Well hello all you fine denizens of the Final Fantasyverse, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight, The FFTCG blog that has a brave yet controversial message to share: Final Fantasy VIII did nothing wrong. This message has been paid for by the myriad of FFVIII fans in my life.
Well this certainly is an odd predicament I find myself in...
As of the time of writing this article, Opus XIII is "out" in the sense that the rest of the world has it, but due to a combination of distributor problems, paper shortages, the unprecedented boom in the TCG market, and Mercury being in retrograde, we're still waiting to get the cards here in the US.
Usually before I write one of these reviews I like to have a chance to play with the cards a bit so I can get some initial impressions and iron out how I feel about the set as a whole, but this time I can't do that, and if I wait any longer Opus XIV will be out. Hopefully I'll be able to start cracking packs in the next few weeks or so, but until then I'll be forced to wait like a filthy, bedraggled trading card game pauper while the rest of the world revels in their on-time release.
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| Me every time I log into ffdecks. |
"But Onion Guy," I hear you say, "Just because the set isn't out in the States yet doesn't mean there's no way for you to play with the new cards! You could just play online using proxies through OCTGN or Untap or whatever." And to that I say, that sucks. You suck. Made the actual effort to participate in and/or help organize a major multinational tournament online using nothing but sticks, rocks, and an unwavering love of the game? Get over yourself. The fine folks here at Onion Knight Industries are not in the business of peddling such blatant falsehoods, and the uncompromising integrity that we have become so beloved for in the FFTCG community is inexorably linked to our ability to get our hands on physical cards.
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| Me when I realize anybody takes my jokes seriously. And I know people do because somebody left a particularly scathing comment about this joke on Reddit. Oops! |
In any case, despite the wrenches thrown in my usual scientific method, I figure I've ravenously combed through the images of the new cards enough times that I can think of something semi-interesting to write about them. As always I don't personally do reviews and ratings of individual cards, since I find it a bit difficult to find a card's true worth outside of a deck that best takes advantage of them. Though rest assured, dear readers, that while I may not be confident enough to stake out a particularly strong opinion on a card and be wrong, I do enjoy throwing the occasional tomato at the person with their head in the stocks that did do that.
Oh and also I don't do that because I'm just a regular schmuck and my opinion on cards are no more authoritative than anybody else's. So if I've fooled any of you into thinking otherwise, I'd like to say, "Hello! I'm Lv.1 Onion Knight! I too, suck!"
So what mind-blowing, earth-shattering hot take do I have about Opus XIII?
Well at first, it reminded me a lot of Opus IX.
The strange coincidence that both sets put emphasis on FFIV, VIII, Type-0, and titles set in Ivalice probably has a lot to do with that, but also the fact that they both feel more specialized. That's definitely not to say that there aren't some particularly powerful cards in this set, but many of them require a bit more finesse in deck building in order to get the most out of them. But make no mistake, this doesn't make Opus XIII full of nothing but situational tech cards, or that it being more specific makes it weak by any means. In fact it's widely being heralded as the most powerful sets we've gotten, thanks to the absurd amount of potential these new cards have.
Elements that haven't gotten too much play like Water and Ice are making a big comeback in this set thanks to wickedly powerful Multi-Element Legends like Sophie and White Tiger L'cie Nimbus. Opus XIII also sees a huge increase in speed, with lots of 2 CP Forwards with powerful effects that are easily played from the Break Zone with cards from previous sets like Fenrir, Aranea, and Lenna. So many of the cards in this set are not only strong on their own, but they also do quite a lot to make older cards even better.
Back in my Opus IX review I implied that the set felt "weird," and maybe even a little bit unfocused, but I think that this time around, card designers have found a much stronger balance of experimentation and power. While I don't personally think that this set offers the same power creep that the transition from Opus XI and XII did, I'd say that the cards in Opus XIII do way more to raise the ceiling of what's possible to achieve in decks as a whole. There's a lot of interesting stuff here to get excited about, and I'm not just saying that because I can't friggin' get my hands on the cards yet...
