Bleach TCG

Bleach TCG Rulebook

Table of Contents

How to Win

You win the game the instant your opponent's guardian has 0 power. Power is the "life force" of a guardian. When your guardian's power is gone – so are you.

You also win by emptying your opponent's deck. Victory occurs as soon as your opponent tries to draw, discard or remove a card from his deck and cannot.

How a Turn Works

A turn is the three steps that a player goes through. Each step is like its own world, with its own rules. When it's your turn, you act in all three steps and your opponent responds to your actions. The three steps are:

Resource
Main
End

Let's Look at the Cards

Guardian Cards

A guardian card represents the Bleach persona you are playing. Guardians start the game in play and never leave the play area.

Power: This is your guardian's power. When it reaches zero, you lose the game – so stay strong!
Energy: These values are the three kinds of energy you store in your side deck: mind, body and spirit. (The example guardian, Kaname & Sajin, must come to the game with a side deck of 4 mind energy cards, 8 body energy cards and 8 spirit energy cards.)
Game Effect: This is an effect this guardian can use during the game.

Energy Cards

Energy cards create the resources you need to play cards and do other game effects. Energy cards appear in a separate deck of cards called a "side deck."

To play an energy card, pick up your side deck and look at any cards in it, and choose any energy card you want to play. You can choose to play a mind energy, body energy or spirit energy card. Place that energy card into play face-up and then return your side deck to its facedown position. Energy cards can be in any order inside your side deck.

To deplete an energy card, you turn it 90 degrees. Each renewed (vertical) energy card represents one unit of energy. You can only deplete energy cards if you are paying for an effect, attack, defend or to satisfy a game condition.

Character Cards

Like guardians, character cards are made up of Bleach personas, but they enter play from your hand. You play your character cards during your Main Step. Characters are the cards you attack and defend with.

Title: Every card has a title. The large type is the name of the character. The smaller type is the version of that character. Both of them together are the title of the card.
Stats: When you attack or defend, you use one of these stats.
Traits: Traits are labels that cards get to show what groups of cards they belong to. If a card affects Cute characters, then Ichigo would be included because he has the "Cute" trait.
Effect: Many cards have effects that enhance how you play.

Item Cards

Need a Zanpaku-to? Pick one up! Item cards represent physical things that appear in Bleach. When you play an item you "attach" it to a character card by placing it under it, with the text box still showing. You play items in your Main Step.

Boost Value: Every card in your Draw Deck has a boost value.
Cost: This is the cost of the card to play it. To play this card, you need to deplete 1 mind and 1 spirit energy.
Card Effect: These effects are used during the game as described by the card.

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds represent the different places in the Bleach anime. You play battlegrounds during your Main Step. Battlegrounds stay in play until they are discarded or removed from the game.

Play Battlegrounds Horizontally: Battlegrounds are played in a horizontal position.
First Edition Symbol: If a card comes from the first printing of its release, it has this symbol.

Events

Events represent the plot twists and surprises in Bleach. To play an event, you deplete the required energy cards, play the event from your hand, use its effect, and discard it. Events are some of the most powerful cards in the game and can be played at any time!

Card Type: Each card reveals its type at the bottom of the text box.
Card Numbers: These numbers help you keep track of your collection.
Expansion Symbol: This icon tells you what expansion this card came from.

Learn to Play Fast

What's the fastest way to learn? The online demo! Go to www.OfficialBleachTCG.com and follow along.

Game Basics

The Golden Rule: Some cards are so powerful that they break the rules of the game. When a card contradicts a rule in the rulebook, the card is always right!

Playing an Energy Card From Your Side Deck: Energy cards are stored in a separate deck of cards called a "side deck." This deck contains only the amounts of energy as listed on your Guardian's card on the left side. You can look at your side deck at any time.

To play an energy card during the Resource Step, you look through your side deck and choose any energy card you want to play. Then you play the chosen energy card face-up.

Depleting a Card: Many game effects are based on you "depleting" a card. When you deplete a card, you turn it 90 degrees so that it's horizontal. Depleting creates several effects in the game. When you deplete energy cards, you spend 1 energy for each energy card you deplete. When you attack or defend, you deplete a character card as a cost to attack or defend. You also deplete cards to use some card effects. You cannot deplete a card that is already depleted.

