CapCom Street Fighter Deck-Building Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup For Your First Game
  • 1. Your Super Hero and Starting Deck
  • 2. Types of Cards
  • 3. The Main Deck
  • 4. Ultra Cards
  • 5. The Stages
  • 6. The Stacks
  • 7. The Line-Up
  • Main Deck
• Gameplay
  • Order of Playing Your Cards
  • Ending Your Turn
  • Sample Turn Sequence
• End of Game
• Additional Rules
  • Attacks and Defenses
  • Challenging a Stage Boss
  • Stage Cards in Your Deck
  • Counter-Attacks & Ultras
  • Weakness
  • Shuffling Your Deck
  • Destroying Cards
  • Gaining Cards
  • Cards Underneath Your Super Hero
  • Resolving Card Abilities
• Variant Games
• Specific Card Clarifications
• FAQ
• Credits

Contents

221 Game Cards

• 36 Punch Starting Cards
• 16 Vulnerability Starting Cards
• 14 Ultra Cards
• 16 Kick Cards
• 8 Stage Cards
• 20 Weakness Cards

14 Oversized Super Heroes 1 Rulebook

Setup For Your First Game

1. Your Super Hero and Starting Deck

You play one of 14 different Heroes or Villains from the world of CAPCOM. For the purposes of this game, the playable Villains are Super Heroes as well. After all, they're a hero to someone! Shuffle the 14 Super Heroes and deal one to each player or choose your favorite character. Place the remaining Super Heroes face down in the middle of the table in a single stack. They will be used later. Each player begins with a starting deck of seven Punch cards and three Vulnerability cards. You will use your Punch cards to buy more powerful cards to add to your deck, improving it as the game goes on. Vulnerability cards represent things that occasionally cause a Super Hero to falter. They do nothing for you when drawn or played.

2. Types of Cards

The different card types that you can play are: Starter, Villain, Location, Hero, Super Power, Ultra, and Equipment. Weakness cards have no card type.

Each card shows its Card Type, Card Name, any Special Rules Text or Abilities, its Cost (in the lower right corner of most cards), and its Victory Points (marked with a star, in the lower left corner). Ultra and Super Hero cards also show which Super Hero they belong to.

3. The Main Deck

Most of the cards that you will add to your deck as the game progresses come from the main deck. Shuffle the main deck and place it in the middle of the table. None of the following cards should ever be placed into the main deck: Stage, Punch, Vulnerability, Kick, Ultra, Weakness, or the oversized Super Heroes. The main deck is made up of every other card in the game (111 cards total).

4. Ultra Cards

Find your Super Hero's Ultra move card and place it face up underneath your oversized Super Hero. More on how to acquire that later.

5. The Stages

The 8 Stage cards are numbered from 1 to 8. Place them face down and in order with Stage 8 on the bottom and Stage 1 on the top. Then flip the top card face up so America can be seen.

6. The Stacks

Place the Kick, Stages, the remaining face-down Super Heroes, and Weakness stacks at the end of the Line-Up. No board is necessary to play this game; just reserve space for each card.

7. The Line-Up

After shuffling the main deck, place the top five cards from the main deck into the Line-Up. Next, place the Kick, Stages, the remaining face-down Super Heroes, and Weakness stacks at the end of the Line-Up so that everyone can reach them. You will always use all 16 Kicks and all 20 Weaknesses each game. Kicks and Stages are always available to be bought or defeated during your turn (while cards remain in their stacks). Weaknesses are never bought, gained only through unfriendly card effects. The main deck and the four stacks of cards on the end are not part of the Line-Up.

Main Deck

Once you have arranged the main deck, the Line-Up, and the other stacks, it will look something like the above. Your opening five cards in the Line-Up will vary. At the start of the game, there should be 16 Kicks, 8 Stages, and 20 Weaknesses in their respective stacks.

Gameplay

Randomly determine a player to go first. Players take turns in clockwise order.

