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Rydia of Mist

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An honest maiden, wise to the value of the heart.

A young summoner, able to call Eidolons from the Feymarch. Rydia bears hatred for Cecil, who indirectly killed her mother and set her village ablaze. But over time she is touched by the Dark Knight’s kindness, and opens her heart to him. Rydia is swallowed by Leviathan, king of the Eidolons, and is taken to the Feymarch, where time flows at a different rate. As a result, she matures into an adult in a very short time. Rydia rushes back to aid Cecil’s party when Golbez attacks them, rejoining their quest for the crystals.

-Taken from the Ultimania

You’ll first meet Rydia after you burned down her whole village, and as she is the sole survivor of Mist Village, she will attack you.

And with that, we’ll get into the cards.

“All that matters is what’s inside us. Isn’t that right, Cecil?”

2-094H – Rydia

Looking to add something a little extra to your Mono-Earth Summon Heavy deck? Well, look no further, Rydia here might be just what you’re looking for.

At 3CP, with a 7K body Rydia might not seem like much wight out the bat, but take a closer look at Gaia’s Wrath.

Gaia’s Wrath deals 7000 damage to every Forward on the field except for Earth Forwards. Which is why we said Mono-Earth.
Now, you’re probably wondering about the Summon Heavy part. Well that’s quite simple.

You can pay the (S) cost of Rydia’s ability with an Earth Summon, instead of another Rydia. Meaning, you might be able to cast Gaia’s Wrath once per turn.

You’ll eventually turn the tides in your favor with that.

“Enough! I can’t watch another person go off to die.”

2-095R – Rydia EX

After you’ve used all of your Summons, Rydia will go into the Feymarch (your Break Zone) and bring back a Summon for you.
Yes, it needs to be an Earth Summon.

And, yes this also comes off of an EX Burst.

And, yes you get this Backup for 4CP.

And, yes that’s about it.

“Coward, You’re a man, aren’t you? A grown man! Stop crying. I have.”

3-096R – Rydia

This one’s much better than the previous Rydia.

For 3CP you can search for any Summon that you’d like, and this Rydia only costs 3CP, making her total cost 1CP.

Sure, you can’t bring a Summon back from the Break Zone, but most of the time you probably won’t need to.

Unless the other 2 copies of that Summon end up in your Damage Zone.

“This battle is ours as much as anyone’s. Cecil said so himself. And having some Eidolons along can’t hurt, can it?”

9-077L -Rydia

Now this is a great card.

That is if you’re playing Summons.

Rydia comes in and you can look at the top 5 cards of your deck, If you find a Summon there you will cast it for free. And, there are a lot of High cost Summons that you can play.

Depending on what you find at the top of your deck, Rydia is the bargain that you’ve been looking for.

We’re not even done yet.

You can also use Rydia’s ability to look at the top X cards of your deck, and if you find a Summon that costs X or less you can cast it.

Yes, this one is more of a crap shoot, but once Rydia’s ability goes off when she enters the field, you’ll be in the money.

After that, everything else is extra.

You can probably just find a way to break Rydia, just to be able to play another Rydia.

“Think it’s sweet of you to say that, hotshot?”

11-083R/PR-051 – Rydia

Remember that time you were thinking of playing Monks, with Ursula and Yang?

Well, this is a card that you would have been playing if you did. And, if you didn’t, this is still a good Final Fantasy IV card.
Rydia gives all of the Final Fantasy IV Forwards, besides herself +1000 power and Brave.

And, if you play here after you already have 3 other FFIV Characters on the field, you can search for a 1 cost Summon, making her total cost 1.

Mono-Earth FFIV Monks with Cecil.

Plus there’s a whole lot of other FFIV Earth Characters that you can play.

Best thing is that you don’t need to limit yourself to Earth. I don’t even know why I started going on about Mono-Earth.

“I’m going to become a summoner just like my mother!”

13-065R – Rydia

“I don’t know if Rydia is cost effective. 6CP to play a summon without paying the cost. I’ll pass.”

I used to be terrible at this.

To be fair, I would probably say something along the same lines.

Unless there is a way to place Summon Counters on Rydia, this is a one trick pony.

