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Kardboard Fantasy V

09/01

It’s Labor Day, it’s also my daughter’s birthday, so we spent the day getting ready for her party. It was just a small party, with family, but she enjoyed it. She finally got a Switch that she was asking for, plus the game she’s been wanting Animal Crossing. Or Crossy Roads as she calls it.

After it was all done, I had to put all the orders that got stacked up from the weekend.

And, hopefully these World Champions Decks 2024 will come in this week.

09/02

I was out cold today, missed my alarm, kids were late for school. And, well, we still have plenty of things to take care of.
Had some free time, so I tried organizing the office again. It will always be a work in progress. Today was more like one step forward, two steps back.

I either need more room for it, or less trading cards. I’m thinking more room.

09/03

It was School Curriculum Night.

And, that’s where my whole night was spent. I thought it would have been an hour or so. It ended up taking 3 hours. Running around to each class, meet with all their teachers. It was a little bit hectic.

Luckily, their Soccer Practice was canceled, and it gave me more time. Other wise I would have been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.

Finished up some orders. And, still no word about the World Champions Deck.

09/04

Called my distributor bright and early. The World Champions Decks 2024 have arrived and they will be here tomorrow. We’re going to have to get everything ready as to where we can just slap a label on them and have them sent out as soon as they arrive tomorrow.

Started sorting all the Gunslinger in the Abyss boxes that we’ve opened. We’re going to start putting these cards in our Bulk lots as well.

Played a game of 99 Nights in the Forest again. We finally saved one of the kids. And, got to day 11 again.

09/05

Patiently waiting for the World Champions Decks to come in. I’m get excited every time a UPS truck goes by, and then I’m disappointed when they don’t turn into the parking lot.

But, they finally did arrive. Only a week late. Got everyone’s pre-order sent out as soon as they did.

Restock for Gunslinger in the Abyss, on TCG Player and eBay.

09/06

Gameday!

This kids did better this week than last week, they only lost 3-1 this time. And, 2 of those goals, were because the goalkeeper was hiding from the ball. Go figure. Yes, they’re just kids, but don’t duck so the ball won’t hit you. That’s what your arms are for.

It’s ok, we’re still keeping our heads up.

After the game, I was just running around. Didn’t stop until 4PM, and after that I was just spent. Managed to get all of my orders done. And, I went straight to bed. I think I’m getting sick.

09/07

Yep, I’m getting sick.

Time to pop some Ibuprofen. And, try and get through the day.

Ended up heading out to Indiana, and have dinner with some of our kids. We picked a place that we went to years ago. Apparently they have good burgers, or did.

After we got home, I just put the kids to bed, got their lunches ready for school, and passed out. Hopefully, I’ll feel better tomorrow.

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Kardboard Outlook

08/25

It’s the start of the work week. Plenty to do today as we get ready for the World Championship Decks 2024 coming out this Friday. Well not really a lot to do, it’s not like it’s a regular release with all new cards we have to take a look at. But, still we have some things to do before hand.

Other than that, the day was spent finishing up the weekends orders.

08/26

I usually get a call on Tuesdays if there’s a release coming out that week. And, today is Tuesday, and I haven’t received a phone call yet.

That means that they’re either really busy, or they haven’t received them yet. I’ll give them a call tomorrow to figure out what’s going on.

Opus XII restock on TCG Player and eBay.

08/27

I have Opus XIII ready to go, and did that restock for it on both TCG Player and eBay.

Called my distributor today, and they don’t have a clue on when the World Championship Decks are coming in.

I still need some product, so I ordered plenty of Gunslinger in the Abyss. It’s selling like hot cakes, and these singles are fire.
Got to wait a day for those to come in.

Took the kids to soccer practice spent an hour there, just watching them go. All they need to do now is have fun.

08/28

Gunslinger in the Abyss came in today as it was scheduled. Now it’s time for us to crack open some packs, and list those singles. But, not until later, so we can upload it to YouTube.

Spent the afternoon, posting singles on eBay. And, some of them sold in minutes! That’s something that we always like to see.

Played some 99 Nights in the Forest with the little ones before bed time, and we finally made it to day 11. Only 88 more to go. Thing is you have to restart from the begining each time.

08/29

These boosters are half way gone already! Might have to order some more. Just have to wait for the money to clear on TCG Player and eBay and PayPal. eBay and PayPal are pretty quick, but sometimes TCG Player takes up to two weeks for the money to reach my bank account.

We’ll worry about restocking once we sell out, we still have a Master Case available, so if you’re on the lookout for some, we got you covered!

Yes, sometimes I’ll just insert an image that has nothing to do with what I’m writing.

