Final Fantasy Trading Cards Games
Card of the week 2020-10-15 15:30:00

Opus XII Card of the Week - Neo Exdeath


COTW OPUS XII/Neo Exdeath/neo exdeath web

 Hello everyone! Tarou Kageyama here, producer of FFTCG. This is going to be the final “Card of the Week” for “Opus XII: Crystal Awakening”. I think it would only be appropriate to showcase a card that is worthy to close out this set. And that is a Dark element Legendary card: Neo Exdeath [12-110L]. This formidable foe stood before Bartz and company in FINAL FANTASY V. How is it designed for FFTCG? Let’s take a look.

 Neo Exdeath [12-110L] is a Forward who has a cost of 6 CP and 10000 power. This particular version is from MOBIUS FINAL FANTASY, so it belongs to two categories: MOBIUS and V. Its job is “None.” … Now, some people might probably misunderstand this, so I would like to elaborate. This does not imply that Neo Exdeath [12-110L] doesn’t have a Job; rather, it’s a Job that is called “None.” As such, Bartz [1-081R] can acquire the “None” Job, and Hashmal, Bringer of Order [2-087R] can use “None” as the named Job. I didn’t mean to get sidetracked with a discussion regarding Jobs; this will be the seventh card that is a Forward with 10000 power. There had only been seven of these through Opus XII, which should indicate just how powerful this number is.

 Next, let’s look at the abilities. Neo Exdeath [12-110L] has two auto abilities. The first reads: “At the end of each of your opponent’s turns, your opponent selects 1 Character they control. Put it into the Break Zone.” It doesn’t activate when you place the card on to the field, and you would have to wait until the end of your opponent’s turn. That may make it feel like it would be a bit inconvenient to use, but in exchange, this ability will come into effect after your opponent’s turn every time. In other words, unless your opponent does something about this card, they will have to continue placing a character into the Break Zone with each turn!

 Because it doesn’t activate right away, they will have some time to react, but the loss they will suffer if they can’t take care of it is immeasurable. Of course, there are some cards that benefit from being placed in the Break Zone, but even then, there is no mistaking that the negative impact would be greater. On top of that, because this ability takes effect after the turn is over, there’s no way to resist it using Summons, action abilities, or special abilities. Points like these, albeit not the flashiest, do make an impact.

 If your opponent has this card, you’d want to defeat Neo Exdeath [12-110L] before the ability kicks in, but the second ability, “When Neo Exdeath is chosen by your opponent’s Summons or abilities, your opponent selects 1 Character they control. Put it into the Break Zone,” will get in the way. There are cards like Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud [3-123R], who does not “choose” its target, but many cards that are used to defeat a Forward will have to “choose” Neo Exdeath [12-110L]. Even if you defeat it, it will take one of your units down with it, but if you don’t defeat it, it will continue to take down your Characters. I would say that’s quite a fearsome Forward.

 Moving right along, I’d like to think about how to best utilize Neo Exdeath [12-110L] – since it’s a Dark element Forward whose cost is 6, it would likely work well with Earth cards, including familiar combinations with Star Sibyl [5-091H] and Kam’lanaut [5-148H], or decks that contain Gabranth [9-063L] and Deathlord [11-076C]. However, with this much power, it would come in very handy in any kind of deck. In fact, I think it’s more important to consider what timing would be best to place this card into the Field. If possible, it would be good to play this card in the earlier part of the match, while your opponent doesn’t have very many Characters, so that you can lay the pressure on them; but on the flip side, it wouldn’t be very cost-effective to get rid of many cards in your hand just to play Neo Exdeath [12-110L]. If you’re going first, you could discard three cards during your first turn to cast Neo Exdeath [12-110L], to restrict your opponent’s freedom, but they could potentially discard two cards out of their hand to play Alexander [8-046R] before bringing out any of their characters, so that they would defeat Neo Exdeath [12-110L], and then play their Backups and whatnot afterwards. If that happens, having played Neo Exdeath [12-110L] would be a major disadvantage. The timing at which you should play this card will depend on the deck that you use, so I encourage you to try out different options.

 

 Well, this concludes the “Card of the Week” series for “Opus XII: Crystal Awakening”. It’ll be released before you even know it. It’s been a while since the last new release, but it’s a really fun set, so I hope you have the opportunity to play it!