Epic Trading Card Game

Epic Trading Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Quick Start Rules

These rules are for veteran TCG players. First time TCG players see the Basic Rules below.

Deck size (draft or sealed pack): minimum 30 cards
Starting hand size: 5
Starting score (Mojo): 30
If your Mojo is 0 or less, you lose immediately.
If you have no cards left in your deck, you win the game.
Mulligan rule: Put any number of cards on the bottom of your deck and draw that number of cards. Lose 1 Mojo for each card drawn in this way. Mulliganing starts with the player going first and each player may only mulligan once.

Playing a Card

When you play a card, announce all targets and pay all costs, then put it "on the line". Cards on the line resolve last-in-first-out. When something on the line resolves, players get a chance to add more things to the line.

Cost To Play a Card

At the start of each player's turn, each player gains an action (1 action). Unspent actions go away at the end of the turn. If a card has an action in the upper left hand corner, it costs your action to play.

If a card has a free symbol in the upper left hand corner, it is free to play.

When You Can Play a Card

The icon in the upper right hand corner of the card tells you when you can play a card (the card's speed).

Build: Can only be played in your Build Step. Can only be played when "the line" is empty.
Paced: Can only be played in your Pre-Battle and Build Steps. Can only be played when "the line" is empty.
Fast: Can be played anytime you have priority.
Instantaneous: A Build, Paced or Fast speed symbol shown twice. Same as a single symbol, but resolves immediately. No one may respond, and whoever played the card retains priority.

The Turn

Turns are broken into 5 steps.

Prepare Step: The active player prepares (turns right side up) all his champions and objects, then draws a card. No one may play cards or abilities during this step.

Pre-Battle Step: The active player may play Paced cards and abilities. Any player may play Fast cards and abilities.

Battle Step: Any player may play Fast cards and abilities. The active player may make any number of single or group attacks (see Battle below).

Build Step: The active player may play Build and Paced cards and abilities. Any player may play Fast cards and abilities.

End Step: Any player may play Fast cards and abilities. At the end of this step the active player discards down to 10 cards and all players prepare (turn right side up) all flipped (upside-down) champions and objects. All damage is removed from champions, and "until end of turn" effects go away.

Note: The very first turn of the game starts in the Build Step. On your turn you are the active player and you are the first to gain priority. When a player has priority they may add as many things as they like to the line, then priority passes to the player on their left.

Battle

Each Battle Step, do the following:

Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
The active player may end his Battle Step or choose a champion or a group of champions to attack. Expend (turn sideways) all attacking champions. Only prepared champions may attack. All champions in this group must attack a single player.
Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
The defending player may choose a champion or group of champions to block the attack. Flip (turn upside-down) all blocking champions. Only prepared champions may block. In order to block, a champion must be capable of blocking at least one member of the attacking group.
Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
Champions with range deal damage.
Champions without range deal damage.
That attack ends. Go back to #1 and start over. The active player may repeat this process any number of times.

Note: Champions deal damage equal to their offense. If a champion is blocking or being blocked by multiple champions, it may deal all its damage to one or split its damage up in any way. If a champion takes damage equal to or greater than its defense, it is broken. Champions that were not blocked deal damage to the defending player.

Note: Champions may attack and use abilities the turn they come into play. Only prepared champions and objects may use abilities with an expend or a flip in their cost.

Basic Rules

In Epic, players are gods battling each other with mighty champions, momentous events, and powerful objects represented by cards in their deck. Each turn, every player has a single action. The most powerful cards cost an action to play, the others are free.

Winning the Game

If you eliminate all of your opponents, you win the game. A player is eliminated when their score (Mojo) is brought to 0 or below, or if a card says they "lose the game".

If you have no cards left in your deck, you win the game. If multiple players meet this condition simultaneously, those players finish in a tie.

Formats

Like most trading card games, Epic can be played two player or in bigger multiplayer games. You can build a deck from your collection of cards (designed deck), or build a deck from cards taken straight out of sealed packs (sealed pack or draft). For now, we'll start with the simplest format: Sealed Pack using 2 packs per player. Other formats will be covered in the Advanced Rules.

Unique among trading card games, you can play great games of Epic with each player using only two 15 card booster packs. To play this format, open two packs of Epic and shuffle them together. You now have a 30 card deck, and are ready to get started.

Getting Started

You will need some way to keep track of the score such as a pen and paper. Each player starts with a score of 30 Mojo. You can reduce your opponent's Mojo by attacking with your champions and by using certain event and object cards.

