Cast Curaga on Envy Games for a chance to win a Creature Bring Arts Bahamut!

Hey there everyone, and welcome back to Lv. 1 Onion Knight: The After School Special Edition.

So let's get right to the point - about a week ago, my good bro Nicola Militello and owner of the Final Fantasy TCG shop Envy Games had his car broken into after attending an event, with - among other things - over 5 thousand dollars worth of cards and FFTCG merchandise stolen. Having your personal collection of cards stolen would be bad enough, but considering that the merchandise stolen was all of the Foils and Legends going to be sold on his shop, the theft has put the continued operation of Envy Games in jeopardy. To help the store recover, one of Nicola's friends has set up a GoFundMe drive, and I've also decided to use this blog as a platform to help Envy Games recover with a special raffle, the details I'm going to go into at the end of this post.

But before I do that, I wanted to talk about why Envy Games is important to me and to the Community as a whole. On a more personal level, Nicola has been one of the biggest supporters of my silly little blog, always giving me advice and ideas, prize support for my last raffle, and promoting it whenever I make a new post. It's not a far reach to say that without Nicola's support, I would never have gotten the viewership that let me do the spoiler reveal for Opus VI. A good deal of the outreach I've been able to have with the community through Lv.1 Onion Knight has been a direct result of his help, so it goes without saying that when given the opportunity to pay it forward, I'm going to do what I can. 

Nicola has also done so much more for the community than just selling cards. For those of you who don't know, He's also the winner of the first official North American FFTCG community contest. He was officially recognized by the company for hosting, in his own words, a "sick 3 day event at the second largest anime convention in the US." 

That little Goatee thing that he's rocking is decidedly -not- sick but I've learned to look past it.

During the event, not only did he host several win-a-box tournaments and taught new players about the FFTCG, but also made it a point to promote the game at the A New World Final Fantasy Concert held at the convention. Here he passed out special flyers he made detailing the game, online resources, and instructions on how to connect with local FFTCG communities with an additional gift attached: Premade booster packs he put together with cards from the most recent sets - two of each element, a foil, and a Hero included in each. That kind of effort towards building the community has always been apparent in what Nicola does. Whether it's the hand-written notes giving deck building advice he includes with every order placed through his shop, or driving to stores 3 times a week to host local events, Nicola has always sought out to support and grow the FFTCG Community.

As of right now, the Final Fantasy Trading Card game is - in my opinion - at a critical point in its growth, though still very much in its infancy. Hell think of all the times that you've had people say, "Oh, I didn't even know there was a Final Fantasy Card Game" when you tell them about it. When I first started getting into the game last October, it was hard to know where to start getting information, or even find places where I could buy the cards, and I would have loved to have met someone like Nicola at a convention to get me on the right track. I personally only got into playing the game seriously due to the dumb luck of being at the right store at the right time to have met Richard Brady. Right now, what the community needs is people like Nicola who are willing to put in the work it takes to make the game approachable to new players and casual fans, as well as support the competitive scene. So that's why I decided in the end, I wanted to lend what aide I could to Envy Games in its time of need.

So that's where the raffle on my blog comes in. Below I'm going to be attaching a link to Nicola's GoFundMe recovery page - For every 10 dollars that a person donates, they'll get an entry into a raffle for a special prize that I've purchased - a Final Fantasy Creatures Bring Arts Bahamut Action Figure.

It's the next best option to summoning the real thing.

With an 18-inch wingspan, incredibly detailed and fully articulated, this figure is not only flipping huge, but it's a great collectible for any Final Fantasy fan. With an MSRP of $150, it's a great chance to support somebody who has played a large role in growing the community as well as as potentially win a pretty lavish prize. So if you donate 30 dollars to the GoFundMe page, you'll get 3 entries for the Bahamut Raffle, and so on. Also, several other content creators have donated prizes to be used for the GoFundMe efforts, so even if you don't win the Bahamut, there are lots of other things being added to the prize pool, including the new Opus VI card sleeves and playmats, Custom FFTCG Dice and more. All together, you have lots of incentive to be a philanthropist and potentially walk away with some great swag!!

Click here to Donate to Envy Games and enter the Bahamut Raffle!   

The winner will be selected at random at a time and method TBD at Nicola's discretion, so be sure to stay tuned to Envy Game's Facebook page, as well as Lv.1 Onion Knight for more details. All together, I want to say thank you to everyone who has already donated (who will also be eligible for the Bahamut raffle as well!) and anybody who decides to lend their help to the cause in the future. If the community can work together, we can cast Pheonix Down on Envy Games! Thanks for reading everyone!

