Final Fantasy Trading Cards Games
Producer's blog 2020-10-19 19:46:39

From the Producer Special Vol. 14: Understanding Multi-Element Cards


2020 10/producerblog vol1 desktop

Hello, everyone! FFTCG Producer Tarou Kageyama here. The release of “Opus XII: Crystal Awakening” is just around the corner, and although we’ve kept everyone waiting almost double the usual time under circumstances where we had to skip over one normal release cycle, we’ve somehow made it. We truly appreciate how understanding everyone has been. 

Now, I think it’s safe to say that the arrival of Multi-Element cards is the standout feature in the upcoming “Crystal Awakening”. Multi-Element cards will bring about major shifts in the game’s environment and strategies. Even at the same cost, Multi-Element cards will be more difficult to cast, and in turn, there will be many with slightly more powerful abilities, so they’re presence will surely be kept in mind from the point of deck construction.

That said, along with the introduction of new elements in TCGs, questions surrounding the rules always come about. The Multi-Element cards are no exception and there are certain aspects that should be known beforehand, so I’d like to take this opportunity to run through them here.

Identifying Elements Associated with Multi-Element Cards

There are two methods for confirming the elements associated with Multi-Element cards. As with traditional cards, you can look at the elemental icon placed in the text box or reference the elemental color of the crystal in the top left corner of a card. Multi-Element cards are associated with all the elements displayed in those areas. For example, Selh'teus [12-112L] belongs to both Fire and Ice. This means that you can not only strengthen it with Lebreau [1-030R], but you can also search with Ysayle [6-022R].

Cost Reduction

When casting a Multi-Element card, players are required to pay at least 1 CP from each of the associated elements.

Then, if the cost for a Multi-Element card is reduced to 1 as result of whatever method used, you may wonder which cost needs to be paid. Bottom line – you’ll have to pay CP from all the elements associated with the card, even if the cost is reduced to 1. For example, say you control Glauca [11-091R] who has the ability to reduce the cost required to play a Lightning Forward onto the field to 1. In this instance, it would reduce the cost to cast Shantotto [12-120C], an Earth/Lightning card, in your hand to 1, but Shantotto [12-120C] has both Earth and Lightning elements, so it requires both CPs, meaning you’ll need to pay 1 cost each per element. 

Generating CP

That said, if the cost is reduced to 0 and under, there is no need to pay CP. Just remember that you will always need to pay 1 or more CP each for all associated elements in cases where you need to pay CP.

If you are generating CP by discarding a Multi-Element card from your hand, you can generate 2 CP for one of the elements associated with the card; you cannot generate 1 CP each of different elements.

Forming Parties

In FFTCG, Forwards with the same element can form a party to attack. In this case, what happens with Multi-Element cards? Multi-Element cards can form a party as long as it shares one of the elements; in other words, Y’shtola [12-119L] and Shantotto [12-120C] both share the Earth element, so they can form a party. Furthermore, Tifa [11-071L], an Earth element card, can also join this party. That said, a card that is not associated with the Earth element, for example Locke [12-116L], cannot join Y’shtola [12-119L] and Shantotto [12-120C]’s party. Though it can be paired with Y’shtola [12-120L] as they both share the Wind element, it cannot form a party with Shantotto [12-120C] since it does not have the Wind element.

Therefore, when forming a party, all members will need to share at least one element across the board. A party cannot be formed if the Forwards you want to include in the party do not share at least one element.

Counting Elements

If you are referencing the number of different Elements, as done with Luso [9-058L]’s ability, all elements associated with a Multi-Element card will count. If you control both Luso [9-058L] and Shantotto [12-120C], then Luso will gain First Strike and Brave.

“Element Other Than”

If a card states “element other than”, this will not be applicable to a Multi-Element card with the specified element. For example, in order to trigger Nero (XIV) [9-091H]’s first ability, Shantotto [12-120C] will not fulfill that criteria.

“Same Element”

When determining whether two cards’ elements are the same or different, the thinking is similar to party formation mentioned earlier; if the cards share at least one of the same elements, the cards are considered to have the “same element”. If you’re using Golbez [1-135L] to search, if Forwards share at least one of the elements, then it’ll be considered the same element.

Scope of “Multi-Element”

In the future, there will be instances where “Multi-Element” is directly written in the text. In such cases, if a card has two or more elements in a given area, the card will be considered Mutli-Element. Therefore, Shantotto [1-107L] on the field would be Multi-Element, but anywhere else, it would only be Earth element and would not be considered Multi-Element.   

Specifying Elements

If you are specifying an element due to some sort of effect, you may not specify “Multi-Element”.

What do you think? I hope this helped somewhat in resolving some questions there may have been surrounding the new Multi-Element cards. These cards are sure to bring about new changes to the meta, and we’d love for you to try them out. Until next time!