Fullmetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game

This article is about the real world Trading Card Game. Were you looking for the DS game of the same name?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game is a trading card game based off of the Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 anime series, which was introduced in 2005 in the United States by Joyride Entertainment. It later saw releases in Canada and Europe. It is not to be confused with the Japan-exclusive Alchemic Card Battle, which is a different trading card game that is also based off of the 2003 anime.

The base set, Premier Edition (also just called "Premier") was released 2005 August 3rd, with six expansions being released throughout the next few years. The game was finally retired on July 11th, 2007, leaving the final seventh expansion, Conqueror of Shamballa, unreleased, outside of preview cards included with Sacrifice box sets.

Sets / Expansions[]

Set Name	Set Designator	Release Date	Numbered Cards	Official Checklist
Premier Edition Premier	FMA	2005 August 3rd^[1]	240	Archived link
Blood & Water	BW	2005 November 9th^[2]	110	Archived link
Artificial Humans	AH	2006 February 15th^[3]	110	Archived link
A Hero's Passing	HP	2006 May 10th^[4]	140	Archived link
Alchemist's Gate	AG	2006 August 16th^[5]	140	Archived link
Seven Deadly Sins 7 Deadly Sins	SDS	2006 November 15th^[6]	140	Archived link
Sacrifice	SAC	2007 February 21st^[7]	140	Archived link
Conqueror of Shamballa	COS	Unreleased aside from preview cards	Unknown	N/A

NOTE: Despite not being full sets, Alchemists' Brotherhood (link), Transmutation (link), and Promo cards (link) also got checklists of their own.

Some of the sets included additional unnumbered cards, such as reprints of popular cards from older sets which feature alternative artwork but are otherwise identical to the original. Numbered cards themselves often have some amount of variants which feature different artwork, or have other differences like a glossy foil finish or an English voice actor's signature, but are functionally identical.

Additionally, aside from the above sets, there were also several cards released through Alchemists' Brotherhood, a "subscription-based service offering news, interviews, and exclusive cards." It was offered on a monthly basis, first announced on 2006 July 27th and first available for purchase on 2006 August 10th to August 13th.^[8] According to the announcement, the first cards exclusive to Alchemists' Brotherhood members were a set of 8 foil promo cards. In total, 36 cards were released exclusively through Alchemists' Brotherhood.^[9]

A small set of 9 exclusive cards were also released bundled with a special binder called Transmutation, which was available at certain 2006 conventions.^[10]

Additionally, aside from the regular cards in a set, there are also Promo Cards in many sets, which are marked with one of the "special" rarities listed below. These were released in various ways, such as at conventions, bundled with other merchandise like DVDs, or handed out at stores by staff during special events.

Card Rarity[]

Every card has a rarity, or "Collector's information" as it is referred to in the official rulebook. This is designated by a letter or letters in the bottom right of the card.

The rarity of the cards and their symbols is as follows:

Common (C): Just a regular card. 7:1 pack.
Uncommon (U): Looks regular, but is a short-printed card. 3:1 pack.
Rare (R): Looks regular, but is even shorter printed than uncommon. These cards are usually better for gameplay, but some are exceptions. 1:1 pack.
Fixed (F): These cards are found in all Starter and Theme decks. Premier Edition were normal cards, while Blood & Water and Artificial Human fixed cards are foiled. 1:1 Deck (Premier Edition) 3:1 Deck (BW and AH)
Foil: Foil cards are cards with a glossy rainbow finish, and can be any card in the base of the set. It has no unique symbol, instead having the same rarity as the card its a foil of. Arid Desert, for example, is of Common (C) rarity, so its Foil variant is also marked Common, despite being considerably rarer. Aside from the rainbow finish, foil cards are exactly the same as whatever card they're a Foil of. Foil versions of any card in their set were discontinued after Artificial Human. 1:3 packs.
Chase (X): A chase card is an alternate template print of a card in the base of the set. These cards are always foiled. 1:24 packs.
- Chase Exclusive (X): Commonly referred to as "Black Film" 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. Additional Chase Exclusive cards that acted as "Previews" of the upcoming sets were also available, and marked simply with "X." 1:24 Packs.
- Signature (SIG): Perhaps the rarest type of Chase card, Signature cards are special versions of Leader or Ally cards that have been autographed with the signature of the character's English voice actor. They have no set indicator, instead being simply labelled "SIG 1", "SIG 2", etc. Additionally, all signature cards are Foil cards. Some Signatures were signed in blue, while others were signed in red. Red signatures are typically considered rarer, some never signed in red at all.
- Promo Card (PC): As mentioned above, some Chase cards are instead marked with a PC symbol, indicating they are promotional.
Transmutated (T): (Also called Clear) are see-through, completely clear except the pictures and the card's effects. Can only be Leader cards. 1:80 packs.

Aside from the above standard rarities, there were some other special ones used for specific Promo Cards.^[11] These include:

CON2005
CON2006
FC
HD
HOL
JOY
OP2005
OP2006
PR2005
PR2006
TR

CON2005 and CON2006 likely represent different conventions, and JOY is likely short for JoyRide (the company which produced the game) although where they were distributed specifically is unclear.

