Final Fantasy Trading Cards Games
Card of the week 2019-10-17 00:19:37

Opus X Card of the Week - Alus


2019 10/alus desktop

Hey everyone! RB here just before the 2019 North American Championship with what I consider the best Opus X: Ancient Champions Card of the Week yet, possibly even the greatest card to ever appear in FFTCG. I’m talking about the Prince of Saronia, Alus [10-085H].

I have a bit of a confession to make, I’ve never played through all of FINAL FANTASY III. So, unfortunately, I don’t know a whole lot about the character. What I do know is that he has an exceptional taste in FINAL FANTASY jobs, and not just that but he knows what cards make up the best FINAL FANTASY TCG deck. If you’re not sure on what deck to build, Alus is here to help you out!

Let’s take a look.

Alus is a 5 CP Lightning Backup with Job Prince. He reads, “When Alus enters the field, or at the beginning of Main Phase 1 during each of your turns, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Job Dragoon or a Card Name Dragoon, add it to your hand. If it is not a Job Dragoon or a Card Name Dragoon, put it into the Break Zone.” He also has an action ability which reads “Dull, put Alus into the Break Zone: Choose 1 Forward. Dull it.”

So, when you’re playing with Alus, who I have to assume is the smartest Prince in all of FINAL FANTASY, you’re only including the best of the best in your deck. Estinien [6-088L]? Of course we’re going to run the Azure Dragoon! Imagine flipping over the top card of your deck and revealing this bad boy to go in with Haste and two attacks for the kill? Since we’re running a stack of Dragoons, you’ll also want to play Barbara [7-097R] so all of your Job Dragoon and Card Name Dragoon characters come out the gate Haste, Dull, and Attacking! And keep in mind, we’re stacking more than just Job Dragoon cards in here, any card named Dragoon is more than welcome!

Feel free to load up on nothing but Dragoons, because if they’re not a Dragoon? Who needs ‘em? Just send it to the Break Zone, it’s not even worth your time! In fact, Alus may be a Dragoon fan, but even he can be thrown in the Break Zone to dull an opposing Forward if he’s cramping your Dragoon style. Then your Haste-y Dragoons can jump in while whatever White Mage or Warrior of Light your opponent was going to block with is preoccupied. Speaking of Dragoon fans, when you’re looking to build your first Opus X deck, just take a page out of Three-Time NA Crystal Cup Champion Matt Okimoto’s binder he showed off during last year’s Crystal Cup Earth livestream.

Seriously, look at that, he has loads of Dragoons in there. I mean, you’ll probably have to trade for them first. Dragoon fans, like him, have been waiting for a card like this that supports their cultured tastes. At least he’ll get to put all of those Dragoon foil cards to good use!

Of course, this was mostly a joke, you’ll probably want to run a few non-Dragoon cards with Alus. Lightning has several ways to interact with its Break Zone, like Diana [8-101H], Lid [8-105H], and Exdeath [7-087R]. Even if Alus misses, you can turn it into a positive with one of these cards, and if Alus is your fifth backup, odds are you wouldn’t want to draw more Backups anyway, so playing Alus at the right time can help cycle you to your Dragoon answers quicker.

What do you think? Will you pick up Dragoons come Opus X? Have any card combinations I didn’t mention here that you think would work out great? Get ready to spread Dragoons across your playmat, ‘cause more Dragoons are never a bad thing!

Kageyama-san will be back with the final Opus X: Ancient Champions Card of the Week and--- Wow, really? Again? How many villains does FINAL FANTASY III have?!

See you then!

~RB