DC Deck-Building Game: Rivals – Green Lantern vs Sinestro Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Types of Cards
• Setup for Your First Game
  • 1. Your Character and Starting Deck
  • 2. The Main Deck
  • 3. The Line-Up
  • 4. First Player
• Gameplay
  • Sample Normal Turn Sequence
• Confronting Your Opponent
• Blocks
• Ending Your Turn
• Attacks and Defenses
• End of Game
• Additional Rules
  • Order of Playing Your Cards
  • Resolving Card Abilities
• Construct Cards
• Weakness
• Shuffling Your Deck
• Destroying Cards
• Locations
• Discarding Cards
• Gaining Cards
• Controlling Cards
• Specific Card Clarifications
• Combining Sets
  • Confrontations
  • Rivals — Batman vs. The Joker
• Turn Sequence (Quick Reference)
• Credits

Contents

• 98 Game Cards
  • 14 Punch Starter Cards
  • 6 Vulnerability Starter Cards
  • 60 Main Deck Cards
  • 8 Hard-Light Construct Cards
  • 10 Weakness Cards
• 6 Oversized DC Character Cards
• 1 Rulebook

Types of Cards

The different card types are: Starter, Villain, Location, Hero, Super Power, and Equipment. Weakness and Hard-Light Construct cards have no card type.

Setup for Your First Game

1. Your Character and Starting Deck

One player plays as Green Lantern, while the other one plays as Sinestro. Grab your three oversized Character cards and place them in a face-up stack with the 9 on top, 12 in the middle, and 15 on the bottom.

Each player begins with a starting deck of seven Punch cards and three Vulnerability cards with symbols matching their Character. Punch cards generate Power when played, which you use to buy stronger cards to add to your deck, improving it as the game goes on. Vulnerability cards represent the things that occasionally cause a character to falter. They don't do anything for you when drawn or played, and are an obstacle in your path to victory.

2. The Main Deck

Most of the cards that you will add to your deck as the game progresses come from the main deck. None of the following cards should be placed into the main deck: Punch, Vulnerability, Hard-Light Construct, Weakness, or oversized Character cards. The main deck is made up of every other card in the game (60 cards total). Shuffle the main deck and place it in the middle of the table.

3. The Line-Up

Place the top five cards from the main deck in a row to form the Line-Up. There is no board necessary to play this game; just reserve space for each card.

Next, place the Hard-Light Construct and Weakness stacks at the end of the Line-Up. Hard-Light Constructs are always available to buy during your turn (while cards remain in the stack). Weaknesses are never bought; they are gained only through unfriendly card effects. The main deck and the two stacks of cards on the end are not part of the Line-Up.

Once you have arranged the main deck, Line-Up, and other stacks, it will look something like a row of five face-up cards next to the Hard-Light Construct and Weakness stacks. Your opening five cards in the Line-Up will vary. At the start of the game, there should be 8 Hard-Light Constructs and 10 Weaknesses in their respective stacks.

4. First Player

The player who most recently read a comic book gets to go first. Alternatively, you can determine first player randomly. Each player begins by shuffling their deck and drawing five cards. Players will alternate taking turns.

Gameplay

Each turn, you must first decide if you will take a Normal Turn and buy cards to add to your deck or Confront your opponent and try to defeat their current Character. At the beginning of the game, you will not have enough Power in your deck to Confront your opponent, so you should spend your first few turns buying new cards for your deck.

If you take a Normal Turn, you may buy cards from the Line-Up or Hard-Light Construct stack to improve your deck. Cards you buy or gain are immediately placed into your discard pile unless you are instructed otherwise. Discard piles are always face up. Soon they'll be shuffled into your deck, and then you'll be drawing these newer, more powerful cards into your hand so you can play them. Buying powerful cards builds up the effectiveness of your deck. That's why it's called a "deck-building game."

You can buy any number of available cards with combined cost less than or equal to the amount of Power you have for the turn. For example, your Punch cards each give you +1 Power. If you draw four of them and a Vulnerability, your total Power for the turn is 4. You can buy a single card with cost 2, 3, or 4, or even two cards each with cost 2, assuming these options are available. Hard-Light Construct cards are (usually) available if the cards in the Line-Up are too expensive, and you may buy more than one during your turn if you wish. You may pass if you cannot buy or do not wish to buy any cards.

Vulnerability and Weakness cards provide no Power. Since they weaken your deck, you should try to destroy them as soon as possible. You may play them if you wish, but they have no effect when played. All cards you play are not discarded until the end of your turn.

