~Christseeker

Due to overwhelming (not really ) demand of deviants kindly wishing to learn how to play my game, I've decided to post my Instructions on How to play

Ultima Dawn is a trading card game that immerses players in a multiverse beyond reality… Depicting the epic story of a conflict between the envoys of life and death as the Nether and Mortal worlds clash, a side fighting for all life in the multiverse, the other for its destruction…

Objective

The objective of the game is to Deplete your opponent’s Life Deck. Cards are drawn from a player’s 18 card Life Deck whenever they receive damage. A player loses when they are unable to draw cards from this deck.

Setup

Players start by the following procedure:

• Assemble a deck of 40 cards, this may contain any number of individual character copies, three copies of each individual Mana Spell/Instance and only a single copy of a Legendary aligned card.
• Assemble a Life Deck; These are special decks consisting of 18 cards that can be set for strategic advantages. Cards are drawn from this deck when you receive damage.
• Decide who goes first, preferably by a Dice Roll or other random method.
• Players each draw a 5 card starting hand.
• Start!


Card Characteristics

Each card is comprised of several parts that make it unique from others, and each belongs to its own card alignment. Each card however requires its own Ultima Expenditure to be expended before they can be cast.


Character



Characters are the fantastic creatures a player casts to aid them in defeating their opponent. Greatly varying in a number of alignments they like all cards come in five colours of Ultima each with their own associated theme and artistic style.

Name: The name displayed at the Top Left Corner of a card is its name.
Ultima Expenditure: This is the cost displayed at the top right corner of the card that must be expended to cast the card. ____
Art: The credit for the artwork is displayed in this section of the card.
Card Alignment: The left side box underneath the Card Artwork is its card alignment; also beside this alignment is the card’s associated subtype
Mechanic: The uniqueness of the card, each card has its own mechanic that differentiates it from other cards and has an effect on game play.
Flavour Text: Displayed to create characterisation for the card.
Stat Box: Unique to characters, this box consists of ATK and HP. ATK corresponds to the amount of damage the character inflicts when striking a target, whilst HP displays how much damage the character is able to receive before being Dispelled, which means Unsummoned and returned to their place of summoning.


Mana Instances/Spells

Belonging to a similar category, Mana Instances and Spells differ from each other with Instances being able to be cast during an instant of a player& #8217;s turn, including another player& #8217;s. Whilst Mana Spells may only be cast during the Playing Phases of your turn. A player is however required to expend the Ultima Cost of the card to cast it.



Name: The name displayed at the Top Left Corner of a card is its name.
Ultima Expenditure: This is the cost displayed at the top right corner of the card that must be expended to cast the card.
Art: The credit for the artwork is displayed in this section of the card.
Card Alignment: The left side box underneath the Card Artwork is its card alignment;
Mechanic: The uniqueness of the card, each card has its own mechanic that differentiates it from other cards and has an effect on game play.
Flavour Text: Displayed to create characterisation for the card.


Playing the Game

Each player starts with a Life Deck total of 18 cards, drawing cards only from this deck when they receive damage and thus, lose when there are no cards left to draw (This is after they have taken 1 damage during drawing the final card of a Life Deck, meaning they are unable to draw)

There are many different areas of the game where players set out their cards.

Deck This is placed by itself, a player draws cards until his or her hand reaches five cards at the beginning of each turn.
Dispellation Pile Whenever cards are Dispelled, or when you cast a Mana Instance or Spell they are placed face up in this pile; Cards in a player& #8217;s Dispellation Pile can only be cast by character mechanics
Character Field Characters that have been successfully cast are placed face up on this field, there is no limit to the amount of character’s a player can have on their field.


Phases of a Turn:

Recast

• Similar to the Draw Step in the majority of other Trading Card Games, a player draws cards from their deck until their hand contains five cards.

UnAetherize

• Players UnAetherize each of their characters that Aetherized in the previous turn.
• Characters are turned Sideways from striking, being effected by a Card Mechanic and casting a mechanic that requires Aetherization as a Cost.

Playing Phase

• Each card has its own associated Ultima Expenditure, which requires the player to “Aetherize” cards in their Ultima Stream to pay for each card’s cost.
• Players may cast a single card from their hand to their Ultima Stream once each turn, and cast any number of cards a turn whilst they are able to expend enough Ultima. Non Static character mechanics can be cast at any time.
• Characters cannot strike on their first turn of being played.

Strike Phase

Declare strikers

• During this phase, select and declare a character group to strike with against a single target. (This consists of one or more characters)



Declare Defender (If Any)

• If the striking character is attempting to smack a player, that player may choose to Guard with an UnAetherized Character, therefore directing the attack at that character. Characters can only guard for other characters if their mechanic allows them to (Such as Intrepid Ultimancer)

Inflict Damage

• If you successfully inflicted damage to your opponent, that player draws cards from his or her Life Deck equal to the damage dealt.
• Place damage counters on characters equal to the amount of damage they have been dealt. When a character’s Damage Count is equal to or higher than its HP it is Dispelled.

Redeclare additional Strikers

• A player may strike again with an UnAetherized character.

Post Strike Phase

• Players each draw a card from their Life Decks for each of their characters that became dispelled this turn.

Post Strike Playing Phase

• Similar to the first Playing Phase, players cast as many cards as they are able to by expending Ultima Expenditure during this phase

Turn’s end

• All mechanics cast that end at turn’s end resolve their effect during this phase.
• The turn cycle then switches to the next player.

Well, there you have it; The instructions on how to play!
Of course there are many game concepts not covered in the instruction book such as the act of removing cards from play, casting card mechanics, increasing ATK, preventing or Removing Damage and so on; I sure hope that I haven't made these rules sound too complex