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Hidden Legends of Ice

24-019R – Umaro

I don’t see why anyone would play Umaro on to the field, when his ability goes into play when Umaro is in your hand.
For 3CP you can discard Umaro from your hand a break a dull Forward.

That’s it. Plain and Simple.

I mean you can play Umaro on to the field for 2CP, but that’s about it. He’ll just stay on the field producing 1CP per turn.

I’d say Umaro is more like a 3 cost Summon, and he should be treated as such.

24-020C – Ulmia

Can you here the Harps playing your song?

Ulmia is ready to Freeze one of your opponent’s Characters.

And if you got another Final Fantasy XI Forward on the field, Ulmia will make your opponent discard a card.

Ulmia will make Anselmo proud.

“Walk on home, boy!”

Maybe she can take Dime’s spot. Put some Distortion on that Harp.

24-021H – Kurasame

Deja vu?

I think we’ve seen this one before.

This time Kurasame is a Hero though, instead of a Legend.

Kurasame comes in and Freezes your opponent’s Characters. How Many? Depends on how many Backups you have on the field.

And depending on if your opponent has at least 4 dull Characters on the field, Kurasame will draw you a card every time he attacks.

You can run this one and the Hidden Hope Kurasame, and you’ll have 6 Kurasames that will Freeze your opponent’s Characters.

24-022H – Gogo

Gogo is back!

And s/he is better than ever.

Whatever FFVI Deck you’re playing, just throw Gogo into your deck. 3 copies will be perfect.

First line of attack, play Gogo, and protect Gogo at all costs.

Why?

Gogo casts Reraise on one FFVI Forward once per turn.

If a Final Fantasy VI Forward is put into the Break Zone, once per turn Gogo will bring them back!

If that’s not a great card, I don’t know what is.

24-023C – G Deleter

A backup that causes a splash.

Why a splash?

Because G Deleter is Ice splashing in Water.

G Deleter comes in and you draw a card, and if you have 4 Ice Backups, you can dull and Freeze one of your opponent’s Characters.

Not bad for 3CP, and you get 2CP back once he enters the field.

24-024R – Shiva (XVI)

Shiva comes in and you can Break 2 dull Forwards.

And at the end of each of your turns if 2 or more of your opponent’s Forwards are sent to the Break Zone, your opponent discards a card.

You get all of this and a Forward with 9000 power.

You’ll probably just want to Prime into Shiva instead of paying the 7CP.

 

24-025L – Genesis

First off the card is awesome. The art, the abilities and that we’ll finally have a great card to start off a SOLDIER deck.

Genesis comes right in for 5CP. Yeah, it’s your standard 5CP for a 9k body, but you get to choose from 1 of 3 abilities.

Have your opponent discard a card, choose 2 Characters to Dull and Freeze, or have your next SOLDIER’s cost be 3CP less.

The best part is that, you can choose more than once. Every time a SOLDIER enters the field one of Genesis’s abilities will
trigger, allowing you to choose which one you would like to do.

You should keep a playset of Genesis until Tears of the Planet comes out, that way you can use it in a Ice/Lightning deck with that Zack card that was spoiled for the next set.

24-026H – Zalera, the Death Seraph

4CP to break a Forward.

Not bad, when you consider that Summons that break Forwards come in at a high cost.

Zalera does hit a little different. You just choose the cost of the Forward. 4 or less, or 5 or more. After that your opponent will choose which Forward to break.

I wouldn’t say that this is a great card, it is good card, it’s just the chance of using it and getting what you want out of this Summon is slim.

Unless they only have 1 Forward that is 5CP or more, then you’ll know that you’ll hit your target.

24-027C – Shantotto

Shantotto coming in with a trombone, and I’m ready to crack a joke about rust. But, I’ll keep my mouth shut this time.

Shantotto reduces the cost of casting your Summons by 1, add Opus I Yuna to the mix, and all of your Summons cost will be reduced by 2.

