Unmatched: Brains and Brawn
Unmatched: Brains and Brawn Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Contents
- Heroes & Sidekicks
- How to Play
- Setup
- The Field of Battle
- Your Turn
- Anatomy of a Card
- Action: Maneuver
- Boost
- Action: Scheme
- Discard Piles
- Action: Attack
- Action: Attack (Continued)
- Defeating a Fighter
- Winning the Game
- Combat Example
- Special Rules for This Set
- Battlefield Items
- Free-For-All
- Team Play
- Icon Reference
- Credits
Contents
- 3 Characters
- 1 Sidekick Token
- 90 Action Cards
- 4 Health Dials
- 3 Character Cards
- 3 Scheme Tokens
- 3 Combat Tokens
- 1 Game Board
Doctor Strange
- 30 action cards
- 1 Doctor Strange hero character
- 1 Doctor Strange character card
- 1 Wong sidekick token
- 2 health dials
She-Hulk
- 30 action cards
- 1 She-Hulk hero character
- 1 She-Hulk character card
- 1 health dial
Spider-Man
- 30 action cards
- 1 Spider-Man hero character
- 1 Spider-Man character card
- 1 health dial
Battlefield Items
- 1 Astral Ring
- 1 Axe of Angarruumus
- 1 Black's Law Dictionary
- 1 Brazier of Bom'Galiath
- 1 Daily Bugle
- 1 Dragonfang
Before you play for the first time, assemble the health dials by punching out the circles for each character and connecting them with a rivet.
Heroes & Sidekicks
All of your characters in the battle are called your fighters, but your primary fighter is called your hero. Heroes are represented by miniatures that move around on the battlefield.
Your other fighters are called sidekicks. In this set, only Doctor Strange has a sidekick, Wong. (Heroes in other sets may have multiple sidekicks, a single sidekick, or no sidekicks at all.) Sidekicks are represented by tokens that move around on the battlefield.
Each hero has a special ability noted on their character card. This card also lists your fighters' stats, including the starting health of your hero and their sidekick. Fighters' health is tracked on separate health dials. Fighters cannot gain health higher than the highest number on their health dial.
How to Play
Players take turns maneuvering their fighters on the battlefield, playing schemes, and attacking their opponent's fighters. To win, you must be the first to defeat your opponent's hero, which happens when they are reduced to zero health.
Note: These setup instructions and the following rules are for games with 2 players. For rules for playing with 3 or 4 players, see pages 18–19.
Setup
- Choose a battlefield and place it on the table.
- Each player chooses a hero and takes the corresponding action cards, character card, hero character, sidekick token (if any), and health dials.
- Each player sets their hero's starting health and their sidekick's starting health on the matching health dials. Starting health is found on the character cards.
- Each player shuffles their action cards to form a single deck and places it face down, then draws 5 cards as their starting hand.
- The younger player places their hero in the 1 space on the battlefield. If they have a sidekick, place them in a separate space within the same zone as their hero. If their hero is in a space that is part of multiple zones, their sidekick may be in any of those zones.
- The older player places their hero in the 2 space on the battlefield, then places their sidekick, if they have one, based on the same rules as in step 5.
- The younger player takes the first turn.
The Field of Battle
Spaces and Zones
The battlefield is made up of circular spaces that the fighters will move between. Each space can only contain one fighter at a time.
Two spaces connected by a line are adjacent. Adjacency is used to determine targets of attacks and various card effects.
The spaces of the battlefield are divided into zones, which are indicated by different colors. All spaces with the same color are part of the same zone (even if they are in different parts of the battlefield).
If a space has multiple colors, it is considered to be part of multiple zones. Zones are used to determine targets of ranged attacks and various card effects.
This set contains the same battlefield on both sides of the board. On one side, the colored spaces are filled in with different patterns, which can be especially helpful for players with vision deficiencies. The other side has empty circles, where zones are only indicated by the circle's color. Both sides play exactly the same.
Your Turn
On your turn, you must take 2 actions; you cannot skip an action. You may choose two different actions or the same action twice.
The possible actions are:
- Maneuver
- Scheme
- Attack
You have a hand limit of 7 cards. At the end of your turn, if you have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard down to 7 cards, placing any discarded cards in your discard pile.
Then it is your opponent's turn.
