Sidequest: Water/Ice Category VI
Welcome to a new deck tech for Opus XI!
This article may find you in strange times. As of writing, the world is taking measures to safeguard from the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus, Final Fantasy TCG games are not firing off in most places. If you’re itchy for some lists that make use of Opus XI cards, then you are among friends!
In this feature, I’m taking a list that has a few lines I’m curious about. Will it be meta-level good? We’ll find that out along the way. I’ll break the list down into three sections: the big winners (how the deck wins), the underperformers (what didn’t work out as expected), and the changes (what I’d do differently). On a personal note, I really just wanted to play Umaro and Relm, and this list ends up feeling like the best way to feature both.
The list I’m talking about today is a modified version of one that I got from Chris Adams. The idea here is to slow down the opponent through discard while efficiently playing monsters that interact and cause enough of a kerfluffle that you end up ahead. Many of the forwards create mismatches in combat and there’s a little more hard removal than what you might see from looking at the list on paper.
You can watch several matches of this list in action right here. One thing to note about this list: Clione is a card in a really odd spot. I happened to face John’s Summoner deck that was (surprise!) heavy on summons, which made Clione feel great! But, there’s a real discussion out there about summons in general. Some think they just aren’t that good anymore, and if you agree, that makes Clione a card that counters something not that good … which kind of makes Clione not that good. But, if the card Clione is shutting off is Bahamut Zero, which can straight up win the game, then that makes Clione a card that answers a win condition. For a 2 CP monster that draws you a card, that’s pretty good! But, for the record, in the matches I played, Clione appears better than I think it truly is, since most decks aren’t as heavily reliant on summons as my opponent’s was.
The big winners
Relm is just great in this list. She’s always going to find you monsters that you want in Flan or Goblin. Setzer helps you replay her if you draw one and then don’t see others from draw. Once you play her twice, you feel like you’ve really bought yourself some turns.
Gau is right at home here because all of the monsters in the list satisfy his cost-restricted ETB. Also, Gau can be really massive if you chase Relm with him.
From a risk:reward perspective, I felt like Mog (VI) was really worth it. In one of the games, I even got to do his special which was just hilarious and unnecessary. Umaro was immediately met with a Diabolos on entry, but still felt really good as his effect functions better than just breaking a forward.
Vayne is just really good, too. And he keeps getting better with every 5 CP forward they print.
Honorable mentions: Swampmonk, Emperor Gestahl.
The underperformers
There were two versions of legendary Rinoa in the list, and the one that costs 4 CP was way better. I ended up discarding the 3 CP Rinoa most of the time to play other cards, but she wasn’t going to do a lot in the games I played, against this deck. Originally, I thought this Rinoa would be a weird bit of pressure. She can be a really fantastic blocker who, by dulling all the Forwards when she breaks, “blocks” everyone and potentially gives you a wide-open opponent next turn. Really, I just wanted to be bouncing my Relm and Locke more.
Hein was in a test pilot role here. I knew Galdes would really shine in the list but wanted to access Hein for his power and evasion. That wasn’t ultimately important.
The Opus XI Celes is a very good card. She’s even better with haste, which this deck can offer her. But, I just didn’t see her enough to make it matter. Can’t really say she is an underperforming card, but in my matches, she was on the bench.
The changes
As mentioned above, Galdes makes a lot of sense in this list but I might even try Opus IV Kefka after seeing how easy it is to flood out monsters. I’d also certainly change my Rinoa ratio, and probably look for a way to get one more Swampmonk into the list.
When it comes to the discussion on whether summons matter a lot or a little, I would probably fall a bit into both camps. Clione can feel really good. I might be okay running just one copy.
Other than that, I wouldn’t make any major changes. The deck was a ton of fun to play and ran a lot smoother than I expected it to!
Thanks for reading, and let us know if you end up trying this out yourself. Once again, you can watch matches featuring this list here.
Sometimes you just run different cards because you only own one copy of the version you really want to run.