lulu

Posted on November 11, 2026November 10, 2026 by Niko — Leave a comment

Memories of Fire

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30-001H – Auron

Why is Auron always a Hero?

And, why is Fire Hero Auron always the first card of the set?

Nevermind that. Why is it that you can discard 2 Final Fantasy X cards to pay for Auron instead of Paying his cost?

And, why does Auron grab a 2 cost Forward from your Break Zone, and plays it straight to the field?

I like it. This is one of the better Aurons. And this one is a Backup as well. The 5 cost Backup, just turned into a Free Play.

How?

It’s simple you’re paying 4CP by discarding the FFX cards from your hand, you grab a 2 cost Forward from your Break Zone. That’s 2CP back to your hand. And you play that Forward for Free. which is another 2CP, bringing Auraon’s cost to 0.

30-002C – Ifrit EX

A 2 cost Summon that can also come off of an EX Burst.

Ifrit will deal 5000 damage to a Forward.

And, if that Forward is a Multi-Element, that damage becomes 8000.

Not bad for a Common Summon.

30-003H – Edgar

If you’re playing Mono-Fire, you are playing Edgar. End of story,

Edgar comes in reveals the top 2 cards of your deck, and you can add up to 2 Fire cards to your hand. Thus making the 5CP you spent on Edgar 1CP.

And, Edgar’s ability, deal a Forward 4000 damage. But, if you have 5 Fire Characters on the board that damage becomes 8000.

I’m sticking to it. Mono-Fire and you are set. Why worry about the chances of not getting a hit from the top 2 cards of your deck by playing Fire/Whatever. Play Mono Fire, and Edgar will be flipping his Double-Headed coin whenever he enters the field.

Even Sabin won’t mind.

30-004R – Scorpion Sentinel

I’m not too sure about the wording they’re using, but I know what they’re trying to say.

Scorpion Sentinel is a Monster that becomes a Forward, but only if you don’t have any other Forwards on the field. At 2CP, Scorpion Sentinel gives you a 9K body. That might be all you need to save you from taking damage.

And, when Scorpion Sentinel is sent to the Break Zone, you can choose a Forward and deal it 7000 damage.

Not bad, but not great either.

Maybe play this as a one off.

30-005C – Samurai.

Samurai here will look at the top card of your deck, and hopes you find another Samurai.

If you do, add it to your hand.

If you don’t, well then nothing happens.

At 2CP, you got a Backup.

Worst case scenario you use it for 1CP per turn.

Best case, you get a free play.

30-006C – Amarant

Hits like Amarant.
Looks like Amarant.

This must be Amarant. A big attack as soon as he enters the field.

And not only that, but Amarant will also search for a Final Fantasy IX Forward.

High cost, but this Amarant is already better than all the other Amarants.

30-007L – Jecht

4CP, for a Guardian that is almost indestructible.

First off, Jecht has 9000 power, but his abilities hit harder than that.

10,000 damage to a Forward that tries to use it’s ability against him.

His second ability?

You can remove Jecht or Sin from your Break Zone, and deal a Forward 10,000 damage. You can use this ability once per turn.

Meaning that Jecht is nearly unstoppable.

Now, since we already mentioned Sin. We can actually make a 3 Jecht deck. You have Jecht, Braska’s Final Aeon. and Sin. And none of these cards say that you can’t play them while Jecht is on the field or Vice Versa.

Hmm, I’m going to take a better look at this.

30-008C – Zidane

Zidane comes in and you discard a card to draw a card.

I mean, ok.

And, if the discarded card is a Final Fantasy IX Character *cough Garnet *cough cough. Zidane will also gain +3000 power and Haste.

There are better Zidanes, but this one is still decent. In it’s own way.

30-009C – Bangaa

We’re getting more Moogle Bounty Mayhem cards this set.

This is getting me excited.

Bangaa comes in and will grab an Ice or Water card from the top 4 cards of your deck.

That’s it?

Well, I guess I got excited for nothing. Not that this is a terrible card, but it just doesn’t help me with my MBM deck.