Until next time - Keep on Grinding, 

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The Common Conundrum: Spicy Combos with Opus VI Commons

Hello there all you 1-Drop Evokers, and welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight - the FFTCG blog that doesn't understand this "Gencon" thing everybody's talking about! Truly I am a Paragon of the FFTCG community. 

All jokes aside, I never really make it a point to get too involved with the competitive scene or top 8's or anything like that. This is because:

A) This blog is meant to appeal more to the casual/new player, or anyone who is interested in humorous TCG articles with dashes of actual help to be mined from it like a Chocograph hidden deep under Gaia's crust.  

B) I am still pretty bad at this game and find the competitive scene confusing/scary. I would probably only go if I could have the opportunity to kiss the hem of Kageyama's Robes or something like that. 

 Print this on my tombstone.

I've also never really been huge on Meta-decks - though that doesn't stop me from complaining about the state of the Meta or elements. I've been revealed for the dilettante I truly am. 

But! Because I'm a bit of a hipster when it comes to the decks I play, one of the things I like to do is take a look at cards that might have been overlooked, or ones that maybe don't get enough love. And with the release of any new set, which cards need more love than the Common Cards? So today I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of my favorite Commons from each primary element in Opus VI, and some spicy combos that you can do with them, ranked from least to most spicy.

But how does one go about measuring a combos spiciness? Well, I'm happy to introduce the Spice Scale, Starring the Spiciest Monster ever: Spiceacilian!

I call him Spicy Ryan

Now keep in mind that the Spice Scale is by no means a hard and fast metric for a cards usefulness, or how competitive they are. Instead, it's how satisfying the combo is to pull off, and how much salt (or whatever the equivalent spice of your choice is) it can potentially generate from your opponent. So with that being said, lets open up that disorganized shoe box you keep all your Commons in and take a look at some combos! 

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Lighting: Ninja 

Okay, so I'm sure a lot of you guys are going to be surprised to see this card taking the lightning slot and not the FFTA2 Dragoon, but it was hard for me to think of a good combo for it that wasn't just "Play it with other Dragoons or run an Earth/Lightning deck and make everything a Dragoon with Hashmal" or something. In most decks, the Opus II Black Mage is probably a better, less restrictive pick for a similar effect. 

That being said, I actually really like this card in Draft/Sealed as a way to both ramp up your resources while removing your opponent's Forward. I actually won my first 3/3 draft using this card in combination with Frimelda and Ramuh.

 

This combo is fairly self explanatory: Damage a Forward and then play Ninja during your Main Phase 2 to break something. Ramuh can also be used to pressure your opponent into taking a point of damage - you can Dull a Forward and do 7k Damage to another Active Forward: Early game most people wont be so eager to trade and reduce their board size, so if they let the attack go through, you can play Ninja and punish them for it by finishing off the damaged Forward. As far as Spiciness goes, it's a little too situational, but in can be helpful with a more limited card pool.

Spice Level: 1.5/5 -Pumpkin Pie Spice

 Earth: Gigas

This is another card that I've had a lot of success with in Drafts, and I think a lot of people may have underestimated. Is Dadaluma a better option for most Earth decks? Probably! But what's nice about Gigas is that for 0 CP, he can come in and be an on-demand 9k blocker, and being a Monster makes him tough to remove. He also passively protects your other, more valuable Forwards, since your opponent is going to have to make the choice of whether to save their removal to get rid of other problematic forwards, or bait out Gigas to just get rid of it. 

Of course, your opponent isn't going to want to attack into you if you have Gigas on the field unless they have a forward that can get around it, so this card pairs extremely well with the new Titan.

This combo is so damn satisfying if your opponent pays for a big Forward or plays Forward boosters like the various Warriors of Light/Wol to get over your Gigas. Pumping Gigas by another 2k is usually enough to break the attacking Forward, and then you can do 11k damage to another Forward to reduce their field even more. You could even run it in a Gullwings Earth/Wind deck to protect your girls, or make him into a Gullwing with Hashmal to negate removal that targets it - Best of all your Gigas is still there... waiting... 

Spice Level: 2.5/5 - Curry Powder

Ice: Shock Trooper

Shock Trooper is a bit of a weird card for Ice in that outright breaking things is not generally something that the element specializes in. Much of Ice's power comes from Dull/Freeze/Discard, so maybe I like this card so much because it fits outside of that play style, and feels pretty balanced. When it attacks, break both it and an opponent's forward - simple as that. It's pretty decent permanent removal for Ice, but I think this card makes Ice/Fire have more toys to play with, specifically in a Final Fantasy VI deck. When played alongside Sabin, a single removal becomes a longer lasting threat that really needs to be dealt with as soon as possible before it wreaks havoc on your opponent's board.

