FFTCG Articles and Competitive Resource

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2/15/2019

We have a new article out today on Netdecking! Big shoutout to the RVA Returners for co-hosting our article. Here at EXP+ we are huge fans of all the work they are doing over at the RVA Returners and as always we encourage you to check out their site and podcast! Speaking of the Returners, Chris is making his way up north to Narshe to participate in the NYC Petit Cup with us this weekend. Expect a big tournament synopsis from us when all is said and done since there won't be any official coverage of the event.

In the meantime, spoiler season is underway for Opus 8! There have been some pretty spicy cards revealed so far, and things look like they really may start heating up! While I personally don't think we've solved the Opus 7 meta, I think players are ready for a breath of fresh air. Tell us about your favorite spoiler!

Our next article should be out in the near future, but the petit cup weekends may get in the way of me finishing them. Maybe I will just write an article on the long drive down to VA next weekend! Anyways please check out this week's new article here and as always thanks for reading!

-JS-

1/21/2019

We are back from the FFTCG Reunion and setting our sights on the upcoming Petit Cup season. While we didn't make cut in the constructed tournament, Dan and I both won our respective draft pods and were able to participate in the All-Star Draft: Special RB Super Foil Edition! RB from SquareEnix was generous enough to donate a foil cube for the event that we drafted and we were able to keep the cards as a prize! If you lost to your opponent in the following Top 8, they were able to select one card from your pool and take it. I was knocked out in Top 4 by Sam Tuell, but Dan split finals with him and we all went home with oodles of awesome foil cards! Big thank you again to RB for donating some awesome cards - Gabranth 30th Anniversary promos, a signed Noctis full art, Wave 1 Foils and countless staples.

We will have a new article soon for you! In the meantime check out some tournament results from all of the different off-season events that are happening and prepare for the petit cup! We will have coverage of the NY and VA Petit cups for you guys next month. If you're bored and enjoy FF6, I've also started streaming runs of the game over at www.twitch.tv/snugsytv so come check it out!

Thanks for reading!

-JS-

1/10/2019

A new year is here and with it, a new us! Our first article is here and it's all about the Spirit of the Game. Final Fantasy TCG has an amazing community and it's part of what makes this game so great. It's up to us to foster and grow this community and to steer it in the right direction as more and more new players are coming to the game. It's going to be a big year for FFTCG, we have more tournaments, prizes, content, and players than ever!

Speaking of tournaments, the Petit Cup season is here this weekend! We will be at the Lake Mary, FL Petit Cup held at the FFTCG Reunion event! Shout-out and special thanks to James and Kayla Lockwood for setting up such an awesome event, and to SE for helping them kick it up a notch! I can't wait to see everyone and have a blast celebrating the FFTCG. We will post all about the Reunion and our performance there when we return next week. For now enjoy our article about the Spirit of the Game, and do what you can to spread that spirit every time you sit down for a game of FFTCG.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

-JS-

12/26/18

Merry Christmas! We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and has a happy New Year! We are taking the holiday off and will return the second week of January with a new article for you right before the Reunion. Thanks for helping us start things off in 2018, and here's to a bigger, brighter and better 2019!

Until next time. Thanks for reading!

-JS-

12/6/18 Back In Action

We are back! Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but the computer from which I typically write/upload articles and edit the website decided it had lived a good life and died on me. Now I am all set up with some new hardware and ready to get back into the swing of things with Opus 7! I have a bunch of articles I've been writing the old fashioned way in the downtime so don't worry, we have content coming right back at you starting with our newest article: Attitude Determines Altitude! This article is all about setting goals, being positive and getting in the right mind frame to succeed. Let us know what you think!

For a quick Nationals recap, I played my Garnet Knights water list and Dan played his own Wind/Lightning brew that he had dominated the qualifiers in the area with. I lost my win-and-in bubble match against a pair-up and found it hard to not be a little salty, but at the end of the day the trip was such an absolute blast and I can't wait to see this community again at the Reunion event in January. We will absolutely be there! Worlds was a treat to watch; the three deck format really allowed the competitors to showcase a lot of new Opus 7 tech and it has me so excited to brew new lists. I have more deck ideas than I know what to do with, so maybe I'll start uploading creations to the site once in a while. It would be cool to break down a few lists!

Upcoming events for us include the December Zodiac Trial on the 22nd and the FFTCG Reunion Tournament (slash potential Petit Cup?) on January 12th. If you're on the fence about going to Reunion, I can promise that it will be the most fun that you've had playing Final Fantasy TCG so far. Fear of missing out is real on this one! I will also be on the RVA Returners podcast this Saturday - thanks again to Chris Adams and Adam Lane for the invite. I can't imagine if you're reading this you haven't checked them out already, but if you haven't they have some of the most informative, entertaining FFTCG content out there.

Until next time. Thanks for reading!