Each player shuffles their deck, presents it to their opponent to shuffle or cut, and then draws their starting hand of 5 cards. Any number of players may take a mulligan, and then the first player starts his turn.

Hand Size

Each player starts with a hand of 5 cards. As you end your turn, if you have more then 10 cards in your hand, you must discard down to 10 cards.

Taking a Mulligan

If you don't like any of the cards in your starting hand, you may shuffle any number of them and put them on the bottom of your deck. For each card you did this with, you lose 1 Mojo and draw a replacement card. All players may do this (starting with the player going first and proceeding clockwise) before anyone takes their first turn.

You may only mulligan once each game and you must mulligan all the undesired cards at the same time.

Playing Cards

Actions

At the beginning of each player's turn, all players gain one action (1 action). Unspent actions are lost as the turn ends; they may not be saved for use on later turns.

Action Cards

Cards with an action in their upper left hand corner cost an action to play.

Free Cards

Cards with a free symbol in the upper left hand corner are free to play.

Note: Normally, a player may play one action card and any number of free cards each turn.

Note: You gain an action on your turn and on your opponent's turn, so even if you spent your action on your turn, you will have one on your opponent's turn.

When a Card Can Be Played

Each card has a speed represented by a symbol in the upper right hand corner of the card. This symbol tells you when you are allowed to play the card.

Build: Can only be played in your Build Step. Can only be played when "the line" is empty.
Paced: Can only be played in your Pre-Battle and Build Steps. Can only be played when "the line" is empty.
Fast: Can be played anytime you have priority.
Instantaneous: A Build, Paced or Fast speed symbol shown twice. Same as a single symbol but resolves immediately. No one may respond, and whoever played the card retains priority.

For more on when a card can be played, see timing in the advanced rules below.

How to Play a Card

Announce you are playing the card.
If the card has choices or targets, name them.
If the card has costs (like an action for an action card), pay them.
Put the card "on the line". This is done by putting the card on the table so everyone can see it and has a chance to respond (by playing a card from their hand or using an ability of a card in play).
Once everyone who wanted to respond has done so, resolve the last thing put on the line. Players may then add more things to the line if they wish.
When a champion or object resolves, put it into play (it is now a game piece that you can use). When an event resolves, do what it says and then put it in the discard pile.

Understanding an Epic Card

The parts of a card, as labelled in the rulebook diagram:

Cost: upper left corner.
Speed: upper right corner.
Origin: the card's origin (see Origin below).
Alignment: the card's alignment (see Alignment below).
Type: the card's type (see Type below).
Abilities: the card's text box.
Offense: bottom left corner (burst symbol).
Defense: bottom right corner (shield symbol).

Alignment

A card's alignment represents the morality of the card. There are four alignments in Epic: Good (gold cards), Evil (dark purple cards), Wild (green cards) and Unaligned (chrome blue cards). Alignment has no game effect on its own, but many cards will reference alignment.

Example: A champion or object could have the ability: "When you play a good card, you may gain 3 Mojo."

Origin

A card's origin represents how it came to be. There are three origins in Epic: Natural (scales in card background), Magical (lightning in card background), and Constructed (gears in card background). Origin has no game effect on its own, but many cards will reference origin.

Example: An event might say: "Banish all magical champions and objects."

Type

A card's type represents what a card is. There are three types of cards in Epic: Champions, Objects, and Events. Each of the three card types has its own unique frame around the art box.

Champions

Champions are heroes, monsters, or the like, that fight for you. Champions can battle for you by attacking or blocking (see Battle Step below) and many champions have abilities (see Abilities below). A champion is put into play and you can continue to use it until it is broken (put into its controller's discard pile), banished (put on the bottom of its owner's deck) or otherwise removed from play.

Offense and Defense

All champions have offense and defense numbers. The offense (burst symbol) indicates how much damage the champion deals in battle. If a champion takes damage equal to or greater than its defense (shield symbol) in a single turn, break it. (When something is broken, it is put into the discard pile.)

Objects

Objects are items or locations that you have at your disposal. They are put into play and have abilities that you may use until the object is broken or banished.

Events

Events are things that you can make occur (like an earthquake, assassination, resurrection, etc). When an event resolves, do what it says and then put it into the discard pile.

Abilities

Some champions and objects have abilities. There are three types of abilities: activated, triggered, and continuous.

Activated abilities are things you can choose to use. They sometimes have a cost, and always have a speed, followed by a colon, which is followed by an effect.

