Six Forms
Six Forms Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Start to Victory
Card — Anatomy
Welcome to Six Forms. To start, get a general idea of a card's anatomy.
[Figure: Example card. This card is a battlefield card type but is also an "Avatar". Avatars are battlefield cards.]
Battlefield cards, as seen above, are the most common and are a player's chess-like pieces that move around the battlefield using their arrows. Later, we will dive deep into all the card types, including these chess-like battlefield cards.
Decks
A player can have a deck of 40 to 80 cards, but the deck can only have up to two copies of a card with the same name. Some cards have specific copy limits; the limit is noted in the facet area in a black square. These are all the deck-building restrictions.
The Board
Once each player has their deck of cards ready, it's time to get to know the board. The game board consists of:
- A shared battlefield, which is a 4 by 4 grid.
- A shared quarry with 32 shared energy cube cards.
- Each player's deck, graveyard, and void piles.
[Figure: Example card, you can have 1 of this card per deck.]
Players put their decks face-down on their respective deck piles. When cards are destroyed, discarded, or used, they go into their owner's graveyard pile. Finally, the void pile is a special location for cards that are no longer in the game; this pile is rarely used.
Setup — Start Game & Win
To start the game, each player puts their deck face-down on their respective deck pile and sets their life total to 20. Next, each player needs one spark; use dice as a counter to track the number of sparks players have.
Next, both players draw five cards from the top of their deck as an opening hand. If a player does not like their opening hand, they may mulligan it by shuffling their hand into their deck and then draw a new opening hand (each player can do this once).
To win the game, players battle with their cards and use card effects to reduce their opponent's life to zero. The player whose life hits zero first loses the game.
Now, flip a coin to decide who takes the first turn.
Math — Rounding
During the game, always round down to the nearest whole number.
Turns
DRAMA — Turn Steps
A player's turn has 6 steps: Draw, Regroup, Act, Move, Act, and End (DRAMA). If it is the first player's first turn, they skip their draw and move steps. For all other turns, take all the steps. Players take turns repeating these steps until someone wins.
1. Draw
During this step, the turn player must draw one card from their deck. They lose the game if they can not draw their turn card because their deck is empty.
2. Regroup
During this step, the turn player may do some or all of the following:
- Charge any number of their energy cubes.
- Gain one energy cube from the quarry.
- Ready any number of their face-up cards that are exhausted for free (more on this later).
3. Act (1)
During the act step, the turn player may do anything they like except "move" cards. Those things might be:
- Playing cards face-up by paying for them with energy.
- Placing cards face-down on the battlefield.
- Orienting battlefield cards.
- Play-to-attack.
- Energy draw: pay 6 energy to draw a card.
- Activating effects and more.
4. Move
During the move step, the turn player may only move cards. They may move some or all of their ready (vertically oriented) cards. However, moves are taken one at a time, not simultaneously.
5. Act (2)
This step is the same as the first act step.
6. End
During the end step, if the turn player has more than 7 cards, they must discard cards from their hand until they have 7 left. Now, pass the turn to the next player, and their turn begins.
During the end step, the turn player also releases their gate. However, this is only important for cards that use the gate, and the gate is rarely used. The preconstructed decks do not use the gate, but you will see it on the tip card. See the full rulebook for more details on the gate.
Battlefield
Spawn Zones
The battlefield comprises a 4 by 4 grid of 16 (sixteen) zones, like a small chessboard. Each player uses the 8 zones closest to them as their spawn zones. A player can play battlefield cards in their spawn zones.
[Figure: The battlefield, 8 spawn zones marked for clarity.]
Planes — Ground & Sky
The battlefield has two planes: ground and sky. Face-up battlefield cards that can fly exist in the sky plane, and all others are on the ground.
Players can move their face-up cards of opposite planes through one another; cards on the same plane can not move through one another. However, regardless of their plane, an opponent's cards can never be moved through. Finally, cards in opposite planes will not share the same zone.
Resource System
Energy
Energy is the game's resource used to play cards. Energy is used to play cards and activate more powerful card effects. When something costs energy you will see the energy cost symbol with a number; you will see this in card effect text.
[Figure: Energy cost symbol.]
To get energy, players will need to "create" it. Players will use cubes and sparks to create energy. But energy will not last forever. After being created, energy only lasts until the end of the turn.
