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Tears of the Lightning Planet

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25-069C – Varghidpolis

I don’t know about you, but Varghidpolis looks like an “armed” turnip.

Yeah, I’m not quitting my day job anytime soon.

Varghidpolis has 2 abilities, just like the other Monsters of the Planet.

1 will deal 1000 damage to a Forward and also dull it. The other deals 1000 damage to a Forward and dulls it.

That’s the same thing. One ability, but 2 ways to pay for it.

At least Varghidpolis is consistent. Plus you then can play Black Belt (25-058C) to break that dull Forward.

25-070C – Eight

3CP for a 7K body. 7? This is Eight, we need to give him 8000 power.

And, you can.

At 3 points of damage Eight gains +1000 power, making his power 8000.

Eight also comes in with Haste, so he can start attacking from the get go.

One more thing. Whenever Eight deals damage to your opponent, Eight will grab a Class Zero Cadet from your Break Zone.

It’s time to start recycling.

25-071R – Scorpion Sentinel

Ever needed a defensive play?

Scorpion Sentinel is here to do just that.

When one of your opponent Forwards attacks, Scorpion Sentinel will come into play, dulling one of their Forwards. Sentinel Scorpion will also become a Forward until the end of the turn, and will be able to block your opponent’s next attack.

You get this for 1CP, which I would say is worth it.

Only thing that would have been better, is if you could have had multiple copies on the field.

25-072R – Kuja

For 2CP you can break one of your opponent’s Forwards.

Yes, you do need to place a Forward in the Break Zone in order to pay for this ability. But it’s worth it..

Imagine, Using Viking (2-132C) or Viking (4-133C) as part of the cost. You’re really only playing these cards so they can block an attack and be sent to the Break Zone just so you can draw a card.

Or, what if your opponent is casting a Summon or ability on one of your Forwards. That Forward is pretty much toast depending on what it’s being hit with, so, why not use Kuja’s ability and use that Forward as part of the cost, and break one of your opponent’s Forwards in the process.

Turn the tides, before they are turned on you!

Or something like that.

25-073L – Zack

Final Fantasy VII will be getting plenty of support. With plenty of Lightning support, even if you throw Zack in a Shinra themed deck, he will become a threat.

Every time Zach attacks, you can bring a Final Fantasy VII Character back from the Break Zone, only requirement is that, that Character costs 2CP or less. Shouldn’t be that hard to find one, even if you keep bringing the same Character in after they attack or block.

Rush Assault? When Zack Attacks, you can use his Signature ability and break one of your opponent’s Forwards! No cost Requirements, no nothing. Just stock up on all Zacks from every Opus.

Yes, please. May I have another?

25-074C – Amarant

For 5CP you get the ability of a Summon and a 9K body.

And, this might just be the best Amarant to date.

Amarant comes in and deals 5000 damage to all of your opponent’s active Forwards. You’ll probably break some of them, and the rest will be weakened enough that when your Forwards attack, they will either Break the Forward or your opponent will decide to let the attack go through just so they can save their Forwards for later.

We need more Final Fantasy IX cards, so we can finally make a decent FFIX deck.

25-075C – Jack

Jack of all trades?

I’m not so sure about that, but Jack can Break some Forwards. One when he comes in, as long as you have 5 Cadets on the field. If not, then Jack will only dull that Forward.

And, once per turn you can use Jack’s Special ability to break a Forward.

Jack’s Special ability is good because you don’t have to send Jack to the Break Zone for it to activate.

Meaning you can use it over and over, as long as you have enough Jacks in your deck.

25-076C – Elite Riot Trooper

Once again our elemental Backups make a return.

This time it is Lightning with Elite Riot Trooper.

At 3CP, Elite Riot Trooper comes on in and you can either draw a card, or deal a 2 cost Forward 7000 damage, which will most likely break that Forward.

As mentioned before, the ability you choose will depend on what part of the game you are at.

And, that’s about it.

25-077C – Cinque

The more Cadets that you have on the field, the better this card becomes.

