Opus XI Community Spoilers

Deathlord!

or should I say... THE Deathlord! The Deathlord costs 5cp and has 9000 power. His stats are on curve and he even searches for a dark character! a strong tempo play that can even search out a backup. This card is inevitably going to be compared to Kam'lanaut. It is a 5cp cost on 9k card. The first effect is almost exactly the same. They both search a dark character. This is useful to search out dark backups. Chaos is a wonderful backup to be searched and enables dark archetypes. Kam'lanaut has a layer of protection built into himself with his other abilities. The biggest advantage that Deathlord has that he can be discarded for cp. In earth there is another card that is very useful named Star Sybil. Star sybil can search out Kam lanaut due to his category. Deathlord has the category of FFL. The card that searches the category FFL is ice. In a dedicated earth deck kolka would be useful to search him. Yet, this card just feels like Kam'lanut lite. Kam'lnaut is frequently played as a single copy, because it is a dark card. It is possible to have a copy of The Deathlord in conjunction of a copy of Kam'lanaut, but, otherwise, will not see play. On the other hand... L3 is a new format that plays with a limited pool of cards.

In L3 (at the time of its release), Hein, Emperor Gestahl and Reagan are great targets. We have yet to see the strength of Kadaj and we still don't know the effect of the Dark legend of Opus XI, but he has at least 3 great targets at the moment, which is enough to have him see played in any earth deck that uses the dark archetypes.

In title this card will see no play until a dark card with the category FFL is printed.

Artwork is awesome 10/10

I'd like to preface the following 3 cards. The next 3 cards share a theme. They are 3 of the four fiends from the original Final Fantasy. They all have the same type (forward), power(9000), cost (5cp), and job (chaos). They also have a very similar "enter the battlefield" effect and have the same effect when they enter the Break zone. They all do something when they enter the field, but they also have an additional cp cost. I will refer to this effect as the overdrive effect. They all say "When this card is put in the break zone search for a job (Chaos) other than [this card]" I want to talk about elemental identities. I don't think we appreciate how awesome the color identities are in FFTCG. Every element has a certain thing that they do. Lightning breaks forwards. Lightning has several cards that say target a forward, break it. But... other elements break things right? Sure, but not like Lightning does. Wind cards break forwards of cost 5 or more. Fire cards break monsters, earth and ice cards break forwards, but only when they are dull. With very few exceptions (Opus 1 Jecht), the Lightning corners the market on unconditional break. Then the elements share parts of their identity. Ice attacks dull forwards, similar tot he way that earth does. Ice dulls forwards, the same way that lightning does. On the surface you would think that because of their traits certain elements would simply obliterate others. For example, Ice is know to discard and attack only dull forwards. This should be a terrible against earth. Earth can return cards that have been discarded, and give brave to their forwards. These superficial advantages mean that ice will have a hard time defeating earth. Yet... it doesn't. The game is deep enough to balance these superficial advantages, with ease and style. I mention this because each of the four fiends is greatly in tune with their color identities. They each have a simple effect, in tune with their element and quite flavorful.

Tiamat!

The first of the four fiends is a Tiamat. As a long time fan of Dungeons and Dragons, I'm excited to see the evil dragon queen make her FFCTG debut. The fearsome queen boasts intimidating stats at 9000 power. And her overdrive effect costs 3 wind cp. When she enters the field she targets a forward of cost 5 or more and breaks it. Overall, she has a cost of 8 (4 of which must be wind), which is expensive but impactful when the effect triggers. Naturally, this card will be compared to Yiazmat. Yiazmat costs 1 more, has 1000 more power, has more abilties, more flexibilty, and to top it off Yiazmat has a nice little EX burst symbol in the top right corner. The biggest downside is that Yiazmat always costs 9 and isn't particularly proactive by itself. Tiamat on the other hand can be played by herself, at five backups without discarding a card. There are some situations where Tiamat is better. Namely, when the player is only at 4 backups with two cards in you really need to break the opponent's forwards, or when you already have Yiazmat on board and you want to break another forward. Additionally, most decks that have yiazmat also have 3 copies of Diabolos, so there shouldn't be many forwards of high cost to begin with and it just seems like tiamat is a overkill.

In L3 you could have a 4 colored deck centered around the four fiends. The colors are shared between the Opus X Onion knights. I would like to see the color fixing moogles in tandem with onion knights to make a four color deck with only small knights and big fiends. It may not be competitive but it would definetley be fun.

In title, this card is likely not to see much play. Category 1 does not have enough backups summons or monsters to support the title. Until it does, this card is unlikely to see play.

Lich!

The next of the four fiends! Lich is a wonderfully flavorful card. A lich is an undead being that is versed in the ways of necromancy. This particular lich is powerful enough to bring back forwards from the break zone. For 2 cp (1 earth/1 any element), his overdrive effect can nab you a forward from the break zone. He also carries the break zone effect, essentially adding 2 cards to your hand. Yet this feels a bit lackluster. For 7 cp you get two cards and a 9k forward. On paper, that seems pretty good. We can compare this to luminous puma, which seems ample play in most earth decks. For 5 cp, you can get two cards, one on entry and one on exit. The puma is not a forward and doesn't gain any other benefit. For an extra two cp you could have a big forward. Another similar card is the Opus 6 earth Legend Minfila. Minfilia returns two characters from the break zone upon entering the battlefield. For 6 cp you instantly get two characters and backup. At the same time i've been overlooking a couple details. Lich only facilitates forwards. Upon entry he returns a single forward from the break zone. Upon entering the break zone, he searches for 1 of 3 cards. If you are playing a two colored deck then you only have one option. He seems to do a lot of things, but none of it is done well. The card doesn't recur cards as well as Minfilia or puma. The card isn't as powerful as say gladious or cecil for a 5cp forward without the recusion. For 7cp, getting a forward back is simply not particularly worth it. Earth has many other great options to do what Lich does. In addition to the cards mentioned above, cu sith is inexpensive and a burst to do what you need. If you are playing with a four fiends deck, Lich doesn't seem to be the go to fiend of choice.

In L3 - See Tiamat

In title - See Tiamat

Kraken!

The fearsome and mighty Kraken! The last fiend of the article comes in with a great splash. Upon entering the battlefield, the kraken has an overdrive effect to target a forward and return it to your opponnent's hand for a measly 2 water cp. With the overdrive ability, Kraken is 7 CP. This is comparable to Styx and Opus X tidus. While Tidus requires the bouncing of one of your own backups, and styx requires water cp. All this without considering that kraken has an ability when put in the break zone. Kraken might actually be the best fiend on display! But Kraken suffers from a slight weakness. Kraken can be a very strong tempo play, but Kraken seems to do things that Mono water does. It wants to find a home in a mono water deck, but it is stuck in at least a two color deck.

In limited (pre-release) - play it in water(water/fire), It has the potential to win you the game.

In L3 - See Tiamat

In title - See tiamat