Energy Cubes
An energy cube, or cubes for short, is gained by a player from the quarry for free during their turn's regroup step. The 32 cubes in the quarry are accessible by all players, and when it runs out of cubes, no more cubes can be gained. A player keeps any cubes they gain indefinitely. When a cube is gained, it comes into play in vertical position; this means it is charged.
To create energy with a cube, it must be activated. To activate it, turn the card from a vertical to a horizontal position; this drains the cube.
Once a cube is drained, it must be charged before it can be used again. A player may charge any number of their drained cubes for free during their turn's regroup step.
Finally, cubes can be activated anytime during any step on anyone's turn.
[Figure: Activate cube to create one energy.]
Sparks
Sparks can also create energy at any time. Players start the game with one spark each; track them with a counter, like dice. After that, sparks can only be gained by card effects.
When activated, a spark creates one energy. To activate a spark, a player declares the activation and removes that spark from the game forever. Further, each player can only activate one spark each turn. "Each turn" means a player can activate one on their turn and one on their opponent's turn.
The Cards
Playing Cards
A player can only play cards that are in their hand during their act steps. To play a card from their hand, the player must pay the card's "base cost" with energy. When played, cards must be face-up (active) and in vertical position. This is called the ready position.
[Figure: Card's base cost.]
Play Anytime — Interrupt
Only cards with the interrupt symbol in their facet area can be played at any time, including an opponent's turn, any turn step, or in response to a player's actions.
[Figure: Facets area. Play or reveal-play the card at interrupt speed.]
Card Forms
A card's form does not impact the game. The six forms are celestial, elemental, technological, magical, natural, and spiritual. A card's form is written in the first part of the hyphenated text above its description box.
Card Types
There are three card types: action, battlefield, and equip. Each type of card has different rules when they are played. All cards denote their exact type by name in that area. However, battlefield cards do not. Instead, they are seen as "Avatar" or "Artifact". A card's type is written in the first part of the hyphenated text above its description box, as the second word.
[Figure: Card type is "Action".]
Action — Card Type
Play action cards outside the battlefield grid, face-up, in the ready position. Action cards normally have an "On Play" effect that is immediately triggered when they are played. Once an action card is played, it is immediately sent to the graveyard when its effects are resolved.
Equip — Card Type
Play equip cards outside the battlefield grid, face-up, in the ready position. When played, an equip card will "equip" to another card. An equip card remains in play until destroyed or until what it is equipped to is destroyed. A card can have unlimited equip cards equipped to it.
When an equip card says "(Equips ...)" within parentheses, that card can only be equipped to a card that meets those requirements.
[Figure: Equip requirement "(Equips warrior.)"]
Battlefield — Card Type
Play battlefield cards on the battlefield grid into one of its player's unoccupied spawn zones and keep it in play until it is destroyed. They are the only cards that can be on the battlefield.
Battlefield cards may be played in ready position (vertical) or horizontal position. This is called the exhausted position. Further, battlefield cards can be "placed" face-down, but players can only place one battlefield card per turn. So, battlefield cards can be any combination of face-up or down and vertical or horizontal.
When a battlefield card is placed face-down, do not pay its base cost. That cost will be paid when it is eventually flipped face-up. When it is flipped face-up, that is when its base cost is paid.
Place — Face-Down
Only battlefield cards can be placed, and a player can place one and only one battlefield card face-down per turn on one of their unoccupied battlefield spawn zones.
A placed card is not played, and its cost is not paid until flipped face-up. Players can flip their placed cards face-up during their act steps if they can pay for it, but not the same turn it was placed. When the card is played by flipping it from face-down to face-up, it is called a reveal-play.
Reveal-Play — Manually Flip Face-Up
During their act steps, a player may manually reveal-play any number of their placed cards, but not the same turn they were placed face-down.
When reveal-playing a card, the player pays its base cost and may choose to change it to a horizontal or vertical orientation at the time. The card is now played, and changing its orientation on play will not use the card's movement, as you will learn later.
Force-Reveal-Play — Flipped by Force
A placed card is force-reveal-played (a subtype of reveal-played) when:
- An opponent's card enters their zone.
- A counter of any type is added to them, except await counters.
- They become the target of an effect. Non-targeting effects do not.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/battle-reveal)
A force-reveal-played card must keep its orientation, and its base cost must be paid in full. If it can not be paid, the card is ousted.
Ousted — Can't Pay
If a card is force-reveal-played, but its controller can not pay for it, it is ousted. When a card is ousted:
- Treat effect text and facets as not physically printed on it.