And, that’s not all. Shantotto has the ability to Dull/Freeze a Forward if you have already cast a Summon this turn.

If I was a heavy Summon player, I would be playing a Yuna/Shantotto Combo.

24-028R – Jill

Lots of cost reducing in this set.

Jill is no different.

Jill’s cost is reduced by 2 if Clive or Torgal is on the field.

That means for 1CP you can Dull/Freeze one of your opponent’s Forwards, and you’re still left with a 7K body.

After that, you can Prime into Shiva (XVI) and break 2 dull Forwards.

I think we’ll have to see Priming in action before I get excited about it.

24-029C – Squall

Squall acting like he’s Opus IV Viking.

Getting things done when he enters the field and when he leaves the field.

Squall won’t draw you a card, but he will deal a dull Forward 5000 damage. Which can be more than enough to Break it.

And, let’s not forget Rough Divide, which gives Squall +1000 power and First Strike.

And it’s only 3CP!

Given Squall’s 8000 power, it would normally have been 4CP.

This is a decent Common to have.

24-030C – Terra

Theatrhythm is going strong in this set.

Terra comes in and grabs a Summon from the Break Zone.

This also comes off of an EX Burst.

You can then cast that Summon for one less Crystal Point with Shantotto.

After that Terra sticks around as a 5K body, ready to block. Or, attack.

 

24-031R – Torgal

Well here is the main card of your Final Fantasy XVI engine.

Torgal, the Wolf.

I don’t know much about Torgal, except for the fact that most of your FFXVI Forwards can be paid with CP from any element. This includes Priming costs as well.

Being a Backup, it is a little harder to have Torgal sent to the Break Zone, but, there are a couple of cards that can break Backups, but I think Torgal will be just fine.

This will be played.

And, it’s only 2CP.

24-032R – Piscodaemon

Why do I always go to write Psycho Demon when I’m trying to write Piscodaemon?

2 cost Monster that can be sent to the Break Zone when one of your Forwards attack.

And when Piscodaemon is put in the Break Zone, you can choose 2 Characters and Dull/Freeze them.

After that in your Main Phase 2, you can bring in Shiva (XVI) and break those 2 dull Characters. If they’re Forwards. Not Backups.

“Psycho Demon, Qu’est-ce que c’est?”

24-033L – Bhunivelze

Bhunivelze is back. It’s been a long wait since Crystal Radiance to get a new Bhunivelze card.

I can see this card being played in a Monster deck, especially if all those Monsters have effects that go off when the Monsters are sent into the Break Zone.

And, for every Monster or Forward that you’ll put in the Break Zone, your opponent will choose 1 Forward they control and send it to the Break Zone.

Mass Extinction going on here.

This could be Game Over for your opponent.

After all is said and done, you’ll still have a body with 10,000 power.

Just in case your opponent survives the onslaught.

24-034C – Velis EX

Well, this confirms it.

Warriors of the Crystal will be a thing here.

At least for a month or 2, just so everybody can try it out.

All you need is some Crystals to be able to bring in all the Warriors of the Crystal into play without worrying about color fixing.

Let’s talk about Velis now.

Whenever Velis or a WotC (imagine that) comes indull and Freeze one of your opponent’s Forwards.

It will be a bunch of abilities going off at the same time.

I believe it’ll be fun.

24-035C – Mateus (XII RW) EX

2 cost Summon.

2 choices.

Which one will you pick.

Break a dull Forward that costs 3CP or less.

Or.

Dull a Forward, Draw a Card.

Choice is yours.

Ex Burst as well.

24-036C – Nu Mou

Nu Mou, just chilling in your back line until an Ice Forward enters your field.

After that you can put Nu Mou into the Break Zone, and you can Dull and Freeze one of your opponent’s Forwards.

It seems like all the Ice cards were Dull and Freeze and dull and Freeze some more.

But that’s what Ice does.

Now you have more cards to choose from.

