Summoner Wars (Second Edition) FAQ
160 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Setup
Phase 1: Summon
- Can you summon a unit next to an Ice Golem that you built earlier in the same turn?
- Where can a Mutant be summoned, and what happens to damage on the unit it replaces?
- Is the three-units-per-turn limit applied to summoning and building?
- Can Blood Summoning target multiple units, or the same unit more than once?
- Can Elut-Bal (Summoned by Fire) be placed without an adjacent gate?
- Can you summon a unit next to Baldar's Gate?
Phase 2: Move
- Can a unit move one space and back to its starting space, and does that still count as a move?
- Can a unit reverse direction, or turn partway, to qualify for a straight-line bonus such as Charge?
- Does a unit with Trample take Engage damage when it moves over an adjacent Engage unit?
- Does Engage trigger when a unit is forced away, not only when it moves?
- Can Engage trigger in the middle of a unit's move?
- If Engage destroys a unit as it is pushed out, does another unit's Cling still trigger?
- How much damage does Deceiver's Engage deal when an adjacent enemy unit moves away?
- When can a Horde Clinger cling to a unit, and can a Clinger cling to another Clinger?
- Do Swift and Flight stack, so one unit can move a total of 4 spaces?
- Can a unit move through an Ice Golem, or trample over it?
- Can a unit use an ability in the middle of its own move, such as Eager Adventurer's Embark between steps?
- Can Eager Adventurer's Embark be used more than once in a turn?
- In the Move phase, must you finish moving one unit before you move another?
- When a unit's move destroys another unit, is that space cleared right away for other units to move through?
- How does Wolfsbane Brute's Ram work when the target is adjacent or boxed in?
- Can a unit that Tacullu takes control of with Mind Capture move on the turn you take it?
- Does an ability that works instead of moving use up one of the unit's movement actions?
- If a Rhino moves back and forth through an adjacent enemy unit, how much damage does that unit take?
- Can Wrench Rat's Rig Explosives trigger when an enemy unit only passes by it during its move?
- Does a unit with extra movement, such as Gust Strider with Tireless, get to move twice in one turn?
Phase 3: Build
Phase 4: Attack
- Does Biter take damage from Crash when it moves?
- Can Blarf get more than one boost per round from his start-of-Attack-Phase ability?
- Can a unit attack twice in one Attack Phase, and do extra attacks use up one of the three attack slots?
- Does an Ice Smith's Frost Axe bonus help a ranged unit, or let it attack in melee?
- Do multiple Ice Smiths under one unit stack their Special bonus?
- Can an Undead Carrier's Infect return the same Carrier that was just destroyed, and can the new Carrier attack that round?
- Does Blastforge Cog's damage also hit itself or other friendly units?
- When a boosted unit is attacked, do you remove its boost tokens or add damage?
- With Primal Fury, is a destroyed enemy removed before the unit is forced to move?
- Does your Summoner take damage if you make no attacks against an enemy card in your Attack Phase?
- Do Special symbols count as sword or bow hits when a unit attacks?
- How far can a ranged attack reach, and can it target an adjacent or diagonal enemy?
- Do ranged units count sword symbols when attacking, including against an adjacent enemy?
- Can ranged units attack while they are moving?
- Does Unleash add two extra attacks, or two extra attacking units?
- How many swords does a boosted Dwarven Blacksmith's lightning icon count as?
- When Gulldune's extra attack targets a Wind Archer, how many dice does the Wind Archer roll?
- Is there a limit on how many dice a unit can roll for an attack?
- If a Royal Guardian's attack misses, can it still move the enemy warrior it targeted?
- How does Fire Drake's Fire Breathe damage the target and the units between?
- Can you attack your own cards or units, and do you gain magic for destroying them?
- How does Heal work, and do healing attacks count toward your three attacks?
- How much damage does the Temple Priest heal per die?
- Can Tundra Fighter's Frenzy be used if the unit did not move?
- Can Tundra Orcs' Influence be used before the dice are rolled?
- How does Kite Rider's Lightning Strike work?
- After Wind Mage uses Push instead of attacking, how many other units can still attack?
- Can an enemy attack through the units adjacent to Queen Maldaria?
- What happens to damage on a unit when Tacullu mind-controls it?
- Can a unit that Tacullu takes control of attack that same turn?
Damaging and Destroying Cards
Phase 5: Magic
- Do you gain magic when a card you control destroys one of your own units?
- Do you gain magic when an event or ability, not an attack, destroys an enemy card?
- Does the opponent gain magic when an enemy's Atone damage destroys your unit?
- Who gains magic when a unit under Tacullu's Mind Capture is destroyed?
- Can Psychic Assault damage a Summoner?
- How does Purge work with several sacrificed units, and can it target your own units that are not next to an enemy?
- Does an Undead Carrier destroying an enemy gate still give magic, given that Soulless only applies to units?
Event Cards
- Does an event placed under a card stay in play after it resolves?
- Can you have two active event cards with the same name in play at once?
- Can you play two copies of the same event card, or more than one event, in one turn?
- Can a unit get the same granted ability twice from two event cards, such as Pile On?
- Can an event card be played between individual moves, summons or attacks, or in the middle of moving a unit?
- What does Unrelenting do when a unit would be destroyed?
- Does Rebuke target an enemy common within 2 spaces, including an adjacent one?
- If Tundra Orc's For Glory adds damage to a unit that is overkilled, does the Tundra Orc take the full damage?
- Does Citadel's Renewed Hope let you summon units in phases other than the Summon Phase?
- Does Parapet leave at the start of your next turn like other events?
