Tag Team
Tag Team Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What Kind of Game Is This?
Tag Team is an auto battler and a deckbuilder... with a twist!
What's an auto battler? An auto battler starts with a preparation phase full of choices, followed by a fight phase where players can no longer change anything. You just have to see how it plays out!
What's a deckbuilder? A deckbuilder allows you to add cards to your personal deck during the course of the game, making it stronger and more effective against your adversary.
What's the twist? In Tag Team, you'll never shuffle your deck. You'll strategically add cards to it without changing the order of the cards already there!
Game Overview
In Tag Team, you'll put together a team of 2 extraordinary Fighters, each with their own unique deck of cards. You'll battle against your adversary's team by revealing card after card in your Fight Deck. At the end of every Round, you'll strategically add a card to build your deck, make it stronger, and then start the next Round!
Goal
To win the Fight by Knocking Out one or more of your adversary's Fighters by reducing their Health Points until they are KO'd!
Contents
- 120 Fight cards (10 per Fighter)
- 12 Draft cards
- 12 Fighter boards
- 40 Power cubes (purple)
- 6 Health markers (green)
- 4 Special markers (yellow)
- 1 Sheriff token
- 1 Golem's Presence token
- 1 Serpent token
- 2 Concentration tokens
- 5 Aflame! tokens
- 11 Scheme tokens
- 1 Fighters' Guide
Pick Your Fighters!
IMPORTANT: If this is your first time playing Tag Team, please skip this page and move straight to Setup on Page 4. You'll use the information on this page for future Fights!
Team Building
A great fight starts with a great team.
Before each Fight, both players will use the Draft cards to assemble their Tag Team.
Shuffle and deal half the Draft cards to each player, face down. Then use one of these 2 methods to make your team:
Standard Draft
- Each player looks through their Draft cards and selects the card of 1 Fighter they want to play. They simultaneously place that card face up in front of themselves.
- They then pass the remaining cards to the other player and select a second Fighter from the new set of cards they've received, which they simultaneously place face up next to the other Fighter card.
Each player now places the Fighter boards of the Fighters they drafted in front of themselves. This is your Tag Team!
Return all Draft cards and unused Fighter boards to the box. These will not be used for the remainder of the game.
Competitive Draft
Follow the same steps for the Standard Draft, but when you select your first Draft card, discard another card, face down, before passing the remaining cards to the other player. The discarded card will not be available for the other player to select.
And finally, you can choose to not use either of these options, and simply select the Fighters you'd like to play!
Setup
This section describes the Setup for any game of Tag Team, but also with specific details on how to set up your first game. We suggest playing your first game with Joan and Ching Shih versus Bödvar and Wong Fei-Hung.
1. Positioning
Players should sit on opposite sides of the table from each other, if possible.
2. Fighter Boards
If this is not your first game, take the Fighter boards for the two Fighters you chose during the Team Building phase and place them on the table in front of you. The other player does the same for their two Fighters. At this point, if you used Draft cards to create your teams, you can return them all to the box.
FIRST GAME: Take the Fighter boards for Joan and Ching Shih, and the other player takes the boards for Bödvar and Wong Fei-Hung.
NOTE: Bödvar's Fighter board is double-sided; make sure the Bödvar side is showing, and not the Berserker Bear.
3. Health
Take 2 Health markers each and place them on the Start space (A) of your Fighters' Health tracks (B).
4. Power
Take as many Power cubes as each of your Fighters' Base Power (C) indicates and place them in your Fighters' Power Supplies, above their boards (D).
FIRST GAME: You place 1 for Joan and 2 for Ching Shih, the other player places 2 for Wong Fei-Hung and 3 for Bödvar.
5. Special Markers and Tokens
Read the Setup section for each of your Fighters in the Fighters' Guide. This will tell you whether your Fighters have Special tracks or tokens, and how to set them up.
FIRST GAME: Place a Special marker on the E space of Joan's board and another on the F space of Ching Shih's board. The other player places a Special marker on the G space on Bödvar's board and places the two Concentration tokens near Wong Fei-Hung's board (H).
6. Fighter Decks
Each Fighter has a deck of 10 cards associated to them, indicated by the Fighter's Symbol (I).
