Skytear Horde: Monoliths
Skytear Horde: Monoliths Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Components and Card Anatomy
- Setup
- Key Concepts
- Abilities
- Minions and Back Line
- Outsiders
- How to Play: Horde Phase
- Alliance Phase
- Treachery Phase
- Fight Phase
- Pillage Phase
- End Phase
- Cooperative Mode
- Competitive Mode
- Alliance Overview
- Horde Overview
- The Lore
- Custom Decks
- The Original Set
- Rules for Abilities
- Glossary
- Universal Abilities Reference
Overview
How a Game in Progress Looks
During your turn, you deploy allies and towers to the six lanes of the battlefield to stop waves of monsters from destroying your castle and pillaging your resources.
However, just defending will not be enough to win! Some of your allies must counter-attack and tear down the portal that is spawning the horde.
The turn after the first portal is destroyed, the outsider (the final boss leading the horde) will join the battlefield. Destroy the outsider to claim victory over the horde!
Lose your castle or all your resources and you will be defeated instead.
This was just a summary to help you get the big picture, it does not include any rule you need to remember.
Winning and Losing
All players win at the end of the turn in which the outsider is destroyed.
All players immediately lose when either:
- The castle is destroyed, or
- An alliance deck is empty.
Game Flow
The game is played over a series of turns until all the players either win or lose together.
Each turn has six phases:
- Horde Phase — Summon a new wave of horde cards
- Alliance Phase — Play alliance cards and plan for the fight phase
- Treachery Phase — A boon for monsters might undermine your plans
- Fight Phase — Allies and monsters fight and strike the castle or portal
- Pillage Phase — Minions force you to discard cards from your deck
- End Phase — Various upkeep activities including checking for victory
Use the player aid cards as a checklist for these phases.
Components and Card Anatomy
These are the 250 cards in the Skytear Horde: Monoliths base box:
- 87 Horde Cards — organize into three decks, one for each horde, based on the horde symbol in the top right corner.
- 6 Castle Cards
- 120 Alliance Cards — organize into three decks, one for each faction, based on the color of the banner behind the card name.
- 4 Minion Cards
- 8 Portal Cards
- 3 Outsider Cards
- 3 Player Aid Cards
- 6 Roots and 6 Troop Card Tokens — these replace the cards from the original Skytear Horde set. They have a symbol at the bottom of the cards.
- 5 Errata Cards
- 1 bar code card and 1 full art card — the bar code card is only used to identify the card sets. The full art card can be used instead of the regular card.
Card Elements
- Name
- Abilities
- Health (see Key Concepts)
- Attack (see Key Concepts)
- Mana Boost (see Horde Phase)
- Horde: Slitherers, Sinklings, Monoliths (see Horde Overview)
- Treachery (see Treachery Phase)
- Horde card type: monster, spell, or attachment (see Alliance Phase) and a possible qualifier such as Epic
- Horde Rarity
- Related Hero (only relevant for custom decks, see Custom Decks)
- Deck-building rules (see Custom Decks)
- Mana cost
- Type: ally, tower, spell, or attachment
- Subtype: Shapeshifter, Dryad, etc. (see Custom Decks)
- Alliance rarity
- Wave (see Horde Phase)
- Portal Mana Boost (see Horde Phase)
- Game mode: solo, cooperative, 2-player competitive, or 3-player competitive
- Portal stage: I, II, III, IV
- Type: enchanter, colossal, or immortal (see Outsiders)
- Outsider Enchantment
60 Tokens
There is no limit on tokens in the game. If you run out of tokens from the box, use alternate components to represent these tokens.
- 2 Lane Markers
- 3 Mana Tokens
- 1 Castle Health Token
- 6 Large Health Tokens
- 18 Health Tokens
- 10 Attack Tokens
- 7 Temporary Attack Tokens
- 8 Armor Tokens
- 7 Temporary Armor Tokens
The Alliance Factions
The color of the banner on the castle and alliance cards indicates their faction.
There are four factions in the game: Liothan (blue), Taulot (green), Kurumo (red), and Nupten (yellow). An overview of each faction is in the Alliance Overview section.
A card's faction is only relevant during setup when assembling the pre-made alliance decks or when building custom decks.
If you have trouble distinguishing between the colors, each faction also has a different rune watermarked on the ability scroll.
Horde Rarity
The icon indicates the set (e.g. the original Skytear Horde or Monoliths).
Its color indicates the power level, from weakest to strongest.
During setup you will only pick specific power levels based on the desired difficulty.
Alliance Rarity
The icon indicates the set.
Its color indicates one of the four possible rarities: base, rare, mythic, and legendary.
The alliance rarity is only relevant in between games when building decks, see Custom Decks.
Card Inventory Explained
All cards from the Monoliths set have a unique code (like MON.018 2x) with this structure:
- MON: three letters to identify the set.
- 018: three digits to identify each unique card.
- 2x: this number tells you how many copies of the card are included in the set. If there is no number, it means there is only one copy of the card.
These are the range of unique identifiers for the four products from the Monoliths set:
- Monoliths base box: 001 to 174
- Diviners expansion: 175 to 196
- The Brood expansion: 197 to 228
- Colossals expansion: 229 to 255
For customer support, email [email protected]. To buy products, visit https://www.playskytear.com.
Setup
Follow these steps for a solo game (also valid for a cooperative game — see Cooperative Mode for the differences).
1. Tokens
Place the two lane markers in the center of the table so that the numbers progress from 0 to 10.
Leave room for a row of cards above and below the lane markers for monsters and allies (area for monsters above, area for allies and towers below).
Each player places their mana token on the 0 of the lane marker.
Place the rest of the tokens within reach.
2. Castle Card
Place a castle of your choice to the right of the lane markers (for your first game use "Beraph of Grialth"). Place the castle health token on the lane marker to track the castle's starting health. Use the token's +10 side to add 10 to the number on the track.