I’d say you’re better off using that 6CP to play Opus IX Rydia.

I’ll leave it at that.

“Leave me alone! I hate you!”

15-083L – Rydia

Rydia already has self protection against Summons and abilities.

Rydia gains 2 Growth counters when she or another FFIV Character enters the field.

Rydia can cast a Summon once per turn by paying with Growth counters.

Rydia is a 2CP Forward.

Rydia is a Legend.

I like Rydia (15-083L)

“Are you mad?”

17-083C – Rydia

We all now that Raise is a high cost spell, and that is basically what Rydia is.

For 5CP, you can bring back a Forward that has just been broken, or knocked out, if you want to use the Raise term.

And, that is basically it. You get one chance to use Rydia, unless you have a way to get rid of her after she enters the field.

There are other ways to get a Forward back from the Break Zone, and Rydia is probably not the best one.

“Are you joking? It’s a miracle Zemus didn’t end up using you!”

17-137S – Rydia

Search for a couple of Summons, one gets tossed to the Break Zone by your opponent.

After that each time you cast a Summon, you might be able to break one of your opponents Forwards.

Especially if they are high cost Summons.

At least the art work is good.

“That was an awfully fast recovery.”

19-068R – Rydia

A 5 cost Backup, that searches for a Job Summoner, and a Summon.

Both need to be of different elements.

Other than that, the art looks good, almost reminds you of Amano’s work.

Sort of.

It seams like they can’t top Opus IX Rydia, or Opus XV Rydia.

Looking for Rydia?

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Final Fantasy IV

I can remember back in 1992, we would always go to Blockbuster, and we would rent a Video Game for the weekend. For some reason Final Fantasy II caught my eye, and it would always be rented out. Every weekend that we would go it would always be the first game I would look at to see if it was available. Finally, after what felt like years of going, it was finally there. I hurriedly grabbed it and told my mom this is the one.

I had no idea what Final Fantasy was. All I knew is that for some reason I wanted to play it. The drive home was longer than usual, as I read the instruction manual. I knew I’d be in for an adventure.

SPOILERS

The story started off on the airship, we started off taking down the enemies as they tried to attack our ship. Of course we won, Dark Knight Cecil was a beast, taking them all down one by one. We arrived in Baron, the King congratulated us, and then got pissed off that we questioned his intentions. And, he sends us on a suicide mission. Kain decides to come along, and off we go.

We reach Mist and little did we know that the package we had would burn the whole village down. I was devastated. This isn’t going to happen on my watch. I quickly restarted the game. And kept trying to discard that package that the king gave us. I tried using it in the castle, didn’t work. I tried selling it, couldn’t sell it. I tried discarding it. Nothing. Let’s try and use it in battle. Again, Nothing! And, then I realized, or at least I thought I did, that I should have used it on the Mist Dragon. I was ready, I marched my way through the Mist cave and got into the battle, and nothing. Silly me, I have to use it when it’s in it’s mist form. Nothing.

I gave up. I marched into Mist with my head hung low. Even though I tried and I tried, I still burnt the village to ashes. And, all I got for my troubles was a fight with Titan. I lost Kain, and I had to drag a girl across the desert. I didn’t even know where I was going. For 30 minutes I was wandering around the desert, I couldn’t find Kaipo, the village that was smack in the middle of the desert. I kept wandering around and around. I even entered a cave and this old man told me to go back to Kaipo!

At least I got plenty of experience.

After I finally found Kaipo, headed straight for the inn. Baron’s guardsmen came crashing in demanding I give up the girl. That’s not happening, I already killed her mom, and burnt down her village. I can’t let her get taken. Cecil fights them all off and the girl forgives Cecil and they start traveling together. But, before we go we take a walk around the village.

Is that Rosa? Hurry talk to her. Nothing, she’s out. She’s sick, we need to save her. Luckily, they know what she needs, so it’s our job to hunt down the Antlion.

End Spoilers.

And, that was my first Experience with Final Fantasy. I figured we should talk about the Games and Characters that make up the TCG. In order of the way I played them. We’ll post more on Final Fantasy IV in the following days.

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Hidden Trials

We have just received word of a new set coming out.