Example: A champion might have the activated ability: an expend symbol, fast speed symbol: Put target champion into its controller's hand. Because it's fast (fast speed symbol), you can use this ability anytime you have priority (see timing below). Simply expend (turn sideways) the champion to put the "Put target champion into its controller's hand" effect on the line.

Triggered abilities are abilities that only happen or can only be used when a condition is met. Continuous abilities continuously affect the game. We'll cover triggered and continuous abilities in more detail in the Advanced Rules below.

Turns

At the start of the game, randomly determine which player will take the first turn. When playing a multiple game match, the player who lost the last game (or in multiplayer, was the first to lose in the last game) gets to decide which player will take the first turn. Play proceeds in clockwise order around the table.

Active Player

The active player is the player whose turn it is currently.

Steps

Each turn is broken up into the following steps:

Prepare Step: The active player prepares (turns right side up) all his champions and objects, then draws a card. No one may play cards or abilities during this step.

Pre-Battle Step: The active player may play Paced cards and abilities. Any player may play Fast cards and abilities.

Battle Step: Any player may play Fast cards and abilities. The active player may make any number of single or group attacks (see Battle below).

Build Step: The active player may play Build and Paced cards and abilities. Any player may play Fast cards and abilities.

For each step (except the Prepare Step):

At the beginning of this step, starting with the active player, each player puts any "beginning of step" triggers on the line.
Whenever the line is empty or something on the line resolves, the active player regains priority.

Ending a Step

To end a step, the active player announces he is ending the step and passes. If all players pass, the step ends. Otherwise, resolve the line and then the active player may try to end the step again.

Battle

Each Battle Step, do the following:

Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
The active player may end his Battle Step or choose a champion or a group of champions to attack. Expend (turn sideways) all attacking champions. Only prepared champions may attack. All champions in this group must attack a single player.
Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
The defending player may choose a champion or group of champions to block the attack. Flip (turn upside-down) all blocking champions. Only prepared champions may block. In order to block, a champion must be capable of blocking at least one member of the attacking group.
Players may play Fast cards and abilities.
Champions with range deal damage.
Champions without range deal damage.
That attack ends. Go back to #1 and start over. The active player may repeat this process any number of times.

Note: Champions may attack and use abilities the turn they come into play. Only prepared champions and objects may use abilities with an expend or a flip in their cost.

Advanced Rules

Play a few games before reading the Advanced Rules.

Timing

Priority

The active player has the first option to play a card or to use an ability. When it is a player's option to play a card or ability, he has priority.

The Line

If a player plays a card or an ability, anyone (including himself) may respond by playing a card or using an ability. First, the player who made the play may respond. When he is done with any responses, he passes priority. Next, the player to his left gets priority and may respond as many times as he wishes, before he also passes priority to his left. This process continues until every player all the way around the table passes after the last thing was added to the line. Once all players have passed, resolve the last thing put on the line, then the active player regains priority and you start again. Continue this process until everything on the line has resolved.

Note: Even if it is your turn you may not respond with Build and Paced speed cards and abilities. They may only be played if there is nothing currently on the line.

Instantaneous

Build, Paced and Fast cards or abilities may have the instantaneous trait. This is indicated by the speed symbol appearing twice.

When a card or ability with instantaneous is played or otherwise added to the line, it resolves right away. This happens immediately and no one may respond to it. No one gains priority and nothing else may be added to the line until it resolves. Once the instantaneous card or ability is resolved (and any "when" triggers it may have triggered have been added to the line), then the player who played that instantaneous card regains priority.

Triggers

If a card or ability has "when" or "as" followed by a condition and then an effect, that is a trigger.

When Triggers

If the word "when" or "whenever" is used, it is a when trigger.

Example: "Whenever a champion goes to a discard pile from play, you may gain 3 Mojo."

When the condition that causes a when trigger is met, the effect is added to the line.

If multiple when triggers trigger at the same time, the active player adds his first, then the player to his left, and so on. If a player has multiple when triggers, he decides what order to add them to the line.

Players do not gain priority while triggers are being added to the line. After all when triggers have been added to the line, the player who last had priority regains it.

As Triggers

If a card or ability says "as" condition, effect, that is an as trigger.

As triggers happen right away (at the same time as the condition that triggered them) and don't wait to go on the line.

Example: "As any card would go to the discard pile, put it in the banished pile instead."

All as triggers happen simultaneously. If two or more as triggers would contradict each other, then the active player's as trigger is the only one that is applied (or the player's closest to his left if he didn't have one).

