📺 THE SHAPE OF IT

Two contestants. Each brings one survivor 🧑‍🌾 — your coach, whose passive works every turn — and three creatures in a line of three slots.

Knock out all three enemy creatures and the preview match is yours.

Placement matters: edges, neighbors, and the center podium 🥇 are all real.

🔄 YOUR TURN

Draws are automatic — everyone opens with 3 cards, then draws 1 at each turn start. (The roll-off winner skips their first draw.)

Each turn you get one attack ⚔ and one card play 🃏, in either order. The ⚔/🃏 tracker at center stage shows what's left.

When both are spent, the turn ends itself in 5 seconds — tap the countdown to cancel if you still have a trick.

One card per turn is STRICT — big infusion combos take two turns, and your opponent sees the first half coming.

⚔ COMBAT

Cards read ⚔ ATK / ❤ HP. Armor 🛡 absorbs damage one-for-one, then it's gone.

Dice creatures roll their die 🎲 — a cap like ≤8 limits the hit, and naturals do special things (Thunderbird's 1 turns the storm on the bird).

Taunts 🎯 force attacks onto themselves.

Reactions only trigger if the defender survives — a killing blow silences the Goose. Some attackers (⚡ Volt-infused, Ghost Cat on an edge, Harfang) never trigger reactions at all.

☢⚡☣ INFUSIONS

Attach ☢ RAD / ⚡ VOLT / ☣ CHEM to a creature — max 2 attached, never two of the same type riding together.

Playing a type the creature already carries = a BURST 💥 (Surge · Critical Mass · Spill). Doubles are never dead cards.

Two different types replace their singles with a pair power: ☢⚡ MELTDOWN — bigger die, roll twice keep highest · ⚡☣ CONDUCTION — chain to a neighbor, silent · ☢☣ BLOOM — grows every turn.

☣ CORROSION

Green counters 🟢, cap 3. At the carrier's turn end: 1 damage per counter — armor 🛡 is ignored — then ONE counter falls off.

Three counters = six total damage unless cleansed. Chem eats armor decks alive; that's the point.

🥇 THE PODIUM — HOLD THE CENTER

The raised center slot is never left empty: if it opens and you have a creature on an edge, one must step in. You pick when you have the choice.

Some creatures want the center; some want edges; a few cards drag, swap, or trap — position is a weapon.

🪤 TRAPS

Played from your side, armed facedown on the enemy slot across the column. Only enemies trip them.

Your opponent knows a trap is set — never which one. Max one per slot.

🪢 BONDS — KEALOHA

Bond cards tie two of your creatures together — damage and blessings travel the string. Her first bond each game is a free play.

The ultimate links all three, unbreakable — and if a bonded creature falls, everyone feels the eruption 🌋.

⏸ INSTANTS & WINDOWS

When a die 🎲 lands, a window opens before it counts: Step Right Up rerolls it, and a banked Read the Swell die can replace it.

Weather 🌩 rolling in can be cancelled by Wait Five Minutes.

Windows wait for you — the feed says whose call it is.

🗑☠ THE ZONES

Discard 🗑 — face up, top card visible. Trash Panda is watching; burying cards is a legitimate micro-game.

THE PIT ☠ — the shared KO zone. The aliens collect the fallen… and a few cards can raise them, from either side's pile.

🌩 WEATHER

Storms hit both sides — you cast it, everyone stands in it.

The Forecaster's creatures shrug 1 off anything that hits multiple targets, and her Sou'westers wait it out.

🎰 READ THE FRAMES

SAFE / SWINGY / JACKPOT chips mark how much a card gambles — you choose your variance. That's why the lows are funny.

LEGENDARY wears test-pattern edges — there is exactly one: protect the pigeon or hunt it 🕊.

CRYPTID 👁 is a lore class — their TRUE STORY is not guaranteed.

📡 TABLE MANNERS (DIGITAL)

Tap a card any time it isn't your move to read it full-screen — long-press works too; hover on desktop. On your turn, the first tap raises a card and the second commits it.

One legal target — or a lone taunter 🎯 — auto-locks when you attack.

The FEED 📢 calls the fight; the LOG remembers everything; 🐛 files a bug with the commission.