Opus Vs Chapters: 10 Cards With Major Overhauls

Greetings FFTCG fans, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy Trading Card Game blog that everybody is super fortunate didn't get invited to the Influencer Cup because then you guys would be looking at a full-art Chocobo Chick promo. 

So how is everybody doing out there? Missing playing games in person with physical cards just yet? Wondering if your play space will still be there once all of this is over, and that you'll never get promos ever again? Not that I've been doing that of course. That would be a horribly unproductive way to spend my time. 

Instead I've been doing stuff like hosting my first ever online tournament and finally getting around to beating the Final Fantasy VII remake. I think it might have actually become one of my favorite games in the series (which is strange because I didn't actually care too much for the original, sorry FFVII fans...). But playing the remake and the state of the world currently has me thinking a lot about alternate realities.

"And how just like real life, your choices are mostly irrelevant except for which outfit you end up wearing in the end." 

So what does that have to do with the FFTCG? Well I've always been interested in the original series of cards that came out in Japan before the game was rebooted for a global release: The Chapters series. I've talked about it a few times before on this blog. One of my earliest posts actually talked about cards that I wished would have been brought over to the FFTCG in newer sets. And by looking into those old cards, it was almost like exploring a world that could have been. In many ways what we ended up with was significantly better, and in a few ways there were changes I would say were questionable. But either way, its an interesting look into how we ended up with what we know today as the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

So today I thought that I would showcase 10 popular cards that experienced significant changes being ported from Chapters to the Opus Series. Kageyama went into this a bit with his awesome entry in the "From the Producer Special", but I thought it would be neat to take a look at the changes from the perspective of a player. 

I'm well aware that the Chapters series may as well have existed in a different dimension for how different everything was, and pointing out how a card from a completely different environment would function in the meta that developed here is mostly a moot point. But also I'm not trying to make a big statement about how things should have been or that things would have been better one way or another. I just think it's cool to speculate how cards would have performed if they came into the FFTCG totally unchanged - which a lot of cards did! 

"Probably a bunch of comments about how outrageous it is that the Primals from XIV still arent in the game yet Tifa." 

So before we get started, here's some things to keep in mind when looking at the cards I chose: 

• I wanted to pick well-known cards that had a more substantial change than just a slight power adjustment or just an element change, since otherwise there wouldn't be much to talk about.
• I didn't include any Chapters cards that were ported to the Opus Series but originally had effects that are as of right now exclusive to Chapters like Blue Magic, Junctioning, Level Up, Equipment, ect. 
• If an Opus card has the same artwork in Chapters but has such a wildly different effect that they're basically two totally different cards, I didn't include them.
• The numbering of the list is totally arbitrary and has nothing to do with how powerful or meta relevant I think they are. 

Also I want to shout out that the translations of the Chapters cards are courtesy of the fine people who documented the original card releases at the FFTCG wiki. 

With that out of the way, let's take a look into the world that might have been! 

#10: Rinoa

Chapters Effect:

3CP Wind Forward - 7000 Power
Job: Witch 

For each Job: Witch other than Rinoa you control, Rinoa gains +1000 power.
When Rinoa is put from the field into the Break Zone, activate all the characters you control.

Shooting Star [S]◆◆◆: Choose 1 Forward of cost 5 or more. Break it.

Rinoa is one of my favorite cards from Chapters because she's the card game equivalent of looking into a parallel universe that is eerily similar to our own but just different enough to be unnerving. The two of them are pretty much the polar opposites of each other and yet bizarrely similar in terms of their function as an attack deterrent.

For long time before Opus VI introduced the time-mage style Rinoa, the Opus II Rinoa was one of Ice's most powerful tools. Her ability to dull your opponent's entire field when she enters the Break Zone meant that just having her on the field was enough to discourage them from attacking and leaving themselves wide open next turn. You could also be more aggressive with her too, since blocking her with a more powerful Forward would also leave them with a dulled field.

Wind Rinoa on the other hand activates all the characters you control when she's sent to the Break Zone, so she functions like a more powerful Opus VI Guy. Both versions of Rinoa are great at making your opponent reluctant to attack, but I think that Ice-Rinoa's S-Ability was the better of the two. There are still very few ways to freeze your opponent's Backups even 11 sets into the game, but having a Diabolos break effect on a Forward isn't too bad either.

The thing I find the most interesting about Wind Rinoa though is the switch from a general category VIII focus to making her into a Witch. She suddenly goes from having synergy with Squall and the other Ice VIII characters and ends up being more at home in a Seifer deck with other witches like Edea. I guess she ended up dumping Squall and going back to Seifer, who is obviously the superior choice. So much for true love eh? 

#9: Illua

Chapters Effect:

3CP Dark Forward - 7000 Power
Job: Nightshade

Effect: Haste.
Sheol [S]: Activate all the Forwards you control. They gain Haste and First Strike until end of turn. All the Forwards opponent controls lose 2000 Power, Haste and First Strike until end of turn.

