Howdy, folks, and welcome to HowWL! It’s time for a brand new set, which means a brand new sealed/draft environment! Opus XV looks to be an exciting limited format. There are a few things that really excite me, three summons per element, a strong monster cycle, and very few truly unplayable cards. The elements do look a little imbalanced, but nothing is genuinely unplayable and every element feels like it has some strong options. There are lots of cool interactions, and the introduction of Crystals will be a lot of fun to explore. It looks like availability won’t be too much of an issue, so hopefully those of you who can safely come together to draft will be able to play the format to your heart’s content. Between Rebels, Headhunters, Dancers, Cat VI, and Kingsglaive, there are plenty of hooks to draw us into interesting decks, and I look forward to getting my hands on these archetypes.
Well, that’s enough preamble. Let’s get into the cards!
Rating Scale
5: Almost singlehandedly wins you the game.
4: Creates an incredibly difficult game state, or solves one.
3: Provides great value, or balances power with a weakness.
2: A reliable workhorse. Has broad but unexciting use.
1: Easy to cut from the deck, or has a very niche application.
0: Discards for 2cp. Maybe not even that.
Fire
Ifrita seems a little more well positioned this set than before. Even downshifted to R, you’re never getting enough copies for the full 3 for 3, but she’s a good flexible spell. 7k is a reasonable amount, 3k to the board works well with a few cards in the set (unlike Ifrita’s first showing), and every once in a blue moon it’ll snipe a monster. That last one probably won’t ever be relevant since Ifrita’s 7k kills them all anyway, but every once in a while you’ll cancel Relm’s ETF or something. It’s a serviceable piece of removal that will slot in well to any Fire deck.
2.5
Sky Warrior gives you a very unique outlet for converting hand CP into board control. While the exchange rate may not be great, it’s a direct line that doesn’t rely on any intermediary steps. This means cards that are expensive or slow, like Sabin, can be turned directly into damage right here and right now. Have a duplicate you can’t play? 3k. Drew your splash card without a source of CP? 3k. Sixth Backup? 3k. A searcher when you’ve burnt all your targets? 3k. A Crystal spender while you’re broke? 3k. Sky Warrior can make use of any niche card that you can’t find a way to make useful. This set is filled with sources of Not–Quite–Enough–Damage that Sky Warrior helps to turn lethal. It also has two very attractive features in a filler Backup: multiplay and breakability. Unlike other 2CP commons like Edgar, you can draft as many Sky Warriors as you want without worrying that they’ll clog up either your hand or your backline (especially since he can just pitch extras for damage). Again, he isn’t super efficient or anything, and even his sacrifice isn’t dealing enough to kill the big threats, but he’s cheap to put down, broadly applicable, and gives a huge boost to your consistency by giving every single card in your deck an extra method of use.
2.5
10k is a huge amount of power to threaten. There are few Forwards at C and R in Opus XV that can tangle with that, and almost all of them are in Fire already. Without help, 8 and 9ks can’t get into combat with Sky Samurai, as you can essentially trade a single card in hand for that Forward’s entire cost. Just the threat of activating Sky Samurai will often make it so you don’t actually have to. It also protects her from big sources of direct damage like Shiva and Bahamut. Once she gains Brave, your opponent will be forced to deal with her, as she will be able to dominate the field both on offense and on defense at the same time. Be careful when your opponent goes to force the issue: she can be killed in response to the activation. Attacking without Brave into a 9k and an active The Emperor is just asking to be blown out.
3
There are eighteen Category VI Forwards in the format, including five in Fire (two H, two R, and a C), making Edgar reasonably consistent. He pairs especially well with Water, boasting two H, two C, an R, and an L, though decks looking to leverage their Celes in Fire will also be hot on Edgar. 3k is a substantial boost, and will let most Forwards attack into just about anything. It also helps certain Forwards like Vargas and Leon hit their trigger thresholds. Even if the 7k isn’t killing anything, you can sometimes use it to soften up a larger Forward, then attack into that Forward with something smaller like Bomb or Rinok. For only 2CP and clever application, Edgar threatens a ton of offensive presence. Don’t get too greedy with him during the draft though; the more Edgars in your deck, the more likely you are to be forced to play him as a developmental Backup, losing the ability to use his ability at a more relevant stage in the game. Don’t let an early Edgar pull you into playing VI, make sure you have another reason. It shouldn’t be that hard for any Fire/X deck to get enough VI Forwards that he’ll have something to do, and even without the VI text he’s a fine Backup.
3
You absolutely need support to run Guy, either in Rebels or an absolute ton of Warriors. Once you have that support, Guy is both extremely efficient and huge. His strongest line is probably to fetch out Josef who then gets another Rebel, leaving you up a Backup and a card in hand. In addition to the Rebel/Warriors, Llyud, Galuf, and Mog (VI) can also give Guy a boost, so don’t forget about them.
3
Nothing else in the set can trigger Cyan, so we’re just looking at him on his own merits here. 7CP is a ton. An absolute ton. Blessedly, you’re getting a ton of board control for that. 9k is enough to kill pretty much anything in the format, and is also a towering presence on the battlefield. As a late game stabilizer, his Damage 5 absolutely yeets whatever is giving you fits. On top of all this, he’s even Category VI for synergy with Edgar, Locke, and Celes.
3.5
A cheap proactive Backup helping to set up your future Bahamuts or Firions or whatever spenders you’ve drafted. Unlike Edgar, this is a Backup you want to play in the first few turns. Like Sky Warrior, it’s both multiplay and breakable. Both sides of it play extremely well with Firion, the Crystal helping to enable his spenders, and the damage boost being incredibly strong with his First Strike. The damage boost is also good on cards like Rinok, anything you target with Edgar (especially Vargas), The Emperor, Dancer, the list goes on. A Samurai or two can even turn something like a Machina backed by an Ifrita into a one-sided board wipe. If you don’t end up with a Firion, Bahamut is the only other Crystal spender in Fire, so Samurai’s worth to you is decided a lot based on what cards you’ve drafted that want either the Crystal or the damage boost. Regardless, it’s a 2CP Backup, so picking them up early isn’t exactly a risk.
2
While vaguely unimpressive, Shadow has a lot of things going for him. Haste can be a strong way to disrupt combat math. Edgar, Celes, and Locke will gladly take anything with “VI” in the Category line. EX is always nice. If you’ve got something like a Firion in play, or in hand having been revealed by Josef, your opponent may not want to kill Shadow. These are all relatively minor advantages, though, and Shadow promises to be all but filler in any deck.
1.5
I’d be slamming this into every Fire deck I play even without the potential discount. There are very few things in this set that don’t die to Bahamut. Having “4CP kill anything” at C is going to make fighting against Fire a nightmare. Honestly I think that the biggest weakness of this card is that there are so many sources of 7k+ damage available already that your opponent just won’t have any Forwards left for it to kill. And with Firion, an L, as the only card in Fire that can even use Crystals, it won’t be uncommon for Bahamut to easily be your best outlet for your collection of minerals.
4
Vargas can be very effective as a second blocker; if your first blocker dies in combat, then it’ll be pretty hard to swing into a 10k. Edgar enables Vargas with a minimum of fuss, but since his power gain triggers on any Forward dying, you can burn down an opposing Forward to get his attack trigger online. Forcing any Forward, dull or not, to have to block a 10k is pretty strong. Just be careful about activating Forwards with a dull ability, like The Emperor or Dancer. Vargas is also Cat VI for the decks that care about that.
2
2k is kind of an awkward amount of damage. Most of the sources of burn don’t work too too well with it, but both Brynhildr and Bomb can combine for a cheap 7k. He also gives all your Forwards a little more range in combat, letting them battle things bigger than themselves. That isn’t really something Fire is going to struggle with this opus, but it’ll be nice for your other element. If you can stick him and protect him until he hits 3xp, 8k every turn should win you the game in short order, but every element has multiple ways to deal with him so don’t count on it. I might be undervaluing him, but I think that while he does provide value, you’re not going to be able to do anything all that strong with him. Fire is doing great this set, and Palom isn’t really adding in any way that Fire isn’t already incredibly strong, although if you end up with a ton of Bombs he can be a solid way to make them much more lethal. Naturally, he’s phenomenal with Porom, if you somehow manage to draft both.
1.5
There are five 3ks and nothing smaller, so your entire list of options is: Kytes, Cait Sith (XI), Aranea, Tredd, Ultros. I’d only ever play this in Fire/Lightning, with their two targets, and I’d need a really good reason to play it even there. If there were ways to make this more consistent, or if there were better targets for it, 6 for an 8 and a 3 would be reasonable, but none of the targets are so good that I want to run a card that maybe gets one back sometimes. If you’ve got a very Forward heavy deck, or a very Lightning focused deck, Cait Sith and Aranea picking up a card along the way can really help to pay back Faris’ cost, especially if Aranea is coming down as a 5k which Fire can absolutely take advantage of, but I really am not the gambling sort. Being able to recur an Ultros is pretty decent, as you can pitch him early when he’s not quite useful yet, and use Faris to get him back when it’s time to start using him. If you can somehow pick her up in multiples (and draw them), Pirate Storm is an extremely powerful S, and with five potential 3CP or less cost Forwards in Fire, you shouldn’t have a difficult time building up a board that provides for a boatload of damage.
0.5
Once you draft a Firion, you pretty much snap up every single Samurai you see. An absolutely insane Crystal spender, Firion is a great reason to start picking up even weaker Crystal generators like Shadow. As a Warrior/Rebel, Firion also has great synergy all over the place, with both Guy and Josef in Fire, and Llyud and Maria in Wind. Seeing as he can also trigger Leon’s card draw, Firion is naturally drawn towards Fire/Wind, although any element can benefit from him given enough Crystal generators. Firion is so solid on his own, and has so many cards that he works well with, that only decks completely starved for Crystals will be unable to make strong use of him. Try to pick up some cheap sources of direct damage so that you can protect him in combat. When you’re on one Crystal left, it will often be better to use something like Sky Warrior to combo kill a 9k blocker, so that you can save the +3k and not leave him open to getting burnt out in response to his buff.
4
5k is a very respectable amount of damage, able to combine with basically any source of damage in Fire in order to get the card draw off. If you’re already naturally running Sky Warriors, Rinok, and Palom, you can really capitalize off of Brynhildrs EX, although I wouldn’t warp my deck around the EX of a single card. At any rate, Brynhildr promises to give you the reach you need to deal with pretty much anything short of Titan’s +10000.
