BOO! I couldn’t think of anything quippy other than the fact that the full set came out right around Halloween…

Now that the majority of us have kids of our own to steal candy from this ‘Ween (or are just adults that act like kids ourselves and force the local old folks to give us candy), snuggle up to ya boi The Professor here beside the fireplace and let all the chocolate melt while we pore over some jank-adjacent set combos. Don’t forget to kiss your homies goodnight.

Welcome back to our next installment of From the Whiteboard by the Professor. Set reviews are plentiful and there are some really great options out there for those more inclined for deep dives. But everyone has the same question on their mind. Where is the jank? Where are the kitchen table combos that spawn “the stories of old:” when we talk FFTCG. Well, we got you covered here.

Fire

A handful of other “when you cast a Summon” cards (like Water Yuna 20-117L) are only once per turn, but this Terra 15-037L can trigger off Shiva and dull/freeze all over the place.

Shantotto 21-128S

It says it on the tin. I’m not held liable if you end up playing Shinryu a billion times and your opponent punches you in the eyeball.

Red Mage (21-021C)

Each set, I take a look at Warrior of Light and all the new standard units that come out. In this set, Red Mage caught my eye as a great payload for Warrior of Light. Putting out Warrior of Light and then storming out 1, 2, or even 3 Red Mage all at once is an excellent way to deploy to the field and freeze out your opponent’s most important cards.

Also, worth mentioning here due to all of the Pirate/Viking support that Warrior of Light is insane in that deck giving you back what seems like near endless CP as you pop off with your fleet of Vikings. I expect to lose many games to 3+ Vikings and a Faris on T3 this set. We will talk about Faris (21-114L) more in the water section.

Wind

Cid (II) 21-046C

Vayne 19-036L is enabled by Cid’s search (aka Vayne needs warp cardzzz), and is going to draw you cards with Cid’s dull ability. all well and good there even though Cid goes to the Break Zone. In the most dire of straits, if you have an answer in hand (say, Amaterasu 12-002H, or even something like Cid Randell 13-022H or Tonberry 5-130R), you could pop the last Warp counter off of one of your opponent’s cards to force it to enter.

Sophia (SOPFFO) (21-050H) | FF Decks

I often wondered whether I could get copies of Lulu 4,5,6 in my deck and nobody would notice? Well, seems like I don’t have try hard anymore because of Sophia (SOPFFO). What an outstanding value card for Wind/X strategies allowing your summons to tack on additional removal just for casting the summon. In cast-based strategies, this has huge implications of not forcing the cast player to commit a removal spell during the cast chain OR relying on Luso (17-063R) to clear the board at the end of the chain. This is a huge boost to the overall strategy since weaving in removal not named Luso is the hardest part of the chain. Now you have the opportunity while increasing your cast count. Additionally, it pairs very well with Lulu as a combo kill as well.

Earth

Neo Exdeath 21-074L

4CP Lightning Exdeath 17-091L is a strong card itself, and is (unfortunately) currently the cheapest Exdeath Forward. This set’s Neo is also “Exdeath” in all situations, meaning you can Magic Pot the 4CP into Neo. Just keep in mind that Neo does not let you decide to fire off his effect – you have to choose 2 of your Backups and remove them. Not only that, but you must have 2 targets for Neo Exdeath or the effect fizzles all together so be careful. Your opponent could potentially save some of their Forwards with something like Scholar 1-157C or Chocobo 10-055H. But hey, it wipes monsters finally.

Lich 21-079R

This Lich shines the most in a Mono Earth deck of course, but the more it hits the field the more it can “poison” your opponent’s Forwards, whether he survives or not. Flash it with Rinoa 6-041L for an extra stick, and use any of the Opus XI Job Chaos peeps to search this Lich when they die.

Lightning

Xande 21-093L

Xande is a dope Legend for Mono-Lightning, and is ripe to be flashed. His 8-character effect depends on having more than just a full set of Backups, and Monsters are more likely to hang around on your board than Forwards. If you want to get extra saucy (AKA this will never happen and will make your deck weaker) you can work in a Hashmal to change all your doods to Lightning.

Firion 21-099H

Lots of Warrior support this set. If your opponent keeps up some blockers and/or Backups, you can knock Forwards down (and kill one) with Bahamut ZERO 9-093H (“free” casted with Summoner 1-139C if you please), hopefully dulling enough to give Firion his big boy pants.

Water

Faris 21-114L

Wew lad, what a Legend. We hearken back to days long past of Viking decks, lo and behold, they may now be resurrected.

The obvious interactions are clearly with Pirates and Vikings, using Faris’ 0 ability to redirect targets to your Vikings that are likely to draw you cards on death. There’s one thing to consider though – when redirecting the target, that will be treated as a new target AND by your opponent! With that, we have quite a few interactions worth mentioning:

• Tidus 16-116L would be great – surely the opponent knows it’s going to happen, but at least now they have to get rid of Faris first or be forced to choose Tidus. Choose him, bounce to bottom of the deck, draw 3 and bounce an opponent’s Forward.
• Celestia 13-128L protects your Water Forwards from being outright broken via opponent’s Summons/Abilities

• Princess Sarah 17-120H will draw you a card on your opponent’s turn whenever she gets targeted by ANYBODY’S Summons/Abilities. Pretty telegraphed as well, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

General nice additions:

• Jecht 14-108H is likely to fire off his 3-attacker ETF if he’s in a deck packed with (now Faris-pumped 8K) Vikings, and can serve as an extra layer of protection for them and Faris with his Special.
• The Fiend 20-114L just serves as an extra one-time Summon protection for your boatload of Pirates and Vikings. If Faris’ ability counts as an opponent’s target, at Damage 3 The Fiend will also cancel the first ability.

Light/Dark

Warrior of Light 21-121L

Just chuck 3 copies of this, Agrias 7-106L, and Vaan 10-133S into a deck with a crapload of good ETF 3CP Forwards, and send me a carrier pigeon letting me know how it goes.

Darkness Manifest 21-123H

If you want to avoid the full cost, Darkness will most likely work best in a Warriors of Light deck so you have access to each of those 4 needed colors. You could also try a Job Chaos deck with Lich/Kraken and the like (and being able to search Darkness), though WoLs are admittedly much better of a choice.

Go into your Main Phase, deal the point of damage, and then play Rinoa to flash Darkness. When it “leaves the field” during Rinoa’s effect, you will be able to break a Character, and immediately bring him back onto the field to “leave it” again later.

Wrap-up

Thanks again for coming along! Hit me up with any comments, concerns, or additional plays I may have passed over. Tune in next time in my wildest of dreams for when I finally crack how to make Lugae and Barnabas into a tournament-winning deck!