Keyforge Mobile Friendly Rules

VERSION 14 - DECEMBER, 2020

• Introduction
• Rules
• Glossary
• Errata
• FAQ
• Link to the Rules-PDF
• Look up deck rating

Introduction

WELCOME TO THE CRUCIBLE…

You are an Archon. Hailed by some as a god, respected by others for your wisdom, you were born — or perhaps created — on the Crucible, a world in which anything is possible.

The Crucible is ancient, but ever renewed. An artificial planet hanging in the center of the universe, the Crucible’s many layers remain constantly under construction by the enigmatic and mischievous Architects. For raw materials, the Architects have harvested countless worlds, blending them into a new whole both familiar and alien to the creatures that dwell there. Whether lone specimens or entire cultures, the beings brought to the Crucible find themselves in a strange wonderland with no obvious means of returning to their former homes. Some thrive, building new societies and developing new technologies with the aid of the mysterious psychic substance known as Æmber. Some discard the trappings of their old lives, adopting the ways and customs of new tribes discovered in this new world. Others devolve, bodies and minds twisted beyond all recognition, incorporating Æmber into their very bodies.

As an Archon, you have gathered followers in your journeys throughout the Crucible, allies who find value in your ageless wisdom and your ability to speak to all creatures. With the aid of these allies, you seek out Vaults hidden throughout the Crucible by the cryptic Architects. Each Vault can only be unlocked by Æmber-forged keys. Once open, a Vault’s contents — the power and knowledge of the Architects — can be consumed by only a single Archon.

When two Archons discover a Vault, only one can gain its knowledge. Only one can move one step closer to the secret of the Crucible…

OVERVIEW

KeyForge is a two-player card game in which each player takes the role of an Archon, and leads that Archon’s deck against their opponent.

A player’s deck represents a team that is attempting to gain Æmber and forge keys. The first player to gather three keys is able to unlock a Vault and win the game.

The defining feature of KeyForge is that no two decks are alike. This is not a trading card game — you cannot craft a deck. Rather, each deck must remain as it is. Every deck in existence is unique!

USING THIS DOCUMENT

If you have never played a game of KeyForge before, start by using the Quickstart document included in the starter set to learn the basics of the game.

After playing a game using the Quickstart, players can read the full rules in this document and learn more about the KeyForge setting.

In addition to rules and setting information, this document includes a Glossary of important game concepts and terminology that will be useful while interpreting card abilities.

RULES

KEY CONCEPTS

This section introduces a number of foundational concepts to keep in mind while playing the game.

THE GOLDEN RULE

If the text of a card directly contradicts the text of the rules, the text of the card takes precedence.

OBJECTIVE

During the game, players use their cards to collect Æmber. Players use Æmber to forge keys. The game ends immediately when a player forges their third key, and that player wins the game.

READY AND EXHAUSTED

Cards that are in play exist in one of two states.

Ready cards are oriented upright so that their text may be read from left to right. A ready card can be used during a player’s turn, causing it to exhaust.

Exhausted cards are rotated 90 degrees to the side. An exhausted card is not able to be used until it is readied by a game step or card ability.

All creatures and artifacts enter play exhausted.

RUNNING OUT OF TOKENS OR STATUS CARDS

There is no limit to the number of damage tokens, Æmber tokens, or status cards that can be in the game area at a given time. If there is a shortage of the provided tokens or status cards, other tokens, counters, or coins may be used to track the game state.

GAME SETUP

To set up the game, perform the following steps, in order:

1. Place all damage tokens, Æmber tokens, and status cards in a common supply within easy reach of both players.
2. Each player places their identity card to the left or right side of their play area.
3. Each player places three key tokens, one of each color, with the unforged side faceup near their identity card.
4. Randomly determine who is the first player. That player takes the first turn when the game begins. (If players are playing a series of games between two decks, in each game after the first, the player who used the deck that was defeated in the previous game chooses who is the first player.)
5. Each player shuffles their deck and offers it to the opponent for additional shuffling and/or a final cut.
6. The first player draws a starting hand of seven cards. The other player draws a starting hand of six cards.
7. Each player, starting with the first player, has one opportunity to mulligan their starting hand by shuffling it back into their deck and drawing a new starting hand with one fewer card in it. (This step is skipped in the Quickstart game.)

The game is now ready to begin.

TURN SEQUENCE

The game is played over a series of turns. Players alternate taking turns until one player wins the game.

Each turn consists of five steps:

1. Forge a key.
2. Choose a house.
3. Play, discard, and use cards of the chosen house.
4. Ready cards.
5. Draw cards.

The player taking a turn is referred to as the active player. The active player is the only player that can perform actions or make decisions; a player does not make any decisions when it is not their turn.

Each step is described in the following sections.

STEP 1: FORGE A KEY

If the active player has enough Æmber to forge a key during this step, they must do so. To forge a key, the active player spends Æmber from the Æmber pool on their identity card, returning it to the common supply. Then, that player flips any one of their key tokens over to its forged side, indicating that the key has been forged.

• The default cost to forge a key is six Æmber. Some card abilities may increase or decrease this number.
• No more than one key can be forged during this step each turn, even if the active player has enough Æmber to forge multiple keys.
• Some cards have effects that allow Æmber on these cards to be spent when forging keys. If there is enough Æmber on cards with this

STEP 2: CHOOSE A HOUSE

Each KeyForge deck is composed of three different houses, which are shown on the identity card. During this step, the active player chooses one of the houses on their identity card to activate, making it the active house for the remainder of the turn. This active house determines which cards the active player can play, discard from their hand, and use this turn.

• After choosing a house, the active player has the option to take all cards in their archives and add them to their hand. (See “Archives” in the Glossary.)
• If a player controls a card that does not belong to one of the three houses on their identity card, they may (if they desire) choose and activate that house during this step instead of one of the three houses in their deck.
• A player cannot choose to activate a house unless it is either on their identity card or they control a card that belongs to that house. If a card effect instructs a player that they must activate a house other than one in the aforementioned categories, that card effect is ignored (See Cannot VS Must/May.)

STEP 3: PLAY, DISCARD, AND USE CARDS OF THE CHOSEN HOUSE

The active player may play or discard any number of cards of the active house from their hand and may use any number of cards of the active house that are in play under their control. Eligible cards may be played, used, or discarded in any order.

A card’s house is determined by an icon in the upper-left corner. If the active house corresponds to a card’s icon, that card is eligible to be played, used, or discarded.

Rules for playing, discarding, and using cards are described later.

• First Turn Rule: During the first player’s first turn of the game, that player cannot play or discard more than one card from their hand. Card effects can modify this rule.
• The active player may not play, use, or discard cards that aren’t of the active house unless specified by a card ability.

STEP 4: READY CARDS

The active player readies each of their exhausted cards.

STEP 5: DRAW CARDS

The active player draws cards from the top of their deck until they have six cards in their hand. After a player completes this step, their turn ends.

• If the active player has more than six cards in hand, they do not discard down to six.
• If a player needs to draw cards (during this step or at any other time) and cannot because their deck is empty, that player shuffles their discard pile to reset their deck, and then continues to draw (cards are drawn one at a time).
• When a player’s turn ends, if that player has enough Æmber in their pool to afford a key, the player announces “Check!” so that their opponent knows the forging of a key at the start of that player’s next turn is imminent.

PLAYING CARDS

The active player is permitted to play any number of cards that belong to the active house during step three of their turn

ÆMBER BONUS

Many cards in the game have an Æmber bonus below the house icon. When a card with an Æmber bonus is played, the first thing the active player does is gain that much Æmber. Each time a player gains Æmber (for any reason), the Æmber is placed in that player’s Æmber pool (on their identity card).

PLAY ABILITIES

Some cards have a bold “Play:” ability. Such abilities resolve after the card’s Æmber bonus is collected, if it has any, and after the card enters play.

CARD TYPES

There are four types of cards in the game: action cards, artifacts, creatures, and upgrades. There are different rules describing how each card type is played.

ACTION CARDS

When an action card is played, the active player resolves the card’s “Play:” ability and, after resolving as much of the ability as possible, places the card in their discard pile.

ARTIFACTS

Artifacts enter play exhausted and are placed in a row in front of the player but behind that player’s battleline, which is explained on the next page. Artifacts remain in play from turn to turn.

CREATURES

Creatures enter play exhausted and are placed in the front row of the active player’s play area. This row is referred to as the battleline. Creatures remain in play from turn to turn, and they each have power and armor values that they use to resolve fights, which are described later.

Each time a creature enters play, it must be placed on a flank — at the far left or the far right of its controller’s battleline. Each time a creature leaves play, shift the battleline inward to close the gap.

UPGRADES

Upgrades enter play attached to (i.e., partially overlapped by) a creature chosen by the player who controls the upgrade. Each upgrade remains in play from turn to turn and modifies the card to which it is attached.

• If the card to which an upgrade is attached leaves play or become a non-creature, the upgrade is discarded.
• If an upgrade cannot attach to a card in play, the upgrade cannot enter play.

DISCARDING CARDS

The active player can discard from their hand any number of cards from the active house during step three of their turn. Cards are discarded one at a time, at any point throughout this step. This lets players remove cards that they do not want to play from their hand, freeing up space to draw more cards at the end of the turn.

USING CARDS

The active player can use any number of cards from the active house that they have in play during step three of their turn. Depending on a card’s type, the active player is able to do different things when using that card

UPGRADES

An upgrade modifies the creature it is attached to and is not used independently of that creature.

USING ARTIFACTS

There are two types of abilities that enable a player to use an artifact: “Action:” abilities and “Omni:” abilities

• When a player uses an artifact, they exhaust the card and then resolve its abilities.
• A player can only use an “Action:” ability if it is on a card that belongs to the active house.
• A player can resolve an “Omni:” ability even if it is on a card that does not belong to the active house.
• Some artifacts require that they be sacrificed as part of the cost of using them. When an artifact is sacrificed, it is placed in its owner’s discard pile. A player must still exhaust such an artifact when using it.
• Artifacts cannot be used to reap or to fight.

USING CREATURES

When a player uses a creature, that player must exhaust the creature, and the player has the option to reap, fight, trigger the creature’s “Action:” ability, or trigger the creature’s “Omni:” ability. Any card effect that causes a creature to fight, reap, trigger its “Action:” ability, or to trigger it’s “Omni:” ability is causing that creature to be used.

REAP

Any ready creature of the active house may reap. When a creature is used to reap, the creature exhausts and its controller gains 1 Æmber for their Æmber pool. Then, all “Reap:” abilities the creature has, if it has any, resolve

FIGHT

Any ready creature of the active house may fight. When a creature is used to fight, the creature exhausts and its controller chooses one eligible creature controlled by the opponent to be fought. Each of the two creatures deals an amount of damage equal to its power (the value to the left of the card’s title) to the other creature. All of this damage is dealt simultaneously. After the fight resolves, if the creature that is being used to fight survives, all “Fight:” abilities the creature has, if it has any, resolve. A creature cannot fight if there are no enemy creatures to be fought.

A creature cannot fight if there is no enemy creature that can be chosen as the target of the attack.

ACTION

Any ready creature of the active house may trigger its “Action:” ability, if it has one. When a creature is used to trigger its “Action:” ability, the creature exhausts and that “Action:” ability resolves.

