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Hidden Legends of Lightning

24-073H – Valigarmanda

Lightning is kicking off things with a Summon, and a beautiful Full Art as well.

Valigarmanda is a 4 cost Summon that comes in dulls a Forward, and Freezes it as well.

That Forward loses 9000 power until the end of the turn, and then Valigarmanda also deals it 9000 damage.

99.99% of the time it will break the Forward that Valigarmanda is targeting.

At the very least, Valigarmanda will disable that Forward for this turn.

24-074C – Odin EX

Odin is ready to break a Forward.

Any Forward?

Yes, any Forward, but the cost might be a bit high for some Forwards.

It’s 5CP to cast Odin, plus the top card of your deck times the CP required to play the Forward that you’re looking to break.

Odin is useful in certain situations, but why not just play the Opus I Odin that will break any Forward for 7CP flat.

No extra charge.

I’ll pass.

24-075C – Guardian

I just realized we have similar Backups in every element.

Guardian comes in and you draw a card.

After that, depending on if you have at least 4 Lightning Backups on the field, Guardian will allow you to choose 2 Forward, and dull them.

Other than that, Guardian is just a simple Backup that will give you a Crystal Point each turn.

But, you already know that.

24-076C – Juggler

Wicked Clowns?

Juggler, the Backup you knew that you might need.

Juggler will come in and hang out until you need to get rid of a 2 cost Forward.

Juggler only costs 2CP, the only draw back if you call it that, is that a Lightning Forward needs to enter your field, in order for Juggler’s ability to go off.

I see some use for this.

Probably, more than some.

24-077H – The Emperor

Who would have thought, that the only reason the Emperor is here is to gain Crystals.

Look at it. The Emperor comes in you gain a Crystal. If your opponent has a Crystal, gain a Crystal. That’s two from the get go.

Add in one more Crystal from another Backup, and you’ll be able to use The Emperor’s second ability.

But, first let’s take a look at the first one. Or, the top one.

Break a Forward that costs 4CP or less.

Yeah, that’s pretty straight forward. Nothing groundbreaking, but very useful.

Now let’s take a look at the second ability.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Do you see that? Break all the Forwards and the Monsters opponent controls. That would wipe your opponent’s whole board, leaving it wide open.

If you don’t win the game after that ability goes off, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Plus, we get a Full Art version of this card in the Prerelease Kits.

24-078R – Cidolfus (XVI)

3 cost Forward that allows you to search for a Lightning Summon.

And, that is pretty much it with Cidolfus.

You’ll get a 5K body that sticks around on the field.

Other than that what else is there?

Oh yeah, Priming.

Cidolfus Primes into Ramuh.

What does Ramuh do?

Guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

24-079L – Jack Garland

Jack is ready to turn your opponent’s front line upside down.

All of your opponent’s Forward must attack, and they must block.

This will either leave their front line open for your attacks, or all of your opponent’s Forwards will be broken.
Just make sure you at least have bodies on your field to block the attacks your opponent will be throwing at you.

And, every time one of your opponent’s Characters is put into the Break Zone you will gain a Crystal.

Sooner or later, you’ll have enough Crystals to use the Emperor’s ability to wipe out your opponent.

I’ll take 3.

Full arts preferably.

24-080R – Chime

Here we go, the King’s Minister is here to give you a great deal.

Buy one Get on Free.

Chime comes in and you reveal the top 4 cards of your deck, and play a Character of 2 or less onto the field.

I’d say it’s worth taking a chance on this.

Either way Chime is only 2CP, and you can get some decent value if you find a 2CP Character in the top four cards.

After that, Chime is a 5K body, ready to be taken out, just so you can play Chime once again, and hopefully find another 2CP Character.

24-081R – Noel

This Shadow Hunter is attacking from the shadows.

Noel comes in and he starts going to town. Striking with precision and going back to the shadows from which he came.

Yes, Noel only has 3000 power, but you won’t need to worry about that unless you decide to block with him.

Noel’s attacks will go through, just because he cannot be blocked.

I’ll take 3.

Throw them into your FFXIII deck, and once this Noel is gone, you can play another Noel.

Take your pick. Rebellion’s Call, From Nightmares or Hidden Trials.

All of them will do well.

24-082C – Vivi

Vivi is ready to come in and deal some damage to your opponent’s Forwards.

