A Noob's Review of From Nightmares

Greetings all you denizens of the Dreamscape, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy Trading Card Game blog where the only Nightmare to be found is having to keep a consistent upload schedule. 

Hoo boy those two weeks I thought I would be able to get my review posted just flew by didn't they? So much my lofty promise of two articles in one month. It would seem that in all my time doing this, the only job I've truly mastered is being a tease and denial expert. But in a way, isn't that the truest experience of being a Final Fantasy fan these days? 

I want to believe, but I've been hurt too many times in the past. 

Now that the set's been out for awhile, I've had lots of time to play around with the new cards and get those ol' review juices flowing. Like last time I'll just be listing some stuff I liked about the set, and some stuff I thought could have been better. As always, keep in mind that the personal opinions expressed by the Lv.1 Onion Knight are the ramblings of a casual player, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the greater community as a whole, my locals group, Chaos, Benjamin from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, or even my own boyfriend. With that out of the way, lets talk about From Nightmares!

Liked: Set encourages building decks with three or more colors

One of my favorite things about From Nightmares is that it makes the dream of building a deck with more than two colors a lot easier. And for once, it's not just by splashing a few off-color cards in a mono-Earth deck with color fixing Backups like Tyro and Shantotto. I mean, you still can just do that, though you should know that every time you play the new Warrior of Light with nothing but Earth Backups, you earn yourself a penalty of minus fifty Onion Knight points for a pure lack of moxie. That's right, you can somehow find yourself at a lower level than me, the prospect of which should truly frighten you. 

If you're a fellow FFXI veteran, you can hear this image. 

In all seriousness though, I was actually having a conversation about this with one of our local players who regularly runs three or more color decks and expressed his frustration that all of a sudden players seem more comfortable running three colors as though that wasn't always an option you could take before now. And as somebody who cringes every time I see somebody running a Ninja deck with Opus XI Edge and refusing to run more than two colors (or worse, mono-Wind Ninjas *shudders*) I couldn't help but relate to that a bit. So what exactly does From Nightmares do that makes running more than two colors seem less daunting? 

Usually the answer to this question is consistency, which in the past usually means Backups, like the aforementioned Earth color-fixers, or the line of Type-0 Moogles that can produce a second CP element. What's odd is that this set actually doesn't really have much of that outside of Rikku, and she's specifically for Category X cards. You do have new Backups that can search for other Backups like Rydia and Miyu, and that can do a lot to help color fix your deck of course. But I'd argue that the thing that makes running more than two colors easier in From Nightmares, is the combination of generically strong multi-element cards, and other very powerful Forwards that encourage you to run a wider range of colors. 

Having a wider pool of multi-element cards available helps grease the wheels for including more colors in your decks, and I don't think there's a better card that exemplifies that in this set than the new Warrior of Light. The thing that's so great about Multi-Elements is that they can be targeted by a wider variety of effects that mention one specific element. So while you still have the option of playing him off Backups as the ultimate payoff in a multi-color Job: Warrior of Light deck, you can just as easily play him with cards like Iedolas in decks that splash Fire, or with White Mage in Earth decks. You can give him Poppy's Earth and Wind specific buffs, or both of Yuzuki's defensive effects for Fire and Water cards. Draw him from the top of your deck with Arc and then blammo, once you play him you've got the required 4 elements on the field to buff the board by 2k with Arc's effect. That versatility is what makes building around multi-elements cards so interesting. 

The three Dream Stooges are probably the cards in this set that most obviously ask, "Pst. Hey. You're doing the whole three color thing right buddy? Just checking", and they also do a really good job at showing how building decks with a three color win condition is made a lot easier with a bigger pool of new Multi-Elements cards. Now considering that you can play whichever of the other two Stooges for free with Laragorn's effect, you don't really *need* to run a dedicated three color deck, even though it's made a lot easier for this element with the Agito Cadet Backup package. If you do decide to open up the colors you run with them though, it not only makes it that these guys are really sticky and more aggravating to deal with, it also opens up the deck to some interesting options. 

