Back to Basics: A Noob's Opus VIII Review

Hey there everyone, and welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight - The FFTCG blog that probably won't be chosen by a crystal to become a Warrior of Light any time soon. 

In what felt like both an excruciating long time and no time at all, Opus VIII is finally out. Last time I did a set review like this, I wasn't entirely sure what I thought about it. Opus VII was a fairly experimental set, and while it had a lot of good pieces in it overall, it kind of felt a bit like the awkward middle child of FFTCG sets. Opus III still probably has that dubious honor, but you get what I'm saying - It was kind of a weird set.

A set where two pre-teens are more terrifying than Sin or Sephiroth. 

Opus VIII was different. As more and more of the set was revealed, I became hyped to a frenzied level where I couldn't wait to get my hands on new cards and building decks. I stayed up until 2AM the night before prerelease just talking with my boyfriend about cards we were looking forward to. Now that everything is out I figured I would do another one of my janky reviews for it, because I know everybody is just dying to hear what I have to say about it. I'm super qualified now: I posted match pairings and did the equivalent of handing out cake and juice at my local Petit Cup. 

First off let me say that this review is not going to be a slavishly long analysis of every card in the set where I rank every single card by some arbitrary rating system I came up with - not that I've ever done that before but if you're new here then, I dunno, sorry? Honestly, I find that outright saying a card is “bad” or that it “won’t see play” before even trying it in a deck is kind of a counterintuitive and uninteresting way to look at new cards. Part of the fun of a new set for me is coming up with new combo and deck ideas, so I would honestly rather focus my energies on that. If anybody were to read an article of mine, I would prefer they be inspired to try something new rather than discouraged from experimenting with new builds just because of my opinion. Maybe that approach ends up being more informative in the end but I'm trying this newfangled "positivity" thing for a change.

I'm sorry for saying all that bad stuff about you in my Opus VI review, Dark Lord. Kageyama said you're good. Now can you please stop cursing my pulls?

And honestly I think it’s a little too early in the release cycle for me personally to get into details about individual cards and how I think they’ll perform in a theoretical vaccum in a way that won’t just be my kneejerk reaction - I absolutely hated Duncan at first, but just this weekend somebody topped a tournament with an FFVI centric deck that used him as a key card, and now I'm  excited to try him out. So now I’m just going with my gut on how I feel about the set as a whole and some of the broader aspects of it on a personal level. 

Now that I’ve established that this is going to be some milquetoast review, what do I think of the set? 

I can say without any hesitation this time that Opus VIII is genuinely good - it gets back to the basics of having solid elemental support while still pushing them into promising new directions. There's also a lot more mono-element deck support in this set than we've had in the last few Opuses, and does a lot to help solidify their individual niches: This can be both a good and a bad thing as I'll talk about in a bit, but overall the set comes off as a big step up in power - not quite on the level of Opus V, but pretty darn close.

The focus on monsters seems a lot more successful than they have in the past few sets as well. The introduction of monsters that do something when they enter and exit the field does a lot to speed them up, and the ones that stick around on the board like Scale Toad, Death Machine, and Lava spider do a lot to give you an advantage. I do kind of wonder what happened to the "discard from hand" monster effects they introduced in Opus VII, but I like that they're continuing to experiment with them. 

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Let's take a minute to talk about Fire, the element that everybody was hoping would finally be made incredible by this set. So, was it?

No.

Leading up to the release of Opus VIII, things were really looking up for Fire this set. If you wanted my opinion on highest value Rare in this set, it would be Ark Angel HM, whose double hit effect would be great even if he didn’t get an extra 3k on attack. He’s also a perfect fit for Fire’s kit with Haste and Unblockable effects, even if you don’t play him alongside Volker.

I don't want to take responsibility for this but like... you're welcome.

