I feel that many of us grew up in the era of TCGs in some form or fashion. Many of us, myself included, can remember the olden days of MTG with middle school or high school friends. Who hasn’t gone up against a squirrel deck that had so many 1/1 squirrels that you were raiding piggy banks for enough squirrel counters??

For myself, those were the epic years of card games. But, life always happens and tends to pull you in several directions all at once. High school, college, graduate school, marriage, kids, cars, cats, cottages…. Life, right?

Delving back into a TCG wasn’t my intent…. It just kind of happened…. So what does coming in as a noob transition to completive player entail….

The Beginnings

While I won’t speak for anyone but myself, I jumped back into TCGs (specifically this one) for the community of nerds, now friends, that I play with locally. A boisterous, friendly group that embrace the competitive players and new players alike.  It started as a hobby, just something to get me outta the work grind  mindset, we all know that one… I jumped in towards the end of 2019 with one deck, that’s all I owned. Locals offered me bulk cards and that’s how I created my first deck…

Locals held the annual Mountaintop Mashup. My first local tournament! Having only played a couple months and only having piloted one deck… I got whipped. But oh boy did I have fun!  This game was more than just CP and forwards/ backups. There were phase interactions, response triggers, and holy moly those EXs!! Though I lost in a splendid fashion that day, the community was amazing and offered tons of advice and causal games.

Queue the Pandemic

Wonderful… a world wide, shut the front door, no work, no school, no CARD GAMES type of pandemic. What a bummer. How does a new player keep up the momentum to play? How did I, why did I? It all comes back to the community. As I mentioned. I started to hang with friends, meet people. Thanks to the pandemic that was in jeopardy. Thankfully, the community answered the call and several great online options came into being, and are still persistently offered . Those, for me, saved the game. Allowing continued reps, and progression as the pandemic raged.

Onto the Re-Raises

Finally! Finally, a not OP but sorta sponsored event! Pheonixville called and I answered! Well, by answered, I mean I attended and had a very good time.  I was able to play Matt Rice, who is one heck of a FF player. Game ended up going to the third round (**official term is “turns”**), both of us on 6 damage  and low on cards. It was insanely terrifying as we were the last match to finish and the crowd was watching…. Lovely… the noob being watched…. I lost, but really enjoyed playing Mr. Rice. Hope to sling cards again with him soon!  By this point I was hooked, buying play sets each release, reading Rudrose’s (Link to channel) excellent content and watching Yuna Young Team FFTCG – YouTube on repeat. Why? Because I caught the competitive bug. How did that happen? 

The Transition…..

The transition to competitive play actually came on rather slowly. It started when I began picking up cards on the regular ( during the lock down) making sure I was on for the online tournaments, keeping up with the chats on discord, and building playlists to listen to driving to work on rudrose, YYT, etc. As we read in “Let’s Talk CP:  Part 1 – The Basics” we learned about all the base mechanics of economy and how it influences the game overall…. Took a year or so, but it finally snapped for me and I was all in. 

So what is competitive play? I think for everyone it’s something different. For some, it’s steady progression, moving up the ranks, winning more games than last time. For others maybe it’s seeing new locations, an excuse to drive to a new regional event, Materia cup, etc. others, it’s the chase, the drive to be cutting edge, best of the best, top tier.

I am somewhere in the middle of all that. The drive to be a great competitive player is there, it’s softened and muted some as I have adulting to do, none the less, this card game has awoken a joy in gaming that I haven’t had in decades…. Thanks for that!

Regardless of your personal drive in the competition scene, the tips I’ll share are these:

1. Practice! Not just here or there, a deck once a week. I mean practice. Daily reps, Queue up those FFDeck lists, grab a new variant and practice. The more you see, the better your counters, deck knowledge, and strategy understanding will be.
2. Understand card interactions, and know how/when to react. Do you crack this for that, or wait and see what happens. This game is so much more than the power level printed on card board. There is a sort of finesse and delicate timing that must be watched for. 
3. Don’t be afraid to play someone who you know is better than you. Play with intent on learning. Learning comes from losing too! 
4. Be active in the community. Be bold enough to ask a question and humble enough to accept the answer. This community is filled with some of the most giving, kind, genuine, and competitive people I’ve met. Taking a minute to reflect on White Mage and Cure series…. This community alone kept the game passion alive in me during lock down… seriously, amazing people.

To the community of FFTCG, thank you. Thank you for your passion in this game, for the drive to build a community around it, and for supporting new players like me. I routinely heard that FFTCG communities were the best, the least toxic, and the most welcoming. Well, as a veteran local and a noob to the competitive scene, so far, I’m impressed! Keep up the amazing work.

I’ll see you around the cave. 

If you are looking for great content, go check out the Rudrose channel for all kinds of FFTCG videos. He inspired the article so he gets the mention at the bottom. See I don’t posterize a person and get away with it ;).