For example, you could pop Akstar in there, since two of the three Stooges are 3-costs and count towards his damage effect. Like I discussed earlier, since Multi-Elements count as a card of both colors, any three cost card that has Fire or Ice is now fair game for you to play from your hand with his effect. But even outside of free play effects, you can use Multi-Elements as a link to make running three colors have a much bigger payoff than you could before. For example, if you're running Fire, Ice, and Lightning, why not also pop Selh'teus in there? What about Al-Cid? And if you're going to run cards like those, why not also pop in stuff like Sephiroth or Lasswell? Having so many Forwards with shared colors goes a long way to grease the wheels of these decks by making it so that you're less likely to get screwed when it comes to needing the right color to cast your cards, even without running color fixing Backups. 

Multi-Elements are probably one of the most exciting tools for interesting deck building, so I'm actually a bit bummed that it looks like we'll be taking another break from in the next few sets, seeing as they managed to finish up all the element combos already. I do hope that we'll see the missing R-rarity cards for each combination pop up in the future, but for now, I think we've got some pretty good options that are a ton of fun to experiment with. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite like seeing the expression on your opponent's face when you play the new Zidane or Warrior of Light off the top of your Mono-Fire Luso deck. The word I would use to describe it is... sensual. 

Disliked: 2 CP cards have gotten way too powerful for their cost

There was a brief moment in time before the set had even come out that it looks like a pretty defined meta had already been set up. A friend of mine was preparing to fly down to Florida for the Materia Cup and wanted to test against some of the biggest threats he expected to go up against there. I watched a bead of sweat roll down his beautiful, bald head as he played three-dimensional chess in his mind, trying to figure out what sort of Rube-Goldberg machine style move he would need to pull off to overcome a deck largely made out of cards from a starter deck.

Of course, the dark timeline where the Final Fantasy XIII deck topped a major tournament did not actually come to pass as the elders foretold. But I also can't help but notice the sudden and unexpected rise of the old Opus V Arcanist in a few of those top performing decks. Hmmm, I wonnnnder why? What cost Forward would people possibly want not to attack by including this niche and previously unused Backup in their deck?

Does it rhyme with "Binal Bantasy Birteen?" 

Of course as somebody who doesn't really follow the meta that closely, for all I know those Arcanists were put in there to counter Akstar Decks or Soiree or something. But for a time there it really did look like we were going to have to deal with the closest thing the FFTCG has to a OTK deck with how quickly the XIII deck could pump out damage and generate value. I'm not under the impression that cards found in starter decks need to be weak or under powered in comparison to what you can get in packs either. The fact that cards found in starter and 2-player decks like Avalanche, Guardians, and the XIII package make building a powerful, competitive deck easier for new players just getting into the game. But the thing is, I'm confused why they bothered to limit Sophie to one copy per deck if Lightning was just going to be that effect but faster.

But the way things shaped out with the Final Fantasy XIII deck is kind of indicative of a larger problem with the FFTCG that I've been feeling for some time now: the cost-to-effect ratio for 2 CP cards now feels wildly imbalanced. Playing Forwards that cost 5 or more already felt like a big risk back when Diabolos was running rampant, but nowadays with the speed of the game and the need for impactful plays to be made as quickly as possible, playing higher cost cards feels like a larger ask than ever. Meanwhile 2 cost cards require a minimal CP investment and have effects that turn them into some of the biggest threats in the game. Saying "Well, it only has 5k power!" really doesn't feel like an accurate way to measure a card's impact any more. 

I'd say we really started to get into the era of the brutally powerful 2 CP card around Crystal Dominion. There were only fourteen 2 CP Legends printed between Opus I and XIV for example, but the release of Crystal Dominion brought seven of them in one set, with cards like Rydia, Palom, and Porom immediately making a huge splash. Since then, 2 CP cards have only grown more and more powerful, with cards like Noel, Braska, and Zidane really pushing just how strong low cost, low power cards could be. And as much as I do enjoy Multi-Element cards, I think that the ability to cheat them out easily has only made that power discrepancy with higher cost cards bigger. 

Look, I'm not about to pretend that I don't absolutely love this smug little monkey twink right here. He immediately went right into my Ninja deck (See? That's why you run Wind/Fire/Lightning Ninjas!) where he quickly became one of, if not the most threatening cards I could play. But even I have to admit this guy has way too many lines of text for a 2 CP card. Haste combined with an effect that triggers both on entry and attack. The ability to completely remove threats in your opponent's hand and get them closer to milling out every turn. Can't be blocked by higher cost targets and powerful enough to get over most other smaller cards. And if *all that* wasn't enough, any deck running Fire can easily cheat him with Phoenix, meaning yep, you can pop him right in the XIII deck, a combination which I'm sure people love going up against as much as Zidane enjoys the cool, refreshing taste of Coca Cola. 