2000 across the board isn’t much, but let’s not forget about Summons that break damaged Forwards.

Or abilities that dull damaged Forwards, and what not.

Plus, if there is already a damaged Forward on the field, you can use Vivi’s ability and deal it an additional 4000 damage.

After everything is said and done, Vivi sticks around with a 5K body.

24-083H – Firion

Let me start by saying, if you’re playing Lightning you’re playing Firion.

Why? First off, you can only pay with CP produced by Lightning Backups.

Now, once Firion comes in you can pay 2CP more, and give him Haste and First Strike.

Then you can go ahead and attack with Firion.

Now, it’s time to cast Drain. Break a Forward, Activate Firion, and attack one more time.

Firion is going all out here. Time to start building that Rebel deck.

24-084R – Behemoth

Let’s up the stakes.

Behemoth is just that a Behemoth.

No power, unless you make it a Forward, but when a Forward of yours attacks, you can put Behemoth into the Break Zone and give a Forward the ability to deal 2 points of damage to your opponent.

Now, you can give that buff to Noel, who can’t be blocked. Or what about Firion, who can attack twice this turn.

And, that’s just 2 Forwards from this set, think about all of the other cards that can make use of Behemoth here.

24-085C – Mid (XVI)

I like this.

And, it’s only 2CP to bring Mid in.

She’ll stay on the board, and whenever you’d like you can put her in the Break Zone and grab a Forward. 4CP or less and add it to your hand.

That right there would have made this card playable.

But, Mid isn’t done. No. Not at all.

If you grab Cidolfus from the Break Zone, you’ll have a chain of Events that will start to go off one by one.

Let’s see how that will go.

You put Mid into the Break Zone, grab Cidolfus and play him straight to the field. Cidolfus searches for a Lightning Summon. Cidolfus Primes into Ramuh. Ramuh casts a Summon from your hand without paying the cost, and deals one of your opponent’s Forwards 8000 damage.

All that for 2CP plus the cost to Prime into Ramuh.

24-086C – Lightning

Coming in with a 9K body, Lightning is the prefect Meat Shield for your front lines.

You’ll also be able to discard a card and give Lightning Haste and a +1K buff giving her a 10K body, that’ll be tough to break.
And that pretty much covers everything.

You’ll pay a total of 6CP, which includes the discarded card, for a Forward that’s ready to go, from the get go.

 

24-087C – Ranan

Another Warrior of the Crystal.

When Ranan comes in, he grants another Warrior of the Crystal, Haste.

And, that’s about it.

I’ll have to check with the other Warriors of the Crystal to actually see how this deck runs.

 

 

24-088R – Ramuh

Coming in at 5CP, but thankfully you won’t be paying 5CP, you’ll be Priming into Ramuh.

Ramuh comes in and you can cast a Summon from your hand, any element will do, and you won’t have to pay the cost to cast it.

If the Summon you cast is a Lightning Summon, you will deal 8000 damage to a Forward of your choosing, as long as it’s active.

I’d say it’s still worth paying the 5CP to cast Ramuh.

24-089C – Ramza

Ramza stands alone. While leaning up on a tree.

Decent artwork, taken from the game, but what about the card?

If Ramza is sent to the Break Zone, you gain a Crystal. Ok, not bad. You can probably just throw Ramza in just to block and gain a Crystal with him.

And if you need to give Ramza a quick buff, you can remove 2 cards in your Break Zone from the game.

Not bad, for 3CP.

24-090L – Leon

Leon being Leon, almost like Kain going back and forth between the Rebels and the Empire.

Leon comes right in for 1CP, and deals a damaged Forward 4000 damage. Possibly breaking it.

Your opponent has the choice of taking control over Leon, by targeting him with an ability. Once Leon is targeted he will switch sides. You can get Leon back by targeting him with your own abilities.

But, why would you?

You actually want your opponent to have control over Leon, because if they don’t have any other Rebels on their field, Leon will deal them 1 point of damage at the end of their turn.

And, at the end of yours as well.

This is a card that will eat up your opponent from the inside.

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Dawn of Heroes : Straight Out the Freezer

20-022C – Alhanalem

I feel like I just wrote about this card.

Alhanalem is a cheap Forward to play. Very cheap. At 1CP and a 3000 body, he can block any attack that you throw at him. Surviving the attack is another story.