If there are two alliance players, choose another castle that will remain out of play. This castle will only be used for determining the second player's alliance deck restrictions.
3. Alliance Deck
To play with pre-made decks, each player shuffles together 40 alliance cards from the same set and of the same faction as their castle. (For your first game, use the blue and/or green decks from the Monoliths set).
The Alliance Overview section has an overview of each pre-made alliance deck and the Custom Decks section has rules for building your own custom alliance decks.
Each player places their alliance deck within reach and leaves room next to it for a face-up discard pile.
If you have the Nupten & Utsesh expansions, you have 41 cards per faction instead of 40. Remove 1 heroic ally at random (e.g. Vorhild, Akimo, etc.) to end up with your pre-made deck.
4. Portal Cards
Take the 2 portal cards with the same game mode. For your first game, use the solo or cooperative game mode. (Game modes: Solo, Cooperative, Competitive 2 players, Competitive 3 players.)
Form a face-up pile ordered by stage number with stage I on top and stage III on the bottom. Portals are 2-sided, their stage is a roman numeral: in order: I, II, III, and IV.
Place these portals to the left of the lane markers.
5. Minion Cards
Place the four minion cards above the space reserved for monsters (their order does not matter).
For solo or 2-player competitive games place 1 health token on each minion card (place 2 on each minion for cooperative or 3-player competitive games).
6. Horde Deck
For your first game, form the horde deck using the 18 Monoliths horde cards with the Monoliths symbol in their top right corner and the two weakest power levels. This will set the difficulty to level 2.
To build your horde deck in future games, choose one horde to fight and a difficulty level from the table below. Then, form the horde deck using all of the horde cards from the chosen horde that have the corresponding power level icons.
| Difficulty | Cards* |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | 9 |
| Level 2 | 18 |
| Level 3 (and also add 1 random legendary card) | 10 |
| Level 4 | 20 |
| Level 5 | 11 |
The exact number of cards is not important and may vary from set to set and also depending on the expansions you have.
An overview of each horde with their relative difficulty is in the Horde Overview section.
Now shuffle all the horde cards you have selected to form the horde deck and place it within reach.
Leave room next to it for a face-up discard pile where you will place destroyed monsters, spells, etc.
7. Outsider Card
Place an outsider of your choice face-up and within reach. (For your first game use "Purple Circle". The text at the top of it tells you to Reinforce 3. To do so, just place 1 health token on 3 different minions of your choice. You can learn more about the Reinforce keyword in the glossary.)
Any outsider can be paired with any horde, even though some outsiders are thematically connected with a specific horde as indicated in the Horde Overview section.
8. Draw and Mulligan
Each player draws five cards from their alliance deck.
Players may take a mulligan: discard any number of cards, draw back the same amount, and then shuffle the discarded cards back into the deck.
For your first game we suggest you mulligan any card that is not of the "ally" type and/or has a mana cost of 6 or higher.
You are now ready to start playing!
Key Concepts
On the next few pages, you will find the key concepts needed to start playing. For more complete definitions see the Rules for Abilities and Glossary sections at the end of the rulebook.
Monsters and Allies
Monsters and allies are the two most important types of horde and alliance cards respectively.
They both have attack and health values that can be modified during the game.
Once they enter play, they remain in play until they are destroyed (their health is 0 or less).
Front Line and Lanes
The main game zone is called the front line. It consists of 6 lanes identified by the 2 lane markers.
Each lane can have at most:
- One monster above the lane markers
- One ally or tower below the lane markers
During the fight phase:
- Monsters and allies in the same lane strike each other (this is an "engaged" monster and ally striking each other).
- Unengaged monsters strike the castle.
- Unengaged allies strike the portal.
Strike and Damage
When an ally or monster strikes, it deals an amount of damage equal to their attack.
When a card takes damage, you put that many damage tokens on it to keep track of its lower health. (For example, a monster that has taken 3 damage and has zero health is destroyed.)
Tokens
Abilities use symbols that represent tokens that modify the attack and health of cards underneath them:
- +1 Health
- +1 Attack
- -1 Attack
- -1 Health (Damage)
- +1 Attack this turn
- -1 Attack this turn
Opposing tokens of the same type on the same card cancel each other out immediately. E.g. If a card with a damage token gains a health token, both tokens are discarded.
Temporary and permanent tokens are a different type of tokens. E.g. A card can have a permanent -1 attack token and a temporary +1 attack this turn token at the same time: while they effectively even each other out, the -1 attack token will be removed at the end of the turn.
Destruction
When the health of a card is 0 or less, follow these steps:
- Resolve the card's "Destroyed:" ability.
- Discard the card's tokens and attachments.
- The card leaves play. Depending on the card type:
- Monster or Ally: Place it in the proper discard pile.
- Minion or Outsider: Set the card aside.
- Portal: Replace the card with the next stage portal in its upright orientation. Since portals are double sided, the next stage might be on the back of the destroyed portal.
Drawing Cards: All non-token monsters have this additional ability: "Destroyed: One alliance player may draw 1 card." In other words: every time you destroy a non-token monster (be it a normal monster, outsider, or even a minion) one alliance player of your choice may draw 1 card. This is very important to remember because it is the main way to draw cards in Skytear Horde!
Mana
The mana tokens track your mana.
Mana is the resource spent to play alliance cards.
Each player must always have their mana token next to the corresponding number on the lane markers to track their available mana.
Mana can be kept from turn to turn, however it cannot be more than 10 or less than 0, and it cannot be traded between players.
Card Tokens
Card tokens are special monsters and allies created by specific abilities rather than played from hand or summoned by the portal.
There can be at most six monster card tokens of the same type across the outsider pile, front line, and back line.
In the rare case in which a seventh monster token would be summoned, Reinforce 1 instead (this keyword is explained in the glossary).
