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Welcome back Mysidians, time to take a closer look at the FFTCG 2018 Worlds decks we saw a few weeks ago. Before we start though, I’d like you to let out a big cheer (I don’t care if you are in public, just scream in joy), for Thaumaturge and Gesper are now banned. I didn’t have anything against them individually, and I don’t always get pummeled by Turbo Discard, however playing against that deck as a whole was not fun. Alright, lets move on from that, and take a peek back at how the deck breakdown looked in the Top 8 at Worlds.  We saw some interesting decks crop up at Worlds, however the Top 4 all consisted of some combination of Mono Water, Earth/Wind, Water/Wind, and Mono Ice. Despite that, we saw more of a variety overall in the Top 8, and that is what I would like to talk about today. Below I will take each deck type and break down some of the combos used, what tech choices were made, and what new additions from Opus VII did we see. Mono Water Opus VII Additions: Leviathan (7-125C), Halicarnassus (7-119H), Tidus (7-117C), Oracle (7-124C)Mono Water was brought by 5 of the Top 8, and for good reason. We saw some matchups this tournament where Mono Water steamrolled opponents. Every Mono Water list ran the standard Fuosya Package (Ephemeral Summoner, EX Burst Summons), Cloud of Darkness, the Lenna Package (Ephemeral, Knight), and of course the feared Leila-Viking combo. We also saw three of the five lists run the Cagnazzo board clear combo (typically with Scholar and in another deck Tidus), although every mono water deck at least ran a Cagnazzo. When we look at individual tech’s we start to see some more changes between decks. Steiner (4-129H), Halicarnassus, and Tidus were some choices not found in every deck. Halicarnassus is an interesting one, since it can help Fusoya hit some untargetable forwards, or take down a Dadaluma without it (hopefully) taking some of your forwards with it. Mono Ice Opus VII Additions: The Emperor (7-134S), Lasswell (7-042H), Sephiroth (7-034L), Ultimecia (7-133S), Serah (7-035L), Snow (7-033R), Galdes (7-129H)I was very excited to see the Mono Ice lists that the World’s players chose. Remember for this tournament, Thaumaturge and Gesper were not yet banned. Despite this fact, we only saw one player using Turbo Discard in the Top 8 (Taiki Harigai). The other three Ice lists were more tempo oriented. Interesting fact, every player that used Mono Ice as one of their three decks made the Top 4 of the tournament. Taiki’s Turbo Ice was fairly standard but had Jihl Nabaat (2-037R) for Fusoya protection, as well as, the new Serah forward and Snow backup. With Snow and Jihl in play, Serah could dull three forwards on entry, and could dull those two backups to freeze a forward each turn. Two of the three Tempo Ice builds ran the FFVI package featuring Locke, Celes, Setzer, and Gestahlian Empire Cid. All three of the decks ran three copies of Flan (4-043C). One interesting note was that the highest number of summons ran in these builds was five, in part due to the number of Flans in each deck, but there were also an above average number of forwards in these decks. This is partially due to Ice having weaker summons as an element, but also speaks to the strength of the abilities of Ice forwards. All Tempo Ice builds had some combinations of Lasswells and Cid Raines. I definitely think Lasswell is very powerful and warrants a spot in Mono Ice, but I do love the discard that Cid Raines brings to the table. Earth/Wind Opus VII Additions: Asmodai (7-064R), Galdes (7-129H), Noctis (7-077L), Kolka (7-069C), Ranger (7-048C), Yojimbo (7-084C), Gnash (7-057R)Earth/Wind was expected to be one of the major decks at Worlds and that Opus VII would not change the deck significantly. We saw 4 Earth/Wind decks used at Worlds, with three of the players using Earth/Wind making the Top 4. Every Earth/Wind deck featured the full Dadaluma-Cactuar combo, the Semih Lafihna-Star Sybil synergy, and the Dark Package featuring Kam’lanuat, Chaos, and a second Dark forward. In the past this second Dark forward was typically Shadow Lord, and we did see one run, however, three players opted to use Galdes in his place (those three players made Top 4, coincidence?). In terms of tech choices, we saw a very interesting “Earth/Wind Toolbox” deck from Luis Bardon-Burnett. This deck had Urianger to bring back Cactuars and Leyaks from the break zone, as well as, 7 CP Phoenix to play back Noctis, Galdes, Urianger, Zidane, and Y’shtola. Vanille and 6 Hecatoncheirs was popular with three of the players. We also saw Gnash as a Cactuar or Gesper killer in Jamie Faulkner’s build. One interesting new synergy is Epitav to search out some of the new FFCC cards. In Earth/Wind it can be used to search Hugh Yurg, who then searches Semih. Galdes and Yuri are new targets for Epitav which makes running him as a one-of in your Earth/Wind very strong. I personally love searching