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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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Hidden Trials – By Ice

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23-020C – Red Mage

Red Mage enters the field, and your opponents discards a cards.

The only question is, will they choose the card that they will discard, or are you going to choose the card that they will discard.

The answer lies in how many Backups you have on the field. If it’s 4 or less your opponent will choose. If you have 5, well, the choice is all yours.

Get rid of that one card that you know your opponent has been searching for this whole time.

23-021C – Weiss

Are Tsivets going to be a thing?

They will if Weiss has anything to say about it.

Weiss searches for a Tsivet, yes you have to pay a Crystal for the search, but what else are you going to do with those Crystals. You can’t hoard them forever.

And once another Tsivet enters the field, Weiss will now have +2000 power and Brave.

And, that my friend is not a bad thing.

Unless your name is Vincent.

23-022R – Aemo

Play this card.

Have your opponent sit back and watch as you neutralize their hand, and they lie lifeless on the side of the road as you dissect their board.

Bit much?

That’s pretty much what happens when you use Aemo’s ability.

Cheap Backup, but that ability is .. what’s the word … Bonkers.

Once your opponent removes his hand from the game, you have free reign over the board.

Unless they have enough active Backups on the field, and active Forwards, they will not be doing much this turn.

And, at the end of the turn, they get their hand back.

But, once the damage is done, it’s done.

I’ll take 3. And 3 more just in case.

23-023H – Anima, Eikon of Eikons

Powerful card.

But, it has very limited use.

In order for Anima’s ability to go off, both you and your opponent must have 0 cards in hand.

Is it likely that this will happen?

Yes, If you’re playing Discard, you can have your opponent down to no cards, and then you’ll use up the rest of your cards to play Anima.

Dull/Freeze their whole board, and you won’t have to worry about their next turn either.

23-024R – Shiva EX

Dull/Freeze a Forward.

And if somehow, that Forward deals damage to one of your Forwards or to you, that Damage becomes 0.

Now, I don’t know how a Dull and Frozen Forward can deal damage to you, but I’m sure we’re going to find out shortly.
If not now, then next set.

 

23-025C – Shelke

Here is where your supply of Crystals will come from when you’re running Tsivets.

Shelke should be the first Tsivet you play, if possible.

Shelke will be the one that gives Weiss a Crystal to search for another Tsivet.

And, since you’ll have 2 Tsivets on the field, Weiss will gain +2000 power and Brave.

You can give Shelke that other Crystal, to give herself +3000 power until the end of the turn.

It’s a Common, it’s 2CP, it’s worth it.

23-026C – Jegran

4 cost Common Forward, 8000 power.

That’s your standard cost for a Common with 8000 power.

Jegran has the ability, once put into the Break Zone, to either Break a dull Forward or have your opponent discard 2 cards.

Either way, it’s a bit of help if played at the right moment.

 

23-027C – Jihl Nabaat

Jihl Nabaat, will hang out on the backfield, producing a single Crystal Point, until the time you’ll need to use her ability.

And, what ability is that?

Jihl Nabaat will break a dull Forward, for the cost of a PSICOM Character, and 2 Ice Crystal Points.

There’s plenty of PSICOM Characters that you can use for this.

And, Jihl shall stay on the field, for when you’d like to use her ability once more.

23-028L – Cecil

Move over Batman, Cecil is the real Dark Knight.

As you can see, all of Cecil’s abilities deal damage to you. Is it worth using these abilities, or even playing Cecil? Well that depends. Do you need to inflict damage upon yourself in order for your deck to get that much stronger.

If the answer is yes, then yes you should play Cecil. Just imagine your back is pinned to the wall, and all of a sudden you reach 5 points of damage and you cast Dark Flame. Most likely, wiping out your opponents front line.

All that’s left is for you to come in a get the win.

23-029R – Zenos

Zenos has your opponent’s Break Zone on lock down.

Every time a card leaves your opponent’s Break Zone, your opponent discards a card. It doesn’t matter where that card goes. It could be removed from the game. It could be added to your opponent’s hand, it could be played straight to the field. Whatever the reason, if a card leaves your opponent’s Break Zone they discard a card from their hand.