With the reveal of cards like Lava Spider, Golem, Marche, and Yotsuyu, it was looking like Fire was finally transitioning to be the fast paced aggro element we’ve been hoping for. But once the full set was spoiled, it was clear that there wasn’t enough there to elevate Fire to become a top tier meta element. A big, obviously impactful, unfair Fire Legend is still something we’re going to have to keep waiting for, and without that, I’ve heard a lot of people say that the Fire cards in this set do more to enhance other elements they’re paired with rather than make Fire truly incredible. As a Mono Fire apologist, I’d have to agree with that, but honestly is that really a bad thing?

Even if all this set did for Fire was just turn it into a solid "subjob" for other elements, if that’s enough that Fire sees more play in general, I would say it’s a definite plus for the element overall. Deck combinations like Fire/Lightning and Fire/Ice were pretty niche and generally underplayed, but now I think we’ll be seeing some interesting new builds – Personally I think Fire/Water looks amazing with the addition of the new IX cards, and I think Lunafreya gives Fire’s big boys that tend to be vulnerable to removal the protection they sorely need. Cloud also gives Fire a recursive body with Pseudo-negation that can punish your opponent, which IMO are all great effects that interact nicely with other element's effects. 

Even though Lava Spider’s attack boost doesn’t last until the end of the turn, it helps push a new kind of aggressive playstyle we haven’t seen too much of yet. It effectively turns all of your smaller forwards into cheap removal spells that you can threaten to trade up into your opponent’s more valuable blockers or force them to take damage. Forwards like Llednar and Rosso become a lot more troublesome to deal with if you have a spider on the board. Opus VI Goblin becomes a 2 drop 9k nuke. Paravir now lets you maintain your board presence of smaller forwards while taking out your opponents in a one-turn rush. Even if Mono Fire isn’t quite up to par with the other elements just yet, I think Opus VIII set does a lot of really great things for Fire’s overall playability… with one notable exception, and that's the lack of impactful summons. 

Did Wind really need this Summon? Like I know a lot of people have already gushed about how amazing/broken this card is, but it really is kind of overkill that you can break any Forward, Backup, or Monster with the only restriction being that it needs to cost 4 or more. Sure that means it can't target stuff like Y'shtola, Ashe or other problematic 3 drops, but the fact that this Summon is so versatile makes that restriction kind of a non-issue, which makes it all the more disappointing that we keep getting Fire Summons the look like this:

Ironically the Chapter's version of this Summon is amazing.

Just as much as this set gives Fire some new options in terms of playstyle, it really exacerbates that a new design philosophy is needed when it comes to Fire Summons that isn't "undercosted big ping number with unnecessary restriction to play it". The fact is that no matter how high the damage, having to put so much effort into playing these Fire Summons isn't worth it when the other elements now have access to Summons that can dispose of a Forward more efficiently, like the aforementioned Alexander, and the new Leviathan XI for Water. 

Speaking of those two elements, in comparison to Fire, the design process for for Wind and Water lately seems to just be adding more and more to them to the point of them being unnecessarily amazing at everything. It's getting more and more difficult to say that Fire is meant to be the "aggressive element" when other elements are equally good at being aggressive in addition to having a full defensive package to fall back on, -and- being super cost efficient. I think if Opus VIII has shown us anything is that Fire really benefits from a bit more versatility, and hopefully we'll see some more versatile Fire Summons in the future, but I think for now the cards in this set are a really good step in the right direction.

Oh and finally, on a personal note,I love this set because surprise surprise, it has a big focus on XI, as well as IX which together automatically make this my favorite set of any of them by like... a huge margin. I guess you can automatically discount everything I said about the set because I have a gigantic, unreasonable bias but who cares? Now I have a foil set of the Ark Angels and XI summons, AND this did end up being the Ninja Opus like I predicted, so the real winner of this set is me if you think about it.

Name a more iconic quintet of soulless eldritch monstrosities. Go ahead. I'll wait. 

