FF7 Rebirth Queen's Blood: Best Decks for Every Chapter

The best Queen's Blood deck in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth depends on how far along you are: early on, a cheap buff deck built around Chocobo and Moogle wins most matches, while late-game players turn to enfeeble and destroy decks to beat the Shadowblood Queen. There is no single list that stays best for all 14 chapters, because the cards you can buy and win change as the story moves. Below are proven decklists for each stage, the rules that make them work and a plan for the Shinra-8 tournament.

The decklists and card sources come from Game8's deck guide and PowerPyx's Queen's Blood guide, with tournament details from Game8's walkthrough and Shadowblood Queen notes from Game8 and Video Games Chronicle, all checked in November 2026.

How Queen's Blood Works

Queen's Blood unlocks at the start of Chapter 2 and stays with you for the rest of the game. PowerPyx summarizes the board as three lanes of five fields each, 15 fields in total, and each player brings a deck of exactly 15 cards. Every card has a rank from 1 to 3, which is the number of pawns you need on a field to play it there, plus a power value and a pattern of squares that shows where it spreads your pawns or applies effects.

When the board fills up or neither player can place a card, the match ends. Each lane goes to whoever has more total power in it, and only won lanes count toward your score, since a lost lane is worth zero. That single rule shapes every good strategy: you do not need to win all three rows, and two strong lanes beat three contested ones. PowerPyx notes most matches see only seven to ten cards played, so each placement matters.

Your player rank rises by beating a set number of opponents and then a special rank-up challenger. The top rank is 12, Blood Champion, and Game8 counts 145 cards in the full collection, most of them bought from merchants or won from NPC players.

A Starter Deck for Chapters 2 to 5

PowerPyx's beginner list works with cards you can pick up in the Grasslands without much effort:

• 2x Security Officer, 2x Levrikon, 2x Grasslands Wolf, 2x Elphadunk
• 2x Crystalline Crab, 2x Cactuar
• 1x Chocobo and Moogle, 1x Riot Trooper, 1x Titan

The key pieces are easy to collect. Crystalline Crab is won from Ned and Cactuar from Nene, both outside the Kalm Inn. Chocobo and Moogle and Titan are sold at Thorin's Card Shop for 500 gil each once you finish the side quest A Rare Card Lost. PowerPyx then upgrades the list as you go: two Archdragon cards from the Weird and Wicked booster pack at the Under Junon General Store replace a Riot Trooper and an Elphadunk in Chapter 4, and Ifrit takes the last Elphadunk slot in Chapter 5.

Game8's alternative, the Chocobo and Moogle Buff deck, leans harder into stacking power. It runs Cactuar, Crystalline Crab, Ignilisk, Scrutineye, Mu and Zemzelett in pairs alongside single copies of Chocobo and Moogle, Titan and Magic Pot. The plan is to push lanes early with cheap cards, then let Chocobo and Moogle's ability convert all of those buffs into a winning total.

Winning the Shinra-8 Tournament

The first big test comes in Chapter 5 aboard the Shinra-8, where Game8 describes a six-round tournament with a choice of opponents in several rounds. Aerith, Barret and Tifa appear in the second round, Chadley in the fourth, Regina in the fifth, and the sixth is an exhibition match against Red XIII where you can adjust your deck before it starts.

Preparation is simple. Game8 recommends going in with a buff deck or a blight deck, and once you register, an attendant sells the card packs from Chapters 2 to 4, so you can fill any gaps in your list on the ship itself. Because you often get to choose your opponent, pick the players whose decks your strategy handles best, and use the deck edit before the final exhibition to swap in anything that counters what you have seen so far.

Winning earns the Ifrit and Terror of the Deep legendary cards, the Assess Materia Earrings accessory (which let you scan enemies without using a materia slot) and the Card Royalty trophy. Game8 notes two important safety nets. You can restart a losing match as many times as you need without penalty, and if you forfeit, the story still continues and the two legendary cards become available at Thorin's Card Shop later, though you lose the trophy.