OMNI

Any ready creature may trigger its “Omni:” ability, if it has one, even if it does not belong to the active house. When a creature is used to trigger its “Omni:” ability, the creature exhausts and that “Omni:” ability resolves

DAMAGE AND ARMOR

When a creature is dealt damage, place an amount of damage tokens equal to the amount of damage dealt on the creature. If a creature has as much or more damage on it as it has power, the creature is destroyed and placed on top of its owner’s discard pile. If a creature has an armor value (to the right of the card’s title), the armor prevents that much incoming damage each turn. (For more details, see “Armor” in the Glossary.)

• When a creature leaves play, any Æmber on that creature is gained by the opponent. (See “Capture” in the Glossary.)

COMBAT EXAMPLE

CARD ABILITIES

Unless otherwise specified by the ability, the active player makes all decisions while resolving an ability.

For details on specific terminology that can be found in card ability text, see the Glossary.

RESOLVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

While resolving a card ability, resolve as much of the ability as can be resolved, and ignore any parts of the ability that cannot be resolved.

Example: Aaron plays the card Anger (COTA 001), that reads “Play: Ready and fight with a friendly creature.”, and chooses his friendly Snufflegator (COTA 358) to resolve the ability on. However, the Snufflegator is already ready, so Aaron ignores that part of the ability and just uses his friendly Snufflegator to fight.

RESOLVE ABILITIES IN THE ORDER THEY ARE WRITTEN

While resolving the text of a card ability, fulfill the instructions of that ability in the order the text is written. This may be modified by replacement effects, including replacement effects which appear later in the ability that is being resolved.

Example: Hyde (WC 167) has the text: “Reap: Draw a card. If you control Velum, draw 2 cards instead.” The later text applies a replacement effect for the earlier text, altering how it resolves.

However, all damage dealt by a card’s ability is dealt simultaneously regardless of where it appears in the ability’s text.

Example: Mighty Lance (CotA 221) has the text: “Play: Deal 3 to a creature and 3 to a neighbor of that creature.” That damage to both creatures is dealt simultaneously even though it appears twice in the ability’s text.

USING CARDS VIA OTHER CARD ABILITIES

If a card ability allows a player to play or use another card (or to fight or to reap with a card), the chosen card may belong to any house unless the ability specifically states otherwise.

• When using a card via a card ability, any other requirements of using the card (such as exhausting to reap, fight, or resolve its “Action:” ability) must be observed, or the card cannot be used.
• Players can only use cards they control, unless a card ability specifically states otherwise.

THE RULE OF SIX

Occasionally, a situation may emerge in which, through a combination of abilities, the same card may be played or used repeatedly during the same turn. A player cannot play and/or use the same card and/or other copies of that card (by title) more than six times during a given turn.

CONSTANT ABILITIES

If a card has an ability that does not have a boldfaced precursor, the ability is a constant ability that is active so long as the card remains in play and meets all conditions specified by the ability.

• Constant abilities on a card are active even while that card is exhausted.
• Applying the effects of a constant ability is not considered using a card and therefore does not cause the card to exhaust.

CHAINS

Chains represent supernatural bindings that are occasionally placed onto specific Archons by the Architects: sometimes in an effort to better challenge the Archon to grow and overcome greater adversity, and other times to penalize the Archon for breaking a rule or a piece of Crucible etiquette.

A player may gain chains through card abilities during a game. When a player gains chains, that player increases their chain tracker by the number of chains gained.

Each time (including during setup) a player with one or more chains would draw one or more cards to refill their hand, that player draws fewer cards (based on their current chain level, see below) and then sheds one chain by reducing their chain tracker by one.

The more chains a player has, the greater the card penalty becomes.

• Chains 1–6: draw 1 fewer card.
• Chains 7–12: draw 2 fewer cards.
• Chains 13–18: draw 3 fewer cards.
• Chains 19–24: draw 4 fewer cards.

Example: Tori has been assigned seven chains. During setup, Tori will draw two fewer cards and shed a chain. Then, the next six times Tori refills her hand, she will draw up to five cards and shed another chain. After all of her chains have been shed, Tori will draw to the standard hand size.

CHAIN HANDICAPS (OPTIONAL)

When playing a game between a weaker deck and a stronger deck, players may use chains as a means to handicap the stronger deck. Chains are used when players want a fair game between two known decks rather than a potentially unfair competition between decks that aren’t known. When playing with new decks, or competing in a tournament, players will not use this handicap.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ASSIGNING CHAINS

When the players have a sense that a particular deck is stronger than the opposing deck, start it with four chains. From then on, every time the chained deck wins three games in a row against that opposing deck, adjust the number of chains up by one, and if it loses three games in a row, adjust the number of chains down by one.

As a player plays more games with their collection, the number of chains assigned to a deck will fluctuate up and down based on the matchup and how well the deck has performed against the opposing deck.

CHAIN BIDDING

If players are reasonably familiar with two decks they can ignore the suggested number of chains, and instead bid a number of chains for the right to use a particular deck.

Example: Terry and Julie decide to play Mother Mahospot against Chancellor Fisher. Mother Mahospot is a deck that both players are very familiar with, feel is quite strong, and enjoy playing. Chancellor Fisher is a newer deck, that the players are not as comfortable playing. The above guidelines suggest they begin with four chains on Mother Mahospot. Julie looks at Fisher, considers a moment, and says, “I’ll play Mother Mahospot at five.” Terry raises to six. Julie goes to seven. Terry decides to let her play it at seven, and plays Chancellor Fisher.

WHAT’S NEXT

You are now familiar with the basic rules of the game. The next section of this book contains a Glossary of advanced concepts that can be referenced while playing or interpreting card abilities.

[…]

GLOSSARY

This Glossary includes a number of concepts and terms players may encounter while playing the game, in alphabetical order. Instead of reading this section from beginning to end, players are encouraged to only look up new concepts as they are encountered during play.

ABILITY, CARD ABILITY

An ability is the special game text a card contributes to the game.

Unless an ability explicitly references an out-of-play area (such as a hand, deck, archives, or discard pile), that ability can only interact with cards that are in play. Abilities that interact with a card after it is destroyed can interact with that card while it is in the discard pile.

Abilities on a creature, artifact, or upgrade are only active (and can only be triggered) while that card is in play, unless the ability explicitly references being used from an out-of-play area. Once an ability on a card has been triggered, that ability will finish resolving even if the card leaves play.

If resolving part of the instructions of a card ability causes other card effects to trigger, resolve those other card effects before continuing to resolve the instructions of the first card.

ACTION ABILITY

To use an “Action:” ability during their turn, the active player must exhaust the card. The ability then resolves.

ACTIVE HOUSE

The active house is the house that the active player has chosen for the current turn.

ACTIVE PLAYER

The active player is the player taking the current turn. Unless otherwise specified by the card’s ability, the active player makes all necessary decisions for all card abilities. Whenever multiple effects happen at the same timing point, the active player decides the order in which those effects resolve.

ADJACENT

When a creature card refers to a game element as being “adjacent” to that creature or being played “adjacent” to that creature, it is referring to a card being in or being played into the position to the immediate right or immediate left of that creature.

See also “Neighboring”

ÆMBER

Æmber is tracked by Æmber tokens, and is used to forge keys.

Only Æmber in your own Æmber pool is considered “yours” for the purpose of card effects.

See also: Capture, Keys, Reap, Steal.

ÆMBER BONUS ICON

See “Bonus Icons” on page 9.

ALPHA

When a card has the Alpha keyword, it can only be played if you haven’t played, used, or discarded any other cards during step 3 of your turn.

ANOMALY

This symbol indicates that a card is an anomaly card. An anomaly card is an extremely rare card that is a preview of possible future sets of KeyForge. An anomaly card may appear in any house, and is treated as belonging to that house for all game purposes.

ARCHIVES

A player’s archives is a facedown game area in front of that player’s identity card. Card abilities are the only means by which a player is permitted to add cards to their archives. During step 2 of a player’s turn, after they select an active house, the active player is permitted to pick up all cards in their archives and add those cards to their hand.

Cards in a player’s archives are considered out of play.

A player may look at their archives at any time. A player is not permitted to look at an opponent’s archives.

If the ability instructing a player to archive a card does not specify where the card is archived from, the archived card comes from that player’s hand. If an ability “puts” a card into a player’s archives, abilities that trigger when a card is archived will not trigger.

ARMOR

Some creatures have an armor value to the right of the card title. Armor prevents an amount of damage equal to the armor value that the creature would take each turn. Armor prevents damage before it is actually dealt. For example, if a creature has two armor and is dealt one damage, that damage is instead prevented by the armor, leaving the creature with one armor that can prevent damage left for the rest of the turn. If the creature is later dealt three more damage during that turn, one damage is prevented and the other two damage are dealt to that creature.

If a creature gains armor, the gains are additive and accumulate on top of the creature’s printed armor value.

If a creature gains armor during a turn, the gained armor does not prevent damage already dealt that turn. If a creature loses armor during a turn, it is not retroactively dealt damage that was already prevented by the armor.

If a creature loses any amount of armor, it loses armor that has been used to prevent damage this turn before it loses armor that has not been used to prevent damage this turn.

If a creature has a “~” symbol in its armor field, the creature has no armor. Such creatures may gain armor through card effects.

AS IF IT WERE YOURS/AS IF YOU CONTROLLED IT

If a card effect instructs you to use a card “as if it were yours” or “as if you controlled it,” it causes you to use the card even if you don’t control it. You never gain control of the card during this process, but you resolve the effect as if you controlled the card.

When using a card “as if it were yours/as if you controlled it” that instructs you to sacrifice the card as part of the effect, the card is still sacrificed as if you controlled it.

ASSAULT (X)

When a creature with the assault (X) keyword is used to fight, it deals damage equal to its assault value (i.e., “X”) to the creature it is fighting before the fight resolves. (The active player chooses whether this occurs before or after other “Before Fight” effects and keywords.) If this damage destroys the other creature, the rest of the fight does not occur.

If a creature with the assault (X) keyword gains another instance of the assault (X) keyword, the two X values are added together.

ATTACK, ATTACKER, ATTACKING

See “Fight” on page 10.

BATTLELINE

The battleline is the ordered line of creatures a player controls in play. See “Creatures” on page 6.

BEFORE

If the word “before” is used in an ability (for example, “Before Reap:” or “Before Fight:”), that ability resolves before resolving the game effect of the reap or fight (but after the card exhausts, if exhausting is required to use the card).

BONUS ICONS

Many cards have one or more bonus icons in the upper-left corner, below the house icon. After a card with a bonus icon is played, the first thing the active player does is resolve each bonus icon on that card. These icons are resolved after the card enters play (if it is an artifact, creature, or upgrade), but before resolving any “Play:” abilities on that card or any abilities that trigger “after” that card is played.

Bonus icons must be resolved in the order printed on the card, from top to bottom. Resolving each bonus icon is mandatory. There are four types of bonus icons:

Æmber ( ): Gain 1 Æmber.

Capture ( ): A friendly creature captures 1 Æmber from the opponent. This Æmber may be captured by any friendly creature, including the creature with the capture icon. If a card has multiple capture icons, the captured Æmber may be distributed among multiple creatures.

Damage ( ): Deal 1 damage to a creature in play. This damage may be dealt to the creature with the damage icon. Note that if there are no enemy creatures in play, this damage must be dealt to a friendly creature. If a card has multiple damage icons, each damage icon is resolved separately, one at a time, and the damage may be distributed among multiple creatures. Damage dealt by a bonus icon is not considered to be dealt by the card on which the icon appears.