- Do not pay nor partially pay its base cost.
- It can not use any movement.
- It can not attack in battle. This means it will not deal battle damage if it enters battle.
- Destroy it immediately after battle if it was flipped over due to an attack.
Await — With Placed Cards
Await is an exclusive activated ability of all placed cards. During the act steps of a player's turn, they may activate the await ability of each face-down battlefield card they control, once per card. If a placed card uses its await ability, it can not be manually reveal-played that turn.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/await)
When activated, add one await counter to that card. For each await counter on a battlefield card, reduce the base cost of the card by the number of await counters on it. The base cost of a card can not become negative in this way.
Remove the await counters after the card is reveal-played.
Card Movement
Movement Basics
Every battlefield card a player controls has one movement it can use on their turn. Battlefield cards can use their movement in several ways, but the most common is when the card moves on the battlefield grid.
Move Cards
A player can use their battlefield card's movement to move it during the move step of their turn if it is in the ready position (vertical position).
Like chess pieces, battlefield cards move one at a time and not simultaneously. However, unlike the rules of chess, a player can move as many cards as they like until no card has movement left. If a card gains extra movement, it can move multiple times!
Moving Battlefield Cards
Battlefield cards move in straight lines, like a bishop or a rook must move in a straight line. However, they can only move up to two zones distance in their plane at the angle of their move-arrows. If the card does not have arrows, it can not move.
Battlefield cards can move into a zone occupied by an opponent's card if it can reach it, but never through an opponent's card, regardless of its plane. Like chess, if a card moves into an opponent card's occupied zone, they enter battle! However, unlike chess, they battle using their stats instead of the mover automatically winning. We will get into battle soon.
[Figure: Move-arrow.]
Reach
There are eight possible move-arrow locations around the perimeter of the card's center artwork. A card's "reach" is all the possible locations on the battlefield that the card could move. Remember, this includes zones occupied by an opponent's card but not through them.
Horizontal, exhausted cards do not have reach. Only ready ones do.
Reach Examples
The "Woman of War" card's reach is used in the below examples.
[Figure: Ground plane, "Woman of War" example card.]
[Figure: Ready card has reach and exhausted does not.]
[Figure: Left, reach limited by distance. Right, reach blocked by friendly ground card.]
[Figure: Left, can battle opponent ground card but can not move through it. Right, can not reach opponent card.]
[Figure: Left, can battle opponent flying card but can not move through it. Right, reach limited but not blocked by friendly flying card.]
Change Orientation
During their act steps, players can change the orientation of their face-up battlefield cards to a horizontal or vertical position. When a card changes orientation, it uses its movement. Face-down battlefield cards can not change orientation.
Free Ready
Remember, in the regroup step of the turn rules, we learned about the option to "Ready any number of their face-up cards that are exhausted for free." This means that during the regroup step of a player's turn, they can orient exhausted (horizontal) cards they control to ready position (vertical) without using the card's movement, but not vertical to horizontal.
Settle A Zone
When a card enters its destination zone, it settles that zone.
Multiple Cards In A Zone
Players can not play or move battlefield cards to a zone occupied by one of their cards, regardless of plane. If, for some reason, two of a player's cards are in the same zone, destroy the last to enter the zone. However, players can move their cards into an occupied zone with an opponent's card in it. When this happens, the cards battle one another.
Card Battle
Card Stats
When a player moves a card they control into a zone with an opponent's card in it, the two cards battle one another. Each card's stats determine the victor of the battle, who settles the contested zone.
[Figure: Card stats.]
All battlefield cards have the battle stats: attack, health, and weakness. For example, "6 / 7 / 2" represents attack 6 and health 5 and weakness 2. (As printed. The example shows health 7 on the card but the text says health 5.)
Attack Stat: The first number. It represents the amount of battle damage the card deals. When the stat is ✧, the card can never have attack stats or attack in battle, and it can not attack back.
Health Stat: The second number. It represents the base health amount of a card. When a card's health is reduced to zero or lower, it is destroyed.
Weakness Stat: The third number. It represents the amount of reduced attack and critical damage taken when the card is attacked from behind.
Move-To-Attack
For a player to attack with a ready card, they "move-to-attack" by moving their card into an opponent's occupied zone. Once their card is in the occupied zone, the cards enter battle, and it does not exhaust (tap) the card.
