Keeper of the Cards

Rulebook (17^th Edition)

Keeper of the Cards is a competitive trading card game. It is loosely inspired by and similar to several popular trading card games, but featuring a system which not only allows, but directly encourages players to create their own card designs, as outlined in the Card Building Guide.

Keeper of the Cards can be played by 2 or more players. There is theoretically no limit, but it is recommended to keep the number of players small, preferably between 2 and 8. Regardless of the number of players, each player acts alone and every other player is an enemy. The goal of a game of Keeper of the Cards is to reduce the HP of all enemy players to 0, while keeping your own HP above 0. You accomplish this by using the cards which form your deck to battle and activate abilities.

Card Types and Layout

There are 2 types of cards in Keeper of the Cards: minions, and spells. Here are some examples of both:

The card on the left is a minion, and the card on the right is a spell. They are visually very similar; the only noteworthy difference is that spells have a pair of triangles instead of the additional elements found on a minion.

The elements marked on the cards are:

1. The name of the card. This is purely cosmetic and has no effect on the game.
2. The card image. This is purely cosmetic and has no effect on the game.
3. The ability text of the card.
4. The Edition Indicator, which indicates the edition of the game the card was designed for.
5. The level of the card.
6. The Ultra Points value of the card. Each deck is allowed to contain no more than 10 Ultra Points in total. If this is not present, the card is worth 0 Ultra Points.
7. The SP of the card.
8. The HP of the card.
9. The flavor text of the card. This is purely cosmetic and has no effect on the game.

Setup and Deck Building

Prior to starting a game of Keeper of the Cards, each player must assemble a deck. When building a deck, you must adhere to the following requirements:

• The deck must contain 40–60 cards created as detailed by the Card Building Guide.
• The total amount of Ultra Points in the deck must be no greater than 10.
• All cards must look the same from the back (this can be achieved by using sleeves if necessary).
• All cards must have an Edition Indicator showing what edition of Keeper of the Cards they were designed for.
• Pruned cards, defined under Refurbished and Pruned Cards, may not be used.

You can find preëxisting starter decks, as well as a template for designing your own cards, in the Starter Set.

In addition to one deck for each player, there should be a reasonable amount of six-sided dice (preferably at least 10–20 dice), and some objects such as coins or poker chips to use as counters. Depending on the cards in your deck, you may also find it useful to have blank minion cards to use as pawns.

Before each game, all players must shuffle their decks. Each player begins the game with 35 HP, which you can note on a piece of paper or thru some other counter. Decide which player will go first; one method is for each player to roll a six-sided die and for the player with the highest roll to go first.

After your deck has been shuffled, draw 5 cards for your initial hand; to draw a card is to take the topmost card from your deck and add that card to your hand. Once, optionally, you may then immediately mulligan your initial hand: bury – place on the bottom of your deck in any order – any number of cards in your hand, then draw a number of cards equal to the number of cards buried.

Zones

Each player has a play area: a designated area where cards are played, divided into several distinct zones which each have a specific purpose. Each zone's contents are classified as either public knowledge, in which case all players are entitled to know what cards are in the zone; private knowledge, in which case all players are entitled to know the number of cards in the zone, but only its owner is entitled to know what cards are in the zone; or restricted knowledge, in which case all players are entitled to know the number of cards in the zone, but no player (not even its owner) is entitled to know what cards are in the zone. The zones are as follows:

• Deck: Typically below the grave, to the right of the granary. The contents of the deck are restricted knowledge.
• Grave: Typically above the deck, to the right of the battlefield. Any card which is destroyed is immediately sent here, face-down. The contents of the grave are private knowledge.
• Battlefield: Typically above the granary, to the left of the grave. Contains its owner's on-field minions. The contents of the battlefield are public knowledge.
• Granary: Typically below the battlefield. Contains its owner's resources. The contents of the granary are private knowledge.
• Hand: Typically held in the hand. Contains the cards its owner currently has available to play. The contents of the hand are private knowledge.

Turn Order

Each turn in Keeper of the Cards consists of the following phases:

1. Draw Phase: Draw 1 card.
   • Special exception: on the first turn of the game, the player who goes first skips this phase.
2. Resource Phase: You may optionally sow 1 resource. A resource is sowed by placing any card from your hand into the granary unexhausted (oriented vertically) and face-down.
3. Action Phase: You may play any cards from your hand that you are able to, and you may also activate on-field minion abilities. See Minions and Spells for more information.
4. Battle Phase: You may do battle with your unexhausted minions. See Battles for more information.
5. Recovery Phase: Every on-field minion and every resource (for all players) is unexhausted. Every on-field minion has its SP, HP, and level reset to the respective values printed on the card (reversing any damage or other changes to SP, HP, or level due to card abilities).