- How long does Chant of Entangling last, and does it end early?
- Does Chant of Entangling make each linked unit lose its own abilities when it gains the other's?
- Does Blood Summon require paying the unit's Magic cost to place it?
- Can Swamp Orcs' Emerge summon all three Champions in one Summon Phase?
- When Fallen Kingdom's Purge hits several destroyed units, does one adjacent unit take damage for each?
- Can Chant of Weaving let you summon outside the Summon Phase, after an attack for example?
- Does Praefectus Edis's Persist let you keep all three active events, or just one?
- Does Divine Retribution damage enemies that attack your Summoner while Spirit of the Phoenix is also active?
- Does Spirit of the Phoenix's extra damage apply to an Engage triggered by a Royal Guardian's Shove?
- Can Onyx Tome let you pick a card from your discard pile and deal damage?
- Does Shadow Pulse damage every card near damaged gates, and how many times?
- Does Perplexing Tempest reduce forced movement, and does it slow the player who played it?
General Rules
- Do two copies of the same ability stack on one unit, such as two Strong sources, two Hellforged Weapons or two Deceivers?
- How does Mind Witch's Mimic work, and does she keep the life from boost tokens after it ends?
- Can Abua Shi boost a target when Abua Shi has no boost tokens to move?
- Can a card target itself with its own ability or attack?
- Does an ability that works 'within X spaces' reach the card that has it, such as the Summoner, Coleen Brighton or a Seed Bearer?
- Does 'within 2 spaces' include the diagonal spaces?
- Do effects that name a unit type, such as Frost, Undead, Citadel or Aerie, apply to any card with that word in its name?
- Can Mugglug's Reap remove more than one boost from the same unit?
- Do 'all commons' abilities, such as the High Elves' Atone aura, also affect the opponent's commons?
- When Enigma Sage's Exploit buries a card, must an adjacent unit take the damage?
- If you boost a unit with a stimshroom-style ability, do you always take the 1 damage, or only when you also force it?
- Does Sneeks' Sly exchange have a range limit?
- When two effects happen at the same time, who decides the order they resolve?
- When a unit with Tough is also affected by Guarded, how much damage does it take from the first attack?
- If Learn gives a boost at the start of the turn, can you keep Insight going for one more turn?
- Can Fungal Dwarves and Eternal Council carrier transformations cascade?
- Does the Undead Warrior lose its two boost tokens at the end of every turn, or only when a unit is destroyed?
- Is there a cap on the number of boost tokens a card can have?
- Does Blood Fury remove two boost tokens if the unit has only one?
- Does Valeria the Just's Dictate trigger once per turn, or each time she moves or attacks?
- Can a unit use a special ability and also attack or move in the same turn?
- Can Withdraw's boost cost be paid with boosts from other cards?
- Can a unit repeatedly use an ability that says to spend 1 boost while it still has boosts?
Deck Construction
Glossary
- Where does a card gained with Learn go when it is discarded?
- Where do the commons placed by Skyspear Avians' Gathering Song come from?
- Does Blarf gain health when you spend magic to boost him?
- Does placing a unit count as moving it or summoning it?
- Are gates you control friendly for effects that refer to friendly cards, such as Glacial Shift?
- Do cards under another card count as on the battlefield for card effects?
- Is a card that is under another card still in play?
- If an opponent mind-controls an Ice Smith and places it under their card, does it stay there after control ends?
- Can a unit that Ice Smith placed under another card be moved out from under it later?
- Does Tundra Fighter's Frenzy force the unit it attacks?
- Does a trampled unit take at most 1 damage per Trample move, even if the trampling unit passes over it several times?
- Does Trample let a unit move onto an adjacent enemy and then return to its starting space?
- Does an Atone unit take the Atone damage when its attack destroys the target, or after it moves out of range?
- When a unit with Atone is destroyed, does Atone still apply to the other units it was passed to?
- What does 'clear' mean for a straight-line attack or ability like Preemptive Fire?
- Can Hypnotic Call force a unit sideways if that shortens its walking distance to the summoner?
- Can a frozen unit still be placed by an ability such as Queen Maldaria's Call Protection?
- What does the Protect ability do?
- If you roll several Special symbols, does an ability that uses them count each one?
- Do an Ice Smith's Special-to-sword bonus and a Deceiver's Special penalty interact?
- Does Sairook inherit Flight from Ava even when he is more than 2 spaces away?
- Does Aerie Sage have Strong, and do two adjacent Aerie Sages give each other Strong?
- Does force away have to move the unit in the direction of the attack?
- What happens when a unit is forced into an occupied space or off the board edge?
- Does an Ice Smith get its own boost bonus, or does forced movement boost it?
Card Updates and Errata
Summoner Wars (Second Edition): Cloaks Faction DeckExpansion
- Can Vlox use Master of the Art more than once in a turn, and can he copy a unit someone else controls?
- Does Vlox's Master of the Art keep abilities that the copied unit gains later in the same turn?
- Can Vlox copy Brub's ability when Brub is in the same deck?
- If a unit with two life left receives three wound markers in one attack, how much damage does it take?
- If Sin-Sin's Bounty unit is destroyed, how much magic does the opponent get?
- Where do Sin-Sin's Infiltrate and the Rustside Bandit's Heist activate, and where do the units return?
- Does Guild Gunner's Cover Fire ever target the Guild Gunner itself?
- Can Guild Sniper attack through units if it moved one space or none in the Move phase?
- How does Guild Machinist's Versatile ability work?
- Can Moto Boots be played on an opponent's unit, and who uses the ability it grants?