Spoiled Onions: A Rebellion's Call Card Reveal - Onion Knight

 

Hello again Adventurers, and welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that actually studied at the University of Argus with the Onion Knight from Final Fantasy III. One of us went on to save the worlds of Light and Darkness from the forces of evil, and the other writes blog articles about card games, so you tell me which one of us really got our money's worth there. 

Well well, would you look at that? Our good friends at Square Enix have let me reveal an Onion Knight card for the second set in a row! With no other Onion Knight themed FFTCG bloggers out there, I suppose I was the logical choice for this - though I'm starting to think they might actually be trying to imply something about my choices by having me spoil Onion Knights who have achieved the ultimate jobs of Sage and Ninja. "This is what you could be if you actually applied yourself"! Yeah yeah, hint taken guys.

So while I'm here trying not to stab myself with shuriken and practicing my best Naruto run to achieve maximum speed, let's take a look at my spoiler for Rebellion's Call - Onion Knight (17-044R), aka "the new Ninja one".

While the Sage Onion Knight from the last set was about bringing draw power to an element that doesn't normally get much of it, the Ninja Onion Knight combines combat tricks with value generation. At first glance, his Dull ability to bounce himself back to the hand to play a Forward of cost 3 or 4 (and remember, that's EXACTLY 3 or 4, rather than 3 or less.) seems like the most notable effect of this card. And don't get me wrong, it IS quite good! But like all good Ninjas, this one has a few tricks up his sleeves that make him a flexible piece of utility for a variety of different decks.

Right off the bat, this card bears an obvious resemblance to Esha'ntarl from Opus XII since they both have the ability bounce themselves back to the hand in order to "trade up" for a more valuable Forward. Unlike Esha'ntarl though, Onion Knight doesn't have any restriction on when you can use his effect, so you can use his effect to flash something in on your opponent's turn. Onion Knight also has the advantage of having an entry effect, letting you make a Forward unable to attack or block until the end of the turn.

This effect is actually surprisingly versatile. Effectively, it means that so long as you have Onion Knight in your hand, you'll always have the ability to completely ignore one of your opponent's Forwards for 2 CP. The former part of the effect seems like it would be useless, since why would you care if a Forward can attack on YOUR turn? However, it's actually the perfect target for Phoenix (3-020H). Not only does casting Phoenix during your opponent's turn let you use Onion Knight as a combat trick to stop a potential attack, the fact that it plays Onion Knight straight onto the field from the Break Zone means that you also skip the waiting period to use his Action Ability once it becomes your turn again.   

He's also an excellent option to use with the card everybody loves to hate, Bismarck, Lord of the Mists. Onion Knight's ability to bounce himself will trigger Bismarck's draw effect, and lets you play something like Zidane for free, with Onion Knight replacing the card you just lost from your hand. Then you can use Bismarck to bounce Zidane back to your hand at the end of the turn, so you can set up the whole shebang again next turn. To add more salt to the wound, every time you play the Onion Knight to the field, something can't block. If you choose to do this though, do your best not to feel too smug about it or anything. Try and look extra guilty about it, saying things like "oh I'm so sorry! this must be a super unfun interaction for you!" Maybe that way, you won't actually be responsible for Bismarck getting banned next. 

Much like his Sage counterpart, Onion Knight's job being both Ninja and Warrior of Light presents some interesting opportunities when it comes to the decks he can be used in. I already spoke about Warriors of Light in my last spoiler reveal so I won't be going over them today. Just know that there are plenty of good ways to use the new Onion Knight in that archetype - being able to play Faris for free from your hand without having to worry about color fixing being one of the most notable uses. The job also lets the Luneth Backup give him Haste to skip the turn you'd need to wait otherwise. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't the most excited to talk about Ninjas today.

With Edge reducing his cost, Onion Knight can play a 4 cost Forward from your hand for only 1 CP, and I don't think I need to explain why that's incredibly efficient. In the Ninja deck, having Onion Knight on the field becomes something your opponent will need to deal with in one turn, or else risk having something like Zangetsu being cheated out onto the field and dulling their entire board. Once Onion Knight's Action Ability can be used, he also functions somewhat similarly as Kytes does for Sky Pirates, being a cheap card that can effectively dodge single target removal and replace himself with a much bigger threat.    