Restock for Opus XIV – Crystal Abyss on TCG Player and eBay.

08/30

Time’s flying by, I can’t believe that GConnn will be tomorrow. I have to get everything set up for it. Luckily, most of it is already ready from other events. about 70% is Final Fantasy, trading cards and toys. The rest is .. well it depends on what I feel like bringing,

I’ll probably bring some Pokemon for it.

Other than that, I spent the whole day at the restaurant.

08/31

6AM, Wake up, time to go.

Had to be at the Orland Park Civic Center at 7AM to start setting up. I probably could have arrived later, but it’s always good to be ready before hand. You never know when the unexpected can happen. It’s not like you can expect it.

It was a good show, had about 275 people show up. Made some money, made some trades, and found an Final Fantasy VIII Siren GF Action Figure still sealed.

I picked that up before anyone else had a chance to.

Went home took a nap, and headed out for a little BBQ. It’s Labor Day weekend, we got to relax a little.

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The Dirty Dozen

After seeing “The Twelve” in Gunslinger in the Abyss, you know we had to see what we can make out of this. The plan was simple. Throw all of The Twelve cards into a deck, and add in another 14 cards and see what we can get.

The Twelve work great together. As they will search for each other, grab another member out of the Break Zone, have abilities that go off when you have a certain number of The Twelve on the field, and it goes on and on.

But, since The Twelve are in every element, how will we get them on the field?

This in my opinion is the hardest part. As if you don’t get the hand you want when you start off, you’ll be in a bit of trouble. Luckily, we’ve added cards that can kick start your game plan.

First things first. You will need either Llymlaen, or Menphina in your starting hand. If not I suggest you Mulligan, because you will need Llymlaen to make everything easier. As Llymlaen allows you to pay for The Twelve with any color of CP. Then why am I talking about Menphina? Well, she can search for Llymlaen and play her straight to the field. This way you’ll have a better chance at starting off the match right.

The rest of The Twelve play nicely together as mentioned before, and there are a few cards that are worth mentioning. Nophica, will allow you to grab a card from the Break Zone when she enters the field, and when she is put into the Break Zone. That’s 2 cards, making Nophica a Free Play. Rhalgr who will Break one of your opponent’s Forwards when he enters the field. And if you already have another 8 of the Twelve members on the field, Rhalgr is also a Free Play. Nald’thal, is a great Backup as well. Nald’thal will play one of The Twelve, from the Break Zone, straight to the field.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to recycle. And, recycling is good for the planet, and your deck. Captain Planet would be proud.

We kept the deck Main deck filled with Final Fantasy XIV Characters, the main ones we added are Emet-Selch, and Hythlodaeus. We all know what these 2 do together. And, since you’re playing with a deck that has every element in it, it will be good to be able to bring in some cards at once, without worrying about paying for them.

And, let’s not forget Hien. The Legend from Rebellion’s Call. And, you should know why. Cause whenever Hien attacks, you will activate all of the FFXIV Forwards, and guess what The Twelve are. I’ll just leave it at that, you can use your imagination here. Did we mention that Hien let’s your FFXIV Forwards attack twice in the same turn?

The rest of the deck consists of Ra-La, Vrtra and Azdaja. Just one copy of each as they can fit in any deck.

Just one Summon, and that is Amaterasu. Cause it’s Amaterasu.

The Limit Break Deck, is a mix with Leo taking the top spot at 3 copies, because you just might need to draw a card in the begining of the game if you don’t get a good starting hand. The rest are just cards that you can use in certain situations.

Forwards

26-047H – Oschon x3
26-094C – Byregot x3
26-108C – Thaliak x3
17-016L – Hien x3
23-062H – Emet-Selch x3
26-001R – Azeyma EX x3
26-078C – Nophica x3
26-121L – Ra-La x1
26-037H – Halone x3
26-085L – Vrtra x1
26-103L – Azdaja x1
23-070H – Hythlodaeus x3
26-097R – Rhalgr x3

Summons

12-002H – Amaterasu x2

Backups

26-059R – Llymlaen x3
26-063R – Althyk EX x3
26-040R – Menphina x3
26-113R – Nymeia EX x30
26-012H – Nald’thal x3

Limit Break

22-123R – Leo LB x3
25-111H – The Emperor LB x1
22-119R – Maat LB x1
23-129H – Lunafreya LB x1
24-115R – Tenzen LB x1
25-115H – Sephiroth LB x1

And, that is are first draft on The Twelve. What cards would you put in this deck?