Anatomy of a Card
- A — overall card type:
- Attack (red)
- Defense (blue)
- Scheme (yellow)
- Versatile (purple) (attack or defense)
- B — attack or defense value (if any)
- C — fighter allowed to use the card
- D — name of the card
- E — effect when played (if any)
- F — BOOST value
- G — deck that the card appears in
- H — number of copies in the deck
Each hero's deck is different, though they may share some cards with other heroes' decks.
Action: Maneuver
When you take the maneuver action, you first draw the top card of your deck, then you may move your fighters.
Step 1: Draw a Card (Mandatory)
Draw the top card of your deck and add it to your hand.
You can have more than 7 cards in your hand during your turn, but you must discard down to 7 cards at the end of your turn.
Drawing Cards — Drawing cards — whether via the maneuver action or due to a card effect — is mandatory, unless otherwise specified.
When your deck is empty, your fighters are exhausted. If you need to draw a card while your fighters are exhausted, do not reshuffle your discard pile. Instead, each of your fighters immediately takes 2 damage.
Step 2: Move Your Fighters (Optional)
Your character card lists your move value. During this step, you may move each of your fighters, one at a time, a number of spaces equal to or less than your move value. You may also choose to BOOST your movement (see next page).
When you move a fighter, each space they move into must be adjacent to their previous space. You may move a fighter through spaces occupied by other friendly fighters (i.e., your own fighters), but they cannot end their movement in an occupied space. You may not move a fighter through spaces occupied by opposing fighters.
You may move your fighters in the order of your choice, but must finish each fighter's move before starting the next. You are not required to move all of your fighters the same distance as each other; you get to choose for each fighter. You are allowed to move a fighter zero spaces.
Note: If an effect ever lets you move your opponent's fighters, you must respect all of the same movement rules, but from your opponent's perspective.
Boost
When you take the maneuver action, you may BOOST your movement. To do this, discard 1 card from your hand and add that card's BOOST value to your move value. Ignore any effect on the discarded card.
Certain effects (like Doctor Strange's Bolts of Balthakk) allow you to boost other things, such as the value of an attack.
Cards that can no longer legally be played — because the corresponding fighter or fighters have been defeated — may still be discarded from your hand to boost.
Action: Scheme
When you take the scheme action, you choose a scheme card (indicated by the lightning bolt icon) from your hand and play it onto the table, face up.
You must declare which of your fighters is playing the scheme card; they are the active fighter. Each card in your deck indicates which fighters are allowed to play it. You may not play a scheme card if the listed fighters are defeated.
Resolve the card's effect, then place the card into your discard pile.
Discard Piles
Maintain your own discard pile. All cards, once played and resolved, should be placed in the discard pile. Keep your discard pile face up to differentiate it from your deck. Both you and your opponent are allowed to look through your discard pile at any time.
Action: Attack
When you take the attack action, you must declare which of your fighters is performing the attack; they are the active fighter. You may not take the attack action if you do not have an attack card in hand or if none of your fighters have valid targets to attack.
Step 1: Declare Target
Any fighter may target a fighter in an adjacent space, regardless of what zone they are in.
Fighters with melee attacks (indicated by the melee icon) may only target a fighter in an adjacent space.
Fighters with ranged attacks (indicated by the ranged icon) may target an adjacent fighter or they may target a fighter anywhere in the same zone, regardless of adjacency.
Step 2: Choose and Reveal
As the attacker, you must choose an attack card from your hand and play it face down in front of you; it must be a card that your attacking fighter is allowed to use. Then the defender may (but is not required to) choose a defense card from their hand and place it face down in front of them; it must be a card that their defending fighter is allowed to use. Once both players have chosen their cards, reveal them at the same time.
Versatile Cards
Cards with the versatile icon are versatile cards. They can be used as attack cards or defense cards. Versatile cards also count as both attack cards and defense cards for the purposes of other game effects.
Action: Attack (Continued)
Step 3: Resolve Combat
Most cards have effects, with labels indicating when they occur: IMMEDIATELY, DURING COMBAT, or AFTER COMBAT. Unless otherwise specified, card effects are mandatory (which can result in dealing damage to your own fighters or other negative effects).
If two effects would ever appear to resolve at the same time, the defender's effect resolves first.
