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Hidden Hope – Breathing Hope?

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22-037R – Alexander

Oh?
I read this card wrong the first time I read it.

Now that I’m looking at it, this is a great card. Alexander comes in and casts reflect on one of your Forwards, sending that damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards instead. The best thing is that you get to choose the Forward, rather than have it randomly chosen when the damage hits.

And, if you only paid with Backups to cast Alexander, you will also draw a Card, making Alexander a 1 cost Summon.

I’ll gladly add this Alexander to a Wind deck. Probably the best Alexander yet.

22-038C – Wol

Wol has 2 abilities, one which is good, and the other is ok.

The first one will allow you to choose a High cost Forward and send it to the Break Zone. The other allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and add a Wind Character to your hand.

You’ll most likely be playing this card to get rid of that High cost Forward.

I don’t got much else for this.

 

22-039C – Epiornis

This is a Common?

I have to say this is a great card, and at 2 CP it is the perfect monster to have on the field, once you get 3 points of damage.

Why is that?

Well, Epiornis becomes a Forward during your turn. And, Epiornis cannot be bloced by a Forward with a cost of 4CP. That in itself is great. But, if you already have received 3 points of damage, Epiornis cannot be blocked by a Forward of 3CP or less. Thus, making Epiornis unstoppable.

The only way that you can stop Epiornis’s attack, is by a Summon or ability that will deal it damage, or by sending it straight to the Break Zone.

Now, imagine if you have 3 of these on the field.

22-040H – Enkidu

A 3 cost Warrior that will activate 3 of your Backups when he enters the field. Thus making Enkidu a free play.

After that he’ll stick around as a 7K power body, attacking and blocking like he normally would.

This card also sticks to the story, allowing Gilgamesh to call on him when he enters the field. Enkidu must be in the Break Zone when Gilgamesh enters the field. Then you’ll pay 2CP and bring Enkidu in, while activating 3 Backups.

Gilgamesh (7-088L) would be a great choice. You’ll end up only paying 1CP for both Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

You don’t even need to play Wind/Lightning, you can just throw in Enkidu since you won’t need to pay by color if Enkidu is in the Break Zone.

22-041C – Kain

Haste, and First Strike for a Common?

Activate 2 Characters when Kain Attacks?

+1000 power at 3 points of Damage?

How is this a common?

Whatever Rarity Kain has, this card is great. Actually it’s GRRRRREAT!

And, don’t get me started on the artwork, because we’re not here to talk about the artwork.

Just throw Kain into any Wind deck and you’ll do fine.

22-042C – Ranger

Your Standard 2 cost Backup.

Ranger is straight to the point, just like his arrows fly straight towards their target.

Or something like that.

Ranger has 2 abilities. One deals a 2CP Forward 5000 damage, possibly breaking it, and the other breaks a Monster.

Both of these are useful.

And, there aren’t that many ways to get rid of Monsters and Ranger here provides you with a way.

22-043C – Clavat

Simple, basic and straight to the point.

Clavat comes in for 1CP and allows you to look at the top card of your deck. If you like it you can keep it there. If not send it to the bottom of your deck.

It does have plenty of benefits.

Depending on what you see there, your game plan will change for this turn.

Do you see an EX Burst that will cause plenty of damage to your opponent. Leave it there and take a point of Damage. Do you see the card you need to put your plan into motion, play that card that allows you to draw a card.

Worst case is that you don’t like the card, and you can just recycle it to the bottom.

22-044R – Cid (FFBE)

Cid has an ability that activates during very Attack Phase, which is something that makes Cid even more valuable as the game goes on.

You can either Activate 2 Characters, or you can grant all of your Forwards protection from all Summons that choose them.
4CP isn’t alot to pay to Activate a couple of Characters once per turn. Plus you get an 8k body that will be hard to get rid of. Because, once Cid is put into the Break Zone, you can pay 3CP and return Cid to the field. That’s cheaper than playing Cid from your hand.

I like this one.

22-045C – Sosha

4 cost Dragoon that turns into a 2CP Forward if you have a Dragoon already on the field.

2CP for an 8k body isn’t bad at all.

Sosha can also throw her spear onto a Forward of your choosing, dealing it 4000 damage. Best thing is that you don’t need to send her to the Break Zone in order to do it. Just dull Sosha and you’ll be dealing 4000 damage.

This is a decent card. Simple, effective and straight to the point.

If you’re playing Dragoons, you should try adding Sosha.

22-046R – Chelinka

Chelinka here to give Yuri some support, granting him Haste. You’ll just need another Crystal Chronicles Character on the field when you play Yuri, so you’ll have a total of 3 FFCC Characters on the field.

