Hello everyone and welcome back to the Bear Den, a blog dedicated to competitive players for FFTCG. It has been a bit of time since our last article, apparently life doesn’t allow for respite from its trials and tribulations. I was unable to participate in any of the 2024 competitive season this year. Talk about a bummer. It was hard watching all of you nerds enjoying the game I hold so dear, knowing that I couldn’t be there with you. Hopefully, 2025 is kinder to myself and my family so I can return to the glories of losing to a… Read more: Role Compression and its Importance in Modern FFTCG

How many copies of a card should I run in this deck? A question asked by most competitive players.

Welcome back to the Bear Den! After a brief hiatus to address technical issues with a social media platform, we’re back and ready to deliver top-notch FFTCG content for the 2024 competitive season. Excitement is high within the community, fueled not only by our successful return to competitive play in 2023 but also the announcement of a new mechanic, Limit Break. In this article, we will take preliminary look at the new mechanic and its anticipated impact on the game. There has already been some great commentary on Limit Break from other content creators that focused on their initial reactions… Read more: Let’s Talk CP #4: Breaking the CP Limits

The Winter Cup was exciting for a lot of reasons. It was the first time in North America to hold a 3v3 triple deck format, team competition. The intricacies of deck construction introduced a unique challenge, as each trio had to avoid any overlap in their card choices. Winter is considered the offseason, so many of us were itching to play competitively with the latest set. When it was first announced, I immediately wanted to form a team with Anthony Apigo, one of my guys locally with whom I’ve bonded with over the course of last year playing competitively. We… Read more: Winter Cup NA Recap

Greetings, Final Fantasy TCG enthusiasts! As we venture into the realm of Beyond Destiny, the latest addition to the ever-evolving landscape of the game, we find ourselves presented with a plethora of new cards that promise to shape the meta and redefine deck-building strategies. In this set review, we’ll be utilizing a comprehensive rating scale to assess the impact and viability of each card, helping you navigate the vast array of possibilities that Beyond Destiny brings to the table. Our rating scale ranges from 1 to 5, with each tier signifying a different level of influence on deck construction and… Read more: A Strategic Review of Opus XXI – Beyond Destiny

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… Read more: From the Whiteboard: Opus 21 – Beyond Destiny

Our first spoiler!!!!!!!!! Big thanks to SE and the NA Team for allowing us to get a spoiler this time around. We are incredibly excited and look forward to sharing it with you. Without further ado, and for those who don’t like a nice read on a beautiful October Sunday, we will cut right to the chase. Our Beyond Destiny Spoiler is…………………………….. 21-080R – Runda Making his debut in FFTCG, Runda is a 2CP Earth back designed to protect your forwards from damage-based removal. His text is simple and straightforward. Tap: Choose 1 Forward you control. During this turn, the… Read more: Beyond Destiny Spoiler: Runda

Somebody filled up the spice rack! It’s baaaaaack, and lord have mercy it’s spicier than a Louisiana Popeye’s in here! Lots of interesting characters that we’ve yet to see, as well as some really off-the-wall effects. Enough small talk, buckle your seatbelts and grab a glass of *insert funny meme liquid or ad for Gamer Supps* and let’s jump in! Fire Ardyn 20-001R First card of the set and it’s quite the doozy. There are plenty of “when goes to the Break Zone” Backups like Thordan VII 6-108R and Fusoya 2-116R that will get you a draw or a Break… Read more: From the Whiteboard: Opus 20 – Dawn of Heroes

Greetings! My online handle is ctrlaltQQ. We might’ve run into each other on OCTGN before. I’ve been playing the game since Opus 2. As far as competitive FFTCG is concerned, I initially collected the cards for fun but ended up playing the game competitively. My tournament results history has been subpar, my biggest W was qualifying for US Nationals back in 2019 after winning a local store tournament. In hindsight, I wasn’t as good of a player back then. I became a better player after I started playing online—giving me the opportunity to play vs more players outside of my… Read more: Wrap-Up: Kansas City Materia Cup

Welcome back to the second around of the Meta Analysis in prep for the Kansas Materia Cup!. The first round of major tournaments proved that region specific metas exist. It was a refreshing weekend and a joy to witness. 3 major tournaments, over 200 players putting forth their best for a spot in their region’s continental championship. It was a wonderful weekend for the game and some instant classics were played on stream. The match between Chris Adams and Brandon Bestard was an absolute treat. One of the best matchups I have ever watched. It was a fast paced, back… Read more: Meta Analysis #2: Kansas Materia Cup

Welcome to our latest edition of Meta Analysis at The Bear Den. In this new series, we will delve into the current meta of the latest Opus to provide insights and information for new players and shed light on the current state of the meta. We will analyze tournament events, explore new deck concepts, and discuss potential impacts on existing decks. While this may not be an exact science, as it is based on playtesting and experience, we aim to provide our best insights. The best part is that you can come back in two months and provide feedback on… Read more: Meta Analysis #1 – Opus 19 Predictions

Hello again to the How to Win series! In this article, we’ll be exploring famous, infamous, and recently meta-relevant value forwards. These forwards are a bit more complicated than the ones we discussed in the previous article, but don’t worry, we’ll break down their play patterns and help you understand them better. Be sure to check out How to Win: Intro into Value Engine Forwards – The Bear Den (fftcg.online) for a great primer. We cover the basic there and set the stage for this article. Balthier (18-113H) Balthier is a powerful new card out in O21 and a great… Read more: How to Win: Part 2 – Meta Value Engine Forwards

Apologize for the interruption into your regularly scheduled competitive season content. to bring you the next article in the Let’s Talk CP series. Let’s Talk CP series where take a deep dive in the CP system of FFTCG. If you haven’t already, take a look at our previous entries into the series where we discuss The Basics and Realized Cost. These articles serve as valuable refreshers for our current topic and provide a solid foundation for comprehending how we evaluate cards and enhance the efficiency of CP calculation for players entering the competitive scene. In the realm of FFTCG, every… Read more: Let’s Talk CP: Part 3 – To Search or Draw, is that the question?

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… Read more: Lets Chat: A Bandit’s Journey

This ain’t your grandpappy’s set review! I was not born “The Professor”, I evolved into it…after my group constantly rolled their eyes during each bickering session over the true English meaning of “enters the field due to your cast”. These articles will pop up as each new Opus gets released – I’m not here to talk about how Ace is obviously a good choice for a Mono Fire, or how the Job Chaos peeps work together. That stuff is already printed on the card, and you can read just fine! This is about getting into the nitty gritty, the strange/flashy… Read more: From the Whiteboard: Opus 19