Take the decks of cards for your two Fighters, remove each Fighter's Starting Card (indicated by the black border, and the star at the top right) and place them aside. The other player does the same thing for their Fighters.
FIRST GAME: Joan's Starting Card is 'Dieu Premier Servi', and Ching Shih's is Terror of the Seas, while Bödvar's Starting Card is Enrage and Wong Fei-Hung's is ...The harder they fall.
7. Fight Deck
Look at your two Starting Cards, and decide what order you'd like to play them in. Place these two cards in a face-down deck above your fighter board, with the card you'd like to play first on top. This is your Fight Deck (K).
8. Build Deck
You now both shuffle your 2 remaining decks of 9 cards together to create an 18-card deck, called the Build Deck. Place this face-down deck beside your Fighter boards (J).
9. Get to Know Your Fighter
Finally, you should both take a moment to read through the Gameplay section for your Fighters in the Fighters' Guide. Don't bother reading the FAQ section; this is only a reference section for clarifying particular situations that may arise during a Fight.
Now you're ready to Fight!
Anatomy of a Fight Card
- Fighter Symbol — The Fighter this card belongs to, as shown on their Fighter board.
- Frequency — How many times this card appears in the Fighter's Deck.
- Star — This is the Fighter's Starting card.
- Name — Name of the card.
- Instant Bonus — See p. 15.
- Action — The Actions this card will perform (see pp. 10-12).
- Text — Describes the Action in greater detail.
Gameplay
The game takes place over a series of Rounds. Each Round is made up of two Steps:
- Fight! Step
- Build! Step
These two Steps are repeated, Round after Round, until one of the Fighters is Knocked Out by having their Health Points (HP) reduced to the KO space.
Fight! Step
Playing Fight Cards
Step into the ring and test your mettle!
The Fight! Step is where your team will go head-to-head against their opponents. This step is broken into Turns.
TIMING: All Actions are supposed to be considered simultaneous. It's a Fight, after all! There are certain situations where Timing is important, but those are clearly outlined either later in this rulebook or on the Action cards themselves.
Turns
Both players simultaneously flip over the top card of their Fight Deck. When the cards are revealed, both players simultaneously perform the Action(s) indicated on the card. This is called a Turn.
When all Actions on the 2 visible cards have been completed, as well as any other effects that have been triggered, the Turn is over. The next Turn then takes place, with players simultaneously revealing the next card of their Fight Deck.
NOTE: Revealed Fight cards must be placed face up on top of the previously played card. You are not allowed to look at previously played cards in the other player's deck.
Yes, your Fight Deck in the first Round of the game will only have 2 cards. But don't worry, things will get pretty hot pretty fast!
Players continue to take Turns until they have revealed the final card in their Fight Deck. When this happens, you will move on to the Build! Phase (see End of Fight! Step, p. 13).
If one Fighter gets Knocked Out by having their HP reduced to the KO space, the Fight is over (see End of Game, p. 15)!
TURNS AND ROUNDS:
- A Turn starts each time the players reveal a new card.
- A Round begins when the players play the first card of their Fight Deck, and ends at the end of the Build step.
Golden Rule
Any effect on a card or a Fighter board overrules any rule in this rulebook!
Active Fighters and Partners
Each time a card is revealed, it determines that team's Active Fighter and their Partner for that Turn. This means, of course, that your Active Fighter could change every Turn or remain the same for a number of Turns in a row.
Don't forget, a new Turn begins every time a card is revealed from the Fight Deck, and a Round is a full Fight! Step followed by a Build! Step.
Active Fighter
The Active Fighter is the Fighter whose card was revealed this turn.
All Actions on the card are considered to be performed by that Fighter (unless otherwise stated).
The Active Fighter is also the default target for their Opponent (the other player's Active Fighter).
Partner
The Partner is the other Fighter on the same team as the Active Fighter.
Some Fight card Actions will apply to your Partner or your Opponent's Partner. When this happens, your Partner will be represented by the Partner icon and your Opponent's Partner by the Opponent's Partner icon on the Action in question.
E.G. Amy's two Fighters are Mordred and Ching Shih. Because she revealed one of Mordred's cards this turn, Mordred is the Active Fighter and Ching Shih is Mordred's Partner this turn.
Fighting!
