Critical Hit! Thoughts on Card Bans

 

Welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight - the Final Fantasy TCG blog where I jam a big old stick in the rails of the new card hype train for with my unsolicited THOUGHTS and FEELINGS. 

So this is a pretty weird thing to admit given the subject matter of this blog, but I've actually been pretty bored with the FFTCG as of late.

Look what you've done! Now you have me relating to a XIV character! 

There's a lot of reasons behind this which I don't want to get too much into right now, but I've felt that the game has been pretty stagnant for a while now. Maybe this is just a natural consequence of playing a game for the last 8 years, but to sum up some of my whinging quickly: 

• Category decks often feel like they lack a unique identity from each other, and it often feels like certain titles get perpetually blue-balled with half-baked support. 
  
  
• There's a lack of unique mechanics that feel "Final Fantasy", and locking Priming behind only category XVI feels like a waste. You'll notice this is a direct contradiction to my first complaint, but what I'm saying is, either add more specific mechanics to other categories, or expand Priming to be an effect for other "transforming" characters from other games. Yeah, I know it's called "Priming" which is a XVI thing, but it's not like all the characters with Warp are known to "Warp" in their games, so it's just semantics at this point.    
  
  
• Most Job-based decks in the meta now largely feel homogeneous, being aggressive mid-rangey control-ish decks with a similar gameplan of "play a card that plays other cards for free" (Knights, Sky Pirates, Warriors, WoL's, Scions). Jobs with unique playstyles like Black Mages, Ninjas, and Dancers have largely been forgotten or get half-cocked support.
  
  
• Elemental deck cores haven't really shifted in years. There doesn't feel like there's a ton of flexibility in the cards you play in certain elements, and the choice not to play specific elemental staples feels like a liability. This isn't a complaint that good cards are popular, but rather the lack of better alternatives or effective counters printed in subsequent sets means you feel at least partially "locked-in" when starting to build any deck with that element. Any deviation away from those staples mean's you're just shooting yourself in the foot, rather than having a unique alternate playstyle. 
  
  
• The strength of certain elemental combinations feels largely dependent on if they get some sort of Tribal support. Certain element combinations still largely feel weak and underused (Wind/Fire, Water/Ice, Fire/Lightning, Lightning/Wind). Running more than 2 elements outside of Earth cores or Tribal decks that easily play free cards, thus can ignore elemental restrictions, feels like a risk. 

I was recently given the absolutely sage advice from another player that "If you're not happy with it, you could always play something else." And look, I understand the sentiment of not spending time engaging with something that doesn't feel as fulfilling as it used to. I also get that complaining isn't necessarily productive. I've been playing this game long enough to remember a whole host of fairly petty yet vocal complaints that were annoying to listen to (like Tifa not being a Monk being bad game design. Remember that?). And you know what? I absolutely COULD go play something else. I like Gundam! I like Disney! I tolerate Pokemon! I totally could put my Final Fantasy decks into retirement and go play one of those TCG's instead, and maybe it would be a less frustrating experience for me. 

BUT, I also think responding to a player's gripes with "lol play something else then" is a pretty poor response, least of all because it's just telling somebody to shut the hell up while hiding behind the optics of civility. I think that it's okay to be passionate about something, and sometimes passion can lead to people having strong, and sometimes negative opinions on something. Within reason, I don't see what's wrong with that, as long as you don't make it your entire personality. I'm not planning on becoming some "debate me" bro that complains about women in Star Wars or whatever. 

I think it's only natural after engaging with something for so long to wish that certain things could be done better, or to wish things felt fresher. I think that there should be space for players to air complaints they have with the game. We all play FFTCG because we're passionate about it for one reason or another, whether it be because we like the individual video games from the series, or really enjoy card games, there's something about the FFTCG that resonates with us. So to dismiss anyone with criticism about the game just feels off to me. Besides, if after writing this blog for 8 years hasn't gotten me a PR package from Square Enix, I think it's okay not to be positive all the time about their products here.  

This blog is a "Go talk to a wall"-free zone

Let me make one thing clear: I'm not naive enough to think that anybody in charge of the game's direction or card design reads this blog, or will take anything from it. Hobby Japan ain't uploading my silly ramblings into Google Translate any time soon, and I may share a birthday with Kageyama, but I'm quite sure he has no idea who I am. That being said, I also don't want to give the impression that my gripes are necessarily shared with the player base as a whole either. One of the things that really grinds my gears is when people online aren't able to differentiate between them not having a personal preference for something, and something being bad. Like rather than saying "this just isn't my taste", you get "this thing people like actually SUCKS and I have the MATH to prove it" or whatever. 

I don't want to do that here. I'm not saying this to try to shield myself from criticism if anyone disagrees with me either, just that I understand my personal opinions may not necessarily reflect an actual flaw with the game that needs to be fixed for it to be good. It's just things I think would make the game better. If you think I'm wildly off base and the game is just as good if not better than it's ever been, then that's great! I WANT to actually discuss these things with people and share our differing perspectives, and I sure as hell don't want to respond to people like I'm a toxic boss on Kitchen Nightmares telling disgruntled employees "if you don't like it, there's the door". Let's talk about this! Let's disagree about this! 

