Elemental Clash: The Basic Set
Elemental Clash: The Basic Set Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
The goal of Elemental Clash is to deplete the cards in your opponent's card-deck (or Spellbook) to zero by using the Spells and Creatures in your Spellbook. Players take turns playing Creature and Spell cards, and attacking their opponent with Creatures. For each point of damage a Player receives through Creatures or Spells, he or she must place the top card of his or her deck into his or her Archive. If a player is unable to draw a card from his or her Spellbook when required, he or she loses immediately.¹
Preparations
Each Player needs a deck of exactly 40 cards² (the Spellbook), which he or she can assemble from a pool of available cards individually. Players may also have a sideboard deck of exactly 10 cards. This sideboard can serve to allow for substitution of cards between games within a match, allowing for adaptation of one's Spellbook to better compete with an opponent's strategy. Cards must be exchanged from the sideboard for an equal amount of cards in the Spellbook. No Spellbook or sideboard may contain more than three identical copies of any card, except for Basic Element-Stones, which are unlimited.
Getting the Game Started
Decide which Player will go first. The beginning Player cannot draw a card in the first Draw-Phase. Each Player draws seven cards from his or her Spellbook. A Player is allowed to reshuffle and draw a new hand of seven cards, but if the new hand is still bad, any additional reshuffles reduce the Player's hand size by one.
¹ Discarding a card as the result of a spell or attack does not count as drawing a card; the excess damage is simply disregarded.
² If both players wish, a different Spellbook size can be used in the game. This will influence the game length. It is important that both decks contain the same number of cards.
Turn-Structure
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Standby-Phase (in this order) a) Previously played Creatures are placed either in the Attack or Defense Zone (ATK- or DEF-Zone) and previously played Spells are put into the Archive. b) Creatures may be moved between the spaces as you wish, both horizontally and vertically.
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Draw-Phase: The Player takes the topmost card from the Spellbook into the hand. Then the player may put their hand under the Spellbook in any order and draw as many new cards as they had. If the Player does, they skip their Main-Phase this turn.
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Main-Phase: The Player may play one Element-Stone and as many Creatures and Spells as they can afford. Also the Player's Creatures may attack (One after the other). The active Player chooses whether or not and in which order these actions are performed.
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End-Phase: First, Effects that last "until end of turn" terminate, and "end of turn" effects trigger.³ Then, if the Player has more than seven cards in hand, they must discard down to seven. The active Player chooses which cards are discarded.
³ If multiple Effects occur at the same time, the active Player decides the order in which they take place. This rule always applies, not only during End-Phase.
Areas in Game
The playing field is divided into several areas, as shown in the diagram above (the printed diagram labels its areas Attack-Zone, Defense-Zone, Element-Stone-Zone, Spellbook, Archive, Purgatory and Your Card-Hand). It is a schematic depiction of one Player's side of the playing field.
In the Attack- and Defense-Zone are five spaces each for placing Creatures on. You can never have more than five Creatures in the Attack- or Defense-Zone.⁴ The same applies to Element-Stone-Piles. You can never have more than 5 different Element-Stone-Piles.
⁴ If a card effect would try to place more Creatures in the ATK- or DEF-Zone than can legally belong there the cards effect simply does not take place. If a Creature tries to get from the Element-Stone Zone into the ATK- or DEF-Zone and all spaces there are occupied, it stays on its Element-Stone-Pile.
Card-Types
Cards include Creatures, Spells and Element-Stones. Creatures and Spells each belong to one of the four elements: Earth (green), Air (purple), Fire (red) and Water (blue). Element-Stones do not belong to any particular Element. Their type is "Neutral", even if they produce Energy of one of the four Elements.
Element-Stones
Element-Stones produce the Energy you need to summon Creatures and to cast Spells. There are four types of Basic-Element-Stones, which produce Energy for their respective Element. A Venus-Stone produces one Earth-Energy, a Jupiter-Stone makes one Air-Energy, a Mars Stone provides one Fire-Energy and a Mercury-Stone gives you one Water-Energy. You can only play one Element-Stone per turn. You can choose to either put the Element-Stone on another Element-Stone that is already in play to form an Element-Stone-Stack, or place it on a new position and start a new Stack.
The lowermost colored Element-Stone determines what kind of Energy an Element-Stone-Stack provides.⁵ You may not rearrange the order of your Element-Stones in your Element-Stone-Stack(s).
