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Gunslinger in the Water

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26-101C – Aila

It’s like buying a lottery ticket. Only this time you get to see your winnings.

You put Aila into the Break Zone, draw 2 cards, and then discard a card.

It comes out to an even trade. 2 cards for 2 cards.

You just get to keep the cards that you want.

That doesn’t mean you’ll always get what you want, sometimes you’ll find worse cards than what you already have.

And, that’s about it.

26-102C – Blue Mage

This is a great card.

Are you playing Monsters? Then Blue Mage is a great play for you.

Blue Mage comes in and you can play a Monster from your hand on to the field. That’s 4CP for 2 cards.

And whenever a Monster is put into the Break Zone from the field, you get to draw a card.
And you know that Monsters like to send themselves to the Break Zone.

I’m just thinking of how much help Blue Mage will be to my Bomb Squad.

26-103L – Azdaja

Here is your game winner.

Azdaja has built in protection against your opponent’s Summons, and until the end of your opponent’s turn, Azdaja also has protection against your opponent’s abilities.

Which is good because, you opponent will want to get rid of Azdaja A.S.A.P. Period.

Why is this you might ask?

Well, Azdaja has the ability that every time one of your Water Forwards attacks, you will be able to choose one of your opponent’s Forwards and return it to their hand.

All I’m saying is throw Azdaja in a deck with Pirates and Vikings, and you’re set.

26-104H – Iedolas

You see what’s happening?

Iedolas is telling your opponent to hold on. Cause we haven’t even started yet.

And, then another Final Fantasy XV Forward will rise from the grave. Err. .. Break Zone. And come straight to the field to take care of your opponent. You can grab any Forward up to 5CP.

We’re thinking Ardyn, cause why not.

Dawn of Heroes Ardyn to be exact. You’ll put 2 Backups into the Break Zone, and then you’ll reveal the top cards of your deck until you find 2 Characters. You may now play those 2 Characters on to the field.

Is there anything not to like?

You get 4 cards on the field for the price of Iedolas.

And, if that’s not enough, you can always put Iedolas in the Break Zone, and have your opponent return a card to their hand.

Now you can replay Iedolas.

26-105C – Garnet

Garnet comes in and does nothing, unless you pay the extra cost of dulling 4 active Characters. They can be Backups, Monsters or Forwards.

When you do dull 4 of your Characters, Garnet will send a Forward to the bottom of it’s owner’s deck. Which is a way of getting rid of a Forward when you can’t send it to the Break Zone. And, it’s not returning to their owner’s hand, where they can play it again on their next turn.

Yes, you can send your own Forward at the bottom of your own deck. You can do this if you need to save a Forward.

I would place Garnet in one of the many Monster decks that we have floating around.

26-106C – Old Snapper

Hmm, what’s there to think about? Other than the fact, that you need to use up all of Old Snapper’s Flyer Counters in order for him to be useful.

For 2CP, you can grab 2 cards from your Break Zone and add them to your hand. But, not before you put 3 cards from your deck into the Break Zone. And, this will take at least 3 turns, because you have to remove all 3 Flyer Counters from Old Snapper in order for this to be of use.

Now, if there was anyway of removing these Counters without using Old Snapper’s ability, this would have been a great card.

26-107C – Chemist

The elemental backups, and this one is decent.

Why?

Because Chemist shall be your defense against cards like Vrtra and Azdaja. And, we know that they both will be a threat to your front lines. Basically, Chemist will stand up against all the giants. Think Yuna, The new Lightning, and even Dadaluma. Yes, we had to mention him because he was just unbanned, expect him to make a return to your locals, and LQs and Materia Cups and so on.

All you need to do is have a bunch of Wind cards to feed the ability, and you can put a stop to your opponent’s nonsense.

Chemist should be put in every Wi/Wa deck as a measure of protection.

And, here I thought this card would be useless.

26-108C – Thaliak

Thaliak will come in once “The Twelve” start making moves. And those should be 4 moves, 4 moves that bring 4 of The Twelve onto the field.

