Another week, another new deck! The idea for this week’s deck was basically to put a lot of the cards that I’ve found annoying to play against recently all into one deck. This includes Guy (very annoying when using Ice/Lightning), Cecil + Fusoya (can basically kill anything), and Raubahn (just a great card).

There was also one card in particular that I wanted to test out, and that’s the forward version of Rydia. Since I was planning on playing at least nine summons, I thought it fairly likely that I’d be able to use her special ability to clear the field of small characters.

Here’s the deck that I went with:

MONO EARTH

Forwards (22)

3x Cecil (1-108H)

3x Dark Knight (1-092C)

3x Gabranth (2-081L)

3x Guy (1-097H)

3x Rydia (2-094H)

3x Scarmiglione (2-085H)

2x Serafie (1-109R)

2x Warrior of Antiquity (2-074C)

Backups (19)

2x Enna Kros (1-095R)

2x Evoker (1-105C)

1x Fusoya (2-146H)

2x Geomancer (1-115C)

3x Machinist (2-083C)

2x Monk (2-089C)

1x Mustadio (1-118R)

3x Raubahn (2-093H)

2x Shantotto (1-107L)

1x Tama (1-111C)

Summons (9)

3x Carbuncle (2-080C)

3x Golem (1-106C)

3x Titan (1-110C)

MATCH ONE vs ALEX (FIRE/WATER)

We had a very cagey opening to our match, which suits me fine as I’m aiming to get a lot of backups into play as quickly as possible with this deck. I took some early damage, but after four or five turns the board state was slightly in my favour (I’d already got rid of one Warrior of Light via Mustadio).

Through Machinist, Raubahn, and some Golem shenanigans, I quickly started to dominate the match. Enna Kros really helped things out, as it made Guy 9000 power and something of an unstoppable force.

My opponent got a Tellah into play, but I’d been holding onto a Titan for most of the game, so I wasn’t worried. Guy pretty much solo’ed the match for me. WIN

MATCH TWO vs AARON (EARTH/WATER)

After several turns of back-and-forth, this board state was like this. He’d got the Cecil + Fusoya combo, which meant I was going to have a bad time. After a few turns of just staring at each other, he attacked with Cecil and I used Machinist to try and get rid of him. I was worried about a Titan, but it never came.

Soon after, the board looked like this. Ultimecia is a massive pain, but again, I had Guy + Enna Kros, so I just kept attacking (I had Titan and Golem in hand, so I was confident my attacks would prove favourable).

Gabranth made an apperance, and with only needing one more damage to win, I was able to secure victory. WIN

MATCH THREE vs LIAM (EARTH/WATER)

I’m not totally sold on Serafie, but in this match I was able to play her for free (I returned the forward I’d use to pay for her to my hand, and my opponent didn’t have any forwards in their break zone to return). This is my early board state, and as you can see, I’ve got Cecil + Fusoya. I got rid of Cloud and proceeded to start causing damage.

My opponent got Vincent into play, but with the aforementioned combo, he was quickly broken (just after he’d nuked my field with his special; I saved Cecil with Titan).

My opponent managed to get rid of my Dark Knight and Serafie, but a cheeky Scarmiglione played during my opponent’s turn started piling on the damage. The picture above is just before it goes into my final turn, and I use the Cecil/Fusoya combo to break yet another Cloud. WIN

MATCH FOUR vs SAM (EARTH/FIRE)

After mulligan, I had an opening hand of no backups, so I dropped Guy into play turn one, hoping to squeeze some damage out of him. This proves to be the case, and I get an early damage lead. After a few more turns, I’ve got a couple of backups into play, most notably Enna Kros. However, my opponent has several good-quality forwards.

Thanks to my damage lead, and a few earth shenanigans, I’m able to brute-force a win with Guy and Rydia. WIN

MATCH FIVE vs LYNDON (ICE/LIGHTNING)

During this match I was going to learn the full extent of just how annoying Kuja is. Anyway, I managed to open with a freebie Serafie, and soon followed with Machinist and Rydia. But sat opposite was Kuja, who can easily beat them in a fight.

