Happy Monday everyone. Today we are going to cover a new Rare that was spoiled over the weekend, that has certainly caught my attention to be on the look out for. This spoiled card is… Snow 7-033R! He is a backup in Ice which costs 4 cp.

When Snow is on the field, he has quite an impact on how your forwards behave. When a forward you control attacks, you choose 1 forward that an opponent controls and you dull it. Doesn’t matter what element forward they are, you swing, they dull. This creates an incredibly annoying factor that the opponent more then likely has to deal with for the rest of the game. Let’s discuss why this card will more then likely stick around for the rest of the game, and some potential combos that will cause a brain-freeze.

Sustainability

Being a 4cp backup, this card can pretty much stay alive once it is put into play. The only card (even with Serah protecting Snow from abilities), would be Hecatoncheir from Earth. Other then then that, no one really plays Sephiroth in both his promo and Opus 1 Legend form, and this Snow is out of range for Archer being at 4cp. So in most games, once Snow enters, he’s sticking around for good. And once he enters, the game state pretty much changes to where now any time you attack, their defensive line weakens. They now have to consider that at a minimum, they will need 2 forwards out (or Earth forwards such as Guy or Yang) in order to prevent damage coming. This becomes incredibly dangerous and nerve-wracking, especially if haste forwards are involved, where at a moments notice, a forward can arrive, attack AND dull a forward, and inflict damage. The value of constantly having an effect where you can dull their forward line is insane. This could have easily been a Hero or a Legend card in my opinion. And since Ice tends to force your opponent to discard, this adds a huge layer of putting them behind since they need to constantly have multiple forwards out to avoid taking damage. But this isn’t even the scary part — next we can look at some…

Combos

As soon as I saw this card, the brain went into overdrive. Ice is frustrating enough, but this card can combo into some nasty, annoying as all hell frustration. While I’m sure to miss some here, let’s take a gander at a few that came across my mind after viewing Snow.

This card hasn’t really seen play in the past 4 months, but smack my cat with a spoon, this could really be annoying with Snow. Since Snow is a XIII character, 4-115L Lightning has the potential to dull 3 Forwards when the turn she comes into play since she has haste. She arrives with a XIII character already in play (1), and when she attacks, she dulls a forward (2), and then Snow uses his ability to dull another forward (3). Seriously? The lady just dominates the board with her brother in-law.

This version of The Emperor, who will be included in the upcoming Duo Clash Deck, combines quite well with Snow. Every time an opponent’s forward becomes dull, you can zap an active forward for 3,000 damage. If they have forwards such as Vikings, you can break them quite easily just by swinging in if there are other targets you can dull. This works great against Water decks since they tend to flood their board with forwards to support both Cloud of Darkness and Cagnazzo .

Both Mecha Chocobo and Laguna were paired together for this because they share the same combination with Snow. When they attack, they will break an enemy forward in most situations. Mecha Chocobo will break a forward as long as they cost 4 or less, and Laguna will break a forward if they are 7,000 or less. Laguna will have to actually inflict player damage, but swinging in at 9k (10k if wth Duke Larg), and dulling a forward in the process, changes are he’s making his way in.

**Mecha Chocobo does not actually work in this case, due to the Forward not being dull during activation of the ability. Thank you Nicholas Schnell**

And lastly we have Squall from Opus 2. Another forward that does not see much play at all, however Snow does beef him up a bit. Since Squall relies on enemy characters being dull to power himself up, he will be a very strong forward when he is swinging. Not only powering up from the backups that Squall himself dulls, but also the additional forward that is being dulled from Snow. This makes him a wrecking ball on the offense. Unfortunately, he is still just a 6k when the turn is over.

Well, what do you think about the new Snow? I’d say he’s going to be a $10 foil coming out, and we all know how our Ice players love their bling. Any combos I missed? Feel free to respond! Thanks for reading =)

(Did you know? Just as Final Fantasy 7 was designed to show off the Playstation 1’s capabilities, Final Fantasy XIII was designed to show off what the Playstation 3 could do. This feeling of innovation combined with nostalgia was intentionally designed for the intro combat/tutorial section of Final Fantasy XIII. You literally play an Ex-Guardian (Ex-Soldier), named Lightning (Cloud), who reluctantly fights alongside Sazh, a black male protagonist character with a gun (Barrett), that engages a mechanized scorpion, Manasvin Warmech (Guard Scorpion)