Once they’re on the field, you can play Thaliak, and your opponent will choose one of their Forwards and send it to the Break Zone. After that, you’ll draw a card.

There is also a little ability called Rheognosis, when used, Thaliak will return a Forward that casts 3CP or less back to your opponent’s hand. And, since this ability doesn’t dull Thaliak, you can use it twice in one turn.

3CP? Yes, please and thank you.

26-109R – Johnny

I forgot that Johnny moved to Costa del Sol, but now that I see it, it reminded me of it.
Apparently Johnny, still has a crush on Tifa, and whenever she enters the field, Johnny activates. And you draw a card.

Simply put, you can play Johnny right before you play Tifa. Or better yet, right before you play Zangan, who will then play Tifa. Who will then activate Johnny, who will draw a card for you.

I’m sure there’s a much better combo here, but I’m not going to look for it right now.

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26-110R – Sylvestre

Stalone. Yeah, Nope.

This isn’t Rocky, nor Rambo, but Sylvestre will search for a Light Forward. And, once that Light Forward is added to your hand, you can play a Forward onto the field. Up to 3CP. If you think about it, Sylvestre’s final cost can be 1CP.

Sylvestre will also cancel one of your opponent’s abilities that is choosing 1 Forward. And, that is most abilities.

How is this a Rare? I don’t know, but you can probably put this card into any Water deck, and you will do fine with it.

26-111C – Titov

What else would Titov do? He’s a Ferry Captain.

Titov will Ferry the top 3 cards of your deck to your hand and back.

How the get off the ferry is up to you. Cause they need to walk in a straight line to get off the ferry boat.

Titov will make sure that neither of them cuts in line, and get off exactly as you want them to.

And, that’s about it.

26-112H – Tidus

Finally a Guardian that actually protects Yuna.

Every time Yuna is dealt damage, that damage is transferred to Tidus. And if you have received 3 points of damage that damage is reduced by 2000.

I can’t wait to see these new FFX decks that are going to come out. YRP is back in business, all thanks to Tidus. This Tidus.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Tidus will search for Yuna.

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26-113R – Nymeia EX

The Twelve keeps on coming. I lost track of the cards we’ve seen so far.

Nymeia here will provide you with more ammo. When she enters the field, you draw a card. EX Burst? Draw a card.

And, if that’s not enough, you can use Nymeia’s ability to draw a card. But, you’ll need at least 4 of “The Twelve” on the field to use her ability.

All in all, Nymeia is worth playing, even if you aren’t playing “The Twelve”.

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26-114H – Asura, Manusya of War

Is this a board wipe?

It sure looks like it.

Yes, they are all gone. You can save one of your Forwards by returning it to your hand, and the rest will disintegrate into the Break Zone. One way around it is to have a card that boosts your power. Like Wakka (1-180R) since we’re talking about Water cards.

Then all you need to do is find a way to give Asura, Haste and she will attack and reduce the power of 6 of your opponent’s Forwards (if they have any left) by another 4000. Thus your opponent will have no front line, allowing you to attack and conquer.

It’s pretty straight Forward.

26-115H – Mid Previa

Grandson of Cid.

Mid is an engineer just like Grampa. And, Mid will engineer your deck like there is no tomorrow.

Mid will come in for a whopping 9CP. And. once he comes in you’ll reveal the top 5 cards of your deck and you will play up to 3 cards, (1 Forward, 1 Backup and 1 Monster) with a total cost of 8CP on to the field.

This is a way of getting bodies on the field, but it it worth it? It’s a high cost just to play Mid, add in the cards that you’re sending to the Break Zone, and what if all you reveal are Monsters. Low cost ones, and you don’t even get half way to 8CP.

Just something to think about.

26-116C – Malboro

I just realized that all these Monsters are the same. In that they all become Forwards and whenever they attack they have an ability that goes off. Also when they deal damage to your opponent, you can put said Monster into the Break Zone, and have another ability that will go off.

When Malboro attacks, one of your opponent’s Forwards lose 2000 power.

