So I was NA’s #1 Turbo Chaos enjoyer, and I was fully intending to continue playing it as a new season started. Crushed at the announcement of Chaos’ restriction on March 5th, I was left with just over a month to settle on a new deck. With limited time to test (and knowing for whatever reason I get really nervous playing OCTGN against randoms), I chose to stick with a deck I knew how to play, one that has a similarly aggressive game plan as Turbo. This way I could focus on just learning how to beat opposing decks, I didn’t need to learn the ins and outs of a new deck on top of that. I played Knights as my 2nd Deck at Nats last year to a total finish of 5-2 and 20th place, so I had a ton of practice on it already. The only new deck I really expected to see in force was various flavors of Yuna, so since Knights had already established itself as a serious force in the meta, I set out to both refamiliarize myself with old matchups and to try my hand at beating this new deck.

Curilla

This card is the deck. Knights could lose any other card and still be competitive. You could still play this at an event without any other card and do well, even losing Ramza or Lasswell would probably only drop Knights a tier or two (losing both would definitely kill the deck though). Curilla is almost always three bodies for 5CP (eat your heart out, Cherukiki). Ramza, Lasswell, and Garland all love Curilla and her knightfall. Merlwyb, Gawain, Larsa, and Ramza are all here to give you access to Curilla. On top of this, she’s a massive 9k. This lets you safely get Lasswell discards turn after turn against many decks. It is however also a downside. You WANT Curilla to die. You want to play a 2nd, a 3rd Curilla. You want Curilla to die so badly that, if I were planning to continue playing this deck, I would test running one Graff in the Limit. While she survives, every subsequent Curilla you draw is dead, and your Ramzas are unexciting. Speaking of whom…

 

Ramza

OK so maybe Graff doesn’t help you Ramza out the same Curilla, but Curilla is certainly what you want to be Ramzaing onto the board. Be careful how greedy you get about this in the early game. Against decks with Amaterasu or Leviathan, be extremely careful about your Ramzas. Here, you want to take your time, try to warp him if possible. That way you’re up 1cp and 1 9k. In general, Ramza is your hyper-threat. He completely recontextualizes how you can approach a game. You can slant aggressive, use him on Curilla to field an entire football team, then attack attack attack. Conversely you can hold back and use Ramza to take precise control of the board, picking apart specific threats as they crop up while you build towards one lethal turn. This may sound crazy, but I actually almost wish he didn’t deal damage, or at least that the damage was a “you may.” There are many times I’ve had to risk a Ramza activation in the face of an EX Burst deck where I would gladly have traded that damage for the certainty of not hitting Lev 6. I think the worst thing I’ve ever Ramza’d is a Charlotte, while I already had a board and just wanted access to his “dull 4” and I’d do it again.

 

Lasswell

There’s a sentiment I’ve heard during certain metagames that some pro players feel that you just can’t play two Backups on Turn 1. Now, I rarely play two Backups period, but I get where they’re coming from. Against Turbo Chaos, that’s such an investment that it’s unlikely you’ll recoup it before you die. Against Knights, Curilla plus Lasswell freezes them both and you just lose your next turn.

 

Hell yeah.

 

Unfortunately, the prevalence of Yuna decks includes a corresponding rise in people playing Brynhildr and other answers like Ixion, and Lasswell is collateral damage in their arms race. Still, he’s one of the central powerhouses of your deck, helping you get ahead in the early game, and threatening to strip 2cp after 2cp from your opponent as the game goes on. Between Curilla and Ramza being 9ks, and maindeck Beatrix giving +2k to the board, you should be able to get his EoT trigger most turns, even if you have to sacrifice a Lilyth along the way (worth it).

 

Gawain

What an incredible, flexible card. Imagine Larsa/Merlwyb but better and you also get an attacker instead of a stinky ol’ Backup. Some people will tell you to Larsa/Merlwyb for Gawain and then Gawain for Curilla. These people are wrong. Unless you know for a fact that you will not get Amatted, you will in fact get Amatted, and you will spend the rest of the game floundering without Curilla access. Sure usually you want to hit two 2s off Curilla, but I’ll take a Gawain. Steiner is what really makes Gawain shine, as you can grab Steiner and either Lilyth or Agrias/Beatrix, then pitch the Steiner to play the other (or pitch both for LB Beatrix).

