Magic: The Gathering – Heroes of Dominaria Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Winning the Game
• Components
• Game Components
  • Mana
  • Quests
  • Getting New Quests
  • Public Quests
  • Artifacts
  • Scoring an Artifact
  • Heroes
  • Manaliths
  • Leylines
  • Collecting Mana through a Leyline
  • The Cabal
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Taking a Turn
  • Mana Phase
  • Action Phase
• A Sample Turn
• Ending the Round
• Ending the Game
• Scoring
• Tips and Tricks
• Variant
• Public Quest Tiles
• Symbols
• Credits

Winning the Game

At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points (VPs) wins. Complete quests, discover artifacts, develop your resources on Dominaria, and confront the deadly Cabal to earn VPs.

Components

• 1 Map Board
• 4 Hero Boards
• 120 Mana Tokens
• 20 Manalith Mana Tokens (1 set per player)
• 20 Cabal Tokens
• 15 Artifact Tokens
• 3 Quest Trackers
• 4 Score Markers
• 10 Public Quest Tiles
• 1 Round Marker
• 50 Dominaria Cards
• 45 Quest Cards
• 20 Artifact Cards
• 16 Heroes
• 20 Manaliths
• 32 Leylines

The victory point track runs from 0 to 50 around the edge of the map board. When you lap the VP track, flip your score marker over to the 50-point side and continue.

After you recruit a Hero, build a Manalith, or form a Leyline, take the appropriate piece from the left of the corresponding track on your Hero board to put on the map.

To the left of your Hero board is the In-Play area. Your artifacts and active quests go here. To the right of your Hero board is your Completed area.

After you confront the Cabal, put the defeated Cabal token on the Cabal Defeated track on your Hero board.

Place mana tokens you collect above your Hero board — this is your mana pool.

Starting locations are: Caligo Morass, Orvada, Esturin, Verdura, Bogardan.

Game Components

Mana

There are five colors of mana tokens (White mana, Blue mana, Black mana, Red mana, Green mana), matching the colors of the locations. During the game, you'll collect mana from the map. You'll also get mana from some quests, artifacts, and other rewards. Keep the mana tokens you collect in your mana pool above your hero board.

The five Planeswalker abilities (see "Action phase" below) each require you to spend mana to use them. Each ability requires at least one specific color of mana to be spent. For example, building a Manalith has a cost of 4 Red mana. This means you must return one red mana token and four other mana tokens of any color (even red) to the supply.

Quests

One way to score points during the game is to complete quests. Each quest has text that tells you when you may complete it. At any time during your turn, if you meet the listed conditions, place the quest face up into your Completed area. You will score these at the end of the game but you immediately gain any rewards from the completed quest.

A few quests have text that tells you when you can start that quest. To start a quest, place it face up in your In-Play area. These quests will tell you how and when you can complete the quest.

Keep quest cards that you haven't begun or completed in your hand where other players can't see them.

Getting New Quests

Some quest rewards will tell you to get a new quest. In addition, there is a Quest symbol in some spaces on your Hero, Manalith, and Leyline tracks that, when uncovered, will allow you to get a new quest immediately. In the case of the Cabal track, when you cover a space containing a Quest symbol, you'll get a new quest immediately.

Whenever you get a new quest, look at the top two cards of the quest deck. Choose one to keep and put the other on the bottom of the quest deck. If you meet the requirements for the new quest, you may immediately complete it and get its reward.

Public Quests

There are five different public quests available to all players. Up to two players can claim each public quest if they meet the necessary conditions. The first player to do so takes the higher VP tile. The second player takes the remaining tile. You can't collect both tiles for a single public quest. You can, however, complete multiple public quests during the game.

Place these quests into your Completed area.

Artifacts

Legends speak of a time of unrivaled artifice on Dominaria, and the inventions of that time lie buried throughout the plane.

Artifact tokens are put onto the map by some Dominaria cards. Artifacts have special abilities that will help you in your adventures across Dominaria. They are placed in your In-Play area. In addition, each artifact is worth VPs at the end of the game.

When gaining a new artifact, look at the top two cards of the artifact deck. Choose one to keep in your In-Play area and put the other on the bottom of the artifact deck.