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

You can buy any number of available cards with cost less than or equal to the amount of Power you have for the turn. For example, your Punch cards each give you +1 Power. If you draw four of them and no other cards with any Power bonuses, your total Power for the turn is 4. You can buy a single card with cost 2, 3, or 4, or even two cards each with cost 2, assuming these options are available. Kick cards are (usually) available if the cards in the Line-Up are too expensive. You may buy more than one during your turn if you wish. You may pass if you cannot buy or do not wish to buy any cards.

Vulnerability cards provide no Power. Since they weaken your draws and deck, you should try to destroy them as soon as possible. You may play them if you wish, but they have no effect when played. They are not discarded until the end of your turn when you discard all cards you have played and any cards that you have kept in your hand.

Order of Playing Your Cards

On your turn, you get to play the cards in your hand in the order of your choosing. When you play a card, its game text resolves immediately. After playing all the cards you wish to play at that time, total up the Power you have accumulated. Then choose to buy from the Line-Up or the face-up stacks. You do not have to play all of the cards in your hand before you start making purchases if you don't want to. You may play additional cards even after making purchases.

Most cards you play have simple effects such as +Power, card drawing, or an Attack. The order in which you play these cards typically does not matter.

Ending Your Turn

1. Resolve any "at the end of your turn" effects.
2. Place all the cards you played and any cards remaining in your hand into your discard pile. Any unspent Power from cards played during the turn is lost. Draw a new hand of five cards and pass the turn to the player on your left.
3. If any of the slots in the Line-Up are empty, draw cards off the main deck and add them to the Line-Up. Do not replace empty slots as soon as you buy or gain a card from the Line-Up.
4. If the top card of the Stage stack is face down, flip it face up.

Sample Turn Sequence

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

End of Game

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

• You are unable to flip up a new Stage on the stack.
• You are unable to refill all five slots of the Line-Up.

Return all Locations you have in play, all cards in your hand, and all cards in your discard pile to your deck. Then, players total up the Victory Points on cards in their deck. Weakness cards in your deck at the end of the game will subtract Victory Points (VP) from your total. The player with the highest VP total is crowned the winner! In case of a tie, the player with more Stage cards wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the most cards in his deck is the winner.

After a winner has been determined, each player will need to take apart their deck, placing all of the cards back into their proper stacks. Be sure to keep the Ultras and Stages out of the main deck.

Additional Rules

Attacks and Defenses

Some cards allow you to Attack one or more other players in the game. When you play a card with an Attack ability, each player affected by the Attack has an opportunity to avoid it with a card that has a Defense ability. A player using a Defense card's ability avoids the Attack only for that defending player. Any players who don't avoid the Attack are then affected by the Attack card's ability. Avoiding an Attack does not negate any other abilities (like +1 Power) of a card, unless an ability specifically counts the players successfully hit by the Attack. A player may only play one Defense card per Attack.

Challenging a Stage Boss

When you have accumulated enough Power in a turn, you can choose to challenge a Stage Boss. These are considered "Super-Villains." The amount of Power needed to defeat the Stage Boss is found in the lower right corner of the current Stage card. If you choose to challenge the Boss and can meet or exceed its cost, remove the top card of the oversized Super Hero stack. Then flip it face up. That character is the Boss/Super-Villain of the current Stage. On that character is a Counter-Attack that you (and only you) must deal with immediately. You have not yet acquired the Stage card during this challenge, so it cannot be affected by the Counter-Attack. You can simply allow the Counter-Attack to hit you, or you may play a Defense card from your hand to avoid it. You cannot defend yourself with a Defense card that you have already played this turn.

Remove the Stage you defeated from its stack and place it into your discard pile. The next card in the Stage stack remains face down until your turn is over. A player may only defeat one Stage per turn. Remove the defeated Boss card from play and leave the next one face down. No one will know who the next Stage Boss is until he is later challenged.

Stage Cards in Your Deck

Stage cards are also Locations. Like any other card you acquire, the experience gained defeating a Boss/Stage will aid you in your future turns. When you play a Location from your hand, it will remain in play for the rest of the game (unless a card says otherwise). The word Ongoing is a reminder that this card keeps working for you turn after turn.