Opus XXIII, Opus 23 or Hidden Trials. Call it whatever you’d like.
And we are excited!

Lightning graces the Booster Box with original artwork. And it sure is looking good. We can already guess on which card will have the Golden Signat … wait, … I don’t believe there is a Golden Signature. It just mentions a Special Card with an original illustration. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

We do get to see some of the cards, and I can tell you Lightning and Queen just look amazing.

We’re getting a new Tyro as well. This time Tyro is representing Wind, we’ll see how well he does in his new element. It also mentions that Final Fantasy Record Keeper will be a “Featured Title” so, I’m expecting at the very least a bunch of Record Keeper Standard Units, and Maybe just maybe, we’ll get the pixel art cards I’ve been wanting for a long, long time. You heard it here first. January, 11th 2024.

Legacy cards are back. Lightning (15-041L), Rydia (15-083L) and Refia (19-102L). I don’t get why they are just grabbing cards from newer sets, I believe that since they are named Legacy cards they should have come from older sets. At least 10 sets.

But, what do I know.

And with that I’ll just leave the press release here.

Hidden Trials will elevate the ‘Limit Break’ mechanic to new heights thanks to custom-themed cards that can turn the tide of battle, revolutionising the deck-building experience for players.

For the collectors, this Opus will include a very rare, Special Card [23-037R] showcasing an original illustration of FINAL FANTASY XIII Lightning by Miki Yamashita. Additionally, three beloved Legacy cards, Lightning [15-041L], Rydia [15-083L], and Refia [19-102L], are included.

As per tradition, renowned artists have contributed stunning new art pieces to bring the characters to life:

New Art

Rubi Asami, FINAL FANTASY VI / FINAL FANTASY XIII-2

Mihoko Ishii, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

Yuya Ishihata, FINAL FANTASY IX

Ryoma Ito, FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Yukihiro Kajimoto, FINAL FANTASY

Gen Kobayashi, DIRGE OF CERBERUS –FINAL FANTASY VII–

Sara Shimokobe, FINAL FANTASY IV

Toshitaka Matsuda, FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0

Fumio Minagawa, FINAL FANTASY XI

Miki Yamashita, FINAL FANTASY XIII

Oreki Genya, FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0

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From Nightmares – Earth Monsters Under Your Bed

19-052C – Undead Princess

Undead Princess is a cheap Forward to play that can block any attack. Even though she only has 2000 power, she can still block an attack to save you from taking damage.

But, Undead Princess I don’t think Undead Princess is meant to be played as a Forward. You can put her into the Break Zone to give a Forward +4000 power until the end of the turn.

And, once she is in the Break Zone, you can remove her from the game and give an Earth Forward +2000 until the end of the turn.

Undead Princess rises from the grave once again to give you a Buff.

19-053C – Vanille

This is a decent card.

When Vanille comes in, you can go through your opponents Break Zone and remove a card from there. Doesn’t matter which one, just grab a card and remove it. This is good when your opponent has a way of grabbing cards from the Break Zone.
What I really like though, is her ability.

When your opponent casts a Summon, you can dull Vanille, and if they don’t pay 2CP you can cancel the Summon.
Either way, if your opponent pays and it goes through or it gets canceled it is a win for you.

19-054C – Vincent

It looks like we’ve been getting more Vincents in the last couple of sets.

Theatrhythm Vincent is a Backup that deals 5000 damage to a Forward when he enters the field.

And, when you reach 3 points of damage, you can put him in the Break Zone and deal 7000 damage to a Forward.

I always like Backups that have a way to send themselves to the Break Zone, that way you can play another Backup with an enter the field ability.

19-055R – Eiko

Eiko is a Coupon Code. Instead of paying the cost to cast a Summon, you can just dull 3 active Summoners and cast the Summon. You can choose any Summon up to a cost of 7CP. That’s almost all the Summons in the game except for 5.

This also means you can play Summons that are out of your elements. As long as you have Summoners on the field, you are good to go.

Plus, Eiko is only 2CP.

 

19-056C – Graff

Are you playing Mono-Earth?

Then you should be playing Graff.

When he enters the field you can Break a Forward. Any one you’d like.