Ready Cards
When ready cards enter battle, they simultaneously deal battle damage equal to their total attack on one another. The battle damage reduces each card's health by that amount, and any excess is dealt to the players as life damage. If neither card is destroyed from battle, the card that moved-to-attack must retreat to its origin zone.
Once battle damage is dealt and cards settle, battle damage on any remaining cards heals.
[Figure: Move-to-attack a ready card, both attack.]
Exhausted Cards
Cards in exhausted position (horizontal) do not deal battle damage. They don't attack back. However, any excess is not dealt to the exhausted card's controller as life damage. This protection from life damage is called shield.
Once battle damage is dealt and cards settle, battle damage on any remaining cards heals.
[Figure: Move-to-attack an exhausted card. Exhausted gets shield but will not attack.]
Attack From Behind — Flank
When a card moves-to-attack another card from behind, the battle will engage the defender's weakness number. Attacked from behind can be from the bottom middle and bottom corners of the defending card's zone. As you learn, the weakness stat amount of the defender will do two things:
- Reduce the defender's attack by the weakness amount of the defender.
- And increase the attacker's attack by the weakness amount of the defender. This additional attack is called critical damage.
As an example of critical damage, a card of 2/2/0 moved-to-attack from behind against a 4/2/1; the 2/2/0 would become 3/2/0, and the 4/2/1 would become 3/2/1. When battle damage is calculated, the originally 4/2/1 (now 3/2/1) would take two battle damage as normal and one critical damage (in the same bundle of battle damage).
Once battle damage is dealt and cards settle, battle damage on any remaining cards heals.
[Figure: Flank. Attacked from behind can be from the bottom middle or any bottom corner of the defending card's zone.]
Retreat
When a card moves-to-attack and does not deal enough damage to defeat a defensive card, the attacking card must retreat to its origin zone after damage calculation.
Play-to-Attack
To play-to-attack, a player must have two or fewer battlefield cards than their opponent. A player can play a battlefield card in ready position into one of their spawn zones occupied by an opponent's card. This is considered a play-to-attack. A play-to-attack also uses a card's movement. But, unlike move-to-attack, which is only allowed during the move step, a play-to-attack can only be done during a player's act steps. Deal damage like a move-to-attack, and destroy the played-to-attack card if it does not destroy its attack target in battle.
Damage Calculation
When cards battle, walk both through damage calculation.
Step 1 — X-to-Attack: Move-to-attack or play-to-attack.
Step 2 — Damage: Cards enter battle, with the attacking card targeting the defending card. Next, the cards simultaneously attack one another, and battle damage is dealt.
Step 3 — End: This step immediately happens once a single card remains in the battle zone amid damage calculation. One will remain because of card destruction, retreat, other reasons, or the outcome of the damage step. Finally, as damage calculation ends, each card's battle damage heals.
MTG players note that moving and attacking with a card does not exhaust (tap) it, and battle damage overflows to the player by default (trample) unless the defender is exhausted.
When Battle Damage Heals
When battle damage is dealt, it only lasts until the end of the battle. It does not accumulate for the turn or even from battle to battle. So, a card could battle multiple times in a single turn, but it will not carry previous battle damage into battle.
Direct Attack
When an opponent has no cards on the battlefield, or all of their battlefield cards (face-up and face-down) have become the target of an attack, the opponent can be attacked directly.
To attack the opponent directly with a card, it must move into or already be in the opponent's back row of zones. Then, the attacker declares a direct attack with that card. Once declared, deal the card's full attacks as life damage to the opponent.
If the card is already in the opponent's back row of zones, it does not need to move zones. It can stay where it is. However, a direct attack uses and requires a card's movement.
A direct attack is a move-to-attack and activates "On Battle:" effect events.
Example Battles
- A) 5/5/0 moves-to-attack 5/5/0 ready (vertical). Both cards are destroyed and no damage is dealt.
- B) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 5/0/0 exhausted (horizontal). Defender is destroyed and the attacker deals zero opponent damage.
- C) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 5/3/0 ousted exhausted. Defender is destroyed and the attacker deals zero opponent damage.
- D) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 5/3/0 ousted ready. Only defender is destroyed and the attacker deals two opponent damage.
- E) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 5/5/0 flipped face-up from ready face-down. Both are destroyed.
- F) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 10/8/3 ready from behind. Both are destroyed and the defender.
- G) 5/3/0 moves-to-attacks 6/6/2 ready from behind. Both are destroyed and both cards deal one opponent damage.