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| ...Or because there are new Onion Knights in this set. |
One of my favorite things about Opus XIII is that it brings quite a few older tribal archetypes that haven't seen the light of day back into prominence, and does so considerably better than what was attempted in Opus IX. We all thought that Manikins were really and truly dead since it's been, what, 10 sets since they last saw any support? But not only do the new cards somehow make a 6-color deck work, you really don't even need any of the old Manikin cards to make a successful deck, since the new ones make such a solid core by themselves.
The addition of the first Final Fantasy Tactics characters not named Ramza or Agrias since Opus V finally gives the beloved title some much needed legs, and probably one of the best category specific Legendary Backups that we've seen in a long time. Even the few Cadets that were added do a lot more to overcome the flaws of that archetype, and the new Multi-element cards finally give it some much-needed color fixing. Monks! I don't even have space to talk about the awesome Monk improvements. I'm going to need a whole separate article for that.
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| This set even gives me hope for Sky Pirates, and I have no idea why I find that so titillating. |
Opus XIII also goes kind of nuts when it comes to low-cost, high-impact cards. The arbitrary restriction of needing one of each element to cast Multi-Element cards becomes downright laughable this set. Several of them cost a net zero CP to cast, and as I mentioned earlier, are super easy to cheat out. Sophie seems like she should have had some sort of restriction on her for how brutally powerful and cheap she is, and with easy freebie plays with Lenna and Ursula and lots of recursion in Earth in general, she'll just keep coming back. I'm almost wondering if we're going to see a return of Opus IV's Shadow Lord as a counter now, because I fully expect the 2-drop Forwards this set to get completely out of control.
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| Golbez being the Box Topper this set suddenly makes a lot more sense. |
The existence of Multi-Element cards and the increasing diversity of combinations available make figuring out the state of each color increasingly more difficult. I think we can all at least agree that things are definitely much more balanced than they were before the FFTCG sets entered the double digits. That being said, I always find it interesting to talk about the current flaws and strengths of each element, so for this set review I'm going to quickly go over where I think things stand, and maybe we'll even learn more about ourselves along the way.
I promise it's not going to be just complaining about Wind still being overpowered again, okay?
Fire
What was once the element with the biggest struggles to overcome continues to sit pretty after the improvements the last few sets blessed it with. But while Opus XII gave Fire a lot of very strong, generically good cards like Lani, Magissa, Blaze, and Amaterasu, the Fire cards from Opus XIII are much more specific. Cadet fans will be happy to get some much-needed support, with the new Nine, Cater, and Cinque, but what about outside of jobs and categories?
Akstar is of course, one of the most intriguing cards from this set, since the ability to reuse EX Bursts in your Damage Zone is something we haven't seen in the game before. Some people probably won't like the idea of adding any sort of unpredictability to a card game, since the impact this card will have will fluctuate every game, but that goes back to what I mentioned earlier about the new cards requiring a little bit more finesse. If you stack your deck with enough EX Bursts, you'll end up getting a lot of benefit from your Akstar. Try running him in Fire/Water to bounce him back to your hand to reuse him, or Fire/Ice to flash him with Rinoa.
The new Xande and Palom look like you'd need to play them in particular decks to make the most out of them, but they're deceptively simple. Even without running either of the Legendary Xande Forwards, 7k damage off a 2CP Backup for the added "cost" of pushing you closer to activating damage-specific abilities is pretty darn nice. As far as Palom goes, at first I was a bit confused as to why you would run him in decks without Porom, but then I realized that he's also one of the most efficient ways to activate Magissa's effect to play a Forward from the deck. And of course, in Fire/Water, the ability to search for him with Leonora is a good option too.
I'm actually quite curious to try building around that element combination with the addition of Yuzuki. I think most players have a tendency to balk at cards that only serve a defensive purpose, but being able to load up your board without worrying about damage from things from Fina or Samurai is something I find pretty interesting, especially combined with cards like Cecil (2-129L) and Rosa (9-120L).
Otherwise not a whole lot really changed for Fire in Opus XIII. I'd argue that some of most easily splashed Fire cards this set actually came from the new 2-Player starter deck, giving the element access to a board clear with Philia and efficient late-game single target removal on a decently sized body with Ran'jit. Either way, it looks like we've definitely come a long way since Opus VIII Amarant.
