Hello, everyone! This is Kageyama, producer of FF-TCG. What did you all think of RB’s article last week? Monk decks sound like a lot of fun. If you get the chance, I hope you’ll give those a try. Well then, this week, I’d like to introduce a character who is particularly memorable, even among all the unique villains that appear in the FINAL FANTASY series – the FINAL FANTASY IX villain, Kuja [11-090L].

In FF-TCG, Kuja is known for being one of the major Ice element characters, but this time around, he joins us as a Lightning element Legend. Now, let’s jump right in and take a look at his abilities.

In FF-TCG, Kuja has been known for mainly having the kind of abilities that throw a wrench into your opponent’s strategy. For example, he’d force opponents to discard cards from their hand, or he’d Dull and Freeze them. He even appeared with the ability to return to your hand from the Break Zone even when your opponent thought they’d defeated him. I think this ability is perfect considering Kuja’s role in FINAL FANTASY IX as a puppet master pulling the strings from behind the scenes in the story. However, the Kuja [11-090L] that appears this time around has been designed as that utterly aggressive character who wields his ferocity directly, just like we saw during his final battle with Zidane.

This card possesses two abilities. The first one is an auto-ability that triggers when he enters the field. Amazingly, this extremely powerful ability allows you to break one Forward of cost 3 or less. It’s true that as a drawback, this ability causes you to receive one point of damage yourself. However, considering the fact that you’re playing an 8000 power Forward onto the field and also breaking one of your opponent’s Forwards, this doesn’t seem like a huge detriment.

And what’s even more incredible is that on top of that, this card also has a special ability. “Choose up to 2 Forwards opponent controls. Deal them 2000 damage. Then, deal 5000 damage to all the damaged Forwards opponent controls.” This means that at minimum, you’re able to inflict a total of 7000 damage to two of your opponents’ Forwards.

However, as you’ve probably already noticed, that doesn’t quite capture the true essence of this ability. Indeed, the crux of this ability lies in the fact that if there are any Forwards who have already sustained damage, all of those Forwards will be dealt 5000 damage. If you were to use this in combination with a separate tactic to deal damage to all your opponent’s Forwards, you may find that sweeping the Field isn’t just a lofty dream. His auto-ability is strong too, but doesn’t this one seem enticing as well?

Next, I’d like to talk about a few cards that synergize well with Kuja [11-090L]. As you may already expect, what you’ll probably want to pay particular attention to is the special ability. If you’re looking for a good card to use prior to this ability, perhaps the simplest way to go would be to match it with a Wind element card. We have some excellent cards like Valefor [1-198S], Penelo [10-058R], and Chelinka [7-054L] in our lineup. Penelo [10-058R] possesses the “Damage” keyword, so it feels like that could be a bit of a nice match with the damage from Kuja [11-090L]’s auto-ability.

If you find the 3 Lightning CP cost for this special ability worrisome, perhaps it may be best to use it with Lightning element cards. In that case, Desch [10-095H] or Raiden (REVENANT WINGS) [10-100C] may be some of your options. Though the damage that Raiden (REVENANT WINGS) [10-100C] deals is directed toward active Forwards only, his cost is also proportionally lower, and it’s also great that you can use him any time because he’s a Summon.

So, we’ve taken a look at a new type of Kuja [11-090L] with two amazing abilities – what do you think of him? Are you feeling inspired to build a deck?

Next time, RB will return once again, this time to introduce a wonderful, newly illustrated card. See you then!