Illua is one of those cards that was run in a majority of Lightning decks as soon as it was released back in Opus V. I distinctly remember she was one of the few "big" Hero cards that would sell for more than a lot of the Legends at the time. She's the perfect combination of speed and protection, with her pesky "bubble" that would avoid all single target effects and a powerful S-Ability that ensures that your opponent will never feel safe swinging into a field of dulled Forwards. Plus she was easy to cheat out as part of the famous Al-Cid combo. 

But I think that most people would agree that it's the "bubble" aspect that makes Illua such a popular card because it helps her stick around for so long. So it's weird to think of a world where she just straight up has every effect but that one in Chapters.

Her being a Dark card isn't super surprising because there was a trend in Chapters to make the main hero characters Light and the villains Dark. Unlike in the Opus Series, the sets weren't limited to only two Light and Dark cards each, so there were a lot more of them in general. But with such heavy competition for Dark cards, I'm not sure that Chapters Illua would have been strong enough to beat out the competing cards like Veritas, Galdes, or Kamlanaut in our meta.

Her main selling point without the bubble would be that she's a 3-drop 7K Forward that gets Haste without any conditions, which still doesn't exist in the Opus Series. Her S-Ability is also slightly buffed as well, not only giving your Forwards First Strike, but also removing Haste and First Strike from your opponent's Forwards.

But yeah, what do you guys think? Is Illua really Illua without her protection? Would this card have seen use in the Opus Series? Oh, and if seeing Illua sans bubble isn't enough to blow your mind, there also wasn't an Al-Cid combo in Chapters. Think about that one for a bit.

#8: Semih Lafinha

Chapters Effect: 

2CP Wind Backup

Job: Warrior Guardian  

Effect: Star Sibyl you control can't be chosen as the target of opponent's effects.

◆◆◆: Choose 1 Forward. Deal it 1000 damage.

So awhile back I remember there were a few articles and videos that went over cards that people thought should be banned, probably because we were in the middle of the Veritas/Porom meta and we were all really emotionally damaged from it. In any case, it wasn't Star Sibyl who made it onto some of those lists, but her main girl Semih Lafihna. Also it might have been before Dadaluma got banned where Earth/Wind was a bit more dominant. 

Star Sibyl is one of those cards that's already powerful enough to enable a lot of different deck engines, but being able to make her cost 2 CP less with Semih's effect makes it possible for Earth/Wind to ramp up insanely fast. I remember being told when playing an Earth/Wind deck that if my opening hand didn't have Semih, it was usually a good idea to mulligan to try and get her. That's how important she was to the deck. 

So it's really bizarre to think that she might not have had the effect that reduced Star Sibyl's cost and instead just made it so that she couldn't be targeted. Had Semih's effect not been changed, Star Sibyl l still would have been an extremely powerful card. But protecting a card you intend to break yourself probably wouldn't have seen too much use in a match. 

The thing is, Semih Lafihna had to change because Star Sibyl became a completely different card in the Opus Series. Back in Chapters, she was originally a 2 CP Light Backup that made it so your Forwards couldn't be chosen by the effects of your opponents Forwards or Backups, which you would probably want to keep safe from your opponents Archers and Hecatonchiers with Semih's effect. Obviously this is a totally insane level of protection for a card that is both incredibly cheap and easy to splash into any deck, so she had to be changed into the Earth card we know and love today. 

So what's cool about Semih's change isn't so much that she got a new effect, but that it was dictated by changes to a totally different card! Also if her job had stayed the same, she wouldn't have been searchable with Hugh Yurgh. Womp. 

#7: Llednar

Chapters Effect:

2CP Earth Forward - 5000 Power 

Job: Biskmatar

Whenever Llednar Blocks or is Blocked, if opponent doesn't pay (3), Llednar can't be Broken until end of turn. Whenever Llednar is chosen as the target of opponent's effects, if opponent doesn't pay (3), Llednar can't be Broken until end of turn.

Llednar has always been a pretty interesting card in the Opus Series, since for a long time he and Sabin (who also came out in Opus IV) were the closest things to "protection" that Fire had going for it. Forcing your opponent to pay two more CP in just about any situation can pretty much act as a pseudo-discard effect if your opponent doesn't have any active backups. But it's funny how a change of one CP can make a card go from "good" to "insane". 

Llednar's low power puts him in range of a lot of low-cost removal effects, but do you really want that 3 CP Summon to suddenly cost 6? Or to attack just to have Llednar block and force you to discard two cards from your hand just to get rid of a 5K power Forward? Making the cost to break Llednar go from even to odd makes his efficiency kind of scary, since your opponent would be paying more than you paid to play him just to get rid of him. He's still weak to things like Fina's AOE removal, but can you imagine blocking something like Braska's Final Aeon and forcing your opponent to pitch two cards for it? 