Ice
Going into Opus XIII, Ice was certainly the element with the most... discourse going into it, at least in my personal FFTCG vacuum chambers anyway. "Ice is the new Fire" seemed to be the popular consensus, which is weird because according to my poll last set, people seemed to think Water was the new Fire. But whatever, I get it - People are hungry for the good old days of Ice being the dominant element.
It's been pretty hard to argue that in the last few metas, Ice's primary forms of controlling your opponent's board are mostly made irrelevant by Wind's easy reactivation and the speed at which Forwards flood the field. Plus, temporarily incapacitating a Forward seems less impactful nowadays when Fire and Lightning can just flat out remove them with increasing efficiency. Oh no, do I now support buffing Ice? What happened? I used to be the anti-Ice guy!
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot of these fears were unfounded though, because until Ice gets a Summon that forces you to discard your entire hand ala Neo Bahamut, it's never going to be anywhere near as bad as Fire was. The initial reaction to Physalis reminds me a lot to those people had to Nael and Cloud (8-006L), in that they were solid cards but not the broken boss monsters that people were hoping for. But I think that Ice having the option to dull/freeze your opponent's Characters now rather than just Forwards gives it a nice amount of versatility. Also now that the set is out, I see quite a few Ice decks running her. Most players will typically end their turn with 3 cards in their hand, so it's very easy to get a draw or a Dull/Freeze even without a discard-heavy deck.
Anyway, the ability to lock your opponent out of their Tyro can seriously disrupt your opponent's plays. Hamstringing their CP generation early in the game with cards like Physalis, L'cie Nimbus, Celestia, Laguna, and Titania is also an indirect way of forcing your opponent to pitch cards, especially now that the card designers seem a bit more wary about accidentally bringing back Turbo Discard. I doubt we'll ever see another 2CP card that can be played turn one, but that's probably for the best honestly.
But in my opinion, the biggest change to Ice's mechanics this set was the ability to restrict two of the most prevalent things in the game: Searching and Auto Abilities on Forwards. There's no deck that I can think of that doesn't want to get a search off as soon as possible, so playing Remedi early forces your opponent to either rethink setting up their plays, or discard a card and ensure that you get Cid in your hand quicker. Considering that so many of the most powerful cards in the game have significant auto-abilities, that's probably going to lock your opponent out of a lot of options.
We'll discuss Nimbus a bit more later, but Ice gets a lot of benefit from its combination with the hyper-consistent Earth and Water cards from this set. Either way, I think Ice players can rest a lot easier, since I'm seeing a pretty big resurgence now that the cards are out.
Wind
Sigh... guys I'm just... I'm just so tired. Who thought that one of the cheapest, most unfair combos in the game needed extra recursion AND protection? Who okayed this?
Alright alright, I said I wasn't going to complain about Wind the whole time. Lets try and keep this constructive...
Well as one reader pointed out, Shara does open up using Ritz in different types of decks besides just Fire/Wind, so I can see how she warrants existing. Also it's good that they cooled it with the storm mechanic that was so dominant with Wind cards last set. I'm glad that Wind/Earth doesn't have more ways to draw infinite cards. That's nice.
...But they did also get Gudon, which honestly seems like it would have been a Legend in older sets, but it's a Rare and you can't Dull/Freeze it... Oh and also they got even more ways to protect their cards with Dryad. Annnnnd there's also Ochu, which reactivates two things for only 1 CP, giving Baralai a suitable replacement for Ghido... Cool. Love it.
Alright, well all of my typical and probably unwarranted salt for Wind aside, the fact that the cards in Opus XIII are more specialized rather than generically powerful means that things really didn't get that much crazier for Wind as a whole. As unnecessary as I personally might find Shara to be, she really is best utilized in an FFTA deck specifically. So in Opus XIII, things don't really get significantly better for Wind, they just get new ways to continue doing what they do best.
There still aren't that many ways to stop Wind cards from getting absurd value by constantly reactivating, and I don't think that we'll see Wind's dominance in the meta slow down, though things like FFTA Cid definitely help. For the most part this is a fairly mellow set for Wind, with a majority of its cards dedicated to specific archetypes like Cadets, FFTA, and FFCC (though good category or job support can often be just as good as generic element support, as we'll see later with Water.) I would also be remiss if I didn't say that one of my favorite new tribal archetypes premiers in Wind as well: Engineers.
