Neo Exdeath in EoL

Neo Exdeath in Emissaries of Light is still quite good and worth considering with some of the new cards.

It’s also worth looking at some of the new cards that hurt Neo Exdeath. Shiva 16-028 gave Ice a way to break Neo Exdeath for 4cp, but only after they have attacked with it, or if you have a way to dull it without targeting it because certainly we don’t want the Neo Exdeath player to get two triggers. Cactuar 16-045 is a much cleaner out for Earth at 4cp.  4cp is where you want to be when killing Neo Exdeath unless you are getting something left behind (like in the example of a Shantotto 1-107). Layle 16-083 is an interesting out to a mid game Neo Exdeath, forcing him to attack, but certainly isn’t a great early game answer. Wind got Gargoyle and is especially better than Alexander when on the play. Seymour 16-090 is another 4cp clean break but conditional early. Lightning 16-124H might be the cleanest outs in Opus XVI due her costing 3cp. Andrea Rhodea 16-106 is a strange out to Neo Exdeath but requires a specific setup and likely being on the play. How popular these cards are will likely help determine which protection cards to run.


There are a few directions I would consider when building around Neo Exdeath. They are:

Water X
Mono Wind

Wind X
Earth X

Water gives you access to some protection and searching.  Ezel 16-107 is an easy setup searching. Kyrie 16-109 provides information on our opponents hands and thus their outs to an early Neo Exdeath. It also has a bit of dig for protection/Neo built in and is a nice Exburst at that.  Kimahri 16-108 gives Neo Exdeath some protection from fire decks, especially the Amaterasu that can give you problems. Marche 16-122 searches for these backups but can also search for other tools of protection across various colors like the monsters Clione and Unsaganashi, which of course are both great targets for Relm 11-124 as well out of water. Finally Corsair 16-112 allows some multi-backup filter for your dig and also for discarding extra Neo Exdeaths from hand. Meia 16-123 also offers the deck a way to play off color protection summers like Amaterasu. Overall Water has some new tools that work well with the deck and is an element that is definitely worth consideration on top of having some of the better ways to operate with Neo Exdeath from older water cards like Leviathan 13-100 and Syldra 12-097. 

Wind gained some powerhouses for the deck! Wol 16-044 can come down the same turn as Neo Exdeath and really put your opponent on a clock while also offering protection.  Cecil 16-051 plays many of the other protection pieces, including off color ones, while also protecting Neo, creating a clock, and even offers some other minor synergies when you factor in cards like Edge, Hooded Man, and Ceodore to round out the deck a bit. Chocobo Sam can accelerate the deck to 2 or 4 backups and really makes the deck less “all in” on having Neo or losing early. Speaking of getting to 4 backups, Fina 16-058 is a fantastic hand trap for protecting Neo but can also help protect other threats in the deck like Bismarck. Lulu 16-135 also gives you a way to recycle some of your protection summons if you choose to run cards like Titan, Dryad, Leviathan, etc. Wind also has the only 3cp backup searcher for Neo Exdeath. Overall I think the more conservative players would gravitate towards wind both because of the nature of how good Wind is and also allowing you to play a multifaceted deck. 

Ok so Earth didn’t exactly get anything super exciting for the deck… but it’s definitely worth considering as a splash as it has a ton of searchers for Neo Exdeath like Tyro and Gabranth 9-063 as well as a few good ways of protecting Neo Exdeath like Mist Dragon and Titan 1-110.

If I played the deck I would actually go Mono Wind for the consistency of the backups as well as being able to play Bismarck-Control deck that specializes in protecting Bismarck with cards like Aerith 8-049, Y’shtola, Zidane, Cecil, Wol, and Fina, which can tap for Bismarck 2k ping and protect it as well. These cards all serve dual-purposes in the deck at protecting Neo-Exdeath. You can run cards like Edge to form multi-layered protection while he protects your protectors. 

Here's the list I would run: Neo Exdeath O16

Overall I think the deck could be really fun (for you) so I hope you give it a try and let me know in the comments what your thoughts are.

Control vs Beatdown in FFTCG

One of the things I maximize during tournaments comes from understanding roles in matchups like “who is the beatdown.” For anyone who doesn’t come from an MtG background, it refers back to an old article on the website The Dojo. The summary of the article is that in any given matchup, one player is playing the aggressor and one player is the control deck. The player who misidentifies this role will almost always come up with the loss.  This can be true if both players are playing Mono-Wind Chocobos or both players are playing Sky Pirates.  Who goes first can determine who is the beatdown or what the shape of your opening hand is, but more often than not, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.  

