Captain Tsubasa: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Example
• Match Set-Up
• First Match
• Play a Match
  • Kick Off
• 1st Half
  • Draw Phase
  • Attack Phase
  • Shooting/Passing Phase
  • Discard Phase
  • Injury Time
  • Halftime
• 2nd Half
• Winning the Match
• Extra Time
• Other Game Rules
  • Special Cards
  • Special Shots and Defenses
• Advanced Rules
  • Motivation Cards
  • Assured Success
  • Signings
• Acknowledgments
• Game Sequence
• Clarifications on Optional Abilities
• Credits

Components

• 24 Initial Cards — 12 for Nankatsu & 12 for Toho. Differentiated by a Silver Title.
• 8 Motivation Cards — 4 for Nankatsu & 4 for Toho. Differentiated by a Gold Title.
• 26 Match Cards — 13 from 1st Half & 13 from 2nd Half.
• 8 Fatigue Cards.
• 6 Special Shot Cards — 3 for Nankatsu & 3 for Toho.
• 6 Special Defense Cards — 3 for Nankatsu & 3 for Toho.
• 2 Yellow / Red Cards.
• 8 Signing Cards.
• 2 six-sided dice — 1 for Nankatsu & 1 for Toho. Consider N / T to be 6.
• 30 Action Tokens — 15 for Nankatsu & 15 for Toho. 5 for Shot, 5 for Pass, and 5 for Defense.
• 1 Ball Possession token.
• 1 Whistle to remember who made the kickoff.
• 1 Scoreboard for the goals.

Card Example

Each card carries:

1. Deck that corresponds to: 1st Half, 2nd Half, Nankatsu (N), or Toho (T).
2. Motivation / Signing values.
3. Values of: Shot, Pass, Defense.
4. Title — one of: Initial Cards, Motivation Cards, Match / Signing Cards.
5. Optional Ability 1.
6. Optional Ability 2.
7. Mandatory Action if it is used Optional Ability 1.

Match Set-Up

1. Separate the Match cards for each half, shuffle both decks of 13 cards separately and discard 1 randomly from each of them, placing them in the game box without looking at them.

   Place the deck of the 1st half between both Coaches and reveal the first 4 cards, placing them to one side of the deck to form the Football Pitch. Leave the deck of the 2nd half next to the box.

2. Place the Fatigue Cards and Yellow/Red Cards within reach of the Coaches.

3. Each Coach will take 5 Action tokens (Shot, Pass and Defense) to form their reserve.

4. Each Coach will take their Special Shot and Special Defense cards and place them near their Play Area.

5. Each Coach shuffles the 12 cards of their team (11 players and 1 fan) and places them face down in front of them, forming their Draw Deck.

First Match

For a first match, in case you want to play with children or a shorter and simplified game:

Remove the following cards marked with a white asterisk from the Match decks:

1st Half

• Control and Advance
• Advices from Kozo and Roberto
• Pursuing the Title
• Outstanding Save

2nd Half

• Control and Advance
• Motivation to Play for Japan
• Foul
• Substitution

Also remove the Fan cards of both teams and the Fatigue cards.

Then follow the game setup instructions from point 1 on page 4.

Play a Match

To play a match, the Coaches will face each other in a 1st half, after which there will be halftime and the 2nd and final half of the match will begin.

Kick Off

To determine who starts with Possession of the ball, flip the Ball Possession Marker. The winning team will decide whether to start the game or let the opposing Coach start.

The Coach whose team takes the kickoff will place the Ball Possession Marker in their Play Area and will be the Attacking Coach.

Additionally, the Coach will place the Whistle in their Play Area to indicate who kicked off in the first half.

The Coach who does not have possession of the ball will become the Defending Coach.

1st Half

Each of the two halves is played in the same way, with 6 rounds played consecutively until the Match Cards and Injury Time are over.

A round consists of:

Draw Phase

Each Coach draws from their Draw Deck until they have 4 cards and keeps them secret. If there are not enough cards in the deck, they draw as many as there are, shuffle the cards from their Discard Pile and create a new Draw Deck with which the 4-card hand will be completed.

If you start the round with 4 or more cards from the previous round, you do not draw cards.

The Defending Coach draws one of the 4 revealed Match Cards on the Football Pitch or, if they prefer, draws the top card from the hidden Match Deck and adds it to their hand, which will give them 5 cards.

The Attacking Coach draws one of the remaining revealed Match Cards on the Football Pitch or draws the top card from the hidden Match Deck and adds it to their hand.

Attack Phase

Starting with the Attacking Coach, each Coach takes a turn following these 2 steps in order:

1. Decide: a. Play 1 card from their hand to their Play Area in front of them. This card will be revealed and any Optional Abilities on the played card can be resolved.