Draw ( ): Draw 1 card

CANNOT VS MUST/MAY, CANNOT VS PERMISSIVE

If two card effects are simultaneously instructing a player that they “cannot” do something and that they “must” or “may” do the same thing, the “cannot” effect takes precedence.

Example: Anna controls a Pitlord (COTA 093) which reads “While Pitlord is in play you must choose Dis as your active house.” On their next turn Anna’s opponent plays Restringuntus (COTA 094) which reads “Play: Choose a house. Your opponent cannot choose that house as their active house until Restringuntus leaves play.” and chooses Dis for its ability. On Anna’s next turn, she both must and cannot choose Dis, but because cannot takes precedence over must, she only cannot choose Dis and must choose one of her other houses instead.

If two card effects are simultaneously instructing a player that they cannot do something and that they may do something, the “cannot” effect takes precedence.

CAPTURE

Captured Æmber is taken from an opponent’s Æmber pool and placed on a creature controlled by the capturing player. Players may not spend captured Æmber.

When a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool.

Unless otherwise specified, Æmber is placed on the creature that captured it.

CAPTURE BONUS ICON

See “Bonus Icons” on page 9.

CENTER OF THE BATTLELINE

A creature is in the center of the battleline when there are an equal number of creatures to both that creature’s left and right side. There is only a center of a battleline if there is an odd number of creatures in that battleline. When there is an even number of creatures in a battleline, there is no center. If there is only one creature in the battleline that creature is in the center.

CHAIN, CHAINS

Some card abilities cause a player to gain one or more chains. If a player gains chains, that player increases their chain tracker by the number of chains gained.

If a player has at least one chain when refilling their hand and would draw cards based on the number of remaining cards in their hand, they draw fewer cards according to the chart below. Then, they shed one chain by reducing the number on their chain tracker by one.

• Chains 1-6: draw one fewer card.
• Chains 7-12: draw two fewer cards.
• Chains 13-18: draw three fewer cards.
• Chains 19-24: draw four fewer cards.

While drawing an initial hand of cards during setup, if a deck has chains assigned to it, the chains also apply to the initial hand of cards drawn as if you were refilling a hand during step 5. A chain is shed for this initial draw as per the standard rules.

See “Chains” on page 8.

CONTROL

A player owns the cards that begin the game in their deck. When a card is played, it enters play under the control of the active player.

A player can take control of an opponent’s card. When this happens, that card is placed in the new controller’s play area. If it is a creature, it is placed on a flank of the new controller’s battleline. If multiple effects that take control of a card are used on the same card, the most recent effect takes precedence.

If a player takes control of a card that belongs to a house not in the new controller’s deck, they can make that house the active house during step 2 of their turn.

If a card that has changed control leaves play for any reason, it moves to its owner’s appropriate out-of-play zone.

If an ability refers to cards that a player “has” in play, it is referring to cards that player controls.

COST, AT CURRENT COST

The base cost to forge a key is six Æmber. This cost may be modified by card abilities. The modified cost is referred to as the current cost.

DAMAGE

Damage a creature has taken is tracked by placing damage tokens on the creature. If a creature has an amount of damage on it equal to or greater than its power, the creature is destroyed. Damage on a creature does not reduce its power. If multiple creatures are damaged by a single effect, that damage is dealt simultaneously.

For more details on damage and combat, see page 7.

DAMAGE BONUS ICON

See “Bonus Icons” on page 9

DEPLOY

A creature with the deploy keyword does not need to be played on the flank of its controller’s battleline. Instead, when it is played it can be placed anywhere in its controller’s battleline, including between two other creatures.

DESTROYED

When a card is destroyed by a card effect or when a creature has damage on it equal to or greater than its power, that card is tagged for destruction. After it is tagged, then that card’s “Destroyed:” abilities trigger, and finally the tagged card is placed into its owner’s discard pile. If multiple cards are simultaneously tagged for destruction, the active player chooses the order in which to resolve the “Destroyed:” abilities of any of those cards. All the tagged cards are put into their owners’ discard piles simultaneously, and the active player chooses the order in which those cards are arranged in their owner’s discard piles.

Once a creature has been tagged for destruction, the only thing that can remove this tag is a replacement effect that uses the word “instead” and replaces the destruction of that creature. An effect that heals a tagged creature does not remove the destroyed tag. An effect may move a tagged creature to a different out-of-play area (such as the hand or archives), but that creature is still considered to have been “destroyed” for the purposes of card effects.

If a “Destroyed:” ability causes more cards to be destroyed, they are also tagged for destruction, and their “Destroyed:” effects will also trigger before cards are placed in the discard pile. None of the cards that have been tagged for destruction are put into their owners’ discard piles until all “Destroyed:” effects have finished resolving.

Players cannot choose to sacrifice or destroy a creature that is already tagged for destruction. A card that is already tagged for destruction cannot be tagged for destruction again, and any effect that attempts to destroy or sacrifice that card fails. That card still only resolves its “Destroyed:” abilities once.

A card only triggers “Destroyed:” abilities that it had at the time it was tagged for destruction. If a card gains a “Destroyed:” ability after it is already tagged, that ability does not trigger.

Cards that are sacrificed also count as being destroyed. They are tagged for destruction following the same process outlined above.

Example: Dan has Archimedes in the middle of 4 other creatures and his opponent plays Gateway to Dis, destroying all creatures. First, all of Dan’s creatures are tagged for destruction. Then Archimedes’ neighbors “Destroyed:” effects resolve, archiving them. The battleline immediately collapses, but Archimedes’ new neighbors have already been tagged for destruction and cannot gain a new “Destroyed:” ability, so they are placed in the discard pile along with Archimedes.

Example: Emily has a Jehu the Bureaucrat, Duma the Martyr with 2 damage, and Commander Remiel with 1 damage in play. Her opponent plays a Poison Wave, dealing 2 damage to each creature. This damage causes Duma the Martyr and Commander Remiel to be tagged for destruction. Duma the Martyr’s “Destroyed:” effect resolves, healing Jehu the Bureaucrat and Commander Remiel. Since Commander Remiel was already tagged for destruction, it still goes to the discard pile with Duma the Martyr, but Jehu the Bureaucrat survives unscathed.

Example: Marcus has a Groggins with a Phoenix Heart in play. His opponent, Janelle, has a Dust Imp with a Soulkeeper, a Drumble, and a Shaffles in play. Marcus fights Dust Imp with Groggins, causing Dust Imp to be tagged for destruction. Dust Imp’s “Destroyed:” ability and the “Destroyed:” ability that Soulkeeper grants it both trigger simultaneously. Marcus chooses to let his opponent gain the 2 Æmber first, then resolve the Soulkeeper, which will destroy Marcus’s most powerful creature— Groggins. When Groggins is tagged for destruction, the Phoenix Heart attached to it resolves, returning Groggins to Marcus’s hand and dealing 3 damage to each other creature. This damage then tags Drumble and Shaffles for destruction. Finally, all the destroyed creatures still in play (Dust Imp, Drumble, and Shaffles) are placed in their owner’s discard pile in the order of the active player (Marcus’s) choice.

DISCARD PILE

When a card is destroyed or discarded, it is placed on top of its owner’s discard pile. The cards in each player’s discard pile are open information, and may be referenced at any time.

The order of cards in a player’s discard pile is maintained during play, unless a card ability causes this order to change.

When a player runs out of cards in their deck and are required to draw, they shuffle their discard pile to create a new deck.

DRAW BONUS ICON

See “Bonus Icons” on page 9.

ELUSIVE

The first time a creature with the elusive keyword is chosen to be fought each turn, it is dealt no damage and deals no damage to the opposing creature in the fight.

Elusive only stops damage that would be dealt by each creature’s power; damage dealt by keywords or other abilities still applies.

END OF TURN

End of turn effects are resolved when a player’s turn is over—after step 5, the “Draw Cards” step.

ENEMY

If a card ability refers to an “enemy” game element, it refers to an element currently controlled by the opponent.

ENHANCE

Each card with the Enhance keyword has added the indicated bonus icons to random cards in your deck. (This has already happened during the deck generation process.)

The enhance keyword has no effect during gameplay.

Example: Mutant Cutpurse has “Enhance ”. As a result, three bonus icons have been randomly added to cards in your deck. The Mutant Cutpurse itself gets no special ability from Enhance during gameplay.

Bonus icons that have been added by Enhance can be identified by the graphical element shown here:

ENRAGE

When a creature becomes enraged, place an enrage status counter on it. When a creature with an enrage counter on it is used, it must be used to fight, if able. After a creature with an enrage counter on it is used to fight, remove all enrage counters from it.

While a creature has an enrage counter on it, it cannot be enraged again.

EXALT

When an effect instructs you to “exalt” a creature, take 1 Æmber from the common supply and place it on that creature.

Note: When a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool

FIGHT

When a player uses a creature to fight, the player exhausts the creature and chooses an opponent’s creature. Both creatures deal an amount of damage equal to their power value to the opposing creature in the fight, and both are “fighting” for the purposes of card effects.

After a creature is used to fight, if that creature survives the fight, all “Fight:” abilities on that creature then resolve. If either creature in a fight has a constant ability referencing the end of the fight (example: “after an enemy creature is destroyed fighting this creature…”), the creature must survive the fight to resolve the ability. “Fight:” abilities only trigger for the creature that was used to fight, not for the other creature in the fight.

If either creature in a fight is destroyed while resolving Assault, Hazardous, or “Before Fight:” abilities, then the fight (dealing damage based on power) is skipped. The creatures are not considered to have been in a fight for the purpose of card effects that reference “fighting” or “in a fight”, and “Fight:” abilities will not trigger. Card effects that reference “after a creature fights” or “after a creature is used” will still trigger, as the creature was used to fight (even though the fight did not resolve).

“FIGHT WITH”

If an ability instructs a player to “fight with” or “ready and fight with” a creature, the ability is granting the player permission to use the designated creature to fight. The fight is resolved following the standard rules for fighting, against a creature controlled by the opponent.

FLANK

The creatures on the far right and far left of a player’s battleline are on the flanks of the line. A creature in this position is referred to as a flank creature. Any time a creature enters play or changes control, the active player chooses which flank of its controller’s battleine it is placed on.

If a battleline only has one creature in it, that creature is on both the left and right flank and is considered a flank creature.

“FOR EACH”

Some abilities include an effect that uses the term “for each” to determine the magnitude of the effect. Unless otherwise specified, a player may choose to affect a different card with each instance of such an effect.

Example: Shard of Pain reads “Play: Deal 1 damage to an enemy creature for each friendly Shard.” That damage may be distributed among multiple creatures.

Some abilities specify that a player must “choose a creature,” then do an effect to that creature using the term “for each.” Such abilities only affect a single creature.

Example: Red Planet Ray Gun reads “This creature gains, “Reap: Choose a creature. Deal 1 damage to that creature for each Mars creature in play.”” That damage must be dealt only to the chosen creature—it cannot be distributed among multiple creatures.

FORGE

For details on forging keys, see page 4.

FRIENDLY

If a card ability refers to a “friendly” game element, it refers to an element currently under the control of the same player.

GIGANTIC

Gigantic creatures are spread out over 2 cards, with one card containing the creature’s text box and the other its art, as shown:

In order to play a gigantic creature, a player must have both halves of the creature in hand, and play those cards together as a single creature. The top half of a gigantic creature has the text “1 of 2” next to its title, while its corresponding bottom half shares the same title and has the text “2 of 2” next to its rarity icon.