And if Malboro deals damage to your opponent, you can put Malboro into the Break Zone and all of your opponent’s Forwards lose 4000 power.

Once that is done, you can go to town on your opponent Swinging left and right. Hopefully you’ll deplete their resources.

26-117H – Yuna

Earth/Water Dark Knight Yuna! Remember that.

Whenever Yuna attacks, you can put the top 2 cards of your deck into the Break Zone and deal 5000 damage to one of your opponent’s Forwards. That’s not bad, considering that you will probably Break that Forward, but this is not the reason you’ll play Yuna.

Nope, the reason is that once you get to 6 points of damage, Yuna will deal 5000 damage to all of your opponent’s Forwards for every 10 cards that you have in your Break Zone. If you have 20 cards that’s 10,000 damage to all of your opponent’s Forwards. That is more than enough to send them all to the Break Zone. If there are some lingering around, you can always Play Tidus (1-163L) And he will take care of them.

This is a great card, but you won’t want to play this at Prerelease, cause well, at 6 points of damage you lose the game.

26-118C/15-123C – Oracle

Here’s a reprint, of a reprint, of a reprint.

So, we’re just going to, you guessed it, Copy/Paste from Opus XV Crystal Dominion.

“I had a plan with Oracle. And then I realized that it wouldn’t work.

So, scratch that.

Oracle will give you a crystal every time she enters the field. You can dull, and put her in the Break Zone to reduce damage to one of your Forwards and grab her back with Robel-Akbel.

Oracle’s use will be determined by the abilities that revolve around Crystal use.”

26-119R – Leviathan

Dull 2 Forwards or Pay 3CP. The choice is yours to make.

What do you get in exchange?

You can return one of your opponent’s Forwards or Monsters to their hand.

And, that is it.

Is it worth it? I mean you’re not breaking the card and they can always replay the card and get all of the enter the field abilities that come with it.

On the other hand, you’re returning the Forward that is in the way of you winning the game.

26-120L – Lenna

I don’t know where to start, so I’ll start with the abilities.

Lenna comes in and you can either have your opponent choose a Forward to send to the Break Zone, or you can search for a Warrior of Light and add it to your hand.

Now if you have Faris on the field, you can use both abilities.

Lenna costs 4CP and has 8000 power.

You can say this isn’t a lot for a Legend, but you are sending a Forward to the Break Zone and that is always good, even if you’re not the one picking which Forward is being sent.

More Singles!

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Starter Set Vol.1 and Vol.2

We have new Starters announced! And, this time they are not bundled together. You can choose which one you’d rather have. Cloud or Zack? Vol.1 or Vol.2?

From what I can tell, they are not Final Fantasy VII themed decks as the cards that were shown contain Characters from the different series. Lightning, Yuna, Luso, Charlotte, are all included in these sets as well.

Set for release in October 3rd, which gives us a Tentative release date for Opus XXVII for either October 31st, or November 7th.

Both of these sets come with a Full Art Foil of either Zack or Cloud.

And, for the first time these Starter Sets will also include a Limit Break deck as well.

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Tears of the Light & Dark Planet

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25-103H – Fusoya

Need to deal 9000 damage to a Forward, look no further, Fusoya here can do just that. And, that’s all he does.

Sure, 9000 damage to a Forward is a lot of damage, and more than half the time you will be breaking that Forward.

The real question though is it worth the cost?

Fusoya is a 2 cost Backup, but you’ll also remove the top 2 cards of your deck from the game when Fusoya enters the field. That’s technically 6CP, and you don’t know what the two cards are that will be removed.

Fusoya also has Flare, which is the same thing.

I know High powered attacks should cost more, but this feels like you’ll be paying more than you have too. Especially since we have Ifrit 25-004H.

25-104L – Yuna

This better be a Full Art.

For 2CP you get access to 3 separate abilities, that can go off at any moment, as long as you have 2 active Forwards.

1) Dull 2 Forwards.

2) Freeze a Character

3) Cancel a Summon or an auto-ability, if your opponent doesn’t pay an extra Crystal Point.

