Hello everyone! It’s my second appearance in this series. FFTCG Producer Kageyama here! I’m very excited to share another Opus X: Ancient Champions card with you, so I hope you’ll stay tuned until the very end. So, do you remember the card I introduced to you last time? That’s right, it was the vastly powerful Dark Lord Xande [10-008L], who appears in FINAL FANTASY III. Going along with that, this time, I’d like to introduce another villain who appears in FFIII.
Hein the Mage. If you’ve played FFIII before, I think hearing this name will bring to mind something in particular. That’s right – “Barrier Shift,” which switches elements of resistance to elements of weakness. Hein uses this to make the player’s life very difficult. Since the weakness changes, if you’re unlucky, you may be unable to get any damage in for what feels like forever, forcibly drawing the battle out. The strategy here would be to use the Scholar’s Study ability immediately after Hein’s Barrier Shift to determine his weakness, and then deal him damage of that element. That said, this means you would still have to change your fighting style from what you were using up until that point, so I suspect this probably would have left a strong impression on many people.
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Now, Hein makes his first appearance in FFTCG with two action abilities. The first, of course, uses Barrier Shift as a motif. One card can be discarded so that Hein [10-129L] cannot be chosen by or receive damage from any Summons or abilities of an Element you choose. So actually, unlike the original Barrier Shift, Hein’s ability in FFTCG doesn’t create a weakness, but it still allows you to select whichever Element you want to have resistance to, so it’s even better. You can’t really do anything about an ability like Shantotto [1-107L]’s, where a unit isn’t being chosen or damaged. However, as long as it isn’t a card like that, this powerful defensive ability can effectively shut most of them out.
Additionally, the other action ability is one that we can expect will be helpful on both offensive and defensive fronts. You can dull up to two Forwards just by paying 3 CP and dulling Hein. This useful ability can be beneficial in preventing the opponent from attacking as well as blocking. The only slight downside is that the cost can only be paid with Fire CP, Ice CP, or Lightning CP, so you’ll need to pick and choose your deck for him. That said, on top of his exceptional 9000 power for 4 CP, Hein [10-129L] also has two powerful abilities, so I would venture to say that he might be a card we’ll start seeing often in tournaments.
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Finally, as always, let’s look at a few cards that have good synergy with Hein [10-129L]. This card has a high power value to begin with, so it seems like he’d be strong even if you just threw him into a deck, but I’d like to find combinations that maximize his effectiveness and increase the number of places he’d prove useful. Let’s take a look at the cost of his action abilities. If we think about this from another angle, this ability is one that allows you to discard cards to your advantage while using Barrier Shift. For example, consider Shiva [4-033C]. This card calls for you to count the number of Card Name Shiva in your Break Zone, so you would be able to use Hein’s effects to provide an easy boost to the damage Shiva could deal. Additionally, you could use Hein in a similar manner to give a sudden boost of power to Gilgamesh [7-088L]. Hein’s synergy with Ifrita [9-002H] isn’t bad, either.
Another good thing about this ability is that it even allows you to discard Dark Element cards. Generally, these cards can’t be used to generate CP, so oftentimes they can be a bit of a headache if you end up with too many of them in your hand, but because Hein’s ability lets you use these cards, it can help alleviate this issue at least a little bit.
So, what did you all think? Has Hein [10-129L] caught your fancy this time around? I hope he’ll provide inspiration for a new deck! It’s RB’s turn again next time. It’ll be a character who has an ability that relates to a certain job. See you next time!