Spy Cards

Spy Cards is a minigame in Bug Fables. It is first available after Team Snakemouth talks to Carmina in the Underground Tavern, and is later available in other places, including the matches with the four Card Masters and the Spy Cards Tournament on Metal Island.
Card Masters
== Mechanics ==
Team Snakemouth first needs to create a deck by selecting fifteen cards from the Bestiary on which they currently have Spy data, one of them being a Boss Card, two others being Mini-Boss Cards, which cannot be repeated, and the remaining twelve being Battle Cards, which can be repeated. This deck can be saved for future matches.
Both sides start the game with 5 HP, 2 TP, and three cards from the deck in their hand. They each gain 1 more TP to spend, up to a maximum of 10, at the beginning of every round, along with two more cards, or three if they have no other cards, up to a maximum of five. The player can see the front of their cards and the back of their opponent's, which changes depending on what type of card it is (Boss, Mini-Boss, Battle with special effects, or attacking Battle). 
On every round, each player chooses as many cards from their hand to play as they want, as long as the cards' combined TP cost does not exceed the player's current TP. TP not spent does not carry over between rounds. The cards are ordered, front-to-back: attacking Battle, Mini-Boss and Battle with effect, and Boss. Between cards of the same rank, they are ordered by selection order, i.e., the first attacking Battle Card goes in front, the second one goes behind it, the third one goes behind that one, and so forth.
After both sides choose their cards, the game will calculate each player's ATK using the following formula:
 ATK = max(0, CombinedATK - max(0, DEF - Pierce)) 
where:
* max(x, y) is the highest value between x and y;
* CombinedATK is the sum of the ATK of all of the non-numbed cards played during that round by the player and all of the ATK boosts granted by them;
* DEF is the sum of the DEF of all of the opponent's cards played during that round and all of the DEF boost granted by them; and
* Pierce is the sum of the Pierce values of all of the opponent's cards played during that round.
After the players' ATK values are calculated, the player with the highest ATK wins the round, and depletes their opponent's HP by 1. If both players' ATK values are equal, the round is a draw, and no one loses any HP. The first player whose HP reaches 0, loses.
==Card Layout==
The cards' layout is as follows:
* Name: The enemy's name, displayed on a white bar on the top of the card;
* TP cost: The amount of TP necessary to play the card, displayed inside a TP icon on the top-right corner of the card;
* Portrait: The enemy's image, as seen in the Bestiary, in the horizontal center of the card;
* Background: The background is golden for a Boss Card, grey for a Mini-Boss Card, orange for a Battle Card with special effects, and green for an attacking Battle Card;
* Effects: Are displayed on the center of the card, on what seems to be torn paper. If the card does not have any effects other than attacking, it features a dagger and its ATK value, both having a large size. If it does have special effects, it lists them off in a smaller size.
==Effects==
The Spy Cards can have several effects, which are listed below:
* ATK: x or ATK+x or X: The card adds x to the player's ATK the round it is played.
* DEF: x or DEF+x or X: The card adds x to the player's DEF the round it is played.
* Lifesteal (x): If the round on which the card is played is won, the player's HP is healed by x, up to a maximum of 5.
* Summon x: Places an x card on the field the round it is played.
* If x (y): z: Performs z if at least y instances of x or cards from the x tribe are played alongside the card. If y is absent, it activates the effect with only one instance of x.
* Numb (x): Disables x of the front-most attacking-only opposing Battle Cards, or all of them, whichever is less, preventing them from contributing to the opponent's ATK or DEF, or performing any effects it hasn't already.
* Empower +x (y): Increases each y card or card from the y tribe's attack by x. This boost cannot be removed by numbing.
* Heal x: Heals the player by x HP, up to a maximum of 5.
* Pierce (x): Lowers the opponent's DEF by x, down to a minimum of 0.
* Unity (x, y): Increases the attack of any cards from the y tribe by x, ignoring copies of the played card.
* If ATK (x): y: Performs y if the player's attack is x or higher.
* Setup: ATK+x: Raises the player's ATK by x the round after it is played.
* Per x: ATK+y: Raises its ATK by y for every card of the x tribe played alongside it.
* Coin (x): y or z: Flips a coin x times, performing y for every heads achieved and z for every tails achieved. In most instances, z is absent, in which case achieving tails does nothing.,
* VS x (y): z: Performs z if if at least y instances of x or cards from the x tribe are played by the opponent. If y is absent, it activates the effect with only one instance of x.
* Turns into a random Mini-Boss Card: Transforms into and acts like a random Mini-Boss Card.
== List of Spy Cards ==
Main Article: Spy Cards/Bestiary
== Strategies ==
Main Article: Spy Cards/Strategies
== Trivia ==
* Prior to v1.05, on Spy Card Tournaments, the opponent could use cards Team Snakemouth had yet to see. This has been fixed.
* Prior to v1.05, Flowerling Cards were glitched and could not properly steal life.
* In the 0.6 roundup video, engaging in a duel would've originally taken outside, likely as a placeholder.
* Spy Cards was revealed in October 2018.
*In the "Collector's Edition" of the Limited Run Games release, real life Spy Cards replicas appeared in random sets per-box.
==Gallery==
Doyouknowtherules.png|A duel in the version 0.6 roundup video
Category:Game Mechanics