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Wave 1 : Ranger 1-008C

Here we are again, with an easy card to distinguish whether it is Wave 1 or Wave 2. I present to you your Standard Unit Ranger.

But, first let me give you the links to these 2 guides.

“Distinguishing Final Fantasy TCG Opus 1 Wave 1 from Future Waves”

“Differences in Opus I Wave 1 Printing vs Later Waves”

First off you’ll say, these 2 just look the same, as all Opus I cards do. If you take a closer look, you can spot the difference. Take a look at the colon right after the Dull symbol.

Do you see where it is placed on both cards? One is lower than the other. And, if you said that that one is the Wave 1 card, you are right.

Now that we know that we have 2 different Waves on our hands, let’s take a closer look at the cards and spot some more, differences to help us with the other cards that don’t have a sure way to tell if it is either Wave 1 or Wave 2.

If you take a look at the Green coloring on the shirt and hat, you can can see that the Wave 1 Ranger is duller than the Wave 2. And, the Wave 2 is a different shade of green as well. More like a Forest Green if you ask me.

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Wave 1 – Red Mage – 1-003C

Red Mage (1-003C) is one of the easier card to distinguish between Wave 1 and Wave 2. But first, let me give you the links from the guides from the introduction post that will help you guide your way.

“Distinguishing Final Fantasy TCG Opus 1 Wave 1 from Future Waves”

“Differences in Opus I Wave 1 Printing vs Later Waves”

All you have to do is look at Red Mage’s Colon. And, if you look at his face you’ll see that he is not excited about that.

Which one is which? If you check the colon right after the cost to pay for the ability you can see that the one on the left is lower than the one on the right. It’s that little detail that shows up on all the cards that have an ability with a cost.

And if you look closer, you can see that Red Mage’s hair is lighter in Wave 1 and darker in Wave 2.

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Gutsco – Card Analysis

Gutsco, the Thief

“Go away! Scat, skittle, skibobble! The horn is mine! Mine, I tell you!”


3CP/7000
Fire
Forward
Thief
Hero

“When Gutsco enters the field or attacks, remove the top card of your deck from the game.

When Gutsco leaves the field, add all the cards removed by Gutsco’s ability to your hand.”

Let’s see what we wrote when Gutsco was first released back.

“I like it.

Keep removing cards till Gutsco gets broken, or removed from the game.

After that all the cards removed come back to your hand. And, you can have a lot of cards that you can storm the field with. I will be trying this one out.”

I still like this card.

Since we don’t have much information on Gutsco, we’ll just go with the FFTA where he is the leader of Clan Borzoi, which means we can fill up on thieves. And, since most Thieves are Wind, it shall be a Fire/Wind. Outside of Standard Units, notable cards are Zidane, Bel Dat, and Paul. Fang (18-013R) is also a Thief, but you need to have FFXIII Characters on the field in order for her to be useful.

I believe a good plan would be to get Gutsco out as early as possible. Keep attacking, and when he leaves the field for any reason, grab all those cards, beef up the front line, and find a way to bring Gutsco back to repeat the process.

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From Nightmares – Full Colored Monsters Under Your Bed

19-107C – Vaan EX

Anytime you get a card that can Activate all your Backups, you get a card that is worth playing. Even if you don’t like Vaan.

🙂

(That’s probably the first Smiley I used on the Website.)

You actually get to chose between 2 abilities when Vaan enters the field, or off of an EX Burst.

Most of the time you will be activating your Backups, just because that’s what I would do. And when this ability comes off of an EX Burst you’ll probably be dealing a Forward 5000 damage.

19-108L – Zidane

Coming in with Haste, and an ability that he cannot be blocked by Forwards of cost 3 or more, makes Zidane, … Zidane.

This card is a mixture of previous Zidanes, which is a good thing. It’s a mixture of Opus I and Opus III. Which are both great Zidane cards, and that makes this one even better than the other 2 combined. Why? Because Opus I Zidane was 4CP or higher, and this one is 3CP. That’s a whole lot of Forwards added to the list of those that cannot block Zidane.

The other ability allows you to look at your opponent’s hand and discard a card from there. The only drawback to this card, is that your opponent will draw a card when you decide to discard one of his cards.

I’ll take 3 please. Full Arts if available.

19-109H – Cherukiki

What? Really?

Cherukiki, come on over and let’s get all these abilities rolling.

Even for himself (herself? I haven’t played much of FFXI so I’m not so sure.) As soon as Cherukiki comes in you can use the ability and find Kukki-Chebukki and Makki-Chebukki and play them straight to the field.

