Exodus TCG Rules

This page details the basic how-to, turn-by-turn explanation of the game, as well as details how to use the different Card Types.

**Objective**
**At the start of a game, each player**
begins with 10 Life Points. The game objective is to get your opponent’s Life
Points to 0. If at any point during a game a player’s Life Count reaches 0,
they lose. In other words, if you diminish your opponent’s Life Point total to
zero before they deplete yours, you win the duel!

**Keywords**

Before you jump into an action-packed
game of **Exodus** and learn all the card game rules, there are some general terms
and phrases that you’ll want to memorize. Most of them are very simple and
self-explanatory:

**Life Points** – “Life Points”, “Life Count”, and “Life Total” are all
interchangeable terms. They refer to number of points each player has during
the game.

**Symmetries** – “Symmetries" or "symmetrics" is the plural form of a Symmetry Card. It
can also refer to the effect(s) caused by an activated Symmetry Card. A symmetry
card can be used like an Instant or a Counter effect during a game.

**Deck** – Decks generally represent all of the cards that belong to
a player. A deck is like the arsenal of weapons at a player’s disposal. This
arsenal is composed of mind-blowing creatures and powerful symmetries that will
devastate an opponent and ultimately lead you to victory! Certain terms such
as, “Main Deck” and “Energy Deck” refer to specific parts of a player’s
complete deck.

**Creatures** – “Creatures” is a term that refers to cards that say "Creature" above the rarity star(s).

**Turn** - A “turn” is a single player’s chance to play. A turn is
broken down into phases or steps in which the player must follow each turn.

**Phases** – “Phases” and “Steps” are interchangeable terms. These
refer to specific parts of a turn, which are conducted in a certain order and
are used to carry out actions during gameplay.

**Match** – A “match” is a best-of format based upon a set
number of games. A normal match consists of 3 games, and the player
who wins 2 out of the 3 games is considered the winner of the match.

**Card Types**

There are three types of cards in the **Exodus TCG** and they each play a vital role.

**Energy Cards**
 – Energy is the most basic card type. It is what fuels each and every
creature and determines how powerful they are. A single energy
is represented by a single energy card. Each player must have a minimum
of twenty (20) energy cards in his or her Energy Deck in order to play.
Of course, each player also needs 20 cards in their Main Deck (which is
composed of Creatures and/or Symmetry cards) for a minimum 40-card deck
in order to play a game of Exodus.

**Symmetry Cards** – Symmetry cards are are instant effect cards that put a twist on the game’s mechanics.
 They affect gameplay in a positive way, negative way, or both. These
kinds of cards can be crucial to the victory or turnaround of any game
or match.

Symmetry cards act as a sort of instant and occur
immediately. They can also be used as a counter move or counter effect.
Just remember, whatever the card says in the text box is what it does,
so read each card carefully.

**Symmetry Cards as a Response** – Symmetry cards can be played at any time during the game;
they can be played on any phase during any player’s turn and happen
immediately. But remember, they can also be played as a response to an action
or play.

When your opponent plays a symmetry
card, you can play a symmetry card of your own as a response. By doing this,
your symmetry card’s effect takes precedence even though your opponent played
first. This causes the effects to stack, and the card on top of the stack
occurs first. Of course, your opponent can play a response to your response, so
think carefully!

There is no limit to how many cards
can be on the stack or by whom the response is played. For example, you can
play a symmetry card in response to your own symmetry card, causing your
symmetry cards to stack or combo.

**Creature Cards** – Finally, we have creature cards.
 Creatures are the main weapons that drifters use to perform combat and
deal damage during a duel. Fictionally speaking, in the world of **Exodus**,
 creatures come from the cards themselves and are driven by the energy
which is strategically placed on the field. With that said, creature
cards by themselves are all the same. They have no attack or defense
numbers on the card. Instead, the power of a creature is determined by
how big a pile of energy is that it is attached to. The other
elements that differentiate creatures are the types (Dragon, Angel,
etc.) and rarity star(s), which are affected by some cards. Nearly all
Rare (and above) creatures have a unique written Ability.