Over the course of a Fight, Fighters will Attack each other, Block Attacks, Heal themselves, Gain Power, and a whole pile of other awesome things! In addition to all that, they'll even help their Partners out along the way!
Health Points (HP)
This is your Fighter's life. The Health marker tracks your Fighter's HP, moving up and down their Health Track as they sustain Attacks and as they Heal. But watch out! If the Health marker is on the KO space at the end of the Turn, your Fighter has been Knocked Out, and you've lost the Fight (see End of Game, p. 15)!
A Fighter's Health marker can never go below the last space on their Health Track. If there are remaining HP losses to take once the Health marker has reached the last space, they are ignored.
Your Fighter can never have more than their Max HP, which is the highest number on their Health Track. Any extra HP left after they've reached their Max (when Healing, for instance) is ignored.
Any icons that might appear on your Fighter's Health Track are discussed on pages 12-13.
Power
Your Fighter's Power determines how many HP their Opponent loses when your Fighter performs an Attack Action (see Attack, next page).
Certain Actions can cause a Fighter's Power to increase or decrease over the course of a Fight (see Power Gain/Loss, next page), but Power cubes are not 'spent' when a Fighter Attacks.
NOTE: The Base Power icon is only used during Setup. Once these Power cubes have been assigned, that icon and its number have no other use for the rest of the Fight.
When a Fighter Attacks, the Power of their Attack is the number of cubes in their Power Supply at the beginning of that Turn (see Attack, next page). Any cubes added or removed during that same Turn are not taken into account for the Attack.
E.G. Vincent is playing The Golem, who has 3 Power at the start of the Turn. He plays Fist of Clay, which is a basic Attack. On the same Turn, he is Attacked and loses 2 HP, which gains him 1 Power from his Health Track Icon (see p. 12). The Power of his Fist of Clay Attack is 3, not 4.
- An Attack with a Power of 0 means you have still performed an Attack, even though your Opponent does not lose HP.
- Your Power can never be below 0.
- In the rare case that you run out of Power cubes, use other items as substitutes.
Basic Actions!
All Actions on your Fight card are mandatory. You cannot choose to ignore any Action on a card you play, even if it doesn't benefit you or, worse, goes against you!
Attack
When you play an Attack, the other player's Active Fighter loses as many HP as your Fighter's Power at the beginning of the Turn (see Power, above), and moves their Health marker down that many spaces on their Health Track.
NOTE: If your Attack targets someone other than the opposing Active Fighter, it will be indicated on your card.
E.G. Zara's Active Fighter is The Golem because she played the Fist of Clay card. The other player is Amy, whose Active Fighter is Mordred, because Amy played Dark Power. The Golem's card is an Attack. The Golem's Power is 3, so Amy moves Mordred's Health marker down 3 spaces on his Health Track. Mordred's card gives him 1 Power. Amy adds 1 Power cube to Mordred's Power Supply.
Multiple Attacks
If a Fighter is targeted by Attacks from different sources (their Opponent and their Opponent's Partner, for example), this is considered a single Attack, with the total Power of the 2 Fighters combined into one value.
Direct Damage
Direct Damage is an HP loss whose value is indicated on the icon (for example, minus 1). This is not an Attack, and so is unaffected by a Block Action (see next page) or any other effect that is triggered by an Attack. This HP loss is affected by 'Stops' on the Health Track (see p. 13), and also triggers any Health Track icons the Health marker passes through (see Health Track icons, p. 12).
If Direct Damage is done on the same Turn as an Attack, simply add the value of the Direct Damage to the Power of the Attack.
E.G. Emil's Active Fighter is The Golem, who plays Protect the Innocent and gives its token to its partner. This means it takes 3 Direct Damage. On the same Turn, Daria plays Berserk! with Bödvar and Attacks with a Power of 3. The Direct Damage is added to the Attack, resulting in an HP loss of 6 for The Golem!
If Direct Damage and an Attack are combined and it is Blocked, only the Attack is Blocked and the Direct Damage is still assigned.
Power Gain/Loss
Add or remove as many Power cubes to/from your Power Supply as indicated.
Don't Forget: Power added or removed on a turn does not affect Actions performed on that same turn.
Partner Icon
When this icon is present, it means your Partner is somehow involved in the Action.
