Skybound: Battle

Key Information:

Each player draws 5 Cards at the start of the game.

There are 5 columns, a frontline and a back line

There are 4 colours of cards.

Each deck can feature a total cost of 30, 20 total cards and two colours of cards

Deck Construction:

Each player needs to construct a deck of 20 cards with a maximum total cost of 30 points and featuring no more than 2 colours.

If players want to agree to construct decks with different conditions, that is also OK.

There are 6 starter decks to choose from, but players are welcome to mix and match cards as they become familair with the cards.

Setup:

Each player places their deck in the deck zone, then draws 5 cards.

Players then decide which player starts with the first player token.

Understanding the Board:

In battle, is a 5 x 2 grid. The columns of this grid resolve in numerical order, starting with the row closer to the centre (the frontline) then moving to the row in the back (the backline)

Playing the Game:

Battle resolves over a number of rounds, which are made up of phases:

• Draw Phase (Draw 2)

• Deployment

• Reveal Deployed

• Resolve Battle

  • Activate

  • Attack

  • Damage

  • Defeat

  • Next Spot

• End of Round

Deployment:

Starting with the player that has the first player token, players alternate turns placing cards face down in one of the spaces on their side of the battle board.

After placing a card, it becomes the other player's turn to place a card.

At any time a player may "pass" deployment, after which they may not deploy any addition cards that round. The other player may then deploy any other characters they want to that round.

Once both players have passed or deployed all cards in their hand, the game progresses to the "Reveal Phase"

Revealing Deployed:

In board order, the face down cards are revealed. If a player reveals a character with a "Deployed" effect, pause and resolve that effect before proceeding.

Additionally, when a character is deployed, place MANA on them equal to the mana in under their cost.

When a deployed effect is revealed, only face up characters are valid to be targeted by effects.

Once all characters are face up, the game progresses to the battle phase.

Note: Spellcasters have 'Activated' Effects that can also be used on deploy, this is an optional effect

Note: If a character's deployed effect ends the round, un-revealed characters stay in their position.

Character Defeats

When a character has taken damage equal to or greater than their life, they are defeated and moved to the discard zone.

Trigger Resolution

If there would be a conflict from revealed cards, the player with the first player token resolves their effect before the other player.

Battle Phase:

In grid resolution order, go through the following stages:

1. Activation - Resolve any activted effects on the character in the grid position

2. Attack - An unexhausted character will attack, doing this exhausts them, when a ready character is attacked, they will attack back, this also exhausts them

   • When characters are both attacking one another, that is referred to as a clash.

3. Damage - Each character receives damage equal to the attack of the character that attacked them

4. Defeat - Each character that has taken more damage than their life is defeated

Then go to the next grid spot.

Once there are no more grid spots, the round ends and end of round abilities go.

Targeting:

Typically, a character will attack the opponent of theirs that is directly across from them, however there are times when there is no opponent directly across, so they target the closest character in a column, whenere there are two equally close opponents, the player who is making the attack chooses the target.

If a character would go to make an attack, and there are no characters on the opponent's board, then the that players wins the game.