Gameplay Phases
Everyone draws 7 to open the Battle. On the first Battle only, you may mulligan once — shuffle back and redraw 7. There is no draw between the two skirmishes.
The front row plays out in three phases, in order:
Going in turn order from the active player, each player may play their one Celestial, or pass. Optional — declining costs nothing, and a Celestial can’t be responded to.
Everyone places units face-down at the same time, hidden — as few or as many as you like, one per Location. Placement locks when everyone confirms.
Reveal one unit at a time in Location order (1 → 4), active player first. No unit at a Location? You pass. Finish a Location before moving on — and never go back.
- Flipping a card face up deploys it — but its ability is pending. It doesn’t fire yet.
- A response window opens: opponents may answer at Lightspeed — one each — until everyone passes. Responses resolve newest-first.
- State check: if the unit is still here and not muted, its pending ability resolves. If a response destroyed or muted it first, the ability is gone.
The same three phases — Celestial → Placement → Deployment (reveal 5 → 7) — played from the cards left in your hand. Your Forward Skirmish units stay on the board, and the two skirmishes can affect each other.
Once the Rear Skirmish is fully revealed, two things resolve — in order:
Any Black Energy Fragments held in hand go up to the Upload Zone.
“At the End of Battle” abilities resolve, lowest Location first:
Count the Total CQ of all your face-up units across the Battle Zone — Locations 1–7 and the Extra Locations — and add it to your Conquest Pool. A Plagued unit counts as −1, whatever its printed CQ.
Every unit in the battle zone — Locations 1–7 and the Extra Locations — goes to its owner’s discard pile. Celestials and uploaded cards stay (they’re outside the battle zone), and your hand carries over. This isn’t destruction — no “when destroyed” abilities fire. Then the next Battle begins.
No target score — it’s a race for the most Conquest. A tie is broken by Match the Twos.
Every number here is a default. A card’s text can change it — even the number of Battles.