Dark/Light cards, because I hate drawing them at the wrong time. Mono Lightning Opus VII Additions: Golbez (7-138S), Yuri (7-128H), Ramza (7-104H), Cid Previa (7-095H), Zapt (7-093C), Ramuh (7-103C), Galdes (7-129H), Exdeath (7-087R), Garland (7-137S)Mono Lightning, a common sight in the top cut of tournaments in FFTCG, was well represented at Worlds. However, no one playing Mono Lightning made the Top 4 for this tournament. We did see a very unique Mono Lightning build from Tobi Henriet featuring ZERO Al-Cids! I won’t go into too much detail with his build, but I encourage you to watch his matches that were streamed. The other two Mono Lightning builds featured the usual combos of efficient backup building and searching. Al-Cid played into Illua, Onion Knight, Garland, Black Waltz 3, Sefier, Rydea, and even the new Ramza. Edea and Estinien were found in all three decks, we even had a 3 drop Estinien in Josh Ge’s list. I enjoyed the tech of Zalbag in two of the decks since it kills Ephemeral Summoners, Knights, Cid Raines, Lasswells, Thaumaturges, Ramzas, Leos, Krile, etc. Some interesting Opus VII additions were Cid Previa, a very efficient way to open, and Ramza, Because Mono Lightning sets up backups so quickly, it is very easy for Ramza to get online and threaten with haste and high power. Water/Wind Opus VII Additions: Aleria (7-043C), Yuri (7-128H), Halicarnassus (7-119H), Vata (7-046R), Cecil (7-135S), Chelinka (7-054L), Alhanalem (7-044H), Wakka (7-126C), Leviathan (7-125C)Water/Wind was another strong choice to bring at Worlds, and everyone that played it (in the Top 8) made the Top 4 of the tournament. All three of the Water/Wind decks were YRP based, however, one of these decks featured the forward Gullwing forward lineup (Taiki Harigai), while the other two used back up Yuna and Rikku’s, with the starter Paine for big tempo plays. Taiki’s build featured only 14 forwards and a whopping 19 summons. The deck had plenty of searching and draw in order to find those forwards. Baderon, Merlwyb, Eiko, Shinra, and Brother were part of a strong search/draw back up line. The deck also ran 3 Moogles. The number of summons helped activate 6 CP Yuna’s ability: 1 Generic CP, remove 3 Summons in the Break Zone from the game: Choose 1 Job Gullwings Forward. Activate it. It gains +1000 power until the end of the turn. The two other Water/Wind decks were similar to the set up we were familiar with in the Opus VI meta, however they featured a strong Opus VII presence in the form of Chelinka and Yuri. With Aleria to search them, and Alhanalem to combo, these two proved very powerful in Water/Wind. Halicarnassus, Vata, and the Starter Cecil were both new inclusions into Water/Wind as well. Mono Wind Opus VII Additions: Chelinka (7-054L), Aleria (7-043C), Yuri (7-128H), Alhanalem (7-044H), Cecil (7-135S), Vata (7-046R)Mono Wind is a deck that has always seemed strong, but besides a brief success in a major tournament in Australia, we haven’t seen much of it in the meta. Due to the three-deck format, it was a strong contender for the third deck slot. The only conflict is that many players also ran Earth/Wind and Water/Wind, meaning you had to split your Diabolos, Moogle (XI)’s, Yuri’s, Barb’s, and more if you wanted to splash Wind in another deck. It is no surprise that both players using Mono Wind did not run Wind in any of their other lists. One very appealing factor to running Mono Wind was the simplicity of running Yuri and Chelinka, with all of your backups being the same element for Yuri’s ability. The card activation that Wind offers also meant you could potentially use Yuri’s ability four or more times in a turn. Chelinka and Alhanalem combo well with Barbariccia, Balthier, and all the activation effects included in each deck. Vata was often a free 8k that could be slapped onto the board, similar to how Aerith runs on the back up line. One interesting difference between the decks is decision of which Zidane to include. Zidane (6-044L) has the potential to snowball, and even if he doesn’t, he can force your opponent to make some very drastic plays to avoid discarding a forward. Zidane (3-056H) on the other hand, has an immediate impact on the game, and lets you pick a discard from your opponent’s hand. On a decisive turn, this Zidane can come through in a big way. In my opinion, Mono Wind is one of the most fun decks to play, so it was nice to see two players make the Top 8 with it, even if they didn’t move on to the Top 4. I hope the Pros keep crafting with Mono Wind and we see it make a splash in the Opus VII meta. Mono Earth Opus VII Additions: Xezat (7-073H), Prishe (7-080H), Asmodai (7-064R), Noctis (7-077L), Kolka (7-069C), Yuri (7-128H)A man after my own heart, Tobi Henriet was the only player that made the Top 8 with Mono Earth. His build was intriguing, as it only ran three summons, Hecatoncheir 1-117R. This makes sense, as an anti-Fusoya measure. So where did all the extra card slots go? Tobi ran