Let’s say you are playing Chocobos (post-Sterne ban because that completely changes the way the deck plays).  Chocobos can play either a very aggressive game or go a control route hinging on getting to five backups and controlling the board with Bismarck plus a bunch of little birds.  If you are on the play, it’s likely that you have the opportunity to deal your opponent damage first and put them under pressure. In many matchups you aren’t just pressuring them because you dealt damage, but because each damage is a card milled. This is an example of when roles can change.  Sometimes knowing when to pump the breaks is also vital.

Ex-Bursts and damage modified cards play a role in these decisions. Let’s say you are playing against Mono-Fire and you’ve seen them in a prior round with 8cp Xande, and 6cp Luso. You are on the play opening with two backups on turn one and a forward on turn two. What do you do?

A. You press the attack because you want them to hit 7 damage and lose the game before they can stabilize with big forwards.

B. Switch to a more controlling route depending on your perceived number of EX Bursts in their deck. Will an EX Burst off the top win them the game?  Is this a matchup where I need to attack at all even? On the play when neither player takes damage or searches, the person on the play has the advantage and is immediately the control deck. The person on the draw MUST hit the first turn player first (or mill them another way) to win the long game.
C. You can attack mono fire to 2 and then play a more controlling game where Rain isn’t as good.
D. You attack them to 4 instead of 6, and try to finish the game the following turn instead putting them from 4 to 7 in the same attack step so you get around Luso’s damage six ability or Xande’s five.

There are easily hundreds of other scenarios to consider with each attack. It’s part of what makes FFTCG such a fun and complex game.  During any of the above attacks multiple things can happen. For example, hitting an Ifrit or Brynhildr to damage when you still have attackers;  if you are the beatdown you might actually stop the attack here because hitting a second EX could put you behind and switch your roles. While if you are the control deck this might be your turn to shift gears into the beatdown role. 

Something else to consider in your decisions during the match is your understanding of how good or experienced your opponent is in relation to yourself. I think this takes a very honest understanding of your own abilities but I think it’s quite important.  A few examples:

Playing against a very good player in an event and the game unfolds like this: I’m playing Verstael and he’s playing Naya Neo Exdeath.  In general I’m definitely the beatdown in this matchup because I can play 2-4 forwards on turn 1. In addition my Verstael plus Rinoa/Fusoya triggers are going to draw me a bunch of cards and for sure make it unlikely I can play the control roll well. Now I know he’s playing some number of Susano and Shantotto so I need to be wary of that.  He has two cards in hand and I have an option to cast Verstael+Sephiroth and force him into top deck mode or go Verstael+Rinoa+Sephiroth if I hit at least 3 cards with the Verstael (which is pretty likely).  I opt for the second one, whiff with the Verstael and end up feeling very lucky that he doesn’t top deck the out. I remember him saying to me that I didn’t have to go for the big play, but here’s the thing; from his perspective this is true, I’m ahead and no reason to put myself in a situation to get blown out.  But I knew he was a better player than I was. Sometimes to beat someone who is better than you, you have to take risks to increase your odds.  I needed to end the game as soon as possible and if I could sneak in a few percentage points, I thought that was necessary.


I see this happen all the time in the other direction as well. Good players taking risks that they don’t need to for the purpose of either being flashy or feeling they had the game more locked up than they actually did.  When I’m playing someone I believe I can outplay, I’ll play much more conservatively on average.  This doesn’t have to be based on skill level alone but opening hands too. If my opening hand is very good, I’ll play two backups and try to curve to five. If the opener is very bad, I may choose to try to become the beatdown in a situation or matchup I wouldn’t normally play that role.  Finally, if I feel that I can dictate the pace of the match, I’ll become the beatdown when I want to and allow my opponent to believe that I’m on the defensive.  

I hope this type of article was useful for you. I’ll likely try to continue to do one a few times a month or so.  Thanks for reading it over and visiting the page. If you want to continue to support this venture, find us on socials like Twitch.tv/gamerscommand, Youtube, Instagram, etc and follow our content. Our goal is to continue to create content that brings you value.