Other than that, that is it.

2CP, 5000 power.

 

 

22-047L – Dorgann

The Art of Removal.

Dorgann, has three different abilities that activate when he enters the field, and yes, you guessed it, they all are removal abilities.

Remove a Forward, Remove a Monster, Remove 2 cards from the Break Zone.

You’ll get to choose one of those abilities to activate. But, if you already played another 2 cards before you play Dorgann, you’ll get to use 2 of these abilities instead.

Meaning that you will probably end up paying only 2CP for Dorgann to come into play.

22-048H – Nanaa Mihgo

Yes, Yes, Yes.

I’ll take 3. I’d take more if I would be able to add more to my deck.

Nanaa Mihgo is a Robber, and she’s here to rob some of your cards and use those same cards against you.

That 2 cost Forward in their Break Zone? Check.

The 3 cost Summon in their Break Zone? Check as well.

You won’t even need to pay for the cost either, they just come into play as soon as Nanna Mihgo comes into the field.

Actually, no you don’t want this card. I’ll give you a dollar for your Full Arts. No? It was worth a try.

22-049H – Bartz

Well, Bartz if you’re not in a Warrior of Light deck, you shall be useless. The only thing you’ll have going for you would be a 5000 power body on the field just hanging around with nothing to do.

But, if you are playing a Warrior of Light deck, he becomes a little bit better.

Bartz has the ability to not be chosen by your opponents abilities, if you remove 3 Warrior of Light Characters from your Break Zone, and it lasts until the end of the turn.

The other ability, is the S ability, where you can pay the cost of a card, then you can search for it and play it onto the field. Which is pretty good. You’ll be able to play any Warrior of Light card in your deck straight to the field.

22-050C – Geomancer

Here we are, a decent Standard Unit Forward.

I like this one.

Geomancer has auto protection from your opponent’s abilities. Not all of them just the ones that can choose Geomancer.
And, if you already have a couple of Standard Unit Backups on the field, you get to Activate 3 of your Backups. Which in turn will make Geomancer a 1 cost Forward with an 8k body.

Can’t get much better than that.

22-051R – Hope

Hope is hidden in Hidden Hope.

You would have thought that he would have been on the box art.

Hope comes in and you get to reveal the top 4 cards of your deck, and grabbing a FFXIII Forward from there. If you don’t find one, they all go to the bottom of your deck.

At 2CP that isn’t bad at all. You might get a free play, if you do find a FFXIII Forward there.

And, if you ever needed a way to get rid of a high powered Forward, Hope here is your answer. With Aeroga, you can Break a Forward with at least 9000 power. And, we do have a more than enough targets for Aeroga.

22-052H – Helena Leonis

Helena Leonis was turning into a great Character, and then I stopped playing War of the Visions.

As we can see she is a Green Mage as well. Although she doesn’t have any attacking spells or abilities, she does allow you to look at the top 2 cards of your deck. One is put at the bottom of your deck, the other is removed from the game.

Now, why would you want to pay a Crystal to look at the top 2 cards of your deck, remove 1 and place the other at the bottom of your deck?

Well, the card you removed, you can cast it this turn for it’s cost minus 2 CP.

You might get a free play, which is always good in my book.

22-053C – Lilisette EX

“Put on your red shoes and dance the blues,
To the song they’re playing on the radio”

And, while we’re dancing Lilisette will come into the field, and deal one of your opponent’s Forwards 1000 damage for each Character you control. Forwards, Backups, and Monsters. Anything goes, Tonight.

You’ll most likely break something with Lilisette.

And, if you find a way to bounce her. You can do even more damage.

Let’s not forget this also comes off as an EX Burst.

22-054R – Reddas

Are Sky Pirates making a comeback? Yes, I’m basing this off of this one card, because Reddas is pretty good, and he’s not even a Legend, or a Hero.

If you have 5 Sky Pirates already on the field, Reddas is a free 9k Body, that will grant all of your other Sky Pirates some protection from Summons.

Your opponent will sure have some trouble trying to get rid of this one.

And, that’s all I need to say here, If you’re playing Sky Pirates, you better be playing Reddas.

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Hidden Hope : Frozen Hope

22-019C – Ice Bomb

I Need More Bombs!

And, this one is pretty good on my opinion.

During your turn, Ice Bomb becomes a Forward, and whenever it attacks, you can Freeze one of your opponents Forwards.
And, if you already have received 3 points of damage, Ice Bomb will also Dull that Forward, thus making said Forward unavailable for your opponent’s next turn.

I’ll take 3, and put them in the Bomb deck.