-JS-

8/31/18 World Tour

I'm just coming back from Nashville, TN this week where I was checking out the Pokemon World Championships. Over the years I have seen the World Championships grow into a grand event with high production value. Spectator badges were sold out and the atmosphere was electric. It gets me excited for what the future of this game would be if we just keep growing. Square Enix hosted a fantastic tournament at the Crystal Cup and I can't wait to see what they do for Nationals. I know we are on our way to something great!

While I was in TN I couldn't help but feel the itch to play FFTCG, and I found out that a Local Qualifier was happening a few minutes north of where I was staying. I caught a ride up there and was pleased to see they had a great turnout of over 20 players and it was great to meet some more members of the community! Shoutout to the TN and TX crews for a great day of cards. Special shoutout to Comix City Too! for hosting a great event. If you live in the area, be sure to check them out.

This week we have the third part of our series on practice for you, including a Q&A with some top players from around the country.

Check out the article over here!

It was a lot of fun to put this together, and if you like it we'll be sure to do more of these types of articles in the future! We have another guest article coming at the end of the week, and big news to share soon! Thanks for reading!

-JS-

8/21/18 Maybe I'm A Lion

During a crazy month of rapid-fire qualifiers, we held another Zodiac Event for our local players who aren't chasing those nationals invites. This month the trial theme was Leo, and Squall the lion himself found his way into the winning deck. It may have been our smallest Zodiac Trial, but there were still some great games and tough matches! Steven Molnar from our partner site PlayFFTCG.com took the win with his own twist on the popular "Turbo" Ice deck. Check the lists out here! We also have part two of our series of articles on practice coming your way this week. Check out "Tools for Success" here! Stay tuned for part three of our series which features Q&A's with some of the top players from around the country and what they do to practice.

Last weekend we had our local qualifier at All In One Collectibles. While many local players fought hard to get to the top, the victory wound up going to Mike Hunsicker from the Gamer's Heaven group in PA piloting his own Ultimate Vikings deck! You can check out the decklists for the top 8 over here. Congratulations, Mike!

As always, thanks for reading!

-JS-

8/8/18 Practice Makes Perfect

We've got a new article for you this week about something that is important no matter what your skill level: practice. We dive into what "deliberate practice" is and how you can get the most out of your time to prepare for upcoming FFTCG events! This is the first entry in a three-part series we will be doing on the importance of practice and we will be concluding with brief interviews from a few top-level competitors in Part III. Check it out here! In other news, All In One Collectibles has our own Local Qualifier coming up this Sunday, and the next Zodiac Trial is right around the corner on August 19th! Keep an eye on Facebook for the event page coming this week.

-JS-

8/1/18 See You At Nationals!

Local Qualifiers are still happening every weekend, and with Gen Con coming up this weekend we will have a whole slew of new invitees to Nationals coming up very soon. Speaking of which, I qualified over the weekend myself! That means both members of EXP+ are qualified now, and you will see us both at FFTCG Nationals! I piloted a "mono" water deck that was teched out to beat the two biggest decks in my area right now, turbo ice and mono lightning. I had a tough matchup against honorary EXP+ team member and my long-time best friend Alex Tessmer in the finals but I eked out the win against his Wind/Earth list. Next we just have to get Alex his invite! Obligatory pictures below. New article coming next Wednesday! Stay tuned!

-JS-

7/25/18 MAJOR UPDATE!

Hey all! We know it's been a while, there's been a lot going on! Opus VI has released, Local Qualifiers are in full swing, and we have two more Zodiac Trials under our belt. Our team has been working tirelessly to test and grind out invites for National Championships. On that note, our very own Dan Cousillas has just qualified for Nationals over the weekend! Woo! We've had a lot going on behind the scenes for EXP+ and we are getting ready to launch into what I like to call Phase 2, which starts right now! We are starting a Facebook page, weekly updates, collaborations with other sites, guest articles and more. Competitive FFTCG is heating up as we approach Nationals, and so are we!

Check out our Facebook page here and our first guest article about net-decking here!

Of course we've got new content for you too, like this article on how to improve your analysis; especially useful with a new set to evaluate! We will be updating the Facebook page every time we have new content available for you so stay tuned! As always thanks for your continued support!

-JS-

6/20/18 SPOILER ALERT

We have been given the opportunity to share a spoiler with the community for the upcoming set, Opus VI! We've typed up an article about the card and you can read it here! If this is your first time on our site, welcome! We hope you take a moment to peruse our articles and let us know what you think.

Spoilers ahead! Check out the article here!

6/10/18 Heaven on Earth

We just came back from the largest local tournament we've seen in our area for FFTCG hosted down at Gamer's Heaven in Phoenixville, PA. It was a gorgeous store with all of the singles and supplies a FFTCG, or any TCG for that matter, player could need. Staff was helpful and welcoming, local players were kind and inviting, and the competition was fierce! We decided to test a new Earth-Wind build that we thought would have a better matchup against the 3-color monsters deck that had been crushing a few tournaments in our area lately. We were right to expect it! 3-Color monsters had a great showing at the event, and it's back to the drawing board for us! Shoutout to all of the guys at Gamer's Heaven for hosting an excellent event, Nick Schnell for organizing it and hyping us up, and the RVA Returners for making the drive up to play with us. Can't wait for the next one, and hope to see you guys at the next Zodiac Trial!

