Sidequest: Sky Pirates
It makes sense on paper. Does it work in play?
Sky Pirates was a deck I really had fun with in Opus X. It was never a very powerful deck the few times I brought it to a larger tournament, but when it worked, it was just really enjoyable and powerful enough to steal some victories. When revisiting this list, there wasn’t a lot to gain from Opus XI, except for backup Chelinka. She had several great targets, but what most appealed to me was Fran and Gilgamesh (XI). Both of these cards not only do something good when they attack, but they also have built in protection from removal. You never want to play Chelinka on a Forward just to watch it get broken in response, so we could naturally check some boxes in this list without feeling too greedy. Or, so the thought process goes!
You can also check out a couple games with the deck right here.
The big winners
I didn’t get an opportunity to resolve Chelinka too many times, but I believe I won the few games I did play her. Now, I am not ready to say that Sky Pirates is now a list where you play Chelinka and win. But, she did work pretty well in the list. It’s aggressive and wants to attack as many times as it can and as quickly as it can, so she has a natural fit in here.
Raz continues to strangely be one of the better Forwards in the list. Back in my earlier FFTCG days, I used to think returning Forwards to a player’s hand was one of the better mechanics but over time I realized it is one of the softest ways to interact. Bouncing dudes is especially worse these days, when every Forward seems to do something when it enters the field. However, Sky Pirates definitely makes bounce work.
This guy is still one of your best Forwards
The underperformers
At the end of the day, the worst part of the list were the summons and interaction package. Perhaps heralded by Kadaj, this game feels like summons and responses matter more today than last set. I moved some things around in here to accommodate for Unsaganashi at three copies, and Chelinka in the backup line. Unsaganashi never feels bad to play, but three may be too many. It could be a play style preference, but I don’t feel like the things I took out were correct. I’ll get into them in the next section.
The changes
I took out Opus I’s EX Yuna and Chaos, Walker of the Wheel to add in some new tech pieces. I think there is room to add these cards back in, each at three copies, without sacrificing anything. Chelinka definitely can stay at 1-2 copies, even bringing in 3 Yuna, and we the deck can keep its explosiveness while also accessing new ways to interact.
More Sidequests from Opus XI