Alhanalem also comes with 2 abilities. All you have to do is dull Alhanalem, and you can either Dull or Freeze a Forward.

I don’t see any reason not to have a couple of these laying around.

20-023C – Armourer

The Common card between all the elements.

Let’s just Copy and Paste here.

If you got 3 Backups already on the field, this Backup is free.

Other than draft, I really don’t see much use for this card, but I’ve been wrong before. Watch a Forward show up where you discard a Backup for a great ability.

20-024H – Calbrena

Rerouting damage to the nearest Forward.

Calbrena comes in whenever it wants to come in. Your turn, your opponents turn, or whenever one of your Forwards is being targeted by one of your opponents abilities.

You can now reroute that damage to Calbrena.

And when Calbrena is dealt damage by one of your opponents Forwards, you can deal damage to your opponent equal to Calbrena’s power, which will usually be 7000.

A nice little counter to have in your hand.

20-025C – Juggler

Backup.

Back Attack.

Juggler enters and dulls a Forward.

‘Nuff said.

You can actually play Juggler, when your opponent attacks and dull the Forward that is attacking.

20-026C – Edward EX

The Spoony Bard is back again, as a Backup.

And with his trusty harp, he will take a dull Forward, and break it.

As long as your opponent has 2 Dull Forwards on the field, that is.

For 2CP, I’d say this is a good deal.

 

20-027C – Genesis

We Finally got another Genesis card. We’ve been waiting since Opus III. Let’s see if it’s been worth the wait.

5CP for a 9K body.

Common.

Either Freeze 2 Characters, or have your opponent discard a card.

If Genesis comes in with Warp, you can use both abilities. Warp cost is 2 Ice CP.

It’s worth a try. At least in draft.

20-028R – Cissnei

This is interesting.

Cissnei uses Shuriken Counters, just like Edge.

Cissnei can use Shuriken Counters from other Characters to use her ability.

Edge (11-045H) gains a Shuriken Counter every time a Ninja enters the field.

Are there any Ice Ninja’s. Besides Vanilla Ice in TMNT 2.

We’re either throwing Edge (19-070C) in a Turks deck, or finding a way to put Cissnei in a Ninja deck.

20-029C – Jihl Nabaat

Am I the only one that still likes to play Opus I Jihl Nabaat? If I am, I might not after this set is out, as this Jihl has the same Enter the Field ability, but better.

Jihl comes in and if you pay the extra 2CP you can not only Freeze 2 of your opponents Characters, but dull them as well. That way you won’t need to pick from the dull Characters, cause you will dull the Characters you want to Freeze.

Jihl Nabaat is also a Forward, and if you’re playing Mono-Ice, well she’ll gain +2000 power.

I don’t know how well she’ll do in the XIII Custom Starter Set.

I guess we’re about to find out.

20-030R – Setzer

Setzer deck incoming.

First off, all the FFVI Ice cards look amazing this set.

Setzer comes in and allows all of your VI Forwards to form a party together regardless of element. Combine this with Locke, and get that table of four, to combine their attacks into one big party and get Locke’s ability to go off.

And with a party of 2 you get to dull and freeze a Forward.

Yes, please, I’ll take 3.

Is this a Full Art as well?

20-031R – Celes

If you’re playing Celes, you’re playing Locke, and whole bunch of FFVI Characters. Might be time to dust off my Setzer deck and update it.

Celes gains Haste if Locke is on the field, and Locke gains Haste if Celes is on the field. A win-win for these two.

Other than that, when Celes enters the field, you can dull all of your opponents Forwards, if you have enough FFVI Characters on the field.

And you get that for only 2CP. After that Celes is a 5k body, able to block an attack, get sent to the Break Zone, and then you can just play her again.

20-032C – Soldier : 3rd Class

Cloud’s old SOLDIER buddies are here.

These one’s gain 1000 power for each SOLDIER : 3rd Class in your Break Zone. They also search for each other when they enter the Break Zone, + you get to play them straight to the field.

Pair these SOLDIERs with the Opus III Soldiers and you can have up to 5 SOLDIER : 3rd Class in your Break Zone, to make this Soldier an 11k power house.

 

20-033C – Cerulean Drake

I was going to say, How come I don’t remember Cerulean Drake from FFVII? Then I realized it’s from the Remake.

Cerulean Drake is a 1 cost Monster that will Freeze a Forward when he enters the field.