A gigantic creature counts as 2 cards while out of play, but as a single creature card while in play. Playing a gigantic creature only counts as playing 1 card, and therefore it is allowed on the first turn. After a gigantic creature leaves play, the 2 halves are treated as separate cards again.

Both halves of a gigantic creature have the same title, house, and card type. Otherwise, each half has the attributes printed on it: the top half has bonus icons, while the bottom half has power, armor, and the text box.

If a card instructing you to play or put into play a creature chooses one half of a gigantic creature, that effect will fail. If a card instructs you to play or put into play both halves of a gigantic creature, the gigantic creature will be played or put into play.

Example: Bella plays Wild Wormhole, allowing her to play the top card of her deck. She looks at the top card and sees that it is the top half of Ultra Gravitron. She cannot play that card from the top of her deck (even if she has the other half of Ultra Gravitron in her hand), so the card is returned to the top of her deck.

GRAFT

If a card ability instructs you to graft a card onto another card, the card being grafted is placed faceup under the other card. The grafted card is not considered to be in play. If the card onto which it is grafted leaves play, the grafted card is placed in its owner’s discard pile.

HAUNTED

While a player has 10 or more cards in their discard pile, that player is haunted. Being haunted has no inherent game effect, but it may be referenced by card abilities.

HAZARDOUS (X)

When a creature with the hazardous X keyword is chosen to be fought, it deals X damage to the opposing creature before the fight resolves. (The active player chooses whether this occurs before or after other “Before Fight” effects and keywords.) If this damage destroys the other creature, the rest of the fight does not occur.

If a creature with the hazardous (X) keyword gains another instance of the hazardous (X) keyword, the two X values are added together.

HEAL

If an ability “heals” a creature, remove the specified amount of damage from the creature.

If an ability “fully heals” a creature, remove all damage from the creature.

Any creature can be chosen to be healed by a card effect that heals, even if it does not have any damage on it. However, if no damage is removed from the creature, it is not considered to have been “healed” for the purpose of card effects that reference healing.

HOUSE CHOICE

Each turn, a player must choose one of the three houses indicated by their identity card, if able. Some card abilities may restrict a player’s house choice.

If a player has gained control of a card that does not belong to one of their three houses, that card’s house becomes an eligible choice for that player while the player retains control of the card.

If there is no legal choice of house, the player plays the turn with no active house.

If a player is faced with two (or more) “must choose” mandates, the player may choose either of those options.

“IF YOU DO” AND “IN ORDER TO”

If an ability includes the phrase “if you do” or “in order to,” the player referenced by the ability must successfully and completely resolve the text that precedes that phrase before they can resolve or perform the text that follows that phrase. In other words, if the first part of the ability is not successfully and completely resolved, that which follows the phrase does not resolve or cannot be performed.

INFINITE LOOPS

While most repeatable interactions involve playing or using cards, and thus are limited by the Rule of Six, in very rare cases, an infinite loop can happen where two or more card abilities will continue to trigger each other repeatedly. In such cases, the active player simply chooses how many times they want to resolve the loop, adjusts the game state accordingly, and then stops resolving the loop so play can resume as normal.

INVULNERABLE

If a creature has the invulnerable keyword, it cannot be dealt damage and cannot be destroyed.

A creature with invulnerable can leave play by means other than being destroyed, such as being purged, archived, returned to hand, or shuffled into its owner’s deck.

Because a creature with invulnerable cannot be destroyed, it remains in play even if its power is 0.

KEYS

The first player to forge all three of their keys immediately wins the game.

Each player has one key of each color: red, blue, and yellow. Some card abilities may reference the color of your keys, including which of your keys are forged or unforged.

For details on forging keys, see page 4.

LASTING EFFECTS

Some card abilities create effects or conditions that affect the game for a specified period of time, such as “until the start of your next turn” or “for the remainder of the turn.” These are called lasting effects.

Lasting effects are treated as constant abilities that are active for the duration specified by the effect. A lasting effect persists even if the card that created the effect leaves play.

If a lasting effect affects cards in play, it applies to all cards in play during the specified period, regardless of whether they were in play at the time the lasting effect was established.

LEGACY

This symbol indicates that a card is a legacy card. A legacy card is a rare instance of a card that has been brought forward from a previous set of KeyForge. It is legally part of the deck it is in for all game purposes, including tournament play.

LEAST POWERFUL

A reference to the “least powerful” creature refers to the creature in play with the lowest power. If there are multiple creatures that qualify, each is considered “least powerful.”

If an ability requires the selection of a single least powerful creature, and multiple creatures are tied, the active player chooses one.

Groups of “Least Powerful”

If a card effect refers to a group of “the X least powerful” creatures, it is referring to a number of creatures in play that have an equal or lower power than every creature that does not belong to that group. If there are not enough creatures with the lowest power to fulfill the group, then a creature with the next lowest power is eligible to be considered a part of the group. This continues until the group has been filled or there are no creatures remaining. If at any point multiple creatures are tied at the same power that could qualify them for the group, but there is not enough space in the group for each tied creature, the active player chooses which of the tied creatures are part of the group.

LEAVES PLAY

If a card that is in play leaves play (is returned to hand or deck, destroyed, discarded, archived, or purged), all non-Æmber tokens and status cards on the card are removed, all upgrades on the card are discarded, and all lasting effects applied to the card expire.

When a card moves from an in–play zone to an out-of-play zone in which the identities of cards are hidden from the opponent (such as a player’s hand, deck, or archives), any pending effects that are currently or about to interact with that card no longer do so, unless a card effect explicitly states that it interacts with that zone.

If a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool. If a non-creature card with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is returned to the general token pool.

When a card leaves play it is always put into its owner’s appropriate out-of-play zone, unless a card effect explicitly states that it interacts with that zone.

If cards leave play while resolving an ability, later instructions in the same ability refer to the cards as they were immediately prior to leaving play.

Example: Code Monkey (WC 147) has the text: “Play: Archive each neighboring creature. If those creatures share a house, gain 2 .” If one of the archived cards was affected by an effect that changed which house it belonged to, then the second part of Code Monkey’s ability refers to the houses to which those cards belonged immediately before being archived.

MAVERICK

This symbol indicates that a card is a maverick. A maverick is an extremely rare instance of a card that has left its standard house and is now a part of a new house. For all game purposes, treat a maverick as belonging to the house printed on its graphic template.

MAY

If an ability includes the word “may,” the text that follows “may” is optional. If a player chooses to resolve a “may” ability, the player must resolve as much of the ability as they are able.

MOST POWERFUL

A reference to the “most powerful” creature refers to the creature in play with the highest power. If there are multiple creatures that qualify, each is considered “most powerful.”

If an ability requires the selection of a single most powerful creature, and multiple creatures are tied, the active player chooses among the tied creatures.

Groups of “Most Powerful”

If a card effect refers to a group of “the X most powerful” creatures, it is referring to a number of creatures in play that have an equal or higher power than every creature that does not belong to that group. If there are not enough creatures with the highest power to fulfill the group, then a creature with the next highest power is eligible to be considered a part of the group. This continues until the group has been filled or there are no creatures remaining. If at any point multiple creatures are tied at the same power that could qualify them for the group, but there is not enough space in the group for each tied creature, the active player chooses which of the tied creatures are part of the group.

Example: Tom plays the action card “Three Fates (COTA 071) which reads, “Play: Destroy the 3 most powerful creatures.” In play there is an 8 power creature, a 7 power creature, and two 5 power creatures. Tom must select 3 creatures to fill the group and must choose the 8 power creature as the first creature for the group. There are no other creatures in play that are tied for most powerful. In order to fill the group the next most powerful creature is selected, the 7 power creature. After this creature is selected, again there is no creature in play that is tied at 7 power, so a creature from the next highest power must be selected. Tom thus must choose one of the 5 power creatures to complete the group

MOVE

When a card instructs you to move Æmber, take that Æmber off of that card/location and move it to another card/location. This does not count as capturing, stealing, or losing Æmber.

When a card instructs you to move damage, take that damage off of one card and place it on to another card. This does not count as damaging the second card, and is not prevented by armor or other effects that prevent damage.

When a card instructs you to move a creature, that creature must remain under its current controller’s control unless the card also specifies that a different player is taking control of that creature. A player may “move” a creature such that it remains in the same position in the battleline.

MULLIGAN

During setup, each player, starting with the first player, has one opportunity to mulligan their starting hand. This is done by shuffling the starting hand back into the deck and drawing a new starting hand with one fewer card in it.

After a player chooses to mulligan, that player must keep the new starting hand.

If a player is using a deck that has chains applied to it at the start of the game and takes a mulligan, they do not shed a chain from the mulligan, but do draw one fewer card than they had before the mulligan as per the normal mulligan rules.

NEIGHBOR

The creatures to the immediate left and right of a creature in a player’s battleline are its neighbors.

OMEGA

After a card with the Omega keyword is played, the current step of the game ends. The active player cannot play, use, or discard any more cards for the remainder of the step. Any pending effects and triggers complete their resolution, then play continues to the next step.

OMNI

The active player may trigger any “Omni:” abilities under their control during any of their turns, even if the card with the “Omni:” ability does not belong to the active house. When a player uses a creature to trigger its “Omni:” ability, the player exhausts the creature and then resolves the “Omni:” ability.

OFF HOUSE

An off house card is any card that belongs to a house that is not the active house.

OPPOSING

When a creature is used to fight or is chosen to be fought, the other creature in the fight is the opposing creature.

OTHER COUNTERS

Some cards may refer to counters that do not have official components to represent them. Players can use any available resources to represent these counters such as coins, slips of paper, or even poker chips. These counters have no inherent rules, instead the card that creates them provides context to how the counters function.

LIST OF COUNTER TYPES:

• Doom Counters
• Disruption Counters
• Fuse Counters
• Glory Counters
• Growth Counters
• Scheme Counters
• Warrant Counters

PAY

If a player must pay Æmber to an opponent, the Æmber is removed from the paying player’s pool and added to the opponent’s pool.

PLAY

When a card has a “Play:” ability, the effect occurs any time the card is played. For creatures, artifacts, and upgrades, the ability resolves after the card enters play. For action cards, the ability resolves, and then the card is immediately placed in its owner’s discard pile. If an ability “plays” a card from a source other than hand, “Play:” abilities on the card resolve. If an ability “puts” a card “into play,” “Play:” abilities on the card do not resolve.

POISON

Any damage dealt via the power of a creature with the poison keyword during a fight destroys the damaged creature. This occurs when the damage is successfully applied to the opposing creature.

Poison has no effect if all of the damage is prevented by armor or prevented by another ability—poison only resolves when one or more damage is successfully dealt.

Poison refers only to damage that would be dealt by the creature’s power, not by damage that is dealt by keywords or other card abilities.

POWER COUNTER +1, POWER STATUS CARD

When a creature is given a “+1 power counter,” one such status card is placed on the creature. For each of these cards that is on a creature, that creature’s power is increased by one.

PRECEDING, REPEAT THE PRECEDING

If card text instructs players to repeat a preceding effect, the entirety of the effect before the text providing the instruction to repeat resolves again.

Note: Repeating an effect does not interact with the Rule of Six (see page 7), as the Rule of Six only applies to playing or using cards, not triggering their effect multiple times.

PURGE

When a card is purged, it is removed from the game and placed faceup beneath its owner’s identity card. Purged cards no longer interact with the game state in any manner.

