It’s the midst of spoiler season and we here at The Crystarium have been blessed with another banger full of possibilities. Today, two teammates take turns talking to this trooper’s tangible toughness, a phantom from FFTCG past who once haunted backlines for years. One of the strongest tools against broken strategies like Dadaluma/Cactuar, who briefly again saw relevance after his new form in Opus 17, helping again to protect his friends from a new angle, but from the frontlines. Here we have again a more front-facing presence, combining both protection and resurrection in one strong package. I’ve never been one to deny the people what they want, so let’s not waste any time before taking a look at the man of the hour himself.
Someone find this man a nail file
First off we have me, Ryan Chen, here to talk about the Constructed aspects of Minwu. First of all, Minwu is a 4CP 7k, which is an understatted forward in Opus 24. However, Minwu has two strong effects stapled to him. First of all, the Category II forwards other than Minwu cannot be chosen by your opponent’s auto abilities. This is relevant against cards such as Lasswell, Ashe, Akstar, and much more. Hopefully this buys players the time needed to use cards which have strong abilities but do not have haste, by having Minwu act as the lightning rod for removal. This card also lets players splash Category II forwards of elements not in the primary colors of their deck. The Limit break mechanic allows players to cast cards at any point of the game without having them in hand. Off color Category II forwards that are normally uncastable, can still be discarded to play Limit break cards, while having additional value in being resurrected later when a full backup line is built up. This can increase the strength of players’ decks by playing powerful Category II cards that they would not normally build around. Even off color cards such as 19-110 H Emperor can be discarded to cast Kuja or Viktora early, before a player ever hits 4 backups to stave off aggression. Here are some cool cards I can see being played with Minwu.
24-083H Firion
What are you hoping to see in the future that synergizes with this new Minwu?
Next I’ll take over, Jeff Curran, to detail how this card will work in Limited. As of now, the Firion shown above is the only legal target we’ve seen. Should that stay true, then Minwu helps to enable Wind/Lightning decks directly by giving you greater access to your Firion while offering him a layer of protection. Secondly, these two cards together also enable Wind/Earth and Wind/Water decks. Firion provides Lightning CP so that they can play the multi-element H LBs like The Ur-Dragon King, then Minwu pulls him from the BZ. Should we get other Category II targets, Minwu’s stocks only grow, and I’m excited to see who else may show up.
With three new FF2 cards on the horizon, is this the set we finally see Cat II break into the meta? Will Minwu and friends terrorize draft tables for the next four months? And if everything goes just so right, will Full Art Hilda turn into stonks? Only the future holds the answers to these questions, and we here at The Crystarium can’t wait to delve into these mysteries. Do you think there’s potential here? Are you as excited as us to see what else Category II and Hidden Trials have to show us? Is the prerelease calling your name as loudly as it’s calling ours? Stay tuned as other spoilers roll in, and we hope to see you next time here at The Crystarium!