- H) 5/5/0 moves-to-attacks 5/6/1 flipped face-up from exhausted face-down from behind. Defender is destroyed and the attacker deals zero opponent damage.
- I) 4/4/0 moves-to-attacks 4/4/0 ready. Both are destroyed and no player damage is dealt.
- J) 4/4/0 moves-to-attacks 4/5/0 ready, then card effect deals two defender damage after damage step and before end step. Both cards are destroyed and no player damage is dealt.
- K) 4/4/0 moves-to-attacks ✧/5/0 ready. Attacker retreats and no player damage is dealt.
Card Effects
Effect Basics
A card's effects are written in the effect text area of a card. Not all cards have effects. Card effects activate, or can be activated, if the necessary condition for the effect is true and the card itself is active (face-up) and in-play.
When a card has multiple effects, they are activated from top to bottom. Each effect may include multiple parts, denoted by a sentence per part. When this is the case, activate the effect's parts in reading order.
For example, if an "On Play" effect is the first effect of a card and "While Active" is the second, the "On Play" will happen completely before the "While Active" takes effect. Thus, any effects from "While Active" are not present during the first "On Play" effect's activation.
State Effects
State effects can be activated when the card is in the specified state. For example, in the state of "While Active —" the effect is only usable while the card is face-up. For "While Equipped —" the effect is only usable while the card is equipped to a card.
[Figure: While Active effect triggers when the card is face-up (active).]
Pay: When a state effect requires energy (with a number), the player may pay the energy amount specified to activate the effect. If it is not paid, the effect will not activate. A player can activate the effect multiple times per turn by paying the energy for each additional activation. Only state effects can pay multiple times.
[Figure: Pay 1 energy to activate, and it can activate at interrupt speed.]
Animate
During a player's act steps, their cards with the rotate symbol can activate their effect by changing from ready to exhausted position. This is called animating.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/animate)
Animation can be done anytime if it has the interrupt symbol, not just during the player's act step.
[Figure: Animate card.]
A battlefield card can not animate if it has moved. If it animates, remove (don't use) one movement from the card. Animate will not use movement, which means the card can animate anytime if both symbols are present.
Animate creates two events. First, the animate start event happens before the card is put into exhausted position. Last, the animate end event happens after the card is put into exhausted position. Animate effects happen after the end event unless stated otherwise.
Event Trigger Effects
Event trigger effects activate automatically when their trigger occurs. Event trigger effects start with "On" or "After". For example, "On Play:" or "After Play:".
Pay: Event effects are optional if they include a cost to activate. For example, "On Play — pay 3 energy:" means you may choose to activate the "On Play" effect by paying three energy. There is no option to pay multiple times like state effects. If you choose not to pay, the effect is skipped.
[Figure: Event trigger, On Play, optionally pay 3.]
Multiple Event Triggers
When a card has multiple event trigger effects, they resolve from top to bottom, and optional paid event effects can be skipped if desired.
[Figure: Multiple optional event trigger effects.]
Event Trigger List
A full list of event triggers can be found in the judge's official rulebook.
On Attack: When a card says "On Attack:" the effect is activated when the card does x-to-attack.
On Battle: When a card says "On Battle:" the effect is activated when the card enters battle, including a direct attack.
On Block: When a card says "On Block:" the effect is activated when the card blocks.
On Dodge: When a card says "On Dodge:" the effect is activated when the card dodges.
On Move: When a card says "On Move:" the effect is activated when a card has started moving and before it enters the destination zone.
On Play: When a card says "On Play:" the effect is activated when the card is considered played, whether played or reveal-played.
On Reveal & Battle Reveal: When a card says "On Reveal:" the effect is activated when the card is reveal-played. Also, "On Battle Reveal:" is only activated when the card is force-reveal-played by battle from an x-to-attack.
On Victory: When a card says "On Victory:" the effect is activated when this is the victor of battle. It settled the zone it x-to-attacked into.
XYZ Variable Cost
Variable costs are optional and appear as the letters X, Y, or Z. The player determines the amount of energy paid from zero to infinity. X, Y, or Z will be within the cost symbol. Sometimes, a variable, like X, will be associated with other related effect text.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/xcost)
[Figure: X energy variable cost.]
Effect Damage
Effect damage reduces a card's health by the amount it deals. Damage dealt by card effects is short-term and lasts until the end of the turn. When a placed card takes effect damage, force-reveal-play it.
