Tournament Fishing: The Deckbuilding Game

Tournament Fishing: The Deckbuilding Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

40 Starting Cards (10 in each of the 4 Starting Player colors)
84 Bait Shop Cards
47 Lake Cards
13 Clock/AI Cards
32 Fight Cards
3 Fight Dice
13 Weather/AI Cards
17 Location Cards
8 Fishing Rod Cards
8 Boat Cards

Set Up

Each player chooses a color and takes the matching starting deck of 10 cards. Additionally, each player draws a random FISHING POLE and a BOAT, shuffles all of these cards together to form a deck, and places this face down in front of them.
Shuffle the Bait Shop cards, and then deal out a line of 5 cards to form a supply row.
Shuffle the Lake cards and remove 7 for a total of 40 Lake Cards. Then form the lake based on the table below. The lake consists of stacks of cards called "Lake Spots", and the number of players dictates the size of the lake.

LAKE SETUP

Anglers Spots Depth Arrangement
1-2 5 8 1 row of 5 Spots
3 8 5 2 rows of 4 Spots
4 10 4 2 rows of 5 Spots
Shuffle the Locations cards, and randomly slide one card beneath each Lake Spot so that the text effect is sticking out and visible to all players. (Locations are optional, see page 16)

Anglers	Spots	Depth	Arrangement
1-2	5	8	1 row of 5 Spots
3	8	5	2 rows of 4 Spots
4	10	4	2 rows of 5 Spots

Overview

Each round simulates one hour in the tournament, in which every Angler takes a turn on the lake attempting to catch fish, and purchase supplies from the Bait Shop. Beginning with the Starting Player and proceeding clockwise, each Angler's turn consists of the same 5 phases in order, as outlined below. An Angler will proceed through all five phases, and then the next Angler takes their turn, repeating this process until the Clock Deck is empty.

Search Phase
Cast Phase
Reel Phase
Buy Phase
Cleanup Phase

The Starting Angler will always begin their turn by reading aloud the effects on the top Clock card and Weather card. These effects will stay in play for the entire round, affecting each Angler on their turn. The Starting Angler will reveal a new Clock Card and Weather Card at the beginning of each of their subsequent turns. On an Angler's turn, they will play cards from their hand to the table in front of themselves, and every played card is active until the end of their Cleanup phase.

1. Search Phase (Optional)

During this phase, you may play cards that have search phase triggers, these are typically ACCESSORY (blue) or ATTACHMENT (brown) cards and will typically allow you to draw more cards, or peek at the top card of a lake spot, called a "Scan". (Event cards are not activated during a Scan.) Resolve the Search Phase text on all Search Phase cards played. Many of the clock cards, and some of the weather and locations cards have search phase triggers so make sure to check for those.

This angler card's effect includes the search phase trigger which indicates that if you play it in that particular phase (or if it is already in play), you may perform the effect.

NOTE: the 2 Cast Strength will also be counted in the cast phase.

2. Cast Phase (Optional)

Skip if no Lure in hand to start phase.

This phase may only be performed if you have a LURE (Green) card in hand. To cast, exactly ONE LURE card must be played. Afterward, ONE CAST (Yellow) card may also be played, and as many PRESENT (Grey) cards as you wish may be played.

NOTE: A Cast may be performed with only a LURE card. There are two types of LURES, Artificial and Live Bait. Some cards are affected by the type of LURE played. Additionally, each LURE card provides one or more Bait symbols, black, green, yellow, or red, that attract specific kinds of fish.

Cards played in this phase are primarily used to build up Cast Strength, represented by the Cast Strength icon. Add up the numbers shown on each played card's Cast Strength icon to determine your total Cast Strength for the turn. Some cards played will affect the total Cast Strength, as well as the Clock, Weather, and Location cards for the round. Be sure to double check every source in play.

Once all cards have been played for the Cast, you then get to make up to 2 Cast Attempts. A Cast Attempt consists of choosing a Lake Spot and secretly peeking at the top card. If this card is an Event, then reveal it, resolve the card's text, and then place the card back into the box, removing it from the current game.