3
Outside of the Headhunters package, Bwagi is a super unexciting Backup. Essentially a Gramps without EX that you need to dull to get the card off of. Once you’re in Headhunters, however, he really helps dig deep into your deck. A Backup that essentially dulls for 2CP is pretty lucrative, and while you do need to keep him fueled, he’ll pay you back with interest. You’re committing to a slow strategy, so make sure that the rest of your deck is suited to that, but even if you’re in dire straights you can spend the Bounty Counters elsewhere. Both Rinok and Ba’Gamnan have strong Counter outlets so it’s not like you’re locked in to drawing cards. Still, the package is somewhat slow and revolves around getting four Rs across two elements, so keep in mind that you really have to be the only drafter in Earth/Fire to be getting the most out of Bwagi.
2
This cute lil dude provides solid damage on both his front and back ends. Surely at this point you’re tired of hearing me talk about chaining sources of damage together, so I won’t list off all the different Fire cards that make strong use of Bomb. There’s a ton, we both know that. You won’t have any difficulty getting Bomb to blow up one or two Forwards. Just make sure you’re not drowning in them, as they can’t contribute to killing players nearly as well as regular Forwards.
2.5
A great way to come back from behind, or from a slow start. Machina doesn’t help so much in a particularly aggressive deck, as it’s less likely you’ll get his discount or his attack trigger, but he’s an incredible stabilizer or pressure builder in a slower deck. On top of his 4k cleave being excellent as a damage starter, it also softens up blockers so that if your second Forward is small, it can attack into much larger bodies. Even if you’re not able to get him down as a 3/9, or make use of his damage, most elements will struggle to remove a 9k, leaving you with a totally playable baseline.
3
Sabin is very hard to kill for a lot of decks, and as long as you’re careful (for example not playing him out alone against decks running Atomos) you should be able to get his 9k trigger off. It’s especially nice that it’s just a “start your turn” trigger instead of an attack trigger as it lets you leave him up for defense, unlike Machina. Many decks will have to throw more CP at Sabin than it took to play him, and with his timer ticking, they won’t have a chance to line up a profitable trade or anything. They have to kill him now or suffer the consequences. Do be careful against Wind, however, as both Alexander and Garchimacera can ruin your day.
3.5
While 3CP Backups aren’t game-endingly bad, there are enough other good Backups in Fire that you probably shouldn’t end up playing Josef unless you have the cards to support him. Even if you end up with just Josef and Guy, since either one fetches the other you’re probably happy, even with only one copy of each. Once you start loading up on off-color Rebels, Josef really starts to become attractive, and as soon as you have a single Firion L you’re probably snapping up as many Josefs as you can find.
2
Unlike the rest of the Headhunters, Rinok is absolutely playable on his own. Coming in with two stocks of 5k damage, Rinok will very often be the beginning of a damage chain. Even without other sources to combo with, he threatens to block and kill Forwards up to 10k power. He synergizes with over half the cards in Fire, and manages to hold his own even without support. Once placed into the Headhunters deck, where his entry will put counters on Bwagi and Ba’Gamnan, and he can throw their counters once he runs out, Rinok will be a true terror.
3
I was absolutely ready to dismiss General Leo as a huge trap, but every element in Opus XV has three summons. This means that he’ll have a decent impact against pretty much every player you sit down across from. Being obligated to block is a huge drawback, especially against Ice or Lilisette who can dull on demand and force bad blocks. On the other hand, being protected from powerful summons like Ramuh, Famfrit, and Hecatonchier is a great place to be. As long as you’re careful about the circumstances you play Leo in, you should be a-ok, but I will caution you: he will be an easy card to fuck up with.
2.5
Fire is in a great spot. The worst card at C/R is Shadow, a 4/8 with upside, and it is packed with quality removal. It is almost impossible to draft a Fire deck that isn’t good, unless you’re getting hard cut on both sides. If I had to wager, I’d bet that Fi/Wi Rebels is the best deck in the format, and Ea/Fi Headhunters feels pretty strong as well. Ic/Fi VI stands to be a real contender, even if we ignore all the VI stuff and just put Orphan in a Fire deck. Even the less impressive combinations, with Lightning and Water, even they feel like they’ve got some serious reach. Just understand when you should be prioritizing which packages, how much you value Crystals, make sure you’ve got an appropriate backline, and you literally can’t go wrong with Fire. While I don’t think it’s the best element in the set (not that 2nd place is bad), it’s the most stable and most consistent.
Ice
There are some real Haste threats in the format, Shadow, Firion , Lighting, Llyud, Ramuh, Lady Lilith, and I guess Noctis technically. Being able to trade in a Backup in exchange for not fucking dying seems like a pretty acceptable insurance policy. Being able to remove First Strike from Firion, something targetted by Dragoon, a Tredd target, Nyx, Noel, and Rufus is also a good way to make sure you’re taking them down too. Stripping Brave is significantly less impactful, as you have to do it before attacks, giving them the option of just not attacking. While there are plenty of cards that Amid can strip, all he’s doing is stripping. Situations where it’s actually worth it to lose a Backup to remove on of those abilities will be few and far between.
1.5
Orphan, Cid Raines, and Celes are the only real ways of making your opponent discard (unless you get insanely lucky with Shiva). Unfortunately, cards like Sky Samurai won’t count. Without a reliable and repeatable source of discard, Werei just isn’t going to cut it, meaning you only really want to be running it in a deck with more than one Orphan. Orphan already has a huge target on his back, running a card that is almost exclusively enabled by him seems risky, although you really only need one trigger to be on par with the 2CP Backups. For Cid Raines, keep in mind that Werei only triggers at the end of your turn, so if Cid dies while blocking there won’t be a draw coming down the pipeline.
1
An engine unto himself, Orphan threatens to completely dominate the game. As soon as the first phase after you play him, Orphan is already generating advantage, and every turn he survives he rips another 2CP and another blocker from your opponent. Like Werei before him, he even triggers off Cid Raines and Celes, and even has EX so you don’t even need to draw him for him to impact the game. With cards like Sky Samurai and Magitek Armor, who convert cards-in-hand into direct field resources, you’re able to take strong advantage of cards like this who impact the economy every single turn. Orphan takes away your opponent’s resources every turn and gives you incredible control over your attack step, and will be one of the strongest reasons to move into Ice during the draft.
4
With three summons per element, Scholar isn’t that hard to enable. You’re probably only using this ability to win the game (or not lose the game) but he’s really good at that. You’re always happy to play a developmental Backup that you can cash in late game for a powerful effect, and Scholar promises exactly that.
1.5
As if Orphan wasn’t good enough already. Kazusa also handily makes Cid Raines terrifying to kill. Unconditional break like this isn’t usually in Ice’s wheelhouse, so enjoy it while it’s here.
3
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a The Emperor that’s good in limited. As a singleton, The Emperor has an intimidating action ability, threatening to punish any attacker. Ice has so many ways to dull on demand that it shouldn’t be hard to The Emperor anything you want. Once you have more than one, he becomes incredibly hard to kill. Pleasantly, the new The Emperor he brings in comes in active, letting you chump block over and over if you need to.
3
Let’s lead with a warning: Gogo is not optional; activating a Monster as your first action will kill him. The Emperor is the only card in Ice that you actually want to be copying, but there are a whole bunch of other cool action abilities, especially in Fire and Lightning. Shadow, Palom, Rinok, Axis, Magitek Armor, Lilisette, and Lady Lilith are all extremely powerful, and that’s not even a comprehensive list. If you’re in any other element, your options will be more limited, but not non-existent. I’d like to quickly touch on his interaction with Edge, assuming there’s only one valid target for his ability. Since Gogo will resolve before Edge, Edge can’t redirect the Summon/ability to himself anymore, since Gogo isn’t a Wind Forward.
2
As I mentioned for The Emperor, there are a ton of ways to let Zalera break anything it wants. You shouldn’t have much trouble getting strong value out of this.
3
With the other Shiva at C, it’s pretty possible to get this Shiva to double dull. Even alone, 1CP to dull one isn’t awful. Both Scholar and Terra want you to have lots of summons, and both The Emperor and Zalera reward you for having cheap sources of dull. Since you can always choose two, even if you won’t get the extra effects, Edge can’t even redirect it from what you’re trying to target. It’s not super impactful unless you’re swimming in Shivas, but it’s got decent enough synergy with other effects that it’s worth running.
1.5
This Shiva though, this Shiva is the truth. 9k for 3 is incredible, and Ice almost never gets combat tricks, making both options extremely desirable. Add in the opportunity to exchange a Crystal for 2CP and you’ve got one of the best summons in the set.
3.5
Random discard is a powerful tool. Sometimes it snipes their bomb, and sometimes they’re so afraid it’ll snipe their bomb they make bad decisions out of fear. That said, Cid is still just filler, but he’s filler that you’re not upset to be running.
1.5
I said a lot about Jumbo Flan here, but let me summarize. While it isn’t great, it’s good, and it’s good at nearly any point after the first couple of turns. Whether you’re applying pressure or trying to alleviate it, Jumbo Flan will help turn that crank the way you want it to go. Where it is less impressive is if you’re slowly losing a grindy game, as you’re looking for a way to punch through a large board state. In this case, Jumbo Flan’s ability to turn CP into tempo isn’t too impactful, although you may be able to use in in conjunction with another similar ability to stun your opponent’s Forwards just long enough to secure victory.
2
Snow is really interesting, as he almost always has a good use case. If you and your opponent are arguing over resources, freezing their backline for a turn is a huge stumbling block for their economy. If you’re ahead, Snow freeze can cement your advantage, and if you’re behind, it can give you an extra turn to build without worrying about having your face beaten in. His effect is gated behind a Crystal, so make sure you have enough ways to unlock his potential, but if you do then he’ll be a strong addition to your team.
3
A little bit of non-synergy with the rest of Ice, as Setzer really wants you to be playing a minimum of non-Characters while there are three Summons you’re happy to play, and two cards that care about Summons (one of whom also cares about VI Forwards). As a one-of, you shouldn’t be warping your deck too much in order to maximize your odds, just accept that sometimes you’re gonna gamble and lose. Should you have some other good Crystal spenders, he even starts to generate Crystals of his own. Keep in mind that the Monster cycle break themselves after his effect triggers, so they can’t get him to make a Crystal unless they die some other way. When Setzer hits, he’s going to be incredible, but if he misses or you don’t have the Crystal to activate him, he’s pretty lackluster.