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And that's it for my thoughts on Opus VIII! Is it strange that there's less to say about a really good set than there is about a lukewarm one? What do you guys think about the set? Are there any cards you're really looking forward to using?

Before I got, I wanted to share with everybody the final results for Opus VIII Bingo: We cut it really close this time but we managed to get a row completed, and for once it's not the central row! 

So what am I going to do this time to celebrate another successful Bingo? Well, you'll have to wait a bit to find out: I'm going to be heading overseas for a brief stay in Japan, so when I get back I'll set up another raffle. Who knows, maybe I'll bring back something awesome to give away to you guys? *wink wink* In the mean time, I'll be outside Hobby Japan's office, pressing my face against the window and crying while I beg them to make a modal Fire Summon. That or to give me a Lunafreya, since even after two boxes I still haven't pulled one...

Until next time, Keep on Grinding, 

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Spoiled Onions: An Exclusive Opus VIII Spoiler!

Hey there everybody, welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight - The Final Fantasy TCG blog that still manages to get spoilers even though they weren't nominated for any awards.

I'm very excited to reveal another spoiler to the community for Opus VIII! So without further ado, lets take a look at a Summon who hasn't been in the FFTCG until now - Fenrir. 

 

So for those of you who aren't up to snuff with your Norse Mythology, Fenrir is the wolf son of the trickster god Loki, who is destined to kill Odin during Ragnarok - hence my little teaser image of Loki on Facebook. In Final Fantasy, Fenrir is a Summon/Eidolon, though he doesn't tend to show up as much as staples like Ifrit, Shiva, or Ramuh; So far he's only been summonable in Final Fantasy VI, IX, and XI. I guess you could say Fenrir is a... situational Summon. 

As a card, I would consider Fenrir similarly situational. Against the right deck, he can be pretty good for disrupting your opponent's strategies, but he does face pretty heavy competition from other popular Earth Summons. So why should you consider running Fenrir in your deck?

First, why don't we take a look at his effect. For 2 CP he can break any Light or Dark Forward, and if you pay 4 for Fenrir instead, you can remove the target from the game. It's a pity that it wasn't Light or Dark Characters in general - he would probably be a bit more immediately gratifying if he could break your opponent's Fusoya, Chaos, or Cosmos, but that may have been a bit too powerful for a 2 drop summon. Fenrir also has very heavy competition with 2-drop Hecatonchier in Earth decks, who is generally a much more versatile removal piece. Now that I'm done playing devil's advocate though, I think that where Fenrir really shines is as a tech-option to deal with problematic Light and Dark Forwards present in the meta.

So what are some cards that Fenrir would be exceptionally effective against? 

 

The first thing I thought of when I saw Fenrir was, "This is a Galdes counter." Galdes is a card that sees a lot of play in a variety of decks for good reason. He's extremely hard to deal with and gives your opponent a lot of value when he's sent to the Break Zone. In this instance paying the extra cost for Fenrir to remove Galdes from play would be a good idea, since he only gets his effects if he's sent to the Break Zone. You're not only getting rid of a blocker, but it also prevents him from being revived by cards like Devout or Phoenix-L. 

Light Wol is another example of a card you would rob your opponent of value by removing it from the game. Warrior of Light builds have been getting more popular as of late, which means this guy and Warrior of Light-L have been seeing more play. You might not be able to stop his entry effect with Fenrir, but stopping him from being able to play a 3 cost from the Break Zone on exit is a pretty decent trade-off. 

 

I think I speak for most FFTCG players when I say that I've been hurt by Yuri one too many times. Yuri is just an all around great card that you can reasonably run in any mono-element deck, and can be super painful to play around. If your opponent has active Backups, using Hecatonchier on this guy might not always be the best course of action, since he can force you to lose your Forward too with his ping damage. Fenrir just outright breaks him without having to fuss too much with having stronger Forwards or damage. The removal effect could also be a good idea if he's being played in Ice or against a deck that runs Latov to prevent his revival. 