SNAG! (Event card). When revealed, draw a card from the icon-marked deck and it: A. Blank: nothing happens. B. Matching Fight symbol icons (green, yellow, red): discard a card with those symbols and nothing happens. C. Else: lose your Lure from play and immediately end the Cast phase. Note: If the deck icon appears, shuffle all the cards of that deck to form a new deck.

Transcriber note: the SNAG! card's draw-deck icon and the icon in the B line are small pictograms on the card art that the text layer does not carry; the wording above describes them by position and color and should be checked against the printed card.

If the card is a Fish, compare the Bait symbol(s) listed on the card to the LURE that you played during this Cast phase. If all of the Bait symbols on the Fish card and the played LURE do not match, the Fish does not bite. Replace the Fish card face down onto the Lake Spot it was removed from. A second Cast Attempt may then be made by choosing another Lake Spot and secretly peeking at the top card. If the Bait symbols again do not match and this second Fish does not bite, replace the card, face down, onto the Lake Spot from which it came, and proceed directly to the Buy phase. (Some cards will allow additional Cast Attempts, or modify cards in play.)

If all of the Bait symbols on the Fish card and the played LURE card do match, compare the Fish's Power to the player's Casting Strength. Exactly one HOOK (Red) card may then be played to boost your Cast Strength, if necessary. If the Casting Strength is equal to or greater than the Fish's Power, then this Fish bites! Reveal the Fish card, and proceed to the Reel phase.

NOTE: Its is important to note that angler cards played from your hand stay in play for the entire turn, even on into the other phases. This is why if you play a card with Cast Strength in the Search Phase, it still applies in the Cast Phase. Similarly, if you play a card in the Cast Phase and it has Reel Phase triggers, those will be applicable once that phase comes around.

3. Reel Phase (Skip if no Fish bites)

This Phase is skipped entirely if a Fish does not bite in the Cast Phase. The bottom of each Fish card shows a number of Fight Card icons, as well as icons for Fight Dice. Have another player draw and reveal as many Fight Cards as shown on the drawn Fish Card, or roll the indicated Fight Dice shown, if dice were chosen for this game. (The Fight Dice icons specify which colors of dice are to be rolled, and this symbol (reroll icon) requires each blank face to be rerolled once.) After all Fight Cards are revealed, or dice rolled, each result shown must be countered for the Fish to be caught. (Some played cards, cards in hand, and Location effects allow these requirements to be manipulated, and these include the label "Reel Phase".) For each resulting symbol that appears on the Fight Cards or Fight Dice, a card with a matching symbol must be discarded from your hand to counter it. Each discarded card may only be used to counter one Fight symbol, even if a card contains multiple symbols that could potentially counter more than one.

NOTE: Certain card effects (icon) allow you to replace the top Fight symbol with the smaller icon on the bottom of a Fight card.

If every symbol on the Fight Cards or Fight Dice cannot be countered, or if a POP! symbol is revealed, then the Fish has escaped. Slide the Fish card face-down to the bottom of the Lake Spot from which it came. A POP! symbol also causes you to lose your played LURE from the game, put it out of play in the box. If you succeed in countering each Fight symbol with cards discarded from your hand, you have caught the Fish! Your caught Fish are collected together in a face-down stack in front of you called your "Livewell", which will be scored at the end of the game.

Reel Phase steps: (1) Fish bites. (2) Fight Cards are drawn or Fight Dice are rolled. (3) Player discards cards with matching symbols to counter the Fight Cards/Dice and catch the Fish.

Lastly, discard all revealed Fight Cards to their own discard pile, unless a card contains the reshuffle symbol, which instead instructs you to shuffle all Fight Cards to form a new draw deck.

4. Buy Phase (Optional)

This phase allows Anglers to purchase cards from the Bait Shop on their turn. Each Angler Card has an icon on the bottom ($1 cash icon) that denotes how much "cash" the card generates if discarded in the Buy phase. Angler cards each have a value noted in the top right, which lists the cost to purchase them.

By discarding cards from your hand as cash, cards may be purchased from the Bait Shop supply row. After any cards have been spent, collect all cards you purchased and add them directly to your hand. Cards remaining in your hand are kept, you may not "overspend" to rid your hand of cards before your next turn, and any unspent cash is forfeited this round.