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Hidden Legends of Fire

24-001L – Ifrit (XVI)

Coming in with Haste, Ifrit is ready to deal plenty of damage. You can play Ifrit straight to the field for 7CP or you can Prime Clive into Ifrit for 2CP. But, you’d have to have Clive on the field to do that.

And, we’re not talking about Clive, we’re talking about Ifrit.

And when he does come in, you’re dealing 10K to one of your opponent’s Forwards. If Ifrit deals damage to your opponent, Ifrit will deal another 10K to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

Spitflare?

Deals 10K damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

Whatever happens Ifrit will be dealing 10K damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

24-002C – Warrior of Light EX

At 3CP Warrior of Light comes in with an EX Burst. And, when it goes off Warrior of Light deals a Forward 5000 damage.

But, where are you at in the game?

Have you seen Bahamut?

Did you find the Rat Tail?

Do you have the power of the Crystals?

If you do, then Warrior of Light deals a Forward 8000 damage.

And, that’s about it. Simple and gives you a reason to produce Crystals.

Well, not really.

24-003H – Cyan

Am I reading this correct?

Cyan enters the field, and you can play a Final Fantasy VI character from your hand onto the field?

Sure it has to be 3CP or less, but you’re getting 2 cards on the field for 4CP. and if you play Gestahlian Empire Cid, you’ll also grab a FFVI Character from your deck, making Cyan’s total cost a whopping +1CP. That’s what it comes out to if you do the math.

Not only that, but Cyan also acts as protection from your opponent’s abilities. Yes, it only works for FFVI Characters, but if you’re playing Cyan you’re playing a VI deck. If you’re not, then you’re not playing Cyan.

Bushido Tempest?

How many cards can you fir into your Break Zone? That’s how much damage Cyan will deal to a Forward.

We also get a beautiful Full Art here.

24-004R – Deadly Nightshade

Looks more like a tomato.

1CP and you got your finger on the trigger. Ready to shoot, whenever one of your Forwards attack.

If you decide to pull that trigger, you’ll put Deadly nightshade into the Break Zone, and deal one of your opponent’s Forwards 7000 damage.

Might be a good way to get rid of a blocker that has more power than your attacking Forward. If not, you can always deal damage to one of your opponent’s other Forwards. 2 birds with 1 tomato.

And, now I’m hungry.

24-005L – Clive

Coming in with Haste, Clive is set to Prime.

As, we don’t know exactly what Priming is yet, we will wait until we write about it. But, I might forget to change this when the set comes out.

Clive gives all the Eikons and Dominants +1000 power, this includes himself.

And, when he deals damage to your opponent, you’ll discard your hand and draw 2 cards.

This is great for when you don’t have any cards in your hand.

24-006C – Clive

Coming in at 2CP with 5000 power, Clive becomes a powerhouse, if another Dominant or an Eikon is removed from the game. Making Clive a 9K Forward with Brave.

You can also use Clive’s ability to deal 5000 damage to a Forward.

That’s about it.

You can do far worse for 2CP.

 

24-007C – Black Mage

2CP and the ability isn’t that bad.

Black Mage can deal 5K damage to one a Forward but, you can only use his ability when a Fire Forward enters the field.
Not the best ability, but low cost and being able to remove Black Mage from the field, all while dealing damage to your opponent, making way for a better Backup to enter your field.

Might be worth playing if you can get Black Mage in early.

 

 

24-008C – Salamander (XII RW) EX

This Salamander looks more like a flying pig. That’s on Fire! Why are all these cards looking like food today. Add some Bacon to that tomato from earlier and now all we need is Lettuce.

But, that’s a conversation for a different time.

Salamander is Summoned and it deals 7000 damage to one Forward, and if you have 5 Backups on the field, 5000 damage to another Forward.

Not bad for 3CP, and an EX Burst on top of that.

Now where are we going to find that Lettuce?