 

Charlotte

This is how you win vs EX decks. Once you’ve established total board domination, land a Charlotte as an EX Buffer, then swing for the fences. Charlotte allows you to safely go for lethal so much earlier than you could have otherwise. In the early game she helps protect your Lasswell too, although you either need two sources of Ice or a mythical Curilla flip. If you can convince your opponent to put you on Damage 3 with Curilla out, you’re completely immune to any direct damage 8k or less.

 

Garland

I used to be really low on Garland, but with Yuna around he’s become one of the deck’s shining stars. Like Lasswell, he enhances every knightfall. Outside of the Yuna matchup I’m starting to appreciate how he really is a worthwhile investment. He feels more expensive than he is, but considering he nets you a card back he’s as expensive as Lasswell. Well, ignoring the discard and the Backup disruption. You get what I mean. Against Yuna I actually value him over Ramza, as he can really rip through a board of weenies.

 

Beatrix

Beatrix’s discount can really help stack up Garland and Lasswell triggers, and her buff helps both get Lasswell’s other trigger as well as give you the beef you need to get your army of 5Ks over the finish line. She’s a great, integral part to the deck that you will learn to hate with a fiery intensity after the fortieth time you have to play her off Curilla and get locked out of playing LB Beatrix.

 

Steiner

Steiner is a handy bit of lubrication that keeps the rest of the engine running smoothly. Helps provide accurate CP in early turns. OK flip from Curilla. Makes Gawain just so, so much more flexible. And kills small LBs like Leo and Warrior of Light. You’re almost never actually casting this card, then again I almost never cast Fujin either and I love that card.

 

Delita

Great flip off Curilla, and discards for Ice CP. Delita technically allows LB Maat, but like… what problem does Knights have that Maat solves? If you’re playing against Chark, do your damndest not to play Delita to the field. Chaos is already only 5CP, no need to make it 3.

 

Physalis

Physalis… exists… Her fake “draw 2” used to at least be kinda tempting, but in a post-Leo world just cast Leo instead. Physalis is a body that happens to be playable off Curilla along with a friend, and also discards for Ice CP. Is that enough in 2025 America? Should that qualify in today’s society to be a A-list celebrity? Apparently it is. This is Physalis’ world and we are just living in it. Good for her, I suppose.

 

Lilyth

NGL I don’t fuck with this card. I wanted to love it, especially now in a Yuna world where Specials navigate her tax with ease. I tried it out as a 3of at both Nats and at NorCal, and I have used Hard Slash exactly once, at a locals, in a play that I thought was very cute. Her only real appeal now is that if you’re out of Steiners, Gawain can still grab disposable Fire CP. Oh, and now I have to keep track of this dumbass Crystal that I know I’ll never use? Fuck outta here.

 

Agrias

How did I value this card so low for so long? Agrias is great. A trendsetter. An iconoclast. The smile we must protect. She is the unsung hero of this deck. In a single deck format where your Larsas aren’t being stolen by your other deck, Agrias is reliably cast without actually pitching for CP, unlike every single other card in the deck. This alone gives you so much flexibility in combination with Lasswell, Gawain, and especially Garland. There are so many good targets in this meta, especially considering that she outright kills LB cards like Leo and extremely importantly Warrior of Light.

 

Clive

Clive lets you get some really aggressive openings going second (Curilla into Clive empties your hand, leaving you with four forwards, one damage, and two cards in hand). I know I definitely get too greedy with some of my Clive plays, and I should just Prime him more often, but damn do I love drawing two cards. For normal, sensible people, Clive first and foremost is a tutor for Ifrit (XVI).

 

Ifrit (XVI)

Ifrit helps solve a lot of problems the deck has, notably that most of its removal is temporary (Lasswell) or takes set up (Ramza). Ifrit straight up just kills two things and then demands one of your opponent’s best answers. What else can I say about these two cards? Clive has left his mark on FFTCG just like he did in Tekken.