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99 Kards in the Korner

08/11

Gunslinger in the Abyss release weekend is over, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We still have plenty of work to do. Our stock is dwindling down, and our singles are running low. We’ll be ordering more boosters soon enough, and we also have the World Championship Decks coming out later this month. You know we will be getting those. Lots of good cards in that one.

What about the singles?

The Legends are pretty much out of stock at the moment, and that means we need to open up a couple more Booster Boxes. We’re saying couple because, they are half boxes now, as you all already know. We will be recording it as always, so you’ll be able to see what Full Arts will be added to the site.

After seeing everyone yesterday at Game Knight’s Local Qualifier, I had the itch and needed to go and see everybody. Plus I had a couple of decks to try out. The Bomb Squad and OctoPirates. So, I headed out to today’s Local’s and was glad I did. Both we’re fun to play. And when all was said and done, I came out 0-6!

I told you all, I’m terrible at this game.

Got home after midnight, and took care of orders. Didn’t finish until 2AM.

08/12

It was raining all last night, and that means the Flea Market in Robbins will not be open today. Mostly because it’s on a dirt lot, and all that water will have gotten the lot all muddy, and no one wants to sit in that.

Finished up Gunslinger in the Abyss – Limit Break

30 day plan? We’re ready to start on it again.

Took a look at our Shipping Policy and Return Policy. There were none! How? I though I had done this years ago. Apparently not, so I drafted them up and they are now on the site. This took care of Day 8 and Day 9.

Ordered some toploaders today, hopefully they’ll get here before I run out. And, that’s a challenge. So let’s run out of toploaders! I don’t see it happening though, I still have a bunch of Beanie Babies Toploaders, I’ll just use those. And, yes they are a real thing. They’re very thin though. Can hold only one card in each, where as the other toploaders I can put 3, maybe 4 if they’re thin Pokemon cards.

08/13

Spent the morning working on the website. Adding listings, fixing the calendar. Mostly back of the house stuff.

The 30 day plan for today and tomorrow was about pictures, and since we use stock photos, there’s nothing to update. Maybe we should start taking pictures, but how are you going to take pre-orders without a stock photo?

Did 2 box openings tonight. One for Gunslinger in the Abyss. And, one for Union Arena – Full Metal Alchemist. Gunslinger in the Abyss is already on YouTube, and Full Metal will probably be there next week.

Also realized that the World Championship Decks are coming out soon. Put them up for Pre-Order!

08/14

Restock on Gunslinger in the Abyss, these cards are flying off the shelf. We might have to open some more. Same thing with Union Arena, we’re already selling singles from the box. Might have to find more. Might have to start picking it up as our second game.

We had gotten some Jujutsu Kaisen as part of a collection and those did pretty well. I’m going to have to look into this game a little bit more. Or, if you have some you want to get rid of, you know where to hit me up. If you don’t, then kardboardkorner@gmail.com

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08/15

Friday was a busy day at the restaurant, so I couldn’t get much done here, except post a short video on YouTube.

Also started a restock on Opus XI. managed to get half way done.

I had picked up “The Kids Are Alright – A Turks Side Story” about 5, maybe 6 years ago, read the first couple of pages and then forgot about it. It doesn’t start off too good, that might be why I haven’t read it. But then, I picked it up out of nowhere and started reading. The first couple of pages almost made me put it away again, but I kept reading. Eventually, it did get better. I don’t know if it’s because the Turks appeared and I got excited, or if the story actually got better. Either way, I finished the book in one night. And, I’m glad I finally did, the novel kept getting better and better with every page. It does fill in the gap of the 2 years between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children. Plenty of guest appearances throughout the whole book, but you probably expected that anyway.

08/16

The kids had their first soccer match today. And they were excited. People showing up late for work had me miss the first 10 minutes of the match, and that’s when my kids scored. Then the coach put my son in as a Goalkeeper, and I have to say he is a natural. He must get it from his dad. (Feeling Proud)

Got to teach him a couple more things, but on the other hand, he doesn’t want to be a Goalkeeper. My daughter? I haven’t seen her run so much. She did great, and I’m glad that she enjoys soccer.

Didn’t get much done today either.

08/17

Sunday, it was storming all night, and the Flea Market was pretty much empty. No use going.

We reached 200 subscribers on YouTube today. I’m thinking we’ll do a giveaway at 250. Maybe a Q&A as well, where you can all send in your questions, and I’ll answer them. We’ll figure something out.

Decided to go to Costco. Asked my wife if she wanted to come along. She replied, Costco? On a Sunday? I looked at her puzzled. Off I went, and I understood as soon as I tried to turn into the parking lot. It can’t be that bad, can it?
We got a cart and headed inside, and it was worse than Rush Hour Traffic trying to go through the Jane Byrne. Needless to say, we just turned around and left. I’m not going to stand in line for an hour to save a dollar on water. I will come back another day.

