Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game
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| Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game | |
|---|---|
| Designer | Ian Ryan |
| Publisher | Press Pass Inc. |
| Players | 2 |
| Age range | 10+ |
| Playing time | Approx 30 min |
| Random chance | Some |
| Skills required | Card playing Arithmetic Basic Reading Ability |
The Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game is a collectible card game released in 2005 by Press Pass Inc. The game is based on the hit anime show, Fullmetal Alchemist. As of July 11th 2007 this game has been discontinued. There are currently talks[citation needed] of a Player Committee to continue the game through tournaments and possible virtual sets. A Nintendo DS rendition of the Trading Card Game was released October 15, 2007.
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[edit] Card releases
Cards for this game were sold in booster packs and as decks. Production and publication of Fullmetal Alchemist TCG has been discontinued as of July 2007.
[edit] Booster packs
Booster packs were released in sets. There are 11 cards per pack, on the average 1 Rare, 3 Uncommons, and 7 Commons. Sets consist of the following:
- Premier Edition
- Blood & Water
- Artificial Human
- A Hero's Passing
- Alchemist's Gate
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Sacrifice.
Rare Inserts are Transmutated (1:80 packs) Chase and Chase Exclusive, (1:24 packs) Player's Choice cards, (1:1 Only in A Hero's Passing 1:3 in Sacrifice) and Signature cards, (1:200) SIG cards are only in A Hero's Passing, Alchemist's Gate, Seven Deadly Sins and Sacrifice. Mispacks have been reported with Promotional cards[citation needed].
[edit] Theme Decks
Theme Decks were released in conjunction with booster pack sets.
- Premier Edition
- Edward Elric
- Alphonse Elric
- Lust
- Roy Mustang
- Father Cornello
- Blood & Water
- Scar
- Roy Mustang
- Artificial Human
- Alex Louis Armstrong
- Edward Elric
- A Hero's Passing
- Maes Hughes
- Alphonse Elric
- Scar
- Envy
Fullmetal Alchemist has recently been released in Italy by Panini fully translated Premier Edition Booster Packs and Premier Theme Decks for Edward Elric and Roy Mustang.
[edit] Virtual decks
As of January 1st 2008 Press Pass Inc. no longer holds the property license for Fullmetal Alchemist nor is allowed to continue work on any project involving the license (Including sale of inventory). A Player committee has been established[citation needed] and can be reached for all rules, questions and future game updates. They will continue to have supported tournements with prize support. The player committee is ran by Alex Lamminen. Official Rules and Errata for Fullmetal Alchemist TCG can only be found on the forums of Hypershot Realms. There are 3 virtual sets in the works by the committee, including:
- Conqueror of Shamballa
- Ruins of Ishbal
- Secrets of Laboratory 5
you can find more info on the 3 virtual sets by going to www.hypershotrealms.com and clicking on th FMA Forum tab at the top of the page
[edit] Card Rarity
The rarity of the cards is as follows:
- Common: Just a regular card, has a C in the bottom right-hand corner. 7:1 pack.
- Uncommon': Looks regular, but is a short-printed card. Has a U in the bottom right-hand corner. 3:1 pack.
- Rare: Looks regular, but is even shorter printed than uncommon. Has an R in the bottom right-hand corner. These cards are usually better for gameplay, but some are exceptions. 1:1 pack.
- Foil: Is holographic, And even rarer than rare. Can be any card in the base of the set. Has the card's rarity in the bottom right-hand corner. Most people prefer the holographic because they are rarer than the normal cards, and are prettier than the usual card, although the foil still has the same picture. 1:3 packs. Foils where stopped from a Hero's Passing onward.
- Fixed: These cards are found in all Starter and Theme decks. Premier Edition were normal cards, while all decks after fixed cards are foiled. Marked with the F in the bottom right corner. 1:1 Deck (Premier Edition) 3:1 Deck (All other sets)
- Chase: A chase card is an alternate template print of a card in the base of the set. These cards are always foiled. An X is found in the lower right corner. 1:30 packs for Premier edition, 1:24 from Blood and Water - A Hero's Passing. 1:12 in Alchemist's Gate, and 1:11 onwards.
- Chase Exclusive: Commonly referred to as "Xe" or "Filmstrip" cards, these cards are only available as Chases. They have a unique design compared to other chase cards. These are only found as Leaders and Locations. These cards are usually better than the normal cards in the base of the set, but there are also exceptions. These are the most sought after cards. These have Xe in the bottom right corner. The odds are determined by how many chases there are in a set.
- Transmuted: Is see-through, completely clear except the pictures and the card's effects. Can only be Leader cards. Has a T in the bottom right-hand corner. 1:80 packs.
- Player's Choice: Reprints of older cards (usually better ones). Only in A Hero's Passing and Sacrifice. 1:1 They are marked with PC. This was changed in Sacrifice to be 1:3.
- Signature Cards: Cards with a signature from the Voice Actor. 1:200 packs. Only A Hero's Passing, Alchemist's Gate, Seven Deadly Sins, and Sacrifice. They are marked with SIG.
- Promo: Most promos are only obtained from special events. Some promos have been reprinted or are reprints. They are marked with a PR****. The **** is the year, 2005/2006/2007.