 

Porom

During Opus XXIII, I knew some opposing knights players were potentially packing Cid Randell as a mirror crusher. So since I was on triple Merlwyb plus double Meeth (because Larsa was in Deck 1 to grab Chaos), I played two Poroms to keep myself safe. They didn’t end up getting in my way during other matchups, and I never got matched up against Knights players while I was also on Knights, so the tech went unused. Until Yuna. Holy hell, if you haven’t had the opportunity to resolve a Porom against Yuna, it’s like railing a line of coke. Everything is immediately so much clearer. You suddenly have so much more confidence in your position. It feels like your opponent is playing in slow motion, since they have to do all their Yunananigans here and now before Porom’s ability resolves, giving you the entire rest of the turn to freely act as you wish. Even once they get protection up like Cecil or Warrior of Light, Porom clears that away and opens them up for your assortment of removal. She’s not great against certain other matchups though, like the mirror or Refia WoLs. So just cycle her with Leo.

 

Amaterasu

Sometimes the fun police show up. Amaterasu says ACAB.

 

Seriously though, I think Amat is the 2nd best card in the game. And if you’ll forgive me for being clickbaity, the 1st best card may shock you.

 

Larsa

No, #1 isn’t Larsa. He’s good, indeed a central figure to the deck. If we weren’t looking to leverage Porom, he would be a 3x for sure. Larsa helps set up in any way we need, getting Ramza, Curilla, Gawain. I should probably get Gawain more than I do, but I usually just go straight for Curilla. This way Gawain is a legal hit off her flip, lowering her odds of failing.

 

Merlwyb

Same as Larsa except we exchange Ramza access for Porom access.

 

Lenna

In EX heavy metas this is probably fine. Sometimes you just don’t have the leniency to durdle around until you can guarantee lethal and you have to take risks, especially when trying to get Lasswell discards. This gives you some parity should they hit less impressive bursts like their own Lenna, Reeve, King Tycoon and the like. You’re still blown out by Lev 6 and Odin, but at least some of the sting is gone. But one huge thing she does is severely put a damper on Lunafreya.

 

Zack

In general this is combining with Garland damage to top off an 8k. It does sometimes let you swing your Steiner into big boys. This is probably the LB I use the least tbh.

 

Serjes

A great way to sideline a blocker and push for either lethal damage or a Lasswell discard. Kuja is way better but sometimes you just don’t have the CP to spare.

 

Viktora

One of the big strengths of this deck is that it just has so much removal. Even if we start the turn with an empty hand, our draw phase puts Viktora and our other LBs into castable range, so we’re resilient even to being run out of resources, letting us play so much more aggressively.

 

Kuja

Just what Knights needed, another engine that generates value turn after turn. Kuja is particularly good at holding opposing Ifrits (XVI) at bay until you can find a more final answer.

 

Leo

Does his game have voice acting? Can someone tell me whether it’s Lee-o like Leo Whitefang or Ley-o like Leo Kliesen? Regardless, Leo is the premiere name when it comes to aggression. This little twink costs you nothing. Being an LB, he functionally costs 2 less. By drawing you a card, he functionally costs 2 less. All you need is an unused Backup and you have a literally free attacker. Multiple times during the day I rolled the bones on a Leo, needing a specific element of CP for this or that play, because why the hell not? You can see this in my Top 4 match when I lucksack Ice CP for Charlotte to safely attack and win the game. Quick callback to Amat, I’m not joking when I say I fully believe Leo is the best card in the game, and I don’t think it’s close. This card costs NEGATIVE ONE CP. We’ve had cards before that cost even less, like another of my favorite’s Opus I’s Paine, who costs a full negative two, but that takes both deck restrictions (you have to run Card Name both Yuna and Rikku) and also set-up (you have to control Card Name both Yuna and Rikku). Leo just costs neg 1. Naturally. Normally. I’m not joking when I say I think this card should probably be banned, although I know they’ll never actually realize that getting shit for “free” breaks FF, no matter how many times they have to ban Ghido, Gesper, Dadaluma, Sterne Leonis, Doga, and Macherie. Hell, Syldra is so good they banned it despite being -2CP, just because it fixed your draws that hard. But now I get to fix my draws for half the cost AND get a free 3k??????

Beatrix

It’s nice to have a knight on demand, especially one that packs removal, even if once in a while you can’t actually cast it because of maindeck Beatrix.