So if I've been so bored playing the FFTCG, what am I doing here then? What was it that got me to crawl out of my little Onion Knight burrow to make a long, ranty blog post? 

Card bans, that's what. 

Me at locals after being slapped around by WoLs and Relm Monsters one too many times 

I think this has been a pretty historic ban list for the FFTCG. In the past, we've only seen cards become restricted if they've created such a toxic, one-sided gameplay environment that an urgent ban or limitation was needed to maintain healthy gameplay balance. So to many, the decision to limit cards like Tyro and Atomos must seem odd, since it's not like they enabled any game-breaking combos in the same way that Light Yuna or Opus I Rikku did. Sure Refia was a little cracked, but so is most of the Warrior of Light deck at this point. Otherwise, they were just strong, consistent cards that saw a lot of use. I've seen a lot of people say that they thought the bans were unnecessary since stuff like Tyro and Atomos "weren't even a problem". So with that in mind, what are my thoughts on these restrictions? 

 

Good. I'm quite happy that these cards were removed from the pool. Given my feelings of the game's stagnation, I'm weirdly excited by the prospect of limiting cards for the purpose of promoting deck diversity - at least if their claims in the post about the bans are to be believed anyway. If I had to take a wild stab in the dark, I'd say the primary motivation for this had something to do with the top decks from Worlds once again being Warriors of Light and Relm Monsters. From a game design perspective, this is pretty embarrassing, since it's proof that even a year's worth of card releases wasn't enough to make other decks competitive. 

It's also pretty bad from a merchandise perspective too. Say you're SE/HJ, and you've released a new product line - the World Championship decks. Ideally your plan would be to release a new version of this every year and get more product in the hands of players. Well, now you can't do that since the top 2 decks between 2024 and 2025 share a majority of the same cards between them. Existing players aren't going to buy such a similar product twice, so you'll likely get less sales unless you do something drastically different like fully foil the cards or something, which would just drive up production costs. So you may as well bite the bullet and ban some of the most prevalent cards featured in those decks so that this doesn't happen again next year. But that's just a theory. A GAME THE-

Ahem. 

Wild speculation aside, I'd like to take a look at these cards and give my thoughts as to what factors potentially led to these particular cards getting banned/restricted. You know, use it as a learning experience of sorts. Sure it's like, a month since these bans were announced, so this is pretty late, but: 

1) This weekend marks when the bans have actually gone into effect, so we've only just made it into the environment where the cards are no longer in play.

2) When have I ever done anything in a timely fashion here? 

Given the stated intention of these bans to promote deck building diversity, let's take a look at some of the potential reasons these cards were limited. 

Kicking things off with one of the more unusual of the bans, we have Tyro. From what I've seen online, most people were pretty confused by this one. After all, Tyro was the glue for making Earth one of the most accessible multi-element cores in the game. Sure, the EX burst letting you search any Forward is pretty strong, but it's not like Thordan doesn't also have a Bust that is handily better than Tyro's since it lets you search any card you like. So why should he get to live while poor, sweet Tyro gets taken out the way of Old Yeller? 

Well, I think Tyro just does too much. 

He's a searcher. He's a color fixer. He buffs your Forwards by 2K late in the game. AND he's an EX burst on top of that, so Warriors of Light, a deck that can pretty handily end their opponent's turns with more than six cards in hand with all the draw-centric EX bursts stuffed into it, just has even more consistency than the average deck. Even if you're using a mono-earth deck, his straightforward search effect makes him a near-mandatory inclusion in every Earth build, with the only question being if you include two or three copies. At least, that's my most reasonable theory behind his banning. I do, however, have a crazier, tinfoil hat theory I'd like to offer up if you're interested...  

I think Tyro was killed so Warrior of Light could live. 

Given that Warrior of Light is both the only 4-color multi-element in the game and the signed chase card for the Legacy Reprint collection, I can see the game producers being reluctant to restrict him. But I also think that they underestimated just how big of an impact he was going to have on the meta. The intention behind him seemed to be the payoff for what was probably seen as a a difficult ask - running a deck with four colors. What they didn't seem to realize is that for a deck with an Earth core, that's significantly easier to do than say, a Fire/Wind/Lightning/Ice deck, and that's in no small part to cards like Tyro allowing for easy color fixing, combined with the Category III and V packages finally coalescing into one cohesive Warrior of Light package. 

And sure, it's not like cards like Cait Sith, Leo, and Shantotto don't still exist, but none of those cards offer the speed and lack of risk that Tyro did. Cait Sith requires a specific damage threshold to use her color fixing effect, Shantotto wipes out your established board of Forwards and prevents you from recovering them, and Leo is a more fragile Forward that benefits from a wide Character count. None of them have the consistency that Tyro offered, even not factoring the EX burst into the equation. 