**Deck Breakdown**

**The Main Deck**
 – The Main Deck is composed of creatures and symmetries. These are
represented in the two different card types: Creature cards and Symmetry
 cards. Creatures are used to do battle and deal damage to your
opponent. Symmetry cards are like instants or wild cards and put a twist
 on the game
through their card effects. Main Decks cannot contain more than two of
the same card title; *you can't have more than 2 copies of a card in your Main Deck, whether it be creature or symmetry*.

**The Energy Deck**
 – All Energy cards will go in this deck. Energy cards represent energy.
 Energy is used like fuel to drive creatures into battle. The more
energy there is in a pile, the stronger the monster will be. Although
there are twenty cards in the Energy Deck, they are all exactly alike.
Each card represents a single energy. Any energy that is "destroyed" or
"discarded" is simply placed back on top of the Energy Deck.

Some creatures
have an effect on the game called an "Ability". Creature Abilities will
have a name (e.g. "Forged From Stars"), followed by text that describes
exactly what the effect does while you are playing.

If
 a creature Ability starts with "When this creature is summoned...", its
 effect only happens once when you summon it on a pile of energy. Its
effect may happen again if it leaves the field and is then summoned
again at a later time. Other Abilities may indicate that the creature
does something special when it attacks, or that it causes something to
happen as long as it is on the field.
Creature
 Abilities are only active while they are on the field; they do nothing
while the creature is in your Main Deck or graveyard unless they
otherwise say so.

**Cost**

Some
 powerful cards require you to "Pay 1 energy" as the first part of its
effect, for example. When you need to pay an energy cost, you can pay
from any available energy in your hand or on your field by discarding it
 back to the Energy Deck.

- You don't pay a cost until the card triggers or begins resolving;

```
        - This means you can nullify or cancel out a symmetry or

```

Ability that has a cost by playing cards in response that destroy their
energy source;

                    - i.e. If your opponent plays *Vortex* and they only have 1 energy on their field (which they are going to use to pay the cost), and you play a *Cataclysm* in response and destroy that energy, their *Vortex* will go straight to the graveyard without happening since there would be no energy to pay the cost.
- Likewise, if your opponent plays *Unsummon* on your only creature on the field, you may stack/play *Reversion* on your own creature to send it back to your hand. The opponent's *Unsummon*
 would then have no available targets and go straight to the graveyard
without happening, and your opponent would not have to pay its cost.

**Start of the Game**

The
 game starts off with each player having a total of 10 Life Points. They
 then each draw three cards from their Main Deck and three cards from
their Energy Deck – a six card starting hand.

**Note:** Each
player’s Draw Phase is skipped on their first turn. This means, at the
very start of the game, every player still draws six cards, but they do
not draw again when they begin to make their move. The starting hand
should be plenty of cards to work with. From here on out, at the
beginning of any player’s turn, they repeat the draw step by drawing
another three cards from their Main Deck and Energy Deck.

Although
 it is only the start of the game, a lot can happen in the first turn.
Whoever goes first can start building piles of energy, play creatures,
and use symmetries as usual. However, they cannot enter the Attack Phase
 this turn. On the other hand, the player who is standing by can still
activate Symmetry cards in response to the starting player’s actions, if
 they wish.

A game progresses through a turn system. The
 turn system begins at beginning of the game, starting with the player
who goes first. From there, players will alternate taking turns until
someone wins. A turn consists of 5 Phases. These 5 phases, or steps,
must be followed in the designated order every turn. If you cannot
perform a particular phase during any given turn, skip it.

**Some Key Rules to Remember:**
 As you learn to play the game, it is important to remember some of
these key points. They are mentioned throughout the rulebook in their
specific section, but here is a short list to make finding them a little
 bit easier. Once you memorize these, it'll be smooth sailing from
there.

• A pile cannot exceed 3 energies except by the effect of a Symmetry card

• Only one creature is allowed per pile

• You cannot add more energy to a pile after there is a creature on it, except by the effect of a Symmetry card

• Once a creature is placed on an energy pile, it is no longer considered a pile, but is instead considered a creature (with *x* amount of energy).