Figure captions (page 10): RENEWED / DEPLETED — a renewed card is upright; a depleted card is turned horizontal.

Renewing a Card: When you renew a depleted card, you turn it back to a vertical position.

How to Play a Card: Playing a card is the act of paying the cost of a card to play it into the play area. For example, to play the character card Ichigo-Defensive, you must deplete 1 mind energy, 1 body energy, and 1 spirit energy to play him from your hand into the play area.

Putting a Card in Play: Some effects have you "put a card in play." When you put a card in play you place it in the play area without paying its cost. This action is not considered "playing" a card.

Hand Size: There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand.

How to Boost: Boosting is discarding cards from your hand that have a boost value that matches your defending or attacking stat in a battle. Boosting a card is not considered "playing" a card. When an effect increases a stat, it does not count as boosting even though it increases the value of the stat. The player who attacked gets the first opportunity to boost.

Example: If your Byakuya-Nearly Untouchable attacks with Fortitude of 8 and then you boost that Fortitude by 2 by discarding "Friendly Rivalry", the total Fortitude for that attack is 10.

How Do You Win a Battle?

When you attack with a character, you attack with a base stat that appears on your character card. You win the battle if your stat exceeds your opponent's. There are six stats and each character card has up to three of them.

Strength (STR)
Intelligence (INT)
Fortitude (FOR)
Quickness (QCK)
Agility (AGI)
Spiritual Pressure (SPP)

To attack, you declare an attack, choose a stat and deplete one of your characters by turning it 90 degrees.

Your opponent can defend against the attack by depleting one of his characters that has the same stat as the attack. Otherwise, his guardian takes the damage. If your opponent has declared a defender, you both can boost your stats to higher levels. How? By discarding cards from your hand that have a boost value that matches your attacking stat, and by your opponent discarding cards from his hand that have a boost value that matches his defending stat.

If your opponent did not declare a defender, then you attack his Guardian directly and you can boost your attack as high as your cards will allow you to.

When both players pass as their action in the battle, the battle ends and you see which character won the battle. There are three possible outcomes:

The attacker's final stat is bigger than the defender's stat. If this happens the defending character is discarded after taking damage equal to his final stat. After that, the remaining damage hits your opponent's guardian as power damage! (Example: an 8 Fortitude attack against a 2 Fortitude defender discards the defender and deals 6 damage to the guardian.)
The attacker's final stat equals the defender's stat. If this happens, both characters are discarded.
The attacker's final stat is lower than the defender's stat. If this happens, the attacking character is discarded, but the difference in the stat value does NOT deal damage to the attacker's guardian.

What Happens When Your Opponent Doesn't Assign a Defender? You attack your opponent directly and you can boost your stat as high as you want. His guardian takes all the power damage!

The Three Steps of a Turn

1. The Resource Step

In this step, you get the stuff you need to attack your opponent and to defend later. Do the entire step in the following order:

Renew your depleted cards.
Draw a card from the top of your deck (NOTE: The player who goes first doesn't draw a card on turn one).
Draw another card or choose and play an energy card from your side deck.
Draw another card or choose and play an energy card from your side deck.

After you have done these three steps in order, you go to the Main Step.

Example: It's your turn. You enter the Resource Step. First, you renew all your depleted cards by turning them to a vertical position. Second, you draw a card from the top of your deck. Third, you choose to either draw another card or play an energy card from your side deck. Fourth, you can draw another card, or play an energy card of your choice from your side deck. After you have done these four things, you go to the Main Step.

2. The Main Step

This is the step where everything explodes! Unlike the last step, you can do any of these actions in any order as often as you can or want. Your opponent does NOT do these things, but may respond to your actions with card effects or by playing events from his hand.

A. Play a card. If you play a card, you deplete its energy cost and place it into the play area. You can play character cards, battleground cards, items and events.

B. Attack! Declare an attack and choose which character and stat you are attacking with, then deplete that character.

C. Pass. If you pass this step, you go to the end step.

Example: It's still your turn. You enter the Main Step. Now you can do any of the three choices in this step in any order.

You play a card! You choose first to play the battleground, Relaxing Hot Springs. You pay its cost and place it into the play area.

You play another card! You play Ichigo by depleting energy to pay for his cost and then play Ichigo face-up.

