Initial set structure and pilot cards
The first set target is 100 distinct playable card designs, excluding tokens, site markers, alternate art, and resource reference cards. It is a design budget, not a completed or balanced card list. The current playable test uses the compact duel. The faction allocation and 21-card site pilot below are earlier proposals retained for comparison, not requirements for the duel. The 100-card target remains; final factions and card allocations should follow play.
Five provisional mechanical factions provide different tools. Their names below describe play styles; the selected world and visual treatment can rename them later. All factions must contest the same sites and scores. None gets an isolated victory system in the first set.
The 100-card budget
| Group | Units | Tactics | Relics | Distinct cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure | 10 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Mobility | 10 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Protection | 10 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Growth | 10 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Salvage | 10 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Neutral | 10 | 6 | 4 | 20 |
| Total | 60 | 26 | 14 | 100 |
Each faction's ten unit slots comprise three low-cost foundations, three units supporting its main plan, two units bridging into other plans, one answer, and one payoff near the top of that faction's curve. Its four tactics comprise a proactive tool, an answer, a flexible tool, and a combination piece. Its two relics comprise a simple persistent aid and a build-around. These categories allocate slots within the 16, not additional cards.
Neutral's ten units comprise five simple curve fillers, three flexible utilities, and two broadly usable answers. Its six tactics comprise two combat aids, two answers, and two hand-quality tools. Its four relics support general deployment, movement, durability, and planning. Neutral efficiency should not exceed faction specialists at their own job; otherwise the factions will be cosmetic.
Cost allocation
| Printed supply cost | Pressure | Mobility | Protection | Growth | Salvage | Neutral | Set total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 20 |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 26 |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 25 |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 21 |
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 100 |
Costs five and six are deliberately scarce because they arrive late in a six-round match. In the baseline rules, the single six-cost card belongs to Growth, cannot be played before the final round, and consumes that round's entire supply budget. Pressure has no five- or six-cost faction cards. Build Growth's main plan around costs three and four with conditional power, with costs five and six as optional finishers. Banking lets an early expensive draw become supply, but that does not justify filling the set with cards that rarely get played. Adjust this budget after observing resource and action use.
Complexity and collection
Reserve 55 cards for one clear effect or no rules text, 30 for a condition plus an effect, and 15 for build-arounds requiring a little more reading. This is another partition of the same 100 cards. Aim for at most roughly 35 words of gameplay text on an ordinary card and two named mechanics beyond Guard and Arrival across the entire initial set. Teach a mechanic before relying on its icon alone.
Do not assign gameplay power to rarity. A possible presentation split is 55 common, 30 uncommon, and 15 showcase designs, but this is an optional collection treatment, not a commitment to randomized packs. Cosmetic variants do not count toward the 100. All prototype cards should be available to every tester.
Faction jobs and counterplay
| Faction | What it is trying to do | Tools it receives | Deliberate weakness | How an opponent can interact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure | Convert early deployment and efficient clashes into a points lead | High power for cost, small damage effects, temporary power | Low health; limited draw and late staying power | Trade into fragile attackers, protect an anchor, contest a different site |
| Mobility | Make the opponent commit, then change where its power matters | Moves, swaps, returns to hand with strict cost limits | Lower printed power; movement still consumes actions or card slots | Fill or defend multiple sites; use damage that follows the unit; force movement before final actions |
| Protection | Hold two positions and preserve important units | Guard, healing, durable low-power units, limited prevention | Weak reach into distant sites; modest offensive damage | Spread out, use tactics that bypass Guard, or outscore its power without fighting |
| Growth | Invest in large units and visible persistent bonuses | Expensive threats, conditional power, card selection | Slow starts and exposed setup pieces; no extra supply placement in set one | Take early points; remove the supporting relic; change the site being contested |
| Salvage | Turn used cards into a finite stream of useful options | Discard-to-hand recovery with once-per-round limits, sacrifice as an explicit cost, selective filtering | Lower tempo; cannot return supply or recur directly into play | Pressure the score before the recovered card can be paid for; use broad removal; attack the engine |
Salvage and Growth are reserved design space. Their full timing rules and cards must be written and tested before they join the pilot. A provisional identity is not evidence that the strategy already works.