Played 99 Nights in the Forest with the kids, I must say that is a fun game. We played 2 games, and we got to day 5 I think. I’m still trying to get a hang of the controls, I’m no PC player and the controller doesn’t respond as much as I’d like when I connect it to my laptop. Might have to look into a way on how to change the button layout on a controller for Roblox.

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Gunslinger in the LB Deck

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26-124R – Amarant LB

Almost looks like Wolverine.

Amarant is ready to break one of your opponent’s Forwards. Just make sure you have enough Fire Power to get the job done.

What’s this Fire Power? Fire Power as we like to call it, not an official term, is the Fire Characters you have on the field. Yes, Fire Power only makes sense with Amarant.

For every 2 Fire Characters you have on the field, Amarant will deal 3000 damage to that Forward.

I’m putting this one straight into my Bomb deck.

26-125R – Heretical Knight Garland LB

Has your opponent got 2 pesky Backups that have some great abilities? Not for you, for your opponent.

Well H.K. Garland is here to give you a hand with that. At least for a turn.

When Heretical Knight Garland enters the field, he will Freeze two of your opponent’s Backups. Hopefully they’re already dull, or this won’t help you one bit.

And, that is it. Freeze 2 Backups, and then all Garland is, is a Meat Shield. Or a body if you prefer that term.

6CP, is kinda high to pay, but you can play H.K. Garland whenever you’d like as he will be waiting in your Limit Break Deck to strike, I mean Freeze your opponent.

26-126R – Yuffie LB

Need more cards?

Yuffie here, along with the help of another 2 Final Fantasy VII Forwards, will steal them …. I mean, hunt one down and bring it to your hand.

That’s more like it. Cause we all know Yuffie isn’t a thief, and stuff.

If that was all, Yuffie would have been a decent card, but she’s not done. Not even close.

You can discard 2 Final Fantasy VII cards from your hand, dull Yuffie, and Break one of your opponent’s Forwards. That comes out to 4CP. That is what we call a cheap Odin.

And, Wind doesn’t have Odin, so Yuffie should be in your Limit Break deck.

And, let’s not get started on the art.

26-127R – Dark Fina LB

This is what you call a Free Play, or something close to it.

Dark Fina is ready to be cast at a moment’s notice, simply because she is in your Limit Break Deck. But, you already know that.

Yes, she does cost 9CP, but look at what you get in return.

Once she enters the field, you may cast a Summon that costs up to 7CP. There are 3 great candidates here. Odin EX (1-124R), Phoenix (5-019L) and Zeromus, the Condemner. These 3 all cost 7CP, so technically, Dark Fina LB is a free play as you will draw a card whenever you cast a Summon.

Odin will Break a Forward, simple enough.

Your best bet will be either Phoenix or Zeromus. Phoenix will deal a Forward 8000 damage and play a Forward of 3CP or less from the Break Zone onto the field, and Zeromus will add a Forward from your Break Zone to your hand, and your opponent will put one of their Forwards into the Break Zone.

You’ll be up CP with these 2.

Since you’ll be drawing a card when you cast a Summon, I think it’s best to play Dark Fina in a Summon Heavy deck.

But, what do I know?

26-128R – Shantotto LB

In need of a big play?

Shantotto can help, and her cost confirms it!

Shantotto is your trump card whenever you need her. And, we mean whenever. For 9CP she will break 2 of your opponent’s active Forwards.

And, her Limit Break cost isn’t that big either, I would have expected it to be at least 5 considering the damage that she causes.

If you’re playing anything Lightning, it’s worth to have at least one of these in your deck.

26-129R – Refia LB

Refia is ready to be thrown into a WoFF deck, or any deck that has a few World of Final Fantasy Forwards in it.

When Refia steps on to the field, she will grab a WoFF Forward from the Break Zone, and bring that out to the field as well.

And since, this does not say any element, you can splash any Element into your deck, as Refia will be able to play it from the Break Zone.

Is WoFF going to make a comeback?

Only time will tell, but it has got cards that will make a case for it.

26-130H – Lightning

5CP to play Lightning from your Limit Break deck. You’ll need all of your LB points used for Lightning to come in with Haste.

Other than that, Lightning is a glorified Meat Shield, but she does shine when she leaves the field.

Once Lightning leaves the field, you can either play another Lightning that costs 4CP or less from your hand, or you can search for another Lightning.

There are plenty of Lightnings to choose from, all you have to do now is find the perfect one that will work for you.

Singles to Break that Limit!