Counter-Attacks & Ultras

Your own Super Hero's Counter-Attack can be activated by playing your Ultra card as a Defense when you are Attacked by another player. Read the text of your Counter-Attack to the player that you are Counter-Attacking. It will be the attacker who suffers the effects of your Super Hero's game text, not you. Several Counter-Attacks affect cards "in play" or in a discard pile. The affected player does not choose either "in play" or "discard pile." They must look in both areas and then choose card(s) to be affected. The cards an attacker has played during his turn are in play.

Counter-Attacks are Attacks. A Counter-Attack from a Boss or another player may be avoided by utilizing a Defense card. A player may not use a Defense they have already played to avoid a Counter-Attack. When you know you are going to play an Attack, you may want to hold a Defense card in your hand if you wish to avoid a potential Counter-Attack. Then feel free to play the Defense card from your hand after your Attacks have all resolved. You may use your Ultra Defense to avoid a Counter-Attack, in which case you will be the one Counter-Attacking your foe instead! Your Counter-Attack may only trigger once per turn.

Weakness

Some Attack cards force the attacked player(s) to gain one or more Weakness cards. These cards come from the Weakness stack, not from the hand or discard pile of the person playing the Attack card. If the Weakness deck runs out, effects that would cause a player to gain a Weakness do not do so, but any other effects those cards have still resolve as usual. A player may still play a Defense to avoid an Attack, even when there are no Weaknesses available to be gained.

A Weakness card is returned to the Weakness stack when played, which immediately removes it from your deck. At the end of the game, each Weakness still in your deck subtracts 1 Victory Point from your VP total.

Shuffling Your Deck

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

Destroying Cards

Some cards have an ability that allows you to destroy a card from your hand, your deck, or even the Line-Up. When playing a card with a destroy ability, you may choose a card and place it into a face-up pile of destroyed cards anywhere away from the play area, removing it from your deck and the game. Destroying Vulnerability and Weakness cards will improve your deck greatly! When Weaknesses and Kicks are destroyed, they do not go back to their respective stacks.

Gaining Cards

A card may tell a player to gain a particular card or a card of your choice. That card is taken and immediately placed in that player's discard pile, at no additional cost, unless otherwise directed by the card. If a card tells you to gain a card with a specific name, card type, or cost and none are available, you simply don't gain the card. If you reveal the top card of the main deck and it is not the appropriate card type or cost for you to gain, leave it on top of the main deck.

Cards Underneath Your Super Hero

Your Super Hero's Ultra card starts the game under your Super Hero. Other cards may end up there through various means. You may buy or gain any cards that are underneath your Super Hero as if they were in the Line-Up. They do not count as Line-Up cards for purposes other than your ability to buy or gain them.

Other players may inspect these cards. However, they may not buy or gain the cards underneath your Super Hero or affect them in any manner (unless a card says otherwise). When you buy or gain a card from underneath your Super Hero, it goes into your discard pile as usual. At the end of the game, any cards remaining underneath your Super Hero are not part of your deck and you do not count their Victory Points.

Resolving Card Abilities

If a card's ability affects multiple players, and the order matters, resolve that ability for each affected player in clockwise order, starting from the player who played the ability. (For example, an Attack that has each of three opponents gain a Weakness, with only two Weaknesses remaining.)

Variant Games

High-Powered Heroes: When you play your Super Hero's Ultra card (for +Power and the Attack), you may shuffle it into your deck at end of turn instead of discarding it.

Secret Heroes: Shuffle the Super Heroes and deal one face down to each player. Shuffle the Ultra cards and deal three face down to each player. Place these Ultras under your face-down Super Hero. Place the remaining oversized Super Heroes face down in their normal spot in the stacks. When a player wishes to buy an Ultra, he buys the top card of his Ultra stack. A player may buy all three of his Ultra cards. When a player uses his Ultra Defense to avoid an Attack under this variant, discard it instead of shuffling it into your deck. Then flip your Super Hero face up to reveal your Counter-Attack. Then that player receives a new face down Super Hero. Discard the old one. When the Super Hero stack runs out, shuffle the Super Hero discard pile and create a new face-down Super Hero stack.

Specific Card Clarifications

Akuma's Gi, Rolento's Baton: A Defense card is a card with the bolded word "Defense:" on it. An Attack card is a card with the bolded word "Attack:" on it. An Ultra card is worth 1 VP to both of these cards.