22-020R – Vallaide

Who would have thought that Green Mages have these kind of abilities. And, what is a Green Mage anyway? I thought they were Red Mages.

Whatever it is Vallaide has a pass, because he’ll kick some …

It’s true. Just use his ability on a Forward, and whenever that forward is dealt damage, it breaks. Just like that.

Sure, you’ll need another way to deal a little bit of damage to said Forward, but that should be easy enough to figure out.

22-021R – Emina

This is what everyone likes. A Backup that searches for a card.

Sure, the card needs to be an Ice Character that costs 2CP or less, and I’m sure there are plenty of good cards to grab.

This technically makes Emina a 2 cost Backup as well.

Search and Play.

 

22-022R – Quistis

Do you remember Opus I Jihl Nabaat?

Well Quistis here, does a much better job than what Jihl Nabaat did.

Of course you’ll have to be playing a FFVIII themed deck, but with a card like this, and plenty of other great FFVIII cards that won’t be hard to do.

Now, what does Quistis do?

Depending on how many FFVIII Forwards you have on the field, you can dull that many of your opponent’s Characters. And if you have 3 or more, you’ll also Freeze them.

And, the artwork? It looks great. Can’t go wrong with a good looking card with a great ability.

22-023C – Bard

Bard, a low cost Backup that will dull a low cast Forward.

And, if you have another Bard (22-023C) on the field, you can use Bard’s other ability and Break that Forward.

Is it worth the price?

Depends on what you’re Breaking.

You can’t go wrong with a 2 cost Backup, that has a couple of decent abilities. Unless your opponent isn’t playing low cost Forwards. Then you might be out of luck.

22-024L – Kurasame

At 7CP, Kurasame is a quite expensive, but he can be worth it depending on how many Ice Backups you have on the field when Kurasame enters.

Go ahead count your Backups.

I’ll wait.

5 Ice Backups, well that is perfect. You shall either Dull and Freeze, 5 of your opponents Characters. Backups? Forwards? Monsters? Yep. Yep and yep.

Or, you can have your opponent discard a card for each Ice Backup that you have.

We said 5, right?

Well your opponent is discarding 5 cards from their hand. And, what was that card that was just released in the Anniversary Collection Set 2024? I don’t have the card in front of me, but I think it said, deal 5000 damage to a Forward every time your opponent discards a card, due to your Summons or abilities.

Now, at that point I’d say it’s very well worth playing Kurasame, as it will put you in a winning position. If you can’t beat your opponent when you made them discard their hand and laid waste to their front line, I think it’s time for you to pick up another game.

I like it.

22-025C – Cloud of Darkness

This is a decent card, for a Common.

Cloud of Darkness comes in, and since you’ll already be playing Discard because you’re already playing Ice, your job will be to have your opponent have as little cards as possible in their hand before you play Cloud of Darkness. Cause when Cloud of Darkness comes in and your opponent has only 2 cards, or less, in their hand, they will send one of their Forwards into the Break Zone.

And, that is pretty much it.

 

22-026C – Seymour EX

Almost like a Summon. Seymour comes in and breaks a dull Character.

After that Seymour will just hang out on the field producing a single Ice CP once per turn.

Good thing is that this ability can come off of an EX Burst as well.

Now, where did I put that card that gets rid of my Backups.

 

 

22-027R – Shiva

Let’s talk about Ice.

It’s so cold, that it will make all of your abilities stop working. Nothing moves, and your opponent’s Characters reset to 0.

No Haste, No First Strike, No Brave, no buffs no nothing.

Plus you get to draw a card if you only paid the cost with your Backups.

The twins are your best bet at starting a frozen empire.

22-028H – Cissnei

The Turks just got a little bit better with Cissnei.

She might not look like much, but in a Turk heavy deck, she’ll be lying in the shadows waiting to attack. And she can attack twice.

Sure, Cissnei comes in dull, but she also comes in with Haste. All you need to do is activate her and she’s ready to go. Luckily, The Turks are here to give a helping hand. (And you thought that they were the bad guys.) Every time a Member of the Turks attacks, you will activate Cissnei.

Here is the battle plan, Cissnei comes in, Reno attacks, Cissnei activates, Cissnei attacks, Rude Attacks, Cissnei activate and attacks again.

For 2CP, you get a 6K body that dual wields Shurikens.

I’ll take it.

22-029R – Jihl Nabaat EX

It’s Jihl, but which Jihl will you like to play?

Is PSICOM going to become a great deck to play? Who will be in it? How many PSICOM cards are there? Why are there so many questions?

After looking up all of PSICOM there are a total of 3 Characters with that Job, One which is Jihl Nabaat. The other 2 are Rygdea and Yaag Rosch.