30-010C – Vivi

I don’t get it.

If Final Fantasy IX is on the box, why aren’t we getting some new Final Fantasy IX Legends?

I could use a new Legend Vivi to build a deck around.

But, since we’re not getting that, we’ll just take a look at this Vivi, who searches for a Black Mage.

And, that’s it. Black Mages finally have a card that will search for them. Let’s see where this takes us.

30-011R – Blank

This is the card that will make Thieves a great deck.

Blank comes on in and your opponent removes the top card of their deck from the game. This will also trigger if a Job Thief enters the field. IT has to be Job, this won’t work if the card is named Thief.

Ok, that’s good and all, but why would we care of removing the top card of our opponent’s deck from the game?

I’m glad you asked.

Whenever a card is removed from your opponent’s deck, Blank will deal 1 of your opponent’s Forwards 3000 damage for each Job Thief that you control.

So far we have, Blank, Marcus, Zidane, Bel Dat, Paul, Fang and Gutsco to add to your deck. And if all of these Thieves are on the field that will be 21,000 damage to a Forward of your choosing.

And, let’s not forget about Ultima Weapon in this set.

30-012R – Marcus EX

We’re finally getting Tantalus. It’s been 30 sets, and this is the first time we’re getting a Tantalus member other than Zidane.

And, what does Marcus do?

He searches for Zidane …

Well, technically not Zidane, just any thief in your deck. Forward Thief in your deck.

It’s not groundbreaking, but maybe some Thief Tribal deck will become viable. Probably not, but this is the first building block you’ll need to get it going.

Maybe it’s time to dust off Gutsco?

30-013C – Mazurka EX

Mazurka is almost like Blank, but she deals 3000 damage per Backup that you control.

Mazurka’s ability will only trigger once, but her ability will also come off of an EX Burst as well.

At 5CP it is a bit expensive.

But, off of an EX Burst it’s pretty good.

I don’t know if it’s worth having her in your deck though.

30-014L – Sabin

This is a great Sabin.

Whenever Sabin attacks, you can play a Final Fantasy VI Character from your hand onto the field.

This alone would make it worth it to play Sabin, but Sabin still has another trick up his sleeve, that has nothing to do with Suplexing a train.

Whenever Sabin is put into the Break Zone, you can put a Fire Character in there instead. Sabin will then return to the field. Meaning that your opponent will have a hard time trying to get rid of Sabin.

Mono Fire VI. That is what I will be working on.

30-015R – Luneth

Luneth, what are you doing here?

All I see is a way to farm Crystals. And that way if by sending your Warriors of Light to the Break Zone. And, you can only get 1 Crystal per turn.

You can then use that 1 Crystal to deal a Forward 5ooo damage.

Eh? I mean .. there’s some use to Luneth.

30-016H – Lulu

3CP, to either search for Wakka, or play him on to the field from your hand.

Either way Lulu is a steal.

3CP, to play both Lulu and Wakka, yes I’ll take it. Now we just need to find which Wakka to play.

Let’s not forget about Fire. Deal 7000 damage to a Forward. Lulu does not become dull when using this ability.

30-017C – Leon

Fianlly, a Leon that doesn’t suck.

Leon enters the field and deals 5000 damage for each Rebel that you control.

Yes, you read that right.

Leon costs 4CP, an 8K body, and the ability to break a Forward when he enters the field.

How do I know that he’ll break a Forward? Simple really. If you’re playing Leon, you’ll probably already have Hilda on the field. Along with a Leila. Yes, both from this set.

Your plan of attack would be.

Dull Hilda, play Leon, deal damage to a Forward, then use Leila’s ability to remove Leon, and have your opponent choose one of their Forwards to send to the Break Zone.

Rebels also seem like they’ll be fun to play.

Hot Singles!

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Niko — Leave a comment

Hidden Hope – Electricity, Hopefully?

22-073L – Ultimecia

Lightning is starting off with a wonderful card.