What? Did I read that right?

For 5CP you can play 3 Forwards onto the field?

Ranperre/Kain anyone? You can pay 3CP for Kain, discard active Ranperre, play Cherukiki for free, bring in Kukki-Chebuki and Makki-Chebukki and you’ll be able to use their action abilities. So, you’ll deal a Forward 2000 damage and they’ll also put the top card of their deck into the Break Zone.

That’s a whole lot of something for only 3CP and a Ranperre.

19-110H – The Emperor

Warp and the abilities will follow.

The Emperor’s abilities will only trigger if he comes in due to an ability. And, Warp counts as an ability, 2CP of any element to play the Emperor. You don’t even need to have Earth or Ice elements in your deck, you can just throw in the Emperor to any deck and he’ll still work.

The two abilities you can choose from are removing all the cards in your opponent’s Break Zone, or grabbing a Forward from your Break Zone.

Either way The Emperor is a 2 cost when he Warps, with a 9k body.

19-111L – Prishe

You’ll pay an extra Crystal Point to get Prishe’s first ability to go off. Is it worth the extra CP to deal a Forward 8000 damage? I would say so. After that Prishe will enter the field on your next turn, and she will Dull and Freeze a Forward and a Backup.

And, that’s about it. I’m having a brain fart, and can’t think of anything else to write.

 

 

 


19-112C – Larkeicus

As per usual, Larkeicus deals with Monsters. Why is this? I don’t know. I should play Crystal Chronicles to find out. I remember buying it back in the day on the GameCube, but that’s a story for another day.

Larkeicus comes in and let’s you recycle a Monster from the Break Zone, bring that Monster out, and play him straight to the field. You can even play that Monster you just used to pay for Larkeicus.

What I like about this ability is that you don’t need the Monster to be of the same Elements as Larkeicus or the deck your playing. You can splash Monsters from all elements, and be able to play them on the field, straight from the Break Zone.

The Doctor is in.

Let’s not forget that Larkeicus is also a Forward. Block with him, and play him again to bring back another Monster.

19-113C – Gilgamesh

Cue, Battle on the Big Bridge.

Everyone’s Favorite, Gilgamesh.

Haste and Brave, and a Warp cost of 2.

It’s a decent play for 2CP. You can throw him in a Wind/Lightning deck, when you don’t have anything else to put in.
Hurricane, for a Gilgamesh card and 3CP you can Break a Forward.

Not bad, if I say so myself. Cause who doesn’t like Breaking Forwards. I just got an idea for a t-shirt. Maybe we’ll get into the T-shirt business as well.

19-114L – Cloud

The chase card of the set.

That’s if you get lucky enough to pull the Gold Signature.

By itself, Cloud is a good card, that can come in a Break 2 of your opponents Forwards. 6 cost with 9000 power.

I’d say it is worth it. Even at 6CP. And, if you already cast 2 cards this turn, you’ll only be paying 2CP for Cloud to come in and cause mayhem.

Will this card change the FFVII engine, or will it just make a new deck completely?

19-115H – Veriaulde

2CP/7K body, Veriaulde is a … I don’t even know.

But, Veriaulde can be devastating to your opponent, if they don’t have an answer for him.

You can be sure that when Veriaulde comes in you will be removing 5 cards from your deck. Once you do that, you’ll have a Guinea Pig Counter on Veriaulde, and once he has a Guinea Pig Counter, every time Veriaulde attacks, you will dull all of your opponents Forwards. Leaving them open to all of your attacks.

And, that is definitely not all! I even used an Exclamation point right there.

At 3 points of damage, Veriaulde gains Haste, which means you don’t need to wait a turn to attack with Veriaulde, and start taking down your opponent, as soon as he comes in.

19-116C – Paine

Paine brings the pain to your opponent’s Break Zone.

Ok, that was terrible.

Paine enters the field and you get to remove 2 cards from your opponents Break Zone, if you already control at least 3 FFX Characters. Which you most likely will. If you’re playing Paine you will be playing some form of YRP. Which used to be a great engine.

I still think older Paine’s are better.

19-117H – Hilda

This is a beautiful card.

Princess Hilda, hopefully it’s not the Lamia Queen, is a great card for a FFII deck. And, depending on Scott she could be good, or really good.

So far there are only 2 Scott’s to choose from. Neither are that great, but might be of use in a FFII deck.

Her second ability is better, allowing you ta grab a FFII Forward from the Break Zone. And, since these are action abilities, you can use them once per turn. If you find a way to activate her, you can use it more than once per turn.

I can see some interesting things with this card.

