How to play

The rules, as short as they go

Short on purpose. Every rule and every number is on the reference page, and you can ask it a question there.

Two players, one deck each. A match runs to three rounds and the first to win two takes it. Each round goes to the higher total power on the board — and every unit is locked to one of three sections, which is what turns building that power into a decision. Below: the board, the card, and everything the game actually contains.

The board, annotated

This is the game's own schematic, from the glossary in the client. Pick a part of the board and the page on the right explains it.

Pick a marker
on the board

The board

thirteen parts, marked

Three territories, two players, and one rule that decides everything: a unit goes where its affiliation says and nowhere else.

The illustrations are the game's own. Only the Total Power wording is taken from the game itself; the rest is descriptive. Player rank is left off deliberately, since ranked play is switched off.

Where a card is allowed to go

The affiliation on a card is not a suggestion. Six rows, three sections, one row each side — and a card can only enter the section it belongs to. Play a card and watch the other two close, and the score on the right move.

Try a turn

Drag a card onto a row — or tap the card, then the row. Only one row will take it, and the number on the right is the whole score.

Opponent

Intelligence

Agility

Strength

You

Strength

Agility

Intelligence

66 Opponent Pass 68 You

Your hand

Pick a card, and the board will show you the one row that takes it.

What goes in a deck

Three kinds of card, and 242 of them in total.

Units

The body of every deck. Each unit carries one affiliation, and that decides the only section it can be placed in.

Heroes

One hero per deck, and each of the seven has an ability nobody else has. Choosing the hero is the first decision you make about a deck.

Spells

Played for effect rather than for presence on the board.

Anatomy of a card

A card carries everything a placement decision needs: what it is worth, where it is allowed to go, and what it does once it is there. This is a real card from the game — Innkeeper, a Humans card carrying the Strength affiliation, which is the clearest way to see that the two are not the same thing.

Innkeeper — a Humans card carrying the Strength affiliation

1 Power What the card contributes to its section. The number you are weighing when you decide whether a section is worth contesting.

2 Affiliation Intelligence, Agility or Strength. Not a suggestion — it is the only section this card is allowed to enter.

3 Art window The painted illustration, masked to the frame’s window. Every card in the game is painted, none generated.

4 Name and epithet Two lines, because the game names cards in the form "Kal’zactim, the Malignant".

5 Ability A keyword and one or two lines of rule text. Heroes carry an ability nobody else has; units carry the shorter kind.

6 Faction mark Carried by the frame itself, not a badge: blue for Humans, green for Nature, orange for Monsters, silver for Mercenaries. The power orb is tinted to match.

7 Rarity One of five, carried as an emblem across the foot of the card. Governs how the card is found, crafted, fused and salvaged.

The three affiliation marks

The game's own marks. One sits on every unit card, and it is the only thing that decides where the card can go.

Strength Section 1

Agility Section 2

Intelligence Section 3

Seven heroes, one per deck

Each carries a unique ability, and the hero you pick is the first decision you make about a deck. Four of the seven illustrations are ready for the web.

Archmage Leshar Illustration 1 of 4

General Jandor Illustration 2 of 4

Lord Hyperion Illustration 3 of 4

Prophetess Illustration 4 of 4

Factions and counts

Build an army with Monsters, use powerful spells with Humans, or control the battlefield with Nature. Mercenaries are a shared pool rather than a faction you commit to.

The Select a Race screen, with the Humans, Monsters and Nature crests — A new deck starts here. Mercenaries are not on the screen: any of the three can hire them.

75 Humans Powerful spells. The largest set of cards in the game.

60 Nature Battlefield control.

55 Monsters Army building, in numbers.

52 Mercenaries A shared pool. Any deck can hire them.

242 playable cards in total

Where to play it

Three modes, all of them working today.

3acts

Campaign

Single-player, three acts of five chapters each, with painted story cutscenes between them.

5tiers

Adventure

Escalating difficulty against the AI. Where you find out whether a deck holds up.

1v1unranked

Online

Matches against other players.

Friend battles are built and currently being tested. There is no ranked ladder. It is deliberately switched off until there are enough players for it to mean anything.

How a match is won

Three rounds, one hand, and a single number that settles each of them. Every figure below is read from the game itself.

The match is best of three

Win two rounds and it is over. A third round is played only when the first two are split.
A round goes to the higher total power

Not to whoever holds the most sections — every unit you have on the board is added into one number, and the larger number wins the round. Level totals credit the round to both players, which can end a match on the spot.
Ten cards, and almost no refills

You open with ten. You draw two more at the start of round two, and two at the start of round three. That is the whole match. Anything you spend winning a round is gone for the next one, which is why passing early is a real move rather than a surrender.
The board empties between rounds

Every unit on the battlefield goes to the graveyard when a round ends. Power does not carry; cards left in hand do.
A turn is one thing, and passing ends yours

Play a card or use your hero’s ability — the ability costs the turn, exactly as a card would, so you never do both. There is no cap on how many cards you may play across a round; the round runs until you stop. But pass and you are done for it, while your opponent carries on alone for as long as they like.
A card can only enter its own section

Affiliation is not a suggestion. A unit marked Agility enters Agility or it is not played at all — and each section holds six per side, so the room to build runs out.

The opening hand, with ten cards fanned out, a Redraw button with three left and a Confirm button with its countdown — The opening hand. Ten cards, up to three of them swapped before the match starts, on a 50-second clock.

The board after the opponent has passed, 24 against 50, with four cards still in hand — Your opponent has passed on 24. You carry on alone until you pass as well — and the four cards still in your hand go into the next round.

10opening hand

3swaps before the match

1swap each later round

2cards drawn each later round

6units per section, per side

10hand limit

What a legal deck holds

20–28 units
6–14 spells
1 hero, chosen separately
at most 4 Mythical and 10 Unique cards

Who moves first is decided by a coin toss. The player who loses the toss opens round two; the player who won it opens round three.

Between matches

What carries over when a match ends.

Collection Every card you own, across all factions.

Crafting Make the card you wanted instead of the one you found.

Fusion Combine cards into stronger versions.

Quests Objectives that pay out in currency and cards.

Chests Earned and bought, opened for cards.

Hero levelling Heroes gain levels as you play them.