Ultimecia protects all the cards in your Break Zone, not allowing your opponent to remove them from the game, which is good, because if you have at least 15 cards in your Break Zone, you will be able to choose 1 of your opponent’s Forwards and take control of it.

Any Forward that you like.

You might also want to stock up an a couple of different variations of Ultimecia as well for Maelstrom. Ultimecia’s ability is great as you don’t need to dull Ultimecia as part of the cost. That means you can keep casting Maelstrom as long as you have an extra Ultimecia on hand. That’s a Forward that loses 10k power everytime you cast Maelstrom.

Ultimecia will do plenty of damage.

22-074R – Alba EX

Here’s another card for that Warrior of Darkness deck.

Alba, coming in at 3CP with a 7K body. When Alba enters the field due to an ability, namely Nacht (22-067L) you get to choose one of your opponent’s Forwards with a cost of 4 or less, and send it to the Break Zone.

Also, when she enters the field, she gives one of your Warriors of Darkness, Haste.

Pretty decent if you ask me, and plays well with the other Warriors of Darkness.

22-075H – Edea

The Witch, the Sorceress, Edea.

Edea comes into the field, and let’s you search for a Final Fantasy VIII Forward. Searchers are always good, and when it comes from a Forward it makes it even better, because that card will still have some use even after you searched for the Forward.

Edea comes with an 8k body. Which is great.

And another ability that causes one of your opponent’s Forwards to lose 4000 power. 8000 if you have 10 cards in your Break Zone.

Only downside is that you have to discard the top 2 cards of your deck to use this ability, and you don’t know which cards those will be.

22-076R – Odin

3 cost Summon, that breaks a 3, or a 4 cost, Forward or Monster.

Well that is what Odin is known for. Coming down riding his horse from the sky, whipping out Excalibur, and slicing the enemy in half, for an instant K.O.

Plus, if you only paid the cost with Backups you draw a card, making Odin cost just 1CP.

It wouldn’t hurt to have 1 or 2 of these in your deck.

22-077H – Garuda (III)

Garuda comes in, and you get to pick a number. And after that you’ll get to deal 8000 damage to all of the Forwards that their CP cost is the same as the number you’ve chosen. So, don’t go picking a random number, make sure there are Forwards on the field that have that number as their CP cost.

This is actually a good way to get rid of a bunch of Forwards that came in due to an ability by let’s say Golbez (1-135L). You’ll be able to get rid of all the 2 cost Forwards that just came in. Plus the other 2 cost Forwards that were already on the field.

And the Crystal ability. For the cost of 2 Crystals, you can deal 8000 damage to a Forward of your choosing.

You can’t go wrong with Garuda.

22-078C – Sice

1CP or 3CP or 3CPO?

Either way Sice is a great card. Especially if you can get her in for 1CP. Which you probably will, because the Class Zero Cadets usually come out all together.

Sice enters the field, and depending on how many Class Zero Cadets you have on the field, Sice will sen that Forward to the Break Zone.

And after that, she’ll stick around as an extra body.

I’ll take 3. Simple and effective. Let’s just find a way to bounce Sice a couple of times per turn. I’m sure there must be a way.

22-079L – Seifer

The other Gunblade Wielder.

When Seifer comes in, you can put the top 2 cards of your deck in the Break Zone and, you’ll be able to grab a Final Fantasy VIII Forward from your Break Zone. It’s like paying 4CP to grab that card that you just lost, and you don’t even need to have the extra 4CP in your hand.

Seifer starts to shine when you have at least 10 cards in your Break Zone. Because when you do, every time Seifer attacks, you get to send one of your opponent’s Forwards to the Break Zone. Slowly thinning the enemies front lines, to make it easier for your attacks to go through.

This might be the best Seifer yet.

22-080C – Selkie

The card that let’s you look at the top card of your deck.

If you like it, you can keep it there.

If you don’t send it to the bottom of your deck.

Selkie is part of this set’s Common Card for all elements. Meaning that each Element has this card.

If you need more information. We’ll just Copy/Paste once again.

“Simple, basic and straight to the point.

Selkie 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.”