It's canon. 

Now I'm sure there are those of you out there reading this and saying, "well, just run Ixion then", which yes, you absolutely can do! But I'm really not sure you should *have* to ensure that you open a game with one specific card in your hand as the only way to prevent yourself from losing as early as turn three. Moving forward, it would be cool to see big, higher cost cards make a comeback as a deck's ultimate play that you work towards, rather than only really being feasible if they're a board wipe, or have some way of either reducing or totally negating their cost by cheating them out like we saw with Lenna and every Water Forward that costs more than 4 CP. But who knows? Maybe next set we'll get a card that can play Braska's Final Aeon for free and see the renaissance of the 7 CP Forward. Until then, I'll be teching Shadow Lord into every deck and being inexplicably smarmy when I end up breaking more of my own Forwards than my opponent's. 

Liked: From Nightmares does some really cool stuff with cards from older sets

Back when I was opening up my pre-release kit for From Nightmares, I couldn't help but think to myself, "Damn, this is probably one of the worst sets for Sealed format." Though admittedly, a big part of that may have been because I had just pulled a Full Art Golbez with no way to use him since there are a whopping zero Archfiends to play with him in this set. 

I was so certain that we'd be seeing new archfiends in fact that I made sure that I included it in my Bingo board, only to be laughably wrong. And you know what? I think I actually prefer the approach that was taken here, because From Nightmares, as awkward as certain pulls might be for Sealed format, does a great job at breathing life into older archetypes with some choice new additions. 

When asking my friends how they would describe the kind of set From Nightmares is, "an extra pack from Yu-Gi-Oh!" was a suggestion that I felt was weirdly apt. I stopped playing Yu-Gi-Oh! around the 5D's era, but I assume that this was meant to say that the set feels like it has a larger emphasis on improving the viability of older cards with new additions that make them more playable - and trust me when I say, I also think that's a huge compliment to this set's favor! Golbez, for example, is really a masterful example of how one card can completely revitalize an archetype and make it feel fresh and exciting again without completely replacing what came before it. 

The old Opus XII Golbez is still an excellent card in its own right, but having to wait until Damage 6 to get the - for lack of better phrasing - full Archfiend nutt, seemed like a tall order. Having the new Golbez make interesting use of the Warp mechanic not just to play a big, high cost Forward, but turn every Archfiend into a free body that immediately refills your hand size after you play it is just such a clever concept that the extra 3k power boost he gives to them once he finally Warps in is the icing on the cake. While it would have been cool to see new Archfiends in the set with him, it is quite cool to see just how threatening cards like the old Barbaricca and Rubicante can be with a deck that properly supports them. 

I think the glow-up I'm most happy about is with Warriors of Light though. The new Four-Color card is plenty exciting and all, but hoo boy, is that Refia the ultimate chef's kiss for the deck. Pairing equally well with either the Opus XII Faris or Resurgence of Power Faris, Refia is an excellent example of how you can reward a deck for building around one tribe of cards while still keeping your options open for how you want to build it (my preference is for the RoP Faris though, since it makes all of your WoL Forwards extremely difficult to either attack into or block). And considering that there were only two other Warriors of Light printed alongside her this set, you're going to have to go through all of the different WoL Forwards and Backups printed over the years to use with her, making this an interesting and engaging deck to build. 

For example, do you run a Backup Arc to ensure that you need a smaller number of WoL Forwards to pull off her effect? Or do you run the Resurgence of Power Arc to boost your whole board by 2k with the 4-color Warrior of Light on the field? There are lots of options to consider, but if you choose to do the latter, it better be the full art version. We may be pathetic here at Lv.1 Onion Knight, but one thing we don't tolerate is a lack of style.

Summoners is another example of how crafting cards with care can amp up archetypes that never really fully came together in past sets. Firmly establishing Earth as the deck's primary color, these three cards show how you can overcome past name clash in a simple but effective way. Garnet being an 8k body who can recur two Summons from the Break Zone seems like an effect that is way too powerful to be on card from the Common rarity, especially considering that this version of her does a way better job at being a core piece of the Summoner deck than the Opus XI Legend did back when the archetype first began getting fleshed out.  