You attack! You choose to attack with the Byakuya you played last turn. You declare an attack, choose the fortitude stat and then deplete Byakuya to attack with his 8 fortitude. Your opponent defends with Ichigo and depletes Ichigo to defend with his fortitude stat of 2. You boost Byakuya's fortitude to 9 by discarding a card from your hand that has a Fortitude boost value of 1. Your opponent chooses to boost Ichigo to 4 fortitude by discarding two cards that have a fortitude boost values of 1. Your opponent chooses to pass. You pass and the battle ends. You compare stats and Byakuya is ahead 9 fortitude to 4 fortitude. Byakuya first deals 4 fortitude to Ichigo and Ichigo is discarded. The remaining 5 fortitude now becomes power damage and hits your opponent's guardian and lowers his power by 5. Now you can choose to either attack again, play another card or pass.

3. The End Step

In this step, the active player changes to the player to your left. The turn ends and it becomes your opponent's turn. Any effects that last until the end of the turn now end.

Example: You enter the end step. Your opponent becomes the active player and the turn ends. Any effects that last until the end of the turn now end. It's your opponent's turn.

Beginning a New Game

First Thing – Get a Deck! A deck is made of a 60 card draw deck plus 1 guardian card plus a side deck that contains the exact amount of energy listed on your guardian. Your draw deck can only have 4 copies of any one card. Some cards are limited to a certain number of copies per deck. Such cards will say "Limit 1 copy per deck" or something similar.

Setting Up

First place your guardian on the playmat in the space marked "Guardian."

Next shuffle your deck and offer your opponent a chance to cut. After that, place your deck in the area of your playmat marked "Deck." Take your side deck of energy cards and place them in the area marked "side deck."

Flip a coin or roll a die with your opponent. The winner gets to choose who takes the first turn.

Both players draw five cards. If a player doesn't like his hand, he can place the cards at the bottom of his deck and draw five more cards. You can only do this once per game. The player who goes first does not draw the first card for his first turn.

How the Cards Work

Character Cards

When you play a character card as an action in your Main Step, you deplete the required energy to play the card and place it in the play area face-up. Character cards are Unique by default. This means you cannot have more than one copy of them in play unless they have the trait "Non-Unique." You can also play character cards that match your guardian.

Overlaying. If you want, you can play a different version of a Unique character you already have in play. This is called "overlaying." To overlay a character card, pay its cost and replace the current version of that character with the new version by discarding the prior version plus any of its attachments. When you overlay a character card, it enters play in the same renewed/depleted state as the character it replaced. Overlaid characters cannot attack on the turn you play them.

Squad Affiliation. Some character cards have a squad symbols printed on them on opposite sides of the trait bar. When a card effect targets a character from a specific squad, use the back of the rulebook to reference these symbols to see if characters belong to that squad. (Example: a character showing the kanji 五 belongs to Squad 5.)

Using Character Cards. Character cards cannot deplete to attack unless they were in play at the start of your turn. You also cannot deplete a character card to use its effect unless it was in play at the start of your turn.

If a character card has an effect that does NOT require you to deplete the character to use it, you can use that effect any time the character is in play. And you can deplete a character to defend against an attack anytime that character is in play.

When you use an effect that requires you to deplete your character, you deplete your character by turning it sideways and then deplete any energy required and pay any other kind of costs, and then use the effect as described by the effect's text.

Attacking with a Character. When you are the active player, you may attack with a character by depleting it and declaring what stat you are attacking with as long as that character was in play at the start of your turn.

Defending Against an Attack. When you defend with a character, deplete it if you have a stat that matches the attacking stat of your opponent. YOU CAN ALWAYS DEPLETE A RENEWED CHARACTER TO DEFEND AGAINST AN ATTACK, EVEN IF THAT CHARACTER JUST ENTERED PLAY.

Item Cards

When you play an item, you deplete the required energy to play it and then place it under a character card in your play area. You must have a character in your party to play an item card. Placing an item under a character card is called "attaching" an item.

Effects on Items. Some items create a constant effect that is always active in the game. Other items have activated effects that require you to pay a cost before you can use its effect. Unlike characters, you can deplete items for their effects on the same turn you play them.

Battleground Cards

To play a battleground, you pay its cost and put it into the play area. You can have multiple battlegrounds in play. Your opponent can also play battlegrounds.