Sorry Ninjas, Samurais and Monks. You're pretty cool and all, but do you have such strong beard energy? I don't think so. Honestly it's pretty cool that they found a way to make a deck out of all the Cids that have been in the game so far, and I'm really excited to mess around with them and see what cards they get in the future. Now every set that I don't get a Legendary Engineer will automatically be a disappointment for me. They're still going to need a fair bit of support to be on the level of Samurais, Monks, and Dragoons, but a guy can dream, can't he?
Ironically though if they implement a counter to Wind's activation mechanic, the Engineer deck I'm so hype for won't work anymore. But what do I want more? Having my new favorite archetype be a success or putting an end to Storm decks? Damnit, you win this round, Wind...
Earth
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| Never thought I would say that about a man with a chinstrap beard but he wears it so well. |
Funnily enough though, Earth probably got some of the most interesting and mechanically unique cards in Opus XIII compared to other elements, especially in their Multi-Element cards. Doga requires both an incredibly specific deck and a huge amount of setup, but once he's online, even one attack from him could be game-breaking. Unei also plays with Summons, but forcing your opponent to choose between two options can lead to some pretty cheeky mind games, with a very nice S-Ability to boot.
White Tiger L'cie Nimbus looks like it's going to be the new "include 3 copies of this in every deck that runs Earth" card, since you can search and generate the Ice CP required to play him with Tyro and Shantotto. Combining Earth's consistency and big bodies with Ice's control and Water's draw power keeps it as one of the best elements in the game this set. Hmmm... now that I think about it, was Earth really the true evil behind Wind this whole time? I think I need to sit down...
Still, Yang being able to play any Monk card at all finally gives the deck the much needed punch (sorry...) that it's been looking for. It's kind of freaky though - I played Samurai during Opus XI and they became meta next set. I played Monks in Opus XII and they became meta next set. Write in the comments which job you'd like me to meme into top-tier status by playing it in Opus XIII!
Lightning
Lightning was another element that people were hoping would see a surge to its former glory after experiencing a decline in the past few sets. And if they were hoping for their big Braska's Final Aeon style boss monster, hoo boy did they ever get it in Behemoth K. This is something that your opponent is going to want to deal with fast, which is made more difficult with his built-in protection. He's pretty much a guaranteed death sentence when they're at 5 damage even with a board full of Forwards. I don't even think it would be a bad idea to play him early, since slower decks that require a lot of setup and prioritize playing Backups over Forwards are going to have a hard time dealing with such a quick blitz of damage.
Lightning gains some really nice pieces of flexible removal and recovery in Opus XIII. Lightning (the character, not the element) may have gotten knocked from her pedestal as a possible candidate for the Legend from this set, but this card has a lot of potential to justify her high cost. If you choose to remove two of your opponent's Forwards from the game, then you gain a pretty big field advantage at the cost of those cards returning to your opponent's hand when she's removed, which is still better than replaying them to the field. Likewise, choosing two Forwards in your Break Zone means that you now have a threat on the board that your opponent won't want remove, since it will net you a huge swing in hand advantage. Of course, it doesn't say anything about her needing to hit the Break Zone, so flashing her with Rinoa in Ice/Lightning will trigger both her entry and exit abilities.
Zemus is just an all around, generically great card that is both free and recursive at damage 3, which is something that Lightning (the element, not the character) could definitely use more of. The new Odin is a powerful bit of non-damage based removal, and the fact that he can potentially break any Forward of cost 5 or less for only 2 CP is pretty spectacular, but I think his most potent use is actually alongside the Odin from the last set that becomes cheaper for every Odin in the Break Zone. My boyfriend pretty much exclusively played a Lightning (the element and the character funnily enough) deck that revolved around this strategy, so trust that it comes from a lot of very frustrating experience when I say you absolutely do not want more of them to wind up in the Break Zone. That 1 CP insta-break is quite nasty.
Water
As I mentioned earlier, the general consensus among the FFTCG community was that out of all the elements, Water was the one whose mechanics were most in need of a major power boost. Bouncing a Forward back to the opponent's hand isn't always ideal, since most of the time it just feels like an invitation for them to reuse an auto ability. While gaining card advantage through additional draws is always going to be strong, Water just kind of felt slow in comparison to the other elements, and struggled to keep up with the pace of control, swarming, and removal they had access to. So is Opus XIII the set that will finally let Water make a big splash?
