.

A

 

Dragoon

This is pretty decent even before it’s fully online. This plus Machinist ETF kills a 9k. This plus Gunbreaker with Crystal kills an 8k. This plus Queen kills basically anything. Similar to Palom except most of the time you need help to make the ETF relevant too.

C

Water

Ashe

If you can protect her enough to draw two cards, then you’re cooking. That’s a huge time investment though.

D

 

Gau

Great payoff for going with lots of Monsters. Being able to send Monsters in his stead helps keep him safe, and is especially good on Monsters with ETFs like Fomor who you’ve already gotten value out of. This also functionally gives him haste. It also lets certain Monsters block something bigger than them, then use their dull and sacrifice ability on another Forward, squeezing that extra tiny bit of value from their monstrous flesh. Springserpent and Sage let you animate two Monsters in one turn. Since his ETF puts the chosen card on the bottom, it navigates much of the protection available in the set, losing only to outright unchooseablility.

B

 

Kraken

3cp for an 8k just does not cut it this set. Jed is good enough that you might run this anyways.

D

 

Sage

Since you can use this on your opponent’s turn too, you can “Brave” two Forwards per turn cycle. More interestingly, you can double up on activated abilities like Springserpent, Ash, Machinist, and Galeserpent. Sage gives you free access to Flameserpent’s second attack. Lets you reactivate a Forward made indestructible by Warrior. And gives you a level of protection against Ice and Lightning’s dull effects. Sage absolutely proves itself as one of the better 8ks in the set, and earns a place in any Water based deck.

B

 

Sahagin

There are plenty of good cards the ETF hits, and even more that its break effect hits. Cheap bounce is a great tempo swing in Limited. Sure there are some cards you don’t want to bounce, anything with its own strong ETF. Water is relatively slow this set, with a lot of very expensive cards, and this should provide enough disruption to get you the time you need.

C

 

Jed

The damage prevention is nice. It’s not great, and it’s not nothing, it’s right in the middle. Suddenly your opponent can’t trade with your Water Forwards. Either beat them or go home. With so much of the set revolving around 8ks, this is a solid leg up. Neither of the other Water SOPFFOs are great, Kraken and Bikke, but Jed’s ETF is so good you’re tempted to run them anyways. And since they’re both 8ks, they also play nicely with Jed’s first ability.

B

 

Springserpent General Mihli Aliapoh

Big fan of getting to draw when this dies. There are so many 8ks around, so having one that effectively cost 0 is a good contender. Not to mention her action ability helps your other 8s rise above. Springserpent helps you get aggressive without skimping on defense, and is one of the few cheap Forwards in an element that seems designed to fuel Ultimecia.

B

 

Ceodore

If you have Cecil S, a way to demand access to Cecil S, enough Ceodores to get one reliably, and preferably some Crystal generators, then you can give two whole Forwards a tiny power boost until either of them dies.

D

 

Astrologian

You get to get rid of the worst card of the three, take the one that’s most relevant now, and tuck a card away for next turn or to set up for a Burst. You’re always happy for anything that digs deeper for your bombs. In the late game, she can dig deeper again, when you’re desperate for something, anything to cast.

C

 

Desch

It’s no mystery why this mysterious man is good. Ninja and Sahagin both enable this, and all three are C, so it’s pretty easy to get this synergy online. 2/9 is a far better statline than most of the set, and is well worth jumping through a hoop that is so low it’s dug into the ground.

B

 

Paladin

Astrologian gives this some stiff competition. Luckily for Paladin, Ninja is very good and wants Crystals, meaning Paladin pays you back a card immediately and then gives you a voucher for a 3cp discount. So if you’ve got good Crystal cards, aim for Paladins, and if not, aim for Astrologians. Either way, you’re gonna be fine with either. What a pal.

B

 

Ninja

An ambush and a bounce? Sign me the fuck up. Particularly good when bouncing something that’s boosting the attacker, like Ash, Tulien, or Faris. It is expensive, and it’s not like you’ll have a million opportunities to make incredible use of this, so don’t go filling your deck with it.

