How to play

Setting up

Everyone gets 10 cards, one fewer for each player above 3 (9 with 4 players, 8 with 5, down to 5 with 8), never a Curse or Mega Curse. (The VIP can change this and a few other numbers in the lobby's Rules menu.) One Number card is turned up to start the discard pile. Turns go around the table, like Uno.

Bad start? Until someone makes the first move, anyone can press Redeal?. Once more than half the players have pressed it, the whole game is dealt again.

The first person to have no cards left wins. You have to win at the table: the shop won't take your last card.

The VIP (the first player in the room) picks the deck, adds bots and starts the game. The VIP can also end the game from the ♪ menu in the corner (hold the button for 2 seconds): everyone goes back to the start page. Anyone can leave: ← Leave room in the lobby, or Leave the game in the ♪ menu during a game. Leaving mid-game sells everything you hold (Exodia pieces count as destroyed) and you step out of the turn order; if one player is left, they win. If the VIP leaves, the next player is the VIP. The party view is an optional screen, like a TV, that shows the table to everyone watching.

When a game ends, every screen shows the Play of the Game: a replay of the turn that moved the most cards.

Music: the ♪ menu in the corner turns the music on or off and sets the volume, for that screen. The party view plays it by default; players' screens start quiet.

Your turn: when your turn starts, your screen says Your Turn! in the color of the top card, plays a sound, and buzzes (on phones that allow it; iPhones don't). The sound can be turned off in the ♪ menu.

Your turn

Each turn you get one Discard Action. Pick one:

• Play Into Discard: a card that matches the top card, or a chain of Numbers.
• Draw. You keep drawing until you get a card that can go on the discard pile, up to 3 cards. You can still play that last card (alone or in a chain). A turn where you only draw gives you +1 Spell Mana at the end.
• Summon a familiar, feed one, or attack with one.
• Cast a Spell from your hand for ⚡1, matching or not.
• Play a Story card (+1 Spell Mana), if you've used your free Mana play already.
• Devote yourself to a Lord.
• Go to the shop.
• Gain Combat Mana by discarding Equipment (if you've used your free Mana play already).

On top of that, any time on your turn, for free:

• Your Mana play: one Mana card or one Story card for +1 Spell Mana, or one Equipment card for +1 Combat Mana.
• An Overcharge Discard: spend ⚡5 to put any card from your hand on top of the discard pile.
• Use your Lord's powers.

Press End turn when you're done.

Matching

A card can go into the discard if it shares any one of these five with the top card:

Color

Red on red, like Uno. The colors are red, yellow, green, blue and black, plus Odd: every other color (purple, pink, orange, white…) counts as Odd, so a purple card goes on a pink one. A wild can be named Odd. A card with no color (None) matches nothing by color.

Digit

Any digit in common: a 27 goes on a 7, a 2 or a 72.

Name

Pikachu on Pikachu ex. Most numbers have no name to match.

Type

Fire on Fire, Spell on Spell.

Kind

The same kind of card: a Spell on a Spell, Mana on Mana, a Lord on a Lord, a familiar on a familiar, Equipment on Equipment. Not Numbers (they match by digit) and never Curses.

Hold any card down to see exactly what it matches on. There are three kinds of wild:

True Wild

Wild in digit and color: Jokers, Uno Wilds, and Crazy 8s (any card numbered exactly 8, from any game). They go on anything, even a card with no color or digit. When one lands on top, whoever played it names its color; after that it's just that color (and an 8 still matches 8s). A Crazy 8 is still a Number, so it feeds familiars as an 8.

Number Wild

Wild in digit only, like an Infinity of Spades: it matches any card with a digit, and keeps its own color.

Color Wild

Wild in color only, like the 69 of Rainbows or Wild Draw Four: it matches any color, and you name its color when it lands on top.

Chains

Play several cards at once. The first one has to match the top card. A chain links one of two ways, never both:

• By digit: Numbers (and True Wilds), each sharing a digit with the one before it. For example: Yellow 9 → 69 of Rainbows → Blue 6.
• By name: any cards that share a name, each with the one before it: two Skips, Ivysaur → Ivysaur. Colors never link a chain.

Every Spell in a chain goes off, in order: two Skips skip two players, two Draw Twos make the next player draw 4.