   You cannot resolve the Optional Abilities of cards played in previous turns.

   b. Pass. — The player does not play any cards from their hand during this turn and keeps their current hand of cards for the subsequent round.

   If you decide to pass, you can no longer play any more cards this round.

2. Count the cards played in the Play Areas of both Coaches. If there are fewer than 9 cards played, give the turn to the opposing Coach, who repeats the 2 steps of the Attack Phase. If there are 9 cards played, proceed to the End of Phase.

   A 10th card cannot be played, even if an Ability allows it.

END OF PHASE: The phase ends when both Coaches pass or when there are a total of 9 cards in the Play Areas of both Coaches (cards eliminated during the turn are not counted).

If any of the 9 cards is eliminated at that time, the game can continue until 9 cards are again reached in the PLAY AREAS.

Example of End of Attack Phase:

Yolanda plays Lucas Milton as her 5th card, completing the 9 cards in both Coaches' Play Areas. Now Yolanda decides to remove the card from the match using Lucas Milton's Optional Ability (You can remove this card from the match). As a consequence there are 8 cards in the Play Areas and Pedro will have the option to Play a 9th card or Pass.

Rules to keep in mind in the Attack Phase:

• The resolution of Optional Abilities is voluntary by the Coach who plays the card and depending on the moment of the match it is not always possible to resolve them.

• Some Optional Abilities on cards allow adding Shot, Pass or Defense points from the player's pool and have them available to use in resolving the Shooting/Passing Phase.

• The Optional Abilities of the cards must be applied throughout the turn in which they were played, and cannot be resolved later.

  Exception: the ability to reroll the dice and the goalkeeper's ability can be used at the end of the Shooting/Passing Phase to try to change the outcome of the phase.

• An Attack Phase could end before 9 cards remain in the Play Areas in the event that both Coaches pass or by resolution of an Optional Ability.

Shooting/Passing Phase

1. The Defending team only performs the Defense action and adds all the Defense values of their cards in their Play Areas.
2. The Attacking Team adds the Shot or Pass values and chooses what action to take to confront the rival team's Defense.
3. Starting with the Attacker, both Coaches decide whether to use their available points to improve their Shot or Pass and Defense action. Each point spent grants +1 to the corresponding type of action.
4. Each team simultaneously rolls a die and adds its value to the total of their action.
5. The team with the highest value is the winner of the round. In case of a tie, the Attacking team wins the round.

Some Optional Abilities can change the outcome of the Shooting/Passing Phase (as long as the card was played in that round):

• TEPPEI KISUGI / TAKESHI SAWADA. Allows you to re-roll a roll that was made this round, including another player/goalkeeper's skill.
• YUZO MORISAKI / KEN WAKASHIMAZU. If you are Defending and have lost Phase Resolution against a Shot, you can try to save this shot.

PHASE RESOLUTION:

• If you win a Shooting action, you score GOAL and ball possession changes.
• If you win a Pass action, you maintain ball possession.
• If you win a Defense action, you take possession from your opponent, acquiring the ball possession marker to indicate this. You are now the Attacking Coach.

Example of Phase Resolution:

1º. Yolanda is the Toho Coach and is in Defense. Calculate the Toho Defense values: 0+2+3+2=7, adding the values next to the icon.

2º. Pedro is the Nankatsu Coach and is the Attacker. Calculate the Nankatsu Shot values: 1+3+0+0-2=2. Calculate the Pass values of the Nankatsu: 1+4+0+1-2=4. Pedro must decide whether to Shot or Pass. Because he has better Pass values, he decides to Pass.

3º. Spend points: Pedro, although he has 5 Pass points, decides to spend only 3. -> 4+3=7. Yolanda decides to spend 1 of her Defense points. 7+1=8.

4º. Now each Coach rolls his die and adds the value obtained to the previous total. Pedro gets 3 on the die, obtaining a final score of 7+3=10. Yolanda, on the other hand, obtains a 6, causing a final result of 8+6=14.

5º. Once the previous steps have been carried out, the Toho's score is higher than that of the Nankatsu, so it regains possession of the ball and becomes the Attacking team.

Discard Phase

1. Both Coaches discard all played cards to their respective Discard Piles.
2. If there are cards left in the Match Deck from 1st Half, the Football Pitch will be filled in until 4 cards are visible in it.

Start a new round from the Draw Phase.

Injury Time

As soon as the last two MATCH cards are drawn from the Football Pitch, Injury Time begins.

Play continues until the Attacking team loses possession of the ball or scores a goal. At that moment, this half of the game will end.