B

 

Bikke

With only two Pirates in the set, you’re not getting the discount. And none of them are so good that you’re really in the market for a way to protect them from a handful of effects. The most relevant text on this job oriented card is somehow his category.

D

 

Faris

Bikke is already an 8k, so Faris only buffs Leila. Like I just said with Bikke, Faris isn’t so good that you need to be able to protect her, so being hard to choose isn’t really relevant.

D

 

Larsa

Larsa gets every Water Forward except Leila, and then gives you plenty of reach into other Elements too.

B

 

Leviathan

There are fourteen cards this plays in the set and two more in the Starters. Wind and Lightning have the most, so if you’re looking to really squeeze the most out of Levi then those are the elements to go into, because there are none in Water. If you don’t have a Forward to play, this is still a solid removal spell. There aren’t many effects this set you can get value by interrupting, for example there’s no Golem you can counter by removing its target, so it won’t have much utility on the opponent’s turn. Just cast it on yours so you get the discount, unless you’ve got some cool synergy with a Forward you’re playing, like the ones we talked about for Edgar.

B

 

Rhus

So he’s probably going to cost 4 which is already a good price, and then he can dodge any removal bar EX. Since he comes back active, he can even give himself “Brave” if you have the cards to spare and really need it. A 9k that’s almost impossible to kill is a very safe bet in Limited.

A

 

Leila

Her reduction isn’t much, but that’s ok, you don’t really need much. Your Rhus and Desch can attack into other 9ks. Your Jed, Sage, and Springserpent can attack into 8ks. And you get this the turn she comes out. This effect isn’t killing anything on its own, but depending what removal you have in other elements, it may put something in range for you to kill it. Just remember she dies to literally every Fire card ever printed.

C

 

Lenna

There’s ten cards with EX, and that includes three Starters, so you’re probably not going to get any use out of her abilities.

C

 

Refia

You already know I want to be playing Squall with this. 3k is a huge amount of damage to stop, so don’t forget about that if there’s an active Refia on the other side of the table.

B

Light/Dark/Starter/Legacy

Warrior of Light

Remember that this only plays out cards that cost exactly 3. Best in Fire, Ice, Earth, and Lightning, all of which have at least 7 targets. Wind and Water have 4 and 3 respectively, making Warrior of Light significantly riskier. If you get one card out of the deal, you’re happy. If you get two, you’re ecstatic, even if they’re not great.

A

 

Skyserpent General Rughadjeen

How would you like to win every one of your combat steps for the rest of the game? What really seals the deal for me here is haste and give another Forward haste, letting you develop a massive attack out of nowhere. Oh, and a 9k blocker with first strike can just block indefinitely, forcing awkward party attacks often requiring three or more Forwards just to get a single point of damage through.

S

 

Darkness Manifest

Darkness Manifest needs to be killed, lest the continued loss of 16 & 2/3rds percent of their health each turn bring down your opponent. Not only does he absorb a piece of removal, he also swats something on the way out. Since it’s a Leaves The Field trigger, even effects like Gau and Ninja aren’t able to deal with him. Ice and Lightning may be able to take advantage of how many resources you’ve put into just him by leaving him unable to block and just swinging through, so be wary there.

A

 

Jack Garland

3/9 with upside, more upside, and then if your opponent has a Dark card, even more upside. There are plenty of SOPFFOs in the set to make Jack even more efficient, but even without them, he’s a 3/9 Brave. Even makes sure you hit your elements early since he can fetch from every element except Lightning.

A

 

Onion Knight

Haste is enough to get me interested. He can play Queen and Nine, both of which are good cards. He has a decent if conditional S, which you can easily pick up a couple of Onion Knight Rs for. He’s pretty medium in general, requiring a very specific deck set-up to shine, a Fire/Lightning deck with plenty of Crystals and lots of Cadets. If you’ve got that deck, kick him up to an A.

C

 

Cloud

Snap up a few Samurai and you’re very happy to have a “free” 9k. Probably only does 3k, but Fire is well suited to make good use of that.