2.5
It’s nice that even if you’re out of search targets, Celes is still live. 4/7 discard is a totally acceptable rate, and being able to freeze two Backups on party is great. You don’t even need another VI Character, she can party with any Ice Forward to get her trigger off. Having the option to return VI Characters is strong, as there are many in the set that are exceptional, like Sabin and Umaro. Celes always has applications, and the more you can build around her the stronger she gets, although you really need to be getting her party trigger to get real value out of her.
3
It is so easy to load up on summons in this set, making Terra absolutely insane. Being able to hit Backups makes her strong at all but the very first turn of the game. Even after she hits the field, her cast trigger gives you unbelievable control over the flow of the game. If you’re looking to get the most out of Terra, you’ll pick up plenty of ways to dull Forwards to enable Zalera, and a few Crystal generators to make Shiva C cheaper. Every element has strong summons, so Terra isn’t really pulled in any specific direction more than others. Ultimately, unless you somehow manage to draft fewer than five Summons, Terra will be one of the best cards in your deck.
5
Ice’s Crystal spenders are great, and being able to dull on command is great, especially without having to commit any other resources. Only able to hit 3CP or less, Knight can’t really stop the actual threats from being able to block, but if you just need to get some amount of bodies out of the way then he’ll perform admirably. Moreso than any other card in this cycle, being restricted to only your turn is huge, as it means you can only really use Knight offensively, either to sideline blockers or enable Zalera, Shiva, and The Emperor.
2
Clearly you need to be loaded up on big bodies, and you need to be the one pressuring the opponent, but Ice does have three 9ks and plenty of 8s. Now I don’t want to say words like “good” or “reliable,” but I can stand by the words “acceptable” and “serviceable.” Keep in mind you can alter the new Forward’s power before Mime resolves, so for instance if you play a Haster you can double up on Titan’s +10k. Cute ways to surprise change Mime’s power include using Nyx to pull out a Regis or an Ardyn, or finding a way to churn a The Emperor into a new one. Not cute ways include activating Ultros and putting a new 3k into play.
1.5
Decent at slowing down your opponent, and even leaves a present behind when he dies. Larzos isn’t out here winning any medals, and Ice already has plenty of ways to halt aggression, but more never hurt anyone. Plus he’s got a sick hat.
2
You can probably reliably get her to like 3 or 4CP, and with enough Orphans and Cid Raineses you might even be able to score a point of damage off her EoT. One really nice thing about her is that you can bluff what her power is. Let’s say you have 3 in hand, they swing with a 9k, you block and cast a summon giving her +1. Sort of an edge case, a lot has to happen to get in that situation, but it’s worth knowing about.
2.5
In a VI heavy deck he’s much more attractive, coming down with a discount and potentially drawing extra cards later. There are enough VI Characters in Fire, Ice, and Water that I don’t think it’s unreasonable to get his odds above 33%. His ability isn’t optional, so be aware about decking yourself. Unless you’re searching him off Celes, be prepared for Locke to just be a Galuf that doesn’t even get you a Crystal.
1.5
Even though Ice has a few more duds than Fire, I still think it’s the best pure Element (ignoring multielement synergy like Rebels and Headhunters). Orphan is easily the best C/R in the set, Shiva and Zalera are both heavy hitters, the VI deck has some serious legs, and a timely Snow or Jumbo Flan can completely change the game’s tempo. Not to mention Terra, probably the best card in the set. Ice pairs well with actually every element, with both Fire and Water getting a nod for their density of VI Characters. If I’m being honest, there are very few cards I’m first picking over Orphan, and I expect to play a lot of Ice/X before the set is done.
Wind
A clean answer to several problem cards like Sabin, Orphan, and Magitek Armor. Slots in nicely alongside Zalera as a way to hit the stuff Zalera misses. Every deck will be playing some number of targets for this, though its efficiency against cards like Guy and Hilda isn’t great. Where its efficiency shines is against combat tricks, removing both a Forward and the effectiveness of the trick, or against a Forward like Sky Samurai after they sink extra resources into it. I’ve been focusing mostly on the C/Rs that Alexander takes care of, but sometimes you’ll get to snipe something truly backbreaking, like a Vayne, or an Ace in response to its discard trigger before they get a chance to cast anything.
2.5
With only Kytes, Filo, and Penelo in the set, getting any reasonable value off of Vaan is completely off the table. The best you can reliably hope for is getting -4k on entry, as Filo is about the only other Sky Pirate you actually want to be playing. Now ok, I’ll say this in his defense, if you’re in Wind/Water, -2k on entry is a nice way to mop up a blocker, for the low low price of an entire Sabin. I dunno about you, but being worse than a common is not exactly where I want my Ls to be. If you decide to go deep on an early Vaan, the nice thing is that no one else will want Kytes or Penelo, and you should be able to pick them up easily. At least he has an acceptable power to cost ratio, making him a cut above Faris.
1.5
There are a lot of sources of damage flying around, especially in Fire, and Edge is a great way to protect parts of your team from effects like Sabin and Shiva. Pleasantly, he can also commute effects like Jumbo Flan and Porom. Edge is an excellent shield against all sorts of unwanted interaction, just keep in mind he can only redirect things he’s a legal target for, so no shunting Zalera while he’s active.
2.5
We’ll talk about Lilisette/Mayakov synergy when we get there, for now I just want to focus on Dancer on its own. Wind has a few cards that aren’t very exciting as attackers, like Edge and Nono. Dancer helps your other attackers threaten to trade with blockers up to 3k bigger, while also making even matches safe. At C it’s not tough to assemble multiple Dancers, and if you can combine them with another global effect like Diabolos, Vayne, Ifrita, or Machina, you can end up with a powerful board clear. Dancer also provides protection against damage-based removal, letting you buff your whole team in the face of your opponent’s burn spells and global damage. In games where you’re allowed to build a board of 3+ Forwards, Dancer will be able to provide benefit after benefit. He does require a fair amount of time and board presence to really shine, though, so in aggression or attrition based matchups he may end up unable to perform.
1.5
If you happen to have a Vaan, you can Kytes him to get an extra -2k at end of turn. Wow. Oh, and if you also have Faris you can do it again oh wait he exiles himself just kidding. All Kytes does is enable bad cards. Don’t play him.
0
Wind is unique, being the only element that just cares that you have a Crystal and doesn’t ask you to spend it. This lets you essentially gain double benefit from that Crystal as you can go on to spend it after Kain dies. Since there’s no way for your opponent to force you to lose a Crystal, there’s no cute counterplay for them to gain control of Kain, so you don’t have to worry about him getting stolen from you. Both his attack triggers are great. His reactivation pairs nicely with Dancer, allowing you to boost him effortlessly to 10k, and giving you the resources to get to four casts for Diabolos. At only 2CP, Kain is one of the most efficient bodies in the set, and between Dancer, Diabolos, and Dragoon, Wind has several ways to keep him safe as he generates advantage with every attack.
3.5
Groucho Marx is a cool summon. Between him and Alexander, Wind can handle any Forward except 3s. Fire, Ice, Earth, and Lightning can all field 5/9s at C that Wind will typically have trouble attacking through, and Oscar the Grouch’s ability to clear them while also being able to stall 1 and 2CPs with tempo makes him an attractive option. The bulk of threats in the set are 3s and 4s, so don’t load up on too many Garchomps. He’s is a good way to flesh out your deck, but he shouldn’t be the bulk of it.
2
There are very few things Gigantuar outright kills, Guy, Faris, Orphan, and Cloud, and two of those are bad anyways. Guy and Orphan both demand removal before they get out of hand, and Gigantuar is the best answer to those two cards specifically, but while it’s an excellent response to two specific cards, even against decks running them there’s no guarantee you’ll have Gigantuar at the same time they have those threats, so we’re definitely looking at Gigantuar in conjunction with cards like Dancer, Kytes, or Diabolos to get the rest of the way there. Even if you do get a 6k body afterwards, I’d much rather just use Garchimacera. Unlike Bomb and Jumbo Flan before it, Gigantuar’s restriction makes it harder to get value off the ETF, and Wind is less well positioned to take advantage of a random 6k. If you’re fully stocked up on Dancers and Chocobos, or you’re paired with Fire and its bevy of random damage, Gigantuar does make a bit more sense, but most Wind/X decks will struggle to make use of one, and definitely struggle to make the second or third useful in any way.
1
This card is interesting, as evasion is extremely rare in FFTCG. Without an engine like Kain, it will be tough to get G off every single turn, but you really only need once or twice to punch through for lethal. Once you start amassing cards in hand, G becomes a huge threat that your opponent will want to throw all sorts of removal at. Outside of that, she’s pretty unexciting. She really only shines in long games, letting you convert your resource generation directly into player damage.
2
This card baffles me. The whole point of partying is that your two Forwards will overpower any blocker. You combine a 5k and a 6k, and the 9k blocker can only kill one of them. Giving one of them +2 doesn’t accomplish much. It does have a couple of decent uses: it lets you party an attacker safely into a blocker that’s of equal or 1k higher power, leaving the other party member as the only option for the blocker to break; and it helps protect your party members from direct damage (although they can just cast that damage before the attack). At least it’s cheap, and playable in multiple.
1
Not only is this an excellent combat trick, it also acts as pseudo-damage, letting you pair it with other sources of damage like Brynhildr to create super cheap removal. With all the damage sources in Fire, Diabolos is naturally pulled towards that element. The dream is to cast 4 and use either an Ifrita or a Machina swing to burn down the whole team.
3
Sometimes you just really need that Mog (VI) to be active… Oh, if you use it with Gogo out, Gogo counter-reactivates Nono! Combo alert!
0
Like Kain before him, Bartz gets a boost just from having a Crystal, and unlike Kain you can actually spend all your Crystals without outright losing the game. The 4/10 statline is nice, and Wind desperately needs a large body or two. If you’re really swimming in Crystals he can defy death itself. If you’re also in Water, he enables Lenna, taking her from great to completely busted.
2.5
Filo is a great Backup for the Dancer deck, or a deck looking to combine Bartz and Lenna, or any Wind/X deck looking to splash Water. Glad to see more of these Class X Moogle type cards, as they add reasonable consistency to their respective element pairings. If you end up in the Sky Pirates deck (please don’t), hitting Penelo or Kytes with Wind Soul, while Vaan makes it hard to block, can end up closing the game out in short order.
2.5
On her own she’s a 5k with a bit of protection built in, which is serviceable filler. Once you have one other Rebel Forward, she starts paying off, as she gives Leon and Firion L +2k, Firion C +3k, and Guy +4k. Most of the Rebel package are at R or higher, so hopefully you’ve got a Josef or three to help assemble the team, as once you have 3 or more Rebel Forwards Maria’s boost really starts going crazy. Her damage reduction even helps safeguard the team, but as always, be careful of Maria getting sniped while another Rebel is in combat and depending on her buff to survive.
