How to Play

Each player starts with 30 Life. Reduce the opposing player's Life to 0 to win.

Each player starts with:

Shuffle the rest of your cards into a deck. Determine the first player randomly.

Mana determines which cards you can play. Facets determine how those cards can be modified.

Every card in your hand can be used in one of three ways:

You may harvest one card per turn and Shatter one card per turn.

Once per turn, on your turn, you may Shatter one card from your hand:

Shattered cards are gone for good. They cannot return to hand, enter play, become Facets, or be recovered from the Graveyard.

Facets are colored gems Harvested from cards. They customize creatures and Weapons, change Enchantments, and pay for extra Spell abilities on the opponent's turn. Once per turn, on your turn, you may Harvest one card from your hand

If you already have 5 Facets, you may still harvest by replacing one existing Facet:

You still harvest only one card per turn.

Permanents that stay on the battlefield.

Base Ability: Matches the creature's color. Requires no Facet.

Facet Abilities: Four additional abilities, generally other colors. Each can be added as an enhancement by spending 1 Facet of its associated color.

Enhancements are paid after the creature resolves, while it enters the battlefield — not when you first pay Mana, and not after it is already in play.

You may enhance several Facet abilities, subject to the Facets you have available and the 5 Facet maximum.

Creatures enter ready, but cannot attack the turn they are played unless an ability allows it. Exhausted creatures cannot block.

Ready / Exhausted = can this creature block or use exhaust abilities? Newly played = can this creature attack this turn?

Temporary effects. After a Spell resolves, it goes to the Graveyard unless a card says otherwise.

Every Spell has five abilities, each a different Facet color.

You can only cast a Spell when you have priority.

On your turn:

On an opponent's turn (you must have priority):

Pay the Spell's Mana Cost regardless of how many abilities you select.

Permanents that create ongoing board-state effects (your field, the opponent's field, creatures, players, resources, or rules).

Each Enchantment has five abilities, one per color. Only one is active at a time.

Permanents attached to you, not to a creature. Can only be played on yourself.

Armor is a pool on the player, not creature Defense.

Attacking with a Weapon (Main Phases only, once per turn unless a card says otherwise):

The current player has priority. The opponent cannot play spells unless they have priority.

Whenever the current player initiates an action, priority is passed to the opponent. This includes:

The action does not complete, and the phase does not change, until the opponent has received priority and passed.

If the opponent plays a spell, that also passes priority back.

After both players pass, the action completes and priority returns to the current player.

Playing a spell uses priority. Triggered abilities do not. See Triggered Abilities below. Full examples are in Core Rulebook Section 17.1.

Examples:

A triggered ability is text that starts with When, Whenever, or At. You do not play it. It happens because something just happened (you drew, a creature died, you Scry, and so on).

Triggers are not spells. They do not pass priority. No one may play a spell until the current chain of triggers has finished.

Once per chain. Each line of text on a card may fire only once in the same chain. That is what stops two cards from looping forever (draw → Scry → draw → Scry …).

How it runs, in short:

Two copies of the same card are two separate lines. A Base Ability and a Facet Ability on the same card are two separate lines. Optional “you may” choices stay in the same chain.

This applies to all triggered abilities, not replacement effects (“if you would … instead”).

For a more in depth explaination with examples, see Core Rulebook Section 17.1.

Beginning → Main Phase → Combat → Second Main Phase → End

You may, in any order:

Playing a creature, playing a weapon, attacking with a weapon, casting a spell, or changing phases passes priority to your opponent.

1. Declare Attackers Choose which eligible creatures attack the opposing player. Newly played creatures cannot attack unless an ability allows it. Declaring attackers passes priority to the defender.

2. Declare Blockers The defender may block each attacker with one creature, multiple creatures, or none. Exhausted creatures cannot block. After blockers are declared, the attacking player has priority first.

3. Combat Priority Players may play spells and abilities before damage. Same priority rules as the rest of the game. Damage is not dealt until both players pass.

This is the combat-trick window. The attacker can respond after seeing blockers.

4. Combat Damage (simultaneous)

Example: A 7/7 is blocked by a 3/3 and a 4/4. You may assign 3 and 4 (both die) or 7 and 0 (only the 3/3 dies). The 7/7 takes 7 damage back.

Same actions as the first Main Phase, if you have not already harvested or Shattered this turn.

End-of-turn effects resolve. Temporary “until end of turn” effects expire. Turn passes to the next player. All damage is removed; each creature’s Defense returns to its maximum (printed Defense plus counters). Temporary Facets from Spells are lost. Turn passes to the next player.