22-081R – Diana

“Dirty Dianaaaaa, Nah”

Is it just me or is Diana actually doing one of Michael Jacksons moves?

Woo!

3CP for a 7K body, but you won’t be paying 3CP, because if you do, Diana won’t do much.

Instead you shall play Nacht, look for Diana and another 2 Warriors of Darkness. And, once Nacht attacks, you will play Diana from your hand, and draw a card at the same time. Giving you +2CP when she enters the field due to Nacht’s ability.

After that, you can dull a Warrior of Darkness, and dull a Forward. Any Forward, including yours, which can be like a cancel effect, if your opponent plays a card that says something along the lines of Break an active Forward.

I must say, I like it.

“I know your every move
So won’t you just let me be”

22-082C – Drace

Did you ever find yourself looking for a searcher, the searches for a low cost Forward?

Well if you did, Drace is the right card for you.

Because Drace let’s you search for a Forward that costs 2CP or less.

It’s a great Backup to have.

Only thing that would make Drace better is his cost was 2CP, but then he wouldn’t be a Common.

I’ll take it.

22-083C – Ninja

A ninja with Haste.

For 2CP you can have yourself a great Forward.

Sure, Ninja only has 4000 power, but if you have a couple Standard Unit Backups on the field, Ninja also gains 4000 power, making her total power 8000.

2CP for an 8k body is great in my book.

Now all we have to do is find a couple of Backups that will compliment her.

22-084R – Fujin

If you’re playing Seifer, then Fujin is a must have.

Once you have 10 cards in your Break Zone,which is where you will want to be if you are playing Seifer. Fujin gives Seifer and Raijin, and herself +2000 power and First Strike. Which is great combined with Seifer’s ability to Break a Forward whenever he attacks.

And when Fujin is put from the deck into the Break Zone, you can play Fujin onto the field. So, those abilities that require you to put the top 2 cards of your deck into the Break Zone, have a little upside to them.

The only thing I don’t like with Fujin is the extra cost required when she enters the field, which is the top 2 cards of your deck.

22-085C – Moth Slasher

For 2CP this is a great card.

A Monster that turns into a Forward that searches for itself when it is sent to the Break Zone, and plays itself for free.

What’s not to like.

And, at 3 points of damage Moth Slasher has an 8k body.

Of course you’re putting this in your deck, why wouldn’t you.

22-086C – Yaag Rosch

Yaag Rosch is the protector of Backups, excluding himself.

And, that’s pretty much it. There aren’t even that many cards that can break a Backup.

So, we’ll just talk about the artwork. It’s gorgeous, simple yet it portrays Yaag Rosch perfectly.

We just have to ask him one question.

“Why So Serious?”

Yeah, I’m just trying to take up space here.

22-087R – Raijin

And, finally the last Disciplinary Committee Member.

Now that we have the trio out, we can see what these cards all do together as a team, the Disciplinary Committee.

Same as before you need 10 cards in the Break Zone for everything to work.

Raijin gives the other 2 and himself +2000 power and Haste.

That gives Seifer 11,000 power and Fujin and Raijin 9000 power. Making these 3 a force to be reckoned with. (No wonder Squall and Co. always had trouble with the Disciplinary Committee.)

And, same as before again, If Raijin is put from your deck into the Break Zone, you can play him straight onto the field. But, you’ll have to pay the cost of putting the top 2 cards of your deck into the Break Zone.

Now I do see why these cards are like this. If you’re lucky enough you can have all three members on the field, in one play. And then you’ll be taking everyone on a a little ride as you’ll be breaking Forwards when Seifer attacks, and Fujin and Raijin will just stand around as your blockers, while Seifer gets the job done.

22-088C -Rygdea

I always thought Rygdea was part of the Cavalry.

Rygdea comes in and you get to choose one of 2 abilities. Either break a Forward, 2CP or less, or grab a Lightning character from the Break Zone.

Both are pretty good abilities, I do prefer the second one, but there shall be times you will want to break that pesky Forward that is sitting on the front lines.

This might be a good addition to the FFXIII Custom Starter Set.