 

Even three sets after his release, my boy Kam'lanaut is still one of the best Dark cards in the game, and he can pose a big threat to mono-element decks. You really only have one turn to deal with him before he locks you out of a lot of options. Fenrir lets you deal with him before he changes elements for only 2cp. In Mono-Earth, it lets you dispose of him cheaper than it would using Opus VI Titan or Yojimbo, and without having to worry about having a Forward stronger than Kam on the field. Hell, even outside of Mono Earth it might be good to run a Fenrir just to quickly dispose of him.

There are a lot of other problematic Light and Dark cards like the Opus II Emperor, Light Vaan, and Nidhogg that Fenrir provides an answer to. I think that Fenrir might be very useful as a one-off option in Earth based decks to deal with Light and Dark threats, and is a card that could become increasingly more relevant over time as more and more Light and Dark Forwards come out in newer sets - especially if they have effects that activate when they're sent into the Break Zone, or have troublesome field effects. 

Think about it this way when trying to decide if he's worth running over other Earth Summons: If 90% of decks right now run Light/Dark Forwards, running him as a tech option might not actually be so "situational" in the end. Psycom Warden is a card that many Earth Decks tech in as an option to deal with problematic monsters, but you aren't always guaranteed to come up against them. Considering how popular Galdes, Yuri, and Kam are in decks of every element, dedicating one slot to a Fenrir doesn't seem like a bad idea.

I was also thinking that Fenrir would be great in the newly introduced Boss Fight Mode if you're playing one of the Hero decks. Since the Villain deck always starts the match out with a Dark Forward, you'd pretty much be guaranteed to break it first turn and really fix your opponents little red wagon if you run 3 Fenrir in your deck. 

Well hey, would you look at that - just like the Summon, Fenrir might not show up often, but in the right place he can leave your foes in shreds.

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So what do you guys think of Fenrir? We've only got a few more weeks to go until the set releases, but a lot of the cards we've been shown for Opus VIII look incredible. I hope you guys enjoyed this spoiler article! Now if anybody needs me, I'll be baying at the moon until I can get my hands on these new cards... 

Until next time - Keep on Grinding, 

  

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Spoiled Onions: An Exclusive Opus VI Card Reveal!

Hey there Final Fantasy Fans, and welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight - The FFTCG blog that's just one needle short of 1000! 

Today I'm super excited to reveal a new card that will be released in Opus VI! This is my first time doing a Spoiler post, so I'm going to do my best to channel my inner Richard Brady and give you guys a rundown of some of the ways I think this card can be used and other cards it combos well with. Wow, who would have thunk that this silly little blog would be my gateway to becoming a real live content creator? 

This is what all nerdy content creators dream of...

In all seriousness though, I want to give a big thanks to the North American Final Fantasy TCG team for selecting me for a Spoiler reveal - I never thought I would be chosen for something like this, so it really means a lot to this low-level Onion Knight! I also want to thank everyone for reading this blog too! When I started doing this, I figured that people wouldn't be all that interested in a silly casual's blog, with maybe a handful of reads here and there. But my last post had over 800 views! That's 790 more than I thought it would get! I really appreciate all the support from the community, and I've really enjoyed interacting with everyone both locally and on Reddit and Facebook. 

In any case, that's enough of this mushy vulnerability stuff - lets take a look at a new Summon from Opus VI - Cactuar! 

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Debuting in Final Fantasy VI, these prickly little buggers have become the bane of parties everywhere with their signature 1000 needles attack, and have long since become one of the most recognizable mascots for the Final Fantasy games. This little guy has even played basketball with Mario and Luigi, appearing as a playable character in Mario Hoops 3-on-3. This particular Cactuar is from Final Fantasy VIII being summonable as a Guardian Force after defeating the optional Jumbo Cactuar boss. 

