What is our Final Fantasy card zone upgrade?

As I said at the end of my last upgrade blog, we have two more card zones to cover: DBS and Final Fantasy. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to cover next, so just like any reasonable person would do when they have to make a big decision...I flipped a coin. When the coin landed on the floor - tails up - the decision was made for me. That’s why today I will be briefly highlighting the zones that can be found on our Final Fantasy playmats. Sound good?

I don’t intend to make this blog a complete re-telling of the rules or how the game works. Instead, I’m just going to focus on the actual zones themselves and spend a little time on what each one does, for those who aren’t too familiar with them. Of course, you can’t help but get immersed in the rules of the game while covering these zones, so you’ll find a few rulebook references sprinkled in each section as we go along. 

With that said, let’s begin!

Our Final Fantasy playmats feature 3 main card zones, which are:

There is also a Removed from play/Out of game area, but those don’t count as official zones on the mat. Additionally, there are zones that can’t be seen on this mat by other players, which are called Hidden Zones. Zones that are visible to both players are considered Public Zones. For example, the zones above would be considered Public Zones. We’ll get into more detail on that later. I just thought that it was worth mentioning it is in the actual rule book.

As we’ve done in previous zone posts, we’ll start with the field at the top of the list and work our way down. The first zone (Public Zone) is known as the Field.

The Field Zone is where your characters (Forwards and Monsters) are placed and played, always face up. But, just because they are face-up, doesn’t mean they are always active. In order for your cards/characters to be active, they must be both face-up and positioned vertically (upwards). If they are dulled, you must position them horizontally (sideways). Think of the tapped and untapped positions used in MTG.

Next, we have the Damage Zone that is on the left side of the mat. In fact, it takes up quite a bit of space, and for good reason. Whenever you take damage, you take the top card of your deck and place it in this zone, facing up. Once you reach 7 cards in this zone, you lose the game automatically. It’s actually pretty similar to Digimon and Pokemon. According to the rule book, “if any card with the EX Burst icon is revealed and placed in the Damage Zone, you can choose whether or not to trigger the Ex Burst and use the effect of the card. If two or more damage is dealt in a row, cards are drawn and placed in the Damage Zone consecutively.”

Furthermore, “if a card with the EX Burst icon is drawn and placed in the Damage Zone while there are still further damage cards to draw, the EX Burst effects are resolved before the next card is revealed unless multiple damage results from one same ability, in which case all damage is dealt first and any EX bursts are then resolved in order.” Again, it’s much like Digimon in this regard.

On the right side of the mat (in the bottom right corner) there is the Break Zone. This is your typical discard zone, where all broken characters, discards and cast summons are placed. Any items that are put in the break Zone can be checked by any player at any time during the game. So, it’s also a very Public Zone, as we discussed earlier. 

Lastly, we have the Deck Zone, which is simply a place to keep your deck throughout the game. Here, your deck is placed face down. Unless specified, you are not allowed to shuffle, draw a card or look into your deck. Attempting to draw from your deck when it is empty will result in you losing the game. 

I mentioned the Removed from play/Out of game area, which again doesn’t count as zone and isn’t even marked on our mats, but I wanted to be clear on what it is and how the game describes them. It's basically the same as the Exile Zone from MTG. Any cards removed from play are not placed to be placed in any Public/Visible Zone. Instead, they are removed from the play area altogether for the remainder of the game, so that they may never return to the game until it is over. I just thought you should know, in case you were curious.

I hope you enjoyed learning more about our Final Fantasy Card Zone upgrade as much as I did. Again, I wanted to make this as easy and fun to read as possible (just like the previous zone blogs in this series), which is why I left it short and sweet. However, if you wish to read the rulebook for yourself, you can do so by clicking here. And if you have any other questions, you can leave them for me in the comments below. 

This is the sixth playmat zone upgrade out of the seven that we offer (so far). That means we have...ONE Playmat Zone upgrade left. I look forward to covering DBS in my next and final zone post.

Until we meet again,

Vince The Prince