Event Cards

Events are the wild cards of the game. Events can be played almost anytime in the game depending on their game text. If an event has a specific time it can be played, it will tell you in its game text exactly when you can play it. To play an event, you deplete its required energy cost, play it from your hand use its effect and then discard it. Some events have effects that have an additional cost that you must pay to use the effect. If so, it will be in bold.

Some events contain the power of BANKAI! They are described in the "What's New" Section.

What's New in the Bleach TCG?

Bankai Events. When you play an event that has the trait "Bankai" you place it under your guardian card. This is called "attaching" a card. Your guardian gets to use that event's effect as long as it is attached. Bankai cards are limited one attached copy per Guardian character.

Bankai events only attach to the guardians that they name in their card text.

Some guardians have two characters on them. Those cards can attach two Bankai events, one for each character.

Side Deck. You can now put normal cards into your side deck in place of energy on a 1-to-1 ratio. When you are playing in a best of 3 or higher format then you may switch out these cards from your side deck with cards of your choice from your main deck in between games. Now you can add cards to counter other decks you might face, as well as add in surprises that your opponent may not expect.

How a Side Deck Works. Energy cards in your side deck are played face up in their stack and any non-energy cards are face down in the same stack on the bottom. The number of non-energy cards in your side deck is public information. The number of cards you are switching between games is public information. But the game cards you have in your side deck are not public information.

NOTE: You cannot switch cards at the beginning of the first game of any match. At the end of the match, you must switch the cards back to their respective decks before facing another player.

Example: You are playing as Soi Fon. Her side deck contains 7 mind, 5 body and 8 spirit energy. You choose to keep 4 copies of the card I'm Sorry in your side deck, and so you choose to play with 5 mind, 5 body and 6 spirit to allow your side deck to hold 4 copies of I'm Sorry. Your four copies of I'm Sorry are kept face down at the bottom of your side deck and your energy cards are kept face up on top of your side deck.

Keyword Effects: Bankai Edition offers two keyword effects: "Aggressive" and "Defensive." When you see these words in bold inside game text, it means the character they are printed on has that ability.

Aggressive: If a character has this keyword, they can attack the turn they enter play. And if that character has an effect that you deplete to use, it can deplete to use that effect on the turn it enters play.

Example (Aggressive): You play Kenpachi, Taking All Challengers. Since Kenpachi has "Aggressive" you now attack with Kenpachi, Taking All Challengers rather than waiting until the next turn to attack. (Kenpachi's card text: "Aggressive. ◆ When you attack with Kenpachi, you may search your deck for a Squad 11 character and put it on top of your deck.")

Defensive: If a character has this keyword, then when that character defends in a battle, all of its stats gain a bonus equal to the number next to "Defensive." Any additional value added to a stat from the use of this effect is separate from the base value of the stat.

Example (Defensive): Your opponent attacks with Kon, Karakura King using quickness 8. You defend with Chojiro, Squad 1 Lieutenant. His Quickness is 4 and he has Defensive 3. So you add his Defensive 3 to every one of his stats. This makes his Quickness 7. Now you discard a boost of 2 quickness to take the lead 9 to 8! (Chojiro's card text: "Defensive 3. ◆ When Chojiro leaves play, you may discard a Squad 1 character from your hand. If you do, you may draw a card.")

The Queue

Event cards and activated effects occur the instant they are played or used. So if you play an event card, its effect happens RIGHT THEN. But what happens if you and your opponent have several event cards and activated cards you want to play? If they all happen at the same time how do you sort them out? The answer is "the queue."

If you are new to the game, don't worry about the Queue for now. Odds are you won't need it for a while. But when you get a little more advanced, you will find it useful. To find out more about it hit our web site and go to our Advanced Rules Document to get all the information on the mysterious and powerful queue. It's a little heady, but once you get it, it makes the game even more fun.

How the Queue works. The queue happens when one or more players use effects that happen right away. Even though the effects happen "right away," a player can still respond with his or her own effect that happens "right away." This situation creates a series of suspended effects that resolve in a "last in first out" fashion.

You may think, "Wait a minute, you can respond to my effect that happens 'right away' with YOUR effect that happens 'right away?'"

Yes. That's what we are saying.

Anytime an event or activated effect is played or used, a queue is created for these kinds of effects, even if it is just one card deep.