RARITY

A card’s rarity symbol can be found at the bottom of the card, near the collector number. A card’s rarity (common, uncommon, rare, or special) is used by the deck-generation algorithm to determine how frequently it will appear in decks. Special cards have a different type of distribution and do not obey the game’s standard rarity rules.

REAP

When a player uses a creature to reap, the player exhausts the creature, gains 1 Æmber for their Æmber pool, and then all “Reap:” abilities on the creature resolve.

REPEAT

If card text instructs players to repeat an effect, the entirety of the effect resolves again, including the text to repeat the effect. If the card that is creating a repeating effect is removed from play, the effect can no longer repeat.

Cards with the text “trigger this effect again” will also repeat the entire effect, including the text to trigger the effect again.

Note: Repeating an effect does not interact with the Rule of Six (see page 7,) as the Rule of Six only applies to playing or using cards, not triggering their effect multiple times.

See also “Preceding”.

REPLACEMENT EFFECTS

Some abilities completely replace the resolution of another effect or game step. These abilities are referred to as “Replacement Effects” and can be identified by use of the word “instead.” A replacement effect specifies what part of an effect or game step it is replacing. When that effect (or part of an effect) or game step would occur, it does not occur and the replacement effect happens in its place.

If a replacement effect causes something that is tagged for destruction to not be destroyed, this replacement effect does not resolve until the card would be put into the discard pile. When the card would be put into the discard pile, instead of putting the card into the discard pile, remove the destroyed tag and complete the instructions of the destruction replacement effect.

If no effect is specified by the replacement effect, it refers to another part of the same effect the replacement effect is a part of.

Example: Aaron plays Dimension Door, and then reaps with a creature. Normally Aaron would gain 1 Æmber from reaping with the creature. However, the Dimension Door has set up a replacement effect that replaces the gaining of an Æmber from reaping with stealing an Æmber, so Aaron steals 1 instead.

Example: Katherine has a Commander Remiel with an Armageddon Cloak attached to it, and her opponent plays Gateway to Dis, destroying each creature in play. The destroyed effect given to Remiel by the Armageddon Cloak is a replacement effect that is replacing the destruction of the creature. This destruction is being replaced with healing the creature fully and destroying the Armageddon Cloak instead. This causes the destroyed tag to be removed from Commander Remiel and be given to the Armageddon Cloak.

Example: Jamie plays Ronnie Wristclocks while her opponent has 7 Æmber. Normally, Ronnie Wristclocks’s play effect steals 1 Æmber from her opponent, but since Jamie’s opponent has 7 or more Æmber, the replacement effect kicks in and replaces stealing 1 Æmber with stealing 2 Æmber instead.

RETURN

When captured Æmber is returned, it is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool.

SACRIFICE

When a player is instructed to sacrifice a card, that player must discard that card from play.

When a card is sacrificed, that card is considered to have been destroyed, and any “Destroyed:” abilities the card has resolve.

A player cannot sacrifice a card they do not control.

SEARCH

When a player searches a game area (such as a deck), that player looks at all the cards in the specified area without showing those cards to the opponent. A player may choose to fail to find the object of a search.

If an entire deck is searched, the deck must be adequately shuffled upon completion of the search.

If a discard pile is searched, the cards are kept in the same order.

SELF-REFERENTIAL TEXT

If a card’s ability refers to its own title, that reference is only to itself and not to other copies of the card.

If a card copies or gains the text of another card, any self-referential text now refers to the creature gaining the text.

Example: You use Creed of Nurture, revealing Bad Penny from your hand and choosing a Dust Pixie in play. Dust Pixie will effectively gain the text: “Destroyed: Return Dust Pixie to your hand.”

If an upgrade gives a creature an ability that refers to the upgrade’s own title, that reference is considered self-referential text. It refers only to that copy of the upgrade and not any other copies of the upgrade.

If a creature gains an ability that refers to that creature’s own title, that reference is considered self-referential text.

SKIRMISH

When a creature with the skirmish keyword is used to fight, it takes no damage from the opposing creature when the damage from the fight is dealt.

This applies only to damage that would be dealt by the opposing creature’s power, not by damage that is dealt by keywords or other card abilities.

SPLASH

When an ability deals damage to a creature “with splash damage,” the splash damage is dealt to each of the chosen creature’s neighbors.

STEAL

When an ability steals Æmber, the stolen Æmber is removed from the opponent’s Æmber pool and added to the Æmber pool of the player resolving the steal ability.

If an ability steals more Æmber than a player has remaining in their pool, the ability steals only the amount remaining in the pool.

STUN, STUN STATUS CARD

When a creature becomes stunned, place a stun status card on it. While a creature is stunned, it cannot fight, reap, or use action or omni abilities.

Any time a stunned creature could normally be used, it can instead be used by exhausting it to remove its stun status card.

If a card effect would cause a stunned creature to fight, reap, or use an action or omni ability, instead that creature is exhausted and the stun status card is removed. This is considered “using” that creature. Constant abilities and abilities that do not require the creature to reap, fight, or be used are still active.

A stunned creature cannot be used to fight, but If a stunned creature is chosen to be fought, it still deals damage equal to its power in that fight. While a creature is stunned, it cannot have another stun status card

placed on it. If an effect attempts to stun a stunned creature that effect does not stun the already stunned creature.

SWAP

If two game elements are swapped, they exchange places with one another.

When two creatures are swapped, they exchange positions. This means that each takes the position in the battleline of the other. The two creatures swapped must always be controlled by the same player.

If cards from two distinct game areas are swapped (such as a card in play and a card in hand), the cards switch game areas.

TAUNT

If a creature has the taunt keyword, any of its neighbors that do not have the taunt keyword cannot be chosen to be fought by an enemy creature that is being used to fight.

In the battleline, taunt creatures are slid slightly forward to indicate their presence to the opponent.

“THIS WAY”

If an ability refers to an effect that occurred “this way,” it is referring to an effect that was produced by the same resolution of that same ability.

TIDE

The tide is a mechanic from a potential future expansion. The tide is not in play at the start of the game, Future card abilities may cause the tide to change, but currently there are no such abilities in the game.

TURN

A turn consists of one player performing the five steps detailed in the game’s turn sequence, which are:

1. Forge a key.
2. Choose a house.
3. Play, discard, and use cards of the chosen house.
4. Ready cards.
5. Draw cards.

TRAITS

Traits are descriptive attributes (such as “Knight” or “Specter”) that may be referenced by other cards. Traits are listed at the top center of a card’s text box.

Traits have no inherent game effect, but may be referenced by card abilities.

UNFORGE

If a previously forged key is “unforged,” flip the key token to its unforged side. The key no longer counts toward its controller’s victory condition and must be forged again to win the game.

USE

See “Using Cards” on page 6.

WARD

When a creature becomes warded, place a ward status counter on it. If a creature with a ward counter on it would be damaged, destroyed, or leave play, instead discard each ward counter on it. (Note: This prevents the creature from being tagged for destruction.)

While a creature has a ward counter on it, it cannot be warded again.

If a ward counter is placed on a creature after it has already been tagged for destruction, the ward counter will not prevent the creature from leaving play. However, it will prevent the creature from leaving play in other ways, such as being returned to hand.

ERRATA

This section conatins the official errata that have been made to individual cards in KeyForge. Errata overides the printed information on the card it applies to.

Library Access (COTA 115)

Should read: “Play: For the remainder of the turn, each time you play another card, draw a card. Purge Library Access.”

Biomatrix Backup (COTA 208)

Should read: “This creature gains, ”Destroyed: Put this creature into its owner’s archives.””

Bait and Switch (COTA 267)

Should read: “Play: If your opponent has more than you, steal 1. Repeat the preceding effect if your opponent still has more than you.”

Drummernaut (AOA 006)

Should read: “Play/Fight/Reap: Return another friendly Giant creature to your hand.”

Magda the Rat (CoTA 303)

Should read: “Elusive.
Play: Steal 2 . If Magda the Rat leaves play, your opponent steals 2 .”

Yzphyz Knowdrone (AoA 210)

Should read: “Play: Archive a card. You may purge an archived card. If you do, stun a creature.”

Life for a Life (AoA 273)

Should read: “Play: Destroy a friendly creature. If you do, deal 6 to a creature.”

Auto-Legionary (WC 214)

Should read: “Action: Put Auto-Legionary on a flank of your battleline. While in the battleline, it is considered a creature with 5 power and may be used as if it belonged to the active house.”

Experimental Therapy (CoTA 157)

Should read: “This creature may be used as if it belonged to the active house.
Play: Stun and exhaust this creature.”

Pain Reaction (AoA 78)

Should read: “Play: Deal 2 to an enemy creature. If this damage destroys that creature, deal 2 to each of that creature’s neighbors after it leaves play.”

Tendrils of Pain (CoTA 64)

Should read: “Play: Deal 1 to each creature. Deal 4 to each creature instead if your opponent forged a key on their previous turn.”

Custom Virus (CoTA 183)

Should read: “Omni: Destroy Custom Virus. You may purge a creature from your hand. If you do, destroy each creature that shares a trait with the purged creature.”

Keyforgery (WC 271)

Should read: “When your opponent would forge a key on their turn, that player names a house. Reveal a random card from your hand. If that card is not of the named house, destroy Keyforgery and they do not forge that key (no is spent).”

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This section provides answers to a number of common questions that are asked about the game. These questions are presented in a “Question and Answer” format, arranged into broader categories.

0-Power Creatures

I play King of the Crag (CoTA 038) while my opponent has a Looter Goblin (CoTA 041) in play. What happens?

The rules for damage state that “If a creature has as much or more damage on it as it has power, the creature is destroyed and placed on top of its owner’s discard pile.” When a creature has 0 power, if it has 0 damage on it, it is destroyed.

Alpha

Can I play Mimicry (CoTA 328) as a copy of Eureka (AoA 128) if I have already played another card this turn?

No. If Mimicry is played as a copy of Eureka, it will have the alpha keyword. Since you have already played another card this turn, you are not able to play an alpha card this turn and so the Mimicry will not be played and will go back to your hand instead.

Can I play Mimicry (CoTA 328) as a copy of Eureka (AoA 128) as the first thing I do during step 3 of my turn?

Yes. Mimicry is being played as a copy of Eureka and will have the Alpha keyword. Since you haven’t done anything else (played a card, discarded a card, or used a card) this turn you can still play the alpha card.

Archives

My opponent puts two of my creatures into their archives using the card Sample Collection (CoTA 175). On my next turn I play the card Dysania (CoTA 141). What happens?

Playing the Dysania will cause each of your opponent’s archived cards to be discarded, however since the Sample Collection states that when these creatures leave the archives they are put into their owner’s hand instead these cards are returned to your hand. Since these cards were not discarded by Dysania’s effect, you will not gain any Æmber from the resolution of that effect.

My opponent has 2 cards in their archives and I play Yzphyz Knowdrone (AoA 210). Can I purge a card from their archives? If one of the cards in their archive is my own and I can tell because of the card back, can I intentionally choose the card I own/the card I don’t own?

Yes, you can purge a card from any player’s archives. No, you may not decide which card to purge from your opponent’s archives based on card backs. Your opponent’s archive is fully hidden information, so when you purge a card from their archives you must choose which card randomly.

Armor

I have Shadow Self (CoTA 310) with a Raiding Knight (CoTA 255) as a neighbor. My Raiding Knight is then attacked by a 4 power creature. How much damage does each creature take in this situation?

