Rules of the Game - How To Play

You are a King, trying to defend your Territory from opposing forces. To do this, you have gathered warriors from different lands and worlds to fight for you. The Champions.

The goal of the game is simple. You must reduce your opponent’s Life to 0 through a Territory Battle.

## **Setup**

* Each player must have exactly 50 cards in their deck and 1 **Territory** card.
* Each player cannot have more than 4 of a card sharing the same name in their deck.
* Each player starts off with **30 Life** and with 5 cards in their hand.
* Each player must place their Territory within the Territory Zone facedown at the start of the game.
* Once before the game starts, either player may choose to shuffle any number of cards from their hand into their deck and draw the same amount of cards shuffled.
* The player going first can be chosen by Rock-Paper-Scissors, coin flip, dice roll, ect.

## **Identify Your Cards**

There are 4 different types of cards in this game. You have your Champion cards, Relic cards, your Sorcery cards and your Territory card.

* **Name:** This is your card’s Name. The name of a card is positioned in the title bar at the top of the card.
* **Rank:** This is your card’s Rank. The rank of a card is positioned in the top left of the card. The rank of a card also indicates the Cost of the card. Ranks number from 0 to 4+ (Cards of a Rank of 5 or higher are rare, with most cards holding Ranks of 4 or lower).
* **Type:** This is your card’s Type. The type of a card is printed below the illustration. Certain skills require a certain *type* of champion. Certain Territory cards have the *Assault Territory* type, making them both champions and territories. Relic cards and Sorcery cards will always have the *Relic* and *Sorcery* types.
* **Class:** This is your card's Class. The Class of a card is printed below the illustration to the right of the card type.
* **Text Box:** This is your card’s text box. This is where a card's skills appear. You may also find flavour text printed on the card for some special flair!
* **Attack:** This is your Champion’s Attack. A champion's attack is how much damage it deals in combat.
* **Defense:** This is your Champion’s Defense. A champion's defense is how much damage must be dealt to it in a single turn to destroy it.

This is a Champion Card. These cards will usually be the main cards in your deck.This is a Relic Card. These cards are item cards that can help boost your playstyles.This is a Sorcery Card. These cards are your spell cards that you can activate to possibly turn the tides in a battle.This is a Territory Card. This card is the representation of the land you fight for, as well as a card that carries special skills to complete your playstyle.
## **Deck Balancing**

With a 50 card limit for a deck, and hundreds of cards to choose from, it may be difficult to decide how much of certain ranks you should have in your deck. Below is a standard deck setup when it comes to building your deck. But feel free to modify it to your specific liking!

* Rank 0 - 16 Cards
* Rank 1 - 14 Cards
* Rank 2 - 12 Cards
* Rank 3 - 4 Cards
* Rank 4+ - 4 Cards

## **Identify Your Field**

This is the battlefield in which you have your Territory Battles. You deploy your champions, cast your skills, and defend your Territory...or fall trying.

* **Play Zone/Field:** These are the 6 zones in the center of the field in which champions are placed on the field. This is your main zone, where you deploy your champions/relics and play your cards.
* **Graveyard Zone/GY:** This is your Graveyard, where you send cards that have been destroyed, discarded, or sacrificed.
* **Deck Zone:** This is where you place the 50 cards that make up your deck. **Soul Zone:** This is where you place your cards to become Souls, allowing you to pay the cost for your cards.
* **Territory Zone:** This is where you place your Territory, the card representing the land you defend.
* **Banish Zone:** This is your Banish Zone. Cards that are banished go here.
* **Token Zone:** Certain decks require tokens to be used. Any tokens you may need go here.

## **Phases**

Throughout the course of a Battle, each player's turn is comprised of 5 phases. These 5 phases continually cycle, alternating between players until the Battle ends. Strictly speaking, you must declare when you are entering or leaving a phase, and a phase can only be left if both players agree.