Events
Event Stack
Events are anything that happens in the game: playing a card, placing a card, attacking, drawing, or any other event. When the game is at rest, cards and players are doing nothing. When an event occurs, that first event is the base event. The event stack is created when a base event occurs, and another event occurs in response to the base event before the base event resolves. When the event stack stops growing, it begins to resolve in reverse order.
Event Stack Resolution
The event stack resolves one event at a time in reverse order of how everything happened. Without all the exact and nuanced details of who can do what when, take this example of gameplay and focus only on how the event stack resolves:
- Player's turn starts (base event).
- This base event does not receive responses, so the start of the turn occurs.
- At the start of their turn, player one draws a card (new base event).
- In response to the base event of drawing a card, player one also plays an interrupt speed action card (child event) with the text, "On Play — when a player draws a card: gain 1 life.".
- No responses happen, so the event stack resolves in reverse order. First, the action card play event happens, and no card has yet finished being drawn.
- Now, the action card's play resolves, and thus its "On Play:" event effect activates (event). This effect activation event enters the stack. No responses to the activation, so the event stack starts to resolve again. Now, player one gains one life (event).
- In response to the event of gaining one life, that player's opponent, player two, plays an interrupt speed action card with the text, "On Play — when a player gains life: they lose that much life.".
- No responses happen, so the event stack resolves in reverse order yet again.
- Now, the action card's play resolves, and thus its "On Play:" event effect activates (event). This effect activation event enters the stack, growing the stack again as it was resolving. No responses to the activation, so the event stack starts to resolve again. Now, player one loses one life (event). No responses happen, so the event stack starts to resolve.
- Player one draws their card for the turn.
- The event stack has now been resolved.
- Time for the next base event and a new event stack.
More complex scenarios are covered in the judge's official rulebook.
Card Facets
Facet Area
Facets add additional abilities to a card by keyword. Multiple facets are delimited by a dot (•).
[Figure: Multiple card facets.]
Fly
While the card is active (face-up), it occupies the sky plane.
Bruise
Battle damage dealt by the card lasts until the end of the turn it was dealt.
Block
While in ready position and face-up, the card can move one space within its reach to intercept (block) a move-to-attack of an opponent's card. However, interception must occur in an empty zone between the opponent's card's desired attack target. Block does not use a movement. Blocking stops the offensive card from moving-to-attack its desired attack target. The card can also block if it is the desired attack target, as long as there is an open zone between the attacker and the card.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/block)
When the card blocks, turn it to exhausted position before damage calculation. If the card is not destroyed after damage calculation, the card may change to ready position for free, and if the opponent's card also remains, it must retreat.
[Figure: Left, "Beguiling Charmer" (bottom right card) can block into the attack path. Right, it blocks the move-to-attack and enters battle.]
Dodge
While in ready position and face-up, the card can move one space into an unoccupied zone within its reach away from a move-to-attack against it, or play-to-attack. Dodge does not stop the offensive card from moving into the intended zone and will not affect that card's momentum. So, if there is another zone within reach of the attacking card using the same attack line, the attacker may continue forward, and the dodging card never becomes the target of battle and must still be attacked before the opponent can attack directly. Dodge does not use a movement.
(Online explainer: sixforms.tv/dodge)
When a card dodges, it is turned to the exhausted position once it settles.
[Figure: Left, valid zones that "Woman of War" (bottom card) can dodge into. Right, "Woman of War" dodges to the right.]
Modifiers
Effect — +X/+X/+X
Effect modifiers add or subtract from a card's stats. Card text with +1/+1/+1 represents a stat modifier, adding one attack, health, and weakness to the card. A combination of negative and positive numeric variations may appear, such as +2/+5/-2. If a card has three (3) full health and its base stat is modified with +0/-2/+0, its full health becomes one. If a card's health stat is modified to zero or below, the card is destroyed.
Counters
Counters are used to track card modifications. D6 dice or an incrementable unit of any type can be used as counters.
- When a counter of any kind (except await) is added to an inactive face-down card, flip it face-up.
- When a card changes its super-state (in or out of play), remove any counters on it.
- If a card with counters is flipped face-down, remove any counters on it.
Damage Counter: Each damage counter on a card acts as one long-term damage to that card.
Power Counter: For each power counter on a card, that card gains +1/+1/+0. Can only be applied to battlefield cards.
