Actions

When it is a player's turn, she takes an action of her choice. After the action, if the initiative token is still on her side of the initiative track or in the neutral zone, she takes another action.

Actions may be taken in any order, and the same action may be taken more than once during a turn. Some actions have some sort of requirement to be possible. Possible actions include Summon, Activate, Score, Replenish, and Invade.

Activated Squad

The activated squad is the squad that was chosen for activation at the beginning of an activation action. When a squad moves, if some units were left behind, only the moved units are considered to be activated.

Activate

To perform an activate action, a player must choose a squad she controls on the battlefield and pay that squad's activation cost. Then she may perform each of the following optional steps in order with that squad: reorder, move, battle.

Activation Cost

The activation cost of a squad is the highest activation cost of any one unit in that squad.

Active Player

The active player is the player currently performing actions.

Adjacency

Zones that share a border are adjacent.

Applying Damage

Applying damage is the third step of a battle. Each squad's attack value is applied as damage to the opponent's squad simultaneously.

Damage is applied starting with the top unit of the squad and continuing to the next unit below once the top unit's defense has been reached. Units who receive enough damage to be destroyed are all destroyed and discarded simultaneously. Damage that was insufficient to destroy a unit is lost.

Attack Value

A unit's attack value is shown by the symbol on its card, plus any possible boosts to the unit provided by an ability. The attack value of a squad is the combined attack value of all units in the squad, plus any possible boosts to the squad provided by abilities or battle card effects.

Battle Card Effects

Most battle card effects are laid out by the text of that card effect, except for the following 3:

+ : This effect adds to the squad's attack value.

+ : This effect reduces the opponent squad's attack value before applying damage.

When discarding battle cards as the 4th step of a battle, If a battle card effect includes this symbol, the player who played that battle card may choose to keep it in hand instead of discarding it.

Battle Cards

The bottom portion of each card from a clan deck is the battle section of that card. This section only applies when a card is played as a battle card in step 1 and 2 of battles.

Each battle card has 2 possible effects depending on the card's battle style and the battle style of the opponent's played battle card. The unit section of the battle cards do not effect the battle.

When a battle card is played, it is not considered to be either discarded or in-hand until the discard step of the battle.

Battle Styles

Each card is one of 3 battle styles: bold, guarded, or tricky. In a battle, when resolving battle cards, look at your opponent's card's battle style, and then look at your own battle card to see which effect triggers as listed on the card.

The left effect of a BOLD card always triggers versus a GUARDED card. The left effect of a GUARDED card always triggers versus a TRICKY card. And the left effect of a TRICKY card always triggers versus a BOLD card. In all other cases, the effect on the right triggers.

Battlefield Abilities

Battlefield abilities are abilities with the symbol. A unit's battlefield ability is only active while that unit is the top unit of a squad on the battlefield (i.e. while that unit is on the battlefield and its ability is showing). All other abilities are active at all times.

Battling

Battling is the last, optional step of activation. Battling consists of 4 steps: Play a battle card, resolve battle cards, apply damage, and discard battle cards. After a battle is over, a zone may contain 1 squad, 2 squads (a squad controlled by each player) or no squads.

Bottom Unit of Squad

The bottom unit of a squad is a card in a squad that is not physically covering any other units in that squad. If a squad consists of just 1 unit, that unit is both the top and bottom unit of that squad.

Cartographers

If there are less than 4 cards in a player's draw pile when Inform activates, merely look at the cards that are in the draw pile. Do not trigger a reshuffle.

Citadel Knights

If the Tactical ability is used while the opponent's draw pile is empty, a reshuffle triggers.

Clan

Within the Crystal Clans game, there are numerous clans. All cards sharing the same clan name (found in the 'unit type' section of a card) make up 1 clan.

Example: Stone Clan, Blood Clan, Skull Clan, etc.

Combining Squads

Whenever a unit or a squad would be added to a zone (for example, due to moving or being summoned), if a friendly squad is already in the zone, the player who controls the units combines them into 1 squad, reordering the units if desired.

If this results in a squad of more than 3 units, the player must discard units until there are 3 units in the combined squad.

Controlled Squad

The controller of a squad is the player who is able to activate that squad.