• Each creature can only attack once per turn

• There is no limit to how many creatures or piles you can have on the field

• There is no limit to how many cards you can have in your hand

 You need at least 20 cards in your Energy Deck and 20 cards in your
Main Deck (at least a 40-card deck) in order to play, but there is no
maximum deck size

• Up to 2 copies of a card are allowed in a deck, excluding Energy

**\*NOTE: If a card says, "Pay 1 energy," you can pay by discarding an**
energy from your hand OR your side of the table, no matter if it's from a
 creature or a blank pile of energy.

**Phases of a Turn**

1. **Draw Phase** – Draw three cards from your Main Deck and three cards from your Energy Deck and add them to your hand.

2. **Energy Phase**
 – You may play any energy from your hand to the field. When you place
an Energy Card onto a blank space on the field, this is called,
“starting a pile”. You may also add any energy from your hand to an
existing pile with no creature on it. This is called, “adding to a
pile”. Each pile without a creature on it may not exceed three energies
unless otherwise specified by a card effect. There is no limit to how
many piles there can be on the field. While you do draw three Energy
Cards each turn, you are not required to play them. You may play any
number of energies from your hand during this phase (including any
energy you may have saved from a previous turn) or none at all. It is,
however, recommended that you play as much energy as you can, as often
as possible.

3. **Creature Phase** – During this step,
you may play a creature from your hand onto a pile of energy on the
field. Only one creature per pile is allowed, and like energy, there is
no limit to how many creatures are allowed on the field. There is also
no limit to how many creatures you can play per turn, assuming there are
 a sufficient number of separate piles of energy already in play. Once a
 creature is put into play, no more energy can be added to the attached
pile unless otherwise specified by a Symmetry Card.

4. **Attack Phase**
 – You may use any or all of your creatures to attack your opponent’s
creatures. If, and only if, your opponent has no creatures in play, you
may attack their Life Points directly. Your opponent is dealt the same
amount of damage equal to the number of Energy Cards attached to the
attacking creature (each energy card counts as one point or one point of
 damage during an attack).

If they have no creatures, but have piles of
energy in play, you may not attack and destroy those piles. In other
words, you cannot attack and destroy creature-less piles. As
alternatively stated, you could still bypass their vacant piles of
energy and attack their Life Points directly, or you could choose not to
 attack at all. If your creature attacks another creature, they both
receive damage at the exact same time, regardless of which one is
attacking and which is defending. Any energy that is removed from a
creature is removed from the field and placed back into its respective
energy deck.

**Example:**

 If your creature with two energy
attacks an opponent’s creature that has one energy, your creature loses
one energy and the opposing creature is destroyed. Any creature that is
destroyed is sent to the graveyard (a face-up pile next to the deck) and
 any energy that was attached to the destroyed creature is cycled right
back into the Energy Deck. Likewise, if your opponent’s two-energy
creature attacks your one-energy creature, yours is destroyed and your
opponent’s creature is left with one energy. If two creatures conduct
battle with one another and they possess the same amount of energy, they
 are both immediately destroyed and sent to the graveyard. The energy
that was attached to each respective creature is still cycled back into
the Energy Decks.

**Note:** If your creature(s) attack your
opponent directly, your creature(s) deal damage to their Life Points
equal to the amount of energy attached to them. However, unlike
creature-to-creature battles, your creature(s) lose no energy in return,
 from the attack. For example, if it is your turn and your opponent has
no creatures to defend with and you have a five-energy creature, you
could deal 5 points of damage to their life and your creature would stay
alive at 5 energy!

Each of your creatures may only attack once per turn
 (unless otherwise specified by a card effect), whether it is against an
 opposing creature or your opponent directly. *But remember, you cannot attack their Life Points until they have no creatures to defend with*.

**Reminder:**
 Any and all energy attached to a destroyed creature or a creature that
was dealt damage is cycled directly back into the owner’s energy deck.
5. **End Phase**
 – Nothing in particular happens during this step, except for the
signaling for the next player to start his or her turn. Remember, even
though it will now be your opponent’s turn, you may still activate and
use any Symmetry Cards that remain in your hand. These can be used at
any time, during any phase, on any one player’s turn. These are played
anywhere on the field, face-up, and the effect(s) are activated
immediately. After the effect(s) has occurred, the Symmetry Card is
discarded and moved to the graveyard.