22-089C – Dragoon

Add another Dragoon to the Back line. This one isn’t half bad.

Dragoon enters the field and gives a Forward +3000 power and First Strike.

After that you can pay the cost, discard a Lightning card, put dragoon into the Break Zone, break a 5CP Forward, Play Rygdea, grab Dragoon from the Break Zone, and start all over again.

I mean it could work, but there are better ways than this to Break a Forward.

With Dragoons though, I’d say the second ability is just a bonus.

22-090H – Lulu

How many Summons do you need in your deck in order for Lulu to be effective?

Because if your take away that ability you really don’t have much going on here.

Just a 2 cost Forward with 5000 power.

Maybe I’m missing something, because the cards I don’t think are good, end up becoming great.

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Posted on September 29, 2023 by Niko — Leave a comment

Guardians of the Summoner

You already know we’re going to build a FFX Deck with Yuna & Tidus, and the rest of the gang. So, lets get to it.

Starting off with Wakka (16-138S), because that is the best one to try and build around. If it was any other FFX Character we might have gone with the Opus 18 Wakka. But, today it’s Emissaries of Light Wakka. We can probably just grab the Custom Starter Set and call it a day. But, where’s the fun in that?

Since we’re grabbing Lulu (16-135S) first, it looks like that is what we’re doing. But, I promise you we’re not. Lulu will grab a Yuna from the Break Zone, which brings us to our next card.

Yuna (20-117L), I went on a rant when this card was first shown, and nothing has changed. We’re going to use this Yuna. And, fill up on Summons. We’ll grab those Summons later.

Tidus (16-116L), you can’t go wrong with this Tidus, and if you have 3 of them they’ll usually just come right back in your hand. You’ll always attack, and you know it’ll go through because Tidus can’t be blocked.

Kimahri (7-108H), Sure he might be a 6 cost Forward but you can get that cost down to 2, and possibly even one. Just depends on if you want to play Jecht or not. And, we do just to play a cheap Kimahri.

Jecht (20-011R) just so we can break Jecht in order to play Braska’s Final Aeon (11-015L).

And, if we have Braska’s Final Aeon we need Braska (7-121C) as well. No point in having one and not the other.

We need to add our Backups now. Class Fourth Moogle (10-121C), to give us some Fire CP.

Maria (1-083H) to give all of our Forwards a +1000 buff.

Rikku(2-071R), we would have gone with the Emissaries of Light Starter, but we need Backups.

White Mage (8-117C) so we can Activate all of our Forwards if we need to.

Let’s add Yuna (12-105L), doesn’t matter which Yuna you grab, because she’s just fodder for Holy.

All we need next is to fill up on Summons, to give Holy a bite.

Valefor (1-198S), Leviathan (2-140C), Syldra (3-135H), Amaterasu (12-002H), and Sylph (9-047C). You can also choose whichever Summons you like as well, as they are just used to make Holy more Powerful.

Forwards

3x – Wakka (16-138S)
3x – Tidus (16-116L)
3x – Lulu (16-135S)
3x – Jecht (20-011R)
3x – Yuna (20-117L)
3x – Kimahri (7-108H)
3x – Braska’s Final Aeon (11-015L)

Backups

3x – Rikku (2-071R)
3x – White Mage (8-117C)
3x – Class Fourth Moogle (10-121C)
3x – Braska (7-121C)
3x – Maria (1-083H)

Summons

3x – Leviathan (2-140C)
2x – Sylph (9-047C)
3x – Valefor (1-198S)
3x – Amaterasu (12-002H)
3x – Syldra (3-135H)

What would you change?

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Niko — Leave a comment

Wakka, Wakka, Wakka

“My fastball gone broke da mouth.”

“A good-humored young man who travels the world as one of Yuna’s guardians. While he always looks out for others, his dependence on the teachings of Yevon oftentimes causes him to lose sight of reality. Wakka’s biggest passion is playing for and coaching his blitzball team, the Besaid Aurochs.”

