Job Change: Mono Water Vikings (Control)

Welcome to our feature Job Change, where we break down popular builds of competitive decks.

This feature comes from Stephen A, a local Returner player who found his competitive identity through Mono Water decks. Stephen started playing FFTCG with Cadets, but turned a corner when he started playing Mono Water in Opus IV.

Most Mono Water builds are controlling in nature, restricting your opponent’s strategy and removing or delaying Forwards by stalling out while you build your resources to win late-game.

There are lots of ways to play Mono Water. If you’re thinking about trying it out, or curious about the mechanics that make it work, then here is a breakdown of one version of the deck.

Mono Water Vikings is one of the best archetypes in the Opus VI meta. It gives constant card draw, can go aggro, and gives you chump blockers while you set up the rest of your board. Mono Water features many incredibly good Forwards and Backups that can deal with most of the meta decks while still being able to handle any funny techs out there. Adding in a control package of Summons that have multiple modes puts it over the edge. Wrecking your opponent’s CP while you play reduced cost Summons feels very good and is no fun to play against.

I’ve had very good fortune with a Standard Unit version of this shell running Lenna, Knight, and Warrior of Light (party attacking two 5k Vikings with First Strike is still hilarious to me). I made Top 8 at a Local Qualifier against some of the best players in the Mid-Atlantic while still having fun a locals with everyone teching against me with White Mages and Remedis.

I also made top 8 at a local 25-man tournament using the version of this deck featured here. I hope everyone enjoys playing with this deck as much as I enjoyed making it.

The purpose of this deck is to get lots of card draw and control your opponent’s field. You draw cards by playing Leila and getting a draw off a Viking from the break zone. Discarding a Viking to pay for Leila and getting a card draw effectively makes the play free, gives you two fragile bodies for early pressure, chump blockers to set up your board, and lets you filter through your deck. Beyond these advantages, this deck’s Summon package is enormous and extremely frustrating for your opponent throughout the whole match. Many players will second guess their plays and lose CP from constantly having to deal with power additions, power reductions, and constantly having their Forwards returned to their hand. It allows you to play mind games with your opponent and generate card advantage through controlling your opponent’s field and CP. 

Leila is a 3k power Forward and the 3CP Viking is 2k while the 2CP Viking is 1k. Opponents have a lot of options to deal with Viking decks: Cactuar pings on Dadluma for 4k damage, 2CP wind Summon Valefor to deal 3k to the board, 2CP lighting Backup Scholar to deal 3k to two active Forwards, and the 3CP lightning Summon Cyclops to reduce opponents field by 3k power. This deck runs cards to negate these techs and can completely shut off Dadaluma, allowing you to edge over what might be one of the toughest linear decks to deal with in the meta right now

water backups

3x Summoner: Its tap ability stops Valefor and Cyclops from killing your smaller Forwards. More importantly, it stops Glasya Labolas, Ramuh, and Hecatoncheir from wreaking havoc to your other Forwards. It also shuts off Backup breaker Hecatoncheir. Your opponent won’t be able to use the many of their cheaper Summons for battle tricks which will cause a lot of frustration.

3x Yuna: In accordance with being more efficient than your opponent, this Backup allows you to get more value out of your Summons by reducing their cost by 1. You always want to have this Backup out as it makes the deck pop the most. Leviathan and Famfrit only costing 2CP and 1CP for Bismarck allows you to quickly outvalue your opponent while they try to deal with your large board of Forwards. 

2x Gladiator: This Backup allows you to play a Viking from the break zone. If you’re behind and your only play is to dig for an answer, then cracking Gladiator can be one of your outs.

2x Brahne: The card is effectively a 1 CP Backup that allows you to get a Viking to pair with Leila. Hitting it on EX also feels good. You don’t need a lot of these because the deck runs 5 Vikings and you will almost always draw one.

2x Minwu: Minwu shuts off Dadaluma ping decks, Backup breaker Lulu decks, Ice pings, the Al-Cid Combo against high power Forwards, and forces your opponent to party attack to deal with your larger Forwards. You can protect Minwu from 3 CP Hecatoncheir with Summoner.

3x Wakka: +1000 power is always good. 

1x Merylwyb: Effectively a 2CP Backup that functions as a 3rd and 4th copy of any water Forward you need.

water Forwards

2x Viking: When it enters the field, draw a card. Pair with Leila or play on its own to draw a card you need.

3x Viking: He draws you a card upon entry and exit of the field. Always pair him with Leila or pitch early to later recur from the break zone. Drawing from chump blocks is great value. Swinging a Viking into a larger Forward to draw also can get you the card you need sometimes.

3x Leila: The heart of the Viking engine. It recurs Vikings from the break zone. 

3x Cloud of Darkness: This card dive-bombs your opponent’s biggest threat by reducing its power. Ideally you can get way ahead of your opponent with a large board of cheap Forwards, play Cloud of Darkness to remove their threat, and swing for a few points of damage. You have to be careful doing this because if your opponent responds to the auto-ability by removing your weak Forwards, CoD checks a lower amount of Forwards on resolution. Sometimes being greedy can be rewarding, but given all the protection this deck has, it’s best to be more patient rather than wasting 5 CP and not removing a Forward off of CoD’s enter the field auto-ability. Furthermore the threat of power reduction on attack makes this card a common target of removal by Diabolos or by calling “5” with Exodus. 