If you decide to Confront your opponent, you will not be able to buy any cards to add to your deck. See the following page for more on Confrontations.

Sample Normal Turn Sequence

After shuffling up your starting cards, you draw a hand of four Punches and one Vulnerability for your first turn. You may play the four Punches for a total of 4 Power, which is enough to buy Boodikka from the Line-Up. After buying that card, you put it into your discard pile. The Vulnerability provides you with no additional Power. Once you have played and bought all the cards you want, discard the cards you have played and any remaining in your hand and then draw a new hand of five cards.

Confronting Your Opponent

At the start of your turn, you may announce a Confrontation. Only by announcing a Confrontation can you attempt to defeat your opponent. If you can defeat your opponent three times, you instantly win the game! However, your opponent is no easy mark. Each Character has three versions that are progressively harder to beat. If you generate Power equal to or exceeding their cost during a Confrontation, that version of your opponent's Character is removed from their Character card stack and placed near your side of the table. Should the game end due to being unable to refill the Line-Up, these defeated Character cards are worth a lot of Victory Points.

Note that during a Confrontation you can only beat the top card; even if you have 30 Power, you cannot defeat more than one of their Character cards in the same turn.

You cannot buy cards from the Line-Up if you choose to Confront your opponent, so you should only choose to Confront your opponent if there is a chance that you can amass enough Power to beat your opponent's cost. You may not have all of the Power you need to defeat your opponent at the very start of your turn. If you need 9 Power to defeat your opponent, and you start your turn with 5 Power and the ability to draw three cards, you might be able to get to 9 or more Power with those extra draws.

Several cards you can acquire during the game work especially well during a Confrontation. These cards have the bold word "Confrontation:" in their game text. The text after the word "Confrontation:" is only active while you are Confronting your opponent.

Blocks

Block cards contain the bold word "Block" followed by a number in parentheses in their game text. After a foe Confronting you has played all of their cards, you may discard any number of Block cards from your hand to increase your Character's cost. The value in the parentheses is how much your Character's cost increases by. If the value is X, check the game text on the card to determine what X equals. In order to prevent your foe from defeating your Character you must discard enough Block cards to increase your cost to a number higher than your opponent's Power total. Raising it to even isn't good enough. The increased cost of your Character only lasts until the end of the current turn.

Block cards may be played during your turn just like any other card, but the Block text is not applicable.

Ending Your Turn

1. Announce that you are ending your turn. Your turn is now over.
2. Place any cards remaining in your hand into your discard pile.
3. Resolve any "at end of turn" effects.
4. Place all cards without the Ongoing keyword you played into your discard pile. Any unspent Power from cards played during the turn is lost.
5. Draw five cards.
6. If any of the five Line-Up slots are empty, take cards from the top of the main deck and add them to the Line-Up. Do not replace empty slots as soon as you buy or gain a card from the Line-Up.
7. Now your opponent starts their turn.

Attacks and Defenses

Attack cards have the bold word "Attack:" in their game text and will have some negative effect for your opponents. When you play a card with an Attack ability, it will either affect all of your foes or a foe of your choice. Each affected foe has an opportunity to avoid the Attack with a Defense card. If a player doesn't avoid the Attack, they are immediately affected by the text after "Attack:".

Defense cards have the bold word "Defense:" in their game text and allow you to avoid the negative effects of an Attack card played by your opponent. In order to use a Defense card, it must be in your hand. A player may only utilize one Defense card per Attack. Most Defense cards give you a reward when you use them to avoid an Attack. The reward is listed after "If you do" on your Defense card. Avoiding an Attack does not negate any of the Attack card's text prior to "Attack:" (like +2 Power).

If an Attack looks for a particular card or card type and you do not have one in the place where the Attack looks, you suffer no effects of the Attack, but you may still use a Defense against it to gain the Defense reward. Even if a foe is unaffected by an Attack, they are still considered to have failed to avoid the Attack if they do not use a Defense card.

End of Game

The game ends immediately when either of the following two conditions is met:

• You defeat your opponent's last Character card. You win instantly!
• You are unable to refill all five slots of the Line-Up.

If you are unable to refill the Line-Up, return all Locations you have in play, all cards in your hand, and all cards in your discard pile to your deck. Then, players total up the Victory Points on cards in their decks. Weakness cards in your deck at the end of the game will subtract Victory Points (VP) from your total. The opposing Character cards you defeated are also worth a lot of points to you! The player with the highest VP total is crowned the winner! In case of a tie, the player with more opposing Character cards is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with more cards in their deck is the winner.