2
The only real Crystal spender in Wind is Garchimacera, so unless you’re sitting on a Kain or a Bartz (who really only care that you have at least one Crystal) you don’t really have the same desire for Crystals that other elements do. On the other hand, Wind has probably the hardest time actually making Crystals, as only Dragoon, Bartz+Lenna, and sacrificing Rem can do it. Giving First Strike to an attacker is pretty strong, allowing you to make what would normally be trades into more one-sided affairs. Be cautious of a trick like Titan, as it can completely blow you out here. Dragoon helps make safe Forwards with attack triggers that you really want to pull off, like Llyud and Kain, allowing you to hopefully get those triggers turn after turn. Regardless of whether you do or don’t have a use for Dragoon’s abilities, Wind is the element most strapped for Backups, with only three Cs, one R, and one H, so pick him up anyways.
2
Getting an 8k attacker for only 2 is pretty nice, and Wind needs something like that to apply pressure. There are plenty of Warriors: all of the Rebel Forwards as well as Galuf and Mog (VI). Notably, Llyud’s buff is enough to let Leon trigger himself. He’s weak on defense, so he won’t help you stabilize, something Wind is already weak at, so make sure you’re either hyper-aggressive or you’ve got some strong defensive options like those in Ice or Earth.
2
While 10ks are tough to come by, the Rebel package, Llyud, and Romaa Mihgo are all ways to get there. Bartz does it on his own, and any 9k backed by Dancer can also get there. If you’re in Lightning, Vayne is an incredible way to get multiple triggers, as is Shiva in Ice. Cute combos aside, the real reason you’re running Leon is in conjunction with Llyud or with Rebels. Being able to bring Maria along for free is strong, and with help from Fire, Leon helps you quickly assemble all the Avengers.
Gesundheit. Playing three things in a turn isn’t out of the question, and Lehko can give you some consistency if you’re looking to assemble something like Rebels or Dancers (or heaven help you Sky Pirates). It’s a ton of set-up, though, and while Wind has a lot of cheap cards, none of them really chain into each other well. The other payoffs for casting multiple cards, Shikaree G and Diabolos, don’t play with Lehko at all. I just worry that you don’t have time to overpay for a Backup, wait a turn, then cast a bunch of cards. Unless you’re getting something seriously powerful like Terra, it feels like too much effort.
0
Rem leads to some interesting lines where you can play a Backup, play Rem, then play a 3CP Backup, which would be great. If Wind had any. Wind is so full of even cost cards that it’ll be hard to effectively get a discount out of Rem. What you’ll most likely end up doing is reactivating an attacker in MP2, then threatening to use her to create a surprise blocker. She also works well with dull abilities like Rinok, Strago, or Magitek Armor. Also makes Ice’s dull and freeze effects less potent against you.
1.5
Like Llyud, Romaa excels at offense (and enables Leon) but also works well with instant speed draw like Garchimacera, Brynhildr, and Strago, or some obscure interaction like Relm into Blue Wyrm. 10k on offense is nothing to sneeze at, and Romaa promises an acceptable body with little in the way of synergy.
2
Wind is so full of bad cards. Honestly the only thing keeping Rebels from being oppressively powerful is how mediocre the rest of Wind is. Kain is the only card that is remotely first pickable outside the incredibly rare Yiazmat. The Summons are all great, so Wind at least has some game, but there’s almost no synergy outside of Fire for Rebels and Water for Filo, Bartz, and Dancer. Honestly, if you’re not in Fire or Water, look somewhere else. And unlike other draft formats that have had bad elements (Wind in Opus VII, Water in Opus VIII and XI), you can’t even get away with being the only Wind drafter at the table, since people will fight over Rebels.
Earth
Being able to choose between Mustadio and Minfilia makes for an extremely flexible card. It can act as a developmental Backup in the first turns of the game, it can stuff aggression while advancing your economy, and it can pull back your spent bombs in the late game. Earth is overloaded with Backups, with four at C and two at R, so be careful about how many you draft.
It’s really tough to make either end of this work. Aranea is the only way to check your top card, so it’s nigh impossible to intentionally use Scholar to avoid drawing a bad card, or to stock your BZ with cards like Kingsglaives to remove for Nyx. These things CAN happen, but they’re impossible to control for. Scholar’s best use case is putting search targets back in your deck. Firion (and other Rebels I guess) is fetchable off Guy and Josef. Locke for Celes. Headhunters for Gijuk. The Emperor, Gilgamesh, Cecil, and Dracoknight all want extra copies in the deck, so if you end up with those in multiples then Scholar can give you an extra cycle for free. The shuffle effect is bad, and should only be used if you need space in your backline for a card like Vanille or Feolthanos, or if the absolute only way you win the game is by drawing a bomb you mulliganed or Cait Sith (XI)’d to the bottom. After all, a slim chance is better than no chance. If you’re looking to abuse search effects, Scholar’s your guy, and I really want to play him with a bunch of Dracoknights backed by Shinryu Celestias and Famfrits, but most decks aren’t going to be able to make use of his abilities.
1.5
While there are cards like Firion, Kefka, Lady Lilith, and Lenna, most decks have a pretty low cap on how many Crystals they can really use. Not that Galuf is actually going to start just generating Crystal after Crystal, just keep your expectations tempered. Most of the time, your opponent is going to at least try to avoid getting into battle with Galuf unless they’re prepared to kill him. If he just trades with another Forward, he’s basically a Larzos that doesn’t even freeze. If he gets hit by removal before he can do anything, he’s even worse, and with multiple cards that handle him for less CP than his cost (Bahamut, Shiva, Garchimacera, Titan, Remora, sometimes Atomos, all of which are C), Galuf represents a big risk. Where Galuf shines is at snowballing an advantage. If the opponent is in a bad situation, and you have a powerful Crystal spender, they kind of can’t block him, or they risk fueling your Cecil, or Robel-Akbel. He’s also a Warrior, and his synergy with both Guy and Llyud will come up every once in a while. Most of the other 5CP+ Forwards get you some kind of benefit before battle, aside from Locke, even if it’s just Machina’s attack trigger. Consider that Sabin, Orphan, and Magitek Armor don’t die to Shiva, Titan, or Remora until after their effects (probably), and Guy, Larzos, and Cyan are guaranteed to get their ETFs. Now I’m not saying that a 5/9 is bad, in fact Earth could use more 9ks, just making sure you understand that Galuf has so many answers that you need to be careful about how you play him. Galuf does need to see the thing die to get a Crystal (dying at the same time works, so feel free to trade with another 9k), so remember that in case of something like Remora boosting a Forward out of lethal range, you can’t get a Crystal if you kill it later in the turn.
1.5
With only four Headhunters in the set, we definitely needed a card like this to make the deck more consistent. Probably best to delay this until you have one or two other Headhunters, so that you can more accurately pick out the one that you need. Also typically strongest when played after Bwagi or Ba’Gamnan, to trigger more Bounty Counters. He is a Backup that searches another Backup, making him a decent tool for a Earth/Fire deck looking to get a stable backline. Probably decent with only a Rinok or two for a target, as Gijuk can restock him once he runs out of ammo.
2.5
The list of targets for his Damage 3: Bwagi, Werei, Lehko Habhoka, Vanille, Feolthanos, Hilda, President Shinra. These are all either somewhat niche, or gain value on entry, making Gilgamesh fine against them, but not stellar. Once you hit Damage 5, though, Gilgamesh becomes a real powerhouse. Between the two Titans, Dadaluma, and Hecatonchier, Earth has the capacity to be a decently defensive deck, especially if paired with Ice or Lightning, and Gilgamesh is a tremendous stabilizer at Damage 5. Lil Gilgy can block, dull sac, break something, then put another Gilg into play active and able to block again. At R, you’ve got a decent shot at picking up two or three, and even if you’re not getting another Gilgamesh, his Damage 5 is still strong, and triggers no matter how he’s put into the BZ.
2.5
Compared to Standard, Sealed and Draft decks have a much higher delta between your best and worst cards. Being able to trade in three of your weaker cards for a brand new hand is pretty strong. It is a bit of a set-up, requiring three different types; luckily, there’s a ton of Summons in the set, and most of the time you’re super down to pitch Zombie. Backups lose a lot of their luster in the late game, so being able to ditch them is great. At C, you’re likely to end up with plenty of him, and normally that would be an issue for a Backup without multiplay. Luckily, Cu Sith can just yeet extra copies of himself into the bin.
2.5
With enough Forwards in your deck to make her consistent, Cait Sith is an incredibly cheap body to help you flood the board. Earth can have a bit of trouble hurdling the 9k barrier, and Cait Sith can help Gilgamesh, Zombie, Ba’Gamnan, and Firion to attack into big blockers. She can also be used as fodder for Ragelise, Lady Lilith, Shinryu Celestia, Relm, to enable Nox Suzaku, as a way to dig deeper towards your bombs, a desperate throwaway blocker, protective fodder against Atomos and Famfrit, and she picks up a Titan +10k as well as anyone. She also comes back off Faris, if you’re really stretching for playables. While Cait Sith doesn’t do much on its own, it can be a strong bit of glue that brings several aspects of a deck together. Just make sure your deck has need of that glue before jamming a 3k in it, especially considering Earth’s abnormal amount of Backups. If you don’t have a high Forward count, you can skip it. If you don’t have a use for a 3k (whether it’s as a chump blocker, a party attacker, or a sacrificial lamb), you can skip it. If you’re already worried about decking and want to avoid cards that churn your deck while you spin your wheels, you can skip it.
2
While three Crystals is a tall task, he provides one on his own. If you pick him early and draft with him in mind, it shouldn’t be too hard to get him off. Kefka threatens to break board stalls wide open. The more Forwards your opponent fields, the more impactful he is. With no way to cancel his ability, and no way for your opponent to interact with your Crystals, Kefka is an incredible game ender for all but the most aggressive of decks.
5
While he’s substantially more expensive than Amidatelion, he’s also repeatable, and give the ability to one of your Forwards as well. With a haster on board, Cid threatens to give every Forward you play Haste. He turns your opponent’s First Strike into a huge liability. And while I usually don’t respect removing Brave, being able to also grant it is actually reasonable. The only source of any of these in Earth is Firion, and even then it’s conditional, so you’re dependent on your second element and on your opponent’s deck. Honestly, being able to ignore First Strike is probably the most valuable part of this card.