Strategy packages supported by the set
| Package | Example faction mix | How it intends to win | Required supporting slots | Natural check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early occupation | Pressure plus neutral | Spread cheap power to score the first rounds, then trade efficiently | Six to eight efficient low-cost units across the eligible pool, two damage tools | Durable defenders and late-value cards |
| Two-site anchors | Protection plus Growth | Build two hard-to-remove positions with enough power to score | Four sturdy units, two power payoffs, two protection tools | Movement and tactics that target support pieces |
| Last-move tempo | Mobility plus Pressure | Threaten one site and finish at another | Four movement effects, four good rate units, two temporary boosts | Broad boards, costly moves, limited hand size |
| Removal control | Protection plus Salvage | Spend cards and actions efficiently until the opponent runs out of effective pressure | Four removal or damage effects, four durable units, two recovery tools | Early points, distributed threats, high-cost targets outside cheap removal limits |
| Large-unit finish | Growth plus Mobility | Develop a conditional four-cost threat, then position it for late scoring | Four threats mostly at costs three to four, four cheap bodies, two hand-quality tools; at most a few optional five- or six-cost finishers in a deck | Removing setup, denying spaces, an early lead too large to recover |
| Relic engine | Salvage plus Growth | Sustain a visible, interactable bonus long enough to swing later rounds | Two different build-arounds, four compatible units, two recovery tools | Broadly available relic removal; only one relic slot |
| Value midrange | Any two complementary factions | Adapt to the matchup rather than maximize one combination | A balanced curve, two flexible answers, one payoff | More focused early pressure or stronger late threats |
These package counts are design requirements that overlap with the 100 allocated slots. They are not seven additional mini-sets. In a 30-card deck with two-copy limits, require several interchangeable enablers for each supported plan. A strategy that works only when one named rare appears on schedule is not well supported.
Use soft synergies such as “another friendly unit at this site” before requiring exact names. Let at least two factions support each major plan and make broadly relevant answers available in neutral. Avoid universal hard counters that turn a matchup into a deck selection result.
Protection specializes in efficient durability, healing, and protecting valuable pieces together. Guard is shared with neutral and appears sparingly elsewhere; it is not Protection's exclusive keyword. Shared defenses let every deck participate while differences in efficiency and supporting tools preserve the faction's purpose.
Before adding Protection, compare its proposed units directly with Stone Sentry, Field Medic, and Bridge Keeper. It needs a useful combination of protection and scoring tools that those shared cards do not already provide; adding more Guards alone will not demonstrate a distinct plan. The pilot also consumes all five neutral two-cost slots, so remaining neutral designs must fit other costs or replace a pilot card rather than silently expanding the matrix.
First pilot with 21 distinct cards
Build two decks with two copies of every neutral card below plus two copies of all six cards in one faction. Each deck has 15 different cards and 30 cards total: 18 units, eight tactics, and four relics. Across both decks there are 21 distinct designs and 60 physical cards. This small pool is for testing rules and contrasting plans; it is not a representative test of five-faction constructed balance.
Every card below is a provisional original design. Names are temporary. Unit stats are written power / health. A dash in the text column means the unit has no ability. Costs and text are hypotheses awaiting play. “This round” lasts through scoring and ends immediately afterward.