If a card token would enter a deck, discard pile, or would be drawn, it is removed from the game instead.
Remember that monster tokens do not let you draw a card when destroyed.
Hands, Decks, and Discard Piles
Each player has their own deck and hand of cards. Players can have at most 7 cards in hand at the end of the turn.
Each deck has its own discard pile. When you discard a card, place it face-up in the appropriate discard pile (the order of the cards in the discard piles does not matter).
If an alliance deck runs out of cards, all players lose.
If the horde deck runs out of cards, shuffle its discard pile to form a new horde deck.
Abilities
General Rules for Abilities
You must always resolve abilities as much as possible. (E.g. "Destroy 2 monsters" will destroy only 1 monster if there is only one in play.)
If something is tied or not specified, you are free to decide. (E.g. "An ally gains 1 health" lets you choose any ally in play. Or if multiple abilities would resolve at the same time, you decide the order in which they resolve.)
These are the 2 most important rules to know. The Rules for Abilities section has additional rules to help you resolve all kind of abilities in case you have any doubts as you play.
Ready and Exhausted
Cards in play can be in one of two possible states: ready or exhausted.
Cards enter play in the ready state and must become exhausted in order to use one of their "Exhaust:" abilities.
Exhausted cards are pulled away from the lane markers to represent their exhausted state.
Exhausted cards can still be used in the Fight phase.
Additional Costs
Some abilities might have additional costs that you must pay in order to use their abilities. These costs are highlighted in bold.
For example, the ability of most castles requires you to pay 1 mana in addition to exhausting the castle in order to resolve the ability.
Minions and Back Line
The four minions are a special type of monster threatening your resources (your alliance deck) instead of your castle.
The back line is a game zone where the four minion cards stay in play.
During the pillage phase, the stronger the minions in the back line, the more cards you will have to discard from your alliance deck. Remember: all players lose if an alliance deck runs out of cards!
Abilities can target monsters in the back line as long as they do not specify the targeted monster must be in a lane or in the front line.
All four minions have the same abilities, one of which is the "Pillager" keyword.
Pillager means minions remain in play in the back line unless an ally engages and pulls them into a lane during the alliance phase.
The health of the minions will be increased above zero with health tokens during the setup and, most likely, also during the game due to horde cards' abilities.
A destroyed minion only exists for abilities giving health to it. As soon as a destroyed minion gains health, it enters play in the back line.
Outsiders
The outsider is the boss leading the horde and your goal is to destroy it. The outsider starts out of play and will later be summoned from the outsider pile.
Outsider Pile
At the start of the game the outsider pile is empty.
The outsider will go in this pile once the Stage 1 portal is destroyed. Occasionally, other cards will also go in the outsider pile as well.
The outsider pile is face-up and, unlike the discard piles, it is ordered. (i.e. the order of the cards matter and should not be changed.)
Outsider Types
Outsiders can be of three types: enchanter, colossal, or immortal. The type is identified by the symbol at the bottom of their card.
Enchanter Outsiders
Enchanter outsiders have a special ability at the top of their card called an enchantment.
The enchantment is always active for the whole game, even while they are out of play. (E.g. Waiting to enter the outsider pile, in it, or even destroyed!).
You win at the end of the turn in which you destroy the enchanter outsider.
The outsider recommended for your first game is an enchanter, so you can skip reading the other types for a quicker start.
Colossal Outsiders
A colossal outsider has one or more connected cards, effectively separate monsters, representing its appendages.
In order for a colossal outsider to be summoned, there must be enough free adjacent lanes to contain the outsider and all its appendages (you must compact all the horde cards in the lane toward the left, if that makes any difference in this regard).
The outsider and its appendages enter play at the same time before resolving any of their "Play:" abilities and must be placed in the order indicated by the diagram at the bottom of their cards.
If the outsider leaves play, the appendages remain in play and vice versa: they are effectively independent monsters for all purposes. However, you do not need to destroy the appendages to win at the end of the turn, just destroying the outsider is enough.
Immortal Outsiders
An immortal outsider is made of two or more cards, each representing one stage that is indicated at the bottom of its cards with roman numbers.
The Stage 1 portal "Destroyed:" ability will only place the stage 1 outsider in the outsider pile.
Once an immortal outsider is destroyed, you place its next stage, if any, at the bottom of the outsider pile, meaning it will most likely be summoned during the next horde phase. You only win at the end of the turn in which you destroy the last stage of an immortal outsider.
How to Play: Horde Phase
To start a new turn, follow these steps.
1. Gain Mana
Each player gains mana equal to the mana boost of the portal. (For example, each player gains 3 mana.)
2. Summon from the Horde Deck
Summon a number of horde cards equal to the portal wave number. (The wave number changes as the portal rotates.)
Summon these cards from the horde deck, one at a time, following the steps in the "How to Summon Horde Cards" sidebar below.
3. Summon from the Outsider Pile
Summon all the cards in the outsider pile, one card at a time, top to bottom.
Since the outsider pile starts empty, nothing will happen during this step until there are cards in it.
The Stage 1 portal "Destroyed:" ability will place the outsider in the outsider pile and will likely be summoned during the next horde phase.
4. Rotate the Portal
Rotate the portal 90° clockwise so that a new wave number will be used in the next horde phase.
Proceed to the alliance phase.
How to Summon Horde Cards
Take the card and follow these two steps:
- Depending on the card type do the following:
- Monster: Place it in the leftmost lane not currently occupied by any monster cards and resolve its "Play:" abilities. If all six lanes are full, place the card on the bottom of the outsider pile instead (it cannot be summoned until the next turn).
- Spell: Resolve its "Play:" abilities and discard it.
- Attachment: Resolve its "Play:" abilities that will instruct you to attach it to another card (slide the attachment card beneath the target card). When the attached card leaves play, discard the attachment as well. In the unlikely case in which it is not possible to attach to another card, place the card on the bottom of the outsider pile instead.