In this case, the Shadow Self will take 2 damage, the Raiding Knight will take no damage, and the 4 power creature will take 4 damage and be destroyed. This happens because before the damage can be dealt to the Raiding Knight, two of it is prevented by its armor. Then when the damage is actually being dealt, the damage that would be dealt to the Raiding Knight is dealt to the Shadow Self instead. At the same time as the Shadow Self is being dealt damage, the 4 power creature takes 4 damage from the Raiding Knight’s power.

I use my Hallowed Shield (AoA 218) to protect my Maruck the Marked (AoA 220) from damage and then I attack my opponent’s 3-power creature. Do I capture an Æember with Maruck’s ability?

No. Protection effects like Hallowed Shield prevent damage before armor. Maruck still has 1 armor left after the fight.

“As If It Were”

I reap with Nexus (CoTA 305), which allows me to use an opponent’s artifact “as if it were” mine. I choose to use my opponent’s Shard of Greed (AoA 315), which lets me gain 1 Æmber “for each friendly Shard.” Shard of Greed is the only Shard in play. How much Æmber do I gain?

1. You are using Shard of Greed as if it were yours, so Shard of Greed counts itself as a friendly Shard for the purposes of its ability.

I reap with Replicator (CoTA 150), and use its ability to trigger the reap effect of my opponent’s Sequis (CoTA 257) as if I controlled it. Which player’s pool does Sequis capture Æmber from?

Sequis captures 1 Æmber from your opponent’s pool. You are using Sequis as if you controlled it, so the default capture rules cause the Æmber to be captured from your opponent’s pool.

Bait and Switch

My opponent has 14 Æmber in their pool and I have 0 in mine. At the start of my turn I select Shadows as the active house and play the card Bait and Switch (CoTA 267). How many times does Bait and Switch trigger?

In this situation, Bait and Switch’s effect will be triggered 2 times. When the effect is triggered for the first time time it checks if your opponent has more Æmber than you, and if they do it will repeat the first effect again, stealing another Æmber. However, since the card says to repeat the preceding effect and not the whole effect it can only ever trigger twice.

Bonus Icons

If I play a Maleficorn (MM 040) that also has a damage icon on it, does its damage icon deal a bonus damage?

Yes. Creatures are already in play before their bonus icons trigger, so in this case Maleficorn’s constant ability would be online before you deal damage with its bonus icons.

If I play Bonesaw (MM 002) and that card has a damage icon on it that I use to destroy a friendly creature, will Bonesaw enter play ready?

No. Because Bonesaw is already in play before you resolve its icons, it will have already entered play exhausted.

When I play Wild Bounty (MM 392), is “bonus icons” referring to all the icons on a card, or just the icons added to that card by the enhance keyword?

All icons. Even æmber icons that always appears on your card are considered bonus icons.

If I play a Shoulder Id (MM 257) with a bonus damage icon on it, does resolving that damage count as Shoulder Id dealing the damage, and therefore would that icon let me steal instead?

No. Although the bonus icon is on Shoulder Id, Shoulder Id itself is not the source of that damage.

If I play a Rad Penny (MM 255) with a damage icon on it while no other creatures are in play, will that damage destroy Rad Penny before her “Play:” effect lets me steal 1 æmber?

Yes. She will leave play before her “Play:” effect has a chance to trigger.

If I play a Rad Penny (MM 255) with a damage icon and a draw icon on it while no other creatures are in play, will the damage destroy Rad Penny before I can resolve her draw icon?

No, her draw icon will still resolve. Once a card has been played, all bonus icons on that card will resolve, even if the card leaves play.

If I play a card with two bonus damage icons and my opponent has a 1 power creature with a ward counter, can I destroy that creature?

Yes. Each damage icon resolves separately, so the first damage icon can remove the ward counter, and the second damage icon can then damage the creature.

If I play Fission Bloom (MM 087) and then use Ultra Gravitron’s (MM 125) “Fight/Reap:” ability to purge an enemy creature and resolve each of its bonus icons, do I get to resolve all its icons twice?

Yes. Ultra Gravitron’s “as if you had played” text is intended to trigger all card effects like Fission Bloom’s “The next time you play a card this turn.”

My opponent has Master of the Grey (MM 169) in play. If I play a card like Ensign El-Samra (MM 340), Reclaimed by Nature (MM 374), or Ultra Gravitron (MM 125), does the constant ability of Master of the Grey prevent the bonus icons from resolving or is the “as if you had played it” enough to get around Master of the Grey’s ability to stop it?

The constant ability of Master of the Grey will prevent you from resolving bonus icons with Ensign El-Samra, Reclaimed by Nature, or Ultra Gravitron.

I have Scrivener Favian (MM 155) and an Amphora Captura (MM 215) in play. Can I use Amphora Captura’s replacement effect to resolve a bonus icon as a capture, and then use Scrivener Favian’s replacement effect to resolve that as a steal?

Yes. Both of these replacement effects would happen simultaneously, so you, as the active player, get to choose their order. You may choose to first treat the bonus icon as capture and then to treat that capture as steal

Chains

I have 2 chains and 7 cards in hand when moving to my draw cards step. Will I shed a chain during this step?

No, you will not shed a chain during this draw cards step. Chains are only shed when a player would draw cards during the draw step and the chains prevent them from doing so (see “Chains” on Page 8). Since you already have 7 cards in your hand, you aren’t going to be drawing any cards, and thus don’t lose any of your chains.

I have 2 chains and 5 cards in hand when moving to my draw cards step. Will I shed a chain during this step?

Yes, you will shed a chain during this step. Chains are only shed when a player would draw cards during the draw step and the chains prevent them from doing so (see “Chains” on Page 8). You only have 5 cards in hand, and normally you would draw a card to refill your hand. However because of the chains you are prevented from drawing that card. Since you would normally have drawn the card and the chain prevented it, you then shed 1 chain.

Damage, Source of

Can Rock Hurling Giant’s (CotA 44) ability deal damage to Ardent Hero (MM 126)?

No. Because Rock Hurling Giant has 6 power, it cannot deal damage to Ardent Hero from its power or from its printed abilities. In general, the source of damage is the card that is dealing that damage, with the exception of damage bonus icons, because that damage is done by a game step.

“Destroyed:” Effects

On my opponent’s turn they use their Yxilo Bolter (CoTA 204) to reap and choose to resolve its reap effect on my Bad Penny (CoTA 296). Is the Bad Penny purged or does it end up back in my hand?

The Bad Penny goes back to your hand. “Destroyed:” effects (see “Destroyed” on Page 10) happen immediately before a creature is destroyed, meaning that Bad Penny is back in its owner’s hand before the Yxilo Bolter can try to purge it with its reap effect. At that point, any pending effects waiting to resolve on Bad Penny no longer do. This is because Bad Penny is moving to an out-of-play zone in which the identity of cards is hidden from the opponent (see “Leaves Play” on Page 11).

I have a Stealer of Souls (CoTA 098) in play and my opponent has a Valdr (CoTA 029). I use my Stealer of Souls to fight Valdr and both creatures are destroyed. Does the Stealer of Souls’ ability trigger?

No, the Stealer of Souls’ ability will not trigger. In order for the Stealer of Souls ability to trigger it must be in play, so if both the Stealer of Souls and the creature it is fighting die, they die simultaneously and the Stealer of Souls ability cannot trigger (see “Destroyed” on Page 10).

If Duma the Martyr (CoTA 242) and another of my creatures are both destroyed by a damage effect like Poison Wave (CoTA 280), can Duma the Martyr save my other creature from destruction?

No. If the damage causes Duma the Martyr and your other creature to both be tagged for destruction, healing that creature afterwards will not prevent its destruction.

If I have out a Tolas (CoTA 103) when my Bad Penny (CoTA 296) is destroyed, do I gain Æmber even if Bad Penny goes to my hand instead of my discard pile?

Yes. Cards still count as being destroyed even if their “Destroyed:” effect moves them out of play.

If my Jargogle (AoA 131) is destroyed on my turn and its “Destroyed:” ability lets me play a card with Omega, can I still play cards afterwards?

Not usually. If Jargogle was destroyed during your Step 3 you may not play or use any more cards—just finish resolving any more triggered effects and then move on to the next step. If Jargogle was destroyed during your Step 1, however (for example, because you forged a key while Strange Gizmo (CoTA 134) was out), you only move on to Step 2, where you may then choose your house and move on to Step 3, where you are allowed to play and use cards again as normal.

If I have a 2-power creature with a Soulkeeper (AoA 83) attached, my opponent has a 6-power creature and a 5-power creature, and I play Opal Knight (AoA 260), do both of my opponent’s creatures die, or just the 6-power one?

Just the 6-power one. Since Soulkeeper’s effect triggers before the destroyed creatures actually leave play, it will target the 6-power creature for destruction even though that creature is already tagged for destruction.

I have an Optio Gorkus (MM 226) in play with an Imperial Scutum attached and then I play a card that destroys all creatures. Can I use the “Destroyed:” effect on Optio Gorkus’s neighbors to move all Æmber on them to Optio Gorkus before I use the “Destroyed:” effect granted by Imperial Scutum to return all that Æmber to the common supply, keeping the æmber out of my opponent’s hands?

Yes. The active player chooses the order of “Destroyed:” effects. If the creatures are being destroyed on your turn, you can send the Æmber from your destroyed creatures to the common supply, but if the creature are being destroyed on your opponent’s turn, they could choose the opposite order so that they get the Æmber from those destroyed creatures instead.

Do As Much As You Can

My opponent has a Banner of Battle (CoTA 020) in play. Can I play the card Poltergeist (CoTA 069) to destroy the Banner of Battle, even if the artifact can’t be used?

Yes, you can resolve the effect of Poltergeist on any artifact in play even if the artifact cannot be used. You just resolve as much of the card effect as you can (see “Resolve As Much As You Can” on Page 7), and to resolve this situation you just destroy the artifact.

I have no creatures in play and my opponent has two. Can I play the card Lost in the Woods (CoTA 327) even though I don’t have two creatures in play?

Yes you can. The “Resolve As Much As You Can” rule (see Page 7) says that you resolve as much of a card effect as possible and any part of a card you cannot resolve is ignored. In the context of Lost in the Woods, it means that you shuffle in as many of the creatures as you can. So in the case that your opponent has two or more creatures in their battleline and you have none, you will shuffle in two enemy creatures and no friendly creatures.

I have 4 Æmber in my pool and my opponent has 6. If I play Crassosaurus (WC 217), am I forced to capture 10 total Æmber onto Crassosaurus, or can I choose not to capture from myself and let Crassosaurus get purged?

Do as much as you can. In this case, if there is 10 or more Æmber total in all players’ pools when you play Crassosaurus, you must capture 10 Æmber onto Crassosaurus.

Drecker

If two Dreckers (MM 006) are neighbors and I fight one of them with my 2-power creature, what happens?

Both Dreckers simultaneously take 2 damage. Because the damage is only dealt once, it does not trigger any more instances of damage.

Elusive

If I use Gabos Longarms (CoTA 86) to attack a creature without elusive, can I use Gabos’s “Before Fight” ability to deal damage to an elusive creature instead, or will the elusive keyword prevent the damage?

Gabos Longarms can deal damage to an elusive creature using its ability. The elusive ability prevents damage only when the creature is attacked— because Gabos is not actually attacking the elusive creature, the elusive keyword will not protect it.