Now, if we can only get a better Scott.

19-118L – Yuna

Why does it seem that some Characters only get good cards, and others always seem to get a bunch of crap printed?

Yuna here is the former. It is a good card, that gets even better once you have 5 points of damage.

When Yuna enters the field you get to send one of your opponent’s Forwards back to their deck top or bottom, the choice is yours.

At 5 points of damage, you can also search for a FFX Character and play it onto the field.

Now imagine what you can do if you can find a way to bounce Yuna with Opus VI Rinoa?

19-119L – Unei

Here we all thought Unei was an old woman. She’s a Magus so that allows her to transform.

6 cost Unei, comes in with 9000 power. You can reduce the cost by 2 when you removes 2 Summons from your Break Zone, Earth or Water or both.

When she enters the field, you get to return one of your opponent’s Forwards and one Backup and return them to their hand.

It’s a decent play to disrupt your opponent for a turn or 2 until they get their board back the way they wanted it.

Unei also has an action ability, in which you can grab a Summon from the Break Zone.

You can keep grabbing back some of those Free Summons and use them over and over.

19-120C – Garnet

Garnet has one job. And that is to grab a Summon or two from your Break Zone.

After that she is just a body on the field, who will hopefully keep your opponent at bay with her 8000 power.

She can come in with Warp as well.

 

 

19-121H – Meia

Meia is a good card, buffing all of your MOBIUS Forwards, other than Meia with +1000 power and Brave. That in itself is a good enough reason to play Meia.

Other than that you will reveal the top 5 cards of your deck and grab not 1, but up to 2 MOBIUS cards and add them to your hand. Thus possible making Meia a 1 cost Forward with 9000 power.

What’s not to like about that? Any card that buffs your cards is a yes for me.

 

19-122C – Zack EX

You will not play Zack unless you Warp him in.

First of all, it’s a 3CP difference. Paying 5CP to deal 7000 damage to a Forward is too much. You can do more damage with a well placed Summon.

Now, if you do Warp Zack in, he is worth every Crystal Point you pay. All 2 of them.

First off he will deal 7000 damage to a Forward, and when he enters the field, he has Haste, First Strike and Brave.

So, even if he just comes in and attacks. you will most likely deal your opponent 1 point of Damage. After that just keep Blocking until Zack is broken, just so you can Warp him in again.

19-123H – Anima

This is a great card. I like it and I like it some more.

Anima come in and your opponent is racing against time to get Anima off the field before his ability is activated. Once it’s activated it could be game over for your opponent.

Anima comes in and you remove 2 cards from your Break Zone.

After that at the end of your turn, you remove the top card of your deck.

Then at the end of your opponents Turn you remove another card from the top of your deck.

One more time, at the end of your turn you remove the top card of your deck.

Once you have 5 or more cards removed by Anima’s ability, you can bring them all to your hand. And start playing them like you’ve had them this whole time.

Best part is that you’ll wipe the board of all of your opponents Forwards, leaving you with up to 12 cards in your hand, ready to bring the Pain!

19-124L – Y’shtola

Y’shtola must be the reason I’ve been selling a bunch of Opus XIII Urianger over the weekend.

Y’shtola comes in, and if you like she can deal you 1 point of Damage and you in turn can deal your opponent 1 point of damage. It’s an exchange.

Not just that, but whenever anyone takes a point of damage, you’ll choose 1 of your opponents Forwards and deal them 4000 damage.

Now I’m tempted to go look at the Opus VIII FFXIV Starter Set, and see how well it fits into that deck.

19-125H – Mog

Free Mog!!!

Free him into your deck, of any color that you’d like, as long as you have FFVI Characters!!!

And when Mog attacks, they all gain First Strike!!!

What’s not to like?

I just bought a FFVI Playmat with matching sleeves, And I will make myself a FFVI themed deck. Mog and Kefka will be a part of it. Sabin and Edgar as well.

19-126C – Shadow Lord

From the elements I see here, Shadow Lord is just a tall glass of Ice Cold Ice Water.

And his abilities say the same as well.

Shadow Lord comes in, your opponent discards a card, while you draw a card.

Simple as that, but, he is a little pricey. 6CP with no way to reduce the cost. Well, you’ll say it is a Common, what did you expect?

It’s the high cost that might stop us from using this card.

19-127L – Relm

Another VI card, although this one isn’t Free, it still is good.

For 2CP, you can either grab a monster from the Break Zone and play it onto the field, or you can Double Cast a Summon.
Anyway you look at it, you’re getting some value out of this card.

You’re either playing a Monster and Relm for 2CP.