If you want to play a Creature- or Spell-Card, you need an Element-Stone-Stack with a number of Element-Stones on it that equals or exceeds the Level of the card you intend to play. Furthermore, the lowermost colored Element-Stone in the Stack must produce the right type of Energy.
For example: If you want to play a Fire-Creature with Level 3, you have to place it on an Element-Stone-Pile with at least three Element-Stones in it and with a Mars Stone (which provides Fire-Energy) as the lowermost colored Element-Stone in the Stack. Spells are similarly placed on appropriate Element-Stone-Stacks, take effect and are placed in their owner's Archive during that Player's next Standby-Phase.
Like Spell-Cards, Creatures are also placed on Element-Stone-Stacks. They remain there until they are either placed in their owner's ATK- or DEF-Zone during that Player's next Standby-Phase. Besides Basic Element-Stones there are also Special Element-Stones, which in most cases produce Neutral Energy and usually have special, useful abilities.
⁵ For example if the lowermost Element Stone in a Stack is Neutral and has a Venus-Stone on top of it (which produces Earth Energy) the whole Stack produces Earth Energy.
Creatures
Creatures have Levels (usually 1 to 3) which determine how much Energy is required to play them. These Levels are indicated on the upper right hand corner of the Creature cards. Most Creatures belong to one of the four elements. Furthermore, each Creature has its own Creature-Type. Effects of cards in the game may affect Creatures of certain types. Each Creature also has an Attack- (ATK – red circle) and a Defense- (DEF – green shield) value depicted to the left in the text box.
Each Creature may attack once per turn, provided it is in its controllers Attack-Zone. Its controller may choose to attack a Creature in the opponents Attack-Zone or to attack the opponent directly. A Creature's ATK-value shows how much damage the Creature can inflict on the Creature or Player it attacks. The DEF-value on the other hand indicates how much damage a Creature can take before it is destroyed (put into its owner's Archive). Any damage inflicted on a Creature is cured at the next End-Phase, provided the Creature is still in play.
After a Creature has been played to an Element-Stone-Stack, it has to be placed either in the Player's ATK- or DEF-Zone during that Player's next Standby-Phase.
Creatures in the Attack-Zone may, during the Main-Phase, attack opposing Creatures or directly attack an opponent. They can also be attacked by enemy creatures. Creatures attack one after the other. Each fight is resolved separately. Creatures in the DEF-Zone cannot be attacked, but can block any one Creature attacking a Player. Each Creature can change position on the battlefield once per turn, during its controller's Standby Phase. It may be moved vertically (from the ATK-Zone to the DEF-Zone or vice versa) and even horizontally.⁶
When a Creature attacks another, or when a Creature in the DEF-Zone blocks an attacking Creature, a battle occurs between the two Creatures. Each Creature deals an amount of damage equal to its ATK-value to the opposing Creature. Each point of damage a creature takes reduces its DEF by 1. A creature which has its DEF-value reduced to zero or below is destroyed. Damage applied to a creature outside combat, such as through a Spell, is handled the same way.
A Creature may attack exactly one opposing Creature (in its owner's ATK-Zone) or one Player per turn. In the same manner, a defending Creature can block only one attacking Creature. However, the defending Player may choose to block one attacking Creature with multiple of his Creatures (in the DEF-Zone). In this case, the attacking Player may choose how he or she divides the damage dealt between the blocking Creatures.
If an attacking Creature is not blocked, it deals damage to the opponent equal to its ATK-value. For each point of damage done, the attacked Player has to put one card from the top of the Spellbook into the Archive.
⁶ In upcoming Expansion Sets there may be cards with effects that will make Creature's relative positions to each other matter!
Creature's Special Abilities
- Quickattacker: As long as it remains on an Element-Stone-Stack, this Creature is treated as if in your ATK-Zone. This means for example that it can attack and can be attacked the turn it enters the playing field. A Creature with Quickattacker does not count against the five Creatures per ATK-Zone limit.
- Play-Effect: Each time you play this Creature (placing it from the hand on the playing field) the effects as described on the card take place.
- Destroy-Effect: Each time this Creature is destroyed (put from the playing field to the Archive), the effects as described on the card take place.