2.5
3/9 is pretty good, and Earth is in serious need for more large bodies, as only Galuf, Dadaluma, and Berserker can naturally go above 8k. Cecil is a great Crystal outlet, but also functions without them, making it so you’re not dependent on drawing a generator to make use of him. At H, you’re likely (though certainly not guaranteed) to have more than one in the draft, and if you can chain one into another, you’re in a pretty good spot. He’s even got an S so you can use the second Cecil whether you draw it or not. Suddenly, Scholar’s looking pretty good.
3.5
The only target in Earth is Cait Sith (XI), leaving Lightning, Kytes, Tredd, Umaro, Ultros, and Lunafreya. Lightning and Umaro are attractive targets, and having three targets in Water makes Zombie interesting for that pairing. Lunafreya is definitely less than playable outside of Lightning (the element), so barring a 3 element deck you’re probably not interested in playing her just to make Zombie of all cards functional. Ultimately, unless you’ve got Lightning (the Character) or Umaro, as well as a couple of Cait Siths, I just don’t see this card making the cut.
1
Titan’s level 1 is to just kill whatever you target with it. Sometimes this is all you can do with it, and you have to pull the trigger in order to kill something like Lunafreya and it sucks but it’s necessary. The level 2 is using this on a Forward in battle, both winning the combat and taking another Forward down too. The level 3 is countering a damage based removal spell by buffing the target out of range while you also merk a dude, trading your Titan for both a Bahamut and a Machina. The level 4 is when they use a trick like Ninja just to scrounge together something to make a trade, and then you drop the hammer, taking out the Ninja, their dude, and an innocent bystander. Wherever you end up on this spectrum, Titan is a powerful piece of removal with many flexible applications. It trumps pretty much every trick in the set, and all it asks is that you play a bunch of 7ks or bigger. Just make damn sure you’re not getting blown out by something like Garchimacera in response, or you’ll pretty much lose on the spot. (The level 5 is getting it off Burst.)
3.5
+10k! God damn! That’s what I’m talking about! Y’all may not know this about me, but I adore making the big number bigger. I’m absolutely in love with this card. It totally triumphs over any damage based removal, makes literally any Forward in the set win combat against literally any other Forward in the set (ok not General Leo), and even doubles up as direct damage based removal, something Earth has almost never had. Sure, Earth can frequently make a Forward deal damage to another Forward, but it’s super rare that their Summons just deal damage directly, and is always gated behind some limitation like expense, or target restriction. Sure it’s not as efficient as say Bahamut, but it makes up for that in its flexibility.
3
Absolutely love that they managed to convert Peter Jackson’s Return of the King into cardboard. While he is a prime target for Summon removal (and dies to pretty much all of it except for Wind’s) he’s alarmingly strong against the rest of it. The Emperor? COUNTER! Sabin? COUNTER! Magitek Armor? Shit, ok that one’s still pretty good, but Dancer? Can’t even attack, or Dad’ll pull out the belt. If you’re looking to protect Dadaluma from Summons, and force the opponent to deal with him in combat, allow me to introduce you to his BFF, General Leo.
3.5
Berserker’s love for you is like a truck. As long as your foot is on the gas, you get to reap the rewards of slamming over and over with the biggest Forward in the set. Granted, once your opponent finds an answer, there’s not much you can do except swing directly into their Shiva, Dadaluma, or Firion+Brynhildr. And when you’re trying to stabilize against an army, Berserker won’t listen to your pleas for restraint. I’m telling you right now though, there will be plenty of games ended on t1 when someone just drops two of these and says “go.”
2.5
And we come to the last of the Headhunters. Running solo, Backgammon is able to put himself in the path of a 9k and come out with its head, something Earth sorely wants. Also, keep in mind that the +2k can be applied to any Forward, not just a Headhunter. That means, like Rinok, you’re fine but not excited about playing Ba’Ganondorf without backup. If you can get enough support for Bagman, breaking a dull character for basically free is a strong, but not game winning payoff. You’re going to need on average to pull together three Headhunters to make that happen, but I don’t think that’s too hard of a target to hit. All in all, I think that the Headhunters are a reasonable core for a deck, but they certainly lack the overwhelming dominance they had last time they were in draft.
2.5
Earth comes second in number of cards that use Crystals (Water leads the pack with 5) with Kefka, Cecil, Titan, and Robel-Akbel. So of course it gets the worst of this cycle. Brave? Really? At least you can move it around with Cid Sophiar.
1.5
While it feels really strange to see him in Earth, it does mean if you start a draft with Rebel or Warrior synergy and end up moving off either Fire or Wind into Earth you can still make use of your Rebels. Guy into Firion is two 8ks for 5, which isn’t a bad rate, and Maria alone makes Firion a 10k Brave. Now if only Berserker triggered Leon, then I’d be hyped to play Rebels with Earth.
2
Having access to a board wipe is a big leg up for any deck. There’s plenty in the format that don’t give a heck about 8k damage, Rydia and all the 9ks, so make sure you’ve got other ways to handle Vayne, Umaro, and friends. Once you have a Hec in your pool, you really start prioritizing things that can survive it. The aforementioned Rydia, Ba’Gamnan, even Zombie starts looking less awful. You can use this after you declare an attack, but before blocks, so you can even get a Berserker to survive. Hec is a bit less useful against Fire, as half their Forwards are able to survive it, but it should still be able to pick up some value.
3.5
While there are five summons she can cast by herself, you’re really hoping to get her to the point where she’s dropping real bombshells. This is unfortunately hampered by the dearth of IV Characters in the set. Palom, Edge, Kain, Cecil, and Porom, all H or L, are the only ways to get to the coveted four Growth Counters (sadly Mind Flayer doesn’t work). This means, for most games, you’ll be limited to Brynhildr, Zalera, Shiva, Diabolos, and Odin. That’s not a bad list, and Rydia boasts a resilience against damage effects, making her somewhat sticky. When paired with Wind, you’ve got three other Cat IV Forwards to boost her, and once she levels she unlocks Alexander, Garchimacera, and Titan, all excellent Summons. Zalera at R makes her also acceptable in Ice, although saving a single CP may not be the payoff you’re looking for. Outside of those, she’ll still put in a fair amount of work, but you may wish you’d hired someone else.
2.5
Robel is an absolute beast, killing anything on entry and scooping up 2CP every turn. If it just ended there, I’d go out of my way to make it work in every deck I could, but it lets you keep using Backups like Sky Warrior, Kazusa, Gijuk, Cu Sith, Pelna, and he also lets the Crystal generator cycle to, uh, generate more Crystals. Robel will both help control the board and let your economy outrace your opponent’s, and the longer you can protect him the more he’ll repay you.
4.5
Earth has some very underwhelming Forwards and also some very overwhelming summons. Earth also has way too many Backups, with a whopping six at C/R, meaning you’re going to struggle to develop a decent Forward line. Headhunters is probably the best Earth can hope for, but Robel and Kefka pair well with anything that makes Crystals (which Lightning is best at). If you can get a bunch of Gilgameshes then you threaten to stabilize at 5 really well, but it isn’t like you can count on getting more than one activation off before losing to counterplay. Fi/Wi/Ea isn’t out of the question, as Guy/Josef can both pull Firion, and you also get Headhunters on top. This is super greedy, though, so expect to fight for it in the draft phase. Earth is tough because most of the H/L are very good, so they act as natural draws to an element that just doesn’t keep up with its C/Rs. Because of this, you will frequently end up in a really awkward spot, where multiple people open a powerful Earth card and are all fighting to be the one Earth player at the table. If you truly are the only Earth player, though, building a deck with access to every Earth H/L that gets opened will put you in a great spot.
Lightning
Lightning’s Summons are all great, making Aquila an excellent generator. Lightning’s only outlets are Remora and Lady Lilith, so Aquila is a bit drawn towards Water who has the most spenders, although any top tier spender you pick up can be good to move towards. Getting a Summon back on Damage 3 is a huge boost to an already solid card, and makes him well worth including even in decks that can’t use Crystals at all.
2.5
Milling three into the bin can be nice for effects like Nyx, Lenna, and Ace, but the true heart of the Axis power is in his ability to recur your bombs. Getting a second shot at Nyx, Vayne, Lady Lilith, or whichever other powerful Forwards you may have, is often worth the extra few CP you’ll spend along the way. Even if you haven’t seen your powerhouses yet, Axis is particularly resilient against removal: aim a Titan his way and he just buries himself to return a card. The Kingsglaives all seem to be extremely good at dying (hmm I wonder if that’s thematically relevant to the story) and Axis is definitely the best at it.
3
Like Cait Sith (XI), except slightly more expensive and you only get to see one card deep instead of two. That comparison really doesn’t come out in Aranea’s favor, and Cait Sith is already little more than filler. Aranea needs an extremely high threshold of Lightning cards to be remotely consistent, something that may be difficult to pull off. There’s no other way to peep or fix your top card, so all you can do is hope for the best. Lightning does have a serious dearth of high powered Forwards, so she at least is a decent party attacker, especially once she hits 5k. Not to be overlooked, she also buffs Kain, allowing him to get his attack trigger even in the face of 9k blockers. If you’re in the Lightning/Water Crystals deck, Aranea’s 2CP cost makes her a valid target for Lenna. Unfortunately, that element pairing also has access to Tredd, Ragelise, Gau, Ultros, and Lunafreya, all before even considering H and L. So, provided you either have a very specific L who doesn’t really need the buff in the first place and want Lightning to be your second element, or your deck is something absurd like 80% Lightning, if you’re in either of those hyperspecific decks, then Aranea somewhat manages to be playable.
0
Finally, some Final Boss Vayne Novus action! If you’ve ever swung with Rain 8L, then you already know how impactful this is on your attack step. And now you have it for blocks too! Lightning has a bunch of pretty small Forwards that can really make strong use of Vayne’s 4k power swing, letting even wee Tredd trade with a 7k. As far as his power reduction goes, the smallest Forward in the set is 3k, so there’s nothing that Vayne will outright end immediately. He does however make it so much easier to one-shot your opponent’s Forwards with effects like Remora, Rinok, and The Emperor. At a beefy 10k, Vayne resists so much removal in the set. Fire and Ice’s C Summons both deal 9k, as does Sabin. Vargas now needs more triggers just to meet his 10k threshold. 8 isn’t prime, so Zalera is at a loss. Wind, on the other hand, has no trouble whatsoever, so be careful running out your Vayne against them. While Vayne is a behemoth at any point in the game, he is an incredible closer, as removing two Backups is not very high of a cost if you’re winning the game in a turn or two. Just remember that what Vayne does is make your army better. He’s a good follow-up in a Forward-centric deck, which admittedly most limited decks are, but make sure you’re playing in a way to make the most out of him.
