Nawalli: The Aztec Card Game

Nawalli: The Aztec Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Game of Nawalli

In Nawalli: The Aztec Card Game players draft teams of Nawals and Spells to summon into the Arenas and defeat their opponent by capturing all the Tonalli gems.

Overview

The Nawalli Box Set includes 119 cards, a bag of counters, and 4 paper Arena mats.

60 Nawal Cards, 50 Spell Cards
5 Guardian Cards, 4 Reference Cards
16 red Tonalli gems
Obsidian counters
1 four sided die

Cards

Nawal Card, Guardian Card and Spell Card each show:

ENERGY: The Energy cost to summon a card.
POWER: The Damage its Attacks inflict.
LIFE: The Damage a Nawal can withstand before it is defeated and discarded.
ABILITIES: 1 of 20 unique Day Sign Abilities that can be activated.

How to Play

To battle in the Arena each player needs 1 Guardian, 8 Nawals, and 8 Spells. These are drafted with the other players before you battle.

To begin battle, players draw a hand of 3 Nawals and 2 Spells. Then they take turns collecting Energy to summon their cards into the lanes of the Arena and Attack their opponent's open lanes to capture Tonalli Gems. Capture all of them to win.

A Nawalli turn:

Collect Energy
Summon cards with Energy
Attack opponent with Nawals (use Abilities and other actions)
End turn and draw back to 5 cards

Quick Start Guide

For first time players, you can skip drafting and assemble 5 fully pre-made decks ready for battle! Each pre-made deck consists of: 1 Guardian Card, 8 Nawal Cards, and 8 Spell Cards.

Assemble the 5 Decks by gathering all 9 cards with the same Guardian Glyph in the top right corner of the cards: Teskatlipoka, Tlalok, Xipe Totek, Ehekatl, Ome Teotl.

You will have 1 Guardian, two Level 4 Nawals, two Level 3 Nawals, and four Sacred Spells. Use the list to gather two Level 2 Nawals, two Level 1 Nawals, and four Basic Spell Cards to complete the deck!

TESKATL IPOKA, The Night Deck: Two Level 2 Nawals - Tekolotl, Oselotl. Two Level 1 Nawals - Pinawistli, Tlaloselotl.
TLALOK, The Rain Deck: Two Level 2 Nawals - Tamasolin, Axolotl. Two Level 1 Nawals - Atekokolli, Michin.
XIPE TOTEK, The Earth Deck: Two Level 2 Nawals - Tlakwachin, Kwawtli. Two Level 1 Nawals - Pesohtli, Tlekwawtli.
EHEKATL, The Wind Deck: Two Level 2 Nawals - Kanawtli, Osomahtli. Two Level 1 Nawals - Ketsaltototl, Mapachin.
OME TEOTL, The Creator Deck: Two Level 2 Nawals - Akwetspalin, Papalotl. Two Level 1 Nawals - Kwetspalmichin, Xikohtli.

Take these Four Basic Spells for all 5 Decks - Makkwawitl, Metl, Ahkwalli Ehekatl, Ichkawipilli.

Your decks are ready, skip to the Arena Setup page!

Game Modes

Quick Battle (New Players) - Choose 1 of the 5 partially pre-made Guardian decks to battle. Each includes 1 Guardian, 4 Nawals and 4 Sacred Spells. You will draft 4 more Nawals and 4 more Basic Spells from the remaining cards.
Full Battle (Experienced Players) - Draft your full deck of 1 Guardian, 8 Nawals, and 8 Spells.
Custom Battle (Advanced Players) - Create your decks without drafting.
Simple Battle (First time playing card games) - Choose a pre-made deck from the Quick Start Guide, but only play with Nawal cards. Don't use Abilities.

Sort Cards

Sort the cards into separate piles by Guardians, Nawals by Energy level, and Spell cards by Basic or Sacred. Sacred Spells have these Guardian Glyphs in the card's top right corner: Teskatlipoka, Tlalok, Xipe Totek, Ehekatl, Ome Teotl.

For Quick Battle, sort the 5 Guardian Decks by gathering all 9 cards with the same Guardian Glyph. Each Deck will have two 4 Energy Nawals, two 3 Energy Nawals, and 4 Sacred Spells. Draft the rest!

Drafting Cards

Players will take turns drafting cards to build their decks. Roll the dice to determine who chooses first, then alternate who chooses first each draft round.