We've also got a new Eiko Forward with an effect that rewards you for playing more Summoners with the big, explosive payoff of getting to cast a huge Summon for free. Initially, this looks like a bit of a problem for the deck, since Eiko was previously the deck's search card. So how do you justify replacing a key element of the deck? Just make a way better version to fill that same role, and that's where the new Rydia comes into play. This card is just exceptional, trading the old Eiko's EX burst for the ability to search out such a wide range of cards that she's become an essential Backup for decks even outside of Summoner Tribal. And since there are plenty of other Summoner Backups like Braska, Lenne, and Yuna, you'll almost always have enough targets to dull with Eiko for her free cast. 

The card designers have proven in From Nightmares that they know what they need to do to improve an existing archetype, and that's something I really appreciate about this set. But on the other hand, when you see new cards introduced to flesh out struggling tribes from the uh... other side of the goodness spectrum, it does honestly become frustrating. So lets talk about Rebels shall we? 

Disliked: The set drops things set up in past sets for completely new stuff 

I admit, following up "I like that this set does new stuff with old decks" with "It also does too much new stuff and I don't like that" is pretty weird, so let me try and break this down in a way that might make a bit more sense to all you non-Onion Knights out there. I can't help but feel that in the FFTCG, sometimes there can be a bit of an issue with the card designers establishing a satisfying setup and payoff when it comes to fleshing out titles and tribes between sets. This is especially true for decks that seem to have a somewhat clear vision and that maybe need just a little bit more help to really make them competitive, only for them to throw it all out the window and establish something completely new - but not necessarily better - for it only a few sets later, rather than continuing to build off of what was already there. 

In the case of cards like Golbez and the Archfiends, I really like how what was made took cards that already existed and thoughtfully found a way to improve them, while at the same time finding a way to make the deck revolve around the new Warp mechanic. And then you have stuff like Rebels, where it seems like the cards that were made in the past were totally and utterly disregarded to set up another half-formed idea for the Warrior/Rebel tribe. 

For example, I like the new Josef just fine! The new Hilda makes it clear that Fire/Wind/Water is what they're trying to go for now with Rebels, and this gives the deck a really solid Water Rebel Forward besides the Water/Fire Firion. You can play him from the deck onto the field with Guy, and then play the new Leon, who searches for Maria. That's three Forwards onto the field for only 3CP. Really great! Plus if you've already got a Firion on the field, Josef becomes a huge threat that draws you a card on swing, and Leon would be able to attack as a 9k Forward with Haste. That all sounds really good on paper until you see the one major problem with Rebels: There are only five of them. 

Okay, technically there's six if you count Bartz, but if you need to have four Job Rebels to get the new Leon's effect off, then I kind of find it a baffling move to turn the tribe's only Rebel Backup (besides the old Opus I Maria, which also presents a problem for the deck which I'll go into later) and sole search card into a new Forward that serves as a key part of this new deck strategy. To make matters worse, the Wind Leon from Crystal Dominion also seemed to be the primary win condition they were setting up with Rebels of getting your Forwards super big and then swinging to generate a ton of value. But now you have this new Leon that needs numbers in an extremely number strapped tribe. 

So now it seems like the play the card designers are trying to set up for Rebels is Guy > Water Josef > Fire Leon > Maria, preferably the one printed alongside the Leon from Crystal Dominion that makes all your Rebels bigger, reduces their damage taken, and pumps up Guy even further, since his effect specifies he needs Warrior Forwards. But the question I have here is this: Why?

Knowing that you have extremely limited numbers of Job: Rebel Forwards you can reasonably have in the game, why not, I don't know, make the new cards anybody other than Josef and Leon? Why not a new Leila or Paul or Scott to pad out the roster we already have rather than double dipping into characters that already were needed for the deck to function? Hell, you could have even done a new Firion in Wind or something. Sure that would have been the sixth Firion printed in the last five sets, but we've also had seven Lightnings in the same amount of time, so who's really keeping score here? 

Bonus points if it's a Final Fantasy Origins render of him. 

Much like my criticism of how the Final Fantasy VIII cards were handled in Resurgence of Power, I realize that this is a highly specific and largely personal criticism of the set, but there you have it. I'm frustrated that the best thing Rebels have going for them at the moment is that they're unexpectedly, unreasonably sexy for cards based around Final Fantasy II. 