Beating Red XIII in that final match also counts toward his hidden relationship value, according to RPG Site, which matters if you want him as your Gold Saucer date. Our relationship guide lists every event that moves those values. If you are still unsure where the tournament falls in the story, the full chapter list shows that it sits between the Junon and Corel regions.

Mid-Game Decks for Chapters 6 to 10

Once Corel opens up, the card pool gets much deeper. Game8's Ifrit Buff deck is the natural evolution of the starter list: two each of Crystalline Crab, Ignilisk, Amphidex, Shoalopod and Griffon, with single copies of Chocobo and Moogle, Haunted Hotel, Zemzelett, Titan and Ifrit. Ifrit gains power for every enhanced card on the board, so flooding the field with buffs and finishing with Ifrit in a strong lane is the whole game plan.

For a different style, Game8's Chocobo Jockey deck stacks power into one lane until Chocobo Jockey or Maloceros activates. It runs pairs of Mandragora, Crystalline Crab, Spearhawk, Quetzalcoatl and Griffon, plus J-Unit Sweeper, Titan, Chocobo Jockey, Maloceros and Mythril Golem. Mythril Golem comes from the Luxury Real Estate support challenge at the Queen's Blood table in Wonderment Square at the Gold Saucer, and Death Claw, another strong mid-game card, is won from Mary at the Card Casino in the Dustbowl, per PowerPyx.

Several summons from the main game also exist as cards, including Titan, Ifrit and Bahamut Arisen. If you like tracking down the full creatures as well, our summon guide covers how to unlock each one in battle.

Late Game: Beating the Shadowblood Queen

The final Queen's Blood opponent is the Shadowblood Queen. Game8 places her at the Gongaga Ruins in Chapter 12, and you must reach rank 11 before she will play you. Video Games Chronicle describes what makes her dangerous: she can place cards of any rank on any pawn she owns, she starts with her own card already on the board, and her cards create enfeebled spaces that weaken both players while powering her up.

Beating her earns her legendary card, number 145, a rank 3 card with 3 power that gains 3 power for every other enfeebled card on the board, allied or enemy. VGC's counter deck runs Death Claw, two Skeeskee, Reapertail, Bahba Velamyu, two Rictus, Loveless, Bomb, Chimera, Joker, Emerald Witch, Midgardsormr, Griffon and Gi Nattak, and singles out Rictus, Chimera and Gi Nattak as the most important cards.

Game8's Self-Enfeeble deck takes another route, weakening your own cards on purpose to trigger enfeeble bonuses. It uses Desert Sahagin, Black Bat, Rictus and Jabberwock in pairs with Capparwire, Red XIII, Valron, Yin and Yang, Yuffie and Gi Nattak, and becomes even stronger once you own the Shadowblood Queen herself. Alexander works as a substitute if you do not have her yet.

Strategy Rules That Win More Matches

Good lists only work if you play them well, and a few principles from PowerPyx and Game8 apply to every deck:

• Aim to win two adjacent lanes, top and middle or middle and bottom. Splitting top and bottom leaves your cards unable to support each other.
• Control the middle lane early. It touches both other lanes and gives you the most room to expand.
• Build mostly around rank 1 cards. They can be played almost anywhere and push your pawns forward quickly.
• Mulligan hard for your engine card, whether that is Chocobo and Moogle, Capparwire or Heatseeker, depending on the deck.
• Be willing to give up a lane. Pouring cards into a lost row wastes the tempo you need elsewhere.

Finally, remember that Queen's Blood is part of the postgame too. If you replay chapters on the hardest setting, the card game is one of the calmer breaks between tough fights, and our Hard mode guide explains what else changes on that difficulty.

Skipping Straight to the Postgame

Collecting a strong card pool is only one part of a long completion checklist. If you would rather start from a finished file, the store's Chapter 12 save is described as complete and ready for New Game+ and Hard mode, with max character and party levels, all world intel, max craftsmanship and the Musclehead Colosseum and Combat Simulator challenges done. It is for PS5 and PC (Steam) only, not PS4, and it requires a copy of the game you already own.

The rest of the store's listings for this game are on the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth page.

Frequently Asked Questions