Champs, Updates, and More!

Hey guys, it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Opus VII has come and it’s been very exciting trying out new builds. The first big piece of news I would like to share is to officially announce the birth of our team: Team “The First Brood.” Athena, John, and I are very excited to be together through our FFTCG journey. The goal of our team isn’t necessarily to be the greatest or most competitive. Nobody will ever be kicked because of performance, and our goal will never be Nats/Worlds-or-bust or “you must win this tournament.” Our main goal is to just have fun. Our secondary goal is to be good to others in the community and work on community building. For the most part, things haven’t changed much for us. We’ll always be a group of friends who came together mostly because our personalities clicked and we love to play and hang out with each other.

So why have a team? Well, mainly because it’s fun! It’s great to always have someone in your corner, someone to bounce deck ideas off of and help play-test/fine-tune them, and someone to just look out for you during events. We cheer each other on and celebrate each other's successes, and are there for each other if we ever fall short.  We go out after and always have a great time together. We troll each other constantly. Most importantly, we’ll always have each other's best interests in mind and can give feedback to each other openly without any feelings getting hurt. An example of our great teamwork came to play in the recent Break Zone Circuit Championship VII. John was unsure on what deck to choose. I convinced him to play Mono Water even though I knew I would have a rough time if we matched up in Top 8. Lo and behold, we did end up facing each other and I got crushed. No hard feelings though and I wished him the best of luck to go all the way. He almost made a finals appearance, but an unfortunate missed lethal cut his run short. Hopefully we continue to make good runs in future tournaments!

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We are also ecstatic to show off our team jackets! John’s amazingly talented wife drew the front and left sleeve designs for the team, and we’re all very satisfied with the end result. The back translates to “Seven Heavenly Great Dragons” which is “The First Brood” as seen in the Japanese version of FFXIV. The right sleeve translates to “Take flight.” I can’t wait to rock this at events and possibly get shirts, card sleeves, playmats, and maybe even more designs made! These sorts of things get me more invested in the game and I hope more teams pop up so more people can find new ways to enjoy the game.

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A new idea that John and I have been trying lately is Fun Deck Fridays. At our locals, there are many new players and many very good players. There is no real incentive to win as it is since everyone gets the same prizing at our local store’s casual Friday night tournaments, so we decided to make random decks out of cards that may not be used often, swap them with each other, and play them blind. It was also a way to throw some excitement into the game since the Meta was getting stale towards the end of Opus 6. We built upon this idea by giving alternate win conditions that must be met on top of winning the game. An example was Opus 6 Shuyin: players were required to steal a forward and make sure it didn’t go back to their opponent by way of Famfrit, Kefka, etc. This idea was met with great success as many players wanted to join in on the fun and it helps the overall community learn how to build decks and play many different cards.  This week, all who participated each built a unique deck and wrote 2 win conditions on a post-it to go with the deck; whoever got the deck had to not only win, but also fulfill one of the two conditions.  I built a mono Wind-Sin deck; my conditions: 1) reactivate your backups 3 times in 1 turn, and/or 2) Sin to win (of course).  And yes, we did get to see that Sin-to-win con finally go through.  Fun times! 

One last thing I want to touch upon is building a better community. I feel that if you’re a part of your community, eventually you have a form of responsibility to do what you can to improve your local scene. Whether it is by teaching new players, helping with new brews/ideas, organizing hangouts, running events, or just helping the local scene stay healthy and grow, everyone can find something to do.  Hopefully by doing that, everyone will come to feel that they have place and that they are always welcome in their community.  Even though we have our own team now, I still always want to help everyone out the best that I can, from loaning cards/decks for our locals to being another team's support/pit crew when they need it. Others were just as kind and generous to me when I started and continue to make me glad to be part of this community, and I hope that this kind of sentiment and practice continues to be shared and spread by all.  People always say that the best part about this game is the community, so let's all keep the good vibes going!

That said, we are looking forward to this next season of our local circuit, and are excited to be more involved and for more chances to have fun with our friends during and after events!  Hope to bring you all more reports and content again soon!