Additional Rules

Order of Playing Your Cards

On your turn, you get to play the cards in your hand in the order of your choice. When you play a card, its game text resolves immediately from top to bottom. When you have played all the cards you wish to play at that time, total up the Power you have accumulated and buy what you wish to buy from the Line-Up or the Hard-Light Construct stack. You do not have to play all of the cards in your hand before you start making purchases if you don't wish to. You may play additional cards even after making purchases.

Resolving Card Abilities

When an effect tells you to draw a card, that card always comes from your own deck. If you cannot fully resolve the text on a card, resolve as much of it as possible. When you see the phrase "that foe," it refers to the foe you chose earlier for an Attack card or that you are currently Confronting.

Some of the cards in this set may affect each opponent. Even though Rivals — Green Lantern vs. Sinestro is a 1v1 experience, it can be combined with other sets to play with more players.

Construct Cards

You will see that some cards have the tag Construct. This tag has no inherent meaning, but will be referenced by other card effects. Hard-Light Construct has no card type, but includes the Construct tag. Other Construct cards will have a normal card type, such as Super Power.

Weakness

Some cards force players to gain a Weakness. If this happens, the affected player takes a Weakness card from the Weakness stack and places it in their discard pile, effectively adding it to their deck. Weaknesses have no ability when drawn during the game and can be played or kept in your hand and placed in your discard pile at the end of your turn. If the game ends due to being unable to refill the Line-Up, each Weakness card you have subtracts 1 Victory Point from your VP total, so you'll need a plan for destroying them at some point! If the Weakness stack runs out, effects that would cause a player to gain a Weakness do not do so, but any other effects those cards have still resolve as usual. A player may still use a Defense to avoid an Attack, even when there are no Weaknesses available to be gained.

Shuffling Your Deck

You don't shuffle your discard pile and make it your new deck as soon as you run out of cards. However, if at any point during the game there are no cards in your deck and you need to draw, discard, or reveal a card from your deck, immediately shuffle your discard pile, and it becomes your new deck.

Destroying Cards

Some cards have the ability to destroy a card in your hand or discard pile. When you destroy a card, place it into a face-up pile of destroyed cards anywhere away from the area to show that it is no longer a part of your deck. You will often get to choose which of your cards to destroy. Destroying Starter and Weakness cards will improve your deck greatly! If Weakness and Hard-Light Construct cards are destroyed, they do not go back to their respective stacks.

Locations

Location cards go straight to your discard pile when bought or gained, just like any other card. However, when you later draw and play a Location, that card will remain face up and in play in front of you for the rest of the game. Each Location has a unique effect that can trigger each turn for the rest of the game. The word Ongoing is a reminder that this card keeps working for you turn after turn. You can have any number of Locations in play at once.

Discarding Cards

When a card tells you to "discard" a card, it means from your hand as the default. However, a card may tell you to discard a card from another place, such as the top of your deck. Cards that are discarded this way count as being "discarded."

Gaining Cards

When a card tells a player to gain a particular card or a card of your choice, that card is taken and immediately placed in that player's discard pile at no additional cost, unless otherwise directed by the card. If a card tells you to gain a card with a specific name, card type, or cost and there are none available, you simply don't gain the card.

Controlling Cards

You control cards that you have played and are in play or that are in front of you on an Ongoing basis. You do not control cards in your hand, deck, or discard pile.

Specific Card Clarifications

• Fear, Kilowog: The card's bonus Confrontation Power is locked in when this card is played.
• Manhunter Army, Saint Walker: Since you have to discard this card to block, it will be counted in the total number of Villain/Hero cards in your discard pile. For example, if you discard Saint Walker with two other Heroes in your discard pile, you would increase your Character's cost by 3.
• Ganthet: The card you play from the Line-Up is removed from the Line-Up and placed into your play zone until the end of your turn. This means you cannot buy the card you play with Ganthet.
• Hard-Light Construct: You must decide if you are returning this card when you play it. If you choose to return it, you will no longer be considered to control the card.
• Lyssa Drak: Since your next Attack is unavoidable, foes cannot use any Defense cards.
• Mogo: You may use a Defense card drawn from this Location to avoid the Attack.
• New Korugar: Foes may still use a Defense card to avoid an Attack, but they don't get the extra "reward" text at the end of the Defense text if it's the first Defense they have utilized during your turn.
• Willpower: This card is revealed from your hand to avoid an Attack. You do not have to discard it.