Playing CoD late in the game when your opponent has 6 damage and one blocker is almost always a winning play. At that point they must block or use their tricks. Forcing a block after power reduction allows you to end the game in your favor every time.

2x Refia: Given the large size of a Viking decks board, using Refia’s expensive bounce can be a decent way of getting rid of threats if you can’t seem to draw your Summons. An extra +1000 power to water Forwards is always helpful.

3x Ashe: In the words of Danny Diaz, “Ashe is still a card.” The Al-Cid combo with Onion Knight can’t break her because it chooses twice to make her a 13k Forward while only dealing 12k damage. She is a bad ping target and a terrible Hecatoncheir target. Her survivability increases with the multiple anthems available in the deck and with Minwu. Being able to use her action-ability to activate her as a blocker can keep opponents from attacking with smaller Forwards. Finally, her Special is one of the best given how good a 10k Forward with first strike is. Mid-game Ashe specials are a grave threat and can keep your opponent guessing. Run 3 copies for the special or to replay her.

3x Steiner: Steiner allows card draw at 3 damage and can become huge on defense by tapping multiple small Forwards. Steiner with Wakka, Refia, and two dulled Vikings becomes a 12k Forward and is a force to be reckoned with. Opponents can still respond to his action-ability with a Summon or their own action ability, so make sure you think ahead. Keeping Summoner untapped or playing Leviathan and selecting “Choose one action ability. Cancel its effect” will allow you to cancel many combat tricks.

2x Cecil: Cecil has the third anthem field-ability in this deck and the only one that doesn’t buff only water Forwards. Most importantly, he stops pings that your opponent stacks from abilities, such as multiple Cactuar Dadaluma pings, Backup breaker Lulu, or pings from Terra or Cid Raines.

Cecil must always block if possible. Most opponents will attack with a large Forward or party attack with two Forwards in order to remove Cecil. Losing him opens you up to a multitude of tactics that can hose the deck rather quickly. Playing Cecil with Steiner on board allows you to dull Cecil to make him an ineligible blocker and pump up Steiner. Making your opponent use two Forwards to deal 1 point of damage can keep the game from slipping completely out of your favor.

Dark Forwards

2x The Emperor: The Emperor is the classic villain of opponents everywhere. He stops Dadaluma ping decks in their tracks, keeps your opponent from breaking Minwu with Archer, and shuts off most action-ability techs to Vikings. The only solution to dealing with the Emperor is by forcing a block or by using Summons, many of which can be cancelled by Summoner. I believe in running two Emperors because you want to see him every game but do not want to clog your hand up too much since he can’t be discarded for CP.  If you don’t have Minwu yet, playing him the second you see a Semih Lefinah, Star Sybil, Cactuar, or Dadaluma will keep you ahead. Lastly, he gets a buff from Cecil to 9k which can help a lot when your opponent tries to get rid of him.

Water Summons

Here is where this deck truly shines. Most of the big-brained plays you can make come from how and when you play your Summons in order to control and frustrate your opponent.

2x Siren: This Summon can force your opponent to second-guess himself. If he doesn’t know you have it, Siren can surprise him and then make almost every play after very awkward. You can use it to keep Cecil alive when he’s forced to block or even use it on a Viking. In the most ideal world, a 3CP Viking anthemed by Refia, Wakka, and Cecil will have 5k. Playing Siren for 1CP will make that Viking 9k for hilarious results. Sometimes you’ll hit Siren off EX and it will keep your opponent from attacking further.

3x Bismarck: With Yuna, Bismarck only costs 1CP for one of the most useful Summons the water element has to offer. The 3rd action is why this card is a must have 3 of.

1st action: Bouncing a Monster can be useful in niche circumstances. Royal Ripeness who pings on attack can be bounced during attack prep after activation in order to save your Vikings. The Monster costing 5CP makes this play hurt a lot. If for some reason you have no 2CP Viking to deal with Kobolodroid Yin and your opponent is swinging for the 7th point of damage, then play Bismarck to stay alive. Some players like to swing out their Forwards then play Leyak to keep you from attacking. Bouncing Leyak back to your opponent’s hand and attacking with multiple small Forwards can really hurt an opponent who over-extended with their attacks.

2nd action: Bouncing your own character can be advantageous. If your opponent targets Minwu with Archer or Hecatoncheir and you have no more in your deck versus a Dadaluma deck, you can bounce it back to your hand. You can also shadow block with Leila and get more card draw by replaying her with Vikings. Another decent play is bouncing Cloud of Darkness if you need a large power reduction at some point. You should rarely use the 2nd action of this card unless you are out of whatever card is being targeted and you need it to win. The main use of the 2nd mode is to remove targets of Glasya, Ramuh, and Diabolos in order to punish your opponent.