Brazil and other Locations: You may use a Location ability in the same turn in which you play it.

Soldier of Justice: Each card may have a cost of 7 or less, not 7 or less combined.

Cammy, Delta Red: Defeating a Stage/Super-Villain will trigger her ability. The Location does not need to be in your discard pile at the time you play her to get the effect. You may place a Location into your hand at any time during your turn.

Electric Thunder, Sodom, Red Cyclone: You may buy the card you place under your Super Hero in the same turn in which you place it there.

Galactic Tornado, Electric Thunder, Shinku Hadoken: An attacker cannot avoid the detrimental effects of these cards.

Mystic Yogi: Effects and Power generated the first time you play it remain.

Hugo: "Cannot avoid" means that foe may not play a Defense card at all against the next attack that occurs during that turn.

Psycho Punisher, Rekkashingeki: Foes must choose whether or not to play a Defense card before you have to name a type or cost.

Rose: If you buy multiple cards from underneath your Super Hero, each of them costs 1 less to buy.

Ryu's Headband: If you have already played other cards and choose to play this, you must place your deck into your discard pile. If you don't wish to play it, simply leave it in your hand and discard it at the end of your turn.

Agents of Shadaloo: If you play two copies of this card during your turn, the second one played will grant you +2 Power and a card draw. At the end of the game, you effectively gain VPs equal to the number of Shadaloo cards in your deck squared.

Shinku Hadoken, Galactic Tornado: These cards may be revealed prior to playing a Defense card, as they are not Defenses.

Ultimate Atomic Buster: Any foe you don't wish to give a card to cannot play a Defense card against this. If a foe avoids the Attack, put the given card back where it started. Name each foe and choose each card to give first. Resolve the effects in clockwise order.

Yoga Catastrophe: The Weakness given to a foe in the first sentence cannot be avoided.

FAQ

Q: Why are the terms Bosses, Stages, and Super-Villains used almost interchangeably?

A: This Cerberus: Heroes game is compatible with other Cerberus: Heroes games. The other games don't use "Stages," but we wanted to use them for Steet Fighter to be as faithful as possible to the video game franchise.

Q: What does the term "defeat" or "defeated" mean?

A: That term is only used referring to Bosses/Super Villains/Stages. You "defeat" a Boss/Super Villain/Stage when you buy or gain one. That Boss/Super Villain/

(The rulebook's printed text ends here — the final clause of this FAQ answer is cut off in the source document; the next page is the Credits page.)

Credits

Game Design: Erik Larsen, Matt Hyra, & Chris Woods

Game Engine Design: Matt Hyra & Ben Stoll

Cryptozoic Entertainment

• President & CCO: Cory Jones
• CEO: John Nee
• Chief Operating Officer: Scott Gaeta
• SVP Sales & Business Development: John Sepenuk

Game Design and Development: Matt Hyra (Lead), Phil Cape, Dan Clark, Matt Dunn, Kevin Jordan, Erik Larsen, Ben Stoll, Drew Walker, Chris Woods

Graphic Design: Glen Llorin (Lead), Larry Renac, Nancy Valdez, John Vineyard

Director of Operations: Leisha Cummins

Brand Management: Adam Sblendorio

Business Coordinator: Rumi Asai

Office Manager: Vanessa Jimenez

Marketing and Community: Javier Casillas, Sara Erickson, Drew Korfe

Playtesters: Richard Brady, Tom Driver, Ryan Dromgoole, Robert Gasio III, Russ Greenwald, Herb Haneke, Adam Hensch, Shannon Hunt, Cory Jones, Adam May, Chris Nunn, Melody Nunn, Marcos Payan, Tom Twedell, Nathaniel Yamaguchi and many, many others.

Cryptozoic Special Thanks: William Brinkman, Miranda Charsky, Kyle Heuer, Matt Hoffman, Michael Kirchhoff, Lacy Lodes, Matthias Nagy, Rachel Valverde, Lisa Villaire, MaryCarmen Wilber

Capcom Special Thanks: David Crislip, Brian Oliveira, Noriko Matsunaga, Sakiko Takeuchi, Susan Suarez