Cinque enters the field and grabs a Class Zero Cadet and plays them straight to the field. Let’s say you grab Ace (3-153S). You just paid 4CP to get 2 Characters on the field, and Ace’s cost is 6CP. Now when Ace enters the field, You get to play another Class Zero Cadet Forward from your hand. And, if you happen to have Nine (13-123L) in your hand, you’re off to a great start.

And, if you ever need to get rid of Cinque, just so you can play her again, she had an ability that sends her to the Break Zone, and deals a Forward 9000 damage.

Might have to dust off that old Cadets deck.

25-078H – Seven

A 2 cost Backup that can do a couple of things each turn.

For one, she can give Haste to any Class Zero Cadet. All you have to do is dull 2 Active Cadets, It might be worth it, depending on the situation.

And secondly, this one is the better ability of the two, Sadistic Spikes. Every time you use Sadistic SPikes, you will be able to break one of your opponent’s Forwards, as long as their cost is less than the Class Zero Cadets that you control.

Over all, Sadistic Spikes is a good enough reason to use this Seven in your Cadets deck.

25-079C – SOLDIER Candidate

Do you recycle?

This SOLDIER Candidate does. He actually recycles himself to get you another SOLDIER Candidate.

Whenever SOLDIER Candidate gets sent to the Break Zone, you can search for another SOLDIER Candidate and play it onto the field. That way your front line has Backups. No, not those Backups. Backup Forwards.

I already said SOLDIER Candidates are a card away from being great.

And someone is going to find that card, and we’ll have Shinra’s version of Chocobos.

25-080H – Paine

Paine brings the Pain!

Yep, bad puns as usual.

Paine comes right in and deals a 3 cost Forward or less 7000 damage. Which would break most Forwards that cost 3CP or less.

Hold on let me check.

Yep, there are more Forwards than I thought that cost 3CP or less and have more than 7000 power.

Ok, where was I?

Ah yes, when that Forward is put into the Break Zone, Paine gives a Final Fantasy X Forward Haste.

Which can be herself as well, allowing her to attack and hopefully deal some damage, or break another one of your opponent’s Forwards.

It’s a decent Hero, but better Paine’s exist.

25-081R – Baralai

Baralai comes in and grabs a Forward from your Break Zone.

For 3CP that is not bad at all.

Baralai can also break a Forward as well. The cost might be high for this ability, but you can use it any time you’d like as Baralai will already be on the field for it.

I would probably play this card for Baralai’s first ability alone. The second one is just the cherry on top.

 

25-082C – Vivi

Here we are, Vivi comes in with a one-two punch.

For 2CP, Vivi will come into the field and dull one of your opponent’s Forwards.

After that Vivi will just produce 1CP per turn, until you’re ready to use his ability to break a damaged Forward.

It’s 2CP, this is worth it. You can probably find a way or two to activate Vivi as soon as he enters the field.

Get rid of that pesky Forward that’s been bothering you.

25-083H – Adrammelech, the Wroth

Once again you can remove a Lightning Backup from the game and reduce the cost for Adrammelech, the Wroth by 2 CP. Making Adrammelech a 3 cost Summon. Plus you get to remove that Backup that does not serve a purpose anymore.

And what does Adrammelech, the Wroth do?

Well, he .. it.. deals 7000 damage to all of your opponent’s Forwards, possibly braking most of them.

You’ll also receive 1 point of damage as part of the cost of using this Summon.

25-084R Rude

Rude comes in and you can grab a Member of the Turks from your Break Zone and add it to your hand. Bringing Rude’s cost down to 1CP. If that’s not reason enough to play Rude, we got more for you.

At the begining of the Attack Phase, both yours and your opponent’s, Rude will dull one of your opponent’s Forwards.

This means that, you’ll be able to successfully keep one of your opponent’s Forwards incapable of getting anything done.

You should see, what happens if Reno is on the field as well.

25-085L – Reno

Back to Back Turks.

