Athena's Top 3/Bottom 3 Cards

Hey again everyone!  Been a while for me as well, but figured I'd write something now, what with the recent release of Opus 7 and the ever approaching start of our new local circuit this weekend.  I wanted to do something like an Opus 7 top 3/bottom 3 post, but it's actually pretty hard for me to do since I kind of have the same mentality as our teammate John, where I think every card has the potential to be good or playable (and some cards have the potential to be REALLY good).  But, I'll try my best to choose my Opus 7 top 3 (favorite, or cards I think are good or am looking forward to playing most) and bottom 3 (cards I'm not a fan of or that I don't think are that great), in no particular order.

Top 3

1. Serah (7-035) 

I'm sure this blip sounds similar to what Kageyama-san posted a while back for the spoilers, but it seems I'm a little partial to ice cards.  I think her effect is pretty...ahem...cool, though.  :^)

Her enter-the-field effect allows you to choose as many characters as your own XIII characters.  How awesome is that?  I get excited when I see restrictions like "forwards" or "backups" lifted and instead you get to choose basically whatever is on the field that is targetable--cause everything's a character right now (until they start implementing things like tools and weapons...)!  It was the same way with Celes back in Opus 4 when you could just freeze any character; pretty neat!  (Yeah, I refrained from saying "cool" again.)  So, possibilities?  Right off the bat, if you draw into her late game and have a good handful of XIII characters on your board, you could easily dull anything standing in your way and swing in for lethal.  And her second effect?  Again, "characters" helping you, and you can do this whenever as long as you have 2 active ones to dull.  Meaning, it could even be right after your opponent attacks, and before they end their turn; freeze their forward by just dulling 2 of your own, and on your turn you can reactivate your cards no problem.  I think this card still warrants this much excitement!  Serah is obviously going to see the most play in Title format.  However, there are a good number of FFXIII characters in both lightning and ice, and I had been fiddling around with a Lightning/Ice build back in Opus 5, so I think we can expect to see some Serah appearances in other formats as well!

2. Chelinka (7-054)

First of all, look at the art; it's so cute.  Moogle~~~!  To be honest, this is probably why I like her more than the new Yuri (just kidding...or am I?).

Anyway.  Why Chelinka?  First of all, look at all the things she can do!  Let's start with the fact that partnering with Yuri can just break something.  I know it requires forming a party, but the effect is still pretty great, and pretty much threatens any forward your opponent wants to play if they're behind on forwards, forcing them to use summons or removal to break up the party if they want to be able to push back.  And, even if they remove her/Yuri, she's searchable again with the new Aleria backup, so there's chance you can find them again even if you don't draw into them.  But wait, she can do more!  She can deal 1000 across the field when she enters (which, if anyone is paying attention, is amped by her own first ability, so it's actually 2000!).  So what can we do with that?  One of Yuri's abilities is that he can deal 4000 damage to something, so make that 5000.  Dark Lord is also FFCC (don't tell me you guys forgot about that card...), and he can just straight up deal 3000 during your attack phase, so now that becomes 4000.  Then, you also have the new backup Alhanalem, which can deal 2000 damage to a forward if you just tap him (as long as you have Chelinka or Yuri), or 2000 across the board to all your opponent's forwards if you have the Chelinka and Yuri dream team; again, this is amped up to 3000.  I can't even add up what all this damage could equate to if you had a god board state and had ALL these up, and maybe that can only really happen "in theory," but I'm getting excited just thinking about this!  And, in the end, if you don't think Wind/Fire could ever work, there's always some fun to be had in Title format once more.

3. Tidus (7-117C)

I know it's "just a common" and there's a Legend Tidus to be talked about instead, but I honestly think  will see more of this in play in my own decks than Legend Tidus (although the legend also seems interesting and -pretty- good, so I'd like to try using him at some point).  Card bouncing is just plain fun, and here we go again with the wording: character.  So you thought bouncing your own forward back to your hand with Leviathan or Scholar was fun?  Wait till you can just bounce anything; even just a backup with a good ETF effect to use again if you don't feel like bouncing your forwards.  Think of its use in Mono Water.  Bounce a Cloud of Darkness back?  How about Lenna to get another forward from your break zone?  Or even just a Leila to get another free Viking (and free card draw, yeah!)?  And then we can even think of some uses in Ice/Vikings.  Leila/Viking again!  What about just Opus 1 Jihl Nabaat to freeze another 2 forwards?  Maybe you could bounce your Nidhogg to play him again.  Or, my favorite devastating combo (and probably more efficient if you're going to be bouncing something and paying to play it again); bounce your Rinoa and blink your Nidhogg!  It's a pretty evil thing to do, but you know it's going to be fun and you won't feel sorry at all if you can pull it off.

