Gameplay

## Board

Excuse me for the bad drawing, but yeah, that's the outline of the board you'd see on Vassal, the simulator we use.

What each area does:

* Hand: Basically the cards you hold in your hand, a disclosed area.
* Deck: Where your deck is.
* Trash: Where your cards go after you use them. When an effect says "discard", this is also where the cards go.
* Avatar: The slot where you put your Avatar card.
* Life Charge: where you put your cards as lives. When an attack directs at your Avatar while you have zero cards in your Life Charge, you lose the game. You can check the contents of cards in your Life Charge at any time. Cards in this area can be tapped through effects.
* Energy Zone: This is where you put down your cards as resources. People who play Wixoss or Z/X would be very familiar with this concept. When you pay the summon cost of a Character card or the use cost of a Command card, you tap down cards in this area. When you pay the deploy cost of a Terrain card, you discard the cards in this area instead.
* Field: The field is divided into three slots: left slot, centre slot, and right slot. Each slot can only contain a maximum of one Character and one Terrain. When both card types are in the same slot, the Character is always above the Terrain.

## Win Condition

1. You attack the opposing Avatar successfully while they have zero cards in their Life Charge.
2. During the opponent's Start Step, if their deck has zero cards, they automatically loses the game, no matter how many lives they have left.

## Setup

To begin the game:

1. Put your Avatar card face-up in its own slot.
2. Each player shuffles his deck and draw 5 cards.
3. Each player places 7 cards from the top of his deck to the Life Charge, face-down.
4. Each player places 2 cards from the top of his deck to the Energy Zone, face-up.
5. Decide who goes first.

## Steps

### Start Step

The turn player declares the start of his turn.

### Untap Step

All of the turn player's Avatar, Characters, and cards in the Energy Zone and Life Charge are untapped, unless prevented to do so by any effects.

### Energy Step

The turn player puts a card from their top of the deck onto the Energy Zone, face-up and untapped. ***This action is optional.***

### Main Step

There are several things the turn player can do in this step:

* Summon a Character. In any circumstances, if the slot already has a Character on it, it can't be removed just to summon a new Character on it.
* Deploy a Terrain. In any circumstances, if the slot already has a Terrain on it, it can't be removed just to deploy a new Terrain on it. ***This action can only be done once per turn.***
* Use a Command. Most Commands that are allowed to used in Main Step will have the **[Your Main Step]** timing, but there will always be special cases. You just have to read.
* Activate any other effects that are allowed to do so in this step.

Also, the turn player is allowed to perform either one of the following actions once per turn:

* Move a Character from the turn player's Field to the Energy Zone. In this case, the Character card in the Energy Zone is in the same state as before it was moved into it (e.g. If the Character is tapped, then when it's moved to the Energy Zone, it's also tapped in the Energy Zone). If the Character also has a Terrain under it, the Terrain also goes to the Energy Zone, in untapped state. ***This action is called "Retreat".***
* Summon a Character from the turn player's Energy Zone to the Field. The cost must be paid, and the Character summoned can't be part of the cost. When a Character is summoned through this way, it also follows the state it was in when it was in the Energy Zone (e.g. if the Character card is tapped in the Energy Zone, when it's summoned through this way, it's also tapped on the Field). ***This action is called "Reinforcement".***

### Attack Step

***The player starting the game does not have an Attack Step on their first turn.***

The turn player can attack with their Characters in this step.

When a Character attacks, the following procedure occurs:

1. Tap the Character. If there is a Character opposite it, a block also immediately happens.
2. Activate all effects on attack, such as effects with the timing **[When Attacks]**. If there is an opposing Character blocking, any effects with the timing **[When Blocks]** from it also activate. The turn player chooses the order of the effects to activate simultaneously.
3. **Retort timing** comes in, when the defending side can use one effect with the timing **[Retort]**, which is called a Retort effect. After that Retort effect resolves, the attacking player then can use one of his own Retort effects. After this, the defending side can use another one in response. This call-and-response process continues until neither side has any Retort effects to use.
	* Even if player A doesn't have Retort effects at all, player B can still use his. However, between each player B's Retort effect, player B must ask player A whether he has any in response.
4. After (3), if there is no Character opposite the attacking Character, the attack then goes at the opposing Avatar, in which damage is taken for each charm the attacking Character has. The offensive player chooses which card in the Life Charge to be revealed. The defensive player then reveals it. After both sides check the card, the defending player chooses whether to put the card on top or bottom of his deck.
	* If the revealed card has Distortion, the defending player can choose to activate it or not. If he does, then just follow what's said in the effect. If not, the card is also put either on top or bottom of the deck.
	* When a player is taking two or more damages at once, he reveals the cards one by one. For example, player A is taking two damages. he reveals one card first, check the effects on it, then either resolve them or put them to deck. After that, he reveals the second card, and does the same thing.
5. After (3), if there is a Character blocking, then CPs are compared. The battling Character with the lower CP is destroyed. If both battling Characters have the same CP, both of them are destroyed. When a Character is destroyed, it goes to the Energy Zone, untapped. If there's a Terrain under it, it also goes to the Energy Zone, untapped, and is also treated as destroyed in this case.
6. Battle ends, and the turn player can make another attack.

### End Step

The turn player declares the end of his turn.

## Advanced Rules

* Characters can't be moved between slots without by effects.
* If a Character's CP reaches 0, it's destroyed.
* Turn player chooses which effect among ones of the same timing to activate first.
* Besides Retreat, whenever a card is sent to the Energy Zone, it's always untapped, no matter what state it was in beforehand. Obviously, this rule can be changed by effects, such as "Send this Character to the Energy Zone, tapped".