Hi everyone, Richelle back to kick off the FFTCG Emissaries of Light Card of the Week articles! For our first reveal, I’d like to show you all the Buy a Box promo, which (as always) you’ll receive a Premium Foil Full Art of in every sealed Booster Pack Display Box. Without further ado, let’s talk about Aerith [16-067L]!
As you can see, this version of Aerith comes from FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, with an homage to Aerith’s original key art from FINAL FANTASY VII. While our previous REMAKE Aerith required to be played in a category VII themed deck, this one is a lot more flexible. She can find a home in an AVALANCHE Operative deck or really any other deck that can generate the Earth CP.
Aerith [16-067L] is a 2 CP Forward with 5000 power, Category VII, Job “Ancient” and a couple of very powerful abilities befitting of her REMAKE depiction. The first is a field ability that reads “The Forwards other than Aerith you control gain +2000 power.” Her other block of text entails a few abilities that work in tandem. While it’s a lot to read, it’s actually fairly simple: When Aerith is put from the field into the Break Zone, you may remove her from the game. When you do so, place 3 Reraise Counters on Aerith. At the beginning of Main Phase 1 during each of your turns, if 1 or more Reraise Counters are placed on Aerith, remove 1 Reraise Counter from Aerith. Then, if there are no Reraise Counters on Aerith, play Aerith onto the field. Essentially, if Aerith Breaks, you can put her aside and in 3 turns she’ll come back.
Given her field ability, her return can mean a big boost on turns when she re-enters. A great way to make sure you can utilize it is a deck loaded with Haste, so, as mentioned earlier, her AVALANCHE Operative friends are a great fit thanks to Barret [14-121L] giving them all Haste. Additionally, Marlene [8-085C], who is typically a great Backup for decks relying on Barret, Cloud, or Tifa, get a new target thanks to Aerith joining. To top it off, as an Earth element character, she fits their Element, so no splashing is required.
Alternatively, while Earth/Water decks took a bit of a hit with the recent bans and restriction, they’ve still been going strong in the meta. The deck is fond of 2 CP Forwards, and Aerith would likely fit right in, especially since she would give Sophie [13-119L] +2000 power from her own ability, and an additional +2000 power from Sophie’s ability, meaning you would only need 1 more Forward to make Sophie’s ability go live.
Lastly, a popular Earth card as of late is Titan, Lord of Crags [14-062L], who is a perfect combination with Aerith. She’ll buff Titan’s auto ability on entry, meaning Titan has the power to get rid of more Forwards. Aerith will get broken, adding a Forward to the count of “5 or more” required for Titan’s second ability to deal a point of damage. And of course, Aerith will start her Reraise countdown, so it’s only a matter of time before she returns.
All in all, Aerith seems like she’ll be a powerful addition to Earth decks, especially as a 1 of copy, because of her determination to come back and keep fighting. What do you think? Are you excited for this new Aerith card? What else do you hope to see with Card of the Week returned?
Next week, Kageyama-san will return with a character who we’ve seen in 2 other elements, but will reveal his power to Fire this time.
Until next time!
~Richelle