Llednar was actually the first card that made me want to look into the Chapters series after finding out about his original effect. That's why I really wanted to talk about him on this list, even if he's not the most popular card. He does seem to be enjoying some more usage though with the rise of the Marche/Ritz Combo, so that's pretty cool!

Also, can anybody explain to me just what the heck a "Biskmatar" is? Like I get that was his job in the game but what is it? 

#6: Vayne

Chapters Effect: 

4CP Ice Forward - 8000 Power

Job: Consul 

Forwards of cost 5 or more don't become Active during their controller's Active Phase.

Mech Wave [S] ◆◆◆◆: Dull all Forwards of cost 5 or more opponent controls.

Vayne is an important card in the Opus Series because he serves as a check for big, powerful threats with higher costs. Back when Veritas was running rampant in almost every deck, Vayne was one of the most reliable counters, letting you just keep it permanently dulled rather than deal with its "deathrattle" effect. He's one of the Opus Series cards that comes and goes as he's needed depending on what the biggest threats are in a particular set. 

In chapters though, Vayne was a much clunkier card to use, since he would only prevent cards of cost 5 or more from reactivating, rather than also dulling them all on entry. Instead he was reliant on using his S-ability for that which made him significantly slower, especially since it came with a pretty hefty CP cost. While he still kept them locked down after that, it meant you had to be much more responsive with Vayne, waiting until your opponents high-cost Forwards were already dull before you played him. Of course, that means you needed to use his S-ability or other cards with dulling effects to handle anything with Brave. 

As he was, Vayne was probably much more in line with his character as a tactician, requiring the right timing to have the biggest impact. It's funny that he was given such a dramatic boost in speed, especially considering he was printed so early in the Opus Series lifespan, but I think we ended up with a much better card as a result.

#5: Y'shtola

Chapters Effect: 

3CP Wind Forward - 7000 Power 

Effect: Y'shtola must be chosen as a target of opponent's effects if able.

When Y'shtola is chosen as the target of a character of cost 5 or more or a Summon, if you control a [Job (Scion of the Seventh Dawn)] other than Y'shtola or a [Job (Standard Unit)], Cancel it's effect.

Oh Y'shtola... the card that was such a powerful one-card answer to the rise of Mono-Fire that they had to completely change the way that damage reduction effects worked in Opus XI. I'm totally not bitter about the one time that my Summon-heavy ping deck got completely walled by one Y'shtola or anything like that. You guys know I'm way too fair and unbiased for that. 

In any case I know I said earlier that I wasn't going to discuss cards that had completely different effects than their Opus counterparts. But I feel like these cards have the same basic idea of protection with a different execution, so it totally still counts. Hah! Self-imposed rules are for suckers!

Looking at the Chapters version of Y'shtola, she almost reads more like a reverse Feolthanos, forcing your opponent to target her but negating the effects of characters cost 5 or more. She also appears to negate the effects of any Summon that targets her so long as you control another Scion or a... Standard Unit? Yeah, they were really pushing for Scion/Standard Unit builds in Chapters, which we'll see more of a bit later. 

In spite of being dependent on having an established board with specific jobs on the field, I'd go out on a limb to say that the card we ended up with is considerably more fair. She's still extremely powerful, but having to send her to the Break Zone to cancel an auto effect prevents her from locking down your opponent's options too much at least. 

The million Gil question though is if we had gotten a Y'shtola with this effect, how would she work if you also had Feolthanos out on the field? Speaking of which... 

#4: Feolthanos 

Chapters Effect: 

7CP Dark Forward - 9000 Power

Job: Aegyl 

Effect: Brave - Opponent must choose Feolthanos as the target of effects if able. When Feolthanos is chosen by your opponent's Summon of cost 4 or less

or an ability of their Character of cost 4 or less, cancel its effect. When you receive damage from a Forward opponent controls, you may discard 1 card. If you do, Break it.

Feolthanos is the only card on this list with a totally different "form" than the card from Chapters, but we got new artwork featuring washboard abs and the most motorboatable male chest in the FFTCG instead. Thanks Ryoma Ito! 

In any case, it's clear from the cost, power, and effect that this was the card that was the template for what we ended up with in the Opus Series. Dark cards have a history of being notoriously powerful, and I think being able to socket this into any deck would have been way too much. I've heard in the past that some people think that 7CP is too powerful for a purely defensive effect. But perhaps taking the Brave keyword off this big guy was the right call, since you could realistically attack with him every turn and still have a beefy blocker available. 

The solution most people have to Feolthanos in the Opus Series if you're not running cards with a CP cost of 5 or more is to try and punch over him with a bigger Forward. But as you can see even that wasn't safe in Chapters, since your attack going through meant that you'd most likely lose the one Forward strong enough to get over Feolthanos due to his break effect. The combination of making effects fizzle, being able to continuously attack, and insta-break any attacking Forward is a pretty overwhelming combination. 