Stun Counter: A card with any number of stun counters on it is stunned. At the end of its controller's regroup step, remove one stun counter.
Await Counter: Unlike all other counters, await counters do not target a card. Thus, they will not flip an inactive face-down card face-up. Await counters reduce the base cost of a card by the number of await counters on it. The base cost of a card can not become negative in this way. When a card is played (almost always a reveal-play), its await counters are removed after it is played.
For a full list, see the judge's rulebook.
Keywords
The judge's official rulebook contains a full list of keywords.
Active / Inactive: Cards that are face-up are active. Face-down cards are inactive.
Card Control: A player's cards are under their control unless taken over by an opponent. If a player controls a card they do not own, when that card is sent to the hand, deck, graveyard, gated, or eliminated, that card is put into its owner's. When card control changes, its state does not change, but its location might. When a player takes control of an in-play card, reposition its orientation to that of those the player owns without charging its actual orientation or zone.
Card Ownership: When a card is sent to the graveyard, hand, deck, or void, it is put in its owner's. At the start of the game, a player controls only the cards they own.
Charge / Recharge: Move a drained energy cube component from your recharge pool to your resource pool, where it can be activated. Or, if an energy cube card is used, turn the drained horizontal card into the vertical orientation, where it can be activated. In either situation, the cube will become charged and no longer drained.
Choose: When a card effect says "choose," as in "choose one," there will be a list of bulleted options to select from. When a card says "choose two" or more, you can not select the same bulleted item twice unless the card's effect text allows it.
Destroy: Send the card to the graveyard.
Discard: Send a card to the graveyard from its location. When the discard location is not described in a card's effect text, the location is the player's hand. If a card effect requires a player to discard more cards than they have in their possession within the specified location, discard all of the cards in their possession within the specified location instead.
If a player is required to discard or may choose to discard but has no cards in the declared location, such as their hand, that player will discard no cards because there are none. The effect is not negated.
Drain: Drain means to turn a charged card into the horizontal orientation. When a cube is drained by effect, it does not produce energy because it is not activated.
Draw: When card text says a player should draw any number of cards, such as the effect text "draw 2 cards." or "draw 1 card.", drawing any number of cards is "drawing" cards. So effects that react to the card draw do not trigger for each card drawn; instead, they react to the set of cards drawn.
Eliminate: Send the card to the void.
Energy Draw: A player can pay 6 energy to draw one card during their act step, which is called an energy draw. A player can do this without limit as long as they can pay.
Exhaust: An exhausted card is any card in horizontal position. When a player exhausts a card, put it in the exhausted position. Only ready cards can be exhausted.
Face-up / Face-down: When face-up or face-down is used in card text, it means a card that is in-play. For example, "destroy face-up card" can not allow a player to destroy a card in the graveyard.
Ground / Grounded: When a card is grounded, it exists on the ground plane.
Heal: Remove all damage, damage counters, poison counters, stun, and stun counters from the card.
In-Play / Out-of-play: State denotes the particular condition the card is in at a specific time. There are two super-states of a card: in or out of play. A card can only be in one of these states at a given time. Further, each super-state has subtypes.
- In-play: Can be active (face-up) or inactive (face-down).
- Active cards: Denoted by being face-up. Can be used by their controller to activate their effects. They can respond to game events.
- Inactive cards: Denoted by being face-down. Can not be used by its controller or respond to events. Can be made active by being flipped over when allowed by their controller.
- Out-of-play: Can be accessible or inaccessible.
- Accessible: Can be used by a player during the game when allowed. While accessible cards are primarily cards in a player's hand, they can also be cards with the ability to activate an effect from other out-of-play locations.
- Inaccessible: Can not be used by a player until they become accessible.
In-Reach: In-reach refers to those cards within the reach of a card where that card should be able to move-to-attack those cards, even if you are on that card already or that card is your own. Not to be confused with reach, which defines a card's ability to move to specific zones. When a card says "in-reach" but does not define a card of origin, the implied subject card from the text is the card of origin. If there is no subject or implied subject, the subject is "this card". A subject card can not have reach to itself.
For example, "On Play: You may deal 2 damage to an in-reach card an opponent controls." The card of origin is the card that was played because the subject is "this". The text does not mean you may deal 2 damage to a card that any of the cards under your control can reach.
Next, "While Active: When a warrior you control enters battle, you may deal 1 damage to all of its near in-reach cards you do not control." Here the card of origin is the current warrior that is entering battle.