Seattle has an incredible cheesemonger, Beecher’s, with an outlet in SeaTac Airport. I never fly out of SeaTac without getting their chicken melt. Had a smooth, late flight into Oakland, where the Champion of Decency himself Will Coghill picked me up. Will and I both roomed together at Portland last year where we both qualified, then again we both qualified here at NorCal. Clearly we’re each other’s lucky charm. The AirBnB was absolutely stacked: us two, Ryan Chen (grats on your Q at KC!), Brendan Tawa, Justyn Jacoby, and Pat Panattoni. A couple test games here and there, and we called it with enough time to get a good night’s sleep.

Day 1

Found a nice diner nearby for breakfast. Bacon, eggs, and toast, and I’ve got my fuel for the day. Show up to King Kong in the most garish outfit I have ever worn and wander around, saying hello to all the friends I haven’t seen since last season. Make sure to pay my respects to the tournament organizers. Happy, full, and confident, I get ready to start the event.

 

R1 taivas O

Opp had a bad start (going 2nd, t1 ward and pass). He amatted my Curilla, which is CP neutral except I have a free 9k now. Three amats of my own and a hardcast Ifrit XVI kept the game firmly in my favor.

 

R2 hippo combo O

I almost have to play against Oregon bro Nolan here, but a timely re-pair lets us dodge the PNW teamkill. Aggressive Knights starts (something I’m known to do) can literally kill hippo combo before they can combo out, and I had the play. His ambitious t1 Relm plus early Lasswell discards kept him off having enough CP to play both Emet and Hippo in the same turn. He plays the Emet hoping and praying I can’t kill it (I can). Curilla hit two, and the game was over on turn 4.

 

R3 refia O

His backups didn’t line up, my Lenna drew five cards (please cast Lunafreya against me), and the game was over by turn 5.

 

R4 fiwa monsters X

I have a decent start, tough choice on Curilla flip, and looking back I think Gawain was better than solo Lasswell. I should have warped Ramza early since I clocked him on amat. Was counting on priming a clive but then the 2nd ifrit went to damage. Shouldn’t have amatted his ifrit, should have just let my forwards die. Was way too aggressive in a matchup I need to slow down in. Lot of small misplays that cost me a little CP here and a little CP there until I drowned in disadvantage.

 

R5 chark O

T1 curilla is met by t1 totto, so I’m already up cp. Turn 2 I gawain for ramza curilla and warp the ramza. He dumps too many resources into playing out to 4 backups. I get a freeze/disc with lasswell, then a freeze 3/disc the next turn, not letting him reap his investments. Without anymore sweepers, he can’t handle the board of seven knights I end up assembling. Siren and Unei try to field blockers but Beatrix +4k ends the game.

 

R6 eawayuna O

He has a Galuf viking string stop early, no yuna. I larsa into clive and prime to put him on one fwd in play and two? cards iirc in hand. He has a second Galuf chain but again no yuna. I slowly dismantle his fwds but he finally finds materia into yuna. Merlwyb searches up porom and sends them both packing. Play out a Garland for Lasswell to make all my following knights 2-for-1s. He gets 2nd yuna but it’s too late. Swing in for what should be lethal, but EX cait sith for miwa with one in hand makes me wary. I don’t know why I believe this, but I have a read that it’s 3rd yuna so that he can’t cast the miwa. However, if my instincts are wrong, then I lose on the spot. Against every ounce of my being, I choose to play it safe, to stop attacking, and to wait a turn. He almost has a game-winning reply, but sure enough it was 3rd yuna in hand meaning he doesn’t have the CP to kill me.

 

R7 eawali yuna X

Curilla hit medium. For some reason I discarded porom for cp. Wasn’t able to leverage lasswell at all, and saw neither hide nor hair of ramza. Careful play by my opponent let him take advantage of all of these and he dismantled my board and killed me.

 

Top Cut secured, with a 7th place finish in the Swiss. We head straight back to the AirBnB, and order a half dozen pizzas. Justyn and I sit down to practice my Top 16 match. We run several games back to back, with various others wandering by and offering advice, and by the end I’m confident I know how to navigate the matchup. Ryan always seems to have my number when the pressure is on, and an early victory against him will give me the confidence to sweep the rest of the day.