Despite some pretty substantial nerfs though, there was one big buff that the Opus Series version got, which is obviously the ability to cancel effects of cards that cost 5 or less instead of 4. Otherwise he would have been absolutely useless to counter one of the most popular and widely used summons in the Opus Series - Mobius Diabolos. So it's a bit funny to see how effects need to be changed not only to scale them back, but specifically to address new threats that weren't present in Chapters. 

#3: Caius

Chapters Effect: 

5CP Fire Forward - 9000 Power

Job: Guardian 

Effect: When Caius is put in the Break Zone from the Field, you may remove 1 [Card Name (Bahamut)] in the Break Zone from the game. If you do, put Caius on the Field Dulled. Dull, Discard 1 [Card Name (Bahamut)] from your hand: Choose 1 Forward or 1 Monster. Break it.

One of my earliest memories of getting involved with the FFTCG was my first night participating in a casual event with the NYC crew. I was a fresh faced newbie and everybody was eager to give me new cards under the guise of helping me build my collection. Now I know that was just an opportunity for them to dump excess bulk cards, but I appreciated it nonetheless! In any case I remember opening a pack and finding Caius and asking if he was any good since he had the Legend rarity. 

"Uh Yeah... He's... He's fine." was the very polite response I got from somebody who didn't want to crush the hopes and dreams of a new player.

Okay, so it's not really charitable to say that Caius is a bad card. Depending on future Bahamut cards that get printed, he could end up being relevant with stuff like Mootie (though if you use Caius's effect instead of just casting the Bahamut,  you're not really getting any bonus from Mootie outside the initial search). But now Fire has Braska's Final Aeon who just deals damage so much more efficiently that I don't really think that Caius will get his day in the sun. That's what makes knowing his original effect even more heartbreaking because this card would have been an absolute beast in the Opus Series. 

Much like Y'shtola, Caius's effects fall into the "same idea, different execution" category. Anybody who's played the FFTCG for awhile will notice right away that his first effect is basically the same as Opus I Vanille's, only using Bahamut instead of Hecatoncheir. Having a big powerful Forward that's also sticky is threatening enough, but his secondary effect is also significantly better.

Being able to break any Forward or Monster by pitching a Bahamut and dulling Caius is way more versatile than only being able to use the effect on an attack. Plus you're potentially netting more value from the Bahamut than you would by casting it if you're getting rid of a particularly large Forward. By contrast, in the Opus Series Caius you're dealing less damage than the Bahamut would have done since none of the ones we have right now deal less than 8000 damage even though you're saving some CP by not having to cast it.

I think that the time that Opus Caius could have been powerful is long past. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Fire could have had better cards available sooner rather than going through the long slog of weird clunky ones we were getting for awhile. #JusticeforCaius. 

#2: Minfilia 

Chapters Effect: 

4CP Earth Backup (No EX) 

Job: Scion of the Seventh Dawn

Effect: When Minfilia enters the Field, you may search for 1 [Job (Scion of the Seventh Dawn)] or 1 [Job (Standard Unit)] and add it to your hand. [Job (Scion of the Seventh Dawn)] and [Job (Standard Unit)] you control gain 1000 Power.

At number 2 we have Minfilia of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, a card that ended up becoming a bit of a meme awhile back when somebody included four of them in their deck at a major tournament. Whoops! In any case it's pretty clear that Minfilia is a major component of Scion decks, being their primary searcher and helping to get your Ydas and Earth Y'shtolas online. The break effect is really just icing on the cake. 

But what's interesting about how this card changed was that she went from a card that could be used in a much wider range of decks to one that could realistically be played in one specific archetype. Again, we see the "Adventurer Recruitment" theme with the Standard Unit Focus. But the ability to search out either Standard Units or Scions and give both jobs an extra +1000 power boost meant that we could have possibly combined something like Chocobos with Scions for some interesting deck brews.

But I wanted to talk about this card specifically because back in Chapters, the Scions deck as we knew it didn't exist like it does in the Opus Series. Most of the key characters were split between Earth, Fire, Ice, and Water, rather than having a consistent Lightning/Earth split, so it was much more complicated to build (From what I've seen, Chapters seemed to have a bit of an issue with color and title consistency in general). If I had to guess, the Standard Unit focus was probably included as both a thematic element for XIV's story as well as a way to give the deck a bit more consistency. Considering how long Scions were present in the Opus meta, I'd say it was definitely the better call to ditch the Standard Unit focus. 

#1: Zidane 

Chapters Effect: 

3CP Light Forward - 4000 Power

Job: Bandit 

Effect: When Zidane enters the Field, opponent shows their hand. Choose 1 card from this. Opponent discards it. If opponent's hand has 2 cards or less, Zidane gains 5000 Power.