Shared neutral cards
| Card | Type | Cost | Stats | Gameplay text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Scout | Unit | 1 | 1 / 2 | — |
| Vanguard Recruit | Unit | 1 | 2 / 1 | — |
| Ridge Walker | Unit | 2 | 2 / 3 | — |
| Stone Sentry | Unit | 2 | 1 / 4 | Guard. |
| Field Medic | Unit | 3 | 2 / 4 | Arrival: You may heal 2 damage from a friendly unit at this site. |
| Heavy Vanguard | Unit | 5 | 5 / 6 | — |
| Focused Strike | Tactic | 2 | — | Deal 2 damage to an enemy unit. |
| Clear the Path | Tactic | 2 | — | Discard the enemy relic. |
| Forward Standard | Relic | 2 | — | Your units have +1 power while they are alone on your side of their site. |
Forward Standard checks the number of friendly units at that site, regardless of enemy units. With exactly one friendly unit there, it gets +1 power. With two, neither gets the bonus. Recalculate immediately when a unit enters, leaves, or moves. This creates a visible spread-versus-concentration decision and may prove too efficient; watch it closely.
Pressure cards
| Card | Type | Cost | Stats | Gameplay text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spark Runner | Unit | 1 | 2 / 1 | — |
| Kiln Hound | Unit | 2 | 3 / 2 | — |
| Ash Duelist | Unit | 3 | 4 / 3 | — |
| Driving Blow | Tactic | 2 | — | Give a friendly unit +2 power this round. |
| Scorch Line | Tactic | 3 | — | Choose a site with at least one enemy unit. Deal 2 damage to each enemy unit there. |
| War Drum | Relic | 3 | — | Your damaged units have +1 power. |
Spark Runner deliberately duplicates Vanguard Recruit's basic stat line. That gives the pressure deck sufficient copies of a simple early attacker while checking whether faction identity emerges from deck composition. It is a pilot expedient; the final set should give duplicate roles a useful distinction without adding unnecessary text.
Mobility cards
| Card | Type | Cost | Stats | Gameplay text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossing Guide | Unit | 1 | 1 / 3 | — |
| Wind Courier | Unit | 2 | 2 / 2 | Arrival: You may move another friendly unit at this site to an empty friendly space at an adjacent site. |
| Bridge Keeper | Unit | 3 | 2 / 5 | Guard. |
| Crosscurrent | Tactic | 1 | — | Move a friendly unit to an empty friendly space at an adjacent site. |
| Change Places | Tactic | 2 | — | Swap two friendly units at different sites. |
| Open Roads | Relic | 2 | — | Your normal Move actions cost no supply. |
Effects that move or swap units do not exhaust or ready them unless they say so. They can move exhausted units, including units deployed this round. A normal Move action still requires a ready unit and exhausts it, even with Open Roads. Open Roads removes only that action's supply cost; it does not reduce card costs or grant actions.
What the pilot can and cannot show
The two decks can test spread versus concentration, clashes versus development, bank-versus-play decisions, temporary scoring swings, Guard, relic removal, and movement. They cannot establish that Salvage, Growth, control, deckbuilding variety, or rare-card excitement work. They contain no interrupt timing, random card generation, search-and-shuffle effects, alternate victories, or status-condition system.
Watch three likely weaknesses: Forward Standard could become an automatic inclusion; zero-supply movement from Open Roads could be too narrow because actions are the tighter budget; and last-action power boosts could feel impossible to answer. Those are reasons to observe play, not claims that the cards are broken. The first fixes should be local and reversible.
Expansion from pilot to 100 cards
- Resolve basic rules and pacing with the compact browser duel against a CPU opponent. Record every change and keep earlier rules and card data available.
- Add approximately nine cards that test a third plan, such as Protection, and provide more varied answers. Confirm the game still teaches cleanly.
- Build a 50-card development pool covering all five faction jobs and their major counterplay. Write complete timing rules before introducing Salvage triggers or new keywords.
- Fill the remaining slots against the reconciled 100-card budget. Check each card's purpose, clarity, faction identity, answer availability, and cost curve before commissioning final art.
- Test constructed decks beyond the starters. Matchups, starting order, card frequency, player skill, and familiarity must be recorded separately. Do not treat a few successful starter games as set-wide balance evidence.
The pilot does not require a full rules engine, account system, collection economy, booster opening animation, or final card illustrations. The design library can show polished treatments and readable proxies while the mechanics remain deliberately cheap to revise.