Rules

Game Overview

Welcome to Casters, an immersive fantasy Trading Card Game where two players engage in strategic combat. Victory is achieved through masterful summoning of minions, tactical spell casting, and skillful prediction of your opponent's moves.

Card Structure

Level: Indicates the card's strength.

Cost: What is required to cast or play the card.

Effect: Card's special abilities.

Attack/Health: Combat stats for Minions.

Class: Is defined by the color of the card.

Card Types

Minion

Summons a minion with Attack and Health stats and a unique effect.

Spell

Unleashes powerful one-time effects and is moved to the Graveyard (GY) after use.

Stage

Represents your hero's health (each equals 5 health) and limits the number of cards you can set.

Game Board

The game board has these zones for each player:

Main Deck: Your 30-card deck (only Minions and Spells).

Stage Deck: A deck of 5 Stage cards, representing 25 total health.

Graveyard (GY) (GY): Where discarded and destroyed cards go.

Coin: Determines initiative - first player gets 1 coin.

Before the Game

Prior to starting, players must complete a few setup steps:

Decide Initiative: Flip a coin. The player with the first initiative gets one coin.
Shuffle & Reveal Stage Card: Each player shuffles their decks and reveals one card from their Stage deck, paying its cost.
Draw 5 Cards: Begin with 5 cards drawn from your Main deck.

Note: If you can't pay for a Stage card, keep revealing until you find one you can afford. Shuffle any other revealed cards back into your Stage deck.

Turn Cycle

Turns are shared between both players, meaning they draw, set, reveal cards, and attack on the same turn.

Draw Phase

At the start of the turn, each player draws one card from their Main deck and untaps all of their cards.

Set Phase

Each player sets a number of cards face-down equal to the total number of Stage cards on the board (including yours and opponent's). Both players can set their cards at the same time.

Reveal Phase

The player with initiative reveals one facedown card, then the other player reveals one facedown card. Players alternate revealing cards until all facedown cards have been revealed. On reveal, player chooses one of two options:

Option 1: Play the revealed card by paying its cost.

Option 2: Send the card to your Graveyard (GY) and draw 2 new cards.

Important: When multiple cards activate simultaneously, the player with first initiative resolves all effects first, followed by the second player.

Note: If a card is activated while another has "When a card activates...", it may trigger in response on the stack regardless of initiative. When no abilities are activated, the stack resolves in last-to-first order.

Battle Phase

The player with initiative may choose to attack with only one of their untapped minions or skip the attack.

If the player chooses to attack with a minion, they can tap it to choose one of the following options:

Attack your opponent's Hero (by targeting their Stage deck). The opponent may tap any of their untapped minions to block (they choose the order).
Attack an opponent's tapped minion.

Next, the other player can attack in the same way. If both players skip, the Battle Phase ends.

Important: Damage dealt to minions and Stages is restored at the end of turn. (Stage cards do not return back to the deck)

Note: Players can attack with minions the same turn they summoned them.

Note: Players who skip their attack can still attack after their opponent attacks.

Note: When attacking a Hero, excess damage beyond blocking minions' health is dealt to the Hero. When attacking a minion, excess damage is not transferred to the Hero.

End of Turn

At the end of the turn, the player with initiative passes the coin to the opponent to change the initiative, and the turn ends.

Win Condition

The game is won when the other player loses all their Stage cards.

Keyword Explanations

Sacrifice: Send a card from your field to your Graveyard (GY) to pay a cost or trigger an effect.

Discard: Send a card from your hand to your Graveyard (GY).

Passive: A spell with Passive remains on the field and cannot be destroyed by minion attacks, only by sacrifice and destroy effects.

Search: Search your deck for a specific card, reveal it, and add it to your hand.

Negate: Cancel or nullify another card's effect.

Death: When a minion is sent from the field to the Graveyard (GY).

Shield: A card from the top of your deck is placed face-down under another card. When the minion would take damage, this shield is removed and returned to the top of your deck.

Equip: Attach a card to a minion to apply the effects. When equipping a minion, both stats and effects are enhanced; with spells, only the "Equip:" effect applies.

Double Strike: The first time a minion attacks, it untaps, allowing for a potential second attack.