One of the best plays with Bismarck bouncing occurs when your opponent casts Diabolos. If he selects, "Choose 1 Forward of cost 5 or more. Break it" to kill your Cecil and “Activate all the Backups you control” in order to get a free cast, bouncing Cecil back to your hand will fizzle the entire Summon as there are no valid targets. Your opponent will have wasted 5CP, one of their best Summons, and probably won’t be able to do anything else that turn.

One should only use this action against a Glasya or Ramuh target if you don’t have Summoner active, making this play will get you/hold the lead, and you absolutely need to rescue your Forward based on how many you have left in your deck. Most of the time, it will not be possible to fizzle Ramuh because it can target multiple Forwards. But Glasya has a discard action. Therefore, if you opponent selects, “Your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand” along with targeting one of your Forwards, and making this play will keep you ahead, then fizzling Glasya makes sense to protect your Forward and stop the discard action.

3rd action: This is what will mess with your opponent’s head the most. Halving a Forward’s power rounded down can really screw with combat. Given the popularity of Titan and Hecatoncheir, you will always want to have this card on hand in order to reduce their Forward’s power. A Bismarck resolving on top of a Hecatoncheir will kill your opponent’s Forward more often than not. Resolving Bismarck on top of Titan feels very good as your opponent wastes 5CP and they will probably not benefit from the extra 2k power addition they gained from Titan. Threatening power reduction as well as increase with Siren forces your opponent into very bad spots.

3x Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud: If your opponent plays a Forward early while your board is empty, you can quickly remove it and punish them. The fact that the Summon says, “select” keeps choose auto-abilities from triggering, such as Dadaluma’s or Delita’s. It also gets around Kam’lanaut’s field ability. Playing a 2CP Viking for card draw and then selecting it with Famfrit can also keep you ahead without sacrificing much of your board. Famfrit is best used when you have a Viking or no Forwards on board.

A great late game play involves you having two Forwards and your opponent having one. Attacking with your largest Forward to get the 6th point of damage, then sacrificing it with Famfrit to remove your opponent’s last Forward gets you lethal and always feels very good. You have to make sure they don’t have a final trick to nullify this tactic so pay attention to your opponent’s abilities and what Summons they may have left.

One of the best plays I made with this card was against a Mono-Lightning player at an LQ. He had a 2CP Forward and I had two 5CP Forwards as well as two 2CP Forwards. My opponent played Exodus and called 5. If I called 2, it would be a board wipe in favor of my opponent. So I called 5 and in response to Exodus, I played Famfrit, forcing him to sacrifice his 2CP Forward and I selected one of my 5CP Forwards. Exodus resolved and I had two Forwards left while my opponent had nothing on his field.

3x Leviathan: What you lose in EX you gain in multiple very good modes. I don’t like relying on EX bursts to rubber band my way back into the game off RNG. Having multiple reliable Summons with cost reduction that can deal with many battle tricks is more reliable in my opinion. 

1st action: Bounce is always good. Hitting large expensive Forwards can set your opponent back pretty far, especially if they’re already struggling with managing CP. If your opponent party attacks to force a block with Cecil, you can bounce one Forward and break the other to get ahead. If you are playing aggressive with early an early Leila Viking play and your opponent responds by playing a Forward in front of them, you can bounce it and get two points of early damage. Playing aggressively like this is sometimes necessary if you are having trouble drawing Backups. I don’t recommend playing fast as this deck is fragile if you don’t set up your board.

2nd action: There are a multitude of very good action abilities with effects you will want to nullify: cancelling an Archer to save Minwu or Wakka if your back is against the wall, cancelling a Star Sybil to punish your opponent’s CP management, and cancelling an Y’shtola that attempts to stop a Bismarck or Siren. The beauty of cancelling action abilities is the wasted CP as well as the sacrifice of your opponent’s character if it’s an action-ability that requires breaking. This mode is very useful but should be used sparingly much like Bismarck’s bounce. Only use it to get/stay ahead as Leviathan should mainly be used to bounce an opponent’s Forward.

3rd action: The last action can save you from Ramuh, Valefor, and Glassya. Stopping board wipes and lethal damage after one of your Forwards is already marked can keep you from getting behind. Use sparingly and only to get/stay ahead. An early Valefor/Cyclops board wipe is best stopped with Summoner and even then, you can re-establish your board if you play right.

For example, if you play Leila Viking early and got two points of damage, and then you are swinging for another two and your opponent plays Valefor, stopping the damage with Leviathan to get two more damage is a good play. Another example would be attacking with CoD while having Leila Viking on board to get a 3k power reduction against a larger Forward. If your opponent attempts to deal damage with Valefor so the power reduction is only 1k and CoD dies, then negate it with Leviathan so that you don’t lose CoD as well as Leila and Viking. If you only have Leikla Viking on board and no damage on your opponent, just take the card draw and lose the Forwards. You should protect your Forwards with Cecil’s ability the majority of the time. Moreover, given how easy it would be to lose CoD when you only have fragile Forwards, sometimes it is better not to attack against high power Forwards unless you absolutely need to put pressure on your opponent.