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Back On Getting Side-Tracked

Now, where did we leave off?

We did get sidetracked with Tears of the Planet, and everything that came with it. But, now it seams like everything is back on track. For the most part. Running a business feels like it’s a train wreck waiting to happen. We just have to make sure that when things go wrong, we can steer that train back on the tracks. Hopefully we can avoid the wreck and go around it.

And, that’s what we have been doing for the last 6 and a half years.

6.5 Years?

It seems like yesterday.

We started off with an eBay store. I just checked the date too. Nov-26-2018.

It took us quite a while to get that first sale. But, it finally came, and slowly Kardboard Korner began to grow.

I don’t even know how I got to talking about the begining, but I remember that we had gone to the Flea Market, and found some Pokemon packs selling for a dollar. I thought to myself, how are they getting them so cheap that they can sell them for a dollar each. This was back when packs were going 3 for $10 at your local LGS.

Some of you might have already read this story before, and yes those packs were fake.

As you can see, we can get sidetracked pretty easily.

And, I just spent 2 hours looking at Japanese Vending Machines, trying to find a purveyor for Japanese stickers and cards. I’ve been meaning to change up the Sticker Machine at the store with something a little more unique. It seams like everywhere I go that has vending machines, it’s always the same stickers and tattoos that are in there.

Most of them aren’t even worth putting in. The only thing that really moves is the Pokemon card section. I could easily have put in a bunch of bulk, but I decided on Double Rares and anything unique that I can get for around a quarter. Luckily I managed to get a good deal on some Japanese EX cards, and those have people coming in just for the cards. I see people drop in 5 dollars at a time, trying to “Catch ‘Em All”.

Back on the Japanese stickers and cards, I haven’t found anyone selling them.

I’ll keep looking though.

Selling? kardboardkorner@gmail.com

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Star Wars Celebration!

May the 4th be with you!

Even though it falls on the 18th this year.

We will be heading to the Toy Con Toy Show once again.

Star Wars Celebration!

“Our normal toy show and more! Celebrate the legacy of Star Wars with special raffles! Cosplay encouraged!”

It’s always a fun time there, plenty of toys, comics, video games, and since we’ll be there plenty of Final Fantasy TCG, and trading cards.

Time for the who, what, where and when.

Who?

Toy Con Toy Show.
https://www.toycontoyshow.com

What?

It’s a monthly Toy Show. And, we’ll just copy what was on there website. They do a better job than I would.

“For 30 years, our show has brought equity and fun to collectors, families and the Bridgeview community. The Toy Con Toy Show offers patrons access to dozens of toy, comic and collectible vendors with merchandise from all eras and genres. Toy Con also sponsors charities through fundraisers held at select shows, such as The Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation.”

Where?

Bridgeview Community Center

7902 S. Oketo
Bridgeview, IL 60455

When?
May 18th, 2025
8:30AM – 2:00PM

Let’s not forget How?

How what? How to get in.

$5 – General Admission
$7 – Early Admission
Kids under 10 = Free!

Hope to see you all there!

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The “Real” Tears of the Planet and More

Shop for Singles and more at our TCG Player Store!

It’s April, and what do we have going on?

Tears of the Planet has come, but it’s like it never arrived. As you already know, our order was cut in half, and we’ve been trying to get some stock of it, but everything is sold out. Almost everywhere. Is it because it is a great set? Maybe, plenty of great cards in there. Is it because Aerith is on the box? That can be it too, Plus that Full Art Gold Signature Aerith looks amazing.

We’ve had other shops in our area asking us if we had any extras. So, I know I’m not the only one without any stock. Never the less, we’ll keep on looking to see if any more will become available.

April 6th, we will be at the Toy Con Toy Show in Bridgeview, it is a two day event different vendors for each day. As we said Sunday morning April 6th. We’ll have a table there and we’ll have all kinds of cards and collectables. I’d say about 40% of what we have will be Final Fantasy. But, there will be more to it than that. Video Games, Action Figures, Toys you name it. There’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Did you check out our updated Final Fantasy Singles? We have close to 200 cards available for you. All these cards are from pack to sleeve, and straight to a binder.

