Final Fantasy Trading Card Game Opus VII
Two years, Two years of EX Bursts, Organised Play and deck building. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Trading Card Game is 2 years old and what a journey it’s been. From my initial quest for a Legendary Lightning play-set way back in Opus I to the Dragoon Deck I’ve been tinkering with for an age now (Nope, I refuse to Netdeck).
The past two years have seen many of our favourite Final Fantasy characters be immortalised in card form, and the cards have covered the breadth of over 30 years of Final Fantasy history.
The release of Final Fantasy XV saw the Crown Prince Noctis earn his place in many gamers heart and players of the FFTCG have been desperate to get their hands on a Noctis or any other Final Fantasy XV card for that matter. Well, the wait will soon be over, It’s the Opus VII pre-release weekend and players across Europe will be tearing into their Pre-Release kits no doubt all hoping to pull a Noctis.
We here at Game Hype are no different and thanks to the lovely folks at Square Enix for sending us some Final Fantasy TCG goodies in time for us to join in.
As you may have seen, at our inaugural Game Hype FFTCG tournament at the release of Opus V, a great time was had and the game earned itself some new followers. Well, hooked as we are we were all set to revive the experience with Opus VII.
Each one of us will take 6 Opus VII booster packs (just like you’ll find in your own Pre-Release kit) and have 30 minutes to construct a deck from the cards we have pulled.
So current Game Hype office FFTCG champion Dan and I invited some members on the local FFTCG community to join us on our first foray into Opus VII.
So for today’s game, the 6 of us are Myself (Ryan), Dan, Mark, Martin, Gary, and Tom. Before we got underway I asked the players what card they were most looking forward to thus far from Opus VII, some of the guys shared the following thoughts.
Mark:
Bartz, potentially a 1 cost forward. Stunning artwork especially in foil. Powerful S abilities. Most of all Job Warrior of Light opens up a lot of synergies with both new and old cards. Warrior of Light as a theme has got a lot of support this set but my favourite and most potent synergy is with Light WoL, previously its been difficult to him with only a handful of targets per element but now you can get some high value returns off him.
Gary:
The card I’m most excited for is Chelinka because along with the new Yshtola from the starter set and a few other options it gives me chance to revamp wind lightning!
Martin:
I don’t have a particular card in mind but I’m excited for a lot of the synergy for FFX Fire/Water and FF13 and the flood of warriors of light means lots of interesting new deck ideas to try out.
Dan:
For Dan, It’s all about Yuri, based somewhat one the gameplay effects of the card but mostly for the fond memories of many an hour spent playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring Of Fates.
Ryan:
I’ve got my eyes one two cards in particular Lightning (7-102R) simply because it’s Lightning and she’s my favourite Final Fantasy character, Secondly, I’m hoping for Barbara (7-067R) to add a nice bit of Haste to my Dragoon deck.
So, then I crack open my 6 booster packs and it very quickly dawns on me that I’ve most assuredly come up short with my pulls. I had almost no cards that worked well together and nothing that immediately looked dangerous to my foes. Rather than be disheartened I decided as my deck had very little synergy I’d just come out swinging and try to build as wide a field as possible.
I won’t go through the tournament in a play by play fashion but will pick out a few highlight moments.
My first opponent was Martin, Martin won the dice roll and managed to play Auron (7-001H) in his first turn. Well, the former warrior monk combined with my poor luck on poor card draws meant he was too much for me to handle and Martin had his first victory without breaking a sweat.
Mark included everyone’s favourite healer Vanille in his deck and one of his greatest moments in the night’s tournament was pulling off Vanilles first effect successfully on a calculated guess mid-game to swing the game in his favour, followed by being a turn away from victory having drawn a second Vanille to use the Special ability.
Well as you might expect one of Martin’s highlight was Auron being a total boss and completely smashing me in the first round, however, what caused much more amusement for all involved was Martin getting to play Ramuh 3 times in one game against Gary. Ramuh hitting for a huge 7K is great for taking out at beefy attacking forward when coupled with a sneaky and potentially disposable blocker.
Gary had the following to say about his evening of Opus VII excitement “The highlight moment was Sin. It didn’t win the game directly (Snow did surprise surprise!), but it did clear four opposition cards. I attacked with two 8k forwards. Mark had an 8k blocker, but let both through suspecting a trap and knowing he could attack back for the game – that’s when Sin came down and wiped the board! Mark showed me later that he had a Vanille in Hand (and one on board) and was gearing up to use her S ability the next turn, so this play was fundamental to the win!
After an evening of EX Bursts, many frozen forwards and a severe case of back up drought the tourney came to a close and one person was victorious.
Gary took victory on the night and claimed his prize, A 2nd anniversary deck box and a great time was had by all.
So Opus VII is nearly here (depending on the date of reading this) and Final Fantasy TCG players the world over will be tearing into boosters praying to the booster gods that they get what they want, so with that, I’ll wish you all luck in your pulls. Hopefully, I’ll see you at nationals.
Opus VII boosters and deck boxes provided by Square Enix.