After cards have been revealed, resolve any effects that occur IMMEDIATELY. Then resolve any effects that occur DURING COMBAT.
Then determine the result of the combat. The attacker deals combat damage to the defender equal to the value of their played attack card. If the defender played a defense card, subtract the value of their played defense card first. For each damage that the defender takes, reduce that fighter's health by one, adjusting their health dial accordingly.
After the result of the combat has been determined, resolve any card effects that occur AFTER COMBAT. Even if a player's fighter is defeated during the combat, as long as that does not trigger the end of the game, any AFTER COMBAT effects of their played card still resolve.
After card effects are resolved, resolve any other game effects that occur after combat, such as a hero's special ability.
Finally, all played cards are placed in their respective discard piles.
Winning the Combat
Some AFTER COMBAT effects check to see who won the combat.
The attacker won the combat if they dealt at least one combat damage (i.e., damage to the defender from the attack itself, not from any effects).
The defender won the combat if they took no combat damage from the attack itself (even if they took damage from effects).
Defeating a Fighter
When one of your fighters is reduced to zero health, for any reason, they are defeated.
If your hero's sidekick is defeated, immediately remove that sidekick token from the battlefield.
If your hero is defeated, you immediately lose the game.
Winning the Game
When your opponent's hero is defeated, which happens when they are reduced to zero health, the game ends immediately and you win!
(In a team game, both opposing heroes must be defeated.)
Combat Example
Peter is playing Spider-Man.
Jennifer is playing She-Hulk.
It's Peter's turn, and he wants to attack She-Hulk.
Peter has Disarming Shot. But it's his second action, and he's worried about ending his turn next to She-Hulk. So he attacks with Thwip! by playing it face down.
Jennifer has The Savage She-Hulk in hand and wants to play it next turn, but Spider-Man is a wriggly target. Fortunately, she also has Nerve Cluster Strike, and this seems like the perfect time to play it.
Nerve Cluster Strike has an IMMEDIATELY effect that resolves when the cards are revealed. Spider-Man is adjacent, so he may not leave his space this turn.
Neither card has a DURING COMBAT effect.
Next, they resolve the combat. Thwip! has an attack value of 4. The defense value on Jennifer's card is 3, so the attack deals 1 damage to She-Hulk.
Thwip! has an AFTER COMBAT effect. Normally, that would let Peter place Spider-Man in another space, out of She-Hulk's reach. However, the effect on Nerve Cluster Strike prevents it. Spidey is stuck where he is, and the combat and turn are now over. Uh oh!
Special Rules for This Set
Doctor Strange: Dark Pact
Doctor Strange can spend his life energy to retain combat cards. After the combat is fully resolved (after resolving the AFTER COMBAT step), if you played a card, you may deal 1 damage to Doctor Strange. If you do, return the card to the bottom of your deck instead of discarding it, then draw a card. If there are multiple effects that happen after the combat (e.g., Robin Hood's special ability), the defender's effect resolves first.
Blind Boost: Some of Doctor Strange's cards let him BLIND BOOST. When an effect tells you to BLIND BOOST, reveal the top card of your deck and add its BOOST value, then discard it. A BLIND BOOST does not count as drawing a card for other effects such as taking damage when you are exhausted. If your draw pile is empty, the BLIND BOOST value is treated as 0.
Spider-Man: Spidey-Sense
Spider-Man's Spidey-Sense ability warns him when foes are about to strike. When an opponent plays an attack card targeting Spider-Man, they must tell you the printed value of that attack card. The printed value is the number appearing in the banner of the card and does not include any modifiers from abilities, combat items (see right), or other effects. After they announce the attack value, you can choose your defense card to play, if any.
She-Hulk: Just Throw Something
When she's not lawyering, sometimes She-Hulk just likes to huck something at her enemies. At the start of your turn, you may discard a card from your hand. If you do, deal damage equal to its BOOST value to one fighter in your zone. You must use this ability before taking your first action.
Battlefield Items
Brains and Brawn has six Battlefield Item tokens: three scheme items and three combat items. At the beginning of the game, randomly place one item token in each designated space on the board. The effects aren't secret — feel free to place face up or face down as you prefer.
Note: If you have battlefield items from other sets, you can randomly choose from all of the tokens you have.