- One player gains mana equal to the mana boost of the card, if any. (Symbols: +2 mana boost, +1 mana boost, or no mana boost — these symbols are only relevant for the competitive mode.) In cooperative games you may split the +2 mana boost between the players.
Alliance Phase
Each player may take these actions any number of times, and in any order, during the alliance phase. Fully resolve one action before taking another.
Once all players are done taking actions, proceed to the treachery phase.
Play Alliance Cards
Follow these three steps:
- Pay the mana cost of a card in your hand.
- Then, depending on the card type:
- Ally or Tower: Place it in a lane without alliance cards and in the ready state.
- Spell: Discard it. (Spell never enters play, you will only resolve its "Play:" abilities in the next step).
- Attachment: Attach it (slide it beneath) to another card in play or discard it with no effect. There is no limit to how many attachments a card can have.
- Resolve the card's "Play:" abilities, if any.
Tower Charges: Tower "Play:" abilities will often add charge tokens to them. These tokens are basically charges, since their abilities will often read: "Exhaust, remove 1 charge:"
Use "Exhaust:" Abilities
Exhaust a card with "Exhaust:" abilities to resolve one of those abilities.
In addition to the abilities written on the cards, all allies and castles have universal "Exhaust:" abilities as explained below. These are also repeated on the last page of the rulebook as reference.
For more details on the exhaust mechanic see the Key Concepts section.
Universal ally "Exhaust:" abilities — all allies have these universal abilities that you can use despite not being explicitly written on their card text:
- Move or Swap Position: "Exhaust: Move this ally to a free lane (one with no alliance cards)." Or: "Exhaust this ally and another one: These two allies swap positions." While you can play allies in any free lane, you might want to move them from turn to turn in order to choose what they will strike during the fight phase.
- Engage (Minions): "Exhaust: Move a monster from the back line to the lane of this ally". You may want to do this in order to strike minions later on during the fight phase. If you don't, they will pillage and force you to discard cards from your deck.
Universal castle "Exhaust:" ability — all castles have this universal ability that you can use despite not being explicitly written on their card:
- Draw: "Exhaust, pay 1 mana: Draw a card".
Discard Alliance Cards
Discard one ally or tower in play.
You usually take this action to discard towers without charges left or, occasionally, an ally that you do not need anymore.
Treachery Phase
Follow these two steps in order.
1. Resolve Treachery Card
Reveal the top card of the horde deck and place it face up on top of the horde discard pile. This is the treachery card for this turn.
Ignore all abilities and just look to the sides of the treachery card for any attack-bonus or treachery-ability symbols.
Depending on the symbol on the treachery card resolve the appropriate effect below.
Attack Bonus: The boosted monster (see box below) gains a number of temporary attack tokens equal to the number of symbols on the treachery card. Each temporary attack token increases the boosted monster's attack for the remainder of the turn, as explained in the Key Concepts section.
Treachery Ability: Resolve the "Treachery:" ability written on the treachery card and ignore ALL other abilities. (Such as "Play:", "Destroyed:", etc.) Sometimes the ability will not even reference the boosted monster. In these cases, identifying the boosted monster is not relevant. If the ability says "an ally" or "a monster" without specifying other conditions, you are free to choose. (This is a general rule for all abilities.)
The Boosted Monster: The boosted monster is the leftmost monster in the front line, if the symbols are on the left, or the rightmost monster in the front line, if the symbols are on the right. If there is only one monster in the front line, it is considered both the leftmost and rightmost. (E.g. a treachery card with symbols on the left reads "LEFTMOST monster GAINS 1"; symbols on the right read "RIGHTMOST monster gains 3". Example treachery ability: "Each alliance player discards an attachment from their hand." — the boosted monster is the rightmost in play, even though it is not relevant for this effect.)
2. Alliance Reactions
Each player may take the two actions below any number of times and in any order:
- Play cards with a "Play:" ability.
- Use "Exhaust:" abilities on ready cards.
Please note: cards and abilities with a treachery-phase symbol can also be used during the alliance phase.
You may want to use these special cards and abilities to adjust your plans according to the treachery effect.
Once all players are done taking actions, proceed to the fight phase.
Fight Phase
Follow the steps below for each lane from left to right. Make sure to completely resolve a lane before proceeding to the next one.
1. Horde Fight
Resolve the "Fight:" abilities of any monster in the lane.
2. Alliance Fight
Resolve the "Fight:" abilities of any ally or tower in the lane.
3. Strike
Towers do nothing in this step while monsters and allies in the lane will strike each other, see below:
- Unengaged Ally: If the lane has an unengaged ally (ready or exhausted), the ally strikes the portal, dealing damage to the portal equal to their attack. If the portal is destroyed, resolve its "Destroyed:" ability and replace it with the next stage portal in its upright position.
- Unengaged Monster: If the lane has an unengaged monster (i.e. not opposed by an ally), the monster strikes the castle, dealing damage to the castle equal to its attack. For your convenience, if the castle would gain or lose health you simply adjust the castle health token on the lane marker. Please note: a tower is not an ally and, therefore, a monster in a lane with a tower strikes the castle.
- Monster versus Ally: If the lane has both a monster and an ally (ready or exhausted, it does not matter) they simultaneously strike each other, dealing damage to each other equal to their attack.
4. Resolve the Next Lane
Repeat the three previous steps for the next lane to the right until you have resolved all lanes.
If all six lanes have been resolved, proceed to the pillage phase.
Minions Fighting: All four minion cards have 0 attack and an ability giving them +1 attack for each troop token on them. All minions with 4 or more attack also have Trample, meaning that when they strike, all the excess damage is dealt to the castle instead.
Pillage Phase
Follow these steps:
1. Pillage
Each monster in the back line, usually just minions, pillages. When a monster pillages, they pillage a number of cards equal to their attack.