Scoring an Artifact

A few artifacts have abilities that can be used only once. If an ability instructs you to score the artifact, put it into your Completed pile (to the right of your Hero board) to activate its ability. You'll still earn VPs for it at the end of the game, but its abilities no longer affect the game.

Heroes

Hero figures represent your forces as they travel around Dominaria.

Your Heroes determine where you can collect mana from and how you perform most game actions. You can recruit additional Heroes during the game, to a maximum of four. You begin the game with one recruited hero on the board and one Move action. Each space on the Hero track on your Hero board has the Move symbol. Each Move symbol that you've uncovered (by recruiting that Hero) gives you an additional move action. See "Move your Hero," below.

Recruiting a new Hero during a turn will give you an additional move on that same turn. In addition, you'll get a new quest for recruiting your third Hero.

Manaliths

Manaliths represent permanent mana bonds you form with a location.

You can build a maximum of five Manaliths during the game, one on each color. Players may build Manaliths on the same locations as other players.

At the end of your turn, you get a Manalith mana token matching the color of each location on which you've built a Manalith. These mana tokens can be spent just like any other mana token. The only difference is that as long as that Manalith mana token is still in your mana pool, you won't get another one for that Manalith.

Example: Gavin builds two Manaliths during his turn, one on a red location and one on a blue location. At the end of that turn, he gets a red Manalith mana token and a blue Manalith mana token. During his next turn, he spends the blue Manalith mana token. At the end of that turn, he'll get a blue Manalith mana token, but not another red Manalith mana token, as he still has the red Manalith mana token in his mana pool. On a future turn, if he spends the red Manalith mana token, he'll get it back at the end of that turn.

You'll get a new quest after building your second and fourth Manaliths.

Leylines

Leylines are magical bonds that improve your ability to collect mana from the map.

You form Leyline networks by connecting locations through a continuous series of one or more Leylines. Each group of dashes between two locations is one Leyline space. You can build up to eight Leylines during the game. Each time you form a Leyline, you can extend an existing Leyline network or start a new one.

After forming your second, fourth, and sixth Leyline, you'll take two green mana from the supply. You'll get a new quest after building your third and seventh Leyline.

Collecting Mana through a Leyline

When collecting mana (see "Action phase" below), you can collect mana from any location connected to one of your Heroes through one of your Leyline networks. This doesn't cause the Hero to move.

Example: Amy has a Hero on Sursi. She can collect mana from Estark or Shanodin because her Leyline network reaches from her Hero to those two locations.

The Cabal

The Cabal is interested in all the activity on Dominaria, and it's moving to secure resources before you can.

Cabal Crackdown. Cabal tokens are put onto the map by some Dominaria cards. If there's a Cabal token on a location, mana can't be collected from that location, even through a Leyline. Mana can still be added to that location, and all other player actions (building Manaliths, forming Leylines, discovering artifacts, and so on) are unaffected.

You'll get a new quest after confronting your second, fourth, sixth, and eighth Cabal.

Game Setup

1. Place the map in the center of the table.
2. Find the ten public quest tiles and set them near the board, in five piles according to their type, with the 10 VP tile on top of each pile.
3. Shuffle the Dominaria deck, the artifact deck, and the quest deck separately and place them near the map where players can access them. Leave room for discard piles for each deck.
4. Put the mana tokens near the map. This is the supply.
5. For each location on the map, put a mana token on it that matches its color.
6. Place the round marker on Round 1 on the map.
7. Each player chooses a player color and takes all their matching colored pieces. Each player sets up their Hero board as follows:
   • Place three Heroes, five Manaliths, and eight Leylines on their designated tracks. The fourth Hero is your starting Hero and will be placed on the map (see point 9 below).
   • The Cabal track (the bottom track) starts empty but will fill up as you confront the Cabal.
   • Each player receives a set of Manalith mana tokens (one of each color). Keep these near your Hero board. You'll collect them once you build Manaliths.
8. Each player is dealt four quest cards and chooses two to keep. The other two are shuffled into the quest deck.
9. The player who most recently traveled through time is the first player. If there are no time travelers among you, randomly determine the first player. Starting with this first player, and proceeding clockwise, each player places their starting Hero in one of the five starting locations. Multiple players can start in the same location.