Finally, notice the "near" keyword. Near means only cards in surrounding zones that are in reach.
Life: Refers to a player's life. Cards do not have life.
Motionless: The card can not use a movement, dodge, or block. The card also becomes grounded.
Move-To-Attack: When a card moves with the intent to attack an opponent's card.
Negate: Stop the named event, facet effect, or other card effect from happening.
If an x-to-attack is negated, retreat the card that did the move-to-attack, or possibly crush the play-to-attack card. See the crush rules in the judge's official rulebook. A negated play-to-attack does not negate the play of the card. It only negates the play-to-attack battle event.
Pay: When a card says to "pay" energy, you must use your tangible energy to pay it. If you do not have the tangible energy to pay, you will not get the benefit, or you might be required to take an alternative action.
Example 1: "Pay 1 energy; otherwise, add 1 damage counter to this." In this example, the player must pay 1 from their tangible energy. We know this is the case because of the word "otherwise". If they can not, the card will get 1 damage counter added to it. Paying 1 is not optional in this example, and if it can not be paid, the player must take the alternative action.
Example 2: "Pay 1 energy or lose 1 life." In this example, the player is presented with a choice. We know the text is a choice because it says "or" and not "otherwise". If the player has no tangible energy, they can still choose to pay 1 instead of losing 1 life. If they choose to pay 1 when they have no energy, the pay requirement is, in effect, bypassed and not paid.
Example 3: "Choose one: lose 2 life, discard 1 card, or pay 3 energy." In this example, if the player has no or less than 3 tangible energy, they can still choose "pay 3 energy" from what they have tangible, even if their tangible amount is zero.
Plan (X): Look at and arrange X cards from the top of the deck in any order, then put any number of them on the bottom and/or top of the deck. If there are fewer than X cards in the deck, arrange them all.
Player Damage: Player damage is damage dealt to a player and reduces their life by the amount of damage dealt.
Put: A card effect or game ruling might cause cards to be put anywhere (hand, pile, battlefield, etc.). A "put" card's cost is not paid if it enters play.
Ready: A ready card is any card in vertical position. When a card is made ready, put it in the ready position. Only exhausted cards can be made ready. Making a card ready by card effect, if it is a battlefield card, does not use a movement. Readying a card can also be phrased as make ready, made ready, readying, readied, readies, and ready.
Requires: A card with "Requires" text within parentheses can not be played or reveal-played unless its required type/from/class/subclass is under its controller's active control on the battlefield. Force reveal-played cards are ousted if their requirement is not met.
Sacrifice: To send an active card to the graveyard. A sacrifice is not the same as destroying or eliminating, and it is not considered a destroy or eliminate. When a battlefield card is the target of a sacrifice, it must be active and not ousted.
Shield: If a card has "shield", it prevents its controller from taking player damage from its overflow battle damage.
Spy X: Where Y is a target opponent, unless the target is defined by the card effect: look at and arrange X cards from the top of Y's deck in any order, then put any number of them on the bottom and/or top of the deck. If there are fewer than X cards in the deck, arrange them all.
Stun: A stunned card becomes locked into exhausted position and can not be made ready.
Take: Put the card in hand.
Target: Unless otherwise stated, a target must be an in-play card. For example, "Add 3 stun counters to target in-play card." could also be written as "Add 3 stun counters to target." Some card effects are targeting, while others are not. If an effect is targeting, it will use language that implies such (you will see target, targets, targeted, and the like on the card if this is true). Otherwise, the effect is not targeting.
Also, a target may be defined as something other than a card. For example, "Discard 5 cards from the top of target player's deck." Here, the target is the player's deck, not a card. So, targeting is not limited to in-play cards.
Further, targeting can be limited. For example, "Add 3 stun counters to target avatar." Here, only an active avatar can be targeted, not all in-play cards. Note, because the text states the card must be an avatar, the active state is implied, because a player can not know if a card is an avatar unless they select an active one.
Symbols
Black Square: This symbol will always appear with a number inside it. The number inside represents the number of that card that can be in a deck. This only applies when deck building.
Energy Spiral: This symbol will always appear with a number. It represents the amount of energy that must be paid.
Rotate / Animate: This symbol represents animating a card. To animate a card, turn it from the vertical to the horizontal position.
Interrupt Star: This symbol means that the card can be played at any time when in the facet area of a card. The effect can be activated anytime if it is in the effect text area.