To pillage a card, each alliance player places the top card of their alliance deck into their discard pile.
"Pillage:" abilities of monsters in the back line resolve during this step too.
You can decide the order in which monsters pillage and resolve their "Pillage:" abilities (this is a general rule for all abilities triggering at the same time).
Example: a minion with 1 health and a -1 attack token has 0 attack, so it will not pillage any cards. The other two minions in the back line have 3 and 1 health, therefore all alliance players must discard the top 4 cards of their decks. Minions in a lane do not pillage.
2. Return Pillagers
Move each monster with the "Pillager" keyword to the back line. Usually, this will mean returning the minions that were engaged during a fight back to the back line.
In this step, the minion engaged in the lane (that did not pillage) will return to the back line.
Finally, proceed to the end phase.
End Phase
If the outsider was destroyed this turn, you win!
Otherwise, follow these steps:
- Remove all temporary tokens. Armor regenerates: flip all armor tokens to their plus side.
- Ready all exhausted cards.
- Players discard cards down to 7.
- Start another turn from the horde phase.
You Are Ready to Play!
You do not need to read further in order to play your first game.
As you play, make sure to have the player aid cards nearby and reference the glossary at the end of the rulebook to look up the meaning of the keywords found on cards.
Good luck and have fun!
Cooperative Mode
The rules you have read so far are valid for both the solo and cooperative game mode. These are the key points to keep in mind for 2-player cooperative games:
- Both players gain the mana indicated on the portal. Just remember that there are different portals for cooperative games.
- Both players defend the same castle using the same 6-lane battlefield.
- Both players are affected by pillage at the same time. (E.g. To pillage 3 cards, both players discard 3 cards from the top of their decks.)
- Only one player of your choice may draw a card when a monster is destroyed.
- Only one player gains mana from a horde card's mana boost (but it can be split, if the boost is 2 or more).
Competitive Mode
The competitive game mode is a secondary way to play Skytear Horde with 2 or 3 players.
One of them is known as the horde player and will be controlling the horde while the other player(s) will follow the same rules of a solo or cooperative game.
The horde player is a bit like a dungeon master in role playing games, their goal should be to make sure the alliance has a fun puzzle to solve!
Setup
To setup a competitive game follow the steps in the Setup section. In particular, make sure to:
- Choose a competitive set of portals.
- Place the horde mana token on 0. The horde player will not gain mana from the portal. They gain mana after summoning certain type of horde cards instead.
- The horde player draws 5 cards and may take a mulligan, like the alliance players.
To play a competitive game, follow these rules in addition to the rules explained so far.
Summoning Horde Cards
Instead of summoning horde cards from the horde deck, the horde players decides the card to summon from their hand.
The horde player can summon cards in any lane without monsters. Colossal Outsiders must follow the usual constraints.
Before summoning a horde card, the horde player can pay 1 mana to summon the card Concealed (see glossary).
Summoning horde cards does not cost mana. After the horde player plays a card, they gain mana based on the roman numeral in the top left corner. (Zero, 1, or 2 mana to the horde player; 2 or 1 mana to the Alliance.)
Additional Horde Phase Steps
At the end of the horde phase, follow these steps:
- The horde player can take any number of the actions below in any order.
- The horde player draws 1 horde card.
- The horde player gains 1 mana.
All non-minion monsters have these universal "Exhaust:" abilities:
- Move or Swap Monsters — Exhaust: Move this monster to a lane without monsters. Or: Exhaust this monster and another one: Swap the position of these two monsters.
- Exhaust an Ally — Exhaust, pay 2 mana: Exhaust the ally engaged with this monster.
- Draw & Plan Treachery — Pay 1 mana: Draw a horde card. Then, you may place a card from your hand on top of the horde deck (this basically allows you to choose the next treachery card).
- Conceal a Monster — Pay 1 mana: Conceal a monster without "Play:" abilities, tokens, or attachments (see Conceal in the glossary). Then, you may re-arrange all concealed monsters so that the alliance players does not know which is which.
- Use the Portal Ability — The portals have an ability that can be used as an action once per turn. Pay their mana cost, if any, and resolve their ability.
Alliance Overview
Where to Start...?
If you have the whole collection with 8 hordes and 8 alliance pre-made decks, there are 64 possible combinations out of the box... And this is without even considering additional outsiders and custom alliance decks!
Unless you like the idea of randomizing all these choices all the time, having so many options can be overwhelming.
Below is a battle plan to go through all the alliance and hordes of your collections.
The Battle Plan: Get an alliance deck, custom or pre-made, and go on to fight against all the hordes in your collection in the order listed. If you do not want to choose an alliance deck, follow the order below (i.e. Start from Liothan Shapeshifters and end with Nupten Diviners). If you win 6 or more games, you can consider yourself victorious, and it is time to defend another realm with another alliance deck.
Good luck and have fun!
From Skytear Horde:
- Liothan Shapeshifters — Ramp up your Skytear mana production in order to play massive allies. Make sure to keep them healed after each fight, and they will lead you to victory.
- Taulot Followers — Grow the strength of your allies, while lowering the enemy's strength. Slow and steady, gain more and more of an advantage until you are ready for anything.
- Kurumo Warriors — Speed is the name of the game! Attachments will empower your relatively weak allies. Remember: the best defense is a good offense!
- Nupten Illusionists (Complex) — Everything in your deck serves a singular purpose: stall the horde until the three powerful mentalists are able to decimate the horde's forces!
From Monoliths:
- Liothan Enforcers — Disposable troops will boost your spells, towers, and enable more powerful allies. This alliance deck has strong healing and mana generation.
- Taulot Custodians — Rely on a wide array of towers and totems to achieve anything you need to win: from summoning allies and mutaforming them to hunting down minions.