24-009R – Joshua

Now that we’ve seen Joshua, it does not matter if you prime into Phoenix or just play Phoenix outright, if we’re just talking about cost.

(Yes, we wrote about Phoenix first, and we’re not going to edit it, because these are all first impressions.)

With that being said, Joshua is still a good card to play, as you can grab an Eikon or a Dominant from the Break Zone and put it back into your deck.

For 1CP this is a good play. Only downside would be the 3000 power that Joshua has, but, you’ll be Priming into Phoenix as soon as you can, because the only reason you’d be playing Joshua would be to grab that Eikon or Dominant from your Break Zone.

24-010C – Cetia

New Job? I can’t remember Cetia from War of the Visions, but then again, I haven’t played it in over a year. Did the story get better?

Cetia is your 4CP/8K body that is in every set.

If the cost is too high for you, you can always pay 2CP of any element and a Crystal.

You already know that there are going to be more Warriors of the Crystal, by Cetia’s ability to deal a Forward 4000 damage for each Warrior of the Crystal that you have on the field.

What I like is that if you’re paying using a Crystal, you can splash Cetia into any color deck that you’d like.

24-011H – Takatsugu

9CP?

He even looks mad, because his cost is so high.

Well, when Takatsugu enters the field you can search for 2, 2 cost Fire Forwards and you can play them straight to the field.
This might be a decent way to get bodies on the field.

Let’s take a look at his second ability. Which reads when another Forward enters your field, deal 2K damage to a Forward.
And those 2 Forwards come in to play, when Takatsugu enters the field.

So, you get 2 Fire Forwards and deal 2000 damage to 2 Forwards when Takatsugu comes in.

That might be worth 9CP.

It might not be worth 9CP.

It all depends on if you think it’s worth 9CP.

24-012C – Human

Do you have a way to get rid of Backups?

Do you have 4 Fire Backups on the field?

If so, then Human is the right card for you.

Human comes in and allows you to draw a card. And, if you have 4 Fire Backups on the field, Human deals a Forward 7000 damage.

And, that’s about it.

Standard Human Soldier.

Not even a Universal Soldier.

24-013R – Neon

Neon comes in and deals 5K damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards.

5CP is a little bit high, but you get a Crystal.

And, you can use that Crystal right away and deal a Forward 5Kdamage as well.

If you choose the same Forward you’re more than likely to break it.

If not, you can choose another Forward and maybe, you’ll break 2 Forwards in one turn.

Is that the best way to spend 6CP and a Crystal?

Probably not, but it has it’s uses.

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

24-014H – Bahamut

2 options.

One is more powerful than the other, but that power comes in at a high cost. And, we’re not just talking about the 5CP you’ll pay to cast Bahamut.

Option A, choose a Forward deal it 20,000 damage. I’m pretty sure nothing will survive that. Unless you’re able to buff one of your Forwards pass the 20K mark, you will have a broken Forward on your hands.

And, Option B, deal 10,000 damage to all of your opponent’s Forwards. This will more than likely break all of your opponent’s Forwards. And it better, because you will be left with just 3 cards in your deck.

Bahamut would be a great end game play.

24-015C – Bahamut EX

A Bahamut Forward?

Of course it’s going to have a high cost. You think they would have let you play Bahamut for cheap. Nope and never.

Bahamut comes in and basically casts Mega Flare on one of your opponent’s Forwards. And, when that Forward is sent to the Break Zone, you will deal your opponent 1 point of damage.

And that is how you you will gain an easy advantage.

Why easy?

Bahamut will be able to attack freely, without worrying about a Forward blocking him, because when they do block and are sent to the Break Zone, you will still deal a point of damage to your opponent.

How can we give Bahamut Brave?

24-016R – Phoenix (XVI)

How is this a Rare?

Every time Phoenix attacks you can grab a Fire Forward of 2CP or less from the Break Zone, and play it onto the field
You don’t even need Joshua to say that you’ll be playing this card. I haven’t seen the Joshua card yet, but I can say you don’t need it. Sure, you can play it, and Prime into Phoenix, but Phoenix is playable all by itself.