4
As recently mentioned, Lightning has a lot of challenge when it comes to dealing with big Forwards. Tredd, Aranea, Thunder Drake, Ragelise, Lady Lilith, these can’t even attack into a 7k. Well, uh, now they can, for the low low price of both that Forward and a Backup. Some of these trades will be well worth it, being able to take down a goliath for a 1CP and a 2CP works out to be roughly even, CPwise, and will often be very beneficial in terms of board presence. Something that may trip people up is Sky Soldier’s interaction with First Strike, especially with Noel in the set. Damage triggers from First Strike have to wait until all damage is dealt before they can go on the stack. This means if a Sky Soldier’d Noel blocks a 7k, that 7k will kill Noel before Sky Soldier breaks it. This may not feel intuitive for many, so it’s important to keep in mind that Sky Soldier does not care about First Strike. I know this may sound super weird, so I’ll include a citation for anyone you may need to convince.
2.5
There are a few Forwards definitely worth removing with Odin’s first part. At 1CP, you’ve got Lightning and Umaro, and sometimes Lunafreya needs to be removed so you can aim your sights at something more threatening. There are plenty of targets at 2, including Rinok, Maria, Llyud, Ragelise, and Gau, and that’s just at C/R. Still, even given all these, you don’t have enough targets to warrant a slot in your deck. Luckily, Odin doesn’t stop there. Going up to 4 makes Odin not only strong, not only flexible, but profitable as well. Damage is an inevitability in any game of sealed or draft, and Odin capitalizes on that admirably. You may have to wait a while, although if you really want to make it happen there’s always Sonitus.
3
Ok we just talked about breaking 2CPs like ten seconds ago so let me be lazy for a sec and not regurgitate all the targets. You get all the good parts of Odin’s lesser half, and you get to do 6k to something later. If you’ve got a decent target (or honestly any target at all) then Thunder Drake feels great. With so many lesser power Forwards, Lightning is happy to have the cheap party attacker. He’s really only cheap, though, if you got his ETF off, so while the ceiling on Drake’s potential is high, his floor is also very low.
1.5
Unconditional removal that you get to plop down early and keep in the tank until you need it. With the activation cost being LL1 it will be common that you’ll have to discard for it, which isn’t really a huge deal but worth mentioning. Being able to take damage on command is powerful, even if it does help your opponent kill you. A lot of shrewd players will avoid putting people to Damage 3, as a lot of cards get a substantial boost at that threshold: Sky Samurai, Llyud, Leon, Cecil, Dadaluma, Aquila, Regis, and Gau to name the big ones. Being able to put yourself there whenever you want is certainly worth a slot in your deck. A developmental Backup with removal, the ability to better control your gameplan, and relevant synergy with the XV deck makes Sonitus a desirable card for nearly any Lightning deck.
3
There’s not too many good targets for Tredd’s ETF, but that’s kind of cancelled by nearly all of them being in Lightning. The real meat and potatoes of Tredd is in his action ability. Like Vayne, Tredd’s +3k and First Strike is enough to win nearly any combat, meaning your opponent is going to have to accept a bad battle or die (or find a way to kill a 3k, a tough task, I know…). Tredd maked sure his compatriots are protected from damage-based removal like Bahamut. During deck construction, you may want to think of Tredd more as a Summon than an actual Forward, as it’s very rare he’s actually getting into combat. If you’re relying on him to keep you alive, instead of his fellow Forwards, well, you’re treading on dangerous ground.
2.5
Nyx is supposed to be the big payoff for the Kingsglaive deck, so how does he stack up? He’s all right. He’s pretty damn good in combat, given enough fuel, and that’s about it. Both Tredd and Pelna are able to boost him two times, which is pleasant. This set has way more Summons than usual, so protection from abilities doesn’t feel quite as strong as normal (though it is still strong, don’t get me wrong). You really do want to be running like ten or so other Kingsglaives in your deck to keep Nyx flush with activations. You don’t want to win one combat and then be stuck with a vanilla 3/7. Nyx is best paired with either Fire or Water, Fire’s many sources of damage make his First Strike an incredible threat, and Water’s Lunafreya makes it so the only clean ways to remove him are Hecatonchier, which doesn’t even work if you’re got two KGs in the bin, and maybe Feolthanos. If you’re totally lucky in the draft, both opening an Ardyn and uncontested in Lightning, you can potentially pull off his second action ability, which should win the game in short order.
3
Being able to dish out an extra point of damage on command gives every single source of damage in your deck extra reach, and is especially potent with the First Strike from Nyx and Noel. Like we covered during Aquila, unless you’re packing a Lady Lilith, Lightning is better at making Crystals then using them, so you’d do well to pair her with another element that can use the fruits of her labor. She is, however, one of the few Backup options Lightning has access to, so you’re probably still running her regardless.
2
A fierce attacker, nothing in the set can really block Noel unless backed by a Titan. His power is pretty well positioned at 6k. It’s high enough to survive most casual sources of damage like Brynhildr, Rinok, and Bomb, and just big enough that the Monsters can’t attack into him. It also means that, even with Tredd’s +3k, he still can’t survive Bahamut or Shiva. Noel is of course best at swinging out, but if you’ve got some sources of cheap damage or some power boosters, he can also be a terrifying blocker. I wouldn’t really count on that last one as much, though, and just let Noel push me into a more aggressive role.
2.5
Feolthanos is best in either an aggressive deck that can swing out and then play him in MP2, or in a deck that really wants to hit a bunch of Backups, as if you spend your first three turns developing your economy you may find yourself very behind on board. You can’t really wait until you’re too behind on tempo, once your opponent’s Forwards start swinging it’s too late, but Feolthanos is incredible as a followup to the old “play two Forwards” turn. Typically, though, even if you only get one body, you’re happy. Hitting a 3 or 4CP on its own means you’re ending up ahead on resources, and you never know how long it’ll take until you can line up another strong turn to play him, so unless you’ve got a clear plan I advise just pulling the trigger on him when an opportunity presents itself. Some games, there really will never be a good chance to drop him onto the table, and he’ll just sit in your hand with that frustrated look on his face. Great with Lilisette, as you can use her to dull your own Forwards to safeguard them. He’s got some weird flavor text about six damage and ending the world, too, not sure what that’s all about.
3.5
While Pelna is totally blank outside of XV synergy, he’s pretty strong with it. Even if you’re only getting a 1CP discount from the other Kingsglaive Backup, he’s pretty solid. Regis alone makes him actually free. Similar to Tredd, Pelna is good at giving your Forward a boost. He is restricted to only the XV Forwards though, and he doesn’t quite boost them as much, but since it’s on a Backup he’s able to generate plenty of value elsewhere. There isn’t really a reason to skip Pelna, and when he’s able to contribute more than just CP, he’s a pretty valuable member of the team, so I don’t see myself avoiding him.
2
He’s a big chonker, which Lightning is already happy to have access to, and can basically cast unrestricted Odin every other turn. Now, it’s not exactly that simple, two cards from hand is certainly more restrictive than being able to pay some of that cost with Backup CP, but still, nearly every activation of Magitek will be CP positive. You are paying a lot up front with its 5CP cost, but you’re also getting a huge body out of the deal. Since you can activate Magitek at any time, it will often be best to wait as long as possible. If your plan is to hold off until Main Phase 2, you get to use him as a potential blocker, and can also threaten to nullify any combat tricks like Tredd, Pelna, and Titan. Magitek Armor is at its best when combined with an engine to keep you fueled with cards in hand, or at least more than your opponent, and is well paired with Bwagi, Orphan, Kain, Robel-Akbel, Strago, and Ace. It does somewhat sting to use your biggest Forward for a dull ability, but when that ability is this powerful, it’s well worth it.
3.5
Though small, Ragelise has to power to keep you swimming in Crystals. Since he only triggers at the end of your turn, you may have to pull the trigger on some removal, like Magitek Armor, a little earlier than you may like. If you don’t have a strong Crystal outlet, or aren’t planning on playing a long game of attrition, probably skip him, but if you are looking to drop fully charged Lennas, or to use Strago over and over and over, then Ragelise is a powerful engine component.
2
For a long time, Ramuh was the go-to Summon in Lightning because of its power and its flexibility. It can do removal, Monster control, and helps sway combat math both offensively and defensively. Every Monster in the set just so happens to die to Ramuh, so if you can get value somewhere else and kill a Monster, you’re going to be pretty happy. Sometimes giving something Haste while dulling a blocker will create surprise lethal out of nowhere. Sometimes you can stop your opponent from having lethal by killing one attacker and dulling another. There are so many ways to get Ramuh to pay back more than the 3CP you’re putting into him, and it won’t be hard to find a use for this Swiss Army Knife.
3
With Mayakov at R and Dancer Backup at C, it actually isn’t that hard to get four Dancers on to the field and just start twerking on your opponent’s board. There’s even Wind Dancer if you need more dance partners. By herself, Lilisette is a budget Amon, which makes her a card well worth playing. Given enough Mayakovs, you’re even able to play Lilisette with only a small splash in Lightning, so don’t count her out if you’re in Wind/Water Dancers. At H, it’s quite possible that you can pick up two of them and, while Mayakov offers your dance troupe a lot of protection, Cinematic Flourish helps protect against Summons and untargeted ability damage like Noel and Machina.
3
OK forget Nyx, here’s the real payoff for going Kingsglaive, the King himself. Honestly nearly every Lightning deck is going to want Regis just because half the C Backups are Kingsglaive, so expect competition. +1k may not seem like his Damage 3 is that relevant, but the difference between 4/8 and 4/9 makes a huge difference in combat. Regis is a little torn between wanting to be played asap so that you can eke as much advantage off the discount as possible, and waiting until Damage 3 so that he’s a big beefy boy. There’s very little removal that hits for specifically 8000 damage, so I think it’s pretty safe to just plop him on the table early. I’d be wary against Earth decks, though, as Hecatonchier kills him before Damage 3, and Regis can’t cancel it since it doesn’t choose.