- Kurumo Artificers — A Kurumo deck that uses bigger warriors. Make the best use of attachments and upgrades to build unstoppable allies!
- Nupten Diviners (Complex) — Curate your hand as you beat back the horde with time magic. The effects in this deck are surprisingly varied and unpredictable.
Horde Overview
Below is an overview of each horde with their play style and difficulty.
The hordes were designed with slightly increasing difficulty levels and complexity. We suggest to play them in the order of difficulty beginning with the original Skytear Horde set. (I.e. Start from the Renegades and end with the Broods.)
The outsider card next to the description of each horde is the suggested pairing. If you are following the battle plan (see Alliance Overview) after you have won 4 or more games with the same alliance deck, use a random outsider from your collection instead.
From Skytear Horde:
- Renegade (Easy) — Legendary black knights coordinate the siege operations of trolls, yetis, and frost giants, while forming an impenetrable wall between the alliance and its Outsider: The Hate Bringer.
- Undead (Medium) — The Death Dealer will raise an army of undead, spirits, and onis to fill the lanes. Hope you like skeletons.
- Predator (Hard) — A wild horde of strange, mutating carnivores will assault your castle as you prepare for the arrival of the Beast Lord.
- Nightmare (Hard) — Mythical monsters such as harpies, golems, and chimeras will lull your alliance into submission. The arrival of the Dreaming Matriarch will turn your dreams into nightmares.
From Monoliths:
- Monoliths (Easy) — Huge monoliths empower minions to charge into the lanes, threatening your castle and your alliance deck. What is the mysterious power behind these monoliths?
- Sinklings (Medium) — The Silent Damsel ensures her monstrous sea creatures crash into the battlefield concealed. Will you face the terrors blindly or wait for them to reveal themselves?
- Slitherers (Hard) — Try to beat back this infested portal as it creeps into the lanes, overwhelming everything with its dangerous plants, fungus, and spores.
- The Brood (Hard) — A ravenous swarms of insect-like monsters will proliferate in the back line while eating and pillaging anything within reach. No alliance deck is safe from the appetite of the swarm!
Total Difficulty Level
To calculate the total difficulty of any given setup, add the modifiers below to the baseline difficulty level chosen during setup (which will range from 1 to 5, see the Setup section):
- +0 for easy hordes.
- +0.5 for medium hordes.
- +1 for hard hordes.
- +0.5 for The Ancient Outsider or Silent Ambassador.
- +1 for each card of a colossal outsider.
The Lore
"Temrup seems stronger than ever. His unholy legions march over our lands, and the number of his followers grows every day. Do not despair, though: the sparkle of hope shines brightly, for we know how to defeat him now." — Khepiax, Lady of Lightning
Time has passed since the tomb of Temrup was discovered and his wrath threatened the whole inhabitants of Olan Taa for the first time. For almost one year, the four Realms and the free lands surrounding them have seen a restless war which brought civilization to the brink of collapse. The last bastions, erected to stop Temrup's advance, are now reduced to little more than enfeebled outposts.
The Hordes seem unstoppable, and even the most defended cities in the heart of thought inexpugnable islands are under siege. From the Brood - a race of insect-like golems controlled by a Skytear-driven Hive Mind - to the mysterious sea monsters known as the Sinklings, which flooded entire continent. The forces threatening the future of Olan Taa are now countless.
Cyclopean Monoliths emerge from the ground, as a sign of the Horde's arrival and the doom of the land where they appear. Announced by a deafening rumble, they have different shapes from place to place, but their message of destruction and despair is universal.
Many armies from the falling Realms have attempted to reach them to understand their power and their role in the Temrup's conquering, but no one has yet succeeded. The Monoliths are well protected by the Hordes and breaching their ranks seems impossible.
Legendary heroes from all the corners of Olan Taa are called to fight side by side in these desperate times. Once deadly foes, they are now bound to each other in the name of the Alliance. Under their guidance, humankind could hinder the unstoppable advance of Temrup's Hordes and, eventually, discover the source behind the power of their enemy and destroy it.
Learn more about the lore of Skytear in the four hard-cover lore books from www.playskytear.com.
Custom Decks
The rules for building custom alliance decks is based on the castle you are using.
The back of the castle card indicates, for each rarity, which faction (color) of cards can be included and any limits.
For example, a castle's back may allow only 6 Mythic cards of the blue Liothan faction (the rune indicating the faction is also watermarked on the scroll of the cards, if you have troubles distinguishing between the colors).
Some restrictions are in place to cover for possible expansions where, for example, Shapeshifters (currently only in the Liothan faction) may join the friendly Taulot or Nupten factions.
You can include cards from any set (e.g. Skytear Horde, Monoliths, etc) when building custom decks, regardless of the set icon on the castle card.
The only general rule not written on the castle card is: across all players' decks, there can be at most 1 copy of any Mythic or Legendary card, 2 copies of any Rare card, and 3 copies of any Common card.
Visit www.playskytear.com/horde to get more decks and share your own with the community!
The Original Set
This section is for players who own the original set of Skytear Horde and want to integrate it with Monoliths.
Horde Deck and Difficulty
Monoliths introduces a new way to set the difficulty by changing the horde deck instead of using different sets of portals.
If you own the Challenge expansion, that allows you to play with the 4 hordes from the first set using the new difficulty system.
Otherwise, set the difficulty level by choosing the right portals from the original Skytear Horde set and take all cards of the chosen horde to form the horde deck. If you do so, remember that the stage 1 portal now has "Destroyed: place the outsider in the outsider pile".
The Common Set
These horde cards from the original set have the common symbol in their top right corner. In the original Skytear Horde box there were 4 cards of this set, and 4 more in the Nupten & Utsesh expansions.
We do not recommend including these cards anymore in the horde deck because it slows down game setup, something we want to keep as fast and simple as possible.