A chain gives you +1 Spell Mana for every 2 cards in it (2 cards: 1, 4 cards: 2, 6 cards: 3). In a digit chain you can use at most:

• one True Wild (Crazy 8s included): it links any two digits;
• two Medium Numbers (11 to 999);
• one Large Number (1000 and up, like the Credit Card).

Number Wilds link any two digits too, and don't count toward these limits.

The kinds of card

Every card belongs to one archetype. Hold a card down to see which.

Number

Small (0–12), Medium (13–999) and Large (1000+). They go into the discard, chain, and feed familiars. 10, 11 and 12 are Small: fed to a familiar, they fill one slot with one of their digits.

True Wild

Goes on anything. Under it, a card needs a digit or a color to match it.

Mana

Play one a turn, free, for +1 Spell Mana.

Familiar

Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 monsters you summon, feed and attack with.

Spell

Spells that do something (Skip, Draw Two, Strikes…) and Counters (like Nope).

Equipment

Lets a familiar attack for free, or play it as your Mana play (or discard it) for +1 Combat Mana.

Resource

Sell it at the shop: Junk 2 gold, Material 5, Property 6 (some cards print their own price). Treasure (the GameStop Gift Card) is never sold: spend it at the shop instead, for any one thing free.

Lord

Devote yourself to one for special powers.

Story

Builds the table's story, or a prompt to answer. Gives Spell Mana, as your free Mana play or your Discard Action.

Curse

Can't be played. Pay the shop 10 gold, or use an Overcharge Discard, to get rid of it.

Mega Curse

Matches like any card, so you can play it into the discard, if you dare: you pay the price printed on it (Pot of Greed: draw 2; Paul Allen's Business Card: miss your next turn). Or get rid of it like a Curse.

Mana

There are three kinds, each with its own pips:

Spell Mana

Blue circles, up to 5. From Mana cards, chains, turns where you only draw, Story cards, and the shop.

Combat Mana

Red squares, up to 5. From Equipment: as your free Mana play, or Gain Combat Mana. It pays for anything Spell Mana does, but Spell Mana can't stand in for it. Attacks use Combat Mana first.

Lord Mana

Purple diamonds, up to 4. Your Lord's own, for its powers.

⚡ is the price in mana. It pays for summoning, casting Spells (⚡1), getting into the shop (⚡1), devoting to a Lord (⚡1), attacking without Equipment (1 Combat Mana, or ⚡2 Spell Mana), and the Overcharge Discard (⚡5).

Overcharge Discard: the card goes on top of the discard pile, so it can change what the next player has to match. A wild goes on top with no color named, so anything with a color or digit can follow. A card that would lock the pile (no color and no digit, or a Curse) is destroyed instead. A Spell played this way does nothing, and a Mega Curse makes you draw nothing.

Familiars

You can have up to 4 familiars out at once.

• Summoning:
  • Tier 1: ⚡1.
  • Tier 2: sacrifice a Tier 1 familiar, or ⚡2 if you have none.
  • Tier 3: sacrifice a Tier 2 familiar, or ⚡3 if you have none.
  A new familiar starts in Defense Mode (lying sideways), with no attack.
• Feeding: put a Number into it. Its digits fill the familiar's slots (Tier 1: 1, Tier 2: 2, Tier 3: 3), and its attack is the sum of the digits it holds. Once fed, it's in Attack Mode. A Small Number fills one slot; a bigger Number lets you pick which of its digits to use; a Number Wild fills one slot with any digit you pick. You can feed the familiar you just summoned that same turn, once, for free.
• Health: a familiar is destroyed when its attack or its digits run out.
• A familiar can also just be played into the discard by color, like any card. Familiars never chain.

Attacks

A familiar in Attack Mode can attack another player. Discard an Equipment card to do it, or pay 1 Combat Mana, or 2 Spell Mana. Everyone gets a moment to Counter it. Then the defender chooses which of their familiars block:

• A blocker in Attack Mode soaks up attack equal to its own attack. Both lose that much, and whichever hits 0 is destroyed.
• A blocker in Defense Mode is destroyed, but it stops the attack completely and halves the attacker's attack.
• Whatever gets through, the defender draws that many cards.

You can't attack yourself, and familiars only ever fight other players' familiars.

Spells and Counters

Play a Spell into the discard when it matches (free): like in Uno, it goes at the next player. Or cast it from your hand for ⚡1, and pick who it hits. Here's what they do:

Skip

The next player misses their turn.

Reverse

The turn order flips. With two players it works as a Skip.