With Reno, anytime a Forward becomes dull due to Summons or abilities, Reno will give a Member of the Turks Haste, and deal one of your opponent’s Forwards 4000 damage.
This is where things get interesting.

If you read Rude, Rude will dull a Forward at the beginning of every Attack Phase, meaning that Reno will give Haste to a Turk, and deal one of your opponent’s Forwards 4000 damage.

You also have EM Flail, which will dull a Forward and deal 5000 damage to another Forward, which in turn will activate Reno’s first ability will go into play once again.

You know your opponent will be trying everything in their power to get rid of Reno. Let’s go back some cards and take a look at Zack once again. “When Zack attacks, choose 1 Category VII Character of cost 2 or less in your Break Zone. Play it onto the field.”

Guess who costs 2CP.

Electrifying Singles!

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Hidden Trials – By Lightning

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23-077H – Azul

The Tsivets are coming strong, and Azul is about to kick some butts.

Azul has Counter, he will Counter any damage dealt to him to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

For the cost of 1 Crystal, Azul can also cast Berserk on a Forward. And, when he does, Azul gains +2000 power.

I’d say that’s a Crystal well spent.

 

23-078C – Alisae

Alisae is like a bloodhound. She’ll help you find the card you need, but only if you can show her what you’re looking for. And, the only way to do that is to already have a card with the same name in your Break Zone.

The only thing Alisae can’t search for will be Standard Units and Summons, everything else is fair game.

I’m sure she has some use, but there are plenty of other cards that’ll search better then she does.

 

23-079R – Estinien

I mean he’s no Opus VI Estinien, or Dawn of Heroes either, but Estinien is still a decent card to play.

Coming in with Haste, Estinien has the ability to attack from the get go, but you already knew that. So, why would we mention that?

It’s simple. Every time Estinien attacks, you get to grab a Scion Forward from your Break Zone. Making Estinien a great play, right away.

And, that’s not all!

At 3 points of Damage Estinien gains +1000 power. Add in Opus I Lulu and Hidden Trials Krile, and you’ll have a Forward that attacks for 11,000.

And this is just a Rare card.

23-080R – Odin EX

If this comes off of an EX Burst it’s great.

If it doesn’t it’s too expensive, and the Opus I Odin, along with the Opus I reprint from Opus VIII. is a couple of CP less.

Why would you play this one? Because you can cast it for 3CP if you remove 6 Lightning cards from your Break Zone. If you have no way of getting them back, then go right ahead.

Breaking a Forward still is a broken Forward your opponent can’t use.

23-081C – Puppetmaster

2 Cost Elemental Lightning Backup.

Puppetmaster is ready for action with his Puppet right behind him ready for orders.

Puppetmaster comes in and dulls a Forward. As with some of the other Backups of this set, he has greater power when you have a full line of Backups on the field. And, when that happens, Puppetmaster dulls all of your opponent’s Forwards.

I’m noticing a lot of great plays being brought in towards the mid-end game.

 

 

23-082H – King

Is this a new thing, where we remove cards to reduce the cost of casting a card?

Because King turns into a 1 cost Hero, if you remove 4 cards from your Break Zone.

And, whenever King attacks, you can discard 2 cards and Break a Forward of your choosing.

King’s cost evens out as the 4CP you save from removing the 4 Characters from your Break Zone.

There’s plenty of ways to get rid of cards, Lightning might become even more fast paced.

23-083H – Queen

Your Savior, Your Queen.

This is a great card. Cadets will be one the rise solely based off of this card.

At the small cost of removing 3 cards from your Break Zone. Queen will give a Class Zero Cadet a 2000 power buff, plus damage dealt to that Forward by your opponent’s abilities will become 0.

This card kinda makes me want to remake that Cadets deck I had made back during Opus XIII.

23-084C – G’raha Tia

At 5CP and 9000 power, G’raha Tia is just a regular Common card.

When he enters the field, and you have another G’raha Tia in the Break Zone, you can remove it from the game and deal 4000 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Forwards. You will also dull them as well.

If this card cost a little bit less, I would say that it’s better.