1. **Draw Phase** - The Draw Phase is the first phase of every turn, in which the turn player conducts their normal draw to draw 1 card from the top of their Deck.
2. **Strategic Phase** - The Strategic Phase happens immediately after the Draw Phase. Nothing is required of either player during this Phase unless a card mentions it. Any action that states "at the start of your turn", is done during this phase. The turn player gets to decide the order to apply their skills that apply or activate at this time.
3. **Action Phase** - The Action Phase is conducted after the Strategic Phase. This phase is where the turn player performs most of their skills and deployments. After the Action Phase has ended, the turn player may choose to enter the Combat Phase. If they choose not to, the player automatically proceeds to the End Phase. During the Action Phase, the player may:
	* Place a card from their hand to their Soul Zone. *(Soul Charge)* Only 1 card can be placed in your Soul Zone from your hand per turn. (unless a card skill states otherwise)
	* Deploy champions to their field.
	* Activate skills.
4. **Combat Phase** - The Combat Phase is the Phase in which battles are conducted. A Combat Phase can be conducted every turn after the turn player ends their Action Phase. The Combat Phase is separated into 4 steps.
	* *Start Step* - The turn player declares that they are entering the Combat Phase.
	* *Battle Step* - This happens each time you declare an attack with a champion. Skills that state *when this card attacks* as well as any *Strike* or *Clash* keyword skills take effect at this time. If an enemy champion has a *Sentinel* skill, they take effect at this time as long as they are the target of attack. During the Battle Step, the turn player can declare an attack by choosing 1 champion they control to attack with, and a valid attack target: their opponent or a champion their opponent controls. If the opponent controls a champion with the *Shield* keyword, the turn player cannot declare an attack against the opponent unless a card skill allows them to do so.
	* *Damage Step* - The Damage Step is the step that happens immediately after the Battle Step. At this point, the damage is calculated between the attacking champion and their target. During an attack, the attacking champion and the target both deal damage to eachother equal to their Attack Stat. The damage is then taken out of their Defense Stat.
	* *End Step* - The End Step is the last step in the Combat Phase. It is also commonly referred to in card skills as *"at the end of the Combat Phase"*.
5. **End Phase** - The End Phase is the final phase of the turn. It occurs after the Combat Phase (or Action Phase if no Combat Phase was conducted) has been completed. Any action that states "at the end of your turn", is done during this phase. The turn player gets to decide the order to apply their skills that apply or activate at this time. When this phase is over, any champions still on the field that were damaged from skills or attacks reset or regenerate their Defense Stat back to what it was before being damaged. (If there is a +X/+X or -X/-X buff/debuff skill, apply them accordingly)

## **Deployment & Exhaustion**

In order to attack your opponent, you need champions on your side of the field. You may have a maximum of 6 champions deployed to your field. When champions are deployed to your field, they are in a state of *Exhaustion*. This happens regardless if they are deployed from your hand, GY, deck, Banish Zone, or Soul Zone. Champions that are Exhausted are unable to attack, however they are able to activate skills that do not require an attack. Exhaustion lasts until the start of your next turn.

## **The Soul Zone**

In order to deploy champions to your side of the field, you must pay the cost for them. These require **Souls.** The cost is equal to the champion’s Rank. Once per turn during your *Action Phase*, you may place a card from your hand into the *Soul Zone* face-up to gain a **Soul.** Each Soul counts for 1 towards the cost of the card you deploy. You use them to pay the cost by tapping. You may only have up to 6 cards in your Soul Zone. Souls are refreshed (untapped) at the start of your turn. Champions in the Soul Zone are no longer considered Champions. They are Souls and their skills do not activate while in the Soul Zone. Only *Dual-Soul* & *Soul-Link* skills are active in the Soul Zone.

## **Attacking**

When attacking, you may choose to attack either one of your opponent’s Champions, or your opponent directly. When attacking a champion, they both deal damage to each other equal to their Attack. The damage is then taken out on their Defense. If a Champion's Defense reaches 0, they are destroyed and sent to the graveyard. At the end of your turn, champions regenerate their damaged Defense if they are not destroyed.

## **Territory**

This is the card that represents the Territory you control! Territory cards can be game-changing with their effects, as they can only be activated with a specific condition. Territory Cards start facedown in the Territory Zone, and when the condition on the card is achieved, you may Raise the Territory during your Action Phase. **Territory Arise.**

Territories then stay face up till the end of the game, their skills staying active depending on the territory.