Exhaustion and Recovery

Exhausted, for any card, means that the card cannot currently be used; this is marked by having the card in a horizontal (sideways) orientation. By contrast, unexhausted means that the card can currently be used; this is marked by having the card in a vertical (upright) orientation. To exhaust a card, rotate it to a horizontal orientation. To unexhaust a card, rotate it to a vertical orientation. Cards are only unexhausted during the Recovery Phase.

During the Recovery Phase, all cards in every player's battlefield and granary are unexhausted. In addition, every minion in every player's battlefield has its SP, HP, and level returned to the respective values printed on it. This effectively reverses any changes to these values that might have happened, including damage. As such, changes to an on-field minion's SP, HP, and level effectively last only for the turn in which they take effect, even thô this is not explicitly stated in card effects.

Minions

Minions are cards which are used to do battle and may also have special abilities. Minions must be summoned from your hand to the battlefield before they can be used, but once they are summoned, they can be used indefinitely as long as they remain on the battlefield.

To summon a minion: pay its resource cost, then place it, face-up and exhausted, into the battlefield. (See Exhaustion and Recovery for more information about resources and exhaustion.)

Minions can have any number of abilities. Each ability is designated on a separate paragraph, with a name indicated. To activate a minion ability whose activation condition is met, the minion must be on-field and you must exhaust it, unless the ability has ghost-play. After that, perform the steps described for activation of an ability in Abilities.

Additionally, minions have SP – the minion's capability for inflicting damage in battles; and HP – the minion's tolerance for taking damage. Damage is the reduction of a player's or minion's HP by a given amount. When a minion takes an amount of damage greater than or equal to its HP, it is destroyed. Additionally, if the amount of damage is greater than the minion's HP, the difference is inflicted as piercing damage to its controller. For example, if 6 damage is inflicted to a minion with 4 HP, the minion will be destroyed and its controller will take 2 HP of piercing damage.

Note: it is possible for a minion to initially have 0 HP; in such a case, any amount of damage will destroy the minion and be inflicted to its controller in full as piercing damage.

Damage is central to battles, which all minions can participate in; see Battles for more information.

Minions can also hold counters; see Counters for more information.

Spells

Spells are cards that only have a single ability. Spells can be cast from your hand. To cast a spell whose activation condition is met: pay its resource cost, reveal the spell to all other players (at this point the spell does not exist in any zone), perform the steps described for activation of an ability in Abilities, and then send the spell to the grave.

Abilities

A card's abilities are indicated in the ability text. Each ability is composed of the following components in the following order:

1. Ability name (minion abilities only): The name of the minion ability, designated with all capital letters. Has no effect on gameplay.
2. Activation condition: Indicates under what condition the ability can be activated, followed by a colon (:). If no explicit activation condition is present, the ability's activation condition is the standard activation condition, meaning it may be used only during your own Action Phase, and only as chain link 1.
3. Activation cost: Indicates a special cost paid upon activation of the ability, followed by an arrow (→). If you activate an ability you are unable to pay the activation cost for, the ability has no effect.
4. Sub-abilities: Composed of an optional target selection, indicating what cards are treated as targets for the sub-ability, and 1 or more effects, indicating what the sub-ability does. Each ability can have any number of sub-abilities; each sub-ability is a separate sentence.

Abilities whose activation condition is met can be activated. The way to do this depends on card type, but once an ability is activated, perform the following steps:

1. Immediately pay any activation cost. If you cannot, the ability fails. Otherwise, the ability becomes a chain link and either starts or continues a chain. (See Chains for more information.)
2. Wait for the ability to resolve in the chain. When it does, do what every sub-ability says to do in sequence. If any effect is impossible as stated on the card text, it does nothing.

Many abilities make use of special keywords; see Keywords for a list of explanations for all of these keywords.

Abilities can optionally have tutorial text in parentheses, generally rendered in italics, after the end of the ability text. Tutorial text only exists to teach mechanics, and has no actual effect on the game.

Counters

A counter is an element, generally represented by arbitrary objects such as coins or Poker ships, which can be placed on an on-field minion, preparing an effect for future use. It stays on the minion it is placed on until either the minion is moved to a zone other than the battlefield, or the counter is removed by some other means.

There are several different types of counters, each of which has a different effect which can be triggered by popping it. To pop a counter is to remove it and then trigger its effect – execute it as described in this section for the respective counter type. Counter effects are broadly classified into two categories: proactive counter effects, and reactive counter effects.

• A proactive counter effect starts a chain or, alternatively, responds to existing chain, similar to abilities. However, it can be triggered in any phase of any player's turn, restricted only by chain rules. See Chains for more information.
• A reactive counter effect does not start a chain or respond to a chain, and is not restricted by chain rules. However, it can only be triggered in specific circumstances.

Additionally, the following rules apply to all counters:

• Popping a counter does not require exhausting the minion it is on since the effect is that of the counter, not of the minion.
• The player who placed a counter is considered to be the counter’s “owner” and “controller” and is the one who can pop it, regardless of who the controller of the minion is.
• Removing the counter as a part of popping it is done immediately when the effect is triggered.