Or you’re playing Relm, and since you just played an Ice Forward, and a Water Forward, you can go right ahead and cast Shiva and Leviathan for Free, and when they enter the Break Zone, you can remove them from the game and cast them again.

That’s a lot of firepower for 2CP.

I’ll take 3 please.

And, why does it look like Relm is driving a Go-Kart with wings?

19-128L – Warrior of Light

The OG WoL, The one with no name, besides the name you give him.

The first Quad-Elemental card, and it is a good one.

We mentioned that with Refia this set, you have a great reason to run a Warrior of Light deck.

Now, with Warrior of Light, you have a better reason to run this deck. Run the 2 together and, you got something on your hands that will keep activating itself.

And, that is what you’re looking for.

Stop your opponents from destroying you.

Warrior of Light is basically a Free card, cause he activates all your Backups, and he can only be played by Backups.

He comes in with Haste, First Strike, and Brave. 10,000 power. You name it Warrior of Light has got it.

Let’s see what people come up with for this card, I’m really curious to see what Warrior of Lights can do.

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From Nightmares – Water and High Tides

19-086R – Ashe EX

More like the Ashetiveator.

I really like this card. As long as you have a copy in your hand and a couple of CP available, you can keep reactivating a Forward once per turn.

The way I would do it would be. I would enter the Attack Phase. And when that attack goes through, I would play Ashe and activate that Forward so it can block.

You can actually play Ashe twice per turn. Play her in your Main Phase 1, return her to your hand during your Attack Phase and then replay her during your Main Phase 2.

The more I think about it, the more I like this card.

19-087R – Wol

Wol can’t attack, but he sure can block.

Weighing in at 2CP/9K power. He will take out some Attackers.

But, it’s Chef’s Knife that we really like. It’s 9000 damage to a Forward that cannot be reduced by other abilities.

So, once per turn you can use Chef’s Knife, then play Ashe, then use Chef’s Knife again, then play Ashe, and use Chef’s Knife once again. But, that will on;y work if you have 3 Wols in your hand. And you can. You can actually have up to 24 Wols in your deck. That’s almost half your deck. Keep your enemy at bay with this Tonberry Suit.

19-088C – Aerith

Aerith has one job, and that is to grab a Light card from the Break Zone. Other than that she’ll just hang out and give you 1CP per turn.

That’s pretty much it for this Aerith, not the best Aerith.

There’s probably a lot of better plays, unless you really need that Light card.

 

 

19-089H – Gau

I’m not going to say it this time.

I’m not. I’m going to try not to.

Gau, is actually pretty good, for what he does.

For 2CP you get a Forward that can come in during your opponents turn and buff another Category VI Character +1K power for every Category VI Character you control.

Throw him in there with the Dream Stooges, and Kefka, and you have a Forward that can block anything your opponent throws at you and survive it.

After that you can put Gau back into your deck and draw a card. Gau is wild like that. He’s a Wild Child.

19-090C – Clavat

Water’s Multi-Elemental Forward.

And by that we mean, if you pay with at least 3 Elements. Each element has had one of these cards, and Clavat is no different.

When she enters the field, if you did pay with at least 3 Elements, your opponent chooses one of their Forwards and sends it packing. Straight to the Break Zone.

Other than that Clavat will allow you to draw a card, and then discard a card when she enters the field.

19-091R – Sapphire Weapon

Another Free Card, this set is spoiling us.

Every Element has a way to cast cards for Free. And, we like free. Even the guy in the back, with the Cloud Signature card in his back pocket. You know he likes FREE too.

It’s not that often that you can play a 9k Body for free. But Sapphire Weapon here can. As long as you have at least 5 Weapon cards in your Break Zone, Sapphire Weapon can come in for free.

You have yourselves a Water deck, just throw in Ruby, and Emerald and just chuck them to pay for other Cards. And when Sapphire show up, you know it’s coming in with a Vengeance. Or something like that.

If Sapphire Weapon gets broken somehow, no worries. You’ll draw 2 cards when you put Sapphire Weapon into the Break Zone.

You might even get lucky and draw another Sapphire Weapon that you can play for free.

19-092C – White Mage

Well, you can sort of count White Mage as a free card, but you still have to pay for it. 2CP, and if you have 3 points of Damage you get to draw a card.

Once she’s on the field, you can use her ability to return one of your opponent’s Forwards to their hand.

Just a little reminder. You’d probably want to get rid of a Forward that doesn’t have an enter the field ability.

 

19-093H – Strago EX

This is interesting, I think I already like this card.

