About the Game

Welcome to the Ruler's Gambit TCG!

In this card game, you are fighting as a <Ruler> on another planet, Iridescent, wielding a deck of Units and Spells to defend your Kingdom from enemies.

There are three primary colours you can align with: Blue, Red, and Yellow. As of "Booster Set 4: World Augmentation", there are three more colours to choose from: Green, Orange, and Purple.

Blue: A slower and defensive colour, Blue uses stalling and stunning tactics to impact the opponent's plays, before going in with high costed units with high critical to finish them off.

Red: A fast and aggressive colour, Red focuses on cheap, powerful units to end the game quickly, utilising rush tactics to overwhelm the opponent.

Yellow: A consistent and balanced colour, Yellow is a midrange deck that doesn't tip towards either attack or defence, and focuses on amassing equally powerful units.

Green: A powerful glass cannon colour, Green focuses on blowing away the field to open up a path for direct attacks.

Orange: A tanky and powerful colour, Orange specialises in huge singular bosses that aren't easily defeated.

Purple: A tricky and underhanded colour, Purple controls the opponent through mind games and disrupting their strategies.

Now that you've chosen a colour you wish to align with, it's time to build your deck!

Deck Construction

Each deck must contain the following: 1 Kingdom-Ruler card and a main deck consisting of 39 cards. Altogether, you should have a 40 card deck. In a deck, you cannot run more than 2 copies of a single card, and can only use 1 Kingdom-Ruler card.

Win Conditions

In Ruler's Gambit, you can win in three ways:
1) Reducing your opponent's LP to 0
2) Having a card effect win you the game
3) Having 0 cards left in your deck

The Game Mat

(1) Kingdom Zone: Where you place your Kingdom-Ruler at the start of the fight. Any Kingdom cards in that zone cannot be removed from game or that zone. It is <Invincible> while in that zone.

(2) Unit Zone: Where you call your units to fight. You can have up to 3 units called in that zone.

(3) Recovery Zone: Where your units go after being defeated in battle. All units in this zone lose their stats. You can have as many units as you want in this zone.

(4) Spell Zone: Where you cast and set spells.

(5) Stock Zone: You may store your units in this zone to open up space in your Unit Zone. Units in this zone may be moved back to the Unit Zone is space is open. Units can move freely between the Stock Zone and Unit Zone. You can have as many units as you want in this zone.

(6) Deck Zone: Where you place your deck.

(7) Graveyard: Where you place cards after they are used or are destroyed.

(8) Mana Zone: Where you keep track of your mana. You cannot have more than 12 unused mana.

(9) Dimension Zone: Where sealed cards are sent.

Game Cards

Unit cards: These are the cards you'll be calling to attack for you.

(1) Name

(2) Race/Colour

(3) COST: How much you have to pay to call a unit. If a unit has no COST, it is free to play.

(4) Ability: The special effect(s) that this card has. If the conditions are met and/or the COST is paid, you can activate it's Ability.

(5) Stats: All units have an attack (A), defence (D), and critical (C) stat.

(6) Set Number/Rarity

Spell cards: These are the cards you'll be casting to support you.

There are four types of spell:
(1) Normal: Regular spell that can only be cast during your turn and is sent to the GY after.
(2) Set: You set this spell in the Spell Zone and must [Rest] in addition to the COST to activate the effect.
(3) Quick-Play: You can cast this spell either on your or your opponent's turn and is sent to the GY after. Shortened to QP.
(4) Equip: You equip these spells to one of your units, and they gain the effect and stats of it. You can only equip up to 4 spells to a unit at a time.

(1) Name

(2) Type/Colour: This is a normal spell.

(3) COST: How much you have to pay to cast a spell. If a spell has no COST, it is free to play.

(4) Effect: What the card does once the conditions are met and/or the COST is paid.

(5) Set Number/Rarity

Kingdom-Ruler cards: The heart and soul of your deck. It is a special double-sided card with the Kingdom on one side and the Ruler (which represents you!) on the other. The Kingdom card dictates what colour you can put in your deck.

(1) Name

(2) Colour

(3) Awakening COST

(4) Effect

(5) LP: This is the Kingdom's total durability and acts as your life points in the game.

(6) Set Number/Rarity

When your LP drops to 5 and below, you can perform an <Awakening>! Pay the Awakening COST on your Kingdom and flip the card over to reveal your Ruler side!

(1) Name

(2) Race/Colour

(3) Ability: The special effect(s) that this card has. If the conditions are met and/or the COST is paid, you can activate it's Ability.

(4) Passive: This ability allows the Ruler to inherit the effect of their Kingdom, meaning you can still use your Kingdom's effect even when your Ruler is awakened.