Lay out nine cards of the same type for each draft round. Players take turns choosing one card at a time until everyone has drafted the required cards.

For Quick Battle, first draft 1 of the 5 sorted Guardian Decks. Then draft: Two 2 Energy Nawals, two 1 Energy Nawals, and 4 Basic Spells.

Full Battle Draft

In Full Battle players draft all of their cards to build a deck of 1 Guardian, 8 Nawals, and 8 Spells.

Lay out all 5 Guardians and each player chooses 1. Roll to see who goes first, then alternate.

Lay out nine cards per draft round and take turns choosing one at a time until all players have drafted.

Draft: Two 4 Energy Nawals, two 3 Energy Nawals, two 2 Energy Nawals, two 1 Energy Nawals, four Basic Spells and four Sacred Spells.

Arena Setup

Place the Arena mats in front of each player and 13 Tonalli Gems between them, with obsidian counters in a pile on the side.

Place your Nawal deck face down behind your left lane. To the right, place your Guardian card with the Blessing side up. Then place your Spell deck face down. Discarded cards will go in the Burn Pile. Shuffle each deck and you're ready to battle!

How to Battle

To begin battle, roll the dice to determine who will take the first turn. Each Player draws 3 Nawals and 2 Spells for their first hand. You may reshuffle and redraw your hand once before the game begins.

At the beginning of your turn, do Action 1. Then you may do Actions 2, 3, and the Bonus Actions in any order and as many times as possible.

Actions:

Collect 3 Energy
Summon Cards
Attack Opponent
Draw Back

Bonus Actions: Sacrifice, Shapeshift, Shift, Guardian.

At the end of your turns, always draw back to 5 cards total in hand, drawing either Nawals or Spells.

Capture all 13 Tonalli Gems to win the game. Play until one player wins 2 out of 3 games. The losing player from the last game goes first.

Example Play

I Collect 1 Energy at the beginning of my turn.
I Summon a one Energy Nawal into one of my open lanes by spending one Energy.
I Attack the opposing lane, and because it's open, I capture Tonalli gems equal to my Nawal's Power - so I get two Tonalli Gems.
I end my turn and Draw back to 5 Cards, drawing Nawal Cards and/or Spell Cards.

My opponent Collects 2 Energy on their turn.

They Sacrifice a Nawal Card to gain 2 extra Energy - now they have a total of 4 Energy.
They Summon a Level 2 Nawal in a lane. Then they Summon a Level 2 Item Spell and place it underneath their Nawal to give it more Power.
They Attack with their Nawal in my open lane. Because they have 5 Power, they take my 2 Tonalli and 3 more Tonalli from the middle.
They end their turn and draw back up to 5 cards.

My next turn:

I Collect 2 Energy and Sacrifice a Spell Card to gain 1 extra Energy, for a total of 3 Energy.
I Summon a Level 2 Nawal on top of my Nawal to Shapeshift. This increases its Power and Life by 1 and keeps the Ability of the bottom card.
I Attack with my Nawal in the open lane to capture 2 Tonalli gems. I activate my Water Ability to deal 1 Damage to adjacent Nawals.
I Summon a Level 1 Nawal in my Blue Lane to defend my lane and Attack to deal 1 Damage to my opponent's Nawal. I end my turn.

My opponent collects 3 Energy this turn and continues to do so every turn.

They Sacrifice a Nawal Card to gain 2 extra Energy.
They spend 5 Energy to Summon their Guardian in the Blue Lane.
They Attack with their Guardian and activate Eagle Ability to Attack 1 lane away in my blue lane and defeat my Nawal.
I get 1 Energy when my Nawal is defeated.
They Attack with their Nawal in my open blue lane to take 5 Tonalli Gems. They end their turn.

Collecting Energy

Energy is collected at the beginning of a player's turn and is spent to summon cards into the lanes of the Arena. Energy is represented by obsidian counters placed on a player's Guardian card space.

Every turn collect 3 Energy from the obsidian stone pile, except the first two Rounds:

Round one the first player collects 1 Energy and the second player collects 2 on their turn.
Round two the first player collects 2 Energy and the second player collects 3 on their turn.

Sacrificing Cards

Once per turn, you may Sacrifice only one card from your hand, by placing it in your Burn Pile, to gain extra Energy.

Sacrificing a Nawal always gets you 2 extra Energy and sacrificing a Spell gives you 1 extra Energy.