Well at first glance, I thought that it didn't. Much of Water is unchanged mechanically from how its functioned from the last few sets, which is a lot of drawing and a lot of bouncing Forwards back to the hand. Things like Summon manipulation and non-targeting removal which Water once used to great effect are nowhere to be seen in this set. But where it really shines this set is in cost reduction and super-efficient, low cost Forwards.
While Mono Water might not be making a comeback anytime soon, the support Water gets this set by combining with Ice and Earth gives a previously slow element a massive boost in speed. It also can't be understated just how good the newly fleshed out Category FFT is for Water as a whole, because it's one of the biggest glow-ups we've had in awhile.
Synergizing particularly well with Knight and Princess support cards like Beatrix and Jegran from the previous set, the FFT cards from Opus XIII come together to make a very consistent package that takes advantage of Water's strengths. There have been several cards named Ramza and Agrias in the game so far (to the point where it was uncertain if they would ever print anybody else from FFT, hence the space on my Bingo card), but Agrias in particular does a lot of legwork for the deck.
Assuming you reduce her cost with Beatrix, you're paying 3 CP to draw a card and potentially clear a Forward from your opponent's side of the field, which is already a huge swing in your advantage. Plus once you get to Damage 5, you're getting back more CP than it cost to play her with the extra search. Of course, all of this assumes you also have Ovelia out on the field, but if for some reason you aren't playing her and Beatrix, then you might just be better off playing another deck my friend.
On the surface Ovelia doesn't look particularly exciting, since outside of her S-Ability, all she really does is draw a card when an FFT Forward is broken. However if Tenzen has taught us anything, it's not to underestimate just how much value an extra draw can net you. And since Ovelia's effect works on either player's turn, this can lead to some particularly fun shenanigan's, especially when you combine it with Aegis.
Imagine this scenario: It's your opponent's turn and before they pass, you use Aegis to protect your Agrias, then cast Famfrit (9-113H), selecting her and Porom (9-115R) as your targets. With this, you've potentially netted yourself a whopping four cards from all the various effects going off, and taken out three of your opponent's Forwards. And would you look at that? They're wide open and it's now your turn.
Seriously, you're going to want to get as many copies of Ovelia back in your hand as soon as possible, so search them out with the new Sarah, recover them with Simon or Ramza (10-103R), and for the love of god, run something that can negate Mist Dragon. I've even seen people running Earth/Water/Lightning FFT since combining Beatrix and Ovelia makes Delita (3-088L) a big, cheap Forward that is exceptionally difficult to deal with. See what I meant about old cards getting better this set?
Water may not have gotten their big, destructive card like Braska's Final Aeon or Behemoth K this set, which would admittedly be somewhat odd for a more support oriented element, but there are a lot of interesting new strategies for Water to play around with in Opus XIII. With Celestia and Sophie opening the way for element combinations that haven't seen too much use in recent seasons, I think it's time for Water to make a comeback.
Even a card as simple as Sara opens the way for Water's inclusion in a lot of new decks. We're already seeing Opus III's Lenna make a big comeback because not only is she a Princess, she has so many amazing targets to revive from the Break Zone like Sarah, Cagnazzo, Sophie, and Nichol (who makes Sarah and Sophie cost 0 CP since she wasn't already good enough). You know, it's actually kind of funny. Everybody was hoping for Water to get a boss monster when all it really needed was the love of a Princess the whole time.
And with that we come to the succulent morsel of fruit I know everybody is really here for: The chance to win free stuff! Since Opus XI exposed me for the charlatan I really am, even if I didn't get a Bingo this set I would have done a raffle anyway - but it does give me the serotonin boost that I need to make it through the week when I do. Putting those gold stamps on the card is reward enough for a cave-dwelling ruffian like myself, but it's definitely not for you, Oh beautiful and sophisticated reader. But what would be a prize so deserving of one possessing such sagacious taste in trading card game blogs?
To answer that question, I must tell you a tale. A tale of failure.