Chains

Due to activation conditions on abilities and the nature of how counters work, it is possible for multiple players to simultaneously be able to perform certain actions. Chains exist to clarify what exactly happens in these situations.

The following actions are all chaining actions, meaning they start or respond to a chain:

• Activating a minion's ability whose activation condition is met.
• Casting a spell whose activation condition is met.
• Popping a counter with a proactive counter effect.

When a chaining action is performed and it isn't in response to an existing chain, a new chain starts and said chaining action becomes the first chain link of said chain. Then, all players, starting with the player to the left of the player who started the chain and then going clockwise, are given an opportunity to respond to the chain by performing chaining actions of their own. If any player decides to respond to the chain, all players are again given the opportunity to respond to the chain, this time starting with the player to the left of the player who last responded and then going clockwise. This process is repeated until all players consecutively decide not to respond to the chain.

Whenever any chaining action is performed, any applicable activation cost is paid immediately. Effects, however, are not executed immediately. Instead, once all players are done responding to the chain, the chain begins resolving: in reverse order (starting with the most recent chain link and working backwards), each chain link's effects are actually executed, which is referred to as resolving the effects.

For example, when resolving a chain where chain link 1 is an ability with the effect, “Destroy the targets,”, and chain link 2 is the effect of a Weakness Counter, then resolution of the chain goes as follows:

1. The effect of the Weakness Counter removed for chain link 2 resolves, decreasing the SP of the card it was on to 0.
2. The effect of the ability activated for chain link 1 resolves, destroying the cards it targeted.

Only 1 chain can be active at a time, and no chaining actions can be performed while a chain is resolving; if a chain is resolving, any player who wishes to perform a chaining action must wait until the chain finishes resolving, and can then start a new chain.

Battles

Battles are the primary way for players to advance the game state of Keeper of the Cards. Battles enable damaging other players' HP and destroying their on-field minions. They are initiated by the player whose turn it is during the Battle Phase; this player becomes the attacking player. Each battle consists of the following steps:

1. Attack Formation: The attacking player enlists any number of their on-field unexhausted minions by exausting them – the enlisted minions become the attacking team – and declares 1 victim: a player or a minion which the attacker wants to inflict damage to. Any given player or minion can only be declared as a victim once per Battle Phase. The player declared as a victim, or the controller of the minion declared as a victim, becomes the defending player. The attacking player selects and announces the formation order of the attacking team – the order in which these minions will take damage.
2. Defense Formation: The defending player may enlist any number of their on-field unexhausted minions (which may or may not include the victim itself) by exhausting them – the enlisted minions become the defending team. If they do this, they then select and announce the formation order of the defending team.
3. Damage Allocation: The attacking player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the total SP of the attacking team, and the defending player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the total SP of the defending team. Then, each player must take each of their rolled dice, 1 at a time (in any order), and inflict the result as damage to the next surviving minion in the other player's team (based on the respective formation order selected) until either all dice are used or all minions in the respective team are destroyed. If any of the attacking team's dice remain, inflict the total result of these remaining dice as damage to the victim, or if the victim is a minion which is no longer on-field, to the victim's controller instead.

Any enlisted minion which moves to another zone or whose controller changes after it is enlisted is implicitly withdrawn from its respective team.

For the purposes of timing, everything which occurs in each step is considered to occur simultaneously. As such, any action which starts a chain cannot be taken during one of the steps and must wait until the respective step is completed.

During your Battle Phase, you may initiate as many battles as you want to as long as you have unexhausted minions remaining and valid potential victims remain.

Endgame

The game ends when any of the following endgame conditions are met:

• When all players have 0 HP.
• When all players but 1 have 0 HP.
• When any player is made to draw a card while their deck is empty.
• When all players agree that there is no reason to continue the game.

A player's HP cannot be be lower than 0. Until an endgame condition is met, players with 0 HP, referred to as zombie players, continue to play as normal. Zombie players can regain a chance at winning the game by gaining HP before an endgame condition is met.

Once the game ends, use the following criteria to determine the winner. For each criterion, if it designates a single player, that player is considered the winner. Otherwise, check the next criterion only with the players who passed the previous criterion. If all criteria fail to designate a single player, the game ends in a tie between all players who were designated by the criteria.

1. The player who was not made to draw while their deck was empty.
2. The player with the most HP.
3. The player whose on-field minions' total combined levels is the highest.
4. The player with the largest number of cards in their deck.

Keywords

This section lists common keywords used in card text, including any important nuances for said keywords.

Refurbished and Pruned Cards

As the game develops, any given card made for old editions can become outdated. In that case, one of two things happens: either the card is refurbished – meaning the card's outdated text is substituted for some other, newer card text; or the card is pruned – meaning it is no longer a valid card for use in a game. This section exhaustively lists all cases in which cards are refurbished or pruned.

To assist with this process, all cards are required to carry an Edition Indicator showing which edition the card was designed for. The indicated edition is referred to as the design edition. Any card with no Edition Indicator is invalid.