Ambal Tournament: Foundation Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Set Up
• Objective of the Game
• The Round
• The Battle
  • Order of Resolution
  • Placing Cards
• The Skills
• Health and Energy
• The Hand
• Duration Effects
• Game Modes
  • Single Duel (1vs1)
  • Double Duel (2vs2)
• Regular Mode Rules and Deck Construction
• Advanced Mode Rules and Deck Construction
• Draft Mode
  • Step 1: Deciding who goes first
  • Step 2: Picking the Schools of Knowledge
  • Step 3: Building the Battle Deck
  • Step 4: Duel!
  • Notes
• Skill Terms
• Starter Decks
  • Sun Warrior
  • Curse Seer
  • Flame Assassin
  • Shore Knight

Components

• 25 Water Magic cards (22 commons and 3 Elites)
• 25 Fire Magic cards (22 commons and 3 Elites)
• 25 Sword Path cards (22 commons and 3 Elites)
• 25 Assassination Path cards (22 commons and 3 Elites)
• 2 Health and Energy boards
• 8 Health and Energy markers: 2 clear, 2 black and 4 red
• 6 Condition tokens: 2x Burning, 2x Bleeding and 2x Poison
• 10 Target tokens
• 10 Dice

Game Set Up

Each player starts the game with a Battle Deck, a Health and Energy Board, a few dice and 3 Condition tokens.

Your starting Health is 60, your starting Current Energy is 8 and your starting Max Energy is 12.

• Each player should reserve an area for their Discard Pile and another area for their Out of Play pile. More info in the Hand section (page 12).
• When the game starts each player shuffles their Battle Deck and draws 7 cards. Players only ever draw and shuffle their own deck and only discard to their own Discard Pile.
• Players should sit facing each other. In case of a Double Duel (2vs2) opposing teams should sit facing each other, with teammates side by side.
• In the Advanced Mode players will also have a Library Deck.
• Decks are constructed beforehand. Check page 19 for starter deck options, or page 17 for how to construct decks.

Objective of the Game

Build your deck(s) of skills and defeat your opponent(s) by either bringing their Health to 0 or their Max Energy to 5 or lower.

The Round

Rounds are simultaneous, meaning players will go through each phase together, drawing cards and then battling at the same time (check the Battle section for more information).

There are 8 round phases, follow this order:

1. Draw Phase
   • Each player draws cards until they have 7 in their hand.
   • If deck runs out of cards and you need to draw, Refresh (shuffle the Discard Pile into a new deck). When this happens lose 2 Max Energy in Regular Mode or 1 Max Energy in Advanced Mode. Page 11 explains how to manage Energy and Max Energy.
2. Start of Round Effects
   • Trigger skills with "start of the round" effects. Resolve effects as in the Battle Phase.
3. Battle Phase
   • Detailed explanation on the following pages.
4. End of Round Effects
   • Trigger skills with "end of the round" effects. Resolve effects as in the Battle Phase.
5. Durations Reduce by 1
   • Anything that has a duration is affected. When a Boon or Curse ends, move it to the Discard Pile.
6. Move Used Skills
   • Skills used in Battle go to the Discard Pile. You may discard 1 skill.
   • Boons are moved to your play area and Curses to your opponent's.

The Battle

Players place one card each face down and reveal them at the same time, then resolve their effects together (order on the next page). This is called a turn.

The Battle Phase may have any number of turns. After all effects of the revealed cards have been resolved, the next turn may begin and each player may place their next card face down or stop using skills for that round.

Players can only skip the use of a skill if allowed by a card's effect.

If a player runs out of Energy or decides to stop using skills, other players can still play their cards.

Order of Resolution

Skill effects have an order to be followed when resolving combat:

1. Players pay the skill Energy cost (this happens before cost changes from skills being used in the same turn).
2. Interrupt effects activate first.
3. Block effects activate.
4. Ally (you or your partner) targeting effects activate: remove Curse or Condition, reduce damage received, reduce the cost of skills, gain Energy, draw cards and Boons take place (Boons are already in effect). These usually have the defensive icon.
5. Opponent targeting effects take place: causing a Curse (Curses are already in effect) or Condition (Conditions also count as in effect), taking advantage of a Curse or Condition, removing Energy from opponent, reducing healing, increase the cost of skills and so forth take place. These usually have the offensive icon.
6. Heal is calculated.
7. Damage is calculated.

You can check what each term means at page 18.

Placing Cards

A player can only place a face down card if they have the Energy to use it.

If a player places a card face down but doesn't have enough Energy, they lose 1 Max Energy when that skill is revealed, the skill returns to their hand and they can't play any other cards that round.