NOTE: When Livebait LURE is lost, it is added to a "Bait Bucket" pile near the Bait Shop Supply, and may be purchased during the Buy Phase. The Bait Bucket does not take up a spot in the Supply Row, however.

5. Cleanup (Mandatory)

In this phase, all Angler cards that have been played on your turn are discarded, with the exception of any cards played during the Search and Cast phases that contain the keyword "Attachment".

ATTACHMENT cards will stay in front of you to be active on each turn until the red condition text is met, which triggers the card to be discarded (ATTACHMENT cards do not count toward hand size).

Then, draw until you have 6 cards in hand. Next, refill the Bait Shop until it contains 5 face-up cards. Finally, if this was the last player's turn for the round, discard the top Clock card and the top Weather card, if any. If there are no more Clock cards in the pile, then the Tournament is complete and it's now time for final weigh-ins!

Final Weigh-In

After the last Angler's turn in the round with the final Clock card, each Angler now adds together the total Strength of each Fish in their Livewell. The Angler with the greatest sum wins the Tournament! In case of a tie, the Angler who caught the strongest fish (with the highest value) wins. If still tied, the next highest value wins, and so on.

NOTE: Some Fish have altered point values shown by an arrow pointing to a smaller number beneath the Strength value. This smaller number is the true worth of the fish.

Solo and Co-op Fishing Rules

The rules and set-up for a solo or 2-player co-operative game are largely the same, with the following exceptions. During Set Up, shuffle the Clock Deck and place it near the Lake. At the start of each round, the AI Angler will always take the first turn. Draw and reveal the reverse side of the top Clock card to reveal the AI Angler card. On this face, you will see the instructions to immediately carry out for the AI Angler, divided into two sections.

The top section depicts which cards need to be removed from the Bait Shop Supply Row. For a solo game, all cards in positions with a red X must be removed from the game. For a 2-player Co-op game, only one of the cards indicated with a red X must be removed, but both players decide from among the ones shown which to remove.

Caption: This tells you to Lose the 2nd and 3rd cards in the Baitshop Supply row from the Tournament.

The bottom section of the AI Angler card interacts with the Lake. A spot in the lake depicted with a red X means that the top card of that Lake spot is removed from the game. If a Lake spot is shown with a green check, the AI Angler catches a Fish at that spot. Draw cards from the indicated Lake spot until a Fish is revealed and place this fish face-down in a "Livewell" for the AI Angler near the Clock Deck.

Remove any Events revealed during this step. If the shown Lake Spot is empty, choose a different Lake Spot, and continue until a Fish is found. Players are allowed to look at the fish cards as they are removed or caught, but not allowed to look through the AI Angler's Fish livewell.

If the bottom of the AI Angler Card shows five orange "?" icons, then the Lake Spot that is affected is chosen by the players. If the five "?" icons are red, choose any Lake Spot to remove the top card from the game. If the five "?" icons are green, choose a Lake Spot from which the AI Angler catches the top card.

Captions: Lose the top card from the 5th Lake Spot. / Catch the top card from the 2nd Lake Spot. / Catch the top card from a Lake Spot of the Angler(s) choice.

If playing against the Weather Deck AI, you will not be using the Clock's AI in which case the Clock deck should be ordered from 6am to 6pm, the clock deck effects will take effect like normal in this case.

The Weather Deck AI Lake instructions will sometimes require flipping a Lake card face up, and leaving it on its Lake Spot. Fish revealed in this manner have a +2 to Cast Strength (this boost does not affect endgame scoring) and remain revealed until being caught or moved through various other mechanics in the game (any Lake Event cards flipped in this manner are removed from the game).

Caption: Flip the top card from the 4th Lake Spot.

You may choose to face both AI Anglers for an even greater challenge. In this case, always resolve the Clock Deck AI first, followed by the Weather AI. Additionally, use the upper Bait Shop portion of only one of the AI's for the entire tournament.

About the Anchor

The Anchor card prevents the AI Angler(s) from doing anything to the Lake Spot. Whether it was supposed to catch, remove, or flip a card there, it will do nothing instead. This is especially useful on the orange "?" icons and the green "?" icons since you get to pick the Lake Spot!

