Shard Command OACG
Deck Builder Version 1.0 Beta

Comprehensive Rules

1. Deck Construction & Formats

• Main Deck: Must contain exactly 40 to 60 cards. You may have a maximum of 4 copies of any unique card. "Vanilla" Entities with no text box abilities are exempt from the 4-copy rule.
• Sovereign: Your deck must contain exactly 1 Sovereign. Sovereigns must have their stats and abilities paid for with Shards and are constrained by the Sovereign Shard budget.
• Standard Format: 150 Main Deck Tax / 25 Sovereign Shard limit.
• Budget Format: 100 Main Deck Tax / 15 Sovereign Shard limit.
• Pro Format: 250 Main Deck Tax / 40 Sovereign Shard limit.

2. Game Setup & Zones

Determine the starting player. Each player begins with 20 Integrity. Place your chosen Sovereign face up in the Sovereign Zone. Place your Main Deck in its designated zone and draw a starting hand of 5 cards. Setup your physical Charge Stones in your designated "Charge Pool".

Tactical Redraw: Before the first turn, you may place any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck, draw that many replacements, and shuffle your deck. You may only do this once.

3. Turn Structure

Start Phase: First, Ready all Exhausted cards in the Arena and return all Charge Stones from your Used Zone back to your Unused Zone. Second, draw two cards from your Main Deck. The starting player skips this draw step on their first turn.

Main Phase: The active player has Priority. You may slide up to two Charge Stones from your Pool into your Unused Zone. You may play Entities, Items, and Rites by paying their Shard costs. You may declare attacks. Entities suffer from Deployment Fatigue; they cannot declare attacks or use Exhaust abilities on the turn they enter the Arena.

End Phase: Resolve "at the end of your turn" triggers. Clear all marked damage from Entities. If you hold more than 7 cards, discard down to 7.

4. The Response Queue (Priority & Resolution)

When a player plays a card or activates an ability, it enters the Response Queue. Priority then passes to the opposing player, allowing them to respond with "Fast Speed" Rites or abilities. Responses are placed on top of the Queue. Once both players pass Priority, the Queue resolves Last In, First Out (LIFO). Entities, Items, and Focus Rites may only be played when the Queue is empty during your Main Phase.

5. Resource Mechanics & Costs

To pay Shard costs, slide Charge Stones from your Unused Zone to your Used Zone. Generic costs can be paid with any stone. Element costs must be paid using matching Elemental Stones. If a card has multiple Elements in its Identity, you must pay at least 1 Shard of each specific Element. Shard Filtering: You may slide two Generic Stones to generate one Elemental Shard of any type for the current turn.

6. Combat Resolution

To declare an attack, Exhaust a Ready Entity you control. You must declare a target: either the opponent's Integrity or an Exhausted Entity they control. The defending player may then Exhaust a Ready Entity to Intercept the attack. Combat damage is dealt simultaneously. If an Entity accrues marked damage equal to or greater than its Durability, it is destroyed and moved to the Scrap zone.

7. Recursion Limits & State Guards

• The Banish-on-Exit Rule: Whenever a card enters the Arena or is resolved from the Scrap zone (via abilities like Reanimate or Echo), it receives an Echo marker. If a card with an Echo marker leaves the Arena for any reason, it is Obliterated (removed from the game entirely) instead of returning to the Scrap zone.
• Death Trigger Exclusions: The trigger "Whenever another Entity of yours leaves the Arena:" applies exclusively to other Entities you control. A card cannot trigger its own exit ability to re-enter play, clone itself, or satisfy its own sacrifice requirement.
• Token Entities: Tokens (such as those generated by Swarm) exist only while on the Arena battlefield. If a token leaves the Arena, it ceases to exist immediately and never enters the Scrap zone.
• Loop Termination: If a repeatable loop of game actions occurs without advancing the game state or requiring additional Shard payments, the active player may execute the loop a maximum of 3 iterations before it terminates for that turn.

8. Deficit & Divergence Penalties

Deficit Penalty: If a card's Base Point cost exceeds its Shard Purchasing Power, the system applies a Deficit Penalty. This permanently adds +3 Tax/Shard cost for every missing point.

Divergence Tax: Assigning a card an ability outside of its selected Elemental Identity automatically adds a flat +4 Base Points to its budget calculation.

Trigger & Target Multipliers: Repeating triggers and wide-area targets multiply the cost of attached keywords.