In case of disagreement on which player decides first if they will play a card or not:

• The player with most Health decides first, saying out loud, if they will play a card or not. Then the other players decide if they will play a card or not (following the order of who has the most Health).
• After all players decide whether they will play a card or not, they can place their cards face down.
• If players have the same Health, decide with a die roll: the higher number rolled goes first.

If a skill would cause a Condition and take advantage of the same Condition, both effects happen.

Example: If a player uses Sharpen Blade (your next Action causes Bleeding) then Deepen Wound (an Action that takes advantage of Bleeding), Deepen Would would apply the Bleeding and take advantage of it. The same applies if one player is applying a Condition to a target and another player is taking advantage of that Condition on the same target.

The Skills

Every card is a skill, its type is written under the card name.

The card anatomy diagram on this page labels: Energy cost, School symbol, Skill name, Skill type, Duration, Description, Artist and Card code. The example card is "Shark Flair", a Boon Spell with the description "Your skills that target a Bleeding player cost 1 less Energy."

Skill types: Spell, Action, Ability, Curse, Boon and Elite.

• Curses are negative duration effects, while Boons are positive duration effects (more info on the Duration Effects section).
• Elite skills are stronger than regular skills, but players can only bring 1 to battle.
• Skills can have a combination of these types, like Curse Action, which is considered both as an Action and as a Curse. So if a skill can block an Action, it can also block a Curse Action.
• Skills can be Offensive, Defensive or both, and this is indicated by a sword or shield symbol on the same line as the Skill type.
• Conditions are not considered skills.
• Each skill belongs to one School of Knowledge and the School symbol is represented in the top right part of the card.

Health and Energy

Players start the game with 60 Health, 8 Energy and 12 Max Energy.

Health can't go above your starting value, unless stated by an effect that increases maximum health.

Each player has a Health and Energy board and 4 markers.

• Use two red markers to display your Health.
• Use the clear marker to show your current Energy.
• Use the black marker to show your Max Energy, meaning how high your current Energy can go.

When you gain or lose Health, Energy or Max Energy you should move the corresponding marker in the board.

Players gain 8 Energy at the end of each round.

The black marker (Max Energy marker) is placed on the number after your Max Energy, meaning that the number marked (and higher numbers) are blocked and the player can't put the clear Energy marker there. Some skills can increase or decrease Max Energy. A player can't gain Energy above their Max Energy.

Example: Your current Energy is 8 (clear marker at 8) and your Max Energy is 12 (black marker at 13), when the round is over you gain 8 Energy. That would sum 16 Energy but your total is 12, so your current Energy becomes 12.

When you lose Max Energy, your current Energy doesn't go down. But if your Max Energy is reduced below your current Energy, your current Energy will become equal to your new Max Energy value.

"Base Energy cost" means the Energy cost that is printed on the card, if a skill just says "Energy cost" then it is referring to the amount you have to pay after increases and reductions.

Energy cost increases don't stack, the increase with the highest value takes place. The same works for Energy cost decreases.

Example: If you have a Boon that reduces the Energy cost of your Actions by 2 and you use a skill that reduces the cost of your Actions by 1, they don't add up, the highest reduction (2 in this case) takes place.

If Health reaches 0 that player is defeated. If Max Energy reaches 5 or lower that player is defeated.

Check if a player was defeated at the end of each round phase. During Battle Phase check at the end of each turn. The game ends at the phase (or turn) a player was defeated, without triggering effects from following phases (or turns).

The Hand

Players start the game with 7 cards in their hand.

There isn't a limit on how many cards you can have in your hand, but players only draw cards from the Battle Deck at the Draw Phase if they have less than 7 cards in their hand.

When a card needs to be drawn but the Battle Deck is out of cards, the Discard Pile is shuffled and becomes a new Battle deck. This is called Refresh. After a Refresh you should draw cards if you need to.

Each time you must Refresh (shuffle the Discard Pile into a new deck), you lose Max Energy: 2 in Regular mode and 1 in Advanced mode.

The Out of Play pile is a separate pile for each player with cards that have been removed from play, they are not used to form new decks and are not considered part of the Discard Pile.

Before Energy is gained at the end of the round, players may discard 1 card.

Duration Effects

Duration effects are effects that last on a player for a certain number of rounds. Use the dice to mark the duration of these.

Duration effects (Curses, Boons and Conditions) can't last more than 6 rounds.

Conditions are represented by these square tokens and should be positioned near the affected player:

• Poison: Deal 1 damage at the end of the round. Reduce any heal received by 1.
• Bleeding: Deal 2 damage at the end of the round.
• Burning: Deal 3 damage at the end of the round.

When the same Condition, Curse or Boon is applied again, it doesn't add up in number of rounds of an existing one. Instead it replaces if the duration is longer.

You can't increase the duration of a Condition if the target is not already affected by that Condition.

Effects that are triggered by skill damage aren't triggered by Condition damage, since Conditions are not considered skills.

