Greetings crystal masters! 

Today we're seeing the release of the new Opus 3 generation of cards for our beloved Final Fantasy TCG and witnessing the birth of whole new generation of decks. During the Opus 2 period we saw a wave of support and enhancement cards that refined our existing Opus 1 decks and allowed for some new experimentation and tech choices to emerge, but overall it was the Lightning decks of the set that saw ultimate dominance across the world. 

This new set we bring to you today seeks to establish entirely new play archetypes with powerful new cards and strong tribe-based synergies. Whether discussing the powerful synergies of the Class Zero Cadets or the ExDeath Manikins, this set has some interesting new and powerful ways to destroy your opponents and clear the field of any opposition. Today we're going to take a closer look at a few of the more interesting cards in the set and talk about the impact they'll likely have in the months going forward.

First up on the cardset chopping block is the wonderfully powerful Goddess; Minerva (3-146H)

This card screams powerhouse and has the useful ability to find it's way into almost any deck. As a neutral 7 drop Minerva is an incredibly weighty card and acts as one of the most powerful individual cards released within the game so far. The 10,000 power statline is no joke, particularly for the slower control decks that will find the most use for this card. 

As the turns roll by Minerva's constant ability to pump characters by 3000 power, deny opponent character abilities or even gaining card advantage as the turns roll by means playing Minerva onto the field is an incredible resource draw for your opponent. For decks looking to apply pressure to their opponent's hand or seeking to demand spot removal, this card is incredible. 

Considering Minerva's ability to still be relevant to the field in spite of dull and freeze effects means that Minerva is an incredibly flexible and resilient question that must be answered. 

 When talking about the high pressure, bruiser cards of the set it'd be remiss to miss out one of the most persistent pests of this new set: Delita (3-088L) 

Delita as seen above is a strong 9000 statline for a reasonable 5 cost that is a royal pain to handle for your opponent. Finding a home in any Earth heavy deck, this version of Delita maintains the Knight tribe and forces your opponent to either commit considerable resources or suffer damage to remove. In the slower, defensive deck archetypes Earth is usually known for this card represents a fantastic stat based blocker that synergises well with buffs/auras and doesn't go down without a fight. 

For the defensive control playstyles Earth favours any card that makes your opponent's decisions difficult is worth consideration and Delita is no different. Whilst offering new Knight deck possibilities, this deck is also phenomenal when combined with cards such as Minwu (1-171H), Enna Kros (1-095R) and Gippal (1-101R). With adequate support this card quickly becomes a powerful beatstick blocker that will force some tough decisions from your opponent. 

One deck archetype that has gained particular prominence with this cardset is the mono ice discard style of play. Powerful cards such as White Tiger l'Cie Nimbus (3-046H) offer a deeper card pool of relevant forwards for Ice to build boards onto and new discard options such as Genesis (3-033L) and Edward (3-029R) mean that mono Ice decks no longer need to field subpar cards to compete. 

One particular star of the set sure to see rampant abuse across the scene is the monster that is Kuja (3-030L)

Weighing in at an affordable 3 crystal cost and a respectable statline of 7000 (8000 with the almost guaranteed Duke Laarg (1-057R) backup) this card is an absolute monster of utility in the mono ice format. As a deck that establishes board superiority and chokes it's opponent of resources, mono ice is a deck that finds itself able to snowball advantages reliably and nothing does that moreso than this card. 

As an incredibly cheap and reliable dull/freeze combo that can be repeated near infinitely during the game, Kuja represents all the most frustrating elements of playing against mono ice decks. Combined with an early Snow (1-043H) this card will quickly spiral out of control on damage to your opponent's health total and allow you to consistently keep pesky cards at bay (I'm looking at you Xande.)

The final card I'd like to take a look at is the intriguing Zodiark, Keeper of the Precepts (3-147L)

Originally designed as a weighty control summon, this card is literally bonkers in an agro deck that looks to chip away with unblockables whilst swarming the board. The ability to flat out remove all blockers from the field whilst taking damage at your own timing is an incredible board manipulation tool and will definitely catch many people off guard. Whilst this may be a slight drawbacks in tournaments that use life differentials as a metric, this card will sneak it's way into many of the aggressive decks we currently see, particularly fire/water/wind unblockable focussed playstyles. 

That's all from me, I'm currently brewing my own ExDeath Manikin deck for this new Opus and looking into Golbez shenanigans as we speak. If you fancy putting your deck to the test or winning some promo cards along the way we run weekly Wednesday Night FFTCG tournaments with guaranteed promos for all entrants and even have a Win-A-Box tournament on this Saturday (22/07/2017) here at JustPlay and we still have tickets left you can get them here. Make sure to get yourself on down for some games as we'd love to see you

All the best and good chocobo hunting!

Team Justplay.