SPEAKING OF WHICH, the next Zodiac Trial is happening at the end of this month! Check out the EVENTS tab for more information!

-JS-

5/30/18 May the FFTCG Be With You

May has been a crazy month so far for the FFTCG! With Toronto hosting the second ever Crystal Cup event, RVA Returners hosting an awesome live-stream cookout tournament, and our own Zodiac Trials - Aries tournament, it feels like the East Coast is starting to get a lot more events lined up. June is only going to be crazier, with Kansas and California hosting Crystal Cups, and with our friends down at Gamer's Heaven hosting the first FFTCG cash tournament for the area.

Personally, I have been working on a new series of articles meant to coincide with the release of Opus VI to help players step up their testing and deck building in the upcoming new meta. Articles will continue to come out every few weeks, and we have a spoiler to share with you guys next month as well so stay tuned. We are going to have a busy summer of FFTCG, and we hope you keep coming back to check out all of our upcoming FFTCG content!

-JS-

5/11/18 Aries Cup - A Prelude

Happy Friday everyone! We are so excited to attend the first Zodiac Trial event, the Aries Cup, at All In One Collectibles tomorrow! We will absolutely be posting Top 8, tournament reports, and retrospectives on how everything went after the event as well as pictures and details on the next Zodiac Trial! We've put a lot of work into organizing a regular circuit of events for our area and we want to make sure that the players have a good time. A live stream of the event will be available. If you are interested in Judging or commentating for this circuit please reach out to us!

See you there!

-JS-

4/26/18 A Zodiac Brave Story

We are happy to announce that together with PlayFFTCG.com, SideQuest and All in One Collectibles we are finally starting our own local circuit of tournaments called the Zodiac Trials! These will be regular events held in "seasons" of twelve events; one for each of the signs of the zodiac. Players will have a chance to compete for unique themed playmats, big prizes, and a chance to have their name inscribed on the Zodiac Plaque to permanently leave their mark on the circuit. Click here for more details, or head over to our Events tab to learn more!

It has taken a lot of time and energy to set up these events, so we apologize for there being a lull between posts! Rest assured we have content coming for you soon! Thanks for all of your support!

-J&D-

4/20/18 Big Things Coming!

We are back from the Boston Crystal cup and it has inspired us to start increasing the presence of the North-East and the East Coast in general in the FFTCG! We have a big project that we will hopefully be announcing next week so stay tuned!

As far as Boston goes, John did make Day 2 and place Top 16 at the event with his pet Garnet deck (plus a splash of changes) called Save the Queen! We have been waiting to make a report until Square Enix makes their official report on the event including deck lists. It was an amazing time! Furthermore we would like to congratulate our friend Alex Tessmer who also made Top 16 playing a strong water/wind list we had been working on together. It was a pretty good showing, but of course there is always room to improve and level up our game! As always thank you for your support, and shout-out to anyone that we met at the Crystal Cup or who are checking us out for the first time because they got a card at PAX! Welcome!

-EXP+-

4/2/18 Boston on the Horizon!

First of all we'd like to thank everyone for the feedback we've been getting on our articles! Thank you so much for taking the time to read them. We are hard at work testing and preparing for the upcoming first official Crystal Cup tournament in Boston this weekend, and promise we will have plenty of content coming for you following the event! Tournament prep is hard work, but we've also had to adjust to the new Opus 5 meta fairly quickly. To help you adjust as well, we've written an article on it! Click here to read!

We have more things coming for you soon! Thanks for your support and stay tuned!

-JS-

3/16/18 Opening Day!

Welcome! Today marks the official launch of the EXP+ website! Right now we have a few articles to read and the first episode of our podcast will be coming soon. We appreciate any and all feedback from you, the players, as we want to run a site that provides constructive, quality information to help you improve your play. If there is a topic you would like to read an article about or would like to hear us cover on our podcast, please let us know! Thanks for checking us out, and we hope that we help you level up your game!

-JS-

2/22/18 So It Begins...

We are just starting out and appreciate your patience with our limited selection of content as we create more for you to enjoy! Although our soft launch is today, we will be officially launching in mid March. Dan and I have a vision of providing a new type of content for players of the FFTCG that focuses on the mechanics you need to win more games. Other games have great resources like Next Level Magic that talk about the theory and thinking that will make you a better player, and we wanted to provide a similar style of content for the FFTCG. Our articles are short and sweet, but encourage you to analyze the way you play FFTCG in order to improve your game. We hope you enjoy what we have to offer, and let us know if you have any comments or suggestions!

-JS-

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