Example: If your opponent is Bleeding for 2 rounds and you cause Bleeding for 2 rounds with a skill, the Bleed duration will still be 2 rounds.

Example: If your opponent is Bleeding for 1 round and you cause Bleeding for 2 rounds with a skill, the Bleed duration will be 2 rounds.

When a Boon or Curse ends, move it to the user's Discard Pile.

Game Modes

Duels can be in the Single (1vs1) or Double (2vs2) mode, and they can be Regular or Advanced.

In the Regular format each player brings a Battle Deck of 20 cards, while in the Advanced format each player brings a Battle Deck of 12 cards and a Library Deck of 15 cards.

To play the Double Duel mode a second copy of the game is necessary.

Single Duel (1vs1)

If both players reach a defeat condition at the same time, both lose.

• Skills that say "opponent" target the opponent.
• Skills that say "resurrect" can't be used in Single Duel.
• Skills that say "target" can be used on either the opponent or yourself. The target is decided by the user after the cards are revealed. Some skills might say "target" and state "Can't be used on yourself."
• Skills that say "you/yourself" only affect the user of the skill, unless it also has an effect on the opponent.
• Skills that say "ally" affect yourself.

Double Duel (2vs2)

In this mode two teams of two players battle each other, the first team to lose both of their players is the losing team.

Players can be resurrected during the battle with the use of skills. When a player is resurrected their Max Energy is set to 8. Health and Energy are determined by the skill.

During Double Duel each player has 4 Target Tokens numbered from 1 to 4. At the beginning of the match players decide who will be each number, preferably number 1 and 2 for one team and 3 and 4 for the other team. When placing a card, players also place a target token face down that indicates who is the target for that skill.

If using card sleeves, partners must use identical sleeves. Partners are not allowed to see each other's hand.

Skills that affect more than one player still need a target, which can be any one of the affected people.

Example: if you use a skill that damages both of your opponents you still have to choose one of them to be the target. If the target blocks or evades that skill the other opponent still takes damage unless he also blocks or evades.

Example: if you use a skill that blocks Actions used against you, you have to choose one player as the target.

• Skills that say "opponent" can only target your opponents. Player must choose which one with the Target Token.
• Skills that say "partner" can only be used on your partner in Double Duel. Player must choose their partner with the Target Token. If a skill also has an effect that affects one of the opponents then the target must be one of the opponents.
• Skills that say "target" can be used on anyone and need to be targeted at someone. Some skills might say "target" and state "Can't be used on yourself."
• Skills that say "you/yourself" only affect the user of the skill, and should be targeted at the user. In case the skill also has an effect that affects another player, that other player needs to be targeted (only 1 Target Token used).
• Skills that say "ally" can target yourself or your partner.

Regular Mode Rules and Deck Construction

• There is one type of deck: Battle Deck.
• Battle Deck is the player's main deck, used to draw cards whenever needed.
• Battle Deck must have 20 cards, with no more than one Elite skill.
• Players may use up to two Schools of Knowledge to build their Battle Deck.
• Only one copy of each card is allowed per player.

Advanced Mode Rules and Deck Construction

• There are two types of decks: Battle Deck and Library Deck.
• Battle Deck is the player's main deck, used to draw cards whenever needed.
• Library Deck is a side deck from which players may pay 1 Max Energy to choose up to 3 cards from the Library Deck and shuffle them into their Battle Deck at the end of the round.
• Battle Deck must have 12 cards, none of them can be an Elite skill.
• Library Deck must have 15 cards, with any number of Elite skills. Players can only add 1 Elite skill to their Battle Deck though.
• Players may use up to two Schools of Knowledge to build both decks.
• Only one copy of each card is allowed per player.

Draft Mode

The following steps will guide 2 players to build their Battle Decks. After their decks have been built, play the game following the Regular Mode rules.

Step 1: Deciding who goes first

• Separate cards into piles according to their School of Knowledge (ie. all Fire Magic cards in one pile).
• Players roll a die, highest roll goes first (Player A for the purpose of this explanation).

Step 2: Picking the Schools of Knowledge

• Player A picks 1 School of Knowledge for themselves.
• Player B picks 2 Schools for themselves.
• Player A picks their second School of Knowledge.
• Each player separates the elite skills from their Schools and shuffles the common skills into one pile and the elite skills into another pile. Each player will have 1 pile of common skills (44 cards) and 1 pile of elite skills (6 cards).
• Players must build their decks using only the Schools they've picked.

