Sidequest: FFVIII Fire / Ice
Is this the best looking deck here?
Fire and Ice. My absolute favorite element combination in FFTCG. As a player to typically gravitates towards aggro decks, these two elements offer exactly what I’m looking for.
In Opus XI when you think of fire and Ice, the first thing that comes to mind is the incredibly powerful Category VI engine. What's not to love? Shadow providing ramp, Locke stripping your opponents hand, Celes moving forwards out of the way, Edgar buffing your forwards, Interceptor giving them haste... the list goes on and on. And it's all of those things that propel that/those version(s) of fire ice right to top tier status!
But hold on… that’s not what we're here to talk about. We are here to talk about another fire ice deck, one that is very fast and aggressive, super synergistic, and super cheap to build! Let's cut the fluff and take a look at Fire Ice FFVIII! You can also check out a couple games with the deck right here.
The big winners
Let's call this deck what it is. It's a Snow deck. Plain and simple. But with the category synergy the deck has, it’s no surprise that the big winner here is the card that rewards you for playing Category VIII. And that of course is Rinoa. Having a choice of a dull a freeze or a 1K buff with first strike trigger when her or a category VIII forward enter the field(or all 3 if you play Squall) is how the deck can play as aggressive as it can. You don't care what forwards hit the table on your opponents side(for the most part… there are definite exceptions) because as long as you have Rinoa on the board you can always just scoot them aside and go to the face.
I do have to give a special mention to the cards that make playing the fire half of the deck worth it. Kiros Zell bring the speed and Selphie brings a way to search out Squall and Zell. I do want to say the newest payoff to playing the fire half of the deck is also the only non Category VIII forward in the deck. Zidane is a fantastic aggressive card. In a deck like this with tons of dull and freeze effects Zidane acts as a very consistent source of removal and with haste he can threaten damage from turn 1 all the way to the end.
The underperformers
I’ll go ahead and say this, without Rinoa the deck can be very underwhelming. She is the backbone of the list there is a huge difference in performance when she is allowed to stick around vs when she is not there. But thankfully with access to Phoenix our 3 copies can of Rinoa can go a long way.
The changes
As it stands right now I don't know what I would change. In the games I played every card played its part but there is a ton of flex space in the backup line. There are a lot of good fire and ice backups that can enhance the game plan such as Ysayle, Iedolas, Vivi, scholar, sage and I think they are all worth exploring.
The big thing here is how very much of a budget list this deck is.with only 1 legend (and a cheap one at that) you are looking at a deck that will cost you less than 20 dollars. It's a deck that i think is great for locals and monthly win a box style events and a great jump off point for players looking for a cheap aggro deck to mess around with. Sleeve it up and give it a try! Or don't..
More Sidequests from Opus XI