Sabin is, in my opinion, still the best Fire card in the game. Being to self boost and having an extremely threatening S-Ability is good enough, but being able to prevent any Forward (even himself!) from breaking gives Fire some much needed protection. So yeah, play this guy and make Shock Trooper unbreakable - your opponent just lost a forward and still has to defend against an unbreakable 8K body. Next turn, swing with Sabin, make ST unbreakable again, repeat. ST goes hand-in-hand with aggressive fire cards, and if your opponent doesn't have an immediate answer to it, it becomes a huge problem. If your opponent uses removal on it instead of Sabin, then you can also just replay it with Devout and continue your rampage. The Spice is real with this one. 

Spice Level: 3/5 - Cajun Spice

Water: Chime

Chime is a card whose usefulness really depends on the type of deck you're running, but in the right deck it does what Water does best - Builds advantage. At first glance, she doesn't seem all that impressive - with Leo out on the field she becomes a 2 cost backup, and bounces back one of your opponent's Forwards as long as you also bounce back one of yours. But honestly, I'm not even sure it's necessary to run Leo with Chime, because Opus VI introduced a new card that opens up a lot of new possibilities for Water and combos great with her - Leila.  

Leila/Viking decks have been getting really popular lately because of how strong of a draw engine it is and how quickly it lets you ramp up your field. So yeah, now all of a sudden Chime helps not only speed the deck's engine up even more by bouncing back Leila (or even a Viking) and replaying it go get more draws, but it also gives you more of an advantage since you're removing a Forward. Hell, if you wanna be really petty you could bounce back an Opus VI Rinoa, remove an opponent's Forward, then replay Rinoa and time-warp something like Cloud of Darkness or Nidhogg to lay waste to your opponent's board. This spice is so good, you're gunna want to marinate your opponent in it for awhile for the best results. 

Spice Level: 4/5 - Cayenne Pepper

Fire: Illusionist

Is it weird to say that a Common card is probably my favorite Fire card in the whole set? It's just... it's exactly what Fire needs more of, and what I'm hoping the FFTCG team goes forward with instead of more burn damage - Attack Phase Manipulation. This card by itself should become a staple in most Fire decks - yeah you can bait a problematic Forward into swinging into a big Blocker you have set up, but it can also effectively Dull an opposing Forward for big swings in combination with cards like Ninja, Red Mage, and Tifa-L. That being said, my personal favorite card to run this with is Machina. 

This is a card that largely fell under my radar as a Fire player, mostly because I didn't run a lot ping based cards, but this guy's ability can be used defensively to thin out your opponent's front lines. First break Illusionist and target a Forward you need to get rid of. Then block with Machina - casting Belias to give him First Strike if it's something that can get over him. Once the attacking Forward is broken, you can target another Forward that has yet to attack and deal it 4k damage. This will both discourage them from attacking and losing another blocker, but it also makes that Forward easy to pick off with burn cards like Opus IV or V Ifrit or other ping abilities. I really have been enjoying playing this card and I really hope that we see more effects like this in the future.

Spice Level: 4.5/5 - KFC's 11 Secret Herbs and Spices

Wind: Chocobo

Alright so Dragoons may have gotten the push they needed to actually be playable, but the new Chocobo card introduced in Opus VI makes Chocobo Decks downright scary. At first glace it doesn't seem like much - you can play a Chocobo for free, but it's one of the weaker birds of the group. But combine this thing's swarming potential with power boosters commonly found in Wind/Water Standard Unit Chocobos and suddenly that little bird and his friends have become a huge problem. With the new Choco/Mog card, as well as Standard Unit searchers like Brahne and Gladiator, it makes it easy to stack your hand with the cards you need to pull off big combos. With Fat Chocobo, you can set off a chain reaction to start the mayhem. 

So lets go over a scenario using the Opus VI Chocobo. You've successfully built up your board and have Arc, Maria, and the Water Warrior of Light on the Field. You drop Fat Chocobo and search for the new 3-drop, which is now a 7k First Strike Forward. You play another of the same Chocobo from your hand for free, which lets you summon another Chocobo - hell maybe even another of the new one for another free drop, which means in one turn you summoned 3-4 Forwards to the field off one one 5 drop backup. Does it take a lot of setup? Absolutely. But IMO it's totally worth it, if only for the look on your opponent's face, and makes Chocobo decks an absolute beast.

Spice Level: 5/5 - The Spice Girls During the Spiceworld Tour Circa 1998

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Okay, so I think I've written down the word "Chocobo" enough to hit my quota for the month. So what are some of your favorite Commons from Opus VI? Do you have any spicy combos that you like to use them with? Was the Spiciness Scale as arbitrary and nonsensical as I said it would be? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time - Keep on Grinding,

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