In a 2-player game, each player will place two of their Heroes on starting locations. The first player will place one Hero on a starting location, then the second player will place two Heroes in the same or different starting location, and finally, the first player will place their second Hero. (Note: this means both players will have an extra Move action from the beginning of the game.)

Playing the Game

Taking a Turn

Your turn consists of two phases: the Mana phase and the Action phase.

Mana Phase

At the beginning of your turn, reveal the top card of the Dominaria deck. Put a mana token on every location that matches the mana symbol on the lower left of the card. If there's an artifact or Cabal symbol on the top right of the card, put a token of the appropriate type on the listed location.

Action Phase

On your turn, you can take any of the following actions in any order:

1. Move your Hero: You have a number of Move actions equal to the number of Move icons revealed plus one (you start the game with one Move action). For every Move action, move one of your Heroes to any adjacent location.
2. Collect mana: You may take this action only once each turn, regardless of the number of Heroes you control. Take all the mana tokens from one location that contains at least one of your Heroes and put them into your mana pool. Leylines may allow you to collect mana from distant locations. You can't collect mana from a location containing a Cabal token (see "The Cabal"). You keep mana in your mana pool until you spend it, even from one turn to the next.
3. Use a Planeswalker ability. There are five Planeswalker abilities, listed below. Each one costs a certain amount of mana. You can use as many of these abilities during your turn as you want, as long as you have the necessary mana to pay for them. And you can use the same ability multiple times.
   • Recruit a Hero, cost: 4 White mana — Take the leftmost Hero from your Hero track and put it on the map in any starting location. New Heroes can move immediately if you have Move actions available.
   • Discover an artifact, cost: 3 Blue mana — You can take this action if there's an artifact token in the same location as one of your Heroes. Remove the artifact token from play and look at the top two cards of the artifact deck. Choose one to put into your In-Play area and place the other on the bottom of the artifact deck. Any abilities of the chosen artifact are immediately active.
   • Confront the Cabal, cost: 2 Black mana — You can take this action if there's a Cabal token in the same location as one of your Heroes. Remove the Cabal token from the map and put it into the leftmost uncovered space of the Cabal Defeated track on your hero board.
   • Build a Manalith, cost: 4 Red mana — Take the leftmost Manalith from your Manalith track and place it in a location with one of your Heroes. Each of your Manaliths must be on a different color location. You can build Manaliths on the same location as another player.
   • Form a Leyline, cost: 2 Green mana — Take the leftmost Leyline from your Leyline track and place it in the Leyline space between a location with one of your Heroes and an adjacent location. You can't form more than one Leyline in any one Leyline space, but multiple players can form a Leyline in the same Leyline space.
4. Use an artifact ability.
5. Complete a quest. If you've met the conditions of a quest card in your hand or in your In-Play area, put it face up in your Completed area. Collect any rewards immediately.

When you are done with all your actions, play passes to your left.

A Sample Turn

Bryan starts his turn with Heroes on Llanowar and Urborg. He has three Move actions to use on his turn. Bryan reveals the top card of the Dominaria deck, which adds one red mana to each red location.

For his first move, Bryan moves a hero from Llanowar to Hammerheim.

He then collects one red mana from Hammerheim.

Then he builds his first Manalith on Hammerheim, paying five mana, including the red mana he just collected.

Then he moves his Hero from Urborg to Orvada.

He then forms his first two Leylines: one between Orvada and Urborg and a second one between Orvada and Shanodin. This gives him an immediate reward of two green mana and allows him to complete the quest "Gaea's Blessing." He places that card face up in his Completed area. As a reward for completing that quest, Bryan looks at the top two cards of the quest deck, keeps one of them, and puts the other on the bottom of the quest deck.

Then he takes his last Move action, moving his Hero from Orvada to Shanodin. At the end of his turn, he puts his red Manalith mana token into his mana pool (because he has a Manalith on Hammerheim AND he doesn't have his red Manalith mana token).

Ending the Round

When all players have taken a turn, the round is over. Move the round marker one space.

Ending the Game

The game ends after a certain number of rounds:

• 2 players = 11 rounds
• 3 players = 10 rounds
• 4 players = 9 rounds

Scoring

You earn VPs for the following:

• The highest uncovered VP number on your Hero, Manalith, and Leyline tracks
• The highest covered number on your Cabal Defeated track
• Each artifact in your In-Play area
• Each card (artifact or quest) in your Completed area

The player with the most VPs wins the game! In case of a tie, the player with the most VPs who completed the most quests wins. If that doesn't break the tie, all tied players win the game.