an incredible 29 forwards. Some interesting inclusions were Leo, Serafie (as a three-of!), the new Xezat, and the new Prishe package. Leo, coupled with all the forwards being run (including the PSICOM Warden search engine), had the potential to become very big. If you have read my other blog posts, you will know that I have been trying to make the new Prishe combo work. I personally prefer the 6 CP Prishe over the 2 CP version, but I do run it in my list as well, since it becomes an 8-9k 2 CP Brave forward, depending on your set up. If Enna Kros and Ingus are on board, the 9 CP Prishe can come in for an 11k ping to an opponent’s forward. Once a few Prishe’s are in the break zone, she is very reasonable to play from your hand at 5-7 CP. Water/Earth Opus VII Additions: Krile (7-068H), Kolka (7-069C), Galdes (7-129H)Grand Jason’s Water/Earth, aka the “Leo Toolbox”, was a very interesting deck. Two of the stars of the deck were Leo and Krile (3-078H), with Phoenix (3-020H) used to play them back from the break zone. Leo and the new Krile (7-068H) allowed Phoenix to be cast easily. The deck only ran 5 summons, and 28 forwards. Just as Leo is powerful with many forwards on the board, Ramza (5-118L) becomes incredible once four other forwards are in play. In this case, Ramza only needed three other forwards, since Jason ran the Ovelia backup to power up Ramza. The deck also ran one Chaos for colour fixing, in case a Leo wasn’t on board to allow the Ramza to be played. Another interesting combo in this deck was the inclusion of the Leila-Viking package, as well as, Delita (4087R). Playing Delita (who is also powered up by Ovelia) while Leila and Viking are on board means breaking an opponent’s 3 or 4 cost forward, and possibly drawing a card. This is tremendous value as Leila and Viking aren’t very strong on their own. The best part is, once Leila is off the board, you are free to play another one. Leila and Viking also helped increase the likelihood of having many forwards out for Leo and Ramza. Leo costing 1 CP also plays well into big turns where you can flood the board for Ramza’s abilities. All of this forward activity means that Cloud of Darkness is often live as a way to break a forward. I haven’t seen any of Jason’s matches, if they are on stream, but I wanted to mention how strong Krile (3-078H)’s Specials are. Combo’d with Phoenix, you can play her from the break zone and break multiple forwards with Spellblade: Thundara. On the other hand, Spellblade: Fira, can be cast to wipe a smaller board. At my locals, I have actually had Fira cast twice on me, to wipe my large board. Now that we have another Krile printed, it is much easier to use these specials. Ice/Earth Opus VII Additions: Noctis (7-077L), Flan (7-081C), Carbuncle (7-066C)Ice/Earth is a very fun deck to play and features a very unique way to use Dadaluma’s abilities. When Dadaluma is dull, Terra can ping him up to five times spending back up CP, and then further with CP from the hand. WOL can also combo with Dadaluma, Terra, and Celes to ping off dull forwards with his ability. As you can probably guess, the deck ran the FFVI search engine. The deck also has one Noctis, who’s auto ability would be able to combo with the above ping to kill a forward that just attacked, even if they were larger than him. This deck ran three Shantottos, to shut down aggression and allow the deck to set up fully. The list also had both Jihl Nabaats, providing Fusoya protection in certain matchups, and close out potential in others. The deck ran 3 of Flan (4-043C) but also the new Flan (7-081C), who can be searched by the latter. This allowed Hunter to thin out his deck, but also search for vital discard, stall, combat tricks, or a potential way to close out a game. On a final note. He also ran three of the new Carbuncle. The dream with this card is to go second and play Carbuncle with Back Attack on your opponent’s first turn. This allows you to start your first turn with 1 CP on board, leading to the potential to efficiently play a 3 CP back up right off the bat. This is incredibly appealing to an Ice/Earth player, as dropping a Setzer or Gestahlian Empire Cid first turn really starts your deck off right. Closing Remarks I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the decks seen in the 2018 World’s Top 8. I have enjoyed watching the stream so far, and still have a lot more to go back and watch! What did you think of all the decks featured in this article? Did I miss any important synergies? Do you remember any big plays worth mentioning? Feel free to add to the comments below! -Alex
2 Comments
reepacheep
12/5/2018 08:35:54 pm
GG
Alex Kelsch
12/5/2018 11:32:24 pm
Thanks for reading! Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAlex is a FFTCG player from Vancouver, Canada. His favourite Final Fantasy is IV and his favourite Elements are Earth and Ice, although he has a soft spot for fire. 
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