A card that has rarely seen play in past Ninja decks but may be worth considering running alongside Onion Knight is Izayoi. Onion Knight's efficiency goes through the roof when you can play Izayoi for free, and then play another Ninja of 3 or less from your hand. Izayoi's effect doesn't specify that the Ninja she plays has to be a Forward, so you can build your Backup line with cards like Maina and search for the next Ninja you need to continue your combos.

The new Yugiri that was revealed for Rebellion's Call is also an excellent card to play using Onion Knight's effect (or to play with Izayoi's effect for that matter - she's just an excellent new addition to the Ninja deck in general). Yugiri's search can grab any Card Name or Job Ninja rather than just Forwards, so you have a pretty wide range of options you can go for depending on what you need. Using Onion Knight's effect to cheat out Yugiri and then going for her search also ensures that you have two Ninja cards in your hand, so you can use her discard effect to break a Forward as soon as she hits the field.

It should come as no great surprise to hear that the new Onion Knight is also a great new addition to Onion Knight decks. Wild right? But ugh, look at that smug little jerk, flaunting all his cool jobs and stuff. I bet it must be real hard to not constantly get your ass handed to you by low-level Goblins and Bats when you've been given the divine blessing of the crystal. I guess I just wasn't in the right place at the right time like SOME people... 

Ahem... In any case, the Ninja Onion Knight is a no-brainer for OK decks - especially ones revolving around the Multi Element Fire/Wind version. Much like my earlier example with Faris in Warriors of Light, the Ninja Onion Knight also fixes the need to play him with the required colors. It's also one of the few other cards that can properly take advantage of the versatility of new Ninja's entry ability. If the Multi-Element Onion Knight is sent to the Break Zone on your opponent's turn, you'll be able to play the Ninja Onion Knight straight from your hand and prevent an attack. Much like with Phoenix, this will also have him ready to use his Action Ability when it becomes your turn.  

Even without combat tricks, Ninja Onion Knight's exchange effect has the potential to give you big value - but without Haste, you may find him sent to the Break Zone before he can do his thing. Thankfully, Onion Knight-centric decks being Fire/Wind gives the Ninja Onion Knight access to Goblin to help ensure he can get his ability off as soon as you play him. I should also point out that many Onion Knight decks you can find online are also Ninja decks. So if you prefer to use the OK package over a more Category IV heavy Ninja build, this new card certainly helps grease the wheels with that too. 

All in all, I'm really hoping that Rebellion's Call will finally see Ninjas get some much needed Job support. It's been my favorite tribal archetype ever since I stumbled my way to top two in my first ever serious tournament with them, so cards like Onion Knight and Yugiri give me hope that we'll see them get the same kind of love that archetypes like Samurai have gotten. 

Oh who am I kidding? No tribal archetype will ever get as much love as Samurai. But a man can dream, can't he? 

---

Thanks once again to the lovely Richelle Brady at Square Enix for letting me spoil a card with my blog's namesake again - and for all of you lovely folks for reading this! Before I head out, let's take a look at this set's Bingo for those of you who didn't catch it on Facebook. 

So it looks like so far we've gotten... *check's notes* uh, none of these so far. To be fair, I was a bit later making this Bingo up than I usually am. I actually had Yugiri and Ninja Support as two spaces on this board, but the day I went to post it, Yugiri was already spoiled. Considering that she checked both squares already, I hastily replaced them with some other options, which may prove to be my downfall. But I'm confident we'll start to check some of these off as we get closer to the release. After all, what are the odds that this is the first Bingo where I end up getting NONE of these predictions right? Hahaha... 

In any case, thanks again for coming around to listen to this bearded Onion Knight ramble on about cards. While I wait for Rebellion's Call to release, I'll be here nursing a tensely polite and ultimately one sided rivalry with the other Onion Knight. What really makes it awkward is that he's actually a super nice, supportive guy, but being stuck at Level 1 for so long has a way of making a guy bitter. 

Until next time - keep on grinding,