So yeah, now Tyro is dead, and although there are several other options Earth decks can use to color fix, it'll certainly be a lot less easy. But here's an absolutely off the wall opinion: I don't think that 28 sets into a game's lifespan, it should be hard to accommodate running 3 elements outside of decks that are specifically built to be rainbow decks like Soiree and The Twelve, nor do I think that the ability to comfortably do so should exclusively be Earth's "thing". But I guess we'll see if that Fire/Wind/Lighting/Ice multi-element card gets printed in the future to put that to the test. 

If Tyro was a surprise ban, our resident Pictomancer here was uh... not. I think most people have been nervously awaiting this ban for quite some time, if not actively demanding it. Back when Relm was first printed, this probably seemed like an insignificant effect. After all, how impactful could a 1 cost monster be? 

Ahem... 

But as the pool of Monsters expanded and more powerful cards like Tros and Atomos were printed Relm became the perfect swiss-army knife. Now she can flood the board and give you consistent draw power with untargetable Forwards like Blue Wyrm, play non-targeting removal with Quadav that can clear off two Forwards, and access to a draw-loop with Goblin (XI) that can fetch you a Backup in a pinch and give access to consistent ping damage. As more and more low cost monsters were printed, it also made getting the requisite 5 monsters to trigger Relm's once-a-turn bounce effect much more trivial, so you had access to even more removal on top of what your Monsters provided. Once Witch of the Fens was printed though, Water Monster cores became truly back-breaking, since now, the cheap, one-time use Monsters Relm could play could be used as a steady source of removal, even if they couldn't become a Forward like Apkallu. 

So now, as a card designer, you're in a really weird position. You either have to purposely print a bunch of high-cost monsters or purposely make all of the low-cost monsters you print in the future bad so they don't make an already powerful deck even more broken. They absolutely do *not* like printing high-cost Monsters that aren't laughably bad for some reason (besides Luminous Puma since it recovers two cards, so of course it's good), so Relm took one for the Monster Squad. 

Now it looks like the new Golbez will be taking the mantle as resident Monster Mommy, which means we'll probably be seeing a lot more Exoray and Octomammoth in the future. Monster players may even have to debase themselves by playing the Legend Relm who has been sitting dusty in many a binder since her release, since the old Opus XI Relm pretty much outclassed her in every way possible. It would be pretty interesting to see Monster decks skew more towards Category VI, but you know what would be even more interesting? HAVING A MONSTER DECK THAT ISN'T WATER! 

Like my complaints about Tyro, it's becoming pretty tiresome that only certain elements (Mostly Water and Earth) are the only ones that can comfortably accommodate a dedicated Monster deck, considering that Monsters are, y'know, a staple card category spread across all the elements. And I don't mean "use monsters as occasional utility cards" like Wind does with Evrae or Ice does with Scale Toad - another card I suspect we'll be seeing more of in the future. I mean a full on, in-your-face Monster Mash deck. But I guess since the first wave of Monster support in Opus IV was based Water, it has to stay that way forever, even all this time later. 

There's a part of me that can't help but wonder if Atomos got banned because he caught a stray from Relm. Being a 2 cost Monster that was in the top deck at Worlds 2024 certainly didn't help things, but in 2025 there wasn't a single list that ran Atomos at Worlds, even in the Wind-heavy decks. It's honestly pretty surprising that Mono Wind didn't make an appearance at all at Worlds this year, since it's had a pretty steady presence in the competitive scene ever since Storm was introduced as an archetype. But that consistency may have been what played a role in Atomos getting the boot.

With Atomos essentially being a free-energy machine that can go in any deck that can play a 2 cost Monster, it makes sense that the game producers would want to keep that under control for the future. If I may throw my two gil in though, I think Atomos contributed to a playstyle that isn't super fun to go up against. Storm decks are powerful because constantly reactivating your Backups to play more cards means that you can cast a ton of stuff in one turn. I assume the intention was to have players thoughtfully save their combo pieces until they can pull off one big, explosive turn. Atomos giving you 2CP refund on every turn's second cast is already pretty strong and helps enable that. But once you get to Damage 3, Atomos fully reactivating all your Backups in addition to the previous effect means every turn is your big, explosive turn, and there's very little way to interact with it once it gets set up. Combine that with insane draw power from cards like Alexander, Chocolatte, and Chocobo, and you're almost guaranteed to have your combo pieces every turn. 

I feel a little less confident speculating on this than I did with Tyro and Relm, but my guess is with cards like the new Vayne, they want to introduce more counterplay to Storm-style decks' constant cast-a-thon. It would be pretty cool if in the future there was an archetype that specifically revolved around only casting 1 card a turn, but that may be the Marvel Snap Player in me taking inspiration from Doom 2099 decks. Getting back on track though, banning Atomos may be more of a case of future-proofing cards coming out in following set from being too cracked, similarly to how Cecil was banned just before Zeromus came out. Only time will tell I guess, but for now, pour one out for the ultimate suckboy. 