Although Yuna is not over powered, she can still put a stop to parts of your opponent’s strategy.

I don’t think this is ground breaking, considering Yuna is a Legend, but I have been wrong in the past.

Let’s see what happens 3 months from now.

25-105L – Vegnagun

Can we say game over?

Kind of like Emissaries of Light Tidus, there are way to keep Vegnagun out of your Break Zone. At least for the time being. And, after that, there still are some ways to grab Vegnagun back from the Break Zone.

With 10,000 power, Vegnagun is a force to be reckoned with, and having the ability to activate it whenever you’d like, Vegnagun will be ready to deal damage and take damage without worrying about having the War Machine Break.

And, once you already have 2 Vegnuguns in your Break Zone, Vegnagun will break all of your opponent’s Forwards. Leaving the road open for an easy victory.

This is probably where Yuna comes in play to block Vegnaguns abilities.

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Tears of the Ice Planet

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25-018C – Gimme Cat

I’m trying to figure out if Gimme Cat is worth playing.

You discard a card so your opponent is forced to discard a card.

Right? Yes.

So, why wouldn’t you just play a Forward or a Backup that will force your opponent to discard a card?

Maybe I’m just not seeing it.

But, you can also just pay 1 Ice CP and put Gimme Cat in the Break Zone, and your opponent will discard a card at random.
I think there’s better options.

25-019C – Necron

This is a little trick play, and you only need Necron to do it.

For 4CP, you can play Necron on to the field, and as long as he is on the field, you will grab one of your opponent’s Forwards. 5CP or less, and remove it from the game.

Now, your plan would be to try and keep Necron on the field, until your next turn. Or you can just find a way to give him Haste.

Next turn, If Necron is still on the board, you will use his ability and send the Removed Forward to the Break Zone. Thus breaking the Forward.

After all is said and done, Necron sticks around as an 8K body.

25-020R – Gippal

We’re getting ready for a Final Fantasy X comeback.

Gippal is reporting for duty.

YRP is coming back, along with Opus XVI Tidus, and that is pretty much all you’ll need.
Gippal gives all of your FFX Characters +2000 power and they cannot be chosen by your opponent’s abilities. That’s half the battle right there.

Gippal will also dull and freeze one of your opponent’s Forwards.

Yes, that last part is just a little bit extra.

I’ll take 3. Full Arts if possible.

25-021R – Chimera Brain

This ain’t a Monster, it’s a Forward that acts like a Monster to get out of sticky situations.
Once per turn if your opponent has any dull Forwards, you can turn Chimera Brain into a Forward and have it attack with 9000 power.

Once Chimera Brain attacks, you will choose one of your opponent’s Forwards and Freeze it.

Which Forward will you choose to Freeze?

The one that’s already dull, that way it won’t activate on the next turn and Chimera Brain can turn into a Forward once again.

You get all this for 3CP. It costs 1CP for each head.

25-022C – Edward

You got 2 ways to get Edward’s abilities to activate. And they both depend on how many cards your opponent has in their hand.

If they have 1 or less, you choose 2 of your opponent’s Forwards and hit them with a Dull/Freeze.

If they have 3 or more, your opponent discards a card from their hand.

One thing is for certain. You won’t be playing Edward if your opponent has 2 cards in their hand.

For a Common this is pretty decent.

25-023C – Kurasame EX

The Instructor turned Forward with his pet Tonberry.

Kurasame comes in and you will flip the top 4 cards of your deck and add a Forward to your hand. The rest will go to the bottom of your deck.

You might say that 6CP is a bit high, but you do get a 9K Meat Shield after that.

And, we already know you won’t be paying 6CP for Kurasame, you’ll be Warping him in for 2CP. You’ll have to wait a turn, but it’s well worth it.

Let’s not forget this ability also comes off of an EX Burst.

25-024H – Zeid

They’ll have a hard time trying to get rid of Zeid.

Whenever Zeid is dealt damage by a Character, be it Backup, Forward or Monster, your opponent will choose one of their dull Characters and place them in the Break Zone.