HOL might be short for Hologram, and was only used on 6 Alchemists' Brotherhood exclusive promo cards. For the rest of the cards exclusive to Alchemists' Brotherhood, the FC rarity was used. Its meaning is unknown, but it might stand for Fullmetal Card as they were exclusive to the Fullmetal Card game's subscription service.^[12]

The TR rarity is used for 9 cards which were all included in Transmutation, a special binder exclusively available at 2006 conventions.^[10]

Types of Cards[]

There are seven 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 items to themselves) inside of it. If this character is defeated in battle, you must use your free recovery on them, without exception.
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 alchemy, wits, or strength with a number inside of it).
Attachment cards: 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. Usually grants an active or passive ability that can affect both players.
Philosopher's Stones: Red cards with a stone icon in the upper left corner. Can only be played after winning a number of locations equal to the Stone's cost. Usually grants a passive or active ability that any of your character can use. Playing a Stone ability or Event costs a number of cards from the top of your deck, which are then placed under your Philosopher's Stone card. Once the number of cards has equaled the value of the Philosopher's Stone, it is discarded.

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 Caduceus, in the upper right-hand corner. Characters such as Edward Elric, Tim Marcoh, and Alphonse Elric share this faction.
Rebel: Has Psiren's Transmutation Circle in the upper right-hand corner. Characters such as Scar, Father Cornello, and Psiren share this faction.
Military: Has a Military Crest in the upper right-hand corner. Characters such as Roy Mustang, Alex Louis Armstrong, Basque Grand, and Maes Hughes share this faction.
Homunculi: Has an Ouroboros in the upper right-hand corner. Characters such as Envy, Shou Tucker and Lust share this faction.
Unaligned: Has no faction symbol, and these leaders get the recruit penalty for any ally that has a faction. The only factionless leader is Majhal. Also, note that unaligned allies do not have a recruit penalty, and can be played in your starting team.

Two additional factions were planned to be introduced with the unreleased Conqueror of Shamballa expansion, and would've been the first new ones added since the base Premier set. They can both be seen on the various Conqueror of Shamballa preview promo cards.

Heiderich: Has a blue rocket in the upper right-hand corner, and is used by Alfons Heiderich and Noah's cards. Noah's card in specific reveals the faction's intended name.^[13]
Thule: Has a red elaborate upside-down dagger with a wreath beneath it. Used on Dietlinde Eckhart's cards. The description of her card "Dietlinde Eckhart, The Conqueror of Shamballa", reveals its intended name.^[14]

Additionally, starting with Seven Deadly Sins, cards were able to have two factions instead of one. Rose, for instance, is both Elric and Rebel, due to her connections with Edward and Lior zealots respectively. Pride, on the other hand, is both Military and Homunculus, due to being Fuhrer of Amestris as King Bradley but Pride of the Homunculus.

Keywords[]

In addition to a faction, Leaders and Allies also have certain characteristics written on the card. All but the last four were introduced in the Premier set.

Leader/Ally Keywords:

Human
Sin (Homunculi characters)
Chimera
Ishbalite
Spirit
Soldier
State Alchemist
Hero
Villain
Mob (can have more than one of these cards in play)
Construct
5th Laboratory
Animal (introduced in Blood & Water)
Zealot (introduced in Seven Deadly Sins)
Shadow (introduced in Seven Deadly Sins)
Engineer (introduced with Conqueror of Shamballa preview cards)

Note that hero leaders cannot recruit villain allies, and vice-versa. Also, for some reason, the "Construct" keyword was only used once in Premier with the card "Leto Icon, Animated Statue", and wouldn't be used again until Sacrifice, the last released expansion, which applied it to four additional cards.

Attachments also have their own types. No more than one of each type can be attached to a Character, except for Auto-Mail, of which two may be equipped. All but the last two were introduced in the Premier set. Attachment Keywords:

Mark
Auto-mail
Weapon
Armor
Item
Vehicle
Animal (introduced in Blood & Water)
Oath (introduced in Blood & Water)

Some attachments also have "Unique" at the beginning of their descriptions, indicating that only one of that card can be in play at a time.

Lastly, there are a few Event keywords, although the vast majority of Event cards have none. Event Keywords:

Train (introduced in Blood & Water)
Noble (introduced in A Hero's Passing)
Vile (introduced in A Hero's Passing)

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. Each player may recover one character free of cost, and must recover their leader if they have been defeated. Additional allies may be recovered by discarding a copy of that ally from your hand.

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 from one character to another that has the ability to block.

React: An event or ability played in reaction to a specified action.

Alchemy, wits, and strength events/abilities: Events that require a certain cost of 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: A mechanic where the player may discard any number of cards to reduce the cost of an event or activated ability by the same amount of cards discarded.

Discard: Send a card from your hand or deck 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.

Expansion Additions[]

Some expansions, along with new cards, introduced new mechanics to the game.

Blood & Water added the mechanic of Blocking. It also added the Red Water Fever card, which is the first card to break the typical three-card limit of a single card.
A Hero's Passing added Noble and Vile keywords for Event cards.
Seven Deadly Sins added the Zealot and Shadow Keywords for Allies and Leaders, the ability for single cards to have two factions, and introduced the Philosopher's Stone card type.
Sacrifice added Gate type location cards.
Conqueror of Shamballa, the unreleased expansion only released as preview cards, added the Engineer keyword for Allies and Leaders, and the first new factions since Premier, Heiderich and Thule.