My Gabos Longarms (CoTA 86) attacks my opponent’s Æmber Imp (AoA 53). Is Gabos Longarms’ damage prevented by Elusive, or can I deal that damage to another creature?

You may still deal Gabos Longarms’ damage to another creature. Elusive only prevents damage dealt to the creature with the elusive ability during the fight.

##Enrage

If I play Ghosthawk (WC 356) next to an enraged creature, can that creature reap?

Yes. You are only forced to fight with an enraged creature if you use them and they are able to fight. Because Ghosthawk instructs you to reap with that creature, not to use it, you are not able to fight with it, and therfefore you can reap with it. The creature will exhaust, but will not lose its enrage counter.

Explo-rover

If I play Exhume (AoA 059) and choose an Explo-rover (WC 297) in my discard pile, can I play it as an upgrade, or must I play it as a creature?

You can play Explo-rover as either an upgrade or a creature with Exhume. When Exhume specifies “creature” in your discard pile, this is a play restriction on which card in your discard pile you can choose, but not a requirement that that card must remain a creature as you play it.

Faygin

I have a Faygin (CoTA 300) in play and my opponent has an Urchin (CoTA 315) in play. I reap with Faygin and with its reap effect I choose my opponent’s Urchin. What happens?

Faygin’s effect causes the Urchin to try and go into your hand, however when a card leaves play it always goes to its owner’s corresponding out of play zone (See “Leaves Play” on Page 11) unless the card causing it to leave play specifies otherwise. The Urchin is returned to your opponent’s hand instead of yours.

First Turn Rule

Its the first turn of the game and I am going first. I choose house Logos to be the active house and play the card Phase Shift (CoTA 117). Does this allow me to play another card this turn even though the First Turn Rule (see page 5) is in effect?

Playing Phase Shift will allow you to play another card from your hand this turn, since the First Turn Rule can be modified by card effects.

Its the first turn of the game and I am going first. I choose house Logos to be the active house and play the card Wild Wormhole (CoTA 125). Can Wild Wormhole’s effect be resolved even though the First Turn Rule (see page 5) is in effect?

Wild Wormhole’s effect can be resolved. The First Turn Rule specifies that players cannot play or discard more than one card from their hand. However it does not prohibit cards from being played or discarded from other game areas, such as your deck.

Flank

What happens if I use Spectral Tunneler (CoTA 133) on a non-flank creature (causing it to be considered a flank creature), then play Positron Bolt (CoTA 118) on that creature?

Positron Bolt will deal 3 damage to that creature. You will choose one of that creature’s neighbors to deal 2 damage to, and then deal 1 damage to the other neighbor of that second creature.

If I have Sinestra (MM 047) and Dexus (MM 054) both out and my opponent has no creatures out, do they lose 2 æmber the first time they play a creature?

Yes. The first creature they play will count as both on their left flank and their right flank, so both Dexus and Sinsestra’s abilities will trigger.

“For Each”

I play the card Sack of Coins (AoA 312) with 3 Æmber in my pool. Can I divide the 3 damage among multiple creatures?

Yes. Because Sack of Coins deals 1 damage “for each” Æmber in your pool, each point of damage may be assigned to a different creature.

Keyfrog

My opponent has 5 æmber in their pool, a Senator Shrix (WC 193) with 5 æmber on it, and a Keyfrog (MM 369). Their key cost is 6. If I destroy their Keyfrog, do they forge a key? If so, where does the æmber come from?

Yes, they forge a key. Forging is not optional if a player has enough æmber to forge, including æmber on cards like Senator Shrix that may be spent as if it were in their pool. As the active player, you make all necessary decisions unless otherwise specified, so you choose how much of the æmber they will spend from their pool and how much of it they will spend from Senator Shrix.

Key Hammer

My opponent forges two keys on their turn. On my next turn, I play Key Hammer (CoTA 66). What happens?

Key Hammer only affects a single key. You will choose one of the two keys your opponent forged on their previous turn and unforge it.

Leaves Play (Spangler Box)

I control a Spangler Box (CoTA 132) that has purged my own Kelifi Dragon (CoTA 037). The Spangler Box is returned to its owner’s hand with Grasping Vines (CoTA 324), but I don’t have any Æmber. Do I get my Kelifi Dragon back?

Yes. The Kelifi Dragon is not being played when it is returned by the Spangler Box, it is being put into play. Being put into play bypasses the normal play restrictions, meaning that the Kelifi Dragon is put back into play no matter how much Æmber you have.

A Scowly Caper (AoA 313) that I own and my opponent controls is purged with Spangler Box (CoTA 132). Later, the Spangler Box is destroyed. When Scowly Caper returns to play, whose control will he be under?

When the Spangler Box returns Scowly Caper to play, this counts as “entering play” again, so Scowly Caper’s ability again causes you put it into play under your opponent’s control.

Lethal Distraction

I play two copies of Lethal Distraction (AoA 305), choosing the same creature each time. Later in the turn, I deal 1 damage to that creature. How much total damage does the creature take?

The creature takes 5 damage total: 1 from the initial damage, 2 from the first Lethal Distraction, and 2 from the other Lethal Distraction. Each Lethal Distraction’s “additional” damage simply adds 2 to the original instance of damage; it is not its own, separate instance of damage. Therefore the Lethal Distractions will not trigger off of each other’s damage.

Library Access

I have chosen house Logos to be my active house this turn and start off by playing Library Access (CoTA 115), I then play Wild Wormhole (CoTA 125). In what order do I resolve this combination of effects?

When you play a Wild Wormhole after playing a Library Access the following happens in this order:

1. You gain 1 Æmber from Wild Wormhole’s Æmber bonus.
2. Library Access’s effect and Wild Wormhole’s play effect are simultaneous, so you may resolve them in either order.
3. You gain Æmber from any Æmber bonus on the card played from the top of your deck.
4. If there are any play effects on the card played from the top of your deck, they are simultaneous with Library Access’s effect. You may resolve them in either order.

Little Niff

I have a Ronnie Wristclocks (AoA 276) next to a Little Niff (AoA 289). I attack one of my opponent’s creatures with Ronnie Wristclocks, but he is destroyed during the fight. Does Little Niff’s ability still allow me to steal 1 Æmber?

Yes. Little Niff’s neighbor does not need to survive in order for Little Niff to steal the Æmber.

Mimic Gel

If I play Mimic Gel (WC 170) copying a creature that has damage counters, +1 power counters, a ward counter, and an upgrade which gives it additional text, does Mimic Gel also copy the various counters and upgraded text?

No. Mimic Gel enters play as a copy of the base card, unmodified by any other effects.

If I play Mimic Gel copying a Crash Muldoon (WC 327) will Mimic Gel enter play ready, and can I use the Deploy ability to have Mimic Gel enter play anywhere in my battleline?

Yes to both. Mimic Gel enters play as a copy of the chosen card, and both Deploy and Crash Muldoon’s “enters play ready” ability take effect as the card enters play, so Mimic Gel will also copy these effects.

If I play Mimic Gel copying an Auto-Legionary that has been activated and is currently a creature, what does Mimic Gel become?

Mimic Gel becomes a 5-power creature that can be used as if it belonged to the active house.

Moving Creatures

What happens if I use Replicator (CoTA 150) to trigger the reap effect of an opponent’s Sanctum Guardian (CoTA 256)?

Sanctum Guardian’s reap effect will do nothing. A creature cannot be moved from one player’s battleline to the other player’s battleline except by effects that explicitly change control of that creature.

Neutron Shark

My opponent has two creatures in play and I have none. I play Neutron Shark (CoTA 146) and use its play effect to destroy an enemy creature as well as the Neutron Shark. If the top card of my deck does not belong to house Logos, can I repeat Neutron Shark’s ability and destroy my opponent’s other creature?

No. The destruction of Neutron Shark and the first enemy creature resolves fully before you proceed with the rest of Neutron Shark’s ability. Because Neutron Shark is no longer in play, its Play/Fight/Reap ability cannot be triggered again.

Pale Star

I have the The Pale Star (MM 049), Chonkers (MM 396), and Dark Æmber Vault (MM 001) in play. Chonkers has 1 printed power, one +1 power counter, and +2 power from the Dark Æmber Vault. If I sacrifice The Pale Star, how much power will Chonkers have? If I attack with Chonkers and it gains another +1 power counter this turn, how much power will it have then?

1 Power in both cases. Restrictive (“cannot”) effects overrule permissive (“may”) effects, and The Pale Star is essentially saying “creatures cannot have power other than 1 and armor other than 0”, So Chonkers will still only have 1 power this turn, despite any other counters or card effects that would usually increase its power, even if those counters are added after The Pale Star’s ability has triggered.

Phase Shift

I have chosen house Logos to be my active house this turn and play a Phase Shift (COTA 117) then play another copy of Phase Shift. How many non-Logos cards can I play this turn?

You can play two non-Logos cards this turn. Each copy of Phase Shift that you play allows you to play an additional non-Logos card.

I choose Logos as my active house. I play Phase Shift (CoTA 117), then play a Mimicry (CoTA 328) as a copy of Foggify (CoTA 110). Can I still play another non-Logos card using Phase Shift’s effect?

No. Phase Shift grants you permission to play 1 non-Logos card this turn. Playing Mimicry uses up this effect, as you would not have been able to play Mimicry without Phase Shift’s effect

Pitlord

I have the card Pitlord (CoTA 093) in play and my opponent plays the card Restringuntus (CoTA 094) and chooses house Dis. What happens when I try to declare my house on my next turn?

On your next turn, during the choose a house step, you will be in a position where you must choose house Dis (because of the Pitlord), but also cannot choose house Dis (because of the Restringuntus). Cannot effects have precedence over must effects, thus you cannot choose Dis. (see “Cannot Vs Must” on Page 9.) You may still choose either one of your other houses though.

I have a maverick Pitlord (CoTA 093) in play in a deck without house Dis. Am I forced to choose house Dis as my active house?

No. You cannot choose an active house unless it is on your identity card or you control a card of that house. This restriction overrides Pitlord’s effect, allowing you to choose any of your houses as your active house.

[REDACTED]

If I put a 4th Æmber on [REDACTED] (AoA 139) through a method other than its own ability, can I immediately sacrifice it and forge a key?

No. [REDACTED] has a single ability that triggers after you choose Logos as your active house, placing 1 Æmber on it then allowing you to sacrifice it and forge a key if there are 4 Æmber or more on it. You cannot use the “forge a key” part of the ability independently.

Replacement Effects

I play the card Nerve Blast (CoTA 276) while my opponent has 2 Æmber in their pool and controls a Po’s Pixies (AoA 362). Am I able to deal 2 damage with Nerve Blast’s effect?

Yes. Po’s Pixies has a replacement effect that changes where the stolen Æmber is taken from (the common supply instead of its controller’s pool). However, that Æmber is still considered to be “stolen,” and therefore the “if you do” condition of Nerve Blast has been satisfied.

My opponent has Sir Marrows (AoA 223) in play. If I play Dimension Door (CoTA 108) and then reap with a creature, does Sir Marrows capture the Æmber from the creature reaping?

No, in this case the effect of gaining the Æmber from reaping is being replaced by stealing Æmber from your opponent. This means that you aren’t getting Æmber directly from the reap and your opponent’s Sir Marrows will not be able to capture it.