Don't tell me you weren't all thinking it. 

It's this general lack of consistency when it comes to creating a solid identity of specific categories and tribes that makes it so you never quite know if there ever was a greater plan to flesh them out in the first place, or if the cards were just meant to exist as they are for the moment before being phased out by completely new ideas a few sets later. For example, the cards I was most looking forward to in From Nightmares were the three Chebukki siblings, Makki, Kukki, and Cherukiki. Not only are they obscure characters from my favorite game in the series getting cards with new artwork, but there's a lot of potential with Cherukiki's effect allowing Category XI Forwards to use dulling action abilities as soon as they enter the field. 

When I say "you've probably never heard of them", I'm really not trying to be a hipster. It's just a very strong, accurate hunch. 

I was positive that meant we'd be seeing at least a new Tenzen with a dull action ability for thematic reasons, since he and the Chebukki siblings are part of a notoriously difficult fight from the Chains of Promathia expansion in Final Fantasy XI. Y'know, just a little something with its own action ability that maybe... I don't know, made the three siblings seemingly unrelated effects make sense together? Reward you for quickly playing a board full of small guys onto the field? Anything?? But NOPE, that did not happen. And there's no other XI Forwards with action abilities in the set. Annnnnnnd there's super limited options for XI Forwards that do have dull action abilities in previous sets (especially in Fire or Wind), so they don't really work with anything else super well either.

The best option right now to use them with is with Esha'ntarl from Opus XII, whose biggest issue was that she did not have Haste and had to survive a turn before you could use her dull effect. I can see there being a shell there with Fire/Ice/Wind using other Category XI cards like Selh'teus but it feels like it needs a little something more to really make the use of all three of these guys feel worth it. Something with Verstael perhaps? Sure, why not? If anybody has any deck ideas revolving around them, go ahead and leave me a deck listing since that's way too much of a big brain play for me to come up with by myself. But then the question that comes to play is why weren't these guys Fire and Ice instead of Fire and Wind? 

But the point I'm ultimately trying to get at here, is this: do I trust that there is a future plan to make a Category XI Fire/Wind deck revolving around more action abilities? Or was the plan all along was just to make Cherukiki's effect only ever work for the three siblings? In that case, why specify "Category XI Forwards" in her card text? Why not just say "The Card name Makki-Chebukki, Kukki-Chebukki, and Cherukiki..." if that's all that was ever planned in the first place? To save space? I would have been fine having smaller card text if it meant I didn't get false hope!

Let me make one thing clear though: I'm not saying that once a tribe or category's playstyle has been set up, the card designers HAVE to build around that original idea and can't branch out to something new. I certainly wouldn't have wanted Sky Pirates to only do... whatever it was they were doing before Opus XIV came out. Cards like Fran from the last set are proof that you can create entirely new ways of building older decks in a way that feels refreshing and interesting. But for every Fran, there's also a Nine, and if they haven't found a way to make printing a Class Zero Cadet-Centric Multi-Element Legend feel worth it in the last seven sets since he was printed, I'm not confident they ever will. But hey, I complained about Sky Pirates for long enough that I ended up willing that terror of a deck into existence, so maybe there's hope after all.      

So yeah, I guess if you take anything away from this, it's that I like it when things are done well, and I don't like it when they aren't. Truly the hottest of takes. 

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All in all, I really enjoy the selection of cards introduced in From Nightmares. Though the archetype-specific stuff can be hit or miss, there's a lot of great stuff in this set that brings new layers to deck building, from a wide range of good Monsters to interesting takes on the Warp mechanic with cards like Prishe and Vayne. Plus all you diehard Final Fantasy VI fans can finally rejoice that what is basically a VI Title Format deck has been wreaking havoc on the meta. Overall, just a really solid set in general. 

Taking a look at our Bingo card for this set, it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit more for that Job: Tantalus Member support, though Zidane by himself is terrifying enough. I suppose I should have expected that the Agito Cadet Package wouldn't be Type-0 Cadet support, but with so many unused art resources for the Cadets that were from the Chapters version of the game, I'm starting to wonder if next time we see Type-0 Cadets, they'll just make a whole new squad of like... Water/Earth Cadets or something. And lo', my pining for a Bahamut Sin card shall continue, which is truly tragic because who the hell knows when they'll get around to printing more VII cards in the future?  