 

Gross. Disgusting. Stupid. And those are the nice things I have to say about Refia. This card was the ultimate coalescence of Warriors of Light from kind of a disjointed but fun deck to an absolute beast that consistently topped tournaments. Unlike the other cards on this list, Refia isn't dead, she's just on house arrest, being limited to one copy per deck. And if I had to make an educated guess again, if the game designers had the choice of Limiting 4-color WoL or her, she was going to be the sacrificial lamb. But she did get a full-art reprint just five sets ago, and we can't fully get rid of her I guess, so limited she is.  

Of course she's still around, but we've pretty quickly seen decks drop off the map once a key card gets banned. With more Category V support coming next set (seriously, didn't we JUST get a full-art Faris two sets ago?), I have the distinct feeling Warrior of Light support won't stop coming anytime soon. Perhaps limiting Refia was a way of preventing the top deck from getting even more cracked with future releases, but even without that, I think she just made the deck too busted in general. 

A close friend of mine who usually builds off-the-wall casual decks built WoL's over the years until he eventually made top cut with the deck at last years Local Qualifier tournament. Even as somebody who loved the deck, he still referred to it as "the Refia Slop deck". Giving a deck that already has NO problems with draw power even more consistency is one thing. Eliminating the risk of going too wide by reactivating all your WoL Backups (of which there are now one in each element) so you can always play your counter Summons, or pop off with 4 color WoL during your Main Phase 2? Okay, reel it in a little. Converting all of your Warriors of Light into bombs that can be used for the most effective and permanent ways to deny your opponent a resource *and* ensure you don't hit an EX burst in the process if you place it on top of their deck, while *still* having them ready to attack? Insert the Angry Video Game Nerd's WHAT WERE THEY THINKING clip riiiiight about there. 

She just did way way waaaaay too much for the deck, and that's not even considering that she pretty much invalidates Ice's whole shtick by making your WoL cards impossible to Dull and Freeze. I think that Warriors of Light will still be the game producer's "golden boy" for some time, but for now, I think it's time for a break. Or, you know, maybe you could print the Warriors of Darkness from FFXIV so that can be an actual deck? I get that they don't have official renders of anyone besides Ardbert from that, but maybe we can take a break from commissioning artwork of characters who just got new cards two sets ago and give somebody else a chance? I feel like there's some reason why certain characters don't get new art, but Square Enix's licensing practices continue to be an enigma.  

                                                  *****  

Even with these current restrictions, I'm really not sure if this will do anything to move the needle very much. Warriors will probably rise up to fill the void left by WoL, and we'll all be living in fear of whichever deck can play out Seymour faster. Even WoL's have no real problem without Tyro, since Time Magic Bartz has zero problems pumping out anything you need from the deck. Even limiting Refia to 1 is only effective if you have a way of removing her from the game, since WoL's also have a ton of recovery. So if these bans don't really feel like enough, what do I think would? 

Well... you see...

This article... was actually a trap. You thought that this was just a one-off rant? Oh no, my friend. It's actually the start of a series. And next time, it's gonna be a group activity. It's going to be about something every TCG player loves and is never a controversial point of contention with anyone ever: 

~gIvInG mY oPiNiOnS oN cArDs I tHiNk ShOuLd Be BaNnEd WoOoOoOo!~ 

Ban Opus III Zidane WoOoOoOooo! 

I'm sure everyone will be super cool and chill about it. In any case, what do you guys think about these new bans? Do you think it's valid to prune cards from the game to make deck building more diverse in the FFTCG? Do you think Banning Tyro and Atomos will change anything, or will WoLs continue to wreak havok on the meta? 

Until next time - Keep on grinding, 

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Spoiled Onions: Edge

  

Greetings traveler, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The FFTCG blog that failed the test to become both a Ninja and a Sage, and is totally not bitter about it at all. 

Dreamlike Oceans is just around the corner, and with a new set comes new community spoilers. I actually wasn't sure if this would be happening due to a shakeup at SE's team late last year, but once again I've been summoned from the onion patch to reveal a new card to you fine folks. So without further ado, I'm happy to reveal Edge (28-041C)! 

So right off the bat, the Back Attack keyword is one that we don't see very often in the FFTCG. As of the time of me writing this, of the 4000+ cards in the game, only 29 of them have Back Attack. Being able to play a card during your opponent's turn is pretty cool and can lead to some tricky plays. Ideally, you'd probably want to wait until you hit Damage 5 so that he deals 8K on entry and removes something on your opponent's field while adding a surprise Forward to your own. Edge's Damage 5 effect also increases the combat damage Edge can do on block, so Edge can effectively trade with Forwards up to 11K power. 

Being a Category IV Forward also gives this card a good amount of solid support. The new Rydia Legend specifically would be helpful to pair with Edge. Since you'd most likely play Edge on your opponent's turn with his Back Attack effect, you now have a surprise 9K power body on the field. Her protection effect can help you maintain your board size if your opponent tries to hit Edge with a targeted effect, so once it shifts back to your turn, you can go on the offensive. 