If you do not mind this extra step, add these cards to the horde deck to give extra power to the minions. (Spoiler alert: we plan to make a new horde with these and more cards in the future...)
Wording of Abilities
Skytear Horde did not feature temporary tokens to keep track of attack and armor variations that lasted "for the remainder of the turn".
All abilities written as "... gains +X attack for the remainder of the turn" are equivalent to "... gains X temporary attack tokens".
The same goes for all abilities written as "-X attack and +X armor for the remainder of the turn".
Abilities giving "-X health for the remainder of the turn" are never tracked with tokens and it is a type of effect we did not use in Monoliths nor we plan to repeat in the future.
The word damage has been replaced by the damage token symbol.
Rule Changes
The most important rule that changed from the first set is the universal exhaust abilities of allies to move and engage minions, even though there are many other smaller changes.
For a comprehensive list of what changed, visit the resources section at www.playskytear.com/horde.
Rules for Abilities
The previous sections of this rulebook omitted these rules for abilities that were not needed to start playing. The glossary has also extended entries of concepts introduced earlier.
General Rules for Abilities
If a card's ability contradicts this rulebook, the ability takes precedence.
If an ability says to do something and another says you cannot do it, the "cannot" takes precedence.
Abilities can only interact with cards in play. (Specifically: the castle, the portal, allies, towers, monsters, and their attachments.)
Triggered Abilities and Timing
Triggered abilities are resolved at a specific time. They are either preceded by a bold trigger (Play, Fight, Destroyed) or otherwise a specific time ("After striking").
"After X is destroyed", "When X is destroyed", and "Destroyed:" all trigger at the same time. The same is said for "Play:", "When X enters play", "After X enters play" etc.
You must fully resolve an ability in the order it is written before resolving any other ability.
A triggered ability that is resolved remains active for the specified duration even if the card is destroyed (E.g. Wind Riders reads: "Fight: a minion with attack 4 or less cannot pillage for the remainder of the turn." Once it is resolved the ability will remain active for the remainder of the turn even if Wind Riders are destroyed).
Static Abilities
Static abilities do not specify a time like triggered abilities. They are simply active as long as their card remains in play.
For instance "All monsters gain +1 attack." will grant this bonus to all monsters in play until the card with this ability leaves play.
Static abilities modifying attack and armor do NOT apply tokens. If you want to use tokens as a reminder for static abilities, place the tokens next to the card rather than on top of it because card abilities will NOT be able to interact with these tokens (E.g. Remove or move them, etc).
Replacement Abilities
These are abilities worded with a structure similar to: "if THIS would happen, do THAT instead".
Armor is the most common example of this kind of ability. (E.g. If this card would take 1 damage, consume 1 armor instead.)
The effect being replaced is not happening.
If there are multiple replacement abilities trying to replace the same effect, resolve one at a time in the order of your choice. This means that, very likely, only one of these replacement abilities will actually resolve, because the others will not have anything to replace anymore.
Glossary
Ability: With the exception of the universal abilities, all abilities are written on the cards. The card title and subtype (e.g. Shapeshifter) or qualifier (e.g. Epic) are not considered abilities. If a card loses or copies all abilities of a card, it includes the universal abilities as well. See the Abilities and Rules for Abilities sections for general rules about abilities.
Add X Mana: One alliance player of your choice gains X mana. Players cannot have more than 10 mana.
Adjacent: Two lanes are adjacent if they are next to each other. Two cards are adjacent if they are in adjacent lanes.
Armor: Each turn, a card with armor prevents a number of damage the card would take equal to their armor value. For example: a card with Armor 2 can prevent 2 damage each turn or 1 damage twice from different effects during the same turn. Place armor tokens on cards with armor and flip them to their minus side to keep track of the armor used this turn. (Flip them to the plus sign again during the end phase.) A card with Armor X that gains Armor Y (or +Y Armor) will end up with X+Y armor. Armor values that would be negative are considered to be zero when the card is taking damage. If all the incoming damage is prevented, the card is not considered damaged. Armor must be used before Barrier.
Assault X: Deal X damage to the portal or to the outsider. The outsider must be in play to be damaged and it is not in play while in the outsider pile.
Attack: When an effect references the attack of a card, you must consider the printed value modified by tokens and temporary effects. There is no maximum nor minimum attack value but if attack ends up being negative because of abilities, it is considered to be zero instead.
Barrier: If a card with Barrier and no damage would gain any amount of damage, put a single damage token on that card instead. Armor must be used before Barrier.
Beneath: Some cards may end up with other cards "beneath/underneath" them. Let's call the former the hosting card and the latter the hosted cards. Hosted cards are considered out of play. Unless noted otherwise, you must follow the destruction steps (see: Destruction) if they were in play before going beneath another card. When the hosting card leaves play, place the hosted cards in the owner's discard pile.
Cannot Engage / Be Engaged: If a monster would be summoned engaged with an ally that they cannot engage, summon them in the closest free lane instead (or place them in the outsider pile if there is no available lane). An ally cannot enter a lane of a monster that they cannot engage.
Charge Left/Right/Etc: To Charge Left or Right, place the monster in the leftmost or rightmost lane without monsters. To Charge the weakest/strongest ally, place the monster in the lane of the weakest/strongest unengaged ally, if any.
Concealed Monsters: A concealed monster is a face-down horde card in a lane that is considered a monster token with 1 health and 0 attack. At the end of the alliance phase, all concealed cards in the lanes are revealed from left to right. To reveal a concealed monster, flip it face-up and summon it in that lane. If an ability (either from alliance or horde) would affect a concealed monster, reveal the concealed monster. Then, if the card was a monster, resolve the effect on the monster instead. If the concealed monster was a spell or attachment, resolve the effect as much as possible. Monsters with attachments or tokens on them cannot be concealed.