But with another successful Bingo under our Onion helm, I actually have a special announcement to make. This spring marks five years since I started writing this blog! So I do have a special giveaway to do this time around, but given this momentous occasion, I thought it might be fun to pull back the curtain on how I got started with the FFTCG and share my origin story with you all. My onion-gin story, if you will. Be sure to bring snacks, because this is one for the ages! 

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Night fell fast on the dark little tavern, the chill of the storm outside only abated by the warmth of the players' passion for card games inside. Alone from all the other mummers and revelers sat two figures: a fledgling Onion Knight and his fine swain. They had only just recently set out on their journey into the wide world of the Final Fantasy TCG, having yet to grow jaded with concerns over the competitive scene and proper deck building ratios. The only thing their hearts desired were a foil Shadow Lord and Foil Edea for their collections. It was truly a time of innocence. 

Fumbling through some of their first matches with their starter decks, the pair had failed to notice that an awe-struck hush had descended onto the tavern as suddenly as a lantern light being snuffed out by an errant wind. A lone figure strode between the gaming tables, eyes fixed not on those of the experienced players, but on that of the two greenhorns in the corner. 

"Excuse me." she said as she walked up to the startled Onion Knight. "Would it be alright if I watched you play your game?" 

As a new player who had never known things like community and camaraderie from the TCG world, the Onion Knight's first thought was naturally "Hell fucking yes I mind!" In an unexpectedly charitable move however, the Onion Knight nodded and went back to his match, the stranger watching on in silence. 

After a few rounds the two concluded their game, the stranger thanking them for their time. The Onion Knight's beau asked if they had a passing interest in starting to play the Final Fantasy TCG like them. "Oh did I not mention? I'm actually the community lead for the game, Richelle Brady." she said with a mysterious smile. 

She turned to allow the two thunderstruck knaves to pick their jaws up off the floor, crisply snapping her fingers as she made for the exit. A retinue of Paladins and White Mages emerged from the shadows of the tavern, scurrying to don her in her cloak and riding gear, her finely pedigreed Chocobo saddled just outside. "There's actually going to be a gathering of Final Fantasy players at the Uncommons this weekend. I expect to see you both there." she said, leaving a handful of Gil for the tavern keeper. "Oh, and one more thing. You don't need to dull your Forwards when you block." 

With that parting wisdom, she left like a thief in the night. The pair murmured to themselves at their luck at having chosen tonight of all nights to come to the tavern to play, taking special note to make good on their serendipitous invitation to join the other players the following weekend. 

And the rest, as the bards say in their tales, was all downhill from there. 

                                                        ***

Well, there you have it folks! If you ever wanted to know how an Onion Knight on the internet got started writing a blog about card games, the curtain of obscurity has officially been pulled back. But since it's my five year anniversary and all, I thought it was important to give some props to the person who started me down this path: Richelle Brady. 

Through the years, Richelle has been incredibly kind, patient, and supportive whenever I would pick her brain about things I should do for the blog, ideas for deck builds, and helping me figure out how to take over our local scene. It's because of her that I got to start doing spoiler reveals for upcoming sets, and she was the one who encouraged me to do the Bingo cards every set. I owe her a lot for not only getting me started with the FFTCG community, but for giving me an outlet to work on my writing and continue to develop my creative skills. 

This week, Richelle is going to be leaving her position at Square Enix to work on Disney's Lorcana, the irony being that when I started this blog, I had left Disney to work on a Square Enix thing. The cinematic parallels are astonishing. But it was important for me to take the time to say this to Richelle here: Thank you so much for everything you've done both in-person and behind the scenes for the FFTCG over the years. But more importantly, thank you for being my friend. 

My one regret was that she was too much of a professional to give me free stuff out of nepotism.

Welp! We sure ain't getting any gayer here, so why don't we move on to what you've all been waiting for - this set's giveaway. For something as big as my five year anniversary, it would be super cool and impressive to give away something like the Full Art Signature Cloud, wouldn't it? Well there's no way in hell that was ever going to happen. But I can do the next best thing: enable all you gambling addicts out there with the false hope that maybe *this box* has the FA Cloud in it.