 

Day 2

Top 16 Ryan Chen monowater O

Decklist

G1 I had the nuts, dodged the bursts, and hit him with a truck. G2, on around turn 4 or turn 5, he drew Tidus LB from his deck in front of a judge and got a game loss. I don’t like winning like that, especially against someone I historically have a bad record against, but iiwii. I have always and will always advocate that your LB and your main deck should have a different physical dimension of card sleeve. Between inners, normals, and overs, your two decks should be physically distinct, and thus literally impossible to shuffle into one another.

 

Quarterfinals Bailey Knights O

Decklist

I have some practice on the knights mirror from Nats practice last year, and that paid off in spades. They were both knockdown, drag out matches, but I was able to eke out small advantages here and there. Well played on his end, but my access to Ifrit (XVI) was huge, and I took it 2-0.

 

Semifinals Cory Scions O

Decklist

I flipped like a god off Curilla, kept his resources low with Lasswell, did my best to make sure Y’shtola could never wipe me, and was incredibly careful about Bursts giving him free CP. Even knowing that if I triggered EX with Lenna in G2 that it would be CP neutral, I’d rather we both be low on cards in hand than both be high on cards in hand. I somehow manage to avoid Pulse of Creation, which is honestly the only real route to victory Scions has in this matchup, and the rest is just avoiding misplays.

 

Finals Ray Grengs Knights X

Decklist

Oh boy speaking of misplays… what’s the opposite of locking in? Clocking out I guess, and let me tell you I clocked out for this match. First game was clean at least. I have an aggressive open followed by a perfect Curilla, and Ray just can’t buy back into the game. 2nd game I try to do the same and it doesn’t pay off. I just love Clive too much. Then I math out a whole line to negate Viktora as a blocker so I can draw off Clive again. I know I need to, because she’ll be a 10K since I won’t have a hand. Then I adjust the line so that I’ll have Kuja to dull Ramza next turn, and completely stop thinking about how Viktora will be buff, even though it was the core of what I had been planning around. This misplay is the end of the game, even though it takes a bit longer to actually lose. Game 3 I go for Clive yet again. I make a minor misplay early, I have a superfluous card in hand so I activate Physalis instead of just playing Leo and getting a body. His Curilla flip is perfect and I blew so many resources on the Clive that I’m just so far on the back foot that I can’t contend with his incredible board. Double Burst almost gets me there but Ray’s play is so clean I just can’t find any cracks in the armor.

I’ve seen some various takes on Knights. Ray’s decision to add a minor Warriors package got him a World’s invite so I guess I probably shouldn’t disparage it. Jokes aside, I think it’s important to have some ways to get around Knights’ weaknesses, and Warriors certainly does this. What I keep seeing that doesn’t do this is the addition of Yuna. We’re already able to use Ramza to sit on our laurels and slowly win the econ game before actually winning the game. Yuna does not give us a new vector by which to attack our opponent, but rather takes fuel from our primary win condition in order to… just gum up the works?

Let me be charitable. Against decks with crippling EX Bursts, there are many turns where Knights has multiple unused Forwards. Yuna gives them a use. She gives them clarity of purpose. But is that purpose something we want? Are her effects beneficial to us? I say no. We’re already winning the Forward competition and the econ war, and we already have Amat to stop triggered abilities. What summons do we actually care about? We have so many 2CP Forwards and 5ks already that we’re already weak to anti-Yuna tech. Should we really be doubling down, and getting totally blown out by Brynhildr and Ixion?

Besides we’re already a three element deck. Call me PChal, but I hate risk. As a huge huge proponent of Leo, knowing that there’s a 1-in-40 chance of drawing a Light card when I need need NEED CP makes me absolutely not want to cast him ever. Incredible how easy this lil dude goes imo from “best card in the game” to “completely uncastable” the moment there’s literally any chance of failure whatsoever.

With the magic of “not finishing this article on time” we can take a look at how Knights performed at the 2nd Materia Cup, and it’s not good. Two Knights decks made Top 32 and both of them lost instantly. Jerry and Christopher both played the exact same 58, and they do have an innovation that I plan on complimenting shortly, but first let’s talk about 2x Yuna 2x Miwa. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big hater of Yuna in Knights. But Miwa is actually interesting. Not just as an addendum to Yuna, I think Miwa could be a potential standalone addition to Knights, letting us reactivate and get a second Ramza at a moment’s notice. Maybe this is just a “win more” card, after all it does only seem good when we’re already in a winning position, but I think it’s worth at least testing.

