Salutations all you creatures of the deep, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that has been around long enough to remember when "Cloud of Darkness Monster Decks" were a thing.
Monsters certainly are an interesting class of cards in the FFTCG aren't they? Ever since they were introduced as the hot new mechanic waaaaay back in the pioneer days of Opus IV, Monster cards have always felt a bit like the card designers experimenting with new mechanics to see what sticks. Doing a little bit of everything from becoming Forwards, to using counters, to working as hand traps, it was often a bit difficult to figure out how you can make space in your decks for Monsters in the past. Lately though, Monsters have really been hitting their stride and have seen a pretty big resurgence, with powerhouses like Typhon, Tros, Byblos, and Melusine wreaking havock in all kinds of decks.
Of course, all of the cards I just mentioned have the benefit of being of the "Hero" rarity, so it's hardly surprising that they'd have a power level to match. So can a "Rare" monster rise through the ranks of the denizens of darkness and upgrade from lowly minion to midboss? Let's find out with this new spoiler fresh out of From Nightmares: Buffasaur!
Buffasaur is a unique Category: FFCC Monster with a simple but powerful effect. When your opponent plays a monster while Buffasaur is on the field, you can put him into the Break Zone to deal it 8000 damage at the cost of one point of damage to yourself. This kind of aggressive board control can essentially invalidate the CP cost your opponent paid to play a Forward, especially when you consider just how prevalent cheating out Forwards for free is in the current state of the FFTCG. Because of the way Buffasaur's effect is worded, you're responding to the Forward entering the field, rather than choosing the Forward you're dealing damage to. That means that cards that can't be chosen by abilities can still be hit by Buffasaur's damage, and you would also be able to bypass Cecil's protection effect as well. Not too shabby for a 2CP monster!
Folks who have been playing the FFTCG since the early days will notice that Buffasaur's effect is incredibly similar to that of Grenade from Opus V. However, there's an important distinction between the two cards' effects that I think makes Buffasaur much more useful: Grenade triggers as soon as a qualifying forward enters the field, whereas with Buffasaur, you can choose whether or not you want to activate the effect. Having control over when you choose to trigger Buffasaur means that your opponent also can't play around it by sacrificing a small, cheap Forward to waste the trap you just set.
Buffasaur also improves on Grenade by not limiting its effect to Forwards of 8k power and under. This means that you can combo Buffasaur's effect with other sources of ping damage like Mutsuki or Iroha to finish something off. (It was called to my attention that because Buffasaur is placed into the Break Zone, you can't buff his damage with Iroha's effect, since he's no longer a Fire Character you control at that point. Thanks to Stephen Thomas Sause and Andrew Needham for pointing that out!).
Mira is an excellent example of how you can use Buffasaur's self-damage to your advantage. Most decks that use Mira generally run her alongside Luminous Puma so you can play it for free with her effect and recover two cards from your Break Zone. But getting to Damage 5 can sometimes be a bit tricky, especially if your opponent is determined to keep you at Damage 4 so they can attempt to set up and take you out in one turn. Buffasaur not only helps Mira play larger targets, but also guarantees you'll be hitting your target for a total of 10k damage with his effect when he leaves the field. It could even be worth it to just use Mira's effect to recover your Buffasaur, making it all the more difficult for your opponent to play Forwards while enabling cards with damage effects like Basch or Bahamut.
Being a 2-cost monster also makes him a good target to use with 5CP Relm's effect too. Playing both Buffasaur and Goblin with Relm's effect makes it extremely dangerous for your opponent to play even very large Forwards, since you can knock out a Forward even up to 11k power with their combined damage. Using Buffasaur's self-damage in Water/Fire decks that have a lot of powerful EX Burst cards like Leviathan and Remora is also a good option, especially if you can keep re-triggering them with Akstar.
Okay so this is a bit of a weird one, but I can't resist coming up with at least one crackpot combo. Despite her amazing artwork, this version of Mira definitely hasn't seen a whole lot of play. But since Buffasaur is a Category FFCC character, he synergizes pretty nicely with her. When Buffasaur triggers and is sent to the Break Zone, you can use Mira to search for another copy of it, setting up another trap for your opponent. Of course, you could also just do this with the original Mira from Opus IV, and Buffasaur would only cost 1 with that version of her.
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Would I trade a Signature Cloud card for a playset of Full-Art Sabin? No, because I would already HAVE a playset of them, thank you very much! |
From Nightmares is certainly shaping up to be an interesting set, and I really do appreciate the wider variety of Monster effects we're seeing, rather than slightly altered versions of the same effect across each element like we've had in the past. I suppose it makes sense though, since with the reveal of the Weapons from Final Fantasy VII, it would seem that the set is placing a pretty heavy thematic emphasis on some of the most daunting horrors to be found throughout the games. And had I been smart enough to figure out the theme behind the title of this set beforehand, I may have made some more informed choices with my Bingo this time around, though there's still plenty of time to get lucky with it!
I actually had a bit of a rough time figuring out what might be coming in this set, and I admit that I was actually really thrown off by the fact that there were three different artists credited as doing art for Final Fantasy II this time around. Hence my madman's wish for more Rebel support. Maybe instead, I should have dedicated a square here to one of the iconic monstrosities found in FFII like... uh... the Emperor of Hell? Yeah that's all I got, so both of you Final Fantasy II fans reading this can school me in the comments.
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As an XI fan, I am both fully aware that I live in a glass house, and yet I still come fully armed with stones to sling.
In any case, what do you guys think of the new cards shown so far? Do you think the old dreams of a fully Monster-centric deck will finally be realized this set? Or will it be the stuff of nightmares instead? In the meantime I'll be here, single-handedly inflating the market price for those full art Sabins.