A Power Gain with a Partner icon means that your Partner gains 1 Power cube.
An Attack performed by your Partner will look like the Attack icon marked with the Partner icon.
Opponent's Partner Icon
When this icon is present on an Action, its effect is on your Opponent's Partner.
An Attack against your Opponent's Partner will look like the Attack icon marked with the Opponent's Partner icon.
Block
Negate all Attacks performed by your Opponent and/or their Partner this turn, whether they target individual or multiple Fighters. Blocks do not negate any other effects, including Direct Damage, as mentioned above.
BONUS ACTION
All Blocks provide a Bonus Action when they have successfully negated at least one Attack (see Success, p. 12). The Bonus Action for a successful Block is indicated on the card, and is activated a maximum of once per Turn, regardless of the number of Attacks it blocks.
- As mentioned above, an Attack with a Power of 0 still counts as an Attack, activating the Bonus Action when successfully blocked.
DON'T FORGET: All card Actions are mandatory. You cannot choose to not perform an Action on a card you have played.
Heal
Gain the indicated number of HP and move your Health marker up your Health Track that many spaces.
If a Heal Action is played at the same time as the Fighter loses HP, simply move the Health marker the difference of the Heal value and the amount of HP lost.
Once a Fighter's Health marker reaches the KO space, they can no longer be healed.
E.G. Zara plays Hand of the Righteous with Joan, which Attacks with a Power of 2 against Amy's Ching Shih, who played Gunpowder Wine, which is a +3 Heal. This means that Amy Heals Ching Shih 1 HP (3 Heal - 2 Attack = 1 Heal).
IMPORTANT: Stops on the Health Track (see Stop, p. 13) interrupt Health gains. This means if you receive a +3 Heal, but the following space is a Stop, you only gain 1 HP.
Transfer
Transferring involves passing an item from one Fighter to another.
In the example above (minus 1 Power, then plus 1 Power to the Partner), the Active Fighter is Transferring 1 Power to their Partner. This means the Active Fighter moves 1 Power cube from their Power Supply to their Partner's Power Supply.
You must always Transfer as much of the required amount as you can, but you cannot Transfer something you don't have. If, for example, you must Transfer 2 Power cubes and you only have 1, Transfer that 1.
Cancel
The Opposing Fighter's card is completely ignored and has no effect.
Success
This indicates a Bonus Action will be awarded if the card's main Action was completed successfully. This Bonus Action is considered to be performed simultaneously with the cards' main Actions.
In this example, if this card successfully blocks an Attack, the Wild Bunch takes back the Sheriff token.
Here, if this Attack is successful (it is not Blocked), Joan heals as many HP as she has Power. If she is Attacked on the same Turn as she plays this, she deducts the value of her Heal from the value of the Attack.
Health Track Icons
Any time a Fighter's Health marker lands on or passes through a space with an icon (that is not a Stop), the Action associated with that icon is performed as soon as all Health markers have finished their movement.
If the Fighter's Health marker passes over multiple icons, these are all activated simultaneously once the Health marker has finished its movement.
If the Health marker is already on a space with an icon at the beginning of a Turn, it does not trigger that icon when it moves out of the space.
MULTIPLE ACTIVATIONS: The icons are triggered when the cube is moving up or down, which can happen multiple times in a Round or even a Turn, under certain circumstances.
E.G. Sam is playing The Golem. It loses 2 HP, so Sam moves The Golem's Health marker from 16 to 14. Because the marker passed through the space with the Power Gain icon, The Golem gains 1 Power cube.
On the next turn, The Golem is Healed 1 HP by its Partner, Wong Fei-Hung, so Sam moves its Health marker up one space. Because the marker has moved into the space with the Power Gain icon, the Golem gains another Power cube! Moving out of this space on a future turn does not activate the icon again.
Stop
When a Fighter's Health marker lands on a space with this icon, it immediately stops moving, regardless of whether it is moving up or down on the track.
This icon interrupts Health marker movement from Attacks, Direct Damage, and Healing.
E.G. The Wild Bunch is halfway down their Health Track and is Attacked with a Power of 3. They only lose 1 HP, moving down to the next Stop space. On a following turn, they Heal 2 HP, but only gain 1 HP, moving back up to the next Stop space.