That's right! This time around I'm giving away a sealed box of From Nightmares to one lucky winner. The Willy Wonka Golden Ticket card of your dreams could be slumbering somewhere deep inside these packs, just waiting for you to open it. I mean, probably not given the odds, but hey, at least this gamble will be free for whoever wins! I won't always be able to give away boxes in the future, but considering that it was my five year anniversary, I wanted to give away something special. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart to anyone who reads the silly opinions of this perpetually stuck at Level 1 Onion Knight. It always makes my day to read people's comments and have you all share your deck ideas and experiences with the game with me whenever I post these.

Raffle Rules: 

1) In order to be eligible for the raffle, you must complete the survey I'll be linking below. Your entry makes you eligible to win the sealed booster box of From Nightmares. 

2) The contest is open to both local and international fans, so if you don't happen to be from the US, don't sweat it! I will be in contact with the winners to discuss shipping arrangements.

3) The Raffle submission period will go for three weeks from the post date of this blog (May 24rd), until Monday, June 26th at 8PM EST, so you have four weeks to enter. I'll announce the winner on Facebook.  

4) I will contact the winner via the email they submit in the survey. If I do not hear back from a winner in one week, I will choose another winner at random, so be sure to submit an email that you check often! 

Enter the Raffle Here!!

 

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Good luck to everyone who enters, and especially so to whoever gets the box! I myself have yet to pull any of the signature full art cards, but I have the feeling that when Jack Garland comes out in two sets, yours truly will finally know what it feels like to be one of the blessed few. Who'll be laughing then, huh??

Until next time - keep on grinding, 

Read More

Spoiled Onions: From Nightmares - Buffasaur

 

Salutations all you creatures of the deep, and welcome to Lv.1 Onion Knight: The Final Fantasy TCG blog that has been around long enough to remember when "Cloud of Darkness Monster Decks" were a thing. 

Monsters certainly are an interesting class of cards in the FFTCG aren't they? Ever since they were introduced as the hot new mechanic waaaaay back in the pioneer days of Opus IV, Monster cards have always felt a bit like the card designers experimenting with new mechanics to see what sticks. Doing a little bit of everything from becoming Forwards, to using counters, to working as hand traps, it was often a bit difficult to figure out how you can make space in your decks for Monsters in the past. Lately though, Monsters have really been hitting their stride and have seen a pretty big resurgence, with powerhouses like Typhon, Tros, Byblos, and Melusine wreaking havock in all kinds of decks.

Of course, all of the cards I just mentioned have the benefit of being of the "Hero" rarity, so it's hardly surprising that they'd have a power level to match. So can a "Rare" monster rise through the ranks of the denizens of darkness and upgrade from lowly minion to midboss? Let's find out with this new spoiler fresh out of From Nightmares: Buffasaur!     

Buffasaur is a unique Category: FFCC Monster with a simple but powerful effect. When your opponent plays a monster while Buffasaur is on the field, you can put him into the Break Zone to deal it 8000 damage at the cost of one point of damage to yourself. This kind of aggressive board control can essentially invalidate the CP cost your opponent paid to play a Forward, especially when you consider just how prevalent cheating out Forwards for free is in the current state of the FFTCG. Because of the way Buffasaur's effect is worded, you're responding to the Forward entering the field, rather than choosing the Forward you're dealing damage to. That means that cards that can't be chosen by abilities can still be hit by Buffasaur's damage, and you would also be able to bypass Cecil's protection effect as well. Not too shabby for a 2CP monster! 

Folks who have been playing the FFTCG since the early days will notice that Buffasaur's effect is incredibly similar to that of Grenade from Opus V. However, there's an important distinction between the two cards' effects that I think makes Buffasaur much more useful: Grenade triggers as soon as a qualifying forward enters the field, whereas with Buffasaur, you can choose whether or not you want to activate the effect. Having control over when you choose to trigger Buffasaur means that your opponent also can't play around it by sacrificing a small, cheap Forward to waste the trap you just set.

Buffasaur also improves on Grenade by not limiting its effect to Forwards of 8k power and under. This means that you can combo Buffasaur's effect with other sources of ping damage like Mutsuki or Iroha to finish something off. (It was called to my attention that because Buffasaur is placed into the Break Zone, you can't buff his damage with Iroha's effect, since he's no longer a Fire Character you control at that point. Thanks to Stephen Thomas Sause and Andrew Needham for pointing that out!). 

