Our exclusive Beyond Destiny Community Spoiler

Spoiler season is upon us and we are happy to have received another card from the twenty-first set Beyond Destiny! Read on below for the reveal of our spoiler with thanks to Square Enix for the opportunity once again.

It was bound to happen at some point: With Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Square Enix actually brought in a title that I have never played, let alone knew anzthing about. And I'm pretty sure that this goes for the whole team.

All the more exciting was the question: who is this Rhus that he got such a special card text?

One thing right away: unfortunately I didn't find a concrete answer to this question. But nevertheless, there was some interesting information about the character himself.

Rhus is a main character from Season 4 of Brave Exvius. In this act, protagonist Rain sets out on a journey to find the meaning of the Blood Awakening, a power that resides within him.

Rhus also possesses this power, it is even more pronounced than Rain, whom he considers a rival. He is a warrior of the Caledfwlch, an elite unit of the Republic of Sherna. Also part of this unit is Neilikka. She, too, possesses the Blood Awakening. Niini is their self-appointed protector. Both companions received their own cards in this set as well!

If any of you are very familiar with the lore of Brave Exvius, you are welcome to tell us more about Rhus! We would then update those details!

We do have one interesting fun fact though: the name Caledfwlch comes from the Welsh language and is the original name of the well-known sword Excalibur! Being a member of a unit with such a name, he surely can't be weak, right?

In order to better evaluate Rhus, it is important to understand what goes into card drawing and what does not. First of all, it is important to note that the 2 cards you draw at the beginning of your turn already count towards your cost reduction. So Rhus always costs at most 4 CP. Having a printed cost of 6 CP is still relevant, as many effects have a cost of 5 CP as a threshold. For example, Rhus can trigger the effect of [16-076R] Sophie, even though you technically paid less than 5 CP for him, or [16-044L] Wol. On the other side Rhus cannot be chosen by [13-072R] Odin. 

But be careful, just because something adds a card to your hand doesn't mean it reduces the cost of Rhus. As a rule of thumb here, an effect really needs to talk explicitly about "draw" and not "add to your hand". Search effects like [4-138R] Merlwyb or reveal effects like [18-102C] Wakka do not reduce Rhus. 

Nonetheless, it shouldn't be hard to get his cost down to 3 or even 2 CP since he is in water and thus you have access to cards like [19-097C] Tonberry, [15-118C] Blue Wyrm, or [20-123C] Loporrit. It can be especially easy with [3-122C] Artemecion, since his mulligan effect is actually a regular card draw. So if you exchange 3 cards with him, Rhus immediately only costs 1 CP. And there is also a synergy from one of his companions as well: [21-052R] Ninii can also draw a card, reducing Rhus' cost.

It can be said that Rhus is basically "only" a beatstick, which is usually not a good sign. Simply having a lot of strength and not really doing anything else is not enough in FFTCG these days. Rhus does have one unique feature, though: as long as you have hand cards, it's effectively impossible to get Rhus off the field permanently. You can respond to any removal without exception, keeping Rhus alive for all eternity. Even a [11-140S] Kadaj, which is already hard to deal with, would be easier to get rid of than Rhus. Interestingly enough, Rhus enters the field active, so you can alternatively use his ability to negate Dull/Freeze effects and reactivate him. Likewise, Rhus' ability gives you the very easy option of actively discarding cards from your hand. This can be used to bypass discard effects and subsequent synergies like [18-028C] Nero / [18-019R] Weiss, or to more quickly fill your own break zone for [18-100L] Lenna. The scenarios where this actually pays off will certainly be rare, but it's still useful to keep in mind. 
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is enough. It could be interesting as a one-of in [16-126R] Leo decks, for example, to have another 6 CP option. If you want to play more than one copy however is a tough ask due to just being a body and not having any other impact on the board. What can be said for sure, however, is that the card will do very well in Limited Formats like Draft.

Rhus looks like an interesting card that is at least worth testing out. Having such a tough character can pay off, but which decks will ultimately want him remains to be seen. What do you think of Rhus?

Let us know on our Facebook, Twitter or the German FFTCG Discord!

As always, thanks to SQUARE ENIX for letting us be part of the Community Spoiler Season!