KeyForge: Dark Tidings
KeyForge: Dark Tidings Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Unfathomable Depths
Dark Tidings begins by introducing a brand-new House to your games of KeyForge, replacing House Dis in the rotation of active Houses. Dwelling deep in the oceans of the Crucible, House Unfathomable takes Dark Tidings in a decidedly aquatic direction. With a mix of humanoid Aquans and dangerous deep-sea beasts, the Unfathomable can be deadly for unprepared creatures that stray into their domain. But with the tides rising across the Crucible, the entire planet may soon fall under the control of House Unfathomable…
As a faction, House Unfathomable specializes in controlling their foes by exhausting enemy creatures. Cards that keep your opponent's creatures down make it difficult for them to muster a fighting force or reap enough Æmber. Once your enemies are exhausted, other cards can keep them out of commission, or even wipe away their board entirely.
The Unfathomable are also known for another area of mastery — the tides that crash across the Crucible. As with all houses in a KeyForge deck, which cards belong to the Unfathomable is determined by the house icon printed on each card; the general house rules from the core rulebook (choosing an active house, which cards can be played or used, and so on) apply to the Unfathomable exactly as they do to any other house.
The Tide
The tides may be as unusual as every other part of the Crucible, but you can count on one thing — if it's high tide for you, it's low tide for someone else.
Every Archon Deck in Dark Tidings comes with a Tide reference card, and it forms an integral part of many cards in this set. If one or more KeyForge decks used in a game include a Tide reference card, then all players can interact with, and be affected by, the tide.
The tide reference card helps players track whether the tide is high or low for them, and serves as a reminder that they have access to the "Omni:" ability to raise the tide.
At the start of each game, the tide is neutral (neither high nor low) and the Tide card starts out of play. Once one player raises the tide, the Tide card is brought into play, with High Tide facing toward them and Low Tide facing their opponent. When either player raises the tide, the tide becomes high for them and low for their opponent. If the tide is already high for a player, they cannot raise the tide.
High Tide has no inherent effects of its own — but many cards become more powerful, or can only be used, if you have the high tide.
Raising the Tide
During the active player's turn, they may use the ability "Omni: Raise the tide. Gain 3 chains." This ability is granted by the game rules and not by a card ability. Unlike most "Omni:" abilities, this ability does not require a player to exhaust any card. A player can use this ability any number of times in a turn.
Many card effects can also raise the tide directly (without the chain cost above); when a card effect instructs a player to raise the tide, they should rotate the Tide reference card so that the side labeled "High Tide" is facing them and the side labeled "Low Tide" is facing their opponent.
Card abilities that refer to the tide are indicated by a tide icon printed alongside the ability text.
Design note: even if you don't hold any Unfathomable cards, every House in KeyForge has ways to take advantage of the Tide once it enters play — Logos artifacts can regulate access to it, the Star Alliance and other houses have creatures that grow stronger with the high tide, and any player, of any house, can always use the game-granted "Omni:" ability above to raise it in their favor for the cost of three chains.
My Evil Twin
They say that you can find anything on the Crucible, if you search hard enough for it… even your own evil twin.
Evil twin decks are a brand-new type of deck appearing in Dark Tidings. For example, you may open a deck that's entitled "Speaker Domitia's Evil Twin." This deck is an exact copy of Speaker Domitia, a real deck that has been printed and can be found by another player out in the world. The crucial difference is that in an evil twin deck, many of your creatures look a little different.
In the Dark Tidings set, many creatures have evil twin variants, and if you find an evil twin deck, every creature with an evil twin variant appears in that form. These evil twin creatures feature new artwork, graphic design, and abilities, making them a significant departure from the original creature. For example, if the "original" deck had a creature and its evil twin variant exists, the evil twin copy of the deck swaps in the evil twin version of that creature, as well as any other creatures in the deck that have an evil twin version.
For all game purposes, an evil twin creature is simply the creature printed on that card — it is played, it fights, it reaps, and its abilities resolve exactly as normal for a creature of its house, using the ability text and stats printed on the evil twin card rather than those of the original version. A deck containing evil twin cards is legal and complete exactly as printed; nothing about the evil twin concept changes deck-building, deck legality, or any other core rule.
Getting Started with Dark Tidings
Just as with earlier sets, there are plenty of ways to get started playing KeyForge with Dark Tidings. If you're already playing, you'll want an assortment of Dark Tidings Archon Decks, each offering a ready-to-play unique deck. If you're getting into the game for the first time, however, you have some options: the Dark Tidings Deluxe Deck has one deck and tokens for one player, while the Two-Player Starter Set offers two decks, paper playmats, and tokens for you and your opponent. Whether you're a veteran or just starting to look into the game, Dark Tidings is a perfect entry point.
Each Dark Tidings deck is composed of cards from three Houses drawn from the current KeyForge cardpool, exactly as with every other KeyForge set — see "The Houses of the Crucible" and "Game Setup" in the core rulebook. As with every KeyForge set, every card in the Dark Tidings cardpool carries the Dark Tidings set icon near its rarity symbol, and every Dark Tidings deck includes a Tide reference card in addition to its usual complement of cards, key tokens, and other reference cards.