- Heavy Duty: These are cards only given out at conventions by Joyride. They are given if you spend more than $20 at once. They are marked with HD. There are only 8 as of now.
[edit] Types of Cards
There are seven known main types of cards:
- Leader cards: Your leading character. Has a green flag in the top left-hand corner, with his or her command (the number of points he/she has to recruit allies and equip things to themselves) inside of it. If this character is defeated in battle, you must bring him back, you do not have a choice.
- Ally cards: Characters you can recruit. Has a gold coin in the top left-hand corner, with the recruit cost inside of it. You can recruit as many allies as you want per turn, as long as your leader has the command to do it.
- Event cards: Cards that you can play during the phase written on the cards. Usually has a cost of Alchemy, Wits, or Strength (designated in the top right-hand corner of the card as the symbol of stone, alchemy, wits, or strength with a number inside of it).
- Attachment cards: Usually cards you can equip to Ally or leader cards, or cards that help you in some way. Has a silver coin in the top-left hand corner, with a cost inside of them.
- Location cards: Cards that have clue points on them. Has an incomplete Philosopher's Stone with a number inside of them, indicating the number of clue point they have. Also, they usually have an effect on them which benefits or hurts you and your opponent. These are the main cards with which you win.
- Advantage: A blue card with the ally gold coin in the top left corner. These are played in the recruit phase, but don't count towards your maximum ally limit. You use command to play these, similar to allies.
- Stones: You can play it to your home if you have at least a number of clue points in your victory pile equal to the cost in the upper-left corner. Once per turn, a character can use its activated ability.
[edit] Factions
There are four main factions. Factions designate who the recruit or leader is loyal to.
- Elric: Has the snake-over-cross (crucified serpent) symbol, also called Flamel's Cadeuceus, in the upper right-hand corner. Cards like Edward Elric, Tim Marcoh and Alphonse Elric share this faction.
- Rebel: Has Psiren's Transmutation Circle in the upper right hand corner. Cards like Scar, Greed,Father Cornello and Psiren share this faction.
- Military: Has a Military Crest in the upper right-hand corner. Cards like Roy Mustang, Alex Louis Armstrong, Basque Grand and Liza Hawkeye share this faction.
- Homunculi: Has an Ouroboros in the upper right-hand corner. Cards like Envy, Shou Tucker and Lust share this faction.
- Unaligned: Not really a faction. It has no faction symbol, and these leaders get the recruit penalty for any ally that has a faction. The only factionless leaders are Majhal and Dante (Dante gains the faction of your allies, but starts out unaligned). Also, note that unaligned allies do not have a recruit penalty, and can be played in your starting team.
- Unknown Faction: A 5th faction was to be released in the set following Sacrifice, its symbol being that of a rocket like object. It is only seen on the Edward Elric, Artificial Limbs XE card in Sacrifice. It is unknown what the faction represents. Theories include our world, on the other side of the Gate, due to the fact the newest and most important technology in our world, as seen by Ed, is that of space flight.
There were supposed to be 2 new factions with the unreleased, Conqueror of Shambala set. Heidrich faction (noted by the rocket) and the Thule faction.
[edit] Additional card types
In addition to a faction, Allies have certain characteristics written on the card. This is the same for Attachment cards, event cards, and location cards.
[edit] Phases of the game
These are the phases that one turn consists of.
- Draw Phase: The phase in which you draw (Usually) Two cards from your deck
- Power-up Phase: The Phase in which you either gain an experience by placing a card from the top of your deck under your leader or level your leader up by placing the correct amount of experience in the discard pile and placing your next leader on the field. You also reveal your locations in this phase.
- Recruit Phase: The phase in which you can recruit allies to your team. You cannot recruit allies with more of a recruit cost than your leader has, though you can recruit more than one ally, as long as it equals or is lower than your leader's recruit points, altogether.
- Main Phase: The phase in which you play main events or abilities, or play attachment cards.
- Search Phase: The phase in which your allies and leaders battle to win the current location. Note that you can lose the game if you send out all of your allies and your leader and they are all defeated. Whoever comes out with the current location's requirements win the location, and get as many location points as printed on the card.
- Cleanup Phase: The phase in which your defeated allies are either saved or sent to the discard pile or defeated, and all set allies are unset.
[edit] Common Terminology
- Set: The ally or leader is set, and cannot assign to a search party or attack, if already in a search party.
- Defeated: The ally is flipped face-down and cannot assign to a search party, attack, and may be discarded at the end of the search phase.
- RFG: The card is removed from the game.
- Blocked: The attack is redirected to another opponent that has the block ability, by the opponent.
- React: You use an event or ability to react to a specific thing.
- Alchemy, wits, and strength events/abilities: Events that require a certain cost of an alchemy, wits, or strength.
- Search, main, recruit, and battle events/abilities: Events or abilities that can only take place on the search, battle, recruit, or main phase, depending on what the text says.
- Equivalent Exchange: Discarding a certain amount of cards to meet the cost of an event or ability.
- Discard: Send a card from your hand to the discard pile.
- Destroy: Send an attachment card from the field to the discard pile.
- Sacrifice: Send an ally from the field to the discard pile to meet a certain cost.
- Broken: A card that has such a good ability that it is almost unfair to the opposing player.
[edit] External links
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