Category IV is typically not a deck that requires specific numbers to be strong, but the ability to play out a Forward on your opponent's turn plays nicely with Ceodore. Since you'd need two other Forwards in addition to Ceodore to use his break effect, playing Edge on your opponent's turn at Damage 5 can help you eliminate two of your Opponent's Characters. Then once your Attack phase begins, you can reactivate your Cat IV Forwards and push for damage. You can further pair it with cards like Hooded Man (11-054R) to make sure you have blockers ready at the end of your turn. 

Last for Category IV support is the Opus 20 Water Cecil. If you wanted to go with a Cat IV crystal build, playing Edge with Back Attack on your opponent's turn could be a surprising way to generate an extra crystal to use Cecil's buff and protection effect. As for other decks outside of Category IV, where could this new Edge go? You might be tempted to include him in a Ninja build, since it includes a lot of Cat IV characters anyway like the Eblan Four. However, I would advise against it. 

The Ninja deck is very near and dear to my heart, being a pretty fun and flexible build even up to the modern day. The problem is, unfortunately, name clash. The H Edge from way back in Opus XI is still, in my opinion, pretty irreplaceable. Making all of your Ninjas cost one less is already absurdly strong support that even the likes of Knights and Warriors don't have access to, but add in the fact that Edge enables them to be played with any element and builds up a constant stream of ping damage you can use to remove targets with, and I can't see the deck functioning as well without it. Of course, you could also argue that the Opus XI Edge is an early game card, and could use the new Dreamlike Oceans Edge as a late game card. It does, after all, require you to be at Damage 5 to get the most out of playing him. While that is true, I would say late game for Ninjas, you'd likely rather play the Edge Limit Break card from your side deck. Having all of your Ninjas do 7k damage on swing is a lot more impactful than one instance of 8k damage, and I'd rather not have to worry about the new Edge clogging up the board when I want to LB. 

Category DFF could be a fun home for the new Edge though. Similar to the Water Cecil tech mentioned earlier, playing Edge with Back Attack gives you a spare crystal via Warrior of Light, and Cecil buffs him to 9K power. He's easily searchable with Bartz, and can be used as a bluff to deter attacks if your opponents know you have a damage dealing Back Attack card in your hand. My one wish is that you had some way of giving Edge First Strike so playing him out earlier than Damage 5 didn't feel so bad, but sadly the Wind Dragoon Backup specifies that you can only use its effect on your turn. You could use Lancer I guess, but I'm pretty sure nobody is using that card outside of starter decks. 

And there you have it! Another card down for Dreamlike Oceans. Personally I think I'm most excited that we're finally getting solid Category IX support, but sadly, I think the dream of having more Tantalus members will go unrealized. Or a good Amarant, but I think I may be the only person on the planet who likes Amarant. Don't judge me. 

Until next time - keep on grinding, 

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Spoiled Onions: Ace

 

Greetings all you Class Zero Cadets, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that swapped out its Onion helm for a carved pumpkin head. 

Happy Halloween everyone! Much like the Great Pumpkin of yore, I rise from the pumpkin patch of obscurity to deliver spoilers to all the good TCG players. But this time around... you may just wish you got a rock instead. 

I'm not about to sit here and pretend that every time I've gotten a spoiler, it's always been a winner. There have been quite a few cards I've revealed over the past few years that weren't game breaking, but I've always tried to keep a positive spin on things. I've tried to find interesting or niche combos that - even if they weren't the most practical - could be a cool way to use different cards, because that's what I find fun. But this time around, I quite literally have nothing to say about this card. So let's rip the band-aid off and reveal my community spoiler for Journey of Discovery: Ace 

Honestly, what can I say about this card that isn't overwhelmingly obvious at first glance. It is extremely expensive for what it does, Paying 6 to ping one card for 9k is already pretty rough. This is especially true considering FFTCG's ongoing problem of expensive cards feeling less "worth it" than low cost cards with overpowered effects, but if you're going to pay 6 for something, it ain't gunna be this. The fact that it's got such a high cost and it's not even an EX burst also further limits how usable this Ace is. 

Of course he does have a secondary effect too. For one CP and putting Ace into the Break Zone, you can ping something for 5000 damage. Hmm... why does this seem sorta familiar though? 

Oh right, because it's almost exactly the same as another card revealed for this set, Fire Elemental. Ace just does the higher damage amount up front, and the smaller amount when you put it into the Break Zone. I'd argue this makes Ace way more usable than Fire Elemental considering their high costs. But it's just extremely funny that in this set, they essentially printed the same card twice, just put that thang down, flipped it, and reversed it. 

What's even more frustrating is that he's not even a good Cadet card, a deck that *still* has't managed to find its footing even with such heavy support two sets ago. It looks like that might be corrected in Journey of Discovery, with cards like Nine finally at least acknowledging that Cadets are a three-element deck. If I'm being generous, I can suggest that you run this Ace as Special fodder for other Ace cards, but even then, there are WAY better candidates for that you'd actually want to play. The 2 cost Backup Ace at least gives you the option of paying less for a lower amount of damage, or paying more to deal with a bigger target - and that card came out seventeen sets ago! 

