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.
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
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. |
Until next time - keep on grinding,
0 comments:
Post a Comment