This effect will only go off if you only paid with Earth CP.

Still a good way to get rid of a pesky Forward.

 

19-057L – Kefka

You heard about Free Summons, what about a Free Forward?

Kefka, the Dancing Mad Mage, is here and he can be played for F-R-E-E.

Just like that if your opponent has 3 or more Forwards on the field, Kefka will come in for Free.

That means you can splash Kefka into any deck without worrying about finding a way to pay the cost as he will be free. Free like a bird, he’s going to fly straight onto the field with a 9K body.

Not only that, but when Kefka is sent to the Break Zone, you can play a Summon from your Break Zone for free as well.
That’s double the free, with no Crystal Points down.

And, let’s not forget about that Amano art.

Yes, I’ll take 3 please.

19-058R – Jenova SYNTHESIS

Big Body, Big ability, and a last name full of capitol letters. I meant CAPITOL letters.

Jenova Synt … SYNTHESIS (you have to yell it out to get the full effect.) comes in and deals damage to all the Forwards your opponent controls, If you have 5 Backups, it’ll be 8000. Pair this with From Nightmares Matoya, and you might have a board wipe.

5CP 9000 power. Could be useful

 

19-059R – Aster Protoflorian

You should be ready to pay 7CP to play Aster Protoflorian. If you don’t you might as well play a different card. You need to get both of his abilities off when he enters the field cause after that all he’ll do is be a decoration on your field.

He’ll also count as a Category XIII Character for certain abilities in the Starter Set.

 

 

 

 

19-060C – Animist

Animist doesn’t do much till you have 3 points of Damage.

Animist does have an ability that lets you play a Monster of 2CP or less straight to the field. That way you can play a Monster without worrying about paying the cost.

And, at 3 points of Damage when Animist enters the field, you can search for a Monster of 4CP or less and add it to your hand.

 

 

 

19-061H – Doga

Looking at the card it took me a second to realize that it was drawn from the top.

Doga will fit good into an Fire/Earth or Earth/Lightning Deck. Or any Earth deck if you have a way to produce Fire or Lightning CP.

When he enters the field, Doga allows you to discard a Summon for to Crystals. You can use those Crystals to cast his abilities. One is to deal 7000 damage to all of your opponents Forwards, the other is to Break a Forward.

As long as Doga stays active, this is a good card to play.

When I first read this card I was thinking how can you fit this into a deck, but then I remembered that there are Backups that pay for different elements. Let’s take Tyro for instance and Class Tenth Moogle.

19-062R – Nacht EX

If you’re Warping, Nacht is a cheap play. If not, he costs 6CP.

Nacht is basically an Opus VI Titan with a body. Once he enters the field you pick 2 Forwards. One of yours and one of your opponent’s, and they deal damage to each other. This ability also comes off of an EX Burst.

 

 

 

 

19-063H – Barret

This Barret can be put in the AVALANCHE deck, but is it a better card than the Barret that is mostly used?

Probably not, but it does have some good things going for it.

If you’re playing a lot of Multi-Element cards it could be of use as when you cast a Multi-Element card you’ll deal 4000 damage to all the Forwards your opponent controls.

After that when he is put into the Break Zone, you can search for a Forward other than Barret and add it to your hand.

19-064R – Fenrir

Your Earth Free Summon.

Free is free. So, you might as well play this.Break a Multi-Element Forward or Break a Light or Dark Forward. The choice is your when Fenrir is cast.

There’s some use for it against some decks, but what about the decks that don’t have Multi-Element Forwards or Light/Dark Forwards?

 

 

 

19-065C – The Deathlord

The Deathlord will bring you closer to your death.

Or something like that.

I thought I found a good Combo, but then I realized it said Characters so you can’t cast Fenrir.

But, you can pull out a Kefka from the Break Zone, and play him straight to the field, if your opponent has more than 3 Forwards on the field. Now the other card can be anything you’d like, but I’m pretty sure there is something good here.

And, I’m sure someone already figured it out.

19-066C – Behemoth

Monsters, Plenty of Monsters.

We like this Monster, well I do at least.

When Behemoth enters the field you can Stop a Forward. They won’t be able to attack or block until the end of the next turn. But, they will be able to cast abilities.