9. Winning and Losing

State-based actions are checked immediately. A player loses the game if their Integrity is reduced to 0 or less, or if they are required to draw a card from an empty Main Deck. A player may concede at any time.

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Glossary of Mechanics

• Add +1/+1 Upgrade (Earth): Target Entity permanently gains +1 Force and +1 Durability.
• Aerial (Air): This Entity can only be Intercepted by other Aerial Entities or Entities with Interceptor.
• Armored (Earth): All damage dealt to this Entity is reduced by 1.
• Assault (Malice): Gains +2/+0 and Breach when attacking a Sentry.
• Banish (Void): Obliterate a card from any Scrap zone.
• Blank (Void): Target Entity loses all keywords and abilities until the end of the turn.
• Bombard (Fire): Remove a trench counter to deal 2 damage.
• Breach (Earth): Excess combat damage is dealt directly to the opponent's Integrity.
• Deal # Dmg (Fire): Deal # damage to any target.
• Delay (Time): Return a Rite from the Response Queue to its owner's hand.
• Destroy Entity (Malice): Send target Entity to the Scrap zone.
• Drain Intel (Malice): Target opponent discards a card from their hand.
• Draw # Card (Water): Draw # cards from your Main Deck.
• Echo (Time): You may cast this Rite from the Scrap zone by paying its cost. Obliterate it afterward.
• Elemental Rock # (Generic): Exhaust this card to produce # Elemental Shards matching its Identity.
• Entrench (Earth): Gains the Sentry keyword and +0/+2 to its stats.
• Enters Exhausted (Generic): This card enters the Arena Exhausted and cannot be used until Readied.
• Evade (Air): Prevent the first damage this Entity would take each turn.
• Fast Speed (Time): This Rite can be played at any time.
• Fatal (Death): Any combat damage dealt by this Entity destroys the target.
• Flow (Water): Exhaust this Entity to produce 1 Generic Shard.
• Foresight # (Time): Look at the top # cards of your deck. Leave them on top or move to bottom.
• Freeze (Water): Exhaust target Entity. It does not Ready during its controller's next Recovery Phase.
• Heal # Integrity (Life): Restore # Integrity to your Sovereign.
• Immunity (Void): Cannot be targeted, Intercepted, or damaged by cards of the chosen Element.
• Interceptor (Space): This Entity is permitted to Intercept Aerial Entities.
• Intimidating (Malice): Requires two or more Entities to Intercept it.
• Isolate (Space): Target Entity cannot attack or Intercept until the end of your next turn.
• Loot (Water): Draw 1 Card, then discard 1 Card.
• Nullify Rite (Void): Counter a Rite being played by the opponent.
• Obliterate Entity (Death): Remove the target from the game entirely.
• Pay 1 Integrity (Malice): Pay 1 Integrity as an additional cost.
• Preemptive (Time): This Entity deals its combat damage before Entities without Preemptive.
• Reanimate (Death): Put target Entity from your Scrap zone directly into the Arena.
• Reckless (Fire): This Entity must attack each turn if able.
• Regenerate (Life): At the end of the turn, clear all damage from this Entity.
• Return to Hand (Space): Return target Entity to its owner's hand.
• Revive to Hand (Life): Return an Entity from your Scrap zone to your hand.
• Sacrifice an Entity (Death): Pay cost of sending an Entity you control to Scrap zone.
• Sentry (Earth): This Entity cannot declare attacks; it may only Intercept.
• Silence (Void): Opponents cannot play Fast Speed Rites this turn.
• Siphon (Death): Damage dealt heals your Integrity for the exact same amount.
• Submerge (Water): Target Entity gets -2/-0 until the end of the turn.
• Surge (Fire): This Entity does not suffer Deployment Fatigue.
• Swarm (Life): Create a 1/1 Token Entity and put it into the Arena.
• Swift (Air): Cannot be Intercepted by Entities with a higher Force.
• Tireless (Life): This Entity does not Exhaust when declaring an attack.
• Unblockable (Air): This Entity cannot be Intercepted by any means.
• Updraft (Air): Put target Entity on top of its owner's Main Deck.
• Veiled (Space): Cannot be targeted by opponent's Rites or abilities.
• Volatile (Fire): Automatically sacrificed at end of turn it enters the Arena.
• Warp (Space): Exile this Entity and return it to the Arena at start of next turn.