- Leave-Effect: Each time this Creature leaves play (that can mean that it is returned to the hand, put into the Archive or placed under or on top of the Spellbook) the effects as described on the card take place.
- Boon: When this Creature is placed in the Archive directly from your Spellbook, you can put it into either your ATK- or Def-Zone. Spells with "Boon" can be cast for free when discarded from the Spellbook and are then put into the Archive. Element-Stones are placed in the Element-Stone-Zone.
Spells
Like Creatures, Spells have Levels 1 to 3 (depicted in the top right corner) and usually belong to one of the four elements. After they are placed on a suitable Element-Stone-Stack the effects described on the Spell-card take place.
There are several subtypes of Spells:
- Spells: "Normal" Spells can be played during their owner's Main-Phases and their effects normally last until the end of the turn, unless stated otherwise on the card. Generally, they are put into their controller's Archive during that Player's next Standby-Phase.
- Flash-Spells: "Flash"-Spells can be played at any time, even during the opponent's turn, provided there is a suitable Element-Stone-Stack available. Apart from that they are like "normal" Spells.
- Permanent-Spells: "Permanent"-Spells can only be played to a suitable Element-Stone-Stack during their controller's Main-Phases. Permanent-Spells remain on the playing field on the Element-Stone-Stack they were played to (effectively blocking it) until they are destroyed through certain effects. Their effects last as long as they remain in play. If Element-Stones are removed from underneath a Permanent-Spell, the Permanent-Spell remains where it is. The Stones' Energy is only needed to power the Spell initially!
The Stack
If multiple Spells and/or card effects are played / are activated at the same time they are resolved in reverse order. The Spell / Effect that was played / was activated last will resolve first.
Example: You have a Troll Grunt which has 3 DEF. Your opponent attacks him with his Salamander which has 2 ATK and plays a Mars Rage targeting Salamander, giving it +3 ATK. You react by playing a Hardening targeting your Troll, giving it +4 DEF. The Hardening was played last so the Troll's DEF is increased to 7 first, then the Mars Rage will increase Salamander's ATK to 5, allowing it to deal 5 damage to the Troll, which then survives the battle.
Multiplayer Variants
In multiplayer variants, the first player does not have to forgo their first Draw Phase. Instead, ties for victory are resolved by favoring the player whose first turn was furthest away from the first player.
Multiplayer Variant 1
This variant requires 5 or more players at the start of the game. Everyone else is your opponent, but your targets are those who were not adjacent to you at the start of the game. You win immediately if all of your targets are eliminated. Eliminated players must skip every phase of every turn for the remainder of the game.
Multiplayer Variant 2
This variant requires 3 or more players. Each player has a set of tokens that can be distinguished from other player's tokens. Use glass pebbles, coins or poker chips for example. Whenever a player (not Creatures) takes an amount of damage, that player must give an equal amount of tokens to the controller of the Spell or Creature that caused the damage. Tokens must be surrendered in this manner even if the Spellbook is empty. The game ends when any player is eliminated. Players gain a victory point for each complete set of tokens they have acquired. A set of tokens is complete if it has one token from each opponent. Players also gain a number of victory points equal to the number of cards remaining in their Spellbook divided by the number of opponents, rounded down. So if there were 5 players you would gain 1 victory point for every 4 cards remaining in your Spellbook. The winner is the player with the most victory points, even if that player was eliminated.
Suggested Starter Decks
Fire/Air Deck:
- 3 x Salamander
- 1 x Lightning Spirit
- 3 x Goblin Warrior
- 1 x Windwanderer
- 3 x Fiery Devil
- 2 x Jupiter Stormmaster
- 2 x Mars' Rage
- 3 x Flaring Flames
- 2 x Whirlwind
- 2 x Storm Blessing
- 2 x Recurring Stone
- 7 x Jupiter Stone
- 9 x Mars Stone
Earth/Water Deck:
- 2 x Boulder Spirit
- 1 x Venus Toad
- 1 x Merman
- 3 x Troll Grunt
- 2 x Wave Courier
- 2 x Sea Serpent
- 2 x Mercury Shatterer
- 2 x Hardening
- 1 x Earth Ritual
- 3 x Shattering Wave
- 2 x Wave of Wisdom
- 1 x Stonehide Spell
- 2 x Sparkstone
- 8 x Mercury Stone
- 8 x Venus Stone