Every time Strago enters the field, or is broken, you get to reveal the top 4 cards of your deck and hopefully you’ll find a FFVI card sitting there that you can add to your hand.

This also works when Strago is found when you take Damage.

And, let’s not forget about Revenge Blast. For each point of Damage you have received, your opponent’s Forward will lose 2000 power.

And with 5 different Stragos available, you might have a hand full of Stragos at 6 points of Damage. At that point you can spam Revenge Blast and take your opponent to Pound Town.

19-094R – Sanctuary Keeper

Who needs Ashe when you have Sanctuary Keeper?

For 3CP, you can have a constant Activation per turn. Not only that, this Activation comes with a +2000 power buff.

You can actually use both Ashe and Sanctuary Keeper, with 24 Wols and spam that Chef’s Knife. My deck is slowly coming into fruition. I’ll have that deck ready in no time.

 

 


19-095C – Sophia

Sophia is the opposite of Sanctuary Keeper.

At the begining of the Attack Phase, Sophia reduces the power of a Forward by 2000.

If you’re already buffing one of your Forwards by 2000, that is a 4000 power difference. Sure it’ll only worked that way if each of you only have 1 Forward on the field, but you get what I’m trying to say. Or not say.

 

19-096C – Tidus EX

Well, for being a high cost card, you’d think you’d get more than just drawing a card or returning a Forward to their owner’s hand.

I’m not seeing it.

The only thing I like is that it can come off from an EX Burst. Which should be a good enough reason to have some in your deck, as you can always use them to pay for Opus I Tidus’s ability.

 

19-097C – Tonberry

I was trying to come up with a different way to start this, but couldn’t.

Tonberry comes in like a Monster and out like a Forward.

When Tonberry comes in you draw a card, then discard a card to make him a Forward. Tonberry is technically a 4 cost Forward, but you only have to pay for 2CP as he provides the other 2CP himself.

But, when Tonberry deals damage to a Forward the Forward is broken regardless of power. He has the real Chef’s Knife, not Wol.

19-098C – Yuna

When Yuna comes in, your opponent selects the card Forward that will be sent to the Break Zone. You’ll be able to remove a Forward, but since your opponent gets to pick which one it might not always work in your favor.

This is one way to get rid of Opus XVI Tidus, but I don’t think your opponent will choose that card when Yuna enters the field. Unless, if it’s the only Forward on the field.

 

 

19-099R – Josef

Are Rebels becoming a thing?

I mean Josef here looks like a good card, especially since you most likely will be playing Firion, which will make Josef a 3CP/9K body Rebel/Monk with a sword. Wait, Monks use swords? Maybe Josef uses it for his Rebel side.

“Rebel, Rebel,
You’ve torn your dress”

Maybe that’s what the sword is for.

Where was I? Ah, yes. And, with Firion still on the field, every time Josef attack, you get to draw 1 card. Who doesn’t like drawing cards. I’ll play Josef and attack for no reason just to draw a card.

And, that’s not all. No, Sir. When Josef enters the field you can also play a Category II Forward from your hand onto the field. Any FFII Character as long as it is 3CP or less. It doesn’t even need to be a Rebel, Rebel.

19-100C – Larsa

A 2 cost Backup that really is a 4 cost.

You’ll probably be discarding a card in order to search for that XII Forward that you’re really looking for. If that Forward is on the field you probably have no use to play this card.

Sure you can reduce damage dealt to a Forward by 2000, but I believe there are better Larsas than this one.

 

19-101R – Leviathan

The Water God comes in as a Free Summon.

No Sacrifices needed.

Leviathan comes in, you return 1 of your opponents Forwards to their hand, and they can’t play it until the end of their next turn.

What I like about this is that they’ll have a dead card in their hands. They won’t be able to play it, and if they draw another one they’ll have 2 dead cards. They might even discard it for CP just so they can play another card.

Might come out in your favor, or you’re just delaying the fact that they can play a Forward with an enter the field ability, that might turn things in their favor. But, this is a card game, and we need cards that will give us a breather when we can get it.
Yes, Free Summons are still good.

19-102L – Refia

If you needed a reason to run a Warrior of Light deck, well now you got one.

Refia will activate all the Warrior of Light cards you have at the beginning of each of your attack phases. That means you can go all out, and attack with all your Forwards, and then during your opponents turn, you will have all your Forwards activated, just in time to start blocking.

Also, once per turn, you can dull 4 Warriors of Light, and put one of your opponents Forward back into their deck. Top or bottom, you get to choose.

And, let’s not forget about the artwork. This is a beautiful card. Only complaint is that this one didn’t come as a full art.