07/02/2019
Hey everyone, RB here! So, with Kageyama-san’s hint that the next card would be another FINAL FANTASY lead protagonist: who did you think it would be? If you guessed it was the SeeD Candidate hero, Mr. Leonhart himself, congrats! Week 3 of our Opus VIII Card of the Week previews is Squall 8-035H!
His design is a bit different here, as this Squall comes from another world, but he keeps all of the abilities (and element) you’d come to expect from his other versions. We’ve seen Squall deal with Dulling opposing characters, and playing around hand destruction, but this one does both. Let’s take a look!
Squall is a 4 CP Ice Forward with 8000 power, the Job SeeD Candidate, and category VIII. This is pretty much on curve for a 4 CP Forward. He comes with an Auto Ability and an Action Ability. His Auto Ability reads, “When Squall enters the field, if your opponent controls any dull Forwards, your opponent discards 1 card from his/her hand.” Not only could you use this to punish an opponent who just attacked with a Forward, but since Ice has so many effects that dull your opponent’s Forwards, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make an opportunity for Squall to do some damage. His Action Ability costs two Ice CP and one CP of any color and reads, “Choose 1 Forward. Dull it. You can only use this ability if you have no cards in your hand.” Being able to dull a Forward any time you have 3 CP can be extremely useful, not only when on the offensive, but especially as a defensive option on your opponent’s turn. Since you need to have no cards in hand to use it, and it costs 3 CP, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to activate it more than once in a turn without some trickery, but being able to use it as many times as you want, so long as Squall is in play, can still be pretty big.
That said, you can definitely use some trickery to dull multiple Forwards in a turn. As long as you use a few Backups with their own Action Abilities (to maximize CP value), cards like Zu [7-053C] or Nono [4-066R] can allow you to activate your backups without any cards in hand. Or, if you wanted to include Squall in a Moogle themed deck, Serah [5-152S] can activate all of your Job Moogle characters when she attacks, giving you more CP for Squall’s ability. Not only that, but Serah also allows you to Discard 1 Job Moogle from your hand to Choose 1 Forward and Dull it, so you can get cards out of your hand easily. While it takes a lot of setup, Serah, Squall, and an army of Moogles would keep your opponent’s Forwards dull constantly!
That isn’t Squall’s only ability, though. Cards like Glasya Labolas [5-032H] and Genesis [3-033L] with Dull and Freeze effects allow you to prepare for Squall’s Auto Ability before you play him. Since it’s pretty costly to spend that much CP successively, the Freeze effects can help keep your opponent’s field dull until you can afford to play Squall. Since you’ll want to make sure you actually have a Squall to play, you can search for him with Laguna [6-040H]. While Laguna is a low power Forward, Squall will help pave the way with his dull ability, so the power of your Forwards shouldn’t particularly matter. Any attack going through, regardless of power, is still one point of damage!
Of course, as this is an Ice card that checks off all of Ice’s boxes, there are countless ways this version of Squall could be used! What do you think? Share your ideas below!
Kageyama-san will be back next week with another brand new Opus VIII card featuring a Warrior of Darkness!
See you then!
~RB