And, let’s not forget when Zenos enters the field, you get to remove 2 cards from your opponent’s Break Zone.

Guess what happens after that?

23-030C – Serah

Pick one of two, or two of two.

Depends on if you have a Commando on the field.

Serah comes in and you can Dull/Freeze a card, and your opponent discards a card from there hand.

No Commando, no worries. Just add Fang. There should be a Fang in this set. I haven’t seen it yet.

 

22-031C – SOLDIER Candidate

I always wanted to build a SOLDIER deck. And, when I finally do, SOLDIER Candidate will be in it. 3 copies of it.

As long as you have a couple of Standard Units in your Break Zone, SOLDIER Candidate becomes a 2 cost Forward with 8000 power. Cheap, Effective, Meat Shield. What else would you want? You could stop here and it would be a decent card, if only to block your opponent’s attacks.

But, we’re not stopping here, because when SOLDIER Candidate enters the field, you will Dull/Freeze one of your opponent’s Forwards.

I’ll take 3.

22-032H – Drautos

I don’t remember who this is.

But, this does look like a great card.

You’ll need to have 1 or 2 cards in your hand, in order for you to cast Drautos.

For 2CP this is far from bad. It’s actually pretty good. Drautos comes in with a 8k body and Brave. Meaning you’ll be swinging, and swinging because Drautos will still be able to block.

Plus, he comes in with some added protection from your opponent’s Summon and abilities. If they deal damage, that damage will become 0.

22-033C/15-038C – Knight

Reprint of a reprint. We’ll just put down what we wrote during Dawn of Heroes.

“Ice Reprint Standard Unit.

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

 

 

 

22-034R – Pacos Amethyst

For some reason I want tacos right now.

Monster Tacos!

Pacos Amethyst won’t do anything except wait around, unless you have another Monster on the field.

If you do Pacos Amethyst becomes an 8k body on your front line.

And if your opponent wants to get rid of Pacos by targeting it with Summons or abilities, well then your opponent will have to discard a card from their hand.

It might be worth it, if you target it with Opus XI Relm.

22-035H – White Tiger l’Cie Nimbus

5 cost Forward with an 8k body, that also searches for a “Brave” Forward.

White Tiger L’cie Nimbus, or Nimbus for short. Does search for a Forward with Brave. Nimbus also has Brave himself.
Nimbus also cannot be chosen by your opponent’s abilities, making Nimbus a meaty Meat Shield that can also attack.

Nothing special, just a big body that searches for a “Brave” body.

 

22-036C – Flan

1CP to have the option to dull a Forward whenever you’d like.

And if you like your Flan with extra Flan, you can remove 3 Flans from your Break Zone, and Break that Forward that Flan just dulled.

It’s the cycle of Flan.

 

 

 

23-037R – Lightning

This whole time I thought that Lightning was a Legend.

Then I read the card, and thought that is not legend material.

And then, I realized Lightning is a Rare card.

Lightning doesn’t do much when she comes in, but at the begining of each Attack Phase Lightning will dull one of your opponent’s Forwards.

It’s not bad, it’s not great, but the art is amazing.

Why else would they put the Golden Signature on this card?

23-038H – Lady Lilith

“Luck be a Lady tonight”

You’ll be lucky if you have 3 Crystals, cause Lady Lilith will seduce one of your opponent’s Forwards with that Crystal and bring them over to your control.

That’s all there is to say.

I might have to go ahead and redo my deck. So, many cards are coming out that allow you to take control of your opponent’s cards.

 

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Did Someone Say Lightning?

We managed to pull some strings and get ourselves a small restock of the Final Fantasy XIII Custom Starter Set. Sure we only got 6 of them, but they are not exactly in print any more.

If you haven’t gotten one yet, what are you waiting for?

This deck is a great starting point for your FFXIII deck. All of the cards already work great together, and with a couple of upgrades to it, you will be unstoppable in no time.

Maybe not that unstoppable, but it’s still a great Starter Set.

Click here to grab them.

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Final Fantasy XIII and a Sale of Sorts

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What do we talk about today?

