Hidden Hope - Card of the Week - Zack [22-112R], Viktora [22-114H] & Ace [22-116R]

Hello everyone, FFTCG Producer Tarou Kageyama here. It’s that time we’ve all been looking forward to. That’s right, it’s the Card of the Week, where we introduce cards from the latest booster pack before they are released. This time, we’ll be looking at cards from “Hidden Hope,” slated for release on March 22nd, but in this latest series, we’ll be introducing a new game mechanic “Limit Break.” So, for this first Card of the Week, I want to take the opportunity to look at three characters with Limit Break along with the rules of this new mechanic. Let me show you these three cards. I’m sure a lot of things will catch your eye, so take a close look.

Cards with “Limit Break,” or “LB Cards,” will have an icon that says “LB” at the top right, and the frame around the card text and its name will look more ornate. You should be able to tell at first glance that these are LB cards. One more thing, there will be an indication in the card text that says, “Limit Break – X” (where X is a given number). You will see that on Zack [22-112R], it says, “Limit Break – 1” and on Ace [22-116L] it says, “Limit Break – 3.” With that in mind, I’ll walk us through the rules of “Limit Break.”

(For detailed breakdown of the “Limit Break” mechanic, we will post image(s) on the official site in each language at a later date.)

First, LB Cards cannot be included as part of your standard deck of 50 cards (your main deck), but instead, will need to be in a separate deck comprised of just LB Cards. We will call this the “LB Deck.” In this deck, you can have up to eight cards, and you can only include up to three of the same type of card. The LB Deck will be placed face down, but the player can check the cards in their LB Deck at any time. Now, if you plan to use card sleeves for your LB Deck, please be advised you must use a different set of sleeves than the ones for your main deck.

Now that we are prepared to use these LB Cards in the game, let’s get into the good stuff – how to actually play these cards. Take the LB Card you want to use, turn it face up when you are able to cast it, then pay the cost written at the top left. Up to this point, it seems exactly the same as casting a regular card out of your hand, but for the LB Card, you will need to pay one more thing. That’s where the aforementioned “Limit Break – X” number comes in. This is called the “LB Cost,” and you pay this by flipping over the number of cards indicated in place of the “X.” Let’s take a look at Zack [22-112R], for example. This card says, “Limit Break – 1.” If you want to cast Zack [22-112R], take him out of your LB Deck and turn him face up, pay 3CP including a fire element, and then take another card from your LB Deck (other than Zack, whom you are trying to cast) to turn it face up. With that, Zack [22-112R] is now cast, and he enters the field. Now, once you’ve taken a card out of your LB Deck and placed it face up, you will not be allowed to use that card again to pay the cost to cast other LB Cards. Plus, you will no longer be able to cast cards you’ve turned face up.

Similarly, let’s look at Viktora [22-114H] – her LB Cost is 2, so in order to cast Viktora [22-144H], you will need two unused LB Cards, or three total including Viktora. Which cards will you allocate as LB Cost? You only have eight cards to work with, but it will create more options and ways to strategize.

Another very important rule is that, once an LB Card character leaves the field, it will go to whatever zone it’s supposed to go but will immediately return to the LB Deck, face up. So, if it’s broken, the card will be placed in the Break Zone for a moment, but it will be sent back to the LB Deck immediately after. The same rule applies to when the card needs to be returned to the player’s hand, or removed from the game.

It is getting quite long at this point, so to close this out, allow me to quickly break down the abilities of these three cards. First is Zack [22-112R]. He is 3 CP and 7000 Power. When he enters the field, he can deal 3000 damage to one Forward. 3000 damage may seem “mid,” but considering you can aim for the most effective timing to use LB Cards, these have far more utility than cards that you will have to have in your hand when you want to cast them. This can be said for other LB Cards as well; when Viktora [22-114H] enters the field, if your opponent has two cards or less in their hand, you can deal 7000 damage to one forward of your choice, but you can wait for your opponent to have very few cards left in their hand before placing her into the field. Then there is the third card I wanted to talk about, which is the only Legend card in this group: Ace [22-116L]. His cost is 8 CP and LB Cost is 3, which is quite a lot, but when he enters the field you can deal 1000 damage for each Wind Character you control to all the Forwards your opponent controls. Even if you only have five Wind Backups plus Ace [22-116L], that’s 6000 damage; considering there are cards like Evrae [19-038R] which you can cast with relative ease, dealing 8000 or 9000 damage with a Wind-only deck is not too difficult to do. Utilizing these cards effectively at crucial moments will surely make these a game changer.

This time, I showed you three cards with Limit Break, but there are plenty more LB Cards included with “Hidden Hope.” You will see that they have varying effects, so I hope you do look forward to them. I will see you next week.