Special Health Track Icons
There are some icons that are Fighter-specific, which are listed and explained in their entry in the Fighters' Guide.
Card Keywords
THEN: This keyword indicates the order in which card Actions must be performed: The Action after the word THEN must always be performed after any previous Actions, regardless of whether they are successful or not.
Opponent: This keyword always refers to the other player's Active Fighter, and 'Opponents' means the other player's Active Fighter and their Partner.
You: The keyword 'you' indicates the Active Fighter.
E.G. Mordred's Dark Power card reads: "If you have at least 8 Power when you play this card, Attack." Meaning, if Mordred has at least 8 Power, he Attacks.
Don't Forget, Everything Happens at Once!
- All Actions are considered simultaneous, including Actions that are conditional to a success.
- A Fighter's Power is always their Power at the beginning of their Turn.
- Direct Damage and Attack Power are added together, and any Healing is subtracted from that value and applied to the Fighter's Health Track.
- Health/Special Track icons are all simultaneously activated after all card Actions have been performed.
Bear in mind that some cards will have special timing conditions written into them, such as Crippling Touch, which is only activated after the Opponent has performed the Action(s) on their card.
End of Fight! Step
When both players have played the final card from their Fight Deck, the Fight! Step is over. DO NOT SHUFFLE your Fight Deck. You're now ready to make your deck more powerful by moving on to the Build! Step.
Build! Step
During the Build! Step, you will add a card from your Build Deck (which you left next to your Fighter boards during setup) to your Fight Deck to make it more effective, and to better counter your adversary's deck.
1. Draw Cards
Draw the top 3 cards from your Build Deck.
2. Add a Card
Select one of the cards you drew and secretly add it to your Fight Deck.
IMPORTANT: You cannot rearrange the order of the other cards in your Fight Deck. You can add the new card to the top or the bottom, or between two cards of your Fight Deck.
3. Discard Cards
Discard the two other cards to the bottom of your Build Deck, in any order.
This is the End of the Round. Place your Fight Deck on the table in front of your Fighters, and begin a new Round with the Fight! Step!
Instant Bonus Cards
Some cards have the Instant Bonus icon in a strip below the name of the card. This will give you a bonus (explained on the card) when it is added to your Fight Deck. If you choose to add this card to your deck, you must tell the other player the bonus you have gained and apply it.
This is done after you both have added your cards to your decks. You do not need to tell the other player what the card is, or where you have added it in your Fight Deck.
Not Enough Cards in Build Deck
If you cannot draw 3 cards from your Build Deck, the game is over. See Depleted Build Deck in the End of Game section.
Where Do I Add My Card?
Because your Fight Deck will always appear in the same order, you should try to place your new card so that it either counters your adversary's Attacks or exploits openings in their Fight Deck to do damage of your own!
End of Game
There are 3 ways your Fight can end:
Knocked Out!
If one Fighter gets Knocked Out by having their HP reduced to the KO space at the end of a Turn, the game is over and that player has lost. Once a Fighter's Health marker reaches the KO space, they can no longer be healed.
Double KO!
If at least two Fighters on opposing Teams get Knocked Out in the same turn, the fight is judged a Draw! Maybe it's time for a rematch...
Depleted Build Deck
In the extremely rare case that you cannot draw 3 cards from your Build Deck, the Fight is judged a Draw. Your Fighters are exhausted! Revisit your strategies and give it another go!
DON'T FORGET THE GOLDEN RULE! Some Fighter effects may mean that being KO'd is not necessarily the end!
Resetting Your Decks
To play again, simply separate the Fight cards of each Fighter into their individual decks, with the Base card on top.
Credits
Head of Studio: Manuel Sanchez Project Manager: Olivier Lamontagne Art Director: Sébastien Bizos Graphic Design: Sébastien Bizos, Émilie Côté, Fanny Saulnier Brand Director: Joëlle Bouhnik Head Writer: Matthew Legault Proofreading: Tina Wayland, Thibaud de La Touanne
We finance the replanting of all trees used in the production of our games.
© 2025 Le Scorpion Masqué inc. The use of the illustrations, the title Tag Team, the name Le Scorpion Masqué, and the logo Le Scorpion Masqué is strictly prohibited without the written consent of Le Scorpion Masqué inc.