And, as we mentioned before, we need your bulk! If it’s just in the closet gathering dust, we’ll give you $10 per 1000 cards. If you have something that’s worth more than bulk, send us a message, and we’ll go from there.

kardboardkorner@gmail.com

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Tears of the Limit Break

Shop for these cards and more at our TCG Player Store!

25-106R – Machina LB

How much you like this card depends on when you can play it.

Machina is a 2 cost Forward, who’s power will range from 4K – 10K, as every point of damage that you have received gives Machina +1000 power.

This is not bad at all. The only problem I see is that you can’t play Machina if you already have a Forward on the field.

And, that might be the reason Machina is a Limit Break.

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25-107H – Red XIII LB

This is what a Limit Break should be.

Red XIII comes in and he gives all of your Forwards +2000 power until the end of the turn. With all the Final Fantasy VII Characters in this set, I see Red XIII being a great Limit Break to play.

And, since we’re talking about Final Fantasy VII, if you have another 2 FFVII Characters on the field, Red XIII will also gain Haste, First Strike, and Brave.

This will be a great play after a couple of turns. You’ll have a Forward that will be tough to beat.

I do like this one.

25-108R – Kam’lanaut LB

I’m not sure if Kam’lanaut looks more like a Transformer or a Super Hero.

Either way Kam’lanaut will do the same thing once he enters the field. He will break a Forward.

Why am I so sure, that Kam’lanaut will break one of your opponent’s Forwards? Because you wouldn’t be playing it if you didn’t control a Dark Forward.

After that you’ll have a Meat Shield on the field.

Hey, that rhymes.

25-109H – Shuyin LB

Shuyin! What’cha doin?

Looking for Vegnagun, that’s what Shuying is doing!

Shuyin will come in and search for a Dark Forward. If you don’t want Vegnagun, you can always look for Emissaries of Light Chaos, and go that route.

And, hey if you get Vegnagun in your starting hand, you won’t need Shuyin, but it’s always good to have him.

Yeah, I can’t think of anything else.

25-110R – Aerith LB

Here’s a way to make sure you can start your FFVII deck off right.

If your hand isn’t good, and you need to just find Zack or Cloud, Aerith knows where to find them.

You can then play them on to the field, and go along with your plan.

Aerith can also cancel an auto-ability targeting a FFVII Character.

It’s almost as if she’s sacrificing herself to protect the rest.

I’d call Aerith the perfect Meat Shield, but that feels wrong.

25-111H – The Emperor LB

Do you want to draw more card?

The Emperor her will help you out with that.

Every time your opponent searches for a card, or brings a card back from the Break Zone, you get to draw a card. And, there’s no limit on how many cards you can grab.

Since we already know that every deck has a card that searches for cards, and most decks have a way of bringing cards back from the Break Zone, you will draw enough cards to make The Emperor a free play in the long run.

You also get a body on the field with 5000 power.

You’ll want to keep The Emperor on board for as long as you can.

25-112H – Sarah (MOBIUS) LB

We were just talking about MOBIUS, somewhere during this set, and it is getting some love here.

Sarah will come in and if you find a MOBIUS card in the top 4 cards of your deck, you can add it to your hand, if not then all the cards go to the Break Zone.

It can work in your favor, it can also work against you.

But, the real reason you’ll be playing Sarah, is her second ability, in which she reduces the cost of playing your MOBIUS Forwards by 2CP.

And, you get a body, but you’ll probably just be dulling Sarah to help pay for your Forwards.

125-113R – Yang LB

Bring on the Monks!

This is just a way to get an extra Monk on the field.

What am I saying? I gotta read a little better here.

This is a way to get a Forward on the field, any Forward, any Element, any Category, any Job.

As long as you have enough Monks on the field you can even play Mont Leonis (14-075H) and Chaos (16-129L)

Just find a way to break Yang, and play him again, and then play him once again. Since Yangs LB cost is only 1 point, you can play all 3 Yangs if you have them in your Limit Break deck.

25-114R Kain LB

Kain might cost 9CP, but you can bring that cost all the way down to 2CP.

How?

Its simple really.

If you have 3 Dragoons on the field, Kain’s cost comes down to 4CP. And, once Kain enters the field you’ll grab a Forward from your Break Zone. Bringing it down to 2CP, just like we mentioned.

You can grab the Forward you just used to pay for Kain’s cost, or you can grab another one.

Most likely, you’ll be grabbing another one. Probably that Dragoon that was just broken last turn.