I don't think it's too far of a stretch that after Valefore,  Zidane is probably the card that most people want banned from the game. And really it's pretty hard to argue with that. The ability to look at your opponent's hand is rare enough in the Opus Series, but then getting to pluck any card you want and send it to the break zone is incredibly disruptive. Plus when your opponent has two cards or less, he becomes a sizable 7000 Power, all for a measly 3 CP. It's by far one of the most powerful cards in the game. 

Now imagine that he became a 9000 power Forward and could be played in every single deck. 

Yeah... it's pretty obvious that as bad as Zidane is in the current meta, he could have been significantly worse. A lot of the complaints about Light cards is that they don't seem to have the same level of power that Dark cards have. I'm almost positive though that if the Chapters version of Zidane made it into the Opus series as-is, people would find a way to fit him in most decks. 3 CP for a card that can easily become a massive 9K body that also disrupts any deck as early as turn 2 is absolutely absurd. So no matter how you feel about current OP cards in the game, remember we could have experienced the "Light Zidane" meta. 

Oh and for the job purists out there, it's important to note that in English there isn't much distinction between a Thief and a Bandit. In Japanese though you have 盜賊 (Bandit/Rogue, etc), 泥棒 (Robber/Burglar) and シーフ (Thief) which have all been used as the job for a few different cards you could classify as a "Thief". So maybe be a bit more lenient with the translators on how they choose to classify cards in the Opus Series. Just saying... 

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And there you have it! An unnecessarily deep dive into cards from the Chapters series! Did anybody collect cards from Chapters before? Is there a card that you know of that had a major change when it was ported to the Opus Series that you think would have been meta defining? Let me know in the comments or on social media! For the time being I'll be here trying to figure out which choices I need to make to get that date with Barret. 

Until next time - Keep On Grinding, 

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Will Opus VIII be the Ninja Opus??

Hey there everybody! Welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The FFTCG Blog owned by that one bad player who stole your spot drafting at Nationals. Haha, SUCKER!! 

Oh hey would you look at that, It's already Opus VIII Spoiler Season-o'clock again. Where does the time go? I haven't posted in awhile, but I've actually been pretty busy with FFTCG stuff, and not at all huddled up in my room with seasonal depression! Here's what I've been up to:

• I did another Cactuar Correspondence with the RVA Returners! It was super nice of them to have me back again so I could say "I like Fire" in new and exciting ways and generally contribute nothing of value to the conversation.
• The FFTCG NYC Team set up our first ever Twin Party System 4-Player Tournament after our Petit Cup! We tested out our new ruleset for the format: Chaos Mode. Big thanks for everyone who participated, and if you want to learn more about the TPS 4-player format or Chaos/Cosmos Mode, you can check it out here!

• I finished a new round of Spoiler Bingo for Opus VIII. If you didn't get a chance to see it making the rounds on Facebook and Reddit, check it out below!

Hmm but what's this? Looks like some shadowy individuals snuck into Onion Knight Headquarters in the cover of night and hit three specific boxes of cards that haven't been revealed yet... but what could those boxes have in common? 

...

Oh hey, they're all Ninjas. 

Also now my wallet is missing?

Welp! looks like the message is clear: I have to finally do that post about the Ninja archetype I've been meaning to do for awhile now. So with that in mind, I'll be asking the following question: Will Opus VIII be the Ninja Opus?
 
So first, what do I mean by the "Ninja Opus"? In the FFTCG, the job system has been used to varying degrees of success to flesh out deck archetypes. Some jobs, like Moogles, Standard Units, Class Zero Cadets, and Warriors of Light, have had a pretty fair amount of support - enough that you could craft a decently cohesive deck with them, if not a top-tier meta one. 

If you go even deeper than that, you'll find a few subsets of cards that are based off of playable classes from the Final Fantasy games which are connected by their name or job. Of these traditional FF classes, Knights and Dragoons currently have the highest amount of consistent deck building support, with Opus VI being the "Dragoon Opus". Hell, even if there weren't 6 new Dragoon cards printed in that set, Legend Estinien - despite not directly supporting Dragoon builds - is enough to give the archetype a boost by virtue of being an amazingly powerful card that just happens to be a Job: Dragoon. So I'm predicting that Opus VIII will do the same for Job: Ninja-based decks.

So what makes me think this will happen? Well, nothing actually. At least nothing super concrete. But I'm mostly basing this off of the fact that the two new Starter decks that will be coming out with the set have a high chance to feature characters who are Job: Ninja - Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII, and Yugiri, that one lady with the horns and the bad case of plaque psoriasis from Final Fantasy XIV. 

No wonder they decided to add the Viera as a playable race after these guys. 

So why even talk about Ninjas at all? They really haven't emerged as a solid archetype in the game, nor are there any exceptionally strong cards with the Ninja name or job yet. 

Well for one, Ninjas are generally pretty cool. Known in-game for chucking Shuriken at enemies, dual-weilding weapons, and using a variety of magical abilities and illusions to befuddle and enfeeble enemies, the Ninja class appeals to that awkward phase in your life where you wore Naruto headbands to high school (Please tell me that I'm not alone in that...). Plus they're also way less controversial than those Martial Artists Monks.