The only real "downside" to Buffasaur by comparison is that it deals you a point of damage upon using its effect. But honestly, are there still people out there who are like, "A point of damage? From my own card?? Why I never!!" or whatever? Don't get me wrong, you definitely want to be careful about when you use Buffasaur's effect and all, but nowadays there are so many cards with damage-specific effects that pushing yourself towards a specific damage number can actually be quite helpful, especially for non-targeting removal like Buffasaur provides.

Mira is an excellent example of how you can use Buffasaur's self-damage to your advantage. Most decks that use Mira generally run her alongside Luminous Puma so you can play it for free with her effect and recover two cards from your Break Zone. But getting to Damage 5 can sometimes be a bit tricky, especially if your opponent is determined to keep you at Damage 4 so they can attempt to set up and take you out in one turn. Buffasaur not only helps Mira play larger targets, but also guarantees you'll be hitting your target for a total of 10k damage with his effect when he leaves the field. It could even be worth it to just use Mira's effect to recover your Buffasaur, making it all the more difficult for your opponent to play Forwards while enabling cards with damage effects like Basch or Bahamut. 

Being a 2-cost monster also makes him a good target to use with 5CP Relm's effect too. Playing both Buffasaur and Goblin with Relm's effect makes it extremely dangerous for your opponent to play even very large Forwards, since you can knock out a Forward even up to 11k power with their combined damage. Using Buffasaur's self-damage in Water/Fire decks that have a lot of powerful EX Burst cards like Leviathan and Remora is also a good option, especially if you can keep re-triggering them with Akstar. 

Okay so this is a bit of a weird one, but I can't resist coming up with at least one crackpot combo. Despite her amazing artwork, this version of Mira definitely hasn't seen a whole lot of play. But since Buffasaur is a Category FFCC character, he synergizes pretty nicely with her. When Buffasaur triggers and is sent to the Break Zone, you can use Mira to search for another copy of it, setting up another trap for your opponent. Of course, you could also just do this with the original Mira from Opus IV, and Buffasaur would only cost 1 with that version of her. 

But you can get really wacky with Opus XI Mira's effect since as an FFCC character, you can also turn him into a Forward and punch your opponent with it while you wait to blow him up. Just make sure you don't go overboard being a fierce divalicious hunty with him though, since it would be neither fierce nor divalicious to lose Buffasaur to a blocker before you get to use his effect. Remember you can only trigger Buffasaur on your opponent's turn when a Forward is played to the field.

And there you have it folks! Thanks again to the fine, upstanding folks of Square Enix for letting me reveal another new card for From Nightmares. I was told that I was given this spoiler specifically because its name "suited my interests", and I have absolutely NO idea why...

Would I trade a Signature Cloud card for a playset of Full-Art Sabin? No, because I would already HAVE a playset of them, thank you very much!  

From Nightmares is certainly shaping up to be an interesting set, and I really do appreciate the wider variety of Monster effects we're seeing, rather than slightly altered versions of the same effect across each element like we've had in the past. I suppose it makes sense though, since with the reveal of the Weapons from Final Fantasy VII, it would seem that the set is placing a pretty heavy thematic emphasis on some of the most daunting horrors to be found throughout the games. And had I been smart enough to figure out the theme behind the title of this set beforehand, I may have made some more informed choices with my Bingo this time around, though there's still plenty of time to get lucky with it! 

I actually had a bit of a rough time figuring out what might be coming in this set, and I admit that I was actually really thrown off by the fact that there were three different artists credited as doing art for Final Fantasy II this time around. Hence my madman's wish for more Rebel support. Maybe instead, I should have dedicated a square here to one of the iconic monstrosities found in FFII like... uh... the Emperor of Hell? Yeah that's all I got, so both of you Final Fantasy II fans reading this can school me in the comments. 

As an XI fan, I am both fully aware that I live in a glass house, and yet I still come fully armed with stones to sling. 

In any case, what do you guys think of the new cards shown so far? Do you think the old dreams of a fully Monster-centric deck will finally be realized this set? Or will it be the stuff of nightmares instead? In the meantime I'll be here, single-handedly inflating the market price for those full art Sabins. 

Until next time - keep on grinding, 

     

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