Example: Player A has an object in play with "As any card would go to a player's discard pile, banish it instead." Player B has an object with "As any card would go to a discard pile, put it in your hand instead." If it is Player A's turn, then as any card would go to a player's discard pile, it is banished instead. If it is players B's turn, then as any card would go to a discard pile, it is put in player B's hand instead.

If the player whose trigger would resolve controls multiple contradicting as triggers, he decides which resolves.

Continuous Abilities

Continuous abilities are always applied and don't need to go on the line.

Example: Champions you control get +2 offense and +2 defense.

Order to Apply Continuous Abilities

Continuous abilities that say "have", "are" or "is" are applied simultaneously, then Continuous Abilities that say "get" or "gain" or "lose" are applied.

Example: If you have a card that says "All champions are 1 offense and 1 defense." and another card that says "All champions get +4 offense and +0 defense.", then all champions are 5 offense and 1 defense.

Note: +1 offense and +1 defense counters are continuous abilities that read, "This champion gets +1 offense and +1 defense."

Contradictory Continuous Abilities

If one or more continuous abilities would contradict each other, then remove all the cards, tokens or counters that generated those continuous abilities from the game, before that contradiction is applied.

Note: Something that is removed from the game is set aside and no longer has any effect on the game. Cards removed from the game will be shuffled back into their deck for the next game.

Example: Player A has an object with "You control all champions." Player B plays the same object. As player B's object resolves both objects are removed from the game without player B gaining control of the champions in play.

Legal Targets

In order to play a card or ability on a target, that target must be legal.

Example: An event card that reads "Break target evil champion." may only be played on an evil champion.

If when a card or ability resolves, one of its targets is no longer legal, that target is unaffected by the targeting effect.

Example: Player A plays an event card that reads "Break target champion and target object" targeting player B's champion and object. Player B responds with a fast speed event card that reads "Your champions are untargetable until the end of turn." Both players have no more plays and allow the line to resolve. The last thing on the line (player B's event) resolves first, making player B's champions untargetable. When player A's event resolves, it breaks player B's object but player B's champion is unaffected.

If when a card or ability would resolve none of its targets are legal, then it fails (it doesn't resolve and is put into the discard pile).

Example: Player A plays an event card that reads "Draw a card. Break target champion." targeting player B's champion. Player B responds with a fast speed event card that reads "Your champions are untargetable until the end of turn." Both players have no more plays and allow the line to resolve. The last thing on the line (player B's event) resolves first, making player B's champions untargetable. Player A's event had only one target, which is no longer legal. Player A's event fails. The champion is not broken and player A doesn't draw a card.

Negative Numbers

For game effects, negative numbers are considered the same as 0.

Example: A champion with 4 offense gets -5 offense until end of turn. It is now -1 offense, and it would deal 0 damage in battle. It then gets +2 offense until end of turn. It is now 1 offense and it would deal 1 damage in battle.

As a champion's defense becomes 0, negative, or less than or equal to the damage it has already taken this turn, it is broken.

Note: An unbreakable champion can't be broken.

Tokens

A card may instruct you to put a token champion or object into play. You may use anything to represent a token, so long as you and your opponent know what it is. If a token would ever leave play (return to your hand, be banished, broken, etc) it is removed from the game instead.

Owner

You are considered the "owner" of any card that was in your deck at the start of the game. A card you own will never go into any other player's deck during the course of the game. A card you own may go to another player's hand or discard pile.

Controller

The player who is using a champion, object, event or ability is the controller.

If a champion or object you control is broken, it goes into your discard pile.

Gain Control

If you "gain control" of a champion or object, move it to your side of the table. You get to use it until something causes you to lose control of it. If it is broken, it will go to your discard pile. If something returns it to its controller's hand, it goes to your hand. If it is banished, put it onto the bottom of its owner's deck. When the game ends, return all cards to their owners.

Cards You Don't Own In Your Hand

In the course of a game you may end up with a card you don't own in your hand. If so, that card is displayed face up in front of you so that all players may see what it is. In all other ways it is treated identically to the cards you own that are in your hand.

Note: If you are instructed to discard a card at random, use a die or other random method to determine which card is discarded.

Cards You Don't Own In Your Discard Pile

Cards you don't own can go to your discard pile. Your discard pile is actually two piles of cards, one face up pile to contain the cards you own, and another face up pile to contain cards you don't own.

Formats

For a current list of formats, see EpicTCG.com.

