Hello there !
As you may have seen on the 7th, our spoiler, Garland, was already spoiled on Weibo, a chinese social network.
I can’t thank Alec (and Square Enix and Hobby Japan too) enough for offering us another one to spoil for opus XXII due to those circumstances. Thanks a lot!
I won’t bore you with a longer introduction since you’re all there for… Alexander !
Alexander is a 3CP summon that does something we don’t see very often. The goal there is to save one of your forwards while getting rid of one of your opponent’s. As the other summons from this cycle, you will draw if you cast it with only backups.
It also comes with a gorgeous full art, and before heading into the strategic details, we will share the french assets too ! Once again, thank you Alec for this amazing card!
The more likely to draw
First, I’ll address a problem the summons of this cycle might have : you don’t often find yourself with 3 backups up to cast a summon during your opponent’s turn, and this is the moment where summons are the strongest. Being Wind, Alexander is more likely to draw since wind can activate its backup. Mono wind has a tendency to finish its turns fully dulled after a Lusso 17-063R, but there’s a chance, especially if you’re playing earth, or just not Storm. (who knows what tomorrow holds!)
A potent (almost) 2 for 1
Being able to redirect damage to another target makes you able to protect your forward (let’s say Rosa 14-057H) from your opponent trying to get rid of her, like by using Ifrit 20-003H. Using Alexander, you will make the Ifrit kill one of your opponent’s forwards while saving yours. Two birds with one stone. It also work quite well with combat damage, since you can, in a sense, block with one of your opponent’s forwards.
Conclusion
Timing will be key to get the best out of Alexander. While it might not see that much competitive play, i really believe it’s a strong and nice effect which will swing down the momentum in a lot of games.