I’m already thinking Fire Warriors, and a whole bunch of 2 cost Standard Units alongside Maria (17-128L).

We’ll call it Mono-Fire Standard Unit Warrior and Co.

24-017C – Firion

Firion the Tambourine man is here.

I’m liking these new Theatrhythm cards, each Character is carrying an instrument … Maybe we can get a band going. We’ll start off with covers … I’m getting ahead of myself.

3CP, Firion can gain either First Strike or Brave during every Attack Phase.

Either way, Firion will have 8000 power to attack and block.

Maybe, just maybe we’ll get a Theatrhythm deck going.

24-018R – Josef

Search and Play.

Perfect way to get a 2 cost Rebel on the field. And, I’m thinking of Maria 17-128L, which is a very under rated card if you ask me. But, you’re not and we’re talking about Josef.

Josef is a Backup, costs 5CP, and when you have no more use for him or you need to free up space, you can use his ability and send him to the Break Zone, while you’re also giving a Rebel Forward +2000 power.

Not too shabby.

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Leveling Up By Priming

Looks like we were right!

Priming is essentially leveling up a Character. As with the release of the Card of the Week Spoilers for Hidden Legends, Clive levels up to Ifrit.

I’m sorry, I meant Primes into Ifrit.

And, that also means that we are on a Countdown to Hidden Legends. 8 weeks away. Wait no, it’s only 6 Weeks away. That also means that Midnight Pre-release is 5 weeks away.

It’s coming a lot faster than expected.

Any ways back to Priming.

Will this be only for Final Fantasy XVI Characters, or will Characters from the other Final Fantasy games be able to Prime?

I’m guessing only FFXVI Characters. Because it wouldn’t seem right for Warrior of Light to Prime into Bahamut, or Cloud into Choco/Mog. Yeah, I’m just playing here.

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Prime, New Flavor of Play

Well, I think I figured it out what Prime is.

Now this is just an assumption, and we won’t know until Square-Enix actually tells us what Prime is.

From what I’m seeing with Clive, and Ifrit It seems that Prime is used to level up your Characters. Kind of like Pokemon. Clive can Prime into Ifrit for the cost of 2CP one of which has to be Fire.

Thus turning Clive into Ifrit.

Will Clive be sent to the Break Zone after this? Will Ifrit have the abilities of both cards? There’s still are a lot of questions, but I think this can be a new and interesting way to play.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I hitting the nail on the head, or do you think that Prime will be something completely different?

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Hidden Legends

And, out of nowhere, the new set is announced!

Here we have it. Hidden Legends, with Final Fantasy XVI art on the box featuring Clive!

126 cards.

126 cards? That’s it? This might be the smallest set yet. Let’s see. 18 cards per element and 4 Light/dark cards will leave us with 14 Limit Break cards to finish off the set. That would be my guess, because I don’t see them printing anything less than 10 Limit Break cards.

We’re also getting a new Gold Stamped Signature, featuring .. you guessed it Clive. It is a good looking card. 4CP, 8000 power and the new Priming Mechanic, which we do not know what it is yet. But, it costs 2CP. One Fire CP and 1CP of any Element.

Clive also gives +1000 power to all the Eikon Forwards and Dominant Forwards. Which will probably be an FFXVI exclusive job of sorts. I don’t know, I still need to play FFXVI.

And when Clive deals damage to your opponent, you can draw 2 cards, but you’ll discard your hand first.

The other sample cards shown are Basch, Gilgamesh LB, Bahamut, Relm, Nono, Velis and Zidane LB. But, the card I’m most excited about is Tonberry & Cactuar. We don’t know what it does yet, but they better have a Full Art version of it, because it looks amazing.

Let’s not forget the Legacy cards that are making their way back. Minfilia (6-079L), Akstar (18-107L) and Unei (19-119L).

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