Your fighter may use a scheme item when they are on the space with that token. Resolve the effect on the token and return it to the box. Using a scheme item counts as one of your actions, but it does not count as playing a scheme card for other effects.
Your fighter may use a combat item when they play a combat card (attack, defense, or versatile) while on a space with that token. When you play the card, take the token and place it next to your card. If you are attacking, choose whether to use the token before your opponent decides whether they are playing a defense card. The card you play gains the following effect: "DURING COMBAT: The value of this card is increased by the value on the token." If your card has a DURING COMBAT effect, choose the order to resolve the card and token effects. The token effect may be canceled like a card effect. After combat, return the token to the box.
Free-For-All
Brains and Brawn includes three heroes, but the game board has four starting spaces. You can mix and match heroes from this set with any other Unmatched set to play with three or four players using the following rules:
- On a hero's first turn of the game, they may only attack the hero whose turn is immediately after them or a hero who has already taken their turn. In a game with three heroes, this means that the hero going first cannot attack the hero going third. (In a game with four heroes, the hero going first may not attack the hero going third or fourth, and the hero going second may not attack the hero going fourth.)
- When an effect on a combat card refers to 'your opponent,' that means the other player in the combat.
- A player is eliminated when their hero is defeated. Immediately remove their sidekick from the board, if any. The winner is the last player whose hero is not defeated.
Team Play
You can also play Unmatched in teams of 2 by adding a hero from any other set. Teammates sit next to each other on the same side of the battlefield, and they may communicate about their cards and tactics, but each player controls their own hero and sidekick. Your teammate's fighters are considered friendly fighters. For team play with three players, one player will control both heroes and sidekicks for one team.
Choose a battlefield with four starting spaces. (Some battlefields in other sets have only two starting spaces and therefore cannot be used for team play.)
During setup, players place their heroes in alternating order:
- First player on Team A places their hero in the 1 space.
- First player on Team B places their hero in the 2 space.
- Second player on Team A places their hero in the 3 space.
- Second player on Team B places their hero in the 4 space.
When placing their hero, each player also places their sidekick within the same zone, as normal.
During the game, players take turns in alternating order:
- First player on Team A takes their turn.
- First player on Team B takes their turn.
- Second player on Team A takes their turn.
- Second player on Team B takes their turn.
This order repeats for the rest of the game.
When a player's hero is defeated, immediately remove that hero miniature from the battlefield. That player still takes their turns as normal, as long as they have their sidekick left. If all of a player's fighters are defeated, they are eliminated and do not take any more turns.
When both heroes on one team have been defeated, the opposing team wins!
Icon Reference
- Attack icon — This card can only be used to attack.
- Defense icon — This card can only be used to defend against an attack.
- Versatile icon — This card can be used to attack or defend.
- Scheme icon — As an action, this card can be played for its effect.
- Ranged/melee icon — This fighter may make ranged and melee attacks.
- Melee-only icon — This fighter may only make melee attacks.
Credits
Unmatched is the product of dark forces from another realm and was restored from Star Wars: Epic Duels, designed by Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau and published by Milton Bradley. Zone rules inspired by the Pathfinding System from Tannhäuser, designed by William Grosselin and Didier Poli and published by Fantasy Flight Games.
Game Restoration: Brian Neff, Noah Cohen, Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, and Tim Wiesch Graphic Design: Jason Taylor, Lindsay Daviau, Ian Reed, and Jason D. Kingsley Cover Illustration: Joshua "Sway" Swaby She-Hulk Card Illustrations: Joshua "Sway" Swaby Spider-Man Card Illustrations: Oliver Barrett Doctor Strange Card Illustrations: The Brave Union Board Illustration: Ian O'Toole Item Token Illustration: JJ Ariosa Project Management: Suzanne Sheldon Licensing: Mondo
Thank you to everyone who helped playtest the game! You're all wonderful people. We mean it.
©2023 Restoration Games, LLC. The following are trademarks of Restoration Games, LLC: Restoration Games, the Restoration Games logo, Unmatched, the Unmatched logo, the "In Battle, There Are No Equals" tagline, and all associated trade dress. Restoration Games, LLC is located at 12717 W SUNRISE BLVD, #244, Sunrise, FL 33323. Actual components may vary from those shown. Made in China. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT A TOY. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY PERSONS 13 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER.
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