NOTE: You cannot play this card in the Buy Phase on the same turn that you purchase it since it comes into your hand at the end of the phase.

For a 2-Player Cooperative Tournament

Implement the following changes to the core rules:

All information about the Lake is shared knowledge, specifically during Scans and Cast Attempts.
After the first Angler resolves their Search Phase, the second Angler resolves theirs.
After the first Angler resolves their Cast & Reel Phases (if a Fish bites), the second Angler resolves theirs.
During the Reel phase, Anglers may discard cards from their hands to help the other Angler counter Fight Symbols (green, yellow, and red) of cards and dice. However, they cannot use Attachments or Reel Phase Triggers to help.
During the Buy Phase, Anglers may combine generated money ($1 cash icon) to make purchases from the Bait Shop, and distribute purchased cards however they want.
Restock the Bait Shop once both Anglers have resolved their Clean Up Phase, and alternate first player each round.

Continue in this way, drawling [sic] and resolving the AI Angler(s) cards to start each round followed by the Angler(s) own turn afterwards.

For a Solo Tournament

After the final Weigh-In, compare your weigh-in total to that of the AI(s) to see who won, with ties going to the AI Angler(s).

For a Two-Angler Co-op Tournament Against a Single AI

Double the AI Angler's score at Final Weigh-In. If playing against both AI, combine their totals to see who has won the Tournament.

If you would prefer a more realistic AI Angler, you may instead use the following variant.

Any time an AI card directs a Fish to be caught, draw and reveal the indicated number of Fight Cards (or Fight Dice) instead of automatically putting the Fish into the AI's Livewell. If any POP! Symbols are revealed, instead place the Fish on the bottom of the Lake Spot stack from which it came. Otherwise, place the Fish into the AI's Livewell as normal. If the reshuffle symbol is present in the revealed Fight Cards, shuffle the Fight Deck as normal. If the Lake Card revealed is an Event Card, the AI Angler does not catch a Fish. Remove the Event Card from the Tournament, and continue the AI turn as normal.

NOTE: When playing solo or 2 player cooperative against either 1 or 2 AI opponents you may still play with the clock & weather effects, if you do play with them, make sure you do for the entirety of the game. When you reveal an AI card by flipping it from the face up clock and/or weather deck, the new effect showing on the up facing card on the clock and/or weather deck is the effect that takes place for the angler(s) that turn. When the final AI card(s) from the clock and/or weather deck are flipped over it signifies the end of the game, the angler(s) will play out their last turn without any active effects from either the clock and/or weather decks as there are no cards left from either of those decks.

Dice & Angler Aids

Reel Flowchart (Fight Dice)

Roll the Fight dice shown on the Fish.
If the re-roll symbol is shown, re-roll any blank results once.
May now use gained dice manipulation effects.
If a POP! symbol is present, place the Fish on the bottom of the Lake Spot.
If there is no POP!, check whether you can discard to match the symbols on the dice. If yes, place the Fish in your Livewell. If no, place the Fish on the bottom of the Lake Spot.

After the initial roll, the re-roll symbol means to re-roll any blank Fight die results once.

Roll the WHITE and GREY Fight dice (when the Fish shows green and yellow Fight icons).
Roll the WHITE, GREY, and BLACK Fight dice, re-rolling any blank results once (when the Fish shows the re-roll symbol).

Reel Flowchart (Fight Cards)

Draw the Fight card(s) shown on the Fish.
May now use gained manipulation effects.
If a POP! symbol is present, place the Fish on the bottom of the Lake Spot.
If there is no POP!, check whether you can discard to match the symbols on the Fight Cards. If yes, place the Fish in your Livewell. If no, place the Fish on the bottom of the Lake Spot.

Example: a Fish showing "Draw 2 Fight cards" draws two Fight cards.

Cast Flowchart

Do you have a cast attempt left? If no, proceed to the Buy Phase.
If yes, look at the top card of a Lake Spot.
If it is an Event, reveal and resolve it, then return to step 1.
If it is a Fish, it bites (may play a HOOK) and you proceed to the Reel Phase, or it does not bite (put the Fish back) and you return to step 1.