 

 

23-085R – Krile (XIV)

Look at the new card you’ll be putting in your Scions deck.

Nothing beats a 1K buff across your board. Especially when it comes to the Scions and they already work well together.

And if you still need a little bit of extra power, Krile can give a Scion another 1000 power when it deals damage to a Forward.

Can’t go wrong with that.

 

 

23-086H – Thancred

Thancred, reporting for duty!

Thancred is ready to go from the get go. (If you already have some Scions on the field.) He’ll break one of your opponent’s Forwards as he enters, and he’ll bring back a Forward from the dead as he enters the Break Zone.

Almost like a Viking, but different.

Scions being Scions.

 

 

23-087C – Jack

Yeah, you’re not going to play this card.

Unless there is another card that stated “this and this” if there are so many cards in your Break Zone.

I’m also pretty sure that the other Jacks are much better, I can say that without even looking for them.

Even at 2CP, I wouldn’t play this card.

At least the art is nice.

23-088L – Serah

Mono-Lightning XIII deck Incoming.

Your opponent will be using all their resources to get rid of Serah here.

Once she comes in all of your opponents Forwards will lose 2000 power, and if you have at least another 2 FFXIII Forwards their power will go down by 5000. And, this does not end at the end of the turn. As of my understanding, they lose that power until Serah is removed from the field.

That means that most of your opponent’s Forwards will be unusable. Sure, there will be ways that your opponent can raise the power of their Forwards, but Serah also has Dispel. Dispel removes any power gains that your opponent has given their Forwards until the end of the turn.

I’ll take 3 with all the bells and whistles.

23-089C – SOLDIER Candidate

Now, this is a Candidate I have a use for.

2CP/5K body, with Haste.

If you remember, I have built an all Haste deck, and this one fits perfectly into it.

2CP is perfect for it because you’ll only need to discard 1 card, since I don’t play any Backups. 5000 power isn’t bad, because you’re hoping to win in 2 rounds. And, half the time your opponent will not have any Forwards on the field.

And, most of the low cost Haste cards are Standard Units, SOLDIER Candidate will gain +3000 power, giving her an 8K body, the perfect “Candidate” for a Meat Shield.

23-090C/15-095C – Ninja

You know the drill.

“You’d think they’d at least try and get the serial numbers to match.

Would’ve looked a lot better reading 20-099C/15-099C.

Not that big of a deal but, at least you gain a Crystal when Ninja comes in.

After that you can send Ninja to the Break Zone, and deal a Forward 1000 damage.

*yawn

Maybe if it wasn’t a reprint I’d be more excited.”

23-091C – Fencer (XIII)

There’s a lot of good Monsters in this set.

Fencer is ready to Break a Forward on command, as long as you have an extra Monster on the field, because that extra Monster will be part of the cost you pay for Fencer’s ability to go off.

It’s a cheap play, and as long as the Monster you send to the Break Zone has done it’s job, you’ll be good to go.

 

23-092R – Black Widow

This Monster is interesting.

You’ll need 2 or more Monsters for Black Widow to become a Forward. And when Black Widow does become a Forward, when it attacks, you may put another Monster into the Break Zone, and that will allow Black Widow to deal 9000 damage to a Forward of your choosing.

You can splash Black Widow into your Monster deck with Relm, and after that Black Widow will slowly get rid of your Monsters to play more Monsters.

 

 

23-093C – Mog (XIII-2)

This Moogle makes that XIII Mono-Lightning deck easier to make.

Always good to have a couple of searchers, and this one is better, because you can get rid of Mog once he finds what you’re looking for.

Mog comes in for 2CP, and just hangs out until it’s time for you to use his ability.

After that, you can play Mog once more, and he’ll do the same thing once more.

Yes, this card is needed.

23-094C – Y’shtola

How is this a Common?

If you’re playing a Scions deck, you will be dulling your opponent’s whole front line.

And, this only costs 3CP.

All I see is, you play Y’shtola, and block with her as soon as possible, in order to play her again.