At 5CP, for an 8K body, Zeid will be able to hold his own against any attacker. And, if you need extra firepower, you can remove 3 ice cards from your Break Zone and give Zeid +3000 power.

Zeid looks like he’ll always be one step ahead, and always breaking dull Characters.
Zeid can also come in with Back Attack.

25-025L – Sephiroth

Now this is a card that will make SOLDIER thrive this set.

Young Sephiroth comes in at 4CP, and gives all the SOLDIERs, besides himself, First Strike.

Why doesn’t he give himself First Strike, you ask?

Well, he already has First Strike, no need to double up on it.

And whenever another Forward with First Strike attacks, your opponent will discard a card. They’ll have an empty hand in no time.

We also have Astral Gate, which will deal a Forward 5000 damage.

This is simple, straight to the point, and something we can all get behind.

25-026C – SOLDIER Candidate

All these SOLDIER Candidates are all Commons, and they are all good cards. Especially since they all work together.

This SOLDIER Candidate is no different.

SOLDIER Candidate comes in and dulls one of your opponent’s Characters, and if you already have a SOLDIER Candidate in your Break Zone you can go ahead and Freeze that Character as well.

And, if you have received 3 points of damage, SOLDIER Candidate gains +3000 power.
That will give you an 8k body for 2CP.

These candidates, are on their way to becoming SOLDIER, and they are just one card away from becoming a great deck.

25-027H – Chadley

Chadley doing scientific research.

Chadley comes in for 2CP, and even though he doesn’t do anything when he enters the field, he will start doing research behind the scenes.

He’ll see what happens to your Forwards during your opponent’s turn, and every time one of your Forwards is sent to the Break Zone, Chadley will gain 1 Research Counter.

When you have 3 Research Counters, Chadley will grab a Forward from your Break Zone and play it onto the field. Yes, the cost of that Forward must be 4CP or less, but we’re pretty sure you’ll have some of those Forwards in your Break Zone.

This is an easy way to bring in a Forward of a different element as you don’t have to worry about paying the cost for that Forward.

I’m sure we’ll have some interesting plays with Chadley.

25-028C – Paladin

You have 2 options, either Dull a Forward, or draw a card.

And that’s what you get for 3CP.

Depending on your situation both options are decent.

If you’re playing this early draw a card.

If your opponent has a Forward on the field that can cause block one of your attackers, dull it.

Good thing is that you can play more than 1 copy.

25-029R – Nooj EX

I remember Nooj, a lot more than I do Gippal or Baralai.

And, that’s all right because Nooj will search for one or the other.

And, if that’s not enough for you, Nooj can also deal 5K damage to all of your opponent’s dull Forwards.

This is where Paladin comes in. You play 3 of them back to back, and Nooj will deal all three of them 5000 damage.

Hopefully you’ll break some.

And, since we know that things don’t always go as planned, Nooj’s first ability also comes off of an EX Burst.

25-030H – Mateus, the Corrupt

Weren’t we just talking about this? Finding ways to get rid of Backups?

If we didn’t earlier, I know we did in past sets.

And, this is what Mateus, the Corrupt does.

You can remove one of your Backups from the game to reduce Mateus, the Corrupt’s cost by 2CP.

Once, you cast Mateus, she’ll Break a dull Forward, and Dull/Freeze another one.

Then you can cast another Mateus, and repeat the cycle, until you run out of Mateus.

Plus, the artwork by Ryoma Ito is amazing as well.

25-031C – Borghen

Borghen’s looking at you like, do you really want to play this card?

You might.

Borghen does one thing and he can do it twice.

Deal a dull Forward 8000 damage.

Once when he comes in, and once when you decide to put him in the Break Zone.

If you can Break a card on the way in, and another on the way out, I’d say this is a good play.

25-032C – Maenad

Did you ever want a way to recycle your Monsters?

Maenad is here to do just that.