Also it's a little known fact that Ninjas are one of the few jobs in Final Fantasy that have an innate +1 to their basketball dunking skills, alongside Black and White Mages. 

I feel like there's another job that's known for jumping. Weird.  

Also, there are actually a lot of Ninja cards in the FFTCG. There's been at least one new Ninja card printed every set since Opus I, and at 23 cards total there are officially more Ninjas than Dragoons in the game. So with that in mind, how come out of all the Class-based jobs, Ninja is still not a strongly established deck archetype? What can be done to make Ninjas better? Why don't we take a look at what Job: Ninja is working with currently so we can see what could be done in the future to improve the archetype? 

Ninja Support: Edge and the Eblan Four 

Edge-H and his friends are currently the best pieces of Ninja support, though they're a little bit odd being four separate elements, so you'd be less likely to run all of them in one deck. At first I thought this series of cards was just something that was created to support an archetype from Chapters that the FFTCG designers didn't plan on fully committing to in later sets. Weirdly enough though, Gekkou and Izayoi actually didn't have the effects that let them play another Job/Name Ninja originally, so there was a conscious choice made to give Ninjas more archetype support when porting them from Chapters to Opus III. 

Edge himself would be a strong piece of Ninja deck support if not for one glaring problem: There aren't currently a ton of non-Standard Unit cards with Job: Ninja in the game to take advantage of his effect. Currently the only other cards that can are Onion Knight (Wind), Yuffie, and I guess the Opus I Bartz that has all the jobs technically. Onion Knight-L isn't much use without the Sage Onion Knight, limiting the type of deck you can play it in. Of the three Yuffies, one isn't worth running, the second is more concerned with bypassing blocking forwards rather than getting over them with first strike, and the third is a support card for a wind/earth FF VII deck with Vincent. 

Unlike Knights, who have access to powerful characters like Steiner, Beatrix, and Ramza, most Ninja cards are just Standard Units. Because of this, they would probably benefit more by running them in Water alongside Warrior of Light, who does everything Edge does but gives your SU-Ninjas 2k power instead of 1k. You can always run both, but to me that seems a bit redundant since you'd be dedicating deck space to powering up a few of your forwards with it, whereas cards like Maria-H, Opus II Arc, and Water WoL would boost everything in a Standard Unit build, Ninja or otherwise. 

Another weak point I mentioned earlier is their lack of consistency between elements. Dragoons all have the benefit of being Lightning element cards, and although there are Knights in every element except Wind currently, a majority of their strongest Forwards and support Backups are almost all Water or Lightning, and have the additional benefit of having synergy with the Prince/Princess archetype in Water. Ninjas are kind of all over the place, and though there are slightly more Wind Ninjas, most of them have a variety of effects that don't really work well together - Most people who try to use the Eblan 4 package tend to splash a third element in to make the best of it. 

So if Knight's main schtick is having powerful, beefy forwards and Dragoons is having fast attackers that become stronger with more cards on the field, what should Ninjas excel at? 

Shenanigans, that's what. 

Since Ninjas are a tricky class, why not play them in decks that take advantage of their various combat tricks? Let's take a look at some deck building ideas using the Eblan Four members and/or Edge as a base. 

Gekkou/Izayoi - Phantom Lightflies 

Okay, so I'm gonna start this off with a bold claim - Gekkou is the best Ninja card hands down, and for once I'm not just saying that because he's a big buff bara boi. The fact that he can play any 4 or less Job or name Ninja card on entry is kind of insane already. If you chain him with Izayoi, who can drop another Ninja of 3 or less, Gekkou becomes what, like a plus two in terms of value and he can buff all Ninjas by an extra 1k? Seriously, if you can pull it off two extra bodies for a 5 cost is rediculous, but he's also incredibly flexible since he can play either a Forward or a Backup from your hand. Thankfully, one of the best backups in Fire also happens to be a Ninja as well, so depending on your hand you can build up either your front or back line. 

I think Fire/Water has access to the best Ninja cards in general. The First Strike Fire Forward Ninja can become scary when partnered with Gadot and Water WoL - hell even with one of those on the board it becomes a 2 cost that can take out 8k blockers and potentially get Haste from Gadot. 

The Water Ninja from Opus VII, Izayoi's S-ability, and the Fire Ninja backup's abilities that make enemy Forwards unable to block can leave your opponent wide open. Paired with cards like Dark Zemus and other Fire-Unblockables like Tifa-L, Red Mage, Lann-H, and Opus II Zell, you can consistently swing in uninhibited. You could also use smaller 2 drop forwards like Llendar and Vivi-S for cheap hard to remove forwards, and Water's excellent Standard Unit support helps grab or recur the combo pieces you need.