Bottom 3

1. Shantotto (7-071)

I know, I know, it seems agreeable in theory, and yes, color fixing is a great effect.  But you need to pay 1 every time to do it.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but I think it adds up, and if you're looking to color fix with a Shantotto backup, why not play the one that counts as every element and helps board wipe for you if you're behind?  I suppose playing a 2CP backup is tempting, and seems more affordable than a 7CP one.  But again, you're going to have to keep paying an extra CP every time you want to use her effect for anything other than Earth.  Meanwhile, Cosmos and Chaos are both 2CP and can help color fix without taxing you.  I guess it could be good early game while you're setting up, to help you get the CP you need to get other backups out, then the need to pay for other element CP decreases as the game goes on...but then you're short on CP in your early game too.  While this did have its uses in limited/sealed format, I'm not confident I'll see it much outside of that, but I could be wrong.

2. Snow (7-033)

This has to be the most annoying backup I've seen in a while (probably since Alisaie for Scions).  This isn't on my list because I think it's "bad," but rather because it's so obnoxious.  Really?  Dull a forward every time one of your forwards attacks?  He seems like the new Boogeyman to replace some other certain ice cards that were recently removed from play... But, as always in this game, there are answers.  Big earth forwards and monks that can't be dulled, Delita (which breaks the character trying to target him), and even forwards and backups that break backups (which saw some play against Alisaie as well).  Like I said, Snow isn't a bad card; quite the contrary, people seem to think he's good enough to be a problem in the new meta and have been trying to tech against him when building their decks.  However, I think it's a trap, and may cause players to tech too hard against him, maybe using one or two out of the ordinary cards in their decks to specifically deal with Snow instead of making sure their deck has the right flow it needs to still be a good deck overall.  I do think we will see a lot of decks use Snow; I'm sure any ice deck will have him in it, since even at 4CP his effect is quite good and will continue to have its uses throughout the game once you get him out.  But, just as there were ways to deal with Scions, there will be ways to overcome this too!

3. Ramza (7-104H)

It was a rather underwhelming card for me.  Sure, it's pretty cheap: 1 CP for a forward that could potentially go to an insane power, at the cost of just another CP.  But, this is again a recurring cost that must be paid in order to maintain this.  So, what will happen?  You potentially boost him the moment he enters the field, he goes in for the attack, and then goes back down to 2000 power once it's your opponent's turn.  If you don't pay another X CP, your opponent can easily ping Ramza right off the board, and may not even need a removal like Odin to deal with him.  "But you can just pay to make him bigger and unpingable," some say.  Yes, but do I want to keep playing to make him a large forward, when I have a different Ramza that remains a steady 6000 and not only has his cost reduced but is also buffed purely by being around my other forwards?  What resources will I have left to pay for other forwards and backups and such if I keep paying for Ramza to stay alive?  I agree, he is a cheap forward that can possibly swing in for 1 point of damage at least.  However, expensive over time, so I'm not so much a fan.  But hey, if you can make him work, run with it!

Snow aside, my "bottom" cards probably all come with more of an asterisk, as I'm inclined to say that although I am not a big fan of them, and even if they may seem "not very good," I can't say they are "unplayable."  I think they could work in the right deck, and I'm sure they will work in a deck one day and may even see some play at our Fun Deck Fridays one of these days--and I hope they do!  I hate it when I see a card that I don't recognize at all because I never see it in play, because I think the creators must have had an idea that made them think that it would be playable somehow and maybe we just haven't seen what they saw yet.  Maybe future sets will make some current "bad" cards turn bonkers good; maybe they'll even turn the table on the seemingly "broken" cards now and give us answers to make them less OP.  So, here's hoping these seemingly "not great" cards actually have secret uses coming up that we don't know about.  Likewise, I hope I get to use my top 3 cards in my upcoming decks, as they do seem like a lot of fun.  And who knows, over time my top/bottom 3 might change as I play more with Opus 7.

So there you have it.  Hope you all enjoyed reading some of my thoughts on the cards for this Opus.  Every once in a while in each Opus, I'll see a card and tell Peter that I think it's a pretty good card, or that I think the card could work or even be crazy; sometimes he shrugs and says "Maybe," sometimes he gives me, "Ehhhhhhhh I dunno...", and sometimes he gives me an amused look and says, "Yeah?" because he's on the fence about the card and doesn't know if it's good enough yet but thinks I might be onto something.  In the past, there were a few cards I was been very adamant about being good and wanted to build my deck around (which I made him help me do), and then they weren't prevalent in the meta when I wanted to use them (and I eventually gave up on them because I couldn't make them work);  then we ended up seeing them played a bunch in meta decks later on down the road (at which point I give a pointed look at Peter or rage-flip a table and say "I KNEW IT."). We'll see this Opus, I suppose!

Until next time!  ^^