These two wound up playing against Mono-Water and WaFi Warriors. Now this may be arrogance on my part, but I would feel advantaged against both of these decks. Especially considering we’re playing three Ovelias in the face of WaFi’s Bryns and Salamander. Upsets happen, and I don’t mean to disparage these players in any way, but I can’t help but look at these Yunas that I hate and experience confirmation bias.

So, while I’m low on Yuna and mid on Miwa, let me talk about the card I’m real fuckin high on that they both played: Ovelia.

Warriors, Refia, and WaFi Monsters are all playing sources of 5k damage, whether that’s Brynhildr or Armstrong. These are aimed at Yuna, but we have to suffer as collateral damage as they threaten to tear apart several of our key pieces, Beatrix, Charlotte, and Lasswell. Ovelia lifts all of these to 6ks, an incredibly important breakpoint in this metagame. While I wouldn’t have considered Ovelia in Knights for literal years, I think she’s a great meta call to protect you. Moving forward, if I were to play Knights again, I would make a clean three for three swap from Lenna to Ovelia. I think the bursty decks rn can be circumnavigated with careful play, making Lenna less useful, and I think the +1k from Ovelia is invaluable.

Aside from this, I have a couple other ideas that I think are worth pursuing. First and least controversial, I think Agrias is incredibly well positioned right now. I already talked about this earlier, but running so many Water Backups coupled with the sudden glut of good targets makes Agrias one of the most slept on cards in the deck. Even if we swap Lenna to Ovelia, this persists as we still have equal access to 1 Water CP. Except now, with Ovelia, suddenly we have a new potential vector: 5CP Agrias 13R. Every line of text on 5CP Agrias is gold. Is she good enough with only three princesses, three Ovelias, and no Sara to fetch them? I’m not sure, but I think it’s worth testing.

So now, if you’ll permit me, let me venture into the realm of stretching it.

I want to believe Rain is good. If we’re going hard on 1CP Agrias, then it’s not impossible that Curilla puts both of these into play. I usually play my Curillas extremely aggressively, but if you’re a more methodical Knights player I think being able to rip 7K damage off of her is good in some matchups. Not all, Rain is definitely abysmal vs Warriors (whether they have Yuzuki or not) but if we end up playing literally any amount of Fire Backups then I think this is a sleeper card worth consideration.

(Shame about Rain 18R dealing 5k on swing at Damage 3, because Yuna will never put us on Damage 3.)

If your local meta isn’t running Yuna at all, consider dropping Forward Garland for Backup Garland. This gives us an uninteractable Knight for Ramza and lets us remove a blocker on demand, but the core reason we want to play it is to power out LB Graff.

Without actually being at KC, it’s impossible to know whether Knight’s poor representation in Top Cut was because it was underplayed or overhated. Maybe those two players were the only Knights players and it had a 100% conversion rate. Maybe there were a dozen, and only one-in-six made it to Day 2. I don’t know. All I know is that, looking at the decks that did make Top 32, I don’t see any reason why Knights should not continue to be a dominant deck, should they start packing Ovelia to combat their weakness to the sudden influx of 5K sources of damage. I don’t have any interest in continuing to play the deck myself. This isn’t for any reason specific to the deck, rather because I want to explore the other decks in the format. With my invite already in hand, I would rather expand my understanding of the metagame than hone and sharpen one specific method of attacking that metagame. I’ll leave it for other people to make a more perfect Knights list, and hope that my notes will aid them in their noble quest.

We still have a long season ahead of us. Six Materia Cups and countless Local Qualifiers stand between us and the National Championship. I feel like, so far, most pro players are playing to their strengths. They, like me with Knights, are playing what they know, what they’re comfortable with. Opus XXV offered us many new avenues to success, notably Yuna but I have yet to see a strong Cadet candidate, and few people abusing powerhouse Ice Legends Lenne and Sephiroth. Will you be the one to break in a new archetype? Will you bring Knights to an event to secure your qualification? Will you take the insights of this article to safeguard yourself from your local Knights asshole? Regardless of which way you find to use my thoughts, I wish you the best in your quest to succeed. I hope to see you at Nationals, and I also hope to see you again, here, next time, at the Crystarium.