Hello everyone, FFTCG Producer Tarou Kageyama here. It’s already been three months since the Card of the Week series we did on “Hidden Trials.” That means the Card of the Week for the next booster pack set – “Hidden Legends, ” planned for release on November 15th – is going to begin. I hope you all stick around until the end again.
In this first installment for “Hidden Legends,” I would like to introduce Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L], a Fire element Legend, and Clive [24-005L], also a Fire Legend. FINAL FANTASY XVI will be joining the FFTCG fray for the first time with “Hidden Legends,” and these two cards in particular have a close relationship with each other through a new Keyword ability, “Priming.” In this article, I will talk about these cards as well as the rules for priming, so please check that out as well.
As usual, let’s first look at the cards.
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A full-art PR card of Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] will be included as a purchase bonus if you buy a display box, and there is a special card of Clive [24-005L] with a foil-stamp autograph of Kazuya Takahashi, the artist who illustrated the package art for FINAL FANTASY XVI. If you get the opportunity to obtain those, please give them a closer look.
Now, let’s look at the abilities for each card in order. Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] is a strong Forward who has a cost of 7CP, 10000 power, Job Eikon, and Haste; when Ifrit (XVI) enters the field, deals damage to the opponent, or when Clive primes into Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L], then you can deal 10000 damage to one Forward of your choosing. It has Haste, so if you choose to attack once it’s placed in the field and deal one damage to your opponent, then you can essentially deal 10000 damage to a total of two Characters. In addition, the special ability “Spitflare” will allow you to deal 10000 damage to one Forward. You get 10000 damage! You get 10000 damage! You get 10000 damage!
You might be curious as to what “primes” means here, but let’s look at Clive [24-005L] first. He has a cost of 4CP, 8000 power, and Haste. Right after that, there’s an ability that says “Priming ‘Ifrit (XVI),’” but let’s set that aside for a moment also. Clive [24-005L] also has a field ability which reads, “The Job Eikon Forwards and Job Dominant Forwards other than Clive you control gain +1000 power” and an auto-ability that reads, “When Clive deals damage to your opponent, discard your hand. Then, draw 2 cards.” Both Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] and Clive [24-005L] are high-spec in their own right, but they have the priming ability. Okay, I’ve dragged on long enough; without further ado, I will talk about “priming.”
Priming is a type of field ability that activates when you pay the written cost. In the case of Clive [24-005L], you would play 2CP, including 1 Fire CP. Once you do that, you will search for the card name written for priming – so in Clive [24-005L]’s case, it would be “Ifrit (XVI)” – take that card from your deck, and place it on top of Clive [24-005L]. This state is called being “primed.” The stacked cards will be treated as one Character, but with two card names. So, if we look at Clive [24-005L], then he will have two names: “Clive” and “Ifrit (XVI).” However, outside of the card name, the abilities, job, and power will be that of the card Job Eikon that is on top. In this case, the numbers and the abilities for Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] will be reflected. To put it simply, Clive [24-005L] turns into Ifrit (XVI). That said, when a Character is placed on top of another card due to priming , it will not be considered to have entered the field, and so auto-abilities associated with entering the field will not activate.
This should be fairly straightforward, as it’s very close to how it works in the original video game. That said, there are a few rules to “priming” in the context of FFTCG, which we’ll look at next. First, you can only prime during your main phase and when the stack is empty – in other words, you can only use this ability when you are able to cast a Character. Furthermore, priming does not use the stack, so it can’t interrupt any steps in the process . And you may not prime into an Eikon if a Character of the same name is already out in the field. For example, you may place Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] and Clive [24-005L] into the field separately, but if Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] is in the field, Clive [24-001L] cannot prime into Ifrit (XVI).
Also, if a primed Forward leaves the field, the card on top – in this case Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] – will move to the designated zone, then be immediately removed from the game. The card on the bottom, Clive [24-005L] will be placed in the designated zone as normal.
By the way, when priming, any state changes made to the card on the bottom prior to priming will be carried over. If the card was Dull, then it will remain Dull, if damage was dealt to it, then the damage remains. Please refer to the supplementary explanation here for more details on these rules.
Finally, let’s take one more look at Clive [24-005L] and Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L]’s abilities now that we have a better understanding of priming. First, while Clive [24-005L] is out in the field, you may pay 2CP to search for card name “Ifrit (XVI)” out of your deck and place it on top of Clive [24-005L]. This turns Clive [24-005L] into Ifrit (XVI) [24-001L] whose card name is also “Clive.” His power changes from 8000 to 10000, making him more powerful. Plus, he just primed, so you may choose 1 Forward to deal 10000 damage to them. He has Haste, too, so you can deal damage to your opponent right away, if you’d like. That will allow you to deal 10000 damage to 1 other Forward. If your opponent doesn’t want to get hit and chooses to block, most Forwards will likely be defeated because of his high power. On top of that, priming will allow for your Character to have two card names, so it can also help with using special abilities as well, because you can use this as card name “Clive” or “Ifrit (XVI)” to pay a cost.
So, what do you think about the new ability, “priming”? There may still be some uncertainty until you’ve actually tried it for yourselves, so I would encourage you to take the challenge. Next time, I will be introducing a “stranger” bound to a certain gruesome circle of fate… Stay tuned!