3.5
One of the best Crystal spenders, Lilith hits everything except for Cyan, Faris, Vayne, Cloud, and Yiazmat. Typically, if you have a problem, Lilith can solve it. She lets you convert anything targeted by removal into a Crystal, lets you squeeze extra value from Forwards that have already served their purpose like Cait Sith (XI) or a Lunafreya who’s target is gone, and lets you get a Crystal from Monsters who have done their damage already. If you are able to hold off until the end game, it’s very likely you’ve already built up a big pile of Crystals off of Aquila, Ninja, and Ragelise, and Lilith lets you instantly turn that into a huge amount of board control. Similar to Ramuh (or even Cid Sophiar), her ability to create Hasters means you are able to threaten lethal damage at a moment’s notice, particularly because you can deal damage with one Forward, yeet is for a Crystal, and immediately spend it Hasting a new Forward. I really only recommend doing this if it’s going to win you the game, as her other ability leaves a much more long lasting impact on the game, but sometimes you just have to send it.
4.5
The combat trick to end all combat tricks. Remora is pretty expensive, but like Ramuh it has a ton of flexibility. With both a sizeable + and – effect, Remora can: win what was an extremely lopsided battle; win one battle and set up to win the next; negate the usefulness of a combat trick; make something survive removal; kill something being buffed in response to your removal; alter what lives and dies to Hecatonchier; and even draw a card off Leon in a pinch. For many Lightning decks, this will be your best way to convert Crystals into resources, so unless you’re sitting on better Crystal spenders you should put them into Remora aggressively.
3
OK enough about Rebels. If any archetype is going to take top spot away from them, it’s Kingsglaive. Regis‘ cost reduction means so much, and even without Nyx the archetype is quite strong. Both Remora and Ramuh are incredible Summons, Aquila and Ragelise are both top tied Crystal generators, and Magitek Armor boasts some of the most unconditional removal in the set. It isn’t often that Fire/Ice/Lightning aren’t the three best elements in a set (let’s not remember the trash that was Opus XIII Fire), and this Opus is no different. Just keep in mind that you need to prioritize Backups, since there’s only 4 (not counting Feolthanos) and you’ll do just fine no matter what direction you take it, though let’s be real: the dream is Wa/Li, both for Lenna and Strago to use Lightning’s Crystals, and Lunafreya.
Water
If nothing else, the Monster cycle is really good at stuffing Atomos. There are also a bunch of other Forwards running around that people don’t mind throwing under this bus, Cid Raines, Gilgamesh, Cait Sith (XI), Aranea, Tredd, and Lunafreya come to mind. Also, Setzer and Ragelise can end up getting some value from the death. Still, just because Atomos is considerably less effective sometimes doesn’t make it a bad card. There will be may board states, even in decks running those cards in multiple, where a carefully dropped Atomos is backbreaking. It doesn’t choose, so Mayakov, Nyx, and Regis can’t do anything about it (except die). You may want to run out your Atomos a little aggresively, as a shrewd opponent may play out some total filler card like Nono just to protect their board from its effect.
2.5
The most efficient body in the set, and he even repays you when he dies. There’s nothing abominable about this snowman.
3.5
Being able to strip abilities from anything you want can be pretty strong. A lot of the time, things like cast triggers and action abilities can’t really be stopped by this, but you’ll sometimes have the opportunity to Dance on a card like Rinok, Sky Samurai, or Lady Lilith before attacks and force them to pull the trigger ahead of time. While sometimes this will let you force them to make a poor choice before you surprise them with lethal, most of the time getting this kind of information before an attack isn’t quite worth losing a Backup over, so let’s see if we can find some better applications. The Emperor, Lightning, Edge, Dancer, Cecil, Dadaluma, Vayne, Noel, Mog (VI), Lunafreya, and Nox Suzaku can all be worth blanking, some more situational than others. General Leo in particular can be a strong target, as you can take advantage of his law against not blocking, then blank him and play a trick. Dancer’s ability to remove Category, while unprecedented, is much less applicable, but not wholly without merit. You can use it to cancel Pelna and Lunafreya by making their targets illegal while their abilities are on the stack (this works for Edgar too, but you can also just wait and remove the ability he grants afterwards), and you can stop Shinryu Celestia from getting her extra 3k. This is a pretty wide list of things that your developmental Backup can neuter, and Dancer will be well worth her inclusion in any Water deck, even without considering her synergies with Lilisette and Mayakov.
2.5
At R, you can reliably expect 3-4 of these per draft pool. You may have to start picking them very early to ensure you get plenty, but once you have a handful he promises a pretty powerful effect. He is thematically pretty weak to Fire, with so many random sources of damage like Bomb and Rinok, and especially Machina and Ifrita’s 3k to board. Since Ultros gets more and more reliable as the game goes on, you’ll want to either be running a grindy deck looking to play the long game, or an aggressive build with lots of ways to churn through its own cards. Once you get all the way down to four cards left, you can guarantee his effect, and for the low low price of two Water CP, Ultros will boogie all over the opponent. Ultros represents a strong inevitability for Water heavy decks, just make sure you’re not losing before you can get any use out of him.
3
Makes Crystals, gets big, has a relevant Category, even boasts EX. Water is the element most thirsty for Crystals, and Gau helps keep you swimming in them, making him some of the best filler in the set.
2
If the defenses are down, I don’t really think that trading a point of damage is worth trading for a free Backup, although it definitely can be if you’re trying to avoid a threshold like Damage 3. Unlike many sets in the past, Water doesn’t seem particularly driven to aim for party attacking, so Keiss feels a bit out of place here, but every once in a while you’ll end up tacking an Ultros and a Blue Wyrm together, and you may as well get a free CP out of it.
1
Ignoring Type-0 synergy for a sec, Celestia is a great way to convert the Monster cycle into even more resources. If you can find a way to squeak one in for damage, Celestia in MP2 lets you eke out even more before it dies. Late game you can use her to clear something like a Hilda, letting you play out another one, or a Lunafreya who’s bondmate has passed on. She’s also great with The Emperor, if you managed to get a few of him. There are a few Type-0 Characters around the set, but realistically you’re only looking to bin Kazusa, Rem, and Dracoknight. Dracoknight is the goal, and at C it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up a boatload. In a pinch, you can even let Celestia eat herself, so she’s almost never truly dead. Figuratively, that is. I mean that she’s never a dead card in hand. If you have her commit seppuku she’s definitely dead dead.
3.5
Don’t count out the boomers, man, this ol’ fella’s ready to blow your whole damn team away. If you’re able to keep yourself fed with Gaus, Oracles, Relms, and whatever generators your other element has, Strago will keep your opponent in dire straits. Trading a single Crystal for the CP cost of a Forward is very nearly always a big econ gain, although naturally many Forwards are perhaps not great choices for this, like Shinryu Celestia, Aquila, Snow, and Rinok. Even just one or two careful applications can swing the board state at crucial moments, so don’t worry if you don’t end up totally overloaded on generators.
3.5
At C, you can puck up an absolute ton of these, if you’re so inclined. They are excellent at enabling both Shinryu Celestia and Famfrit, which in turn makes them great at enabling Ragelise and Setzer. Scholar puts spent Dracoknights back in the deck, allowing you to keep the cycle going, end even if you don’t have a great way to abuse them, the fact that they replace a card in hand when they die makes them pretty cheap in the long run. They are only 7ks, so make sure you’ve got some way to let them punch through. As good as they can be at spinning their wheels, that doesn’t mean anything if the car isn’t moving.
2.5
Lets go live in Magic Christmasland for a moment. You have Penelo, Kytes, Filo, and Vaan all on the table, you’ve somehow managed to draw and play all four of them. Vaan has killed something, and now Penelo only costs 2 to activate (and is hard to block). That’s pretty dang good. You get to threaten -3k to any Forward that dares engage you in battle, and get to draw a card if none so dares, all while having some level of protection for Vaan. There will be times when you start off in Wind, due to say an early pick Kain, and a Vaan comes around pick six or seven and you decide to go for it. Filo is a natural inclusion for Wind/Water so that’s super easy to slot in, but Kytes? You’re pretty much running Kytes just to enable Vaan and Penelo, only running Vaan to enable Penelo, and only running Penelo hoping that you somehow get all of them. This isn’t like Headhunters where all of them are acceptable on their own, they NEED the synergy to be halfway decent. But yes, if you live the dream and get it all together, it is pretty strong.
2.5
Drawing cards is good. You’re welcome. All right, seriously though, this is a nice little filler Backup that helps get your deck down to a better size for Ultros, has EX, lets you fix your hand a bit by exchanging filler cards for a new random card, and if you manage to hold off on playing her until you’ve somehow managed to stabilize at Damage 5, she’s absolutely insane. Definitely don’t count on that one, though.
1.5
Famfrit is great under two circumstances. You’ve managed to flood your board, or you’ve only got one or even zero Forwards out. Like Feolthanos, Famfrit is solid for decks looking to hit four Backups ASAP, as you can cast it once you’re done developing to eat what your opponent has played out in the meantime. Later in the game, if your two selected characters are Blue Wyrm and Dracoknight, you’re feeling pretty good about whatever it is you’re trading them for. So, yes Famfrit can be pretty awkward to cast a lot of the time, but as long as you’re able to find some way to get value out of this, you’re solid, especially if you’re getting triggers off Ragelise or Setzer.
2.5
Blue Wyrm gives you a super cheap Forward that is great to sacrifice to Shinryu Celestia and Famfrit. It’s nice to bounce for Relm, and helps to trigger Mog (VI). Decent filler with a fair amount of applications. You’re never going to be excited to draw Blue Wyrm, but there are definitely worse cards that you could be playing.
1.5
Everything I said about Dancer, except the parts about Categories and being able to hit Vayne. Being repeatable gives Porom a huge edge over the one-shot Dancer, particularly because it frees her up to be used on things that you’re not really that concerned about. Should you be able to protect her, the danger she presents only grows. I wouldn’t count on being able to get Porom to Level 3, but should you manage it, setting whatever you want to 1k is great. It’s hyper-threatening in combat, and combines will with literally any source of damage or power reduction in the set, especially Vayne. Porom has a huge edge over Palom in that she’s instantly extremely useful, whereas Palom will sometimes struggle to find a use until he’s all grown up. Again, should you somehow manage to draft both Ls, they are incredibly strong together.
4
A bit too unreliable for my tastes, I’ll wait until Constructed for this one, where I at least have a clear picture of most of the cards in my opponent’s deck. In Limited, so much of the deck ends up being filler that I’m really not ready to start gambling on a deck I know very little about.
0.5
A 4/8 that’s hard to choose is decent filler. One that plays out a Backup for free starts to be really desirable. Once we start looking into Wind Dancer and Lilisette, we really start to see some strong synergy popping up, and synergy where, unlike Sky Pirates, all the cards are playable on their own. Being able to also shield those Dancers from abilities always is a great way to keep them safe.