(5) LP: This is the Kingdom's durability and acts as your life points in the game.

(6) Stats: All units have an attack (A), defence (D), and critical (C) stat.

(7) Set Number/Rarity

Rulers are special cards that can change the tide of the game the moment they're awakened. They inherit the LP of the Kingdom and are called in the Kingdom Zone, where they grant a passive effect.

However, you can instead send them out to the Unit Zone to fight alongside your units and transfer their LP temporarily to you, the player. When a Ruler is destroyed, they are immediately flipped back to being a Kingdom and move back to the Kingdom Zone, where they regain their LP.

How to Play

Before the game:
(1) Set your Kingdom-Ruler card and shuffle your deck.
(2) Draw five cards from the top of your deck. This is your starting hand.
(3) You may perform a mulligan. Choose any cards you don't want, put them to the bottom of your deck, and draw the same amount of cards you put back. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
(4) Use dice or counters to represent how much mana you have. You start the game with 2 mana already in your Mana Zone.
(5) Decide using a coin flip who goes first and second.

During the game:
There are seven phases during your turn:
(1) Stand Phase
(2) Draw Phase
(3) Charge Phase
(4) Recovery Phase
(5) Main Phase
(6) Battle Phase
(7) End Phase

This is the basic flow of your turn.

(1) Stand Phase: Stand all of your rested units and set spells.

(2) Draw Phase: Draw the top card of your deck. The player going first skips their Draw Phase.

(3) Charge Phase: You may add 1 mana to your Mana Zone.

(4) Recovery Phase: Choose one unit in your Recovery Zone to return to your hand. If there are any other units in the Recovery Zone, kill all of them.

(5) Main Phase: Where most of your actions happen. You can normal call a unit once and cast up to three spells during your turn. You can superior call as much as you like. You can also activate abilities and move units between the Unit and Stock Zone here.

(6) Battle Phase: Where you battle your opponent. The player going first cannot attack for that turn.

(7) End your turn, and pass it over to your opponent!

Battles

During the Battle Phase, you may have your units launch an attack at either your opponent's units in the Unit Zone or Recovery Zone, or if your opponent has no units in their Unit Zone, directly at their Kingdom!

To attack with a unit, [Rest] it and choose a target to battle with!

If your unit attacks a unit in the Unit Zone: Compare the A (attack) with the D (defence) of the defending unit.
● If the A is higher: Injure the defending unit. (Send it to the Recovery Zone)
● If the D is higher: Injure the attacking unit. (Send it to the Recovery Zone)
● If the A and D are the same: Injure both units. (Send both to the Recovery Zone)

You can attack a unit in the Recovery Zone even if there are units in the Unit Zone.
If your unit attacks a unit in the Recovery Zone:
● If that unit has no stats, kill it and send it to the GY.
If that unit does have stats due to <Retain>:
● If the A is higher: Kill the defending unit. (Send it to the Graveyard)
● If the D is higher: Injure the attacking unit. (Send it to the Recovery Zone)
● If the A and D are the same: Injure the attacking unit and kill the defending unit. (Send the attacking unit to the Recovery Zone and send the defending unit to the Graveyard)

You can only attack your opponent's Kingdom directly if they have no units in their Unit Zone.
If your unit attacks a Kingdom: Deal damage to their LP equal to the number of C (critical) they have.

Other Rules

Chains: When a card is activated, there is an opportunity to chain effects.
If all the effects activated in the chain are from the same player, that player may resolve the effects of that chain in whatever order they wish.
If the effects activated in the chain involve both players, the effects are resolved backwards, with the last card entering the chain being the first to resolve.

There is a specific distinction in how a unit is moved to the GY:
● If a unit is <destroyed>, then it is sent to the GY by any means.
● If a unit <dies>, then it is sent to the GY due to being destroyed in battle; either from a unit killing it while it was in the Recovery Zone or during the Recovery Phase where it was discarded.

There are a lot of keywords in Ruler's Gambit. Here is a glossary of them all currently and their effects:
● Double Attack: This unit can perform up to two attacks during the BP.
● Triple Attack: This unit can perform up to three attacks during the BP.
● Retain: This unit keeps it's stats while in the RZ.
● Levitate: Only units with <Levitate> or <Overthrow> can attack this unit.
● Overthrow: This unit can attack a <Levitate> unit. Any unit can attack this unit.
● Trample: When this unit kills another unit, your opponent takes damage equal to this unit's C.
● Lifelink: When this unit is destroyed, you take damage equal to it's C.
● First Strike: This unit can attack on the first turn.
● Counterattack: When this unit is attacked, it also attacks the battling unit.
● Seal: Send that unit to DZ.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

That's all, Fox out!