Opus VIII is also brining us a brand new Water Ninja that really brings the Shenanigans in full force.

 

8-124C Ninja [FFTA]
(Water)Dull, put Ninja into the break zone: choose 1 Forward your opponent controls. Activate it, and gain control of it until the end of the turn.
(Translation courtesy of Ban's Final Fantasy Corner)

Oh hi there better Shuyin! This slick little bastard is a perfect fit for this build and has one of the best combat tricks we've seen so far. You can either use his effect to remove a blocker from the field, give it Haste with Gadot or Goblin to attack with it, or even grab one of their Forwards to block an attack for you! If that isn't the best example of shenaniganry I don't know what is, but I have the feeling we'll be seeing this guy played in more than just dedicated Ninja decks. 

Oh and hey, wouldn't you know it, he also marks our first Bingo - The Return of an Underused Card Effect - in this case Mind Control, only used by the aforementioned Shuyin so far.

 

Edge/Zangetsu- Gale Twin Break

I think if you want to use First-Strike Edge to the best effect, Wind/Lightning would be a good combination. Zangetsu's ability isn't quite as strong as Gekkou or Izayoi's in terms of overall solid Ninja support, but doing 7k damage to a Forward while Edge is on the field is nothing to scoff at either. Using a Zapt/Ramuh Package, the standard Al-Cid/Sage Onion Knight combo, or power reduction cards like Barbariccia, Black Mage, or Diabolos, you can quickly damage your opponents Forwards, then finish them off with your smaller Ninjas that have First Strike. 

Most of the Ninja forwards are small, so this is a decent way to make them more of a legitimate threat to your opponent's board through trickery. If Edge is off the field, you could also threaten to ram them Mijin-Gakure style into your opponent's Forwards then break them with 1-cost Ramuh or 5-Cost Orlandeau.

Ninja Onion Knight is also a great candidate for Edge's First Strike since he can do up to 11k damage per swing, soften up bigger Forwards to be taken out by your Ninja weenies or the Opus VI Lightning Ninja backup. If your opponent tries to remove Onion Knight, you can just use his Job-Change ability to fizzle the Summon. Even if you have Zangetsu out with no Edge, you can still ping something for 4k to ensure that you'll get Sage Onion Knight's damage effect when it enters the field. 

This build is pretty similar to Lightning/Wind Seifer but, you know, weebier. 

Edge/Tsukinowa - Wild Moon 

I actually had a deck that used the smaller Wind Ninja with "can't be blocked by X or more" effects awhile back, and I was surprised at how it caught people off guard. I actually prefer the 2-cost Edge for this, since you can get your Tsukinowa's Haste requirement a little easier, and the Valefore-like backup reactivation effect can really help you swarm the field with little guys. Once you get a 1 cost forward like Yuffie or Opus II Ninja with a Spiceacilian on the field, your opponent had better have an answer to deal with them fast, or they'll start racking up damage quickly. 

Many of the other cards that have a similar level-blocking requirement happen to be Job: Thief, so if you wanted to make the ultimate sneaky deck you could pair it with cards like Paul and Nanaa Mihgo for deck milling, or Opus I Zidane who is another great Spiceacilian target since your opponent can't remove him with summons or abilities. Just be sure to have another Spiceacilian or a Shemhazai Summon incase the first one gets removed. 

Running them alongside the Fire unblockable cards I mentioned earlier could also work, and you could include Gekkou to get your Ninjas out faster, even though you'd be getting less value out of him by playing 1 and 2 costs. You could also splash in a bit of lightning so you could run Ninja/Sage Onion Knight and Zangetsu if you wanted to make sure you're getting the most value from your Gekkous. 

Of course, these smaller Forwards are extremely vulnerable to the Yuri/Chelinka Package or Dadaluma/Cactuar, so running some protection like Y'shtola or even your own Yuri/Chelinka in this kind of deck might be a good idea. 

Oh Goddamnit Nanaa Mihgo is a Job: Robber. Here we go again... 

Edge/Izayoi - Do yourself a Favor and Just Play Chocobos

 

Okay okay, that's not really fair. It's not as though there's NOT any synergy using the Wind/Water Standard Units package with Ninjas. If you have either Edge-H or Water WoL out with Maria-H and Backup Arc, your Ninjas can become legitimately scary. The 1-cost Ninja in particular can become difficult for your opponent to play around with only a 2k boost in power, since being able to double his damage dealt on command means he can trade-up with most things, and trading with a 1-cost is something nobody wants to do. 

I just think that the Wind/Water Standard Unit package has better candidates like the aforementioned Chocobos or even using Rangers over the 3 cost Opus I Ninja with her underwhelming "throw weapon" effect.  I think it's missing a few pieces to be worth running like this, and Izayoi's ability is a bit weaker here without consistent blocker removal, though of course, the new Water Ninja works well here too. IMO Ninjas need a few more pieces of wind support to make this deck build idea more cohesive.