3
Another great Crystal spender, Mog (VI) gives you the extra 2 draws you need to trigger his own End of Turn auto. This turns one Crystal into 2CP and a free bounce. Now you may have noticed, that’s exactly what Strago does except in more words. Strago who is also Cat VI and is also repeatable. And that is true, however Mog happens much sooner, Mog doesn’t have to wait until your next turn. Depending on why you want the bounce, this may me a positive or a negative. If you’re looking to stop an attacker while you set up, Mog is much better. If you’re looking to get rid of a blocker, well, Mog doesn’t do that part very well. So, Strago is bigger and is repeatable, both of which make him better, but what makes Mog better is that he gets you your value instantly, which makes him much lower risk. Also he’s cheaper. Also he has an insane S, though good luck getting two of the same L in draft. Also he can be triggered every single one of your turns if you have enough card draw. Almost every effect in the set only draws a single card, so normally you’ll need to combine effects to get to either the 4 or 6 threshold. Strago is naturally a great option, as are Bwagi and Ashe, due to their lack of a CP cost. With a bit of setup, Noctis and Leon can draw multiple cards, but the real winner is Cu Sith, who singlehandedly gets you to the goalposts. Remember that you can bounce your own Forwards, in case you really want to double up on Shinryu Celestia, Blue Wyrm, Mayakov, or somehow still have Crystals for Lenna.
3
Water is the element most hungry for Crystals, so Oracle is automatically the best of this cycle. Also she helps safeguard your attackers, and helps protect your Forwards from some removal a little bit sometimes.
2.5
There are all the cards just mentioned in Mog (VI) that are good to bounce (also Mog (VI) himself). Other powerful targets include Sabin, Robel-Akbel, Aquila, Setzer, Snow, and Terra if she somehow didn’t win the game the first time. The Monsters in this set really aren’t particularly good, but converting a single Crystal into one ends up being a pretty good rate, if you can find something to do with its ETF. Relm is one of Water’s few Crystal generators, so she’s appealing just for that. If you’re really looking to lock your opponent down with Strago, or you really need to enable a Lenna to get back some bomb, you are able to choose Relm with her own ETF, generating one Crystal for every 3CP you pay. This can also be decent if you’re looking to just spin your wheels for a bit while waiting for your opponent to make a move. In practice, this will rarely be correct, but it’s a good line to be aware of. Relm’s playability hinges largely on the power and amount of bounce targets you have, so plan accordingly.
2.5
An absolutely dominating card to put in Water/Lightning Kingsglaive, and in no other deck. If you pick a Noctis early and end up in a Water based party attack deck, she can have a place there, but you know you’re just asking to never ever draw her and Noctis at the same time. Ardyn you don’t really care about protecting, since he’s already done his thing. Unfortunately, even in Kingsglaive, her ability is less impactful than it may seem. Both Nyx and Regis, the only two targets you actually want to hit, already have some amount of protection built in. +2k is a hell of a buff, though, so you’re still looking to jam her if possible.
1.5/0
The only card in the set that can trigger Bartz (yes I am ignoring Faris) and what a card it is. As we saw with Odin, there are plenty of 1s and 2s to bring back, once we include 3s too? Firion, Leon, Cecil, Dadaluma, Nyx, Lilisette, Strago, Relm, and that’s just a taste. It’s not unlikely that you just never spend Crystals before drawing this, as paying 3CP for a 7k and TWO OTHER FORWARDS is just such an insane rate. One fun trick is that, since you don’t pay the CP until resolution, you can bring back a Gau or a Relm, gain a Crystal, then spend that crystal on Lenna’s other ability. Seriously though, I cannot stress enough how impactful it is to drop three Forwards for the price of one, and as long as you’re not playing directly into a Hecatonchier, Feolthanos, or Machina + Ifrita, you should be able to mop up the game in short order. Just make sure you draft every single Crystal generator you can resonably shove in your deck.
4.5
Water has access to so many efficient Forwards, and is able to back them up with Strago, Shinryu Celestia, and Famfrit, then bring them back with Lenna. Trade off your Forwards aggressively with anything you can, so that your Atomos and Famfrit are hitting the things you can’t deal with. You’re probably going to have to do a fair amount of party attacking to get over common hurdles, unless you pair with an element that can deal with the kinds of Forwards that will block your path. Take every Crystal generator you can, as Water has so many powerful ways to use them.
Light, Dark, Starters, and Legacies
If you’re going for the grindy game, Ace breathes new life into your deck. Granted, he’s not great for the first several turns, but once your Break Zone is fully stocked, Ace becomes a genuine nightmare. Since you’re now limited to two casts per turn, if you keep casting 2s and 3s your hand may end up overfilled, so it pays to have an outlet like Sky Warrior or Magitek Armor. Since you get access to all the Forwards that have gone to the Break Zone so far, Lady Lilith is another strong pairing, letting you convert them into Crystals into removal. Since you’re limited to two casts per turn, try not to move into combat with both of them spent. You want to at least be able to bluff a combat trick/removal. Make sure to remember that the cards you discard to his ETF, as well as Ace himself when he breaks, get removed from the game.
3.5
Where Ace was a godsend for the slow decks out there, Noctis is the same for the aggressive ones. Every last one of these options is good, even being able to kill Monsters is relevant so they can’t animate after the trigger and block (even though the dull/freeze could technically do the same). If you start getting two triggers per turn, the game is just over. Noctis feels drawn a bit towards Wind, Earth, and Water, who are most inclined towards party attacking naturally, but honestly he’s good anywhere.
3.5
So it turns out, when you don’t have to worry about Amaterasu, Ardyn is really stupid. Losing 20 cards was bad enough in constructed, here it’s guaranteed to be over half your remaining deck. And with fewer points of damage to work with, it’s a lot harder to just take a bunch. This means that for every card you discard after the first card or so, you’re trading one card in hand for your opponent’s worst Character, which is almost always a CP gain. Now, if your opponent is threatening lethal, it’s very likely they can just throw away their backline and still kill you, so he isn’t a magic win button. Just a regular win button.
5
While he can be a bit tricky to get down, you don’t have to warp your deck too hard in order to seriously capitalize on his trigger. You can run cards like Shinryu Celestia, Tredd, Axis, and Gilgamesh for situations where you just can’t get your opponent to block. Once Nox is online, he present an insane string of value that your opponent will be pressured to answer asap. Make sure to take reasonable precautions, don’t swing against decks with Shiva, make sure you’ve always got at least one other Forward against Atomos, the usual stuff. The fewer outs you present, the more likely you are to snowball your way to victory.
4
I’m gonna go ahead and review all four of these at the same time. Unless you get them in multiples (and not the same one) they’re 3/7s with no text. Then, even if you do, and you manage to draw both, the second is a 1/7 that then needs to pull off a party attack in order to do anything. Jessie isn’t going to trigger outside of some stars aligning syzygy nonsense, but at least Biggs and Wedge have relevant effects. Not effects worth building towards, but they’re better than actual nothing. Barret at least is a bit better, not needing to party with one single other card in your 40 card deck. He can make whatever your other AVALANCHE Operative is really hard to block, or attack into. Sometimes a draft will have more than one of these in it, it won’t even be that uncommon, but you still have to get both, be in Earth, draw both, and play both without being blown out by removal. And for all that work, you’re getting very little in return.
0.5
At least with the Turks, they’re a little more able to assemble. It’s pretty unlikely that Tseng will go off, but he’s at least a more relevant 4/8. If he does drop another Turk, you get to deal a point of mental damage to your opponent.
1
Hey look, consistency. Reno and Rude both get buffs while Shinra is out, and Rufus is genuinely an insane card, so if you’ve managed to get any Turk then you’re at least ok with pulling them out as part of your Backup development. With as few other options for Backups as you have in LIghtning, this may actually be an attractive option.
1
Like AVALANCHE, Reno and Rude need either President Shinra or Rufus in order to be more than basic filler. Rude turns into pretty decent filler, but Reno becomes genuinely terrifying. You’re still at the mercy of drafting two very specific cards and getting them both out at the same time, but at leasat President Shinra alleviates that a little bit.
1
Cloud is a great followup to any of the AVALANCHE Starters. 10k damage plus haste is well worth the six CP cost, and if you manage to make a miracle and pull it off then props to you. For most decks, the most valuable thing about him is that he discards for two different elements of CP, giving Earth/Fire decks a nice little bit of consistency.
1
Seriously, why is every other S like super conditional, awful without support, and then Rufus comes along as one of the strongest picks in the set? 4/9 is already a great statline, and we’re getting both First Strike and Brave too? Fittingly, Rufus will usurp power structure of the field and settle comfortably as a dominating force on both offense and defense.
4
And we’re immediately back to cards that need support but can’t get them. The only two cards he can get with his ETF are Machina and Rem, and only Machina counts towards his attack trigger. If you happen to have both Machina and Rem, then at least Ace isn’t awful, as there’s a good chance he ends up refunding you two CP on entry. If he’s on his own, hitting for 2k on swing is… fine? It helps soften up tough blockers, but like I discussed for Palom, 2k just isn’t that impressive of damage.
1.5
Big chonky boss monster good card. Kills lots of serious (and prevalent) threats like Guy, Sabin, Orphan, and Magitek Armor, and the reactivation can be strong for casting an extra summon, or for getting extra out of the activation of cards like Bwagi, Rinok, The Emperor, Dancer, Magitek Armor, Lilisette, Strago, Penelo, and Relm. Repeatable removal tied to a huge body is well worth building to support, especially considering he kills pretty much anything that can stand in his way.
4
I’ll be honest, I had no idea Reddas was on this card until I saw the Full Art. Every last one of Ashe’s abilities is strong, and you get two of them for free every turn. Whether you’re filtering your hand, pumping some of your team, regaining Backup CP or countering freeze, or getting a free Porom activation, Ashe will pay dividends over and over and over.
4
These cards actively hurt you, and before you even start round 1! Opening a pack with one of these means you have fewer options for no reason. A rating of zero out of five is too good. At least they’re worth some money.
-1/5
While the elements aren’t as balanced as say Opus XIV, this set still has some interesting archetypes, and no element is actually outright bad. Rebels, Headhunters, VI, and Kingsglaive are the obvious archetypes, but I’m excited to see what kinds of surprises people are able to pull. While I don’t think Dancers can keep up, I know at some point I’m going to be absolutely blown out by them. What are your thoughts, is there a deck you’re excited to draft? Which element is calling your name? I hope you all enjoy drafting this set, and I look forward to hearing all about how your drafts went. As ever, thank you so much for spending your time with me, and I look forward to seeing you again this time next set, here on The Crystarium.