So yeah, figuring out what I should give away for Opus XIII was a bit of a headscratcher for me. With the combination of delays in the States and an increasing scarcity of TCG products, I didn't want to promise something that I wouldn't be able to deliver on. I don't even know if I'll be able to get a prerelease kit for myself this time around, let alone one to give away, but I had to figure out something.
It was then that I was informed about a store in Long Island that got a Reunion kit in stock, and would be hosting a tournament. Here was my chance to get something people were really hungry for. Something that would get people talking, and getting me that sweet, sweet engagement I so desire: The Final Fantasy VII Reunion playmat. I practiced for weeks with my Samurai deck and headed out that fateful Saturday to The Comic Book Depot up in Wantagh to see if I had what it took to take the top spot.
And then I saw that two other guys brought Samurai decks and I freaked out and decided to go rogue with Ninjas instead. Whoops. So as it turns out I did not in fact win, or come anywhere close to the top. That honor instead goes to my buddy Andrew Cheah, Lord of Card Games and Smugness.
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| Truly the person most deserving of this coveted prize was the guy who left the game for the Digimon TCG. |
So yeah, sadly that plan didn't work out, though consider how little experience I have with tournaments with actual stakes, it wasn't really an unexpected development. Besides, if I won, then my brand of being the plucky Lv.1 Onion Knight would be totally unbelievable, and we can't have that now can we? But either way now I was at a loss for what to raffle away. That is, until one kind soul from the tournament came up to me and handed me his Aerith promo.
"I heard you talking about needing something to raffle away, so I hope you can use this as a prize."
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| And then the Onion Knight's heart grew three sizes that day. |
And this right here is why I love the FFTCG community, and why I keep making content. It really is such a welcoming and tight-knit community, and even after a global pandemic and all the other nonsense we've all been through the last year, we've still got each other's backs. So thanks to that touching gesture of generosity, I had my prize. But I wouldn't feel right just raffling off something somebody gave me.
I mentioned this a bit last raffle, but I want to go on record again to say that I'm not like... sponsored by Square-Enix or any card game shops or anything like that. This isn't meant to be me complaining or trying to come off like I'm doing a flex or anything, but know that I have not gotten so much as a single promo for my own collection, let alone one to raffle away to you guys. Everything I've given away on this blog has always come out of my own pocket, whether it be commissioning artists or buying product from other members of the community.
And you know why I do it? Because I love it. In spite of all the sarcasm and hyperbole, I really and truly do appreciate everyone who reads this blog. Despite the whole "Edgelord-Underdog" persona, I actually have nothing but respect for the people who have been organizing tournaments online, because I did it one time and it's actually really stressful. The FFTCG community has helped me out a lot over the years, so I like to give something back.
So I decided if I had gotten an Aerith promo to give away, I may as well make it a theme...
So yes, in addition to the Aerith promo, one lucky winner will also win this Statuette of everyone's favorite flower girl and planet protector that I picked up from the Square-Enix store. Good luck to everyone who enters, and may the waifu odds be ever in your favor!
Raffle Rules:
1) In order to be eligible for the raffle, you must complete the survey I'll be linking below. Your entry makes you eligible to win both the Aerith Statuette and Reunion Promo.
2) The contest is open to both local and international fans, so if you don't happen to be from the US, don't sweat it! I will be in contact with the winners to discuss shipping arrangements. (Note: Due to obvious global issues there may be some delays in getting this to you depending on where you live, but I'll be sure to mail it out as soon as possible.)
3) The Raffle submission period will go for two weeks from the post date of this blog (April 22nd - May 5th), until Wednesday, May 5th at 8PM EST. I'll announce the winner on Facebook after.
4) I will contact the winner via the email they submit in the survey. If I do not hear back from a winner in 48 hours, I will choose another winner at random, so be sure to submit an email that you check often!
Enter the Raffle Here!!
So that's it for my Opus XIII review! It's a bit strange to do a review when I haven't gotten the cards yet. It's even weirder that we've already started getting Opus XIV spoilers, but no rest for the wicked I guess. For now, I'll be here waiting for the moment when I can do a prerelease and try to stop myself from strangling the person sitting across from me whose kit had a full-art Legacy Fusoya. I know it's going to happen. It is my fate.
Until next time - keep on grinding,