**The Second Turn and Beyond**

 After the starting player makes his or her move, it is the second
player’s turn. The player who goes second also skips their draw phase
during their first turn and follows the Phases of a Turn in order. Their
 move may look similar to player one’s turn, but they now have a new
option: They can attack! From this point forward, a player may attack
with any or all of their in-play creatures during their Attack Phase.

After
 the second player ends his or her turn, it becomes the first player’s
turn again. The same steps are repeated each turn until someone wins.

**Playback Rule**

 When a symmetry card or effect is played in response to your symmetry
card, the card played most recently (card on top of the stack) happens
first. Then, any remaining cards that must resolve experience **Playback**and may change targets if the owner chooses.

- **Playback** also happens when a creature is attacking and some other card effect causes a target to change or the state of the field to change. In this instance, **Playback** takes place and the attacking creature may change targets or stop attacking all together!

**Winning and Losing the Game**

Winning
 a game or match is simple. All you have to do is use your creatures to
attack your opponent and deplete their Life Points to zero! On the flip
side, if they knock your Life Points down to zero first, that means they
 win. If you do lose, be polite and accept defeat. The game is more
enjoyable when everyone is a good sport!

If you find yourself
repeatedly losing, try shuffling your cards better or use different
strategies. Strategic gameplay can be the key to turning the tide of a
duel. You may also want to try adding new cards to your
Main Deck or switching out certain cards for different ones. Or, you may want to try using a whole new deck altogether!
Powerful new cards are always being added to the ever-changing world of
**Exodus** and getting your hands on these may be just the thing to
increase your chances of winning.

**Multiplayer Mode**

All
 of the same rules apply in multiplayer mode. The only difference is,
when a symmetry card’s effect targets an opponent or an opponent’s card,
 you select one opponent for the effect to affect. Likewise, during
creature battles, each of your creatures can still only attack once, but
 you get to pick and choose which opponent to attack. After the game
begins, the Attack Phase becomes available starting with the first turn
of the player who goes last. For deciding on a turn order, whoever wins
the game of rock-paper-scissors goes first and they get to choose a
clockwise or counterclockwise turn order.

**What Happens When I Run Out of Cards to Draw?**

Sometimes,
 a game will last long enough for you to draw every single card from
your deck. If and when you draw the last card, immediately take your
face-up discard pile (graveyard), shuffle it, and place it face-down in
your Main Deck area (it is cycled back into your main deck) to continue
drawing. This means that all of the cards in your graveyard become your
deck again. Yes, all of those dominating cards that have helped you thus
 far will come to your aid again!

In turn, this means that it
doesn’t matter if you run out of cards. You simply shuffle and cycle
your discarded cards back into your deck and continue playing. The game
cannot end until one player is left standing with their Life Points
above zero.

**Rule Conflicts**

If
 at any time there is a conflict between the standard rules and a card
effect, the effect of the card takes precedence. In fact, some cards are
 designed to bend the rules a little bit. Some of the rarer cards bend
the rules a lot. However, a card that has an impressive effect usually
has a hefty fine in order to use it. It may seem uncanny, but these
kinds of surprises make the game more interesting!

**Strategies**

While
 there are a set number of rules to the game, there are still various
ways to play while staying within the boundaries of these rules. These
are called, “strategies”. While it is easy to just lay down cards as
they come, strategic moves bring the gameplay to a whole new level. Here
 are some basic but effective strategies:

* Use all of the energy

from your hand every single turn.

* Start piles of energy according to the

 number of monsters you draw, so that you always have a full field and a
 near-empty hand.

* When it is your turn and you draw three new

Energy Cards, put them into play in any arrangement that you like. Save
any creatures in your hand. Then, use the Chains Symmetry Card to stop
your opponent from attacking on their next turn. After your opponent
completes their attack-less turn and you draw three more energies, add
these to your existing piles on the field. Then, bust out as many
creatures as you can! If you’re lucky and you play the cards right,
you’ll have a large number of well-rounded beasts in play to crush your
opponent.

* Use Symmetry Cards as soon as you draw them. This will

increase your energy-per-monster rate and help you draw better cards
faster. You may also want to try to save a few Symmetry Cards and then
activate them all at once for a gigantic effect!