Not much to write home about, but it does have some abilities that will allow you to dull a Forward, or break a dull Forward.
If you got 2 of these on the field, you can use the abilities back to back and Break an active Forward.

20-034R – Terra

There is a nice combo right here. Along with Lock and a couple more FFVI Characters. And, I probably won’t even scratch the surface here.

Terra comes in and you can grab a Summon from the Break Zone. This makes Terra’s CP go from 4 to 2. And once Terra forms a party and attacks, you’ll be able to cast that Summon for Free.

And along with the Free Summons from the last set. You can cause a lot of damage.

Considering this Terra is only a rare, it’ll be easy to get a playset.

20-035C – Knight

Ice Reprint Standard Unit.

Just find what I wrote for Samurai and change the word Samurai to Knight.

 

 

 

20-036H – Number 24

Number 24? This card is Number 36. They should get their facts straight.

All jokes aside Number 24 in the Royal Rumble is pretty good.

No?

Ok, Number 24 is a great blocker. Just keep a Barrier Counter on him and block any attack that comes your way. Add a Barrier Counter at the beginning of the Main Phase, and you’ll always have a constant supply of Barrier Counters.

Just make sure you keep blocking, because once those Barrier Counters are 3 or more, Number 24 will become dull at the end of each of your turns. But, he should activate during the beginning of your Main Phase, so you should be good.

20-037H – Mateus (FFTA)

2 cost Summon that will either Freeze all of your opponents Forwards, or all of your opponents Backups.

Pick and choose, but the end result will always be the same.

Mateus will be removed from the game.

No way to save this one.

20-038H – Wicked Mask

Chris Isaak would have had a field day with this card.

“Such a Wicked Mask to play”

3 cost Monster that reroutes a Summon from one Character to another Character of your choice. I’m seeing plenty of Counters this set, even if they aren’t called counters.

After Wicked Masks enter the field ability is used, Wicked Mask stays on the field until you decide to turn it into a Forward.

And, let’s not forget – Back Attack.

20-039R – Rude

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you can play an ability if it doesn’t have the dull icon.

I’m 99% sure of that, so that means, Rude enters the field, Dulls and Freezes a Forward. After that you can use Haymaker to Break it.

Only drawback I can find with this card is that, you can only use Backups to pay for this card. Other than that, Shinra should be getting stronger this set.

 

20-040L – Rufus

Rufus, President of Shinra, doing Presidential things.

You can lower the cost to cast Rufus by 2 if both Reno and Rude are in the Break Zone. Making Rufus a 2 cost Forward with a 7K body.

Once Rufus enters the field, you can grab one of the Turks from the Break Zone, making Rufus a Free Card. And, we all like Free cards.

After that whenever Rufus attacks, you can choose from 3 different abilites. Dull and Freeze a Forward, grab a Turk from the Break Zone, or you can make your opponent discard a card.

Rufus is the President that keeps on giving, even after he has been elected.

Doesn’t Weiss (18-019R) have an ability that activates when your opponent discards a card. (hint hint)

20-041R – Reno

Just goes to show you that the Turks are here to stay.

You play Reno for 3 and pay the extra cost to give Reno Haste. After that you can attack with Reno, search for Rude and play Rude onto the field.

It’s almost Buy 1 get 1 Free.

This even works better if you play Rufus first.

Let’s take a look.

Reno and Rude are in the Break Zone. You play Rufus for 2CP and grab Reno from the Break Zone. You play Reno, pay 1CP and give Reno Haste. Reno Attacks and searches for Rude and Rude gets played straight to the field. That’s pretty much comes out to 4CP for 3 Forwards.

Bright Spark? Dulls 2 Forwards.

20-042L – Locke EX

Really?

Now I’m definitely dusting off that Setzer deck.

Locke comes in and you get to grab a FFVI Character from the top 4 cards of your deck. Which should be pretty easy to get since most of your deck should consist of FFVI Characters.

Once Locke is on the field, get as many FFVI Forwards on the field, and form a a party of 4 FFVI Characters. Do that once per turn and your opponent won’t ever have any Forwards to attack or block. Which should work in your favor. Cause, even if you form a party with only 2 FFVI Characters, you’ll still be dealing your opponent a point of damage.

Yes, I’ll take 3. Hopefully we get a Full Art here.