Game Rules

Winning Objective
Victory is achieved by defeating your opponent's General (reducing from 25 Health to 0 Health).

Card Types

 * Battle Unit: Each Battle Unit has 4 features to them: Cost, Attack, Health, and Ability. Only Battle Units can move and attack on the battlefield (we use the term "Battle Unit" and "Minion" interchangeably).
 * Spell: Spells generally target empty tiles, minions, or globally. Spells applied to Minions are permanent (unless Dispelled).
 * Artifact: Only your General can equip Artifacts which grant your General unique abilities.  All Artifacts have a starting Durability of 3.  Whenever your General is damaged, the Artifact’s Durability is reduced by 1. Artifacts are destroyed once their Durability reaches 0.  Your General can wear up to 3 Artifacts at a time (and they can be identical). Artifact durability is displayed near its respective icon.

Deck Composition

 * Custom/Constructed: Each squad must be composed of exactly 40 total cards consisting of Battle Units, Spells, and Artifacts with a maximum of 3 copies of the same card.
 * You may pick Neutral Minions to complement your squad with no restrictions on Minion-Spell-Artifact ratios. You may only use minions that are neutral or associated with your faction.

Resource Costs

 * Cores are the primary resource cost for taking actions such as summoning Minions, casting Spells, and using Artifacts.
 * At the bottom of your screen is an Action Bar with 6 Active Slots. Each turn, 1 empty slot in your Action Bar is refilled and randomly drawn from your remaining deck. No cards will be drawn if you already have a full hand.
 * Minions and Spells that have already been played are permanently discarded from your deck.
 * Each turn, you may use the "Replace" button once which replaces and shuffles a card back into your deck and you draw a new card to replace it immediately (you cannot redraw the exact specific instance of the card you replaced).



Battle Units (Minions)

 * Summoning: Your minions on your Action Bar can be summoned around ANY of your friendly minions on the battlefield.
 * Your minion on the battlefield can only take 1 action per turn, unless they have the 'Celerity' ability, allowing them to take 2 actions per turn. An action is defined as a move, move-attack, or attack. A minion cannot attack and then move on that turn. Once A minion is summoned they are considered "exhausted" and cannot take an action on the same turn, unless the minion has the 'Rush' ability.
 * Movement: Minions on the battlefield can move up to 2 tiles per turn. Your minions can move through friendly minions but not through enemy minions. Flying minions can move anywhere on the battlefield.
 * Attack: Minions can only attack at nearby spaces (surrounding 8 tiles). Ranged minions can attack from anywhere on the battlefield without risking Strikeback, unless directly adjacent to the minion it is attacking or the defending unit has ranged as well.
 * Combat Resolution: Minions at 0 Health are immediately destroyed and removed from the battlefield. Whenever a minion or General is attacked, they will attack back (Strikeback) and "trade hits".
 * Facing: If you're Player 1 (starting on the left side), your summoned minions will always face right (-->). If you're Player 2 (starting on the right side), your minions will always face left (<--). There is no 'up' nor 'down' facing in our game, nor any way to change the position in which your minions face. Movement.png

Turn Sequence

 * Every match starts with 2 Cores for Player 1 and 3 Cores for Player 2.
 * At the beginning of your turn, your Total Cores will increment by 1 up to a maximum of 9 Total Cores.
 * Your turn ends when you have no actions left to complete.
 * You only have 90 seconds to complete your turn during live matches.
 * If you completely play all 40 of your cards (ie. deck out), your General will receive [-2] damage for each card they'd have to draw but cannot.

Terrain

 * A standard Battlefield consists of 5 x 9 tiles.
 * Player 1 starts on the left side and Player 2 starts on the right side of the Battlefield.
 * Tiles may offer temporary bonuses if your minion occupies the tile that turn (such as the +1 Mana Core Globe).
 * Tiles may incur environmental effects such as damage, healing, or global bonuses to your friendly/enemy minions.



Mulligan

 * At the start of the match, each player can mulligan their initial 5 cards.
 * Out of the 5 cards, each player can select two cards to mulligan (set aside) and the system will draw new cards from your deck to replace them (and randomly shuffle the mulligan'd cards back into your deck). *A dev explains here how the Mulligan works exactly.

Card Rarity

 * Basic cards cannot be disenchanted.
 * There are 5 Rarities: Basic (not displayed), Common (white), Rare (blue), Epic (purple), and Legendary (orange).

Minion Abilities - Quick Glossary

 * Airdrop: Summon this minion anywhere on the battlefield.
 * Backstab: This minion deals additional (X) damage when attacking from behind and doesn't incur strikeback.
 * Blast: Attacks all units in a line.
 * Celerity: This minion may activate twice per turn.
 * Deathwatch: Triggers an effect whenever ANY minion dies.
 * Dying Wish: Triggers an effect when this minion dies.
 * Ephemeral: Bound to this plane for only a short time (until end of owner's turn).
 * Flying: Move anywhere on the battlefield and ignore any terrain effects.
 * Frenzy: Simultaneously strike ALL enemies within attack range. Only take strikeback from the unit targetted.
 * Grow: Gain +X/+X at the start of your turn.
 * Opening Gambit: Triggers an effect when first summoned.
 * Provoke: Nearby enemy units cannot move AND they must attack it first.
 * Ranged: Attack from anywhere on the battlefield.
 * Rebirth: When this minion dies, it leaves behind a 0/1 Egg that hatches the same minion at the end of owner's next turn.
 * Rush: Enables this minion to move and attack on the same turn that it is summoned.
 * Summon Dervish: At the start of your turn, summon a 2/2 Ephemeral Dervish with Rush into a random nearby space.
 * Zeal: Gains bonus effect when next to your General.

Certain minions also have Unique Abilities that are specific to that unit alone.