Most of the time, your Monsters will be sent to the Break Zone, in order to activate their abilities. Maenad will be able to bring a Monster back at the end of every turn. As long as that Monster was put in the Break Zone on the same turn.

For 5CP this is a bargain, even at 5CP, you’ll be bringing back a Monster left and right.

Now, how to incorporate Maenad into my Bomb deck?

25-033R – Yuna

Half Black Mage, Half Gullwings, All Yuna!

Yuna comes right in and let’s you search for one of the Gullwings.

Now, I was on the fence of her second ability, thinking why would someone use this ability to play a Gullwing from their hand when you can just play the Gullwing from your hand without using the ability?

Then I realized, that you can play this card whenever you’d like. And, you don’t need the element of said Gullwing to play it. Meaning you can splash any color Gullwing and not worry about paying the cost.

Last but not least, we have Blizzara. Choose a Forward Dull/Freeze it, and then your opponent discards a card from their hand.

Effective.

25-034L – Lenne

We haven’t seen Lenne in quite some time. Well the Songstress is back, and she is interesting.

Once you go into your Attack Phase, you’ll be able to remove the top card of your deck from the game, and then you’ll be able to cast it. If you don’t cast it, well, then you’ll lose the card.

You can also remove Lenne from the game, and then remove a Summon from the game, then you can cast that Summon whenever you would like.

I’m kind of mixed on this card.

Let’s just wait to see it in action.

Cool Singles!

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Legacy Collection, Thoughts On Pull Rates

This is an interesting set, and I believe we need to look into this a little bit more than usual.

What we know so far is that the Legacy Collection, will be replacing the Anniversary Collection Set of previous years. And, instead of just giving us all of the cards in one box, we’re hoping the RNG gods will help us with grabbing all the cards that we will need.

It’s a 200 card set, and each card will have a Premium Foil version, and also a Full Art version. As I previously stated, this might mean new art, I highly doubt it now. After I re-read the news article Square -Enix posted, it is just a different foil type. Will this be only for the Full Arts, or for the regular foils as well? That’s something that we will have to find out in February, unless we get shown some of these cards before hand.

Back to the the 200 cards. This set will give us a total of 600 cards plus the 2 Signature cards, and the 6 Crystal cards, these give us a total of 608 cards for a complete collection. And, that my friends will be a rare sight.

Speaking of the Gold Stamped Signature cards, how rare will these be? Because I’m sure it won’t be once in every 5 Master Cases, not with this many Full Arts. Even if they hand out 1 Full Art and one Foil in every pack you’ll still need at least 200 pack for a full set, which I don’t believe that they’ll do.

Let’s do some math.

A Master case is now 3 cases of 6 Boosters. A Booster is 20 packs. This gives us 360 packs per Master Case. Which makes it unlikely that we will be getting a complete set of Full Arts from one Master Case. Given that 200 of those cards will be the regular Foil Version, that leaves us with 160 slots for Full Arts, which I don’t believe that we’ll be getting that many.

And, since we won’t be getting a complete set of Full Arts in a Master Case, this brings me to believe that the chances of getting a Gold Stamped Signature card will be even rarer than the chances we all have with a regular set.

Let’s break this down a little further.

If we have 160 extra packs per Master Case, this gives us about 8-9 Full Arts per box. Which I believe is too high. I’ll say that they will be about 50 Full Arts per Master Case, which will give us about 3 Full Arts per box. Some boxes will have just 2 Full Arts if this is the case.

We’ll need 4 Master Cases for a complete set of Full Arts.

Since, we already know that with the regular sets, the chances of getting a Gold Stamped Signature was 1 in 5 Master Cases. That gives us 5 complete sets of Full Arts.

SO.

If we need 5 complete sets to pull a Gold Stamped Signature, That gives us 20 Master Cases.

That means we’ll be getting a Gold Stamped Signature in 1 out of 10 Master Cases.

Now, this is just my thoughts on it. We’ll have to wait until February to see a better number that’s closer to the pull rates.

Let us know what your thoughts are? Is my number too high or too low? Or did I hit the nail on the head?