If the Attacking team wins the Pass action, rounds will be played without new Match cards, so each team only uses the 4 cards drawn from their Draw Deck.

Halftime

After the 1st half the Halftime takes place. Each Coach re-forms his Draw Deck by shuffling the cards that remain in this deck together with those from the Discard Pile and those he had in his hand at the end of 1st half. The Shot, Pass and Defense Points obtained are kept at the disposal of the Coaches.

Please note that cards from 1st half Deck that have not been removed will be part of both teams' Draw Decks during 2nd half.

2nd Half

In this 2nd half the kick-off is taken by the team opposite to that of the 1st half. The game ends when the INJURY TIME of this 2nd half is completed.

Winning the Match

At the end of the 2nd half, whoever has scored the most goals wins the match. If it ends in a tie, an Extra Time will take place.

Extra Time

For the Extra Time dispute, each Coach reshuffles all his cards and forms a new Draw Deck and begins a round in which no new Match cards are drawn. Therefore, each team in each round will play with 4 cards.

During Extra Time, the card limit in a round is 7 cards instead of 9.

Extra Time consists of 2 halves with 2 rounds each. As in the match, in the last round of each half, the Attacking Coach will continue playing until scoring a goal or losing possession of the ball.

Warning: Use the kick-off marker to count the game round you are in, since it has the values of 1st and 2nd half.

The Coach who will start as Attacker in Extra Time will be chosen at random.

If the tie persists, at the end of Extra Time, both Coaches will have won the Secondary Championship.

Other Game Rules

Special Cards

YELLOW CARD / RED CARD

When a Coach receives them, he must place it in his Play Area and leave it there until the end of the game, applying his penalties on all plays, including the play in which he receives them.

The yellow card can be removed with the Optional Ability of the SUBSTITUTION card. When a team receives a second yellow card with another yellow card is in play, they flip the yellow card to reveal the red card. The red card is permanent for the entire match.

These cards do not count towards the limit of 9 cards played per round.

FATIGUE CARD

A Fatigue card can be played as any other card, but there are not any Optional Abilities or Values.

This card does count towards the limit of 9 cards played per round.

CONTROL AND ADVANCE

If the Attacking Coach uses this card's Optional Ability, all cards in both Coaches' Play Areas will go into their respective Discard Piles. The Attacking Coach successfully performs the Pass action, maintaining Possession and starting a new round.

When the Optional Ability is applied this card will be removed from the match.

YUZO MORISAKI / KEN WAKASHIMAZU

Unlike the rest of the cards, this ability will only activate if the Yuzo Morisaki / Ken Wakashimazu card is in the Defending team's Play Area.

If the Attacking Coach has scored a goal, the Defending team will have one last chance to prevent it by rolling a dice.

If he rolls 1, he catches the ball and wins Possession, with a 2-3, he clears a Corner and the Attacking team maintains Possession and with a 4-6 the Attacking team scores a goal.

INJURY

The Coach who uses this card will randomly discard a card from the opponent's hand to the affected Coach's Discard Pile.

Special Shots and Defenses

SPECIAL SHOT

This Optional Ability can only be used by the Attacking Coach and only if he plays his team's card.

If the Attacking Coach uses this card's Optional Ability, cards in both Coaches' Play Areas will go to their respective Discard Piles and the Special Shot is applied.

When the Optional Ability is applied this card will be removed from the match.

To apply the Special Shot, the Attacking Coach will secretly choose one of the 3 Special Shot cards, while the Defending Coach will choose one of his 3 Special Defense cards.

Simultaneously, each Coach will reveal the chosen card and check if the Defending Coach managed to stop the Attacking Coach's shot.

If the Defender's card indicates that he blocked the shot, the Defender will gain possession of the ball. If he did not succeed, the Attacking Coach will score a goal and also give possession of the ball to the Defending team.

Example of Special Shot Resolution:

Yolanda, the Attacking player, has played the Toho Special Shot card.

Yolanda secretly chooses the Tiger's Bicycle Kick card.

Pedro secretly chooses the Harper blocks the Tiger Kick card.

Both players show the chosen cards at the same time and since the Nankatsu has not played the card that the Tiger's Bicycle Kick stopped, Toho scores a goal. Now the Nankatsu will have possession of the ball and play as Attacker.

Visual Aid: to facilitate the resolution of the Special Shot you can look at the name and/or background color of both cards.

Advanced Rules

Motivation Cards

At any time during the match, a Coach can motivate one or more players who have been played that round by spending the points indicated in the upper right corner of the card.

At that moment, the card found in the Play Area is replaced by the corresponding card of the motivated player.

At that moment, it applies the new values of the incorporated card, and can even execute its Optional Abilities from the new card.