Sacrificing cards can help you collect more Energy in a single turn to play more or stronger cards. Try sacrificing your lower level cards instead of your higher level cards. Beware to not run out of cards!

Summoning Cards

Each player controls one side of the 4 Arena lanes. Every turn players can spend Energy to summon cards.

On your turn, Summon Nawals into any of your open lanes by spending Energy equal to the Nawal card's Energy level.

Place the spent Energy back in the Obsidian counter pile on the side of the board. Unused Energy always carries over to the next turn.

Shapeshifting

You may summon a Nawal on top of one of your Nawals in a lane to Shapeshift them together, creating a more powerful Nawal and removing all Damage.

Use the stats and Abilities of the top Nawal card. It gains the bottom Nawal's Abilities, +1 Power, and +1 Life. You may only Shapeshift each Nawal once.

If the Shapeshifted Nawal is defeated, discard both Nawals and any Item attached. Guardians cannot Shapeshift or be Shapeshifted.

Summoning Spell Cards

Spell Cards can summon Items or cast Magic in the Arena. Magic Spells activate an effect and are then discarded into the burn pile.

On your turn, Summon Spells into the Arena by spending collected Energy equal to the card's Energy level.

Place Magic Spells face up on the side of the Arena if they have an effect for an entire round.

(Example Magic Spell: Ahkwalli Ehekatl - Inflict 2 Damage to a Nawal.)

Summoning Item Cards

Item Spells are equipped to Nawals to increase Power, Life, and/or grant more Abilities. Item Spells are placed underneath the Nawal with the Abilities and stats visible.

For example, the Techichi with a Makkwawitl equipped now has 3 Power and 6 Life total.

Each Nawal can only have 1 Item equipped at a time. You may discard an equipped Item to equip a Nawal with a new Item.

Attacking

Every turn, Players can Attack the opponent with their summoned Nawals to capture Tonalli or deal Damage to opposing Nawals.

On your turn, each of your Nawals can Attack once in the opposing lanes and may attack as soon as they are summoned. If there is no opposing Nawal, capture Tonalli Gems equal to your Nawal's Power. You cannot cancel your Attack.

Take Tonalli Gems from your opponent if they have any before taking from the middle. Place Tonalli Gems on the sides of your game mats when you capture them.

Announce your Nawals' Attacks one at a time, and which lane they are Attacking, to allow your opponent to respond with certain Abilities (Ex. Dog). Some Abilities may allow attacking other lanes.

Damage & Recovery

When an Attack hits a Nawal, add obsidian counters to the Nawal equal to the total Power of the Attacker. This represents Damage. Spells and Abilities can also inflict Damage to Nawals.

When a Nawal has Damage counters equal to or greater than their total Life, the Nawal is defeated. Place it in the Burn Pile along with any equipped Items or Shapeshifted Nawals.

When a Nawal is defeated its owner gains 1 Energy. Gain 2 total Energy from Shapeshifted Nawals.

Shifting Nawals

You may Shift a Nawal to an adjacent lane instead of Attacking with it during your turn. If there is a Nawal in that lane, swap lanes with it.

The Nawal that starts the Shift can't Attack this turn, unless it activated an Ability to Shift. The Nawal that is swapped into a lane can still Attack.

Guardians

Guardian Blessing

Guardian Cards are powerful double-sided cards that can Bless Nawals with an additional Ability or be summoned into the Arena to battle!

During your turn, pay 1 Energy to place your Guardian under one of your Nawals. The Nawal gains the Guardian's Ability until it is defeated. The Guardian cannot Bless another Nawal until then. Continue to place Energy on the Guardian Space.

Guardian Summon

Once per game, you may pay 5 Energy to summon your Guardian's Nawal, on the back of the Guardian card, into an empty lane. Remove it from any Nawal it has Blessed. Guardians cannot Shapeshift or be Shapeshifted.

When the Guardian's Nawal is defeated, place it back in the Guardian space and gain 1 Energy. It can't be summoned again, but it can Bless Nawals.

The Day Sign Abilities

There are 20 Day Sign Abilities that grant Nawals unique powers. Abilities are either activated on your turn, always active, or activate when something happens even on your opponent's turn.

To activate an Ability, announce which Nawal's Ability you are using and how, before or after it Attacks. Each of your Nawals can activate each of their Abilities one at a time and once per round unless they are always active.