Perhaps it's fitting for Halloween, but reviewing this card has sent me into a time warp. This kind of card design really sends me back to when I first started blogging about this game in 2017: The ye' olden times when Fire cards were way too expensive for what they did, or had humongous drawback in an attempt to "balance" them. Given that, I really struggled to think of any cards that Ace would combo well with. But let it never be said that I back down from a challenge! After browsing through 27 sets of cards, I finally managed to find a group of cards that Ace feels like he belongs with. 

Wanna play the OG version of Lenna/Primal Leviathan, but really slow and bad? Then Opus I Auron is the perfect card to combo with Ace! It's actually a kind of funny that given all of the ways to free play expensive cards in more recent sets, a card from the first set in the game is still the only way you can play any Fire Backup without restrictions. You'd obviously want to play the most expensive Backup you could with Auron to offset his huge cost, and before Ace, There were only six Fire Backups over the cost 5 of in the game. But now with Ace, now there's seven! Isn't that something?  

Tired of having to dull Ace to use his secondary ping effect, leaving you unable to generate CP with him before putting him into the Break Zone? There just has to be a better way! But what would you say if I told you that, for the cost of dulling two other Backups, you could activate Ace again to get that sweet sweet 5k ping? Well then Chocobo Chick is the card for you!

Oh you thought I was going to forget about this card? Hell no. We're bringing back Dark Lord if it's the last thing I do. Think of all the things you can do with that extra 3K ping. And it's every turn? For Free? Are you kidding me?? You can totally kill 8K's by combining it with Ace's 5K ping! 

If you had any guts you would actually do this. You could run Dark Lord with Clive with a bunch of Eikons then RFG the top 10 cards of your deck so he's got a bunch of Eikon abilities he can use instantly. But you won't do it, will you? Yeah, that's what I thought. Coward. 

So if you haven't picked up what I'm laying down by now, the joke is that these are all extremely bad, old Fire cards as a way of saying that Ace is not very good. Neo Bahamut here doesn't combo particularly well with Ace either. However, I wanted to remind people this card existed, since you actually can't find it when searching for it on the official FFTCG card browser. That's right: Neo Bahamut was so bad, Square Enix wants you to forget it ever existed. But those of us Fire players who were around since the beginning will never forget. 

Long story short, use Ace in sealed if you really need spot removal. That's about it. 

In any case, with it being the tail end of spoiler season, it won't be too long until the full set list is revealed. Maybe through some miracle, there will be a card that makes Ace amazing, but I wouldn't count on it. I'm still holding my breath that the Chebukki siblings will get more actual XI support. 

Until next time - Keep on Grinding, 

 

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Spoiled Onions: Gilgamesh

Greetings all you discerning weapon collectors, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that is the equivalent of drawing an Excalipoor at a critical moment. 

Welp, my resolution to write more on this blog have already gone up in smoke, so it looks like 2026 will have to be the year I make my glorious return to making the written equivalent of really long YouTube video essays. To be totally frank, me and the FFTCG have been having a falling out of sorts with how Tears of the Planet ended up shaping the meta. I hosted a local qualifier where the finals were a mirror match with every turn boiling basically becoming this: "I blank your effect, but you tax my blank, and then I tax you taxing my tax, but you blank me taxing you taxing my tax" and so on and so forth, going on in an infinite loop until both players, the judges, and the onlookers all exploded.

You know the deck I'm talking about... 

The stale meta nonwithstanding, seeing what was capable with the cards from the Magic the Gathering / Final Fantasy collab was also a jarringly eye-opening experience for me. I don't play MTG, but I can't help but feel like a jealous orphan from a Charles Dickens novel looking at a sumptuous feast when I see effects like Relm's Sketching letting you straight up copy any card, or the fact that you can make a Cid deck with unlimited Cids from across the series. By comparison, the constant deluge of FFTCG cards with the effect of "When you play this card, play another card for free" doesn't quite have the Final Fantasy flavor that you would expect. We have some interesting stuff coming out in Gunslinger of the Abyss, like more Priming shenanigans from the XVI stuff and Lightning's insta-party effect that look like a much-needed shot in the arm for the game. On the other hand, we also have the new Category V stuff that looks like it's just another avenue to dump out 4-color Warrior of Light for free, so I guess we'll see what happens. 

And hey, speaking of Final Fantasy V...

Here's a new Gilgamesh from Gunslinger in the Abyss! While I may be masterful at segue's, I admit I struggled a bit when it comes to finding a use for ol' Gilgy here. Of all the Elements, Lightning is probably the worst suited to be running 3 or more elements. You have the exception of Gilgamesh (FFBE) decks, but that deck would likely prefer a 3-drop backup to play off of 7-CP WoL, making the Lightning Shantotto Backup a better option for that with basically the same effect.

That would leave Gilgamesh as an option in constructed for Earth-Lightning decks that run color Fixers like Tyro and Leo, but not only is that quite boring, it's not something you couldn't already achieve with the Opus VI Cactuar Summon (which was, surprisingly, my first ever spoiler. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?). Since I was just here complaining that things in the FFTCG aren't as spicy as they could be, why don't I take my own advice and think outside the box here?