Damage: When a card takes damage, you put that many damage tokens on it to keep track of its new lower health. It is considered damage any ability worded as: "Deal/gain X damage" or "Deal X damage". Abilities worded as "-X health for the remainder of the turn" or "remove/loses X health" (like Guerrilla) are not considered damage. This distinction is particularly important for applying Armor.
Damaged: A card is damaged when it gains one or more damage tokens.
"Destroyed:": See "Destruction".
Destruction: When the health of a card is 0 or less, follow these steps: (1) Resolve the card's "Destroyed:" abilities. (2) Discard the card's tokens and attachments. (3) The card leaves play. Depending on the card type: Monster or Ally — place it in the proper discard pile; Minion or Outsider — set the card aside; Portal — replace the card with the next stage portal in its upright orientation. Since portals are double sided, the next stage might be on the back of the destroyed portal. This sequence of steps interrupts any ability that is being resolved and cannot be interrupted by other abilities. The sequence is also irreversible, meaning that any card tagged for destruction will be destroyed even if their health goes back above zero. This sequence is also triggered when the card is about to leave play without being destroyed (e.g., the card is drawn back in hand or it is placed in the outsider pile). In these cases, the third and last step of the sequence is replaced since the card is going to another zone like in hand, outsider pile, etc.
Elusive X: After striking a monster for the first time in a turn, an ally with elusive may move to a free lane within X lanes. This might allow them to strike again this turn. Moving this way does not require the ally to exhaust. Elusive triggers before any engaged monster "Destroyed:" ability.
Engaged (Monster/Ally): An ally is engaged if there is a monster in the same lane, and vice versa. The engaged monster of an ally is the monster in the same lane. The engaged ally of a monster is the ally in the same lane.
Epic: Epic is a class of stronger monster cards. Some abilities are not able to target epic cards, for example "destroy non-epic monster". An ability that targets a monster can also target epic monsters.
Free Lane: For a horde card ability: a lane without horde cards. For an alliance card ability: a lane without alliance cards.
Front Line: The game area consisting of the 6 lanes.
Guerrilla X: Remove X health tokens from a minion, either in the front or back line (Armor does not prevent this effect).
Health: When an effect references the health of a card, you must consider the printed value modified by tokens and temporary effects. There is no maximum or minimum health value.
Heroic X: As long as this card has 1 or more damage, it gets +X attack. A card with Heroic X that gains Heroic Y will end up with Heroic X+Y. Please note: the card does not actually gain any attack tokens, even though you can place those next to the card as a reminder (see Static Abilities).
Most Wounded: The card with the highest number of damage tokens. Do not consider cards without damage.
Mutaform X: Repeat X times: "put 1 health token or 1 attack token" on the card. Each time, you can choose a different type of token.
Neighbor: The neighbors of a card are the cards of the same side in adjacent lanes. Horde cards will never be the neighbor of an alliance card and vice versa.
Pillage: To pillage X cards, each alliance player places the top X cards of their alliance deck face up in the respective discard pile (the discard pile is not ordered, so you can put them in any order). When a monster pillages, it pillages a number of cards equal to their attack.
"Pillage:": "Pillage:" abilities on a card in the back line (i.e. not in the front line) trigger on the first step of the pillage phase.
Pillager: A monster with Pillager has this ability: "Play, Pillage: move the monster to the back line."
"Play:": "Play:" abilities on a card trigger when that card is played. Monsters, allies, and towers must enter a lane before any "Play:" ability is resolved.
Rebuild X: Place up to X cards of any alliance discard pile on the bottom of the respective deck, in any order. The alliance discard piles are unordered, you can take any card of your choice when rebuilding.
Reinforce X: To resolve the keyword "Reinforce 1", place 1 health token on the minion card with the fewest health tokens. Make sure to also consider destroyed minions (in case of ties you decide which minion). To "Reinforce 2", "Reinforce 1" twice. After every "Reinforce 1", check for the new minion with the fewest health tokens. This effectively means that the health tokens will be distributed across different minions, prioritizing destroyed minions first.
Strike: When an ally or monster strikes, it deals an amount of damage equal to its attack.
Strongest Card: The card in play with the highest attack, after all modifiers and tokens. In the case of a tie, consider the highest health, considering all modifiers and tokens. If there is still a tie, alliance players choose.
Taunt: At the end of the alliance phase each unengaged monster with Taunt from left to right taunts an ally. To taunt an ally, place the closest ally not engaged with a monster with taunt in the monster's lane.
Trample: When an engaged ally or monster with Trample strikes and they deal enough damage to destroy the enemy, any excess damage is dealt to the portal or castle. For instance, if a monster with an attack of 3 and Trample would strike an ally with 1 health left, that monster would deal 1 damage to the ally and 2 trample damage to the castle. If that ally had 1 armor, the castle would only take 1 damage. If that ally had Barrier and no damage, the castle would take no damage.
Underneath: See Beneath.
Unengaged: An ally is unengaged if there is no monster in the same lane, and vice versa.
Weakest Card: The card in play with the lowest attack, considering all modifiers and tokens. In case of a tie, check for the lowest health, considering all modifiers and tokens. If there is still a tie, alliance players choose.
Within X Lane(s): A card is within 1 lane from another if they are in the same or adjacent lanes. Two cards with one lane between them would be within 2 lanes. A card in the leftmost lane would be within 5 lanes from a card in the rightmost lane.
Wounded: A card is wounded as long as there are damage tokens on it.
Universal Abilities Reference
Allies have these universal abilities:
- Move: "Exhaust: move this ally to a lane without alliance cards."
- Swap: "Exhaust this ally and another one: these two allies swap positions."
- Engage: "Exhaust: Move a monster from the back line to the lane of this ally".
Castles have this universal ability:
- Draw: "Exhaust, pay 1 mana: Draw a card".
All non-token Monsters have this ability:
- "Destroyed: One alliance player may draw 1 card."