An Ability that targets "Opposing Nawal" means a Nawal in the same lane.

Examples: "I Activate Wind Ability to Shift the opposing Nawal over 1 lane." I can do this before or after this Nawal Attacks, but not during the Attack.

"With Eagle Ability I Attack 1 lane over." I announce that I Attack my opponent in the blue lane.

When I Attack, my opponent can announce that they activate Dog Ability to Shift 1 lane to take the Attack.

Ability icon legend (shown on the Abilities pages): Attack, Shift, Defeat, Heal, Damage, Tonalli.

Flanking Abilities

Shift and sneak around your opponent's Nawals to capture Tonalli.

JAGUAR - Pounce between lanes. Activate to Shift 1 lane before Attacking.
EAGLE - Fly to Attack in other lanes. Activate to Attack up to 1 lane away from this Nawal.
WIND - Blow Nawals to other lanes. Activate to Shift an opposing Nawal 1 lane over.
REED - Pierce through Nawals. Always inflict 1 extra Attack Damage to Nawals equipped with items. When your Attack defeats a Nawal, up to 4 excess Damage pierces through to capture Tonalli gems.
RABBIT - Hit and run, and avoid Spells. Activate to Shift 1 lane after Attacking. Always prevent the first opponent Spell effect on this Nawal once per round.

Fighting Abilities

Inflict extra Damage to Nawals to defeat them and clear the Arena.

CAIMAN - Gain Power. Always increase this Nawal's Power by 1.
WATER - Splash Damage. When this Nawal's Attacks hit, inflict 1 extra Damage to Nawals, and to Nawals in adjacent lanes.
DEATH - Defeat deals Damage. When this Nawal is defeated, inflict 3 Damage directly to the Nawal that defeated it.
SNAKE - Swallow a Nawal. When this Nawal defeats a Nawal, Activate to place it under this card, gain its Abilities, and +1 Power +1 Life. May only swallow 1 Nawal at a time.
QUAKE - Movement deals Damage. Always inflict 1 Damage to opposing Nawals when they Shift in or out of this lane, and to Nawals in the lane this Nawal Shifts into.

Defense Abilities

Protect your lanes and Nawals from Attacks.

LIZARD - Prevent Attack Damage. Always reduce Attack Damage inflicted to this Nawal by 1.
DOG - Guard a Nawal or lane. When Attacked in an adjacent lane, Activate to Shift to that lane and take the Attack.
HOUSE - Protect empty lanes. When the first Attack in an empty lane is announced, Activate to Shift directly to that lane and take the Attack. Having multiple House Abilities allows activation on subsequent Attacks.
RAIN - Weaken a Nawal. Always reduce the opposing Nawal's Power by 1. When an Opponent's Nawal shifts, Activate to Shift 1 lane.
DEER - Flee from Attacks. When this Nawal is Attacked, Activate to Shift 1 lane to avoid taking Damage. The Attack still hits that lane.

Support Abilities

Heal your Nawals from harm and enhance their abilities.

GRASS - Regenerate from defeat. When an Attack would defeat this Nawal, Activate to prevent up to 3 Damage once per game.
VULTURE - Eat your defeated Nawals. When one of your Nawals is defeated, Activate to place it under this card, gain its Abilities, and +1 Power +1 Life. May only Eat 1 Nawal at a time.
MONKEY - Equip Items for less. Always reduce Item Spell Energy cost by 1 when equipping onto this Nawal.
FLOWER - Heal nearby Nawals. Activate to remove 1 Damage from this Nawal and each of your adjacent Nawals.
KNIFE - Steal Life. When this Nawal's Attack hits, remove 2 Damage from this Nawal.

FAQ

Vulture and Snake Ability may only swallow one Nawal at a time. Activating the Ability again will replace the previous Nawal. Guardians cannot be swallowed. If both Abilities trigger at the same time, the Nawal with the highest Energy level takes the defeated Nawal, in a tie Snake does.
You can Shapeshift a Nawal that has swallowed a Nawal with Vulture or Snake.
Quake Ability does not trigger when Nawals are Summoned in opposing lanes, only when they Shift.
If a Nawal with Death Ability is defeated with a Spell, the Death Ability does not activate.
If you do not activate House Ability on the first Attack, you cannot activate it on a second Attack unless you have multiple House Abilities.
If you run out of cards continue playing. If a Stalemate occurs, the player with more Tonalli wins.