(The printed diagram shows the effects of cards as they are played, as a stack of boxes.)

Example: You declare an attack with Kenpachi, Taking All Comers with FOR 2 and then deplete Kenpachi. You opponent defends by depleting his card Aramaki Maki Maki to block and he depletes Aramaki to block with him. After Aramaki becomes a defender, you play the event card Golden Cannonball, which adds +4 FOR to your Kenpachi's attack for a total of 6 FOR. Your opponent better think fast. Because if he lets this card go through, your Kenpachi is going to walk all over his Aramaki 6 FOR to 1.

Now whenever a player plays a card, declares an attack or activates an ability, the opposing player gets a chance to respond. But note: Your responses can also be responded to also. In response to you playing Golden Cannonball, your opponent plays Passing Over. Passing Over discards a depleted character from play, and since you had to deplete Kenpachi to attack, your opponent can use this card to remove your Kenpachi from the battle! That would be bad because Kenpachi couldn't pummel Aramaki then. But you respond by playing Reality Check. Reality Check cancels any effect in the queue that happened before it was played.

(The printed diagram stacks the queue in this order, top to bottom: Reality Check, Passing Over, Golden Cannonball.)

Resolving the queue: Since your opponent is out of energy and has no cards in his hand, or any activated abilities to add to the Queue, the Queue starts to resolve, starting with what was most recently played. Reality Check removes Events or Activated Abilities from the Queue. Naturally, you cancel your opponent's Passing Over to keep your Kenpachi in play. Since Passing Over doesn't occur because it was cancelled by your Reality Check, it's discarded and your attack goes through with a FOR of 6 because of the effect of your Golden Cannonball. Even though your opponent tried to stop Kenpachi's mighty attack by removing him from the battle, you used the Queue to make sure the beats went through!

Reality Check (Cancels any effect in the Queue)
Passing Over (Discards a depleted character)
Golden Cannonball (Gain +4 to fortitude)

Deck Construction

Guardian: You play with only one guardian card.
Draw Deck Size: Each draw deck must be exactly 60 cards. If you are storing cards additional cards for your draw deck in your side deck, the cards in your side deck do NOT count toward the 60 cards in your draw deck.
Side Deck: Your side deck contains an amount of energy cards that exactly matches the number of energy cards printed on your guardian. (Example: the side deck for Soi Fon contains 7 mind, 5 body and 8 spirit energy.)
New Side Deck Rule: Starting with Bankai edition, you can replace any energy cards in your side deck with extra game cards that normally reside in your draw deck. Cards in your side deck must also follow the rules for card limits. So you cannot have 4 Reality Checks in your deck and 2 Reality Checks in your side deck.

You can replace any of these energy cards with cards that are legal for your Draw Deck.

Card Limits: You are limited to four copies of any card in your deck unless the card limits itself. Some cards are limited to a set number of copies per deck. Such cards will say "Limit 1 copy per deck" or something similar. Card limits still apply to cards inside your side deck.

Character cards in your draw deck or side deck can match your guardian, and you can have several different versions of a character.

For example, you can have an Ichigo Kurosaki guardian card and have 4 copies of the character card Ichigo-Defensive and 4 copies of the character card Ichigo-to the Rescue.

The Advanced Rulings Document and Clarification & Errata Document

Hit our web site to find supporting information for advanced play. If you want to compete, you need go get familiar with the Advanced Rulings Document and the Clarification & Errata Document. These docs go into more detail about the game as well as keep you abreast of cards that have either been updated or that require clarification.

Glossary

Activated Effect: A dormant effect that enters the game when you choose to use it. Most activated effects require you to pay a cost to use them. The context of the card will reveal to you if it's an activated effect or not.

Active Player: The active player is the player that has the current turn and that can perform actions in all three steps.

Aggressive Keyword: Characters that have the keyword "Aggressive" in bold can attack and use their deplete abilities the turn they come into play.

Attaching Cards: The act of "attaching" a card is to place it under the card it is attached to with the game text revealed.

Attack: The act of depleting a character card to attack your opponent's guardian with a stat appearing on that character's card.

Bankai Events: Some event cards have the trait "Bankai." These event cards are called "Bankai." When you play these events, they attach to your guardian card and provide a lasting game effect. Each Bankai attaches only to one guardian and the card will tell you which one. You may have 1 attached Bankai for each character on your guardian.