Behemoth can also become a Forward once per turn, for the cost of 1 Earth CP. A 7K body for 1CP isn’t bad at all. Sure you’ll need to pay each turn, but you’ll usually have an extra CP laying around.

19-067C – Monk

Here’s a quick buff to all your Forwards. +2000 power can go a long way, add in Enna Kros from Opus I and you’ll have a 3K buff. Not only that but, you can play up to 3. That means that, technically you can have a 7K buff for all your Forwards.

Is there a way to pull it off? Paying 12 CP in one turn?

Let’s see. 5 Backups plus 7 cards in your hand, 3 are Monks so that leaves 4. Those 4 cards in your hand will pay for 2 of the Monks, while the 5 CP from your Backups will pay for the third. And you have one Backup left, which you’ll probably have no use for.

It can happen. Is it worth it? Probably not, but it would be fun when you pull it off.

Oh, and if you pay for the Monk with 3 different elements, you can choose a Forward, and Monk and the other Forward will deal damage to each other, possibly breaking a Forward.

19-068R – Rydia

A 5 cost Backup, that searches for a Job Summoner, and a Summon.

Both need to be of different elements.

Other than that, the art looks good, almost reminds you of Amano’s work. Sort of.

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Opinion on Starters : Rebellion’s Call

17-131S – Kain

Haste? Check
Way to reduce the CP cost? Check
Buffs self when attacking? Check

All in all Kain here is a decent card. You might end up only paying 1CP for Kain, and if you do he’s an attacking Forward with 9K power.

 

 

17-132S -Zemus

Kind of plays like Don Corneo from a couple Opus back.

But, as before to remove 7 or 1 cards from your deck is quite the number.

Unless you’re sure you’re going to win this game, it’s best to avoid using these abilities. But, you’re playing Fire. Go on Aggro yourself ahead and hope for the best.

 

17-133S – Scarmiglione

Interesting.

If you’re playing against a Mono-build this card is a perfect choice. If not, it’s still a good choice.

Scarmiglione comes in and you pick an element. Scarmiglione becomes twice as strong against that element.

And, Blood Tap? Yes that damage will increase as well. It’s a Special ability and since you don’t need to dull Scarmiglione, you can keep using it till you run out of Scarmigliones. With this one there are a total of 4 different Scarmiglione. Multiply that by 3, and you can see how many times you’ll be able to use Blood Tap.

17-134S – Baigan EX

Not much here, but Baigan does allow you to search for Golbez.

After that you can put Baigan into the Break Zone to break a Forward.

4CP/8K power. Average card.

 

 

17-135S – Edge

Same thing with Scarmiglione. Edge has an ability that triggers when he enters the field. Depending on how many FFIV Characters you have on the field, Edge can break a Forward. You can quite easily pick apart your opponent using Mirage over and over.

Plenty of Edges to keep on hand for this ability.

 

 

17-136S – Kain

Kain allows you to grab a FFIV Water Character from the Break Zone.Plenty of Characters that you can choose from.
Other than that he can come in with Haste depending on the field situation.

 

 

 

17-137S – Rydia

Search for a couple of Summons, one gets tossed to the Break Zone by your opponent.

After that each time you cast a Summon, you might be able to break one of your opponents Forwards. Especially if they are high cost Summons.

 

 

 

17-138S – Rosa

Decent card, better card if Cecil is on the field.

Even though Rosa is a Forward, she plays like a Backup, casting White Magic on your Forwards. Activate and a buff. All for a total of 0CP. You know you’ll be using her ability each turn.

 

 

17-139S – Cecil

There are better Cecils, but every time I say that, someone comes up with a way that makes this one even better than the other ones.

So, I’ll just say that Cecil here can have up to 10K Power with Brave.

That and if you dull your FFIV Characters, you can dull Forwards and deal damage and stuff.

 

17-140S – Golbez

Same thing with Cecil, but Golbez can act like a Summon as well.

Which unless you’re searching for another Golbez I don’t see the point in not paying the 2CP and keeping Golbez on the field.

But, you might say 6CP is a lot to pay for this card. But so is the 7CP Odin and all he does is break a card.