Enkidu could be an interesting combo piece for Gunslinger Gilgamesh since he's currently the only Backup Gilgamesh in the game. You can pay for Gilgamesh using Enkidu from your hand and two other Backups to generate 3 different colors and deal something 9K. Then once Gilgamesh resolves, you can pay 2 to play Enkidu from the Break Zone, activating Gilg and the 2 Backups you paid. At least I think that's how that would work. Is there a judge out there that knows if paying for Gilg with Enkidu means Enkidu is "in the Break Zone" at the time Gilg hits the field? If not, go ahead and just EMBARRASS me in the comments. You know you want to. 

Despite being a fairly old card, the Opus 7 Gilgamesh Legend is still a fairly solid card for any Gilg-centric decks. However, because Backup Gilgamesh says it needs to be "Cast" for his effect to go off, "Playing" him with Opus-7 Gilgamesh means he won't deal any damage, regardless of how you pay for it. But playing Backup Gilgamesh first means that you'd have name clash, and couldn't play Legend Gilgamesh, or any other for that matter. Thankfully, Tears of the Planet did provide players with a way of removing your own Backups with the line of Summons that debuted in that set. Of course, playing Adrammelech means you have to remove Backup Gilgamesh from the game, preventing it from powering up Legend Gilgamesh from the Break Zone, but you have to admit, that combo was a lot more interesting than just saying "pitch the Backup whenever you draw it". 

Here's another option for Backup Gilgamesh: Just cheat. Go ahead. Use a banned card. Yeah, I bet you would too. You're just a dirty little cheater aren't you? Using Syldra was probably the first card you thought you would use with Gilgamesh, and you thought nobody would know. But I know. And you know what? You disgust me. Ugh, you're just the worst. 

And well... that's all I got for this card. I'm curious if there will be any card in Gunslinger of the Abyss that makes Gilgamesh more usable, but in all honesty he's probably best reserved for sealed formats where running multiple colors is a whole lot easier, or Category V title where there's no name clash. But hey, if you ever find yourself in the position where you absolutely need to deal something a hard 12K damage, your boy Gilgamesh will be here. Who knows? Dealing 5k damage has suddenly become incredibly relevant for SOME reason.  

Until next time - Keep on Grinding, 

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Spoiled Onions: Cinque

Greetings citizens of Rubrum, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that is prophesied to become Agito and be the savior of Orience. 

Man, didn't I just do my review of Hidden Legends? Now we have Tears of the Planet just around the corner! It's not that my publishing schedule is too slow - time is just moving way too fast! I literally *just* got my first box of the Legacy Reprint set and now the pre-release for TotP is two weeks away. *Sigh* such is the life of a card game player, I suppose. In any case, today we're going to talk about Cadets, and not just because my new spoiler is a Cadet card. I mean, that's definitely a huge reason behind it, but this archetype has been on my mind for some time now. 

Cadets were introduced as an archetype back in Opus III, and I don't think it would be too far of a stretch to say that their existence has been a struggle ever since. The fact that they're a numbers-based archetype that was split across Lightning, Wind, and Fire - elements that have no ability to color-fix between the three - was the first strike against them. Second, Cadets suffered from needing to have a lot of them on the field, but would almost never get new Backups to help them hit their number requirements easier. In fact, since they were introduced in Opus III, it would be a whopping eighteen sets since a new Cadet Backup that actually synergized with the deck would be added with Trey. 

However, it looks like TotP will finally give Cadets their moment to shine, and my new spoiler handily remedies a lot of what held them back in the past. I'm happy to introduce what is sure to be an essential part of Cadet decks in the future: Cinque. 

This feels like a card that should have been printed back in Opus XIII when they made the Multi-Element Nine, but better late than never I suppose! And man, what a Backup to give to an archetype that has been so parched for support over the years. She solves Cadet's primary issue of needing to play three different elements by allowing you to play a Class Zero Cadet Forward from the Break Zone for free. With other new Backups like Seven revealed for this set, it seems like playing a 4 or 5 cost Cadet with Cinque will be fairly easy. The fact that she's also got an action ability that lets you threaten to kill an opposing Forward and breaks her so you can play another copy of her is just the icing on the cake.

There's just one problem with Cinque that may not be obvious at first glance. You won't be able to play her. 

It's very important that I clarify that I don't mean that the card is bad (which it's not) or that there are other versions of Cinque that are worth playing over this (which there aren't). What I mean by this is that YOU, the person who came to this blog just to read this post - or lets be honest, just came here to save the picture of the new spoiler and share it on discord without reading any of this -  are not ALLOWED to play it. 

Now I know that this may come as a shock to you, being told you can't use this awesome new card and all. But the thing is, I don't make the rules when it comes to this. I have never actually played a Cadet deck or even Type-0 the game so I don't even have a horse in this fight, were anybody to ever theoretically fight horses. The person who makes the Cadet rules is actually Mr. Daniel "The Producer" Delemos. Is he somebody involved with the creation of the game? No, he's just a guy from my locals. But he's been the ride-or-die cadet guy consistently playing the deck for as long as I've known him. Therefore, he makes the rules. 

