Hey there folks! Welcome back to Lv.1 Onion Knight - the Final Fantasy TCG blog that wasn't quite good enough to qualify for a Pro badge for New York Comicon!





Guys, I have to be real with you all: I'm not emotionally ready for Opus IX spoiler season to start. I feel like I'm still trying to wrap my head around new deck ideas for Opus VIII, and what's one of the first cards to be revealed? A Fire Legend. I can't.









Personally, I think Nael is a really nice addition to Fire, allowing for potentially high value plays, and gives the element an Opus VI Kuja-like effect of being able to cycle through single use backups/searchers while diminishing your opponent's board. Fire Legends like the new Cloud seem to be going into the "if it wins you the game, who cares what it costs you" direction, which I think a lot of people tend to balk at because it can be a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. Hell, when Cloud was revealed, most people wrote him off as a bad card because of the self mill, and now he's a key card in most Fire decks, so I think that Nael is a bit less overtly contentious at first glance.





Oh, and also I think that claiming a card is bad when we barely know anything about the new set is kind of silly and counter intuitive, but who are you gunna believe? Somebody who has actual experience playing tournaments in the Veritas meta, or the guy who until very recently, didn't realize that Opus V Ingus doesn't buff Fire Warrior of Light job cards twice?





You guys know what the right answer is.





Maybe the reason that new Fire Legends tend to be polarizing and elicit a stronger knee-jerk response in people is because Fire as an element still isn't perceived as where people want it to be in terms of overall power compared to the other colors. On the one hand, we've been seeing more decks that use Fire in it becoming popular in higher level events, but that might also be because Opus VIII brought more to specific title decks that have Fire as a support element, rather than a huge boost to Fire element decks in general. As I said in my set review, that isn't necessarily a bad thing - I've personally been loving the Fire/Ice VI and Fire/Water IX decks, and Mono Fire Samurais is quickly becoming one of my favorites. While I do think that Fire is in a significantly better place then it was before, the question still remains: What needs to be added to Fire to give it the boost it seems to need?





The short answer is "Utility".





There's a reason why the most popular Summons in Fire are Phoenix and Belias - they're both versatile cards that do more than just damage. I understand that Fire is meant to be the "aggro" element, but when other elements like Water, Earth, and Wind have access to a full suite of aggressive and defensive options, it puts Fire in a bit of an awkward underdog position. If Fire is going to continue to get better competitively, it needs to be able to respond better to what the other elements can throw at it in a variety of different ways.





A lot of people tend to suggest that the reason Fire feels under powered right now is because "in the original Chapters series, Fire was OP, so they're trying to avoid that" which, I mean I guess you could make that claim, but it's a little bit like saying that in an alternate reality, the sky is green: that's just not the reality we're currently living in with the FFTCG. But also I would dare to say that I think many of the problems Fire has are the result of sticking a little too closely to what Fire did well in Chapters, as a majority of those cards - even in later releases - tend to stick to the burn damage formula and generally aren't super versatile. That or Burn cards were just more effective in Chapters. I dunno.





When looking through them, there were a few that I think would be great additions to Fire in Opus IX, but there's only so far you can go looking at older cards from a different game with different formats. So with that being said, I've compiled a list of my personal top picks for Fire to port over from Chapters to the FFTCG, as well as diving into the exciting realm of coming up with a few "fantasy" cards that I think would do a lot to help the element.





Of course, these are all just my opinions but if any of these cards or ones like them come out in Opus IX, I'm claiming total responsibility for it and there's nothing that anybody can say to convince me that I'm not secretly the FFTCG card whisperer. Unlike the last time I did an article like this, I'm not going in any particular order of how badly I would like these cards, so with that said, lets look at some weird Japanese cards.





Oh, and by the way, Gaius the Black Wolf isn't actually on this list, even though I have a feeling he'll be in the next set with Nael. You were all lied to by the header. Sorry.





Bahamut Sin





Summon: Choose 2 of the following 4 effects:





- Choose 1 Forward. Deal it 7000 Damage





- Choose 1 Forward. It gains Haste and First Strike until the end of the turn.





- Deal 5000 Damage to all Forwards





- All Forwards can't block Forwards with Power Greater than their own.





In my Opus VIII review, I made a joke about how there seems to be a trend with Bahamut cards being clunky and restrictive, and how Bahamut Sin would be the epitome of "Absurd ping but punch yourself in the face" cards, but the Bahamut Sin from Chapters is actually really good! For one, it's a Modal Summon which Fire still doesn't have access to. Second, there's a lot of different scenarios you can use the effects with that make this an effective Summon, and I'd say that he reminds me of a more offensive Diabolos-L.