At the end of the game, Bryan's Hero board looks like this. He will score 9 for the Heroes, 10 for the Manaliths, 8 for the Leylines, and 8 for the defeated Cabal. Then he counts up the VPs from the artifacts in the In-Play area and the cards and public quest tile in the Completed area. Bryan's total score is 62.

Tips and Tricks

• Try to choose starting quests that complement each other, if possible.
• You can start on the same location as another player, but that often leads to fighting over mana, so you may want to spread out... at least at the beginning.
• Collecting the most mana possible each turn is often a good idea, but sometimes you must sacrifice quantity to get access to the color of mana you need.
• Keep an eye on the public quests, and remember that two players can score VPs for each of them. Being in second place is better than missing out!

Variant

Once all players are familiar with the game, you can try starting the game with two mana tokens on each location instead of one. With more building in the early rounds, the game may be a little longer.

Public Quest Tiles

The ten public quest tiles form five matched pairs, one pair per type. Each pair has a higher and a lower VP tile; the first player to complete the quest takes the higher tile, and the second player takes the lower one.

• Prismatic Domain (Public Quest — Manalith): Complete this quest if you've built all your Manaliths. — 10 VP
• Call the Cavalry (Public Quest — Hero): Complete this quest if you've recruited all your Heroes. — 10 VP
• Collector's Pride (Public Quest — Artifact): Complete this quest if you have five or more Artifacts. — 10 VP
• Dark Conglomeration (Public Quest — Cabal): Complete this quest if you have five or more Cabal tokens. — 10 VP
• Universal Alignment (Public Quest — Leyline): Complete this quest if you've built all your Leylines. — 10 VP

Symbols

The rulebook uses the following pictogram symbols throughout: White mana, Blue mana, Black mana, Red mana, and Green mana (the five mana colors); Any 3 mana, regardless of color (a generic cost payable with any three mana tokens); Quest; Artifact; Hero; Manalith; Leyline; and Cabal.

Credits

Research & Design

• Original Concept: Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson
• Lead Design: Bryan Hawley and Peter Lee
• Additional Design: James Arnold, Kelly Digges, Chris Dupuis, Ben Hayes, Peter Ingram, Mel Li, Shawn Main, Bill McQuillan, Drew Nolosco, Ben Petrisor, Matt Tabak, Gavin Verhey, and Mark Winters
• Editing: Matt Tabak
• Production Support: Kip Nordby and Matt Stevens
• Playtesting: Christopher Bellach, Ben Cammarano, Jordan Comar, Melissa DeTora, Ethan Fleischer, Mark Globus, Glenn Jones, Tom LaPille, Dan McAuliffe, Dave McDarby, Noah Millrod, Ken Nagle, Adam Prosak, Aaron Reed, Jules Robins, Bill Rose, Robert Schuster, Eli Shiffrin, Ken Troop, Andrew Veen, and Christopher Youngs
• Product Architect: Mark Globus and Mike Turian

R&D Administration

• VP of R&D: Bill Rose
• Senior Director of R&D: Aaron Forsythe
• Director of Product Design: Mark Globus
• Director of Operations: Ken Troop
• Design Manager: Mark Gottlieb
• Worldbuilding Manager: Jenna Helland
• Art Manager: Jessica Lanzillo
• Play Design Manager: Dan Burdick
• Delta Manager: Marisa Fulmer
• Brand & Marketing: Adam Colby, Matt Danner, and April Glass
• Creative and Production Studios: Christine Risinger, Godot Gutierre, Keven Smith, Kip Nordby, and Robert Hawkey
• Map Illustration by: Jared Blando
• WizKids Editing: Summer Mullins
• WizKids Lead Graphic Design: Richard Dadisman
• WizKids Editorial Design: Patricia Rodriguez

© 2018 WIZKIDS/NECA, LLC. WIZKIDS and related marks and logos are trademarks of WizKids. All rights reserved. © 2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC. Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, Heroes of Dominaria, their respective logos, the mana symbols, and characters' names and distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.