Boosting: Boosting is placing cards from your hand into your discard pile that have a boost value that matches your defending or attacking stat in a battle. Boosting a card is not considered "playing" a card or "discarding" a card. When an effect increases a stat, it does not count as boosting even though it increases the value of the stat.

Cherry Picking Rule: When a card lets you search for a card, you must reveal the card you searched for to your opponent.

Colon: Everything to the left of a colon in bold text is a cost you must pay to use the effect printed to the right of that colon.

Constant Effect: A constant effect that is always in use. The context of the card's text will reveal to you if it's a constant effect or not.

Control: The cards you have on your playmat that are not in a deck are the cards you control.

Defend: The act of depleting a character card to protect your guardian from an attacking character.

Defensive Keyword: A character that has the keyword "Defensive" followed by a number (for example: Defensive 3), gains that number as a bonus to all stats while defending in a battle. This effect is also cumulative. If your character has "Defensive 3" and gains "Defensive 1" then it is now "Defensive 4."

Deplete: The act of turning a card 90 degrees so that it's horizontal. A depleted card cannot deplete again until it is renewed.

Diamonds: Diamonds are used in game text to separate effects on a card. Each effect is its own entity.

Do What You Can Rule: Except for costs and effects that are conditional, if an effect tells you to do something you cannot (or can only partially) do, do what you can and continue play.

Energy Cards: These are resources you deplete to gain the energy to play and use cards. You cannot deplete an Energy card unless there is an effect or card you are using or playing. When you deplete energy you aren't "creating" energy, you are using energy up. So as soon as you deplete an energy, it is gone. You cannot deplete energy unless you are paying for the cost of an effect or card.

Energy Cost: When a card effect uses the word "energy cost" it refers to the total amount of energy a card costs:

Example: A card that costs 1 body energy, 1 spirit energy and 1 mind energy has an energy cost of 3. Energy cost ALWAYS is a sum of the printed values on a card and not the actual costs that were paid to play it.

Enters Play: A card "enters play" when it is placed into the play area because it was either played or put into play.

Floating Effects: An ongoing effect that is separate from the card that created it and that lasts a period of time as defined by the card.

In Play: A card is in play if it is in either the play area or the energy row or the guardian space.

Limiting Text: If an effect or card is limited, then it has a restriction to its use either in deck construction or in play. Such effects will read like "Limit 1 copy per deck" or "Limit once per turn."

Most Recent Printing Rule: Except for energy cards, if 2 or more cards share the same title, then the text, number and all other symbols of that card are to be read as they appear on the most recent printing (MRP) of that card. This rule does not apply for guardian cards.

Non-Unique: A card that has the trait "Non-Unique" can have multiple copies of itself in play on your side of the table.

Overlay: The act of playing a character card to replace one that has the same name as a character you have in play, but is a different version of that character. When you discard an overlaid character, all its attached cards go to their owners' discard pile. The new card enters play in the same state as the previous card.

Ownership: Players "own" the cards that they bring to the game. When cards are discarded or removed from the game, they always revert to their owner's discard pile or removed from the game pile.

Parenthesis: Some effects on cards happen outside the normal timing of the game (like cards that are "Limit 1 copy per deck.") Such effects appear in parentheses.

Playing a Card: When you play a card, you pay its cost and place it into the play area.

Plural Rule: Card titles and traits that are referenced in a plural form also target the singular form of those cards.

Power: Power is the "life force" of your guardian. A guardian's power can go above its printed power, but it can never go below zero.

Priority: When using the Queue, priority is the right of a player to play and use cards and effects.

Priority Window: The time frame during the game where a Queue occurs.

Putting a Card in Play: Putting a card in play is not considered playing a card. When an effects "puts a card in play," you do not pay its cost to play it or use any cards or effects that are used when a card is "played."

Queue: A mechanic designed to handle effects that occur "at the same time."

Random Card Selection: If a player is instructed to randomly choose a card from his or her hand, the player who is getting the card discarded shuffles their hand any way they wish and holds it with the back of his or her cards facing the opponent. The opponent then chooses any card from that hand and completes the effect's instructions.

Renew: The act of turning a card 90 degrees so that it's vertical.