Even though there is already a Cactuar card in the game, this one has a fairly unique effect, while keeping a similar theme of dealing varying amounts of damage. Not only is this version a Summon instead of a Monster, but it does more damage depending on the number of different elements you use to pay for it. Whereas the original Opus IV Cactuar card can be splashed into a variety of different decks, this one requires a bit more specialization to get the most out of it.

Unlike cards like Atomos (3-074R), Hecatoncheir (4-093R), and Raubahn (2-093H), it allows decks that run Earth to have a form of flexible removal without needing you to have a beefy Forward out on the field already. This Summon also has the potential to wipe out just about any forward in the game, with a maximum output of 16,000 damage - that's a lot of needles! Even with only 2 different elements, it hits the "sweet spot" of 8,000 damage, which is on curve for a 4 drop. 

What's great about Cactuar is that it doesn't cost more to do increased damage, you just need to have different elements to pay for it. It should go without saying that you don't want to be playing this card in Mono Earth. That being said, there are plenty of ways to get the most out of this little guy. 

Oh hey, its Leo! Not the Leo I was hoping for from Chapters, but it's still pretty cool to finally see this guy in the TCG! It should go without saying that with Leo on the field, it is really easy for Cactuar to pump out its bigger numbers regardless of the backups you run. Plus, depending on the number of Characters you have on the field, you can potentially get a really strong forward out for only one CP! The only real downside is that as a Forward, he's a bit more difficult to maintain on the field unlike the other backups that combo well with this new summon. Here I was trying to find more card combos for Cactuar, but it looks like multi-color decks are going to be getting a good amount of support in Opus VI! 

 

Now obviously, if you want to beef up Cactuar's damage, you'd want to be running either Chaos or Cosmos. That being said, the Star Sibyl/Kam'Lanaut Combo makes running Chaos a faster and more efficient way of getting additional elements onto the field. Even if you mainly run 2 elements in your deck, with Chaos out you'd be able to boost Cactuar to 12,000 damage, which is already huge for a 4 drop. 

  
Any other cards that can function as an additional element would also be great to play alongside Cactuar. Shantotto has been a staple removal card since her introduction in Opus I, and her ability to be any of the six main elements at once makes her even more valuable. Of course, you have to be okay with wiping out anything on your field as well, and considering this is more of a late-game card, you may not need to run Cactuar, but it could be useful for clearing out some pesky Forwards that are immune to targeting/summon damage like the Legendary versions of Y'shtola, Zidane, and Garnet, or bypassing Illua's bubble. Also now that Monster decks are becoming more prevalent, Cactuar can clean up any Monsters that can become Forwards after her big board wipe, should your opponent choose to activate them.

Kimahri on the other hand is much cheaper and easier to get out early game. I'm not usually a huge fan of cards that are dependent on what your opponent has out on the field, but unless you're up against a mirror match or Mono Earth, it's a quick way to get a wider variety of elements onto the field. I would love to see 3+ element decks get more meta support, but there's one deck archetype that Cactuar would really do well in... 

I'm sure a lot of you saw the spoiler and the first thing your minds went to was that it would be great in a Golbez deck, since both versions are dependent on utilizing multiple elements. Hell, so long as you're running Chaos/Cosmos, you don't even need to be running any other Earth cards to make use of Cactuar in a Golbez deck, or really any other deck that runs 3 or more elements. You can wipe out any problematic forwards that are too big for your 2 drop Forwards to run over and clear the way for that sweet Golbez win, or use it with the Heroic Golbez to destroy one Forward, Dull another, and get in a free point of damage.

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For a Common, Cactuar is actually a pretty versatile card that lets you cheat bigger damage for a relatively low cost. I've actually been getting more interested in running multi-element decks, so it looks like it could be a powerful card with the right setup. And hey, at the very least it'll be fun to use in drafts!

So what do you guys think of this card? Can you think of any combos or decks that would work well with Cactuar? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Until next time - Keep on Grinding,

  

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