Stacking Abilities

When there are multiple of the same Ability on a Nawal, the effects are either multiplied or may be activated multiple times, once per count of the Ability.

House, Dog, Wind, Deer, Rain movement, and Rabbit Spell immunity, may activate multiple times per round (or per game for Grass).
Water, Death, Caiman, Quake, Knife, Flower, Lizard, and Rain: Multiply the amount of Damage inflicted, Power granted, Life healed, or Damage prevented per count of the Ability.
Jaguar and Rabbit: Multiply the amount of lanes the Nawal can move before or after Attacking.
Snake and Vulture can swallow multiple Nawals.
Monkey further reduces the cost of Items.
Eagle allows Attacking additional lanes away.
Reed multiplies the piercing and extra Damage.

3-4 Player Battle

When drafting with 3 players, place 12 cards out per round, for 4 players place 16 cards.

For 3-4 player games each player gets their own Arena mat and collects 3 Energy even in Round one and two. Place the Tonalli in the middle between players. Roll the dice to determine the turn order. Players take turns Attacking any Opponent's empty lanes to take Tonalli gems from the middle or their opponent if they have any. For 3 Players use 12 Tonalli Gems and for 4 Players use 11 Tonalli Gems.

Nawals Attack opponents in the lanes of the same color, instead of Attacking directly in front of their lane. Each of your Nawals can each Attack any opponent. Abilities that activate once per Round (Ex. Deer) can only activate on 1 opponent unless you have multiple of the Ability. Magic Spells that affect "All Nawals" may only target one player's Arena.

2v2 Battle

For a 2 vs 2 player game, form two teams of 2 players each, each team sharing 1 mat. Players on a team share their turns, share the lanes and must capture 16 Tonalli Gems instead of 13 to win. Each player has their own Nawal deck, Spell deck, and Guardian, placed in front of the players below their Arena.

Each player draws their own hand and gains their own Energy. Follow the first turn Energy rule. Teams play their turn together summoning cards and Attacking in any order. Players can Shapeshift and equip their ally's Nawals. Players cannot spend Energy to play their ally's cards.

Feel free to tinker with the rules and make your own house rules! You might want to try playing with more or fewer Energy, bigger or smaller decks, or even playing with multiple Guardians per player.

Adventure Mode

A Tlakatekolotl, an evil Nawalli, has cursed the Nawals and Guardian of the Sacred Hill! Choose your starter Nawals and Spells, defeat his followers, and recruit the cursed Nawals to stop the final boss. Good luck, Nawalli!

How to Play

Each Player will choose 2 Nawals and 2 Spell cards to begin their quest. Players will fight through 5 battles to defeat the Tlakatekolotl by either taking all 13 Tonalli gems or defeating all of the opponent's Nawals. Add new cards to your deck by winning battles.

Players lose if the opponent captures all the Tonalli or all of their Nawals are defeated. If defeated players can retry the battle one time.

Board Setup

Place three paper mats as shown to create 3 rows of lanes (Opponent Back Row, Middle Row, Player Front Row), with a Guardian space, Encounter deck space and Burn Pile. Sort the cards into piles of Nawals and Spells by Energy Level (Level 1-4 Nawals, Level 1-2 Spells). Place the sorted piles face up on the side of the board. Remove the Level 2 Sacred Spells and put them back in the box.

Shuffle the 5 Guardian cards, and choose one at random. Place that Guardian card in the Guardian space above the back row (Blessing Side up). This Guardian will be the final boss.

Shuffle the Level 3 Spell cards and choose one at random without looking and put it underneath the Guardian face down. Put the rest of the Guardians and the Level 3 Item Spells back in the box.

Place the 13 Tonalli gems and Obsidian counters to the side of the board and you're ready to select your starter Nawals and Spells!

Player Setup

Choose Your Nawals. Each Player starts with one level 1 Nawal and one Level 2 Nawal. Place nine Level 1 Nawals out on the board and each Player chooses one. Do the same for the Level 2 Nawals.

Choose Your Class. Each Player starts with one level 1 Spell and one level 2 Spell. Each Player chooses one of the following pre-made classes and takes those cards from the sorted piles.