Sideboard

Some formats allow a 15 card sideboard that you may use to modify your deck between games. You may choose not to have a sideboard, but if you have one, it must be exactly 15 cards.

When playing a multi game match, between games you may swap any number of cards between your deck and sideboard. This is done on a one for one basis so that your sideboard is always exactly 15 cards. After the match is complete, return your deck and sideboard to their original configurations before starting the next match.

Sealed Pack

When playing sealed pack each player opens the same number of packs and uses those cards to build a deck of at least 30 cards. Sealed pack using two packs per player is called "Sealed Pack 2". With three packs per player it is called "Sealed Pack 3", and so on.

You may use any of the cards in your packs to build your deck and sideboard. There is no maximum deck size and no restriction to the number of copies of a card you may play. Any cards not being put into your deck or sideboard are set aside and may not be used.

Pack War

"Pack War" or "Sealed Pack 1" is sealed pack played with just 1 pack per player. Just like "Sealed Pack 2", there is no deck building. Just shuffle up your cards and you are ready to play.

In Pack War, a player doesn't win the game when he has no cards left in his deck. Instead, as a player tries to draw a card from an empty deck, each of his opponents loses 5 Mojo for each card he was unable to draw.

Draft

In a draft, players sit around the table in a circle. Each player has the same number of booster packs. All players open their first pack at the same time, look through all the cards in the pack and choose one to keep. The other 14 cards are shuffled and passed to the player to their left. Each player then looks through the cards passed to them, chooses one to keep and passes the remaining 13 cards to the player to their left. This process continues until all the cards in the first set of packs have been chosen.

Each player then opens their second pack and repeats the process, but cards are now passed to the right. Continue until all packs have been used, switching the direction cards are passed with each pack. Once all the cards have been drafted, players build their decks and sideboards using the same rules as sealed pack.

Draft using two packs per player is called "Draft 2". With three packs per player it is called "Draft 3," and so on.

Designed Deck

In this format, players build a deck of at least 60 cards from their collection.

Between a designed deck and its sideboard there may be no more than 3 copies of each card, a maximum total of 18 free cards (cards with a free symbol in the upper left hand corner), and a maximum total of 9 gift cards (see below). A free card that is also a gift card counts against both the total of free cards and the total of gift cards in your deck.

Restricted Cards

When playing designed deck, a player is allowed a maximum of 1 of each restricted card between their deck and sideboard. As of the printing of this rulebook, there are no restricted cards. The current list of restricted cards may be found at www.EpicTCG.com.

Banned Cards

These are cards that are not allowed in a designed deck or its sideboard. As of the printing of this rulebook, there are no banned cards. The current list of banned cards may be found at www.EpicTCG.com.

Gift Cards

Between a designed deck and its sideboard a player is allowed a maximum of 9 gift cards in total. Each individual gift card is still restricted to the 3 card maximum (or 1 card maximum if it is restricted).

As of the printing of this rulebook this set contains the following gift cards:

At Any Price
Battle Standard
Bolt from the Blue
Brush Aside
Evil Dead
Ferocious
Flash Fire
Forget the Past
Full Moon
Hand of Navec
Hired Muscle
I Own the Night
Mask of the Many
Naturalist
Nature's Renewal
Night Rise
One-Eyed Sidekick
Priestess
Recruitment
Ring of Will
Rescue
Rushing In
Seaside Cave
Second Wind
Seize the Day
Shelter
Snowblind
Stolen Memory
Swarm
Thought Stealer
Thrust

The current list of gift cards may be found at: www.EpicTCG.com

Game Terms

Ability: A card or token's capability to do something.
Activated Ability: An ability that has to be used. These will have a ":" with the cost to activate the ability followed by the ability's speed on the left, and the effect on the right.
Continuous Ability: An ability that affects the game in an ongoing basis.
Triggered Ability: An ability that automatically triggers when a condition is met. The condition is indicated by the word "when" or "as."
Action (1 action): At the beginning of each turn all players gain 1 action. Most cards and some abilities require you to pay your action to play them. Unspent actions are lost as the turn ends; they may not be saved for use on later turns.
Action Card: An action card has the action symbol in the upper left hand corner. Playing one of these cards costs 1 action.
Alignment: Represents a card or token's morality. The four alignments are:
- Evil: Delights in the misfortune and suffering of others.
- Good: Delights in the good fortune and happiness of others.
- Unaligned: Neutral and motivated by self interest. Capable of both good and evil acts.
- Wild: Acts impulsively or on instinct. Good or evil acts may be an accidental byproduct.