Combining Sets

This set can be combined with other Cryptozoic Cerberus Engine deck-building games. You are free to mix and match cards from any sets to make your own custom game experience. We recommend that when you swap cards you exchange them for cards of similar type and cost.

For additional games in the Confrontations line and the ability to play with up to four players, check out DC Deck-Building Game: Confrontations or DC Deck-Building Game: Rivals — Batman vs. The Joker. Below are some additional recommendations when combining this game with those sets.

Confrontations

• Follow the suggested guidelines outlined in the combining sets section of the Confrontations rulebook.
• Create both a Hard-Light Construct stack and an Enhanced Strength stack during set-up.

Rivals — Batman vs. The Joker

If you are playing this as a 1v1 game:

• Use the Hard-Light Construct stack instead of the Kick stack.
• When forming the main deck, only combine cards associated with the characters being played. For example, if you are playing as Batman against Sinestro, the main deck would contain Batman and Sinestro cards. Green Lantern and Joker cards would not be shuffled into the main deck.

If you are playing this as a 2v2 game:

• Shuffle both main decks together.
• Create both a Hard-Light Construct stack and Kick stack during setup.
• You will form a team of Super Heroes and one of Super-Villains. Have a seat next to your partner. That way, you can compare hands and talk secretly about your plans. Teammates take separate turns and player order will alternate between teams. For example, if Batman takes the first turn, Joker would take the second turn, Green Lantern the third, and Sinestro the fourth. The turn order remains the same for the entire game.
• Teammates may not buy cards for each other.
• Block cards can be used to increase the cost of your Character or your teammate's Character.
• If both of your foes are at the same Level, you can choose to Confront either of them. If they are not the same Level, you must Confront the foe with the lower Level.
• A team instantly wins if they defeat the Level 3 Character of either foe.

Turn Sequence (Quick Reference)

Turn Sequence

Choose whether you will take a Normal Turn to buy cards or a Confrontation Turn to Confront your opponent directly.

Normal Turn:

• Play cards from your hand. Total up your Power and purchase cards with combined cost less than or equal to that total. You may play additional cards even after making purchases.
• As soon as you buy or gain a card, place it into your discard pile, unless instructed otherwise.

Confrontation Turn:

• Play cards from your hand. Resolve all "Confrontation:" text on cards you play.
• After you have played all your cards, your opponent may discard Block cards to make their cost greater than your Power.
• If your Power is greater than or equal to the cost of the opposing Character, you have defeated that card. Place it on your side of the table.

End of Turn

1. Announce that you are ending your turn. Your turn is now over.
2. Place any cards remaining in your hand into your discard pile.
3. Resolve any "at end of turn" effects.
4. Place all cards without the Ongoing keyword you played into your discard pile. Any unspent Power from cards played during the turn is lost.
5. Draw five cards.
6. If any of the five Line-Up slots are empty, take cards from the top of the main deck and add them to the Line-Up. Do not replace empty slots as soon as you buy or gain a card from the Line-Up.
7. Now your opponent starts their turn.

The game ends immediately when either of the following two conditions is met:

• You defeat your opponent's last Character card. You win instantly!
• You are unable to refill all five slots of the Line-Up. Most VPs on their cards wins.

Credits

Game Design: Nathaniel Yamaguchi. Rivals Concept: Scott Gaeta, Matt Hyra, Adam Sblendorio. Game Design and Development: Matt Hyra, Matt Dunn.

Cryptozoic Entertainment — CEO & Founder: John Sepenuk. Founder: John Nee. Graphic Design: Larry Renac (Lead), John Vineyard. VP, Marketing & Product Development: Jamie Kiskis. VP, Global Sales: Mike Lauter. VP, Creative: Adam Sblendorio. Production Manager, Games: Dekan Wheeler. Editor: Shahriar Fouladi. Business Manager: Rumi Asai. Playtesters: Jared Saramago, Nicholas Scamman, Ryan Sutherland, Kimberly Walker, and many, many others. Cryptozoic Special Thanks: Amanda Barker, Carolyn Byrnes, Javier Casillas, Krystyl Chwa, Randal Ford, Matt Hoffman, George Nadeau, Jon Nee, Colin Robinson, Rachel Valverde, MaryCarmen Wilber.