Scourge Brawl Beginner's Tutorial

Welcome to Scourge Brawl! In this post, you will be learning the basics on how to play the game. Take time with this, the game does have a pretty steep learning curve! If you are unfamiliar with other similar card games, such as Hearthstone or Magic The Gathering, you might have more trouble. Relax, and enjoy the curve, because the game is most fun when you're having fun!

## Energy and Drawing

### Drawing Cards

- The player who goes first starts off with a hand including **three** cards off the top of their shuffled, face-down deck.

- The player going second starts off with a hand including **four** cards off the top of their shuffled, face-down deck.

- You draw one card at the start of your turn, including the start of the game/start of your first turn.

- You can have a maximum of **eight** cards in your hand at a time. If you have eight in your hand and draw another card, it gets burned (otherwise known as discarded).

### Energy

- Gain 1 energy bar at the start of your turn (keep track!).

- Maximum of 5 energy bars total. This means on turn 5, each player should have 5 energy. Every turn after turn 5, each player has a total of 5 energy.

### Energy Bars

- On a card, the white number in the blue crystal in the top left is the energy cost. This means you must have that much energy left to play it.

- On each turn, a player can play as many cards as possible until they run out of energy bars. For example, on a turn when you have the maximum 5 energy bars, you can play 1 card that costs (5) energy, 3 cards that cost (2), (2), and (1) energy, etc.

- NOTE: You do NOT have to spend all your energy bars every turn. However, unused bars do not transfer over to your following turns.

## Setting Up the Playing Area

- Cards that have a number on the bottom left and a red droplet on the right and some text in between are minions.

- The space in between you and your opponent is called the battlefield. When you play a minion, put it in the battlefield–closest to you in a horizontal line formation. You can have a maximum of 5 minions at a time. You can arrange minions however you want in said formation, but only when you initially play them. After playing a minion, it cannot be moved from its place. See the diagram on the right for help on how to set up the battlefield/playing space.

### Initiations

- Initiating die rolls is how you battle between two minions on the battlefield. After playing a minion, it must wait until the start of your next turn before you can initiate a die roll onto an enemy minion. If a minion has waited a turn and you want to initiate a die roll, follow these steps:

1. Look at the number in the yellow circle in the bottom left of your minion's card. That number is called your minion's **scare**. Remember that number, as it may help you decide what enemy minion to initiate on! If the number is 0 (zero), this minion won't be able to initiate any die rolls, but will be able to be initiated on by your opponent!
2. Look at your opponent's minions. It is more likely for you to win a die roll if your minion has a higher scare than your opponent's. Verbally state which one of your minions is initiating a die roll onto which one of your opponent's minions.
3. Grab some dice. If both minions have the same exact scare, each player rolls 1 die. If one minion has a higher scare, the owner of that minion rolls 2 dice, while the owner of the minion with less scare rolls only 1 die. At the same time, roll the dice. Whoever has the highest combined total wins! If both players have the same combined total, it is a tie. If a tie occurs, both players must roll an equal amount of dice (1 each). If another tie occurs, nothing happens.
4. The loser of the die roll looks at the red droplet in the bottom right of their minion's card that just lost. If there is no number located there, then the minion has been **frightened** and **destroyed**. Create a pile for these destroyed minions, one for each player. Whenever you burn or discard a card that is a minion it goes there as well.

- NOTE: Each individual minion can only initiate a die roll on their respective player's turn ONCE. As many different minions can choose to initiate a die roll, but each minion itself can only initiate a total of ONE TIME PER TURN!

- NOTE: See a number in the red droplet? Use our other guides to learn about the **Health** keyword.

## Objective

- The objective of Scourge Brawl is to reduce your opponent's hero's life to zero.

### On-Going Powers and Life

- From the start of the game, your on-going power is active for use once per turn. Your on-going power card is colored similarly to your hero card and is shaped like a shield with a circular picture and an energy cost on top of it. Refer to the "Setting Up the Playing Area" image above if you are confused.

- Set your hero portrait to the side. Look at the number in the red teardrop on the bottom right of the card. That number is your life. Each hero has 6 life. This cannot be restored past 6, although cards can give your hero armor that allow for you to have more than 6 life.

### How to Win

- The objective is to make it so that you have minions that can initiate die rolls while your opponent does not control any of their minions. Minions cannot initiate on the enemy hero unless there are no minions standing in their way!

- When doing so, the owner of the minion rolls 2 die, and the owner of the hero rolls 1. If the minion loses, nothing happens. If the hero loses, the hero loses 1 life. When it reaches zero, the other player wins!

### Fatigue

- The only other way to lose life is through fatigue. Fatigue occurs when you have no cards left in your deck.

- You get one warning after reaching fatigue. This means that every time you would normally draw a card, you are instead warned. Whenever you draw a card after your warning, your hero loses 1 life.

## Spells

- Spells are unique cards that can affect the state of the game in your favor. Each spell acts as a normal card with an energy cost, but does not have a scare value. Each spell has a unique effect!

- After you play a spell, create a separate discard or burn pile for spells only, one for each player, and place it there. When you discard or burn a spell, it also goes there.

## Building a Deck

- Ready to play? Well, first you've got to build a deck!

- First, choose a hero. Make sure you grab the on-going power that goes with your hero! Remember, it has matching colors!

-Next, look at your hero's name. Find the cards that are also labeled by that hero's name (hero-specific cards). They will be colored the same. (i.e. If Lyfos is your hero, find cards colored similarly to Lyfos!). When we say "colored similarly," we mean that the colors that border the card text and image are the same.

- Now, look at your hero again. If your hero is Veragonda, Jordan, or Irilla, find the set of gray bordered cards with a blue banner and a radial sign in the top left hand corner (team-specific, Garagzhan cards). If your hero is Numana, Hagg, or Lyfos, find the set of gray bordered cards with a red banner and a mechanical sign in the top left hand corner (team-specific, Invurdi Cards).

**- NOTE: You and your opponent must choose heroes from opposite teams (Garagzhan vs. Invurdi) (i.e. Numana can not play against Hagg or Lyfos, he must play again Veragonda, Jordan, or Irilla).**

- Pick a total of 20 cards from the piles of cards you've found! DO NOT include your hero portrait or on-going power as one of the 20!

- Once you are ready, shuffle the decks. Check out our other guides on keywords before playing!

## Hero Difficulty Tips

Since you've just begun engaging with the game, I'm here to help guide you through each Hero, what they do, and how difficult they are to play. Most of this information is based on their on-going power and their hero-specific cards.

1-6, in order from easiest to hardest hero to play:

1. Lyfos [Simple]
	* Simple on-going power
	* Simple, aggressive play style
2. Hagg [Easy]
	* Simple on-going power
	* Easy, tempo play style (playing 1-2 cards a turn, making sure you always have a minion!)
3. Veragonda [Medium]
	* Easy on-going power
	* Medium, spell oriented play style
4. Numana [Medium]
	* Hard on-going power
	* Easy, tempo play style (playing 1-2 cards a turn, making sure you always have a minion!)
5. Jordan [Hard]
	* Complex on-going power
	* Medium, tempo play style (playing 1-2 cards a turn, making sure you always have a minion!)
6. Irilla [Complex]
	* Complex on-going power
	* Complex, control play style (making sure you always have an advantage!)