Did we mention Kain has First Strike?

If you’re playing Dragoons, you should throw at least one in your Limit Break Deck.

25-115H – Sephiroth LB

This is a fun card to play. I managed to pull it on Prerelease along with a couple of FFVII Legends, but that’s a story for another day.

The high cost of Sephiroth is worth it.

Whenever Sephiroth attacks or when he enters the field, Sephiroth will dull all the Forwards except for himself.

And, at the end of your turn you will break a dull Forward. At the end of your opponent’s turn, you will break another dull Forward. And so on, and so forth.

You will slowly break down your opponent’s front line, but be careful. Once your opponent loses all their Forwards, you’re going to start breaking your own Forwards.

But, then again, if your opponent doesn’t have any Forwards on the field, you’re probably winning the game.

25-116H – Graff LB

The Grand General. Graff looks like he could be a captain, and when I saw it the first thing I thought about is Vikings.

Why Vikings?

Well, when Graff enters the field, choose a Forward you control remove it from the game. If you remove a Viking, you will draw a card.

Which should be a good enough reason to play Graff in your Pirate deck.

And also, whenever Graff attacks, you’ll choose one of your opponent’s Forwards and they lose 4000 power until the end of the turn.

Let’s not forget about Graff’s 9000 power either.

25-117R – Leonora LB

One more card that can search for another card.

A Forward to be exact, A Final Fantasy IV Forward.

Which Forward? Well, that’s up to you.

Leonora can also help protect your Final Fantasy IV Forwards, with her second ability which turns the next damage dealt to them to 0.

Final Fantasy IV now has 2 cards that will search for a FFIV Forward.

We might be on to something here.

25-118H – Golbez LB

We’ve seen all the Archfiends, now let’s take a look at their leader, Golbez.

5CP plus 2LB to play a 9K Golbez.

So far this is meh. Just your regular High Powered Forward.

Now let’s take a look at the ability. Once per turn, you can search for an Archfiend and play it onto the field. Just like that.

Imagine, looking for Cagnazzo, right when you need to get rid of a Forward that you don’t want on the field. Or playing Scarmiglione when one of your Forwards gets attacked and needs to be saved.

And, that was just a couple of Archfiends from this set. Imagine what you can do if you go through all of the Archfiends.

That Golbez VS Cecil deck is looking pretty good right now.

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Tears of the Light & Dark Planet

Shop for these Singles and more at our TCG Player Store!

25-103H – Fusoya

Need to deal 9000 damage to a Forward, look no further, Fusoya here can do just that. And, that’s all he does.

Sure, 9000 damage to a Forward is a lot of damage, and more than half the time you will be breaking that Forward.

The real question though is it worth the cost?

Fusoya is a 2 cost Backup, but you’ll also remove the top 2 cards of your deck from the game when Fusoya enters the field. That’s technically 6CP, and you don’t know what the two cards are that will be removed.

Fusoya also has Flare, which is the same thing.

I know High powered attacks should cost more, but this feels like you’ll be paying more than you have too. Especially since we have Ifrit 25-004H.

25-104L – Yuna

This better be a Full Art.

For 2CP you get access to 3 separate abilities, that can go off at any moment, as long as you have 2 active Forwards.

1) Dull 2 Forwards.

2) Freeze a Character

3) Cancel a Summon or an auto-ability, if your opponent doesn’t pay an extra Crystal Point.

Although Yuna is not over powered, she can still put a stop to parts of your opponent’s strategy.

I don’t think this is ground breaking, considering Yuna is a Legend, but I have been wrong in the past.

Let’s see what happens 3 months from now.

25-105L – Vegnagun

Can we say game over?

Kind of like Emissaries of Light Tidus, there are way to keep Vegnagun out of your Break Zone. At least for the time being. And, after that, there still are some ways to grab Vegnagun back from the Break Zone.

With 10,000 power, Vegnagun is a force to be reckoned with, and having the ability to activate it whenever you’d like, Vegnagun will be ready to deal damage and take damage without worrying about having the War Machine Break.

And, once you already have 2 Vegnuguns in your Break Zone, Vegnagun will break all of your opponent’s Forwards. Leaving the road open for an easy victory.

This is probably where Yuna comes in play to block Vegnaguns abilities.