Usually this is the player who summoned the units in the squad, although there are exceptions due to card effects. Squads should be oriented so that they are read right- side up by the person who controls them.

Controlled Zone

Controlling a zone means that a player controls a squad in the zone and her opponent does not.

Deck Construction

Deck construction refers to customizing which cards appear in your deck before a game. At the release of this rule set, deck construction is not allowed.

Defense Value

A unit's defense value is shown by the symbol on its card. 0 boosts provided by battle cards or other card effects do not increase the defense of any individual unit; instead, 0 boosts reduce the attack value of the opponent's squad while in battle.

Destroying Units

Whenever a unit is destroyed, due to applying damage in battle or a game effect that explicitly destroys a unit, that unit is discarded. Units destroyed due to applying damage in battle are destroyed simultaneously.

Discarding

Whenever a card is discarded, it is placed in its owner's discard pile. Discard piles are face-up at all times and the order of the discard pile does not matter.

Units are discarded when they are destroyed, but other game effects may discard units on the battlefield, in hand, or from the top of a player's draw pile.

Units that are discarded are not necessarily considered to be destroyed, unless they were discarded due to applying damage during battle or due to a card effect that explicitly destroys them.

Drawing Cards

Whenever a game effect leads to drawing a card, the player who draws the card takes the top card of her draw pile and adds it to her hand. There is no hand limit.

Enemy

The enemy is a player's opponent. An enemy squad is a squad controlled by the opponent. And enemy unit is a unit controlled by the opponent.

Enemy Squad's Zone

A zone is considered an enemy squad's zone if there is an enemy squad in the zone. It does not necessarily mean that the opponent controls that zone.

Entering a Zone

A squad or unit is considered to have entered a zone when it moves into the zone (usually during a unit's activation) or is placed in the zone (due to summoning or another card effect).

Facedown Crystals

Some game effects flip crystal cards facedown. A facedown crystal card still counts as 1 of the 4 crystal cards needed to win the game, but the text on its face-up side no longer applies.

Free Actions

Some game effects result in an action being free. When a free action is performed, no initiative is paid to perform the action.

Friendly

A friendly squad or unit is a unit controlled by the same player as the card with the "friendly" reference on it.

Gaining Initiative

Whenever a player gains initiative, move the initiative token toward the player gaining initiative a number of spaces equal to the initiative gained. If this would move the token past the last space on the initiative track, it stops on the last space.

Hand Limit

There is no hand limit in Crystal Clans.

However, players with 5 or more cards already in hand after discarding cards during a Replenish action will not draw any cards.

Home Zone

Each player's home zone is the zone closest to that player.

Horde

Only the top unit in the squad needs to have the Horde ability in order for the squad to benefit from the ability. If at any point the top unit of the squad does not have the Horde ability, the player who controls the squad must immediately discard down to 3 units.

Initiative

Initiative is a resource that represents time in Crystal Clans. The initiative token tracks who has initiative and how much. On a player's turn, she must take actions until the initiative token is on her opponent's side of the initiative track, past the neutral (1, 0 and 1) spaces. Then play passes to her opponent.

Invading

To perform an invade action, a player must control her opponent's home zone and must pay 3 initiative. She discards cards from her opponent's draw pile equal to her invading squad's total attack value. If her opponent is forced to reshuffle during the invade action, the invade action ends after the reshuffle without discarding any more cards.

Moving

Moving is an optional part of an activation action, after reordering and before battling. During this part of activation, the player may move some or all of the units from her squad into an adjacent zone.

However, a squad cannot move out of a zone containing an enemy squad. If the squad is moved into a zone that already contains a squad the player controls, she must combine the squads and discard down to 3 units, reordering if desired.

Neutral Spaces

The 1, 0, and 1 spaces of the initiative track are neutral spaces. On a player's turn, that player must take actions until the initiative token is on her opponent's side of the initiative track, PAST the neutral spaces.

Owner

The owner of a card is the player who started the game with that card in her deck. Whenever cards are discarded, they are always discarded to their owner's discard pile, which can occasionally be different than the controller's discard pile.

Paying Initiative

Whenever a player pays initiative, move the initiative token toward the opponent a number of spaces equal to the initiative paid.

