Duncan's Sparring Grounds: Kageyama's Mono Wind (Opus V)

Mono Wind is a deck I have always played and enjoyed since I started playing FFTCG. After Opus IV, I let it sit on the bench for a few months.

As an archetype, Mono Wind is characterized by a lot of activation effects that result in powerful CP management. Bartz 1-080H is a perfect example of a staple Wind card, and Leyak 5-071R is a more recent one as well. These cards forgive you for using your Backups and Forwards by activating them during sequences in the game where you normally do not get activation.

It had been awhile since I sleeved up a Mono Wind deck for local play, but when Kageyama, the creator of FFTCG himself, posted a Mono Wind deck that he plays, I knew I had to give it another spin.

Here’s the deck:

When Kageyama first shared his list, he gave a bit of insight on how he tries to play it. He prioritizes backups first. When you can get five backups out quickly, there are many ways to accelerate your game faster than your opponent. Note that this might feel slow, and you make take a few points of damage in the process. However, you will soon start drawing cards you can immediately play, every turn. Your opponent may not be able to keep up.

There were choices in this deck that made less sense to me, on paper. I wish there were more Cactuar in here to fully exploit Barbariccia, and possibly more Backups overall. It seemed it would be hard to race to five Backups while only running out 16 in the list.

After playing with it, there are not any cards I can justify cutting to make the additions I want. I was wrong about struggling to get Backups out, and 16 is possibly an optimal number. At a certain point, you no longer want to draw Backups anymore.

Overall, I went 3-1 at my locals playing this deck, and I had a blast with it. In the Moogles matchup, Balthier was a star and turned the game around. Balthier was also a big winner in the first aggro matchup, acting as a board defender and not allowing my opponent to do anything while I built resources. I drop the Rainbow Control matchup, but it was a very back-and-forth game and hopefully an entertaining watch. In the final matchup, Diabolos blows out my opponent and puts me so far ahead that I almost instantly win.

The card advantage is really how this deck wins, and it can play its desired lines quite easily. Arc's ability might be the best of the Opus V Job Warrior of Lights. Between him, Zidane, and Adelle, the pressure starts to add up. 

Bartz, Kan-E-Senna, and Diabolos are pretty tough problems on their own when resolved, but doing more than one of those in a turn is pretty powerful. You probably still get to play Arc or Moogle in the same big turn, which is a very good feeling. Balthier might be one of the best combat tricks in the game, too, as he benefits from being a card with several very good abilities and also a card that is so underplayed, most people don’t realize how good he can be.

Should I play this deck?

It may not be a highly competitive deck, but it is a highly enjoyable deck. In the right hands, it can be better than your average brew, too. You should play this deck if you like Mono Wind and want to accelerate a game very quickly, but not very early.