Hello everyone, FFTCG Producer Tarou Kageyama here! The Card of the Week series for the “Beyond Destiny” booster pack is now down to its final two installments. This week, we’ll be introducing the antagonist Xande [21-093L], who stands in the way of the Warriors of Light. Xande is a card we’d recommend for Lighting decks, especially for Mono Lighting decks that only include Lightning-element characters.
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The artwork for Xande [21-093L] was drawn by Yoshitaka Amano. He is a Category III, Job Dark Lord, Lightning Forward with a CP cost of 5, and a power of 9000. He holds two auto-abilities that activate whenever he enters the field, both of which are linked to the number of Lightning Characters you control. These types of auto-abilities activate based on whether you’ve met certain requirements at the time of resolution, and if not, the effects will be cancelled. Because of this, they tend to be easier to deal with from an opponent’s POV. On the flip side, these types of effects are incredibly powerful, and it’s not uncommon for them to be consequential game-changers during a match. How much of a threat are the two auto-abilities of Xande [21-093L]? Let’s take a look.
His first ability reads, “When Xande enters the field, choose 1 Forward the opponent controls. If you control 4 or more Lightning Characters, break it.” If the requirement is met, he can break any Forward regardless of their cost, power, or whether they are dull or active. The requirement “If you control 4 or more Lightning Characters” also isn’t too difficult of a condition to meet. Xande himself counts towards this number, so if you cast him while you have 3 Lightning Backups on your field, the requirement is met. However, there’s always a chance that Xande [21-093L] himself may get broken or be forced back into your hand before this effect is resolved, so if you don’t want to take any risks, it may be a good idea to control 1 additional Lightning character as extra precaution.
His second ability reads, “When Xande enters the field, choose 1 Forward in your Break Zone. If you control 8 or more Lightning Characters, play it onto the field.” In contrast to his first ability, this one increases the number of your Forwards. As long as the Forward is from your Break Zone, there’s no cost, elemental or power restrictions to the Forward you can choose. This means that if you plan ahead and place a high-cost Forward into your Break Zone (maybe you can even use the cost of casting Xande for this), for only 5 CP, you can place Xande—who yields a power of 9000—onto the field, alongside one other powerful Forward. However, the effect’s requirement is a tough one, as you would need to “control 8 or more Lightning Characters.” Even if you had maximum amount of 5 Lightning Backups and counted Xande [21-093L] towards the requirement, you would still need two additional Lightning Characters. Given this, it’s recommended that you adjust your deck accordingly, utilizing monsters that won’t be easily removed by your opponent, or pairing him with high-impact Forwards like Alisaie [20-086H] or G'raha Tia [20-090H].
Of course, meeting the requirement for the second ability naturally means the first ability can also be activated. While it may be tempting to place Xande onto the field when you’re controlling at least 7 Lighting Characters, the first ability alone can certainly come in handy even without pushing yourself. Then again, there’s excitement in pushing yourself to activate both abilities at the same time. I challenge you to build a strategy around the game changer Xande [21-093L], and see what kind of decks you can come up with!
The next update will be the final installment of the “Beyond Destiny” series, where we’ll go over the final boss of a mainline title. The release date is just around the corner— I’ll see you again next week!