I have a creature with the upgrade Discombobulator (WC 149) on it, and my opponent has Gargantodon (WC 203). My opponent tries to steal one of my Æmber. What happens?

Nothing happens. Discombobulator means that your Æmber cannot be stolen, so there will be nothing for Gargantodon’s replacement effect to replace. Your opponent’s steal effect will fail.

I have Po’s Pixies (AoA 362) and my opponent has two copies of Sir Marrows (AoA 223). I reap with Po’s Poxies. Do both of the Sir Marrows capture Æmber from the common supply?

Yes. Each of the Sir Marrows sees the Æmber that you gain from reaping, and both will try to capture it. Normally only one of them would be able to successfully capture it, however, because Po’s Pixies replaces the capture attempt with a capture from the common supply, when the second Sir Marrows attempts to capture the same specific Æmber, it is still available. Therefore both of the Sir Marrows will attempt to capture the same Æmber, one by one, and each attempt will be replaced with a capture from the common supply.

Restrictions

In my battleline I have Tantadlin (AoA 333) in play, as well as Creed of Nurture (WC 386). If I sacrifice Creed of Nurture and reveal Terrordactyl (WC 211), when I use Tantadlin to fight, will it do 2 damage (as Tantadlin says), 4 damage (as Terrordactyl says), or 6 damage (combining the damage of both Tantadlin and Terrordactyl)?

2 damage. If two conflicting restrictions apply to the same card, follow the more restrictive of the two.

Rule of Six

If I play Mimicry (CoTA 328) as a copy of an action card in my opponent’s discard pile, which card does the Rule of Six apply to?

For the purposes of the Rule of Six, you are considered to have played the copied card.

Shadow of Dis

My opponent plays Shadow of Dis (AoA 103), forcing me to treat my creatures’ text boxes as if they were blank until their next turn. I play Silvertooth (CoTA 311). Does Silvertooth enter play ready?

Yes. Shadow of Dis only affects creatures while they are in play. Silvertooth’s ability modifies how it enters play, so it is in effect before the Shadow of Dis effect applies to it.

My opponent plays Shadow of Dis (AoA 103). I have two copies of Glimmer (AoA 323) in my hand. May I play them both?

No. Alpha is a play restriction that is active while in your hand before playing the card. After you have played a card in a step, you may not play an Alpha card even if its text box will be considered blank once it is in play.

My opponent plays Shadow of Dis (AoA 103). I have a Duskwitch (AoA 320) in my hand. May I play Duskwitch, then play other cards afterwards?

Yes, you can continue to play, use, and discard cards after playing Duskwitch. Omega is an effect that occurs after a card is played. By that point, Duskwitch is in play and under the effect of Shadow of Dis, meaning it no longer has the Omega ability.

Shoulder Id

My Shoulder Id (MM 257) is attacked by a creature with 6 armor. Does Shoulder Id steal 1 Æmber?

Yes. Shoulder Id’s ability is a replacement effect that ocurs any time Shoulder Id would attempt to deal damage, even if another card’s effect would end up preventing that damage. This applies to armor, ward, invulnerable, and “cannot be dealt damage” effects such as Shield of Justice (CotA 225).

My Shoulder Id (MM 257) is attacked by a creature with skirmish. Does Shoulder Id steal 1 Æmber?

No. Shoulder Id’s replacement effect does not occur in situations when it would not attempt to deal any damage. This applies when it is attacked by a creature with skirmish, or if Shoulder Id gains elusive and is attacked for the first time in a turn.

Sir Marrows

I have 2 Æmber in my pool and I reap with a creature. My opponent has 2 Sir Marrows (AoA 223) in play. Do both Sir Marrows capture an Æmber, and if so, where does the second one come from?

Sir Marrows can only capture the 1 Æmber that was just gained from reaping. The active player determines which Sir Marrows captures the Æmber.

Stun

I have a stunned creature in my battleline, play the card Anger (CoTA 001), and choose to resolve its effect on that stunned creature. What happens?

If a card (such as Anger in this case) allows you to use a creature and if the creature you are trying to use is stunned, you remove the stun instead of doing anything else. Since Fighting is a type of being used the creature is exhausted and the stun counter is removed.

This will even work if your opponent has no creatures in play, because unstunning replaces the normal “use” (in this case fight) of the card before it begins.

I play Smaaash (CoTA 046), but each of my opponent’s creatures is already stunned. Do I have to resolve the effect against Smaaash itself?

No. You may still choose to resolve Smaaash’s “Play:” effect against one of your opponent’s creatures, however you cannot put a stun counter on an already stunned creature so nothing will happen.

Survey

When I play Survey (MM 316), what happens to the card that I look at but do not discard?

Just put it back on top of your deck. By default, if you are instructed to look at a card and not do anything else with it, it will return to the same spot it was in previously.

“This Way”

If I use Obsidian Forge (WC 025)’s action and choose to sacrifice one of my creatures that has a ward on it, will that creature reduce the cost to forge that key?

No. If they are not “destroyed this way” they do not reduce the key cost.

If I use Saurian Egg (MM 210)’s “Omni:” ability and both the cards revealed are Saurian creatures, do they both come into play? Do they get three +1 power counters each?

Yes and yes. Sometimes the egg contains twins!

Timing

I have Grasping Vines (CoTA 324) under Masterplan (CoTA 288). If I use Masterplan’s “Omni” effect to play Grasping Vines, can I return Masterplan to my hand before it is sacrificed?

Yes. Masterplan’s effect allows you to play the card beneath it before sacrificing Masterplan. Masterplan is still in play at the time you play Grasping Vines, and therefore can be returned to your hand using Grasping Vines’s effect.

If a card like Gateway to Dis (CoTA 59) destroys multiple creatures and Tolas (CoTA 103) is one of those creatures, does anyone gain Æmber off of Tolas’ ability?

No. Tolas’ ability does not trigger until cards are actually put into discard piles, at which point Tolas is already destroyed.

I have Pingle Who Annoys (CoTA 43) and my opponent plays King of the Crag (CoTA 38). Will King of the Crag take a damage before Pingle is destroyed?

No. Because King of the Crag’s ability is a constant, its effect applies as long as it’s in play and destroys Pingle before Pingle’s “after it enters play” effect can trigger.

I reap with Nexus (CoTA 305), and use my opponent’s Spectral Tunneler (CoTA 133) to give Nexus the ability “Reap: Draw a card.” Can I then trigger that “Reap” ability?

Yes. You are still at the timing point to trigger Nexus’s “Reap” abilities, so it can now trigger the ability granted by Spectral Tunneler.

My opponent has 10 Æmber and is about to forge their second key. I play Interdimensional Graft (CoTA 112). My opponent has Forgemaster Og (AoA 38) in play. On their turn they forge a key for 6 Æmber. What happens to their remaining 4 Æmber?

The effect of Interdimensional Graft and Forgemaster Og both occur at the same time step (after the key is forged), so the active player (your opponent) chooses which to resolve first.

When does the ability of the Encounter Suit (WC 330) resolve?

Encounter Suit’s ability occurs after an action card is played and its Æmber bonus is resolved, at the same timing point as other effects that occur “after” an action card is played. However, the active player must resolve Encounter Suit’s effect before resolving the “Play:” effect on that action card.

If I have Siren Horn (MM 212) on a creature with Assault 2, and I attack an enemy creature with only 2 health remaining, does the Assault damage destroy them before or after I can move an Æmber onto them?

Assault damage occurs at the same timing point as “Before Fight:” abilities, so the active player (you) gets to choose which order to resolve them in.

If I play Pain Reaction (AoA 078) on an opponent’s creature to destroy it, when is the damage dealt to its neighbors? If the creature has already left play, how do I know what its neighbors are?

Pain Reaction is an exception to the rule that all damage from an ability is dealt simultaneously, because it explicitly establishes that the damage is dealt after the destroyed creature leaves play. This damage is dealt to whatever creatures were the neighbors of the destroyed creature immediately before it left play.

If I use Smite (AoA 224) to make my Firespitter (CotA 032) fight my opponent’s 1 power creature which has 2 neighboring 1 power creatures, each of which has neighboring 2 power creatures on the flanks, will Smite kill the 2 power flank creatures?

No. Smite’s damage effect refers to the neighbors that the defending creature had immediately before leaving play. As the 1 power defending creature will leave play at the same time as its 1 power neighbors due to Firespitter’s Before Fight ability, Smite’s damage effect will fail because the creatures it refers to are no longer in play.

If I use Phalanx Strike (WC 189) and choose to exalt a friendly creature to repeat the damage effect, will this allow me to remove a ward counter from a creature and also damage the same creature?

Yes. Phalanx Strike is an exception to the rule that all damage from an ability is dealt simultaneously, because it explicitly establishes that the damage effect repeats a second time. This allows you to use the first instance of damage to remove a ward from a creature, and then use the repeated effect to deal damage to the same creature.

If I fight and destroy my opponent’s Tolas (CotA 103) with Overlord Greking (CotA 087), after putting Tolas into play under my control, will Tolas’s ability resolve?

No. Tolas has a constant ability that is active only while it is in play. Because Tolas is not in play at the time it is destroyed, its constant ability will not resolve.

I have a Jargogle’s (AoA 131) with a Wild Wormhole (CoTA 125) under it, and I play Unlocked Gateway (AoA 67). Will Omega prevent me from playing the Wild Wormhole under Jargogle? If Wild Wormhole causes a creature to be played from my deck, does that creature survive the Unlocked Gateway?

No, Omega will not stop Jargogle’s Destroyed: ability. Before Omega ends the step, you must resolve pending triggers, which means you will play the card under Jargogle, playing Wild Wormhole. If Wild Wormhole plays a creature this way, it will survive, as all creatures were already tagged for destruction by Unlocked Gateway.

Using Creatures

I have an exhausted Bumpsy (CoTA 030) in play and my opponent has no creatures in their battleline. I play the card Anger (CoTA 001) and choose to resolve it on Bumpsy. What happens?

The Bumpsy will be readied by the effect of Anger, but since there are no enemy creatures in play it cannot be used to fight so it stays ready. The creature can then be used as per the standard rules.

I have a Combat Pheromones (CoTA 180), “John Smyth” (CoTA 195), and Mindwarper (CoTA 196) in play. I sacrifice the Combat Pheromones and reap with the Mindwarper, and then reap with “John Smyth” and use “John Smyth’s” reap effect to ready the Mindwarper. Can I use the Mindwarper again?

Yes, Combat Pheromones is granting permission to use a creature during that turn. If you have an effect that readies one of the Mars cards affected by the Combat Pheromones (Such as “John Smyth”), you will be able to use that card again.

Waking Nightmare

After I play Waking Nightmare (MM 017), if more Dis creatures then enter or leave play, will my opponent’s key cost change, or is it locked in when I played Waking Nightmare?

The key cost will change. This is a lasting effect that will update every time the board state changes.

Wild Wormhole; Kelifi Dragon

I have 0 Æmber in my Æmber pool and have chosen house Logos to be my active house this turn. I play Wild Wormhole (CoTA 125) and try and play the top card of my deck is Kelifi Dragon (CoTA 037). What happens?

The Kelifi Dragon is returned to the top of the deck. Kelifi Dragon has a play requirement of needing to have 7 Æmber in your Æmber pool, and since you didn’t have any initially (you now have 1 from playing the Wild Wormhole) you don’t have enough to be able to play the Kelifi Dragon. Since you can’t play the card it is returned to the place you tried to play it from, in this case the top of the deck.