-Character Guide from Dissidia Final Fantasy : Opera Omnia

Having lost his parents from one of Sin’s attacks, Wakka raised his younger brother Chappu with help from the villagers of Besaid. Wakka grew up alongside Lulu, an orphan as well, and ended up marrying her, fathers a child. And worries about raising it.

Wakka is a skilled Blitzball player, Captain of the Besaid Aurochs. Wakka retires during the game, but you can bring him out of retirement later on in the game. The Aurochs aren’t the greatest team, far from it, and upon hearing that Tidus is a star player, he asks him to join the team.

His hate for the Al-Bhed is clearly shown throughout the game. As he is always talking down to Rikku, until he finds out that Yuna is 1/2 Al-Bhed. And after the attack on the Al-Bhed by the Guado, he changes his tune completely.

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Niko — Leave a comment

Busters R’ Us

This could have been a real easy article to write. I could have just said let’s throw Zack into your AVALANCHE deck and call it a day. But, where’s the fun in that?

Although there might be a bunch of cards that are the same, we”re going to try and do this a bit different. A lot different that is.

We’re going to go with 2 different Zacks.

Zack (10-007H), just for the ability to ping damage here and there and at least a couple of time per turn. Pair that with a Summon that Breaks all the Forwards that have damage on them and you got yourself a wipe.

Zack (20-009L) Because it is just a great card, if you’re running anything SOLDIER related. And, we’ll be running at least a couple of Soldiers other than Zack.

We’ll start off with Zack’s mentor Angeal (3-0989R), not only is he a 7K body, but he also searches for Zack when he is sent to the Break Zone. That way you can just keep attacking with Zack and Angeal until they break, just so you can replay them once again.

Next we’ll be handing off the Buster Sword to Cloud (1-187S), and you’ll be saying that there are better Clouds than that, and we’ll say you’re right. But, this is Zack’s deck and Cloud is just helping out. Plus the good Cloud’s are Earth, and we don’t really feel like color fixing.

Time to find Zack’s girlfriend, Aerith (11-139S) this way we’ll be able to grab a couple of FFVII Forwards from the Break Zone.

And as I’m looking for Backups, there aren’t really any, that have anything to do with Zack. So, we’re going to change it. It shall be all Forwards. We might change this again later.

Cue the music.

Bum-Bum Bum-Bum Bum-Bum Bum-Bum

Sephiroth (11-138S), Dulls all the low powered Forwards every time Sephiroth attacks. You have to pay taxes to keep Sephiroth on the field, 3 cards from the Break Zone. You should have these in there, unless you’re opponent finds a way to remove all the cards from your Break Zone.

Roche (14-095H), we’re just grabbing any SOLDIER right now. Roche has always been a great card. You’ll always want to go first with Roche and just play him right away for no CP and swing for a point of damage.

We’re actually going to add a couple of Backups right now.

Class Second Moogle (10-016C) to help us with Ice CP.

Genesis (3-033L), I still love this card, even though I probably haven’t used it in years. Dull and Freeze a Character, and when Genesis deals damage, your opponent discards a card.

Next we’ll add in our generic SOLDIERs. SOLDIER : 3rd Class (10-009C) and SOLDIER : 3rd Class (20-02C). These 2 will search for each other when one enters the field, and when the other exits the field. SOLDIER : 3rd Class (20-032C) also gains a +1K buff for each SOLDIER : 3rd class that you have in the Break Zone.

We’ll add Johnny (20-096C), another Backup to help us grab a Character from the Break Zone, and we can use his ability to grab a FFVII Character from the Break Zone.

Hedgehog Pie (20-019C), just to get all 3 of the Hedgehog Pies out at the same time. After that they are ticking time bombs, that go off when you decide you want them to go off.

Duke Larg (1-057R), Lebreau (1-030R) and Lulu (1-150R). All three for the 1K buff they give to their respective element’s Forwards.

All we need is to throw in some Summons. Knights of the Round isn’t an option, so we’ll just go with Ramuh (15-101R), Shiva (8-032R), Phoenix (3-020H) and Bahamut (16-016C).