Eh... run this if you want a fun, casual deck and you want to see how big your Ninjas can get with Edge and all the other support. Hey, if all else fails, you can use your Ninja Majyyks to turn into a log and abscond before your opponent realizes what happened. Or at least throw your cards at them like they're shuriken or something.

Honorable Mention:

 

I couldn't really think of a place to put this guy, since he really doesn't synergize too well with the other Eblan Four, but he's actually not a bad card. Obviously he needs to be played in Wind/Fire, and he won't get his extra effect if you play him with Gekkou, but one of our local players made it to the top 8 at the NY Petit Cup with a deck using this guy, so check it out! 

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So now that we've seen some of the potential uses for Ninja cards currently, what do they need to really make them into a cohesive deck? 

For one, the lack of a dedicated searcher really hurts Ninja's overall consistency. If you can manage to pull off a Gekkou -> Izayoi -> 3 or less Ninja, then it gives you a big board advantage, but having all the optimal combo pieces you need without a searcher is difficult. The problem with having a searcher with Ninjas though is that unlike Dragoons, Ninjas are all over the place in terms of their element. You could make the searcher a wind element card, but it makes deck construction more complicated since you would have to splash wind just to search out your better fire/water/lightning Ninjas. 

Lets take a look at some cards from Chapters that handle the Ninja archetypes problems in different ways. 

Edge 

Job: Ninja

When Edge enters the Field, you may search for 1 [Card Name (Ninja)] or [Job (Ninja)] and add it to your hand. [Card Name (Ninja)] and [Job (Ninja)] you control gain [Can't be blocked by forwards of cost 4 or More]. 

This Edge is pretty good - He'd be better if he were a backup of course, but I think I prefer the unblockable field effect more than First Strike, since a majority of Ninja cards tend to have lower power anyway.

If I were going to make one major change to this card though to fix the Element issue with Ninjas, I would add "If any CP generated to play Edge was made by a Job/Name Ninja, Edge can be played with CP of any element." or something along those lines. That way you can tuck Edge into any Ninja build, even if it's not focused on Wind, get your searches, and give the lightning/water/fire ninjas an extra unblockable effect.

Edge 

Job: Ninja

First Strike

When Edge Enters the Field, you may play up to one of each [Job (Ninja)] or [Card Name (Ninja)] of cost 1 or less, cost 2 or less, cost 3 or less, and cost 4 or less from your hand onto the field. They all gain Haste until the end of the turn. 

This version of Edge is kind of like Gekkou and Izayoi amped up to 11. With this you could play a variety of Ninja from different elements, including the Eblan Four, and watch as absolute madness ensues. You would want to only be playing Ninja Characters to get the most bang for your buck here, but it gives Ninjas a Golbez-like playstyle. The biggest restriction here is that the Ninjas have to be in your hand, so if I were going to change this card I would have them be playable from the Break Zone too. That might be a little bit too much, but it would give Ninjas a "sneak attack" sort of mechanic while still letting you play Ninjas from 3+ elements. 

Godo 

Job: Ultimate God 

The cost of [Card Name (Ninja)] and [Job (Ninja)] in your hand is reduced by 1. (This can't become 0.)

, Put Godo in the Break Zone: Choose 1 [Card Name (Yuffie)] in your Break Zone. Return it to your hand.

Godo would be a solid 2-cost and a great first turn play for Ninjas. Not a whole lot more to say about it other than a blanket 1 CP reduction would be great for speeding up Ninjas and giving them more unique tools that Knights and Dragoons don't. The relevance of the his second ability would depend on us getting a better Yuffie card that actually care about his cost reduction effect. 

Ninja

Job: Standard Unit

: Until end of turn, the next time Ninja deals damage to a Forward and the next time a Forward deals damage to Ninja, that damage becomes 0. This ability can only be used once a turn.

So my other observation with Ninjas is that most of the Wind Standard Units are either too small to care much about getting over things or need to be paired with specific elements to work best. A 3-Cost 7k gives Ninjas a more substantial body in Wind that doesn't need to be used in a Fire/Wind build. Giving this guy a power boost and First Strike turns him into a legitimate threat, since he can shadow block anything bigger than him for 2 Wind CP. 

Also he's my obligatory "PORT MORE XI CARDS" card. It wouldn't be a Lv.1 Onion Knight article without it. 

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That's about it for Ninjas from Chapters I think would help the archetype out. A majority of them used the Equipment mechanic that isn't currently in the FFTCG, and it seems kind of doubtful that we would see it any time soon. I'm really hoping that we'll see some more Ninja support in Opus VIII. Jinnai from Legends is a bit of a stretch, but at this point I'm almost positive we'll see another Yuffie and Yugiri, so that's two more Ninja Heroes than we had before.
Or they could print cards of those characters but they'll be like... Job: Shinobi or something. Oh God. 

Until next time - Keep on Grinding, 

       

 

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