The only thing I would change here would be the EX burst, which might be just a little bit too strong. Fire needs a bigger variety of more impactful Summons, and I think this guy would really fit the bill.









Tifa





Opponent must Block Tifa if able.





When Tifa is Blocked, she gains 2000 Power until end of turn.





◆ : Tifa gains Haste until end of turn.





◆ ◆ : Choose 1 Forward opponent controls. It becomes Active.





Now I know what you're thinking: "But we literally just got a Tifa card last set!" and I understand that, but its more of the effect that I like, rather than the character itself. Hell, you could change it to Benjamin from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest or something for all I care. Either way, forced blocking is something that we don't have too much of in the FFTCG, the exception being Cinque. The ability to force a block from your opponent's Yshtola or any valuable Forward they don't want to get rid of is nice enough as it is, but the fact that you can activate a dull Forward so that it absolutely has to block is great for ensuring that something is going to get broken that turn.



If the card were to stay as Tifa, then I would change the Haste effect to First Strike instead, so she would become extra threatening with the Zangan Backup.

Amon

Amon:





When Amon enters the Field, you may search for 1 Fire element character card and add it to your hand.

When Amon is put in the Break Zone from the Field, search for 1 [Card Name (First Emperor Xande)] and put it on the Field or add it to your hand.

Firaga-Forte (S)( ◆ ): Deal 5000 damage to all Forwards opponent controls





One of Fire's most noteworthy issues (though I guess it's true for all elements in the game right now...) is that paying for a big, expensive 5 cost-and-up Forward is hard to justify, since there's so many ways to remove them easily that if they don't do something really impactful on entry or detrimental on exit, you can expect to have it blown up by Diabolos or other forms of removal, and Fire has a looooot of 5 drops.



What I like about Amon here is that it does something on entry and something on exit, which as we've seen with cards like Veritas, is good. I like cards that make your opponent have to think about how they use their removal, and not only does this guy fetch a Fire Character on entry, making him a soft 3 cost, but on exit he can play a Xande from the deck onto the field, who -also- is a 5 cost big boy with an on-exit effect, and I think that sort of chain of effects would really force an opponent to have to play smarter around a Fire deck with stuff like this and Opus VIII Cloud.



You could argue that cards that do stuff when they exit the field only prevent you from losing as opposed to winning, but I like to think of it in a more spiteful light - You're preventing your opponent from winning.



You could realistically get rid of the S ability and have it not lose much in my opinion, though more non-wind board wipes would be great too.





Gutsco



When Gutsco enters the Field, choose 1 Forward. Half its Power until end of turn. (Rounded up to the nearest 1000)

◆ ◆ : Return Gutsco to your hand. This ability can only be used during your turn.

This one is pretty simple but it should be obvious why I want this card: Power reduction is (as of the state of the game right now) much stronger than dealing Damage to a Forward. Being able to Halve a Forward's power on entry not only makes it easier to run them over with your attackers, but it also puts them in range of smaller, cheaper ping effects and Summons. Plus the fact that you can return it to your hand during your turn means that you could potentially target multiple Forwards in one turn, or save it for when you really need it, all while still having a 7k blocker on the field afterwards. General good combat trick for Fire, and it would be pretty cool to see some more "off element" effects. Also the game could use more Category III support, so Buff Bara snake dudes are A-Okay in my book.



Tenzen



Brave





When Tenzen is put in the Break Zone from the Field, you may put a Forward of cost 2 or less from your hand onto the Field.





Hooray obligatory XI Card! Tenzin isn't even one of my favorite characters from that game honestly, but I think that adding a new Samurai that is also a Category XI Fire card would work really well in the Mono-Bushido deck alongside Hien and Goestsu, as well as with his (spoiler) daughter Iroha, Ayame, Volker, and Ark Angel HM. Again, I think that cards that do stuff when they leave the field are pretty good, and Fire has a lot of great 2 drop options that you could play, like Firion or Warrior of Light from the Heroes vs Villains set. If you wanted to be really cheeky you could play Opus I Gadot and then play a second 2 drop Fire Forward.





Tenzin's ability also doesn't specify that the card you play from your hand has to be a Fire card either, so if you wanted you could use Tenzin as a blocker, then play Ark Angel TT to put a dulled forward on a timer. Other non-Fire 2 drops like Argath and the WoFF monsters would be good targets that help keep your opponent on their toes.





So there you have it folks - yet another rant about Fire by some unqualified rando with only the vaguest hint of what he's doing. Now that Spoiler season is live, it looks like I'd better get to work on my next Bingo, so I should be posting that within the next week or so. Keep your eyes open for it!



In the mean time, what are your hopes for Fire in Opus IX? If you could make your own card, what would its effect be? Let me know what you guys think!



Until next time - Keep on Grinding,







