Card of the Week – Physalis [13-028L]
Hello everyone! Tarou Kageyama here. This will be my second appearance in the “Opus XIII: Crystal Radiance” Card of the Week articles. Last time, I introduced a Light and a Dark Legend card. This time, I’ll be introducing another Legend card, but it’ll be Ice—the card is Physalis [13-028L]. A FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS character with a bright and positive personality and strong combat abilities, she will be making her first appearance in FFTCG. In the original game, she played an active role as one of the members of the main character’s party, but let’s dive straight into looking at how she’s been designed for the card game.
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Two abilities that are simply powerful
Physalis has two abilities – one auto ability and one special ability. Both of these abilities are extremely straightforward and, better yet, powerful. Let’s take a look at each one in detail.
The auto ability allows you to select 1 of 2 actions when Physalis enters the field or attacks, and if your opponent has 3 cards or less in their hand. 1 of the 2 actions available allows you to choose 1 character to dull and freeze, something that’s quite familiar to Ice element cards. The great thing about this is that you can choose a “character” rather than a “Forward”. The other action allows you to draw 1 card. If you choose this action when you enter the field, it’ll essentially mean 9000 power at a net cost of 3 CP. It will also be possible to regain more resources than you’ve paid by attacking multiple times. Which action you choose will depend on the circumstances, but with the ability to draw one card, you can say that almost no moments are wasted with this auto ability. Further yet, if your opponent has no cards in their hand, both actions are triggered! It’ll obviously require some effort to get an opponent to have no cards in their hand, but the return will be commensurate to your efforts. It may not be a bad idea to aggressively aim to achieve this.
The special ability “Premium Physalis Bullet” will deal 10000 damage to 1 Forward with only 2 Ice CP, and you can also have that Forward’s controller discard 1 card from their hand. This does not have a dull icon, so it’s an ability that’s quite accessible since it can even be used during the turn in which she enters the field. This card has the potential of breaking almost any Forward with the ability to deal 10000 damage, and opponents will simply dislike having to discard one of their cards, but the fact that it also has a great affinity with the first auto ability could also be considered one of its strengths.
Cards with great affinity
Now, let’s take a look at some cards with a great affinity that would be good to consider using alongside Physalis [13-028L] in your deck. First, I think we should start by picking-up some cards that will help reduce the number of cards in your opponent’s hand for the auto ability. Perhaps the one that comes to mind first is Sephiroth [7-034L]. At the very least, it will make an opponent discard 2 cards, and if his special ability is used, you could potentially have an opponent discard additional cards, so he pairs quite well with Physalis [13-028L]. Furthermore, Scale Toad [8-034R], which constantly limits the number of cards in an opponent’s hand, Edward [5-031H], which makes an opponent discard a card just by entering the field as a backup, and Doomtrain [6-029C] which has other beneficial abilities other than making an opponent discard cards, may also be some popular choices. And, if we were to expand into other elements, perhaps you could consider using her alongside some familiar faces like Locke [12-116L] and Zidane [3-056H] if you pair it with the Wind element. Additionally, it goes without saying that Rinoa [6-041L] and Unei [10-023H], cards that are commonly paired in a support role also come into light.
In short, as I have repeatedly written in this article, Physalis [13-028L] alone is simply powerful, so the orthodox approach to deck construction may be the method that’ll most easily bring out her true value! I feel like we’ll see this card being used often in the playing field after “Opus XIII: Crystal Radiance” releases.
That wraps up our article for today. Next time, Richelle will introduce a Legend card based on FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. Please forward to it!