Step 3: Building the Battle Deck

• Each player deals 4 cards face up on the table using their common skills pile.
• Player A must pick 2 cards from their line-up of 4, and ban 1 card from either player's line-up. Fill empty spaces for each player using their common skills pile. Picked cards are placed in a pile that will form the Battle Deck, banned cards are placed in a separate pile and are visible to every player during Steps 3 and 4.
• Players B does the same as above.
• Repeat 8 more times. Players will have their Battle Deck of 18 cards.
• Player A, followed by Player B, takes one last skill from their line-up.
• Set all remaining common skills aside, you won't need them anymore.
• Each player takes their Elite skills pile, shuffles it and deals 4 cards on the table.
• Player A bans one Elite skill from Player B, then Player B bans one from Player A.
• Player A, followed by Player B, takes one elite skill from their line-up.
• Each player should have a Battle Deck with 20 cards.

Step 4: Duel!

• Set unused cards (including banned cards and Elite skills) aside in any way you like.
• These cards can't be revealed during the game.
• Start the duel.

Notes

• The cards that a player picks to build their decks can't be seen by the opponent after they were picked.
• Each player is allowed to see all the cards that are face up on the table.
• A player can't pick up a card quickly to prevent the opponent from reading it.
• Players can check their own Battle Deck during Step 3, but not their opponent's.

Skill Terms

Interrupt - Interrupting a target cancels their skill's effect. If multiple interrupt skills are being used, their interrupt effects apply but interrupted skills have their other effects cancelled. Interrupted skills don't count as used, go to the discard pile immediately and still cost Energy.

Block - Deny the damage and effects on the player that used block, but other effects on the player being blocked might still apply. Skills that are blocked count as used.

Example: Player 1 uses a skill that deals 5 damage to opponent and heals themselves for 5, but player 2 blocks or evades this skill. Player 1 still gets the 5 heal effect but deals no damage.

Heal - Recover Health points for the amount indicated by the Skill. Can't exceed the starting Health Points (unless stated in a skill description).

Offensive - Skills that do damage, Interrupt, make an opponent lose Energy, make an opponent discard cards or cause a Condition or Curse. Have a sword symbol.

Defensive - Skills that heal, block, evade, resurrect, give Energy to yourself or an ally, reduce damage received or remove a Condition or Curse. Have a shield symbol.

[School of Knowledge] Mastery - Your Mastery of the indicated School is equivalent to the number of cards from that School in your Discard Pile. Mastery is checked before discard effects, unless stated otherwise.

Example: If you have 5 Fire Magic skills in your Discard Pile it means you have Fire Magic Mastery 5.

Starter Decks

If you are new to Ambal Tournament try playing the Single Duel Regular Mode first. Follow the instructions on the Round and Battle Phase pages and have fun!

Here are some decks, 20 cards each, to help you get started!

Sun Warrior

• Fire Magic
  • Solar Burst (Elite)
  • Wildfire
  • Devour Flames
  • Kindle Heart
  • Melt Boon
  • Flare Up
  • Circle of Fire
  • Raid the Burning
  • Meteor
  • Firebolt
  • Fireblast
  • Incendiary Touch
  • Lava Strike
  • Inner Flames
  • Magma Cloak
  • Self Ignite
  • Incinerate
• Sword Path
  • Vaian Purity
  • Elemental Slash
  • Fencing Reflexes

Curse Seer

• Water Magic
  • Blizzard (Elite)
  • Exalted River
  • Heal Drop
  • Freeze Joints
  • Enduring Winter
  • Freeze Limbs
  • Chilling Sorrow
  • Overflow
  • Winter Bite
  • High Tide
  • Water Veil
  • Blight Shiver
  • Ice Shield
  • Brain Freeze
  • Harae's Tear
• Assassination Path
  • Time Bomb
  • Blight Strike
  • Agonizing Burden
  • Curse Blast
  • Assassin's Glare

Flame Assassin

• Assassination Path
  • Finishing Charge (Elite)
  • Envenom Weapon
  • Heartseeking Blow
  • Critical Strike
  • Incendiary Projectile
  • Strip Defenses
  • Versatile Killer
  • Combust Knowledge
  • Resourceful Assassin
  • Unsettling Jab
  • Keen Eye
  • Puncture
  • Revenge Strike
  • Scavenger Strike
  • Prey on the Sick
  • Corrupt Heal
• Fire Magic
  • Searing Arms
  • Pyromania
  • Backfire
  • Scorch

Shore Knight

• Sword Path
  • Deepen Wound (Elite)
  • Fierce Thrust
  • Swift Slash
  • Bloodseeker
  • Thirsty Blade
  • Sword Mastery
  • Cross Slash
  • Falx Lunge
  • Deflect Magic
  • Deadly Hemorrhage
  • Immaterial Slash
  • Silencing Strike
  • Counter Blade
  • Swordsmanship
  • Double Attack
• Water Magic
  • Shark Bite
  • Frozen Weapon
  • Water Fountain
  • Ice Shard
  • Shark Flair