Snow? Lightning? Final Fantasy XIII?

Just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean we have to talk about Shiva. Or Snow for that matter.

But, he’s a Hero, you’ll say. And, I’ll say. Tell that to Hope.

I’m not going to get into Final Fantasy XIII at the moment, but I feel like I kind of have to just because of Hidden Trials. And, how I believe that it will be a great set. Well, that’s how all sets look like when they are first announced months in advance. Just like Hidden Hope, we have a new Mechanic that will be debuting in just a couple of months.

And, then I heard something about a side board, but I can’t remember where I heard that, or seen that. I’m just wondering when they’ll start adding Weapons. And, spells, where you can add Omnislash to any Cloud that you control. It would be a good mechanic, just ask Cloud, he’ll tell you it would work great.

And, as we’re waiting on Hidden Hopes, and Hidden Trials, we’re also waiting on some news for the Magic : The Gathering Final Fantasy set. It was first announced a couple of years ago. I was expecting it to have been out already, but the only thing we know is that it should be released this year.

And, since we’re on the topic of Final Fantasy XIII we have a sale going on for the Final Fantasy XIII Kai Art Museum boxes. $25 off your order if you order one by 02/08/2024. Just use Coupon Code FANG

Don’t know what’s in it? Well we decided to open one up on camera.

Let’s see if we can embed it.

There we are.

Get your Pre-Orders Here.

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Lumina – Deck

As we take a look at Lumina’s ability it reads, “When Lumina enters the field, you may search for 1 Category XIII Forward and add it to your hand.”

That simply means, we need to fill up this deck with as many FFXIII Forwards that we can. And we do have a lot to choose from. But, we’re going to keep this as Characteristic as possible. We’ll Start off with Lightning and Serah. In the beginning I was trying not to use Lightning (19-138S), but for a deck filled with FFXIII Forwards, you need to use this card. Buffs and draws, and damage.

Serah? We went with Serah (16-032H). Ice Forward, that if played after you have 2 Ice Characters on the field, your opponent discards a card. If you have a XIII Forward you draw a card.

Moving on forward. Noel (19-136S) is our next Forward. Coming in with Haste and a buff for every FFXIII Character you control. Cid Raines (19-135S) is also here. You can tell we’re pretty much using the FFXIII Custom Starter Set for most of it. (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.) So, we’ll just add Vanille (19-129S), Fang (19-131S), and Snow (19-132S) to round it out.

And, that’s still not enough. Especially cause there’s hardly any Lightning Forwards and Lumina is Lightning. We’ll just roll the dice and grab Lightning (19-082H), Anima (11-099H) and Cid Raines (19-135S), Yes they are all FFXIII Forwards. This way Lightning’s abilities will go off, and so will Serah’s when she enters the field, and also Noel’s. These 3 will be your main attackers.

For Backups, we’ll add Lebreau (5-151S). I usually go for the Opus I Lebreau, but we don’t have enough Fire Forwards to warrant that card. Class Second Moogle (10-016C), to help us with Ice CP. Mog (XIII-2) (1-196S), because he acts just like Lumina and searches for a FFXIII Forward. and Jihl Nabaat (1-193S) cause that still is a great card.

As For Summon, we’re just grabbing Bahamut, because with Fang on the field he becomes a Free Summon. And both Odins for Lightning’s (19-082H) ability.

All in all, this deck is made to get as many Forwards out on the field as fast as possible. After that just keep attacking and attacking, with at least 3 Forwards per turn.

Or something like that.

Deck List

Forwards

Noel (19-136S) x3
Lightning (19-138S) x3
Serah (16-032H) x3
Vanille (19-129S) x3
Anima (11-099H) x3
Fang (19-131S) x3
Snow (19-132S) x3
Lightning (19-082H) x3
Cid Raines (19-135S) x3

Backups

Jihl Nabaat (1-193S) x3
Lebreau (5-151S) x3
Class Second Moogle (10-016C) x3
Mog (XIII-2) (1-196S) x3
Lumina (13-085R) x3

Summons

Odin (15-090H) x3
Odin (13-072R) x3
Bahamut (19-130S) x2