Find a way to grab her from the Break Zone as well, and you’ll be golden. Just like the S(ci)un of the Seventh Dawn … Ok, maybe that wasn’t that great.

23-095R – Rosso

Rosso, the Crimson.

Vincent is in trouble here.

The Tsivets are coming for him and all of his allies, and Rosso is coming hard. For every time she attacks, she deals 4000 damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

And, if you have a stash of Crystals, you can use them to give one of your Tsivets Haste, allowing them to go from the get go.
Tsivets might finally have some decent cards to get a fun deck going.

Singles?

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The Honor Roll Society

It’s only fitting that our 9th card of the Week is Nine. And I get to talk about Cinque as well.

On to the Card.

6CP – Lightning/Fire
Forward
Job : Class Zero Cadet
Category : Type-0
Legend
9000 Power

“You can dull 1 active Fire Job Class Zero Cadet Forward and 1 active Lightning Job Class Zero Cadet Forward (instead of paying the CP cost) to cast Nine.

When Nine enters the field or attacks, choose 1 Forward opponent controls. Until the end of the turn, it loses 2000 power for each Job Class Zero Cadet you control.”

You will be playing Cadets.

Fire and Lightning.

Might as well play Wind, that way you’ll have access to all the Class Zero Cadets, but since there is no Class Moogle that helps us with the Crystal Points you will likely play a Light or Dark card. Opus I Chaos and Cosmos will work well depending on, if you’d like to play another Light or Dark card.

And if you play your cards right, no pun intended, you’ll be able to get rid of 2 Forwards when Nine enters the field. All you need is a Fire Cadet and a Lightning Cadet, that you will dull for Nine to enter and after that dull Zaidou (10-091C) to give Nine “Haste and First Strike”. You will likely reduce the opponents Forward’s Power more than enough to send it to the Break Zone.

Can’t have a Class Zero without Ace (9-003L), I never took him out of my party when I was playing, so he should be in this deck. Well, that’s my reasoning. That and that you can grab a couple of Cadets and add them to your hand. Plus the 8K body, and that EX Burst, you’ll be knocking out Forwards left and right.

If Deuce (9-052C) was a Backup she would be a Legend, but she is not but, we’ll still play this one.

Trey (3-064H) is probably a card we can do without.

Cater, might as well choose the Backup (3-009C). (13-107C) might work as well, depending on the situation. Maybe play one of each?

Cinque (13-007R), the card that we wanted to build a deck around a Nine was the Legend to do it. Basically you’ll always have more than 7 Class Zero Cadets for Cinque to gain Brave, and “When Cinque attacks, choose 1 Character opponent controls. Break it.” This card paired with Nine and Ace and your opponent will not know what hit them. Plus that extra 4K for Cinque makes her a beast.

Sice (3-109C) can work. As can Seven (3-057R), and Eight (13-036R). Eight is Free as it does not state on his card that the cost for Eight cannot be reduced to 0. Jack (3-111H) can be decent for 1CP.

Now which Queen shall we play? 3-151S or 3-104C? Queen (3-104C) has a better ring for this deck, as you’re already Breaking Forwards with Nine, Cinque and Ace. And Speedrush, will give you a free attack.

King (3-006R) is the last cadet, giving all you Class Zero Cadet Forwards +1K. King can also be played by just discarding a Class Zero Cadet from your hand. Doesn’t matter what element it is.

And then there is Machina (3-022H), not worth it. And Rem (3-072R) should work good, as should (9-059R).

Now, we need backups because all the Cadets we chose are mostly Forwards. Arecia Al-Rashia (3-097R), will allow you to search for a Type-0 Forward. Moogle (Class Zero) (3-150S) will give all your Cadets +1K. Khalia Chival (10-089C) will let you grab a Cadet from the Break Zone.

Now. I’m guessing these shall be your building blocks. I’ve seen a couple of decks with Golbez (13-115L). As you can search for any 2CP card in your deck.

That’s what we have for Nine. Any ideas? Let us know.