B

 

Firion

Lets look at the whole list of non-Starter DFF Forwards. Y’shtola in Ice, then Onion Knight and Galuf in Earth, then Gilgamesh, Queen, and Nine in Lightning. Y’sh is H, Gilg is C, and the other four are all R. Keep this list in mind moving Forward. It’s mildly relevant for Cloud too, but I thought this would be a better spot to mention it since he really wants two other DFFs so he hits for more than 6k, which is a much tougher hurdle to jump. You can get enough to make Firion reliably hit for full 7k value in Earth and Lightning. If you’re in one of those elements, and you want a steady source of Crystals, Firion will be an excellent cog in your machine.

B

 

Shantotto

Same list of playables as Firion. Shant works doubly well in Lightning since you can use Shantotto C for Salvation Scythe, an extremely potent S. Pleasantly, Lightning Shantotto is the kind of Backup you want to be holding for the mid to late game anyways, so while sometimes you’ll still play the Backup and lock yourself out of casting the Forward, it won’t be as often as if she were just like a regular 2 drop.

B

 

Terra

The first of the Starters that’s just straight up good, without needing a specific deck. I’ll play 3/7 discard a card in any Ice deck. If you can get the Crystal off of her, great, but it’s probably not worth going out of your way for. Her action ability is excellent, so do try to pick up a bunch of Crystal Generators.

B

 

Noctis

Uncastable outside of Earth or Lightning. Potentially very high reward ceiling on this card, coupled with the risk of just being straight up useless sometimes. At least he still works when put into damage.

B

 

Warrior of Light

Again, there’s no way to use Crystals in Wind, so Warrior of Light is highly dependent on your second element. He does give you a target for Princess Goblin, but if that’s your plan you may as well just play Dragoon. Whatever card you draw is probably better than this, and you get a Crystal anyways. Like Firion, if you’re in Earth or Lightning and want a bunch of Crystals, then cool. Unlike Firion, making Crystals is all Warrior of Light does, at least until you amass a whopping four or five of them.

D

 

Cecil

Extremely resilient, which would be much cooler if he didn’t die in combat to like half the set. Do not let Ceodore tempt you into Water. Stay the course. Pair with Earth or Lightning, where his +2k buff will be so, so much more relevant than Ceodore’s +1k. Earth and Lightning’s DFF Forwards are all super duper happy to be bigger.

B

 

Tidus

Ninja costs a card and a Crystal, bounces something, then Tidus gives you a card and a Crystal. Sahagin, already relatively efficient, is now a machine. It’s only once per turn, sure, but both Ninja and Sahagin can be used on your opponent’s turn too.

S

 

Bartz

Excellent tutor for many of Earth and Lightning’s better Forwards, and gives you a body and a Crystal to boot. I’m going to write off his Break Zone ability, it’s nice if it happens, but not worth building towards.

B

 

Palom

Palom feels a bit more relevant this set than originally, and I think you’ll find 2k damage to be a fair amount. Palom and Porom are both better and better the longer they stay out, and it’s extremely hard to deal with them while breaking even on resources. If you can drop Palom in MP2 and burn someone down immediately, you’re almost guaranteed to be up CP once Palom is broken. The longer he continues to exist, the better he gets, and once he hits three counters he’ll be an absolute monster.

A

 

Porom

Better than Palom in the short run, and arguably even once you’re on 3 counters. Porom is able to clear so many frustrating abilities that may be holding your attacks back, or preventing your Summons and Abilities from doing what they do best. They do work extremely well together, but good luck opening two Legacies.

A

 

Leviathan, Lord of the Whorl

An absolutely insane board impact that is worth every CP of its massive cost. Most situations, Levi will clear three Forwards and a Backup, leaving their long-term economy damaged and their short turn board presence erased. Keep in mind you’re putting 4cp back in their hand, so their going to start their next turn with a lot of disposable resources, but most decks will find it nearly impossible to claw back from this oppressive effect.

S