And a couple of lucky ex-burst effects from both of us, and the game grinds to a halt. Kuja attacked, dealt me a point of damage, and like the lucksack I am, revealed a Mustadio who promptly broke Kuja (it still cost me a card to do it though, damn you Kuja!). When I counterattacked with Serafie and Rydia, on the second point of damage my opponent revealed a Jihl Nabaat, freezing both of my forwards! I think I got the better end of the ex-bursts, but it definitely slowed things down.

My opponent then played a Capricious Reaper (basically another Kuja…), so I used a Raubahn to break it (and lost another card). The damage was now 4-2 in my favour (although I did lose a copy of Guy to an ex-burst Odin).

Amon enters the field and while it is a good card, I still outnumbered my opponent. However, between Amon and Time Mage, my opponent kept me under control for a while (although Amon did fall prey to a Machinist).

This was my opponent’s last stand. Devout had been popped to bring back Capricious Reaper, but I was able to keep attacking and keep my forwards alive through the excellent earth summons. WIN

MATCH SIX vs ZAK (WIND/LIGHTNING)

This match I’m on the back foot to start, with my opponent taking the damage lead. However, a Mustadio and Fusoya, along with the ever-excellent Guy, help me start to bring things under control.

The star of this match was without a doubt, Rydia. I used her special ability twice (thanks to earth summons) combined with Fusoya, to break three forwards each time. Losing six forwards in a few turns is crippling to anyone. Rydia, Guy, and Scarmiglione, managed to keep up the pressure and close out the match. WIN

FINAL STANDINGS

Rank Player Wins 1st Tim 6 2nd Lyndon 5 3rd Alex 4 4th Zak 3 5th Liam 2 6th Aaron 1 7th Sam 0

WHAT WORKED WELL?

Lots of things! But let’s start with Guy. He was a consistently good forward all tournament. Brave and 8000 power for 4CP is already pretty good, and his resitance to being dulled makes him a constant attacker.

Titan was amazing, but that is kinda obvious really. So many situations where this card is useful; protecting against cards like Odin, and also blocking into what would normally be a trade, but not dying instead.

Machinist was fantastic. There are so many good four-cost forwards that this card has no shortage of targets.

Cecil (and Fusoya) was a great combo to have in the deck. Individually, the cards are good, but together they are scary.

Enna Kros really gave my forwards the edge so many times that I’d nearly consider playing these types of backups in non-mono decks. I’d definitely always include Maria if I was playing wind.

Raubahn and Mustadio were both important backups. I’d be tempted to change them to two of each, rather than the current 3-1 lineup, but apart from that they were fine.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK OUT WELL?

Geomancer was definitely filler, and I think that I’ll swap the two copies for another Tama and Monk.

I didn’t ever get the chance to use Carbuncle, so I can’t really comment on its effectiveness. You might assume that because I didn’t use it for its ability that that would be a damning indictment, but I never had cause to use Shantotto either, and there’s no way that isn’t a useful card.

I’m not sure about Warrior of Antiquity. Because it costs 3CP, it sits in an awkward place. I’d be tempted to switch them out for a couple of legendary Vincent, as he can cause an opponent some real headaches.

WINNING DECKLIST

This week it was mine! However, upon reflection I’d make the following changes:

Remove:

2x Geomancer (1-115C)

1x Raubahn (2-093H)

2x Warrior of Antiquity (2-074C)

Add:

1x Monk (2-089C)

1x Mustadio (1-118R)

1x Tama (1-111C)

2x Vincent (2-077L)

SUMMARY

Very happy with how the deck performed, and was a little surprised by it’s overall effectiveness. It had more backups that I’m used to playing (I usually max-out at sixteen backups), and wanted to get them into play relatively quickly. Compared to my usual style, this was very different.

Anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed the report.

Cheers!