Icon Key (Pages 19-20)

Angler's Choice Fight Symbol (black "?" icon with green, yellow, and red symbols): this result on a Fight card or die means your choice of symbol. This amounts to being able to discard any card as a counter.
POP!: this result on a Fight card means your line breaks and the Fish gets away, also causing you to Lose your LURE.
Blank Fight Symbol (black "-" icon): this Fight card is a blank, which means you don't have to discard anything for it.
Any Lure: some Fish have conditional statements like this instead of a specific color. The "Any Lure" panel shows a black circle, green hexagon, yellow diamond, and red pentagon.
Altered point value: some Fish have altered point values shown by the arrow pointing to the bottom number. This particular Fish is only worth 4 towards the weigh-in at the end of the game (the top number is 5).

Weather

Decide if you'd like to play with weather or not, if you do, shuffle the weather deck and place it next to the clock deck. The top card of the weather deck provides an effect that will affect all anglers for the round, just like the clock effect. At the end of the last players turn in a round, discard the top card of the weather deck, just like you do with the clock deck. The new weather cards effect will affect all anglers for the new round, you will play like this until the end of the game which will be triggered when there are no more clock or weather cards left.

Locations

Decide if you'd like to play with locations or not, if you do, tuck a location card under each lake spot, leaving the effect showing for all Anglers to see. The effect provided by the location applies to the lake cards in their corresponding lake spots only.

Icon Reference (Page 21)

Angler Cast Strength: the Cast Strength icon (hook with asterisk) on Angler cards (p.7).
Fish Power/Value: the Fish Power icon (hook with asterisk) on Fish cards (p.8).
Fish Alternate Point Value: a Fish with a second, smaller point value (p.12).
Bait Type: black circle, green hexagon, yellow diamond, red pentagon (p.6).
Fight Symbol: green fish, yellow weeds, red anchor (p.10).
Angler's Choice of Fight Symbol: black "?" icon (p.19).
Fight Card: a card showing a "?" Fight symbol with the green, yellow, and red symbols (p.9).
Fight Dice: a green, yellow, and red die (p.9).
Line Break (POP!): p.10.
Use Bottom Fight Card Symbol / Flip Fight Die: black circle with horns (p.8/9).
Re-roll Blank Fight Die / Shuffle Fight Deck: re-roll symbol (p.9/10).
Blank Fight Symbol: black dash (p.19).
Card To Buy Value: a $2 price tag (p.11).

Quick Reference (Pages 23-24)

Search Phase (Optional)

You may play any cards that trigger in this phase (check the Clock/Weather/Locations for effects too).

NOTE: Do not resolve Event cards when you Scan.

Cast Phase (Optional, skip if no LURE in hand to start phase)

Play exactly 1 LURE (required), at most 1 CAST card, and unlimited other cards (HOOK cards are saved in hand until step 1B). Add Cast Strength generated from all cards in play (check Clock/Weather/Locations for effects too).

Pick a Lake Spot and secretly examine the top card (this is called a cast attempt).
- A.) Event? Reveal it and resolve the effect, losing it afterwards.
- B.) Fish? Check for a bite (may play 1 HOOK card after looking).
If you did not get a bite, you may loop back to step 1B.

NOTE: You get up to 2 cast attempts for free each turn but can gain more through effects.

Reel Phase (Skip if no Fish bites)

Reveal the Fish by flipping it over for all to see and then have someone draw/roll the indicated amount of Fight cards/dice shown at the bottom right of the Fish card.
You may now use any gained (may play more) manipulation effects.

Discard card(s) with matching symbol(s) to catch Fish. Put Fish back on bottom of Lake Spot if you do not (POP! = also Lose LURE).

Buy Phase (Optional)

Discard cards for $1 to buy card(s) available from the Baitshop Supply row, adding these new card(s) to your hand at the end of the phase. Keep any unused cards left in your hand (no overspending allowed).

NOTE: You may buy Livebait LURE(s) from Bait Bucket, even ones put there by other Anglers.

Cleanup Phase (Mandatory)

Discard all played cards (except ATTACHMENTS).

If needed, draw back up to your Hand Size of 6 and/or refill the Baitshop Supply row with new cards until there are 5.

NOTE: After the last Angler in fishing order goes, have the first Angler move the Clock/Weather forward.