If an action's cost would move the initiative token past the last space on the initiative track, that action is not available. If any other game effect would move the token past the last space on the initiative track, it stops on the last space.

Placing

When a card effect places a card or squad somewhere on the battlefield, that is not considered a move and does not have the same restriction of not being able to move out of an enemy squad's zone. When a card is summoned, it is placed in a zone (usually the home zone) as well.

Remove From Game

Removing a card from the game means that the card returns to the game box and is not considered to be in any card pile or in hand or on the battlefield. A card removed from the game will never be placed back in any pile or in a hand or on the battlefield for the rest of that game.

Reordering

Reordering is when a player chooses the order of the units in a squad she controls. The top unit is the unit that is not covered by any other cards. Reordering can happen in 3 different ways:

• Reordering happens optionally as a step of the activation action, after paying the activation cost and before movement.

• Whenever a unit is added to a squad (for example, when summoning a unit), the controlling player may reorder at that time.

• Whenever 2 squads are combined (for example, when moving a squad into a zone that already contains a friendly squad), the controlling player may reorder the combined squad at that time.

Replenishing

To perform a replenish action, a player must pay 3 initiative. The player may discard any cards from her hand of her choice, and then may draw cards until she has 5 cards in her hand. If she already has 5 or more cards in her hand after discarding, she does not draw cards.

Reshuffling

Any time a player must draw or discard a card from her draw pile while her draw pile is empty, she immediately reshuffles her discard pile to create a new draw pile.

Then, after the current action is completed, her opponent gets to take a score action without needing to control 2 crystal zones or paying the initiative cost.

Returning Cards to Hand

Some game effects return a card to its controller's hand. In this case, the player controlling the card places it in her hand whether or not the card had ever actually been in her hand.

Scoring

To take a score action, a player must control at least 2 out of the 3 crystal zones. The player chooses any of the 3 crystal cards face-up next to the crystal deck.

She pays the initiative cost of the chosen card and places that card face-up in her collected crystal area, resolving any game effects that trigger upon gaining the crystal card. Then she replaces it with the top card of the crystal deck so that there are 3 face-up crystal cards next to the crystal deck.

Signature Ability

Each clan has a signature ability listed on its reference card. If a card from that clan has the title of that clan's signature ability on it, that card has that clan's signature ability. If a card from that clan does NOT have the title of that clan's signature ability on it, that card does NOT have that ability.

Simultaneous Effects

If 2 or more game effects or choices would ever seem to trigger simultaneously, the active player decides in which order they will resolve.

Sleep

Sleep reduces the attack value of the top unit of the opponent's squad to 0. The unit's printed value is considered to be 0, and any ability that affects the unit's attack value is nullified.

Battle card effects that boost attack value and abilities that boost the squad's attack value are unaffected, even if there is only one unit in the squad.

Spirit Guide

If the left effect of the Spirit Guide battle card triggers while the opponent's draw pile is empty, a reshuffle occurs.

Squad Limits

Each squad may only have up to 3 units in it. Any time a game effect would cause there to be more than units in a squad, the controller of that squad discards units of her choice from that squad until there are only 3 units in that squad.

Summoning

To perform a summon action, a player chooses up to 3 units from her hand and places them all in her home zone. Pay initiative equal to the totaled summon cost of those units.

Although some card effects allow cards to be summoned to zones other than a player's home zone, a player may not summon units to two different zones during one summon action.

Titan Knights

The In Step ability also reduces its squad's activation cost for the purpose of opponent effects (example: Blue Oracles).

Top Unit of Squad

The top unit of a squad is a card in a squad that is not physically covered by any other units in that squad. If a squad consists of just 1 unit, that unit is both the top and bottom unit of that squad.

Tridents

Tridents summoned as a result of the Clone ability must be placed in the player's home zone as usual, unless another ability such as Shapeshifters' Shift says otherwise.

Turns

1 turn may be made up of multiple actions.

Units Types

All units are either heroes or commons. There are 3 heroes in each deck and 24 commons.

Each unit also has a clan to which it belongs. Finally, each unit has an additional descriptor in its unit type, which may be referenced by certain card effects. A unit has its type even if it is not the top unit of a squad on the battlefield.

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