Motivation Example

Yolanda decides to motivate Lucas Lawton so she must spend 2 Defense points and 1 Pass point as indicated in the upper right corner of the card.

Eliminate Lucas Lawton's initial card by returning it to the box and play the motivated card in your Play Area.

Since Lucas Lawton has just been played, Yolanda will be able to apply the Optional Abilities of this new played card.

Assured Success

Optional Rule: If in the resolution of the Shooting/Passing Phase, one Coach rolls a 6 on the die and the other rolls a 1, the Coach who rolled a 6 wins the game action regardless of the total sum of his play.

A Coach can reroll the die if he currently has TEPPEI KISUGI / TAKESHI SAWADA in play and executes his Optional Ability in order to avoid the application of the guaranteed success or try to achieve it.

Signings

Included in the game are a number of players who did not play in the Secondary Final match between the Nankatsu and the Toho. However, there is the possibility of including them for this new final.

To do this, shuffle, draw 4 of them and place them on one side of the table, in sight of both Coaches. The rest will go back to the box and will not play this game. These players are available to both Coaches.

They are signed by paying the Shot, Pass or Defense points indicated in the upper right corner of the card at any time during your turn.

There are two types of Signings:

• Goalkeepers (Taichi Nakanishi and Genzo Wakabayashi). They must replace another goalkeeper already played.
• Field Players (Shun Nitta, Jun Misugi, Hikaru Matsuyama, Kazuo and Masao Tachibana, Hiroshi Jito and Taro Misaki). They do not replace other players. They are simply added to the Play Area as long as the limit of 9 cards played has not been reached, in which case they cannot be signed.

Acknowledgments

This game you have in your hands would not have been possible without the help of many people. First, I want to mention the help of Guillermo, my son, and the decisive interest, support, and enthusiasm of Anastasio from PIF Games.

The opinions and guidance of Víctor "Wislander" have also been very important, as well as the availability and patience of Óscar from El Reino del Norte, the brilliant ideas of Dandra Games and many colleagues from the Ludo Association, the constructive and positive spirit of Piru and the german enthusiasm of Markus Zwarra.

With the fear of leaving someone out, I want to expressly mention: the friends of El Reino del Norte de Alcobendas: Iván, Lalo, Javi, Javibal, Antonio, Miguel, Miguel León, Alberto, Gema, Carlos, Goyo, Kafer, Marcos, Joan, Claudia from Aquí hay juegos and many more...

To my family, to all my nephews, to Ana, Leticia, and Olga. To Mike from Cuarto de Juegos, Toni from Las Bellota, Luis from Draco Ideas, to the guys from Ludoteca Maldita, Óscar from La Cúpula, and to all the fans of Campeones...

... because everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, has helped to make the game what it is today.

Game Sequence

1. Draw Phase

   • Each Coach draws cards from their Draw Deck until they have 4 cards total.
   • Starting with the Defender coach and followed by the Attacker. Draw 1 card from the Football Pitch or 1 at random from the Match Draw Deck.

2. Attack Phase

   • First the Attacker. Coaches alternate:
     1. Playing cards until there are 9 between both Play Areas, or
     2. Passing (if you Pass you cannot play cards again this round).

3. Shooting/Passing Phase

   • Coaches add their Shot/Pass and Defense.
   • The Attacker chooses to make a Shot or a Pass.
   • The Attacker announces whether he spends points on the current play, followed by the Defender.
   • Both Coaches roll a dice simultaneously.
   • RESOLUTION: Add the values of the cards + points spent + die roll (If there is a tie, the Attacker wins).

   	Attacker Success	Defender Success
   PASS	Keeps Possession	Steal Possession
   SHOT	GOAL	Steal Possession

4. Discard Phase

   • The cards and points played are discarded.

Clarifications on Optional Abilities

• Eliminate Card. The card is returned to the box.
• Discard Card. The card goes to the Discard Pile of the player to whom it belongs.
• Play card. Take it from your hand to your team's Play Area and execute its Optional Abilities.
• Gain Shot / Pass. Gain one Shot point or one Pass point.
• Gain Shot / Pass / Defense. Gain one point of each type.
• Gain 2x Shot / Pass / Defense. Use the effect twice of gain points that are the same or different.

Credits

Author: Pablo Martínez Peón

Editor: Anastasio Martínez León

Graphic Design: 22B Estudio

Development: Dandra

©1983-2024 Youichi Takahashi/Shueisha/Enoki Films/TV Tokyo ©2024 Anastasio Martínez León. Present is Future Games is a registered trademark of Anastasio Martínez León. All rights reserved. www.pifgames.com