You may call him Mother. In fact, I insist upon it. 

With him being the only premier Cadet player in 2025, I took heavy inspiration from his current build to figure out the best ways to play Cinque. It doesn't matter of course, since as I mentioned, you can't play Cadets and all, but sometimes knowledge of what is forbidden can be a comfort of sorts. 

I was quite surprised to see that of the available Nines, it was actually the Opus 21 version of the card that Daniel was running instead of the Multi-Element one. Assuming that you're playing Cinque off of two Backups like Deuce, Rem, or Trey, Nine is a pretty juicy target to play out early. His second effect will already be set if you play him with Cinque, and he's an excellent anti-aggression tool. Being able to dull any Forward for free once per turn helps funnel any other attackers they have into being blocked by Nine, who takes 2k less damage. Assuming you have Moogle Class Zero up, it'll take 10K damage to break Nine, forcing them to play cards like LB Cloud to get rid of him. The versatility of his dull effect can also help clear blockers on your turn as well. 

Sice's ability to reduce her cost to 1 means you probably don't need to play her out with Cinque early game. Once you've gotten your board set up though, reviving her from the Break Zone can be really impactful. Sice breaks any Forward so long as its cost is less than or equal to your total number of Cadets, so she's an extremely flexible piece of removal. Since she's a Forward, you can also get rid of one of your opponent's blockers and then give her Haste with Seven to swing in for a point of damage. 

Speaking of Seven, you can also pull off some pretty nutty combos with her, Cinque, and the new Queen. Now that you have more Cadet Backups to play with, Queen can enable so many different lines of play. The first and most obvious would be to use Seven's Haste effect twice in one turn by reactivating the Backups you dulled. Seven's Sadistic Spikes Special (say THAT three times fast) counts all of your Cadets, so having a strong Backup line with Cinque also empowers her to take out more of your Opponent's Forwards. 

Queen just giving you an extra 2CP during each of your turns finally helps the deck become more aggressive and build up a wide board. Since Queen will be a target for your opponent's removal, having Cinque to revive her makes sure you're continuously generating value. Plus her second effect isn't limited to once per turn, so you can use her Backup reactivation to yoink multiple key targets from your opponent's Break Zone in one turn,  

Cadets began to see promise in Opus 21 with the Lightning Ace, and now you can make him really pop off. Play him onto the field with Cinque and draw one card. Then use Seven's effect to give him Haste and nab a second card. Pitch cards as needed to Dull your Opponent's Forwards, and in conjunction with Nine, you can make a board full of Blockers useless quite quickly. 

As good as the Lightning Ace is though, I do want to take some time to discuss the old Opus 9 Ace. You would have thought that this card would have been power-crept into oblivion by now, but 1: It's Cadets and 2: His effect is still incredibly relevant. While giving Lightning Ace Haste will still net you two cards in one turn, the Opus 9 Ace shines with his selectivity. Being able to scry the top 7 cards of your deck to find the specific Cadets you need, especially if you need one to trigger an S-ability like Seven or Duece, is still exceptionally strong. Lightning Ace will pay off more in the long term, but I think you could still run one copy of the Opus 9 version, especially since he's an EX Burst.

With the new line of Cadet support this set you can use Jack to... 

Okay, no. There's nothing you can do with this Jack. Not even Daniel can find an effective way to use him. But he is another hilarious example of bad text on a card because it's lore or whatever. There has to be a better way of translating Jack's slow playstyle in Type-0 onto a card than just making him suck, but we'll see if he gets a new card this set. Also fun fact: Jack was a Water card in the original Chapters series. In fact, the Cadets were split across all 6 colors, so the deck could have been even weirder than it ended up. 

So there you have it. Hopefully Cadets gets even more support this set. It's just a damn shame that none of you can use them. Now I'm sure there are some of you out there that are thinking "But I've been playing Cadets too and I-" Lemme stop you right there. No. No you haven't, Okay? If you ever saw the Lightning Ace and thought Cadets are now playable as a mono-Lightning deck, you ain't playing Cadets. If your first reaction to seeing Cadet support is that you're gunna tuck in Miyu so you can search for Carla to ramp into Backups, you ain't playing Cadets. If you didn't print out the revealed Cadet Support from TotP as proxies to test out combos, you ain't playing Cadets. 

But hey, I'm just the messenger here. And while I would consider anybody bringing updated Cadets to a tournament just because they're suddenly good a violation tantamount to a war crime, if you're curious about playing them I'd be happy to accept your paperwork to petition Daniel to allow it. Just make sure your Cadet-use application has been properly signed in triplicate and notarized and I'll see what I can do for you. You know I'll always have your backs, especially if I'm bribed with signed full-arts. 

Fair.

In any case, new cards are coming out soon! Which ones are you looking forward to the most? It better not be Cadets! I'll have eyes and ears at all your locals so I can report any infractions to OSHA. In the meantime I'll be here, trying to get three Full-Art copies of Moogle XI from the reprint set. 

Until next time - keep on grinding, 

 
  

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