“Who you gonna call?”

Not the Ghostbusters, that’s for sure. You can flip a coin and see which one you’ll get.

But, at 3CP you get a Forward with 7000 Power, and you get to search for a member of PSICOM.

I’m guessing they’ll be adding more PSICOM members in the next set, Especially since Lightning is on the box.

22-030C – Shinryu Celestia

This is nice, a decent 2 cost Backup that will give one of your Forwards +4000 power.

Sure, you can only use this ability if you have 5 Backups on the field, but you should be trying to get to 5 Backups as soon as you can. Because Backups equals more CP.

Now, if you can find a way to activate Shinryu Celestia after she used her ability, then you can use it again, giving another Forward, or the same Forward, another +4000 power.

 

 

22-031H – Squall

How is Squall just a Hero?

Because he is a Hero. Just play Final Fantasy VIII to see why.

At 4CP/8000 Power, Squall becomes even more powerful, if you have 4 FFVIII Characters on the field. Not only that, but he is protected from your opponent’s abilities that deal damage.

And if you need to get more Final Fantasy VIII Characters on the field, Squall will help you with that as well. During the beginning of each of your Attack Phases, you will be able to play a Final Fantasy VIII Forward from your hand onto the field. Just as long as that Forward costs 4CP or less.

You can get the four Final Fantasy VIII Forward on the field, by the beginning of your next turn, If you play Squall right away. After that, it’ll be easy sailing.

22-032L – Sephiroth

The card that everyone is looking for. Not the one you see, but the one with the Gold Stamped Signature. It is a good looking card.

Now, lets talk about the card itself.

At 3CP with 7000 power, you would think that this card is undeserving of the Legend status. Well, we’re here to tell you that it is. And, that we can see why Squall is just a Hero.

Whenever Sephiroth is in your hand, you can pay 3CP and break one of your opponent’s dull Forwards. Which in itself is a great ability to have. Although you’ll have to remove Sephiroth from the game.

But, that doesn’t mean that Sephiroth is lost, he just went into the Lifestream like he usually does. Once he is in the Lifestream, and only during the turn that he entered the Lifestream, you may play Sephiroth onto the field for his cost. And, once Sephiroth enters the field, your opponent will discard a card from their hand.

Sephiroth will cost you a total of 6CP to play this way. There are a couple of Summons that will Break a dull Forward. One is Titan (21-071H) who will break a dull Forward for 3CP, and Hades (6-038R) who will break it, and have your opponent discard a card from their hand for 5CP. The difference is that Sephiroth stays on the field as a body.

22-033C – Time Mage

Time Mage is a simple 2 cost Standard Unit Backup that is actually pretty good.

Time Mage enters the field, and will Dull/Freeze a Forward, and if you have one more Standard Unit Backup on the field, Time Mage will Dull/Freeze a Character as well.

If you have 3 of these in your hand you can Dull/Freeze up to 6 Characters, and at 2CP each, it will only cost you 6CP or 1P per Character.

That sounds like a steal to me.

22-034H – Medusa

We finally have a new spell. Stone has arrived to Final Fantasy TCG. They’re just calling them Petrification Counters.

Medusa comes in and casts Stone on a Forward. Once that Forward has turned to stone, they cannot attack or block. And they will not be able to turn back to normal once Medusa is gone.

Nope, they will have to use a Gold Needle, and the price for that Gold Needle is 5CP.

This will put a cog in your opponents plans.

22-035C – Yuke

Simple, basic and straight to the point.

Yuke comes in for 1CP and allows you to look at the top card of your deck. If you like it you can keep it there. If not send it to the bottom of your deck.

It does have plenty of benefits.

Depending on what you see there, your game plan will change for this turn.

Do you see an EX Burst that will cause plenty of damage to your opponent. Leave it there and take a point of Damage. Do you see the card you need to put your plan into motion, play that card that allows you to draw a card.

Worst case is that you don’t like the card, and you can just recycle it to the bottom.

22-036C – Rinoa

Final Fantasy VIII, has had some great cards showing up. And, we still haven’t had a Starter Set made for 8.

Good thing is that, we already have plenty of cards to make a great deck. Is Rinoa a good card to add?

Probably not. There are far better Rinoas in other sets, so, I don’t really see you playing this one, unless you’re playing a Discard deck. Or, you just like the art and you’ll just throw it in your FFVIII deck, just to show off with the Full Art. I know I’ve done that before.

If Squall is already on the field when you play Rinoa, her cost goes down to 2CP from 3CP, which makes this card more affordable, and her ability forces your opponent to discard 2 cards.