Draw

A player draws the number on the card (Draw Two: 2, Wild Draw Four: 4).

Peek

You see the next 3 cards of the draw pile.

Strike

Hits a familiar (played into the discard: one of the next player's, you pick which): one of its digits is gone (along with that much attack), and one in Defense Mode is destroyed. They can block it with one of their Defense Mode familiars instead (not in a chain of Strikes: those come too fast). If they have no familiars, they draw 2.

Shuffle

The discard pile goes back into the draw pile.

Swap

You trade hands with another player.

Attack

(Shiv: 4) Attacks a player as if a familiar with that much attack did: they can block it with their familiars, and draw whatever gets through. Two chained add up.

Gift

(Christmas Card) You give a card from your hand to a player, and you pick it. Never your last card.

Everyone else draws

(Tempest) Every other player draws 1.

Wheel

(Wheel of Fortune) Every player, you too, puts their hand out of play and draws 7.

Spell Mana

(Black Lotus: +3) You gain Spell Mana. Black Lotus is a Counter too: hold it for the countdown, or play it for mana.

Countering: after every Spell (or chain of Spells), attack or targeted Lord power, everyone gets the same 4-second countdown. A Counter card (like Nope) cancels it, a Counter on a Counter cancels that, and so on. A Counter as your last card wins.

Lords

Devote yourself to a Lord for ⚡1 or by sacrificing a familiar. It's permanent, and you only get one. A Lord has its own Lord Mana (purple diamonds, up to 4) to spend on its powers, which don't use your Discard Action. For example, Chandra can give you Another Discard Action, or blast a player for 4.

To refill Lord Mana, sacrifice a familiar to it (Tier 1 +1, Tier 2 +2, Tier 3 +3), or sacrifice a spare Lord from your hand to fill it completely (that uses your Discard Action). A Lord you don't want sells for 8 gold.

The shop

Getting in costs ⚡1, 2 gold, or a familiar, and uses your Discard Action. Once you're inside:

• Sell once per visit: a single card, or a chain of several cards of one kind (three Junk, two Properties, never a mix). Junk 2 gold, Material 5, Property 6, Equipment 7, a Lord 8. A chain earns +1 gold per card in it: three Junk sell for 6 + 3 = 9.
• Buy as much as your gold allows:
  • a Sale card: one of the two cheap cards on offer (6 gold);
  • a random card of a kind you name (10 gold): a Number of the size you pick, a familiar of the tier you pick, a Wild, a Spell or Equipment;
  • +1 Spell Mana (5 gold);
  • getting rid of any card from your hand (10 gold), or of a familiar for 3 gold (once a visit).
• Treasure: spend a Treasure card (the GameStop Gift Card, or a Credit or Debit Card) to get any one of those things for free. It's not a sale, so you can still sell this visit.
• Leaving the shop ends your turn. The shop won't take your last card.

Story cards

Locations, Roles and Objectives build the scene on the table. A Prompt sets a question, and Answers answer it. Each gives +1 Spell Mana. Play one as your free Mana play, and another with your Discard Action if you like. If the table votes an answer funny, it gives another one.

Curses

Curses (like the Exploding Kitten) can't be played at all: pay the shop 10 gold, or use an Overcharge Discard, to get rid of one.

Mega Curses are easier to get rid of, at a price. They match like any card, so you can play one into the discard, but you pay the price it says: Pot of Greed makes you draw 2, Paul Allen's Business Card makes you miss your next turn. Or pay them off at the shop like a Curse, or Overcharge-Discard them, with no price. Neither is ever in a starting hand.

Exodia

The five pieces of Exodia (and the Mystery Exodia Item) are Junk worth 3 gold each. But play five Exodia cards together, in any order, on any top card, and you win on the spot.

Sell enough of them, get rid of them at the shop or throw them out with a Wheel, and five can never come together again: Exodia is Eternally Forbidden... Every Exodia card leaves the game, and everyone holding any sells them on the spot (with the chain bonus). If that empties your hand, you win.

Calling Uno

When you're down to one card, press Uno. Until you do, anyone can catch you, right up until your next turn starts, and you draw 3.

If a turn is dragging, a Hurry up! button appears for everyone else after 30 seconds. Once most of them press it, the player has 15 seconds left.

Cheat sheet

These are the current playtest rules and they change often. The deck builder can make any deck you like: see Making cards and decks.