Shuffling: Randomizing a deck of cards in such a way that the order of the cards within it are unknown.

Side Deck: Deck where a player stores energy cards as well as any additional game cards that he may want to use after the first game. Game cards in a side deck fill the space in the side deck normally held by energy cards.

Squad Affiliation: Some character cards have a squad symbols printed on them on opposite sides of the trait bar. When a card effect targets a character from a specific squad, use the back of the rulebook to reference these symbols to see if characters belong to that squad.

Stat-Switching Rule: Some cards switch the attacking or defending stat in a battle. When that happens, you can only boost that new stat with boosts that match it. For example, your opponent attacks with AGI and you switch your defending stat to STR. That means your opponent will compare his AGI to your STR instead of your AGI. You can only boost your STR with cards that boost STR.

When an effect switches your attacking or defending stat to a stat you have printed on a character, you use the new stat's numeric value instead of the former stat's numeric value. If an effect switches your attacking or defending stat to a stat you do not have on your character, the stat you switch to gets the numeric value of the former stat.

Trait: A trait is a keyword appearing on cards in the box above its game text. Each trait counts as a category that the card belongs to. Traits are capitalized in game text and are used as a reference to cards that have that trait.

Example: "Choose a Good character in play…" could choose the card Ichigo, Substitute Soul Reaper because it has the "Good" trait.

Triggered Effect: An effect that comes into use the instant a specific condition is met. The context of the card's text will reveal to you if it's a triggered effect or not.

Unique: Except for events, each card on your side of the play area is unique while it is in play. You can only have multiple copies of a card in play if it has the trait "Non-Unique" in the trait bar. Each card that doesn't have the "Non-Unique" trait is "unique" by default.

Using a Card: Some cards are used after they are put into play. You can use a card as many times as you can pay for it in a turn.

Versions: The part of a character's title that denotes a different version of that character.

Example: In the card Ichigo, Substitute Soul Reaper, the words "Substitute Soul Reaper" are the version of the card.

Zero and Negative Numbers: If an effect reduces a stat or other value in the game below 0, that number counts as "0" when comparing to other numbers in the game. This means that an -3 SPP is treated as "0." If SPP gets +1 then it becomes a -2 SPP that is treated as 0 SPP.

The Attack Phase

When you choose to attack, use this handy method.

Begin the Attack: Declare your attack by naming your attacking character and the attacking stat. If at any time during the attack, the attacker cannot continue to legally attack in any part of this Phase, the attack ends. If the defender is no longer able to legally defend, the Attack Phase continues as normal.

"I attack you with Ichigo with his Spirit Pressure – SPP."

(A Priority Window Opens – In this window, you would use effects that prevent someone from attacking, such as depleting the proposed attacker.)

Deplete the Attacking Character – that character is now attacking. (A Priority Window Opens – This window begins with effects that trigger off of when a character attacks. In this window, you would use effects that would keep someone from possibly defending with a character, such as depleting them.)
Opponent declares what character he wants to defend with (if any) and depletes that character. (A Priority Window Opens)
Battle begins (even if the opponent didn't defend with a character). Starting with the attacking player, he or she may do the following. (These choices can be done more than once in a battle but not at the same time.):

A. Boost a characters stat in a battle. (A Priority Window Opens)

B. Play an event card. (A Priority Window Opens)

C. Use an activated effect on a card in play. (A Priority Window Opens)

D. Pass. When both players pass consecutively as their action in battle and there are no effects remaining to be resolved in the queue, then you go to 4.
Stats lock on attacking character and defending character. Define which character wins the battle and loses the battle (or if both lose) by comparing their final stats. (A Priority Window Opens – This window begins with effects that trigger off of a character winning or losing a battle.)
If the attacker's stat is higher than the defender's, the difference is dealt as power damage to the Guardian. Characters are not dealt damage. (A Priority Window Opens)

Squad Symbols

Many cards now feature squad symbols. Use this page to see which squad is being referenced. Each squad symbol is shown with its kanji numeral and its number:

Symbol	Squad
一	Squad 1
二	Squad 2
三	Squad 3
四	Squad 4
五	Squad 5
六	Squad 6
七	Squad 7
八	Squad 8
九	Squad 9
十	Squad 10
十一	Squad 11
十二	Squad 12
十三