Warrior = Itstli + Makkwawitl or Tepostopilli
Defender = Ichkawipilli + Chimalli or Pantli
Archer = Metl + Tlawitolli
Summoner = Ehekapolli + Ehekakiyawitl
Sorcerer = Ahkwalli Ehekatl + Texoxalistli
Healer = Metl + Yolitilistli
Priest = Tesowalistli + Tlamanalistli

Encounter Deck

Each battle, the players will face Nawals placed on the board from the Encounter Deck. Assemble the Encounter Deck for each battle from the sorted piles according to the chart.

First, shuffle each of the face up sorted piles. Pick up and flip each stack to deal the Nawals face down into the Encounter deck. Higher level Nawals go at the bottom.

Place the Encounter deck face down to the right of the Guardian card. Put the sorted piles back on the side of the board face up.

Encounter Chart

	1 Player (Nawal Level)	2 Player (Nawal Level)
Battle 1	1x Level 2; 2x Level 1	2x Level 2; 4x Level 1
Battle 2	1x Level 3; 2x Level 2; 1x Level 1	2x Level 3; 4x Level 2; 2x Level 1
Battle 3	1x Level 3; 2x Level 2; 2x Level 1	4x Level 3; 4x Level 2; 1x Level 1
Battle 4	1x Level 4; 2x Level 3; 2x Level 2	2x Level 4; 4x Level 3; 3x Level 2
Battle 5	2x Level 4; 2x Level 3; 1x Level 2	4x Level 4; 4x Level 3; 1x Level 2

First Wave Setup

To summon the first wave of a battle, place 2 Nawals from the top of the Encounter Deck into the back row. For 2 Player place 3 Nawals.

Roll the 4 sided die for each Nawal to determine which lane to place it into. Each lane is represented by a number on the die.

If a lane is already taken, place the Nawal in the next lane to the right. If that lane is full, move right again until there is an open lane. Loop to the leftmost lane if the far right lane is taken.

Guardian & Shapeshift

GUARDIAN - Place the Guardian's Blessing under the first Nawal placed in the back row. When the Blessed Nawal is defeated, return the Guardian to the Guardian space. Bless the first Nawal Summoned in the back row on the next wave.

Once the first wave of Nawals and the Blessing are placed the battle begins.

SHAPESHIFT - Increase the battle difficulty.

Nawalli Veteran - Add 1 Shapeshift per battle.
Nawalli Master - Add 2 Shapeshifts per battle.

To Shapeshift, choose a level 1 Nawal from the sorted piles at random and place it under the second Nawal summoned in the back row. This Nawal gains +1 Power, +1 Life, and the Ability.

When a Shapeshifted Nawal is defeated, return the Shapeshift card to the Guardian space. Apply Shapeshifts after placing the Guardian Blessing.

Players' Turn

Players always take the first turn. To begin the battle, each player collects 2 Energy to summon Nawals or Spells into the front row. Collect 3 Energy at the beginning of every turn after the first. Players can't Attack the first turn.

Starting on the Players' next turn, they may Attack the middle row. Use the normal battle rules for Players when Attacking.

Each player may have up to 5 cards in their hand. If you have more than 5 cards, choose 5 and place the rest face down in a pile in front of you. Refill your hand up to 5 cards at the end of your turn, choosing whichever you like.

In 2 Player, both players share a turn, the front row of lanes, and the 13 Tonalli gems, but each player has their own cards and collects their own Energy at the start of every turn.

On their turn, the Players may summon cards in whatever order they wish and may Shapeshift, use spells or equip items onto their allies' Nawals.

Encounter Turn

MOVE - First, move each Nawal in the back row forward to the middle row if possible. If the middle row lane is taken, move the Nawals one lane to the right starting with the Nawals on the right. Loop to the leftmost lane if in the 4th lane.
SUMMON - Next, roll the dice to place 1 Nawal from the top of the Encounter deck in the back row. For 2 players, place 2 Nawals. If a lane is already taken, use the rules from the First Wave Setup. Include the Guardian Blessing or Shapeshifts.
ATTACK - Activate each of the opponent's Nawals in the middle row, one at a time, starting from left to right. First, the Nawal uses all their Abilities if possible. Then the Nawal Attacks the Opposing lane in the Player's front row. Activate the next Nawals until each has been activated.

Once the opponent has activated each Nawal, it is now the Players' turn again. Repeat the Encounter turn and Player turn until the Opponent or Players win the battle.

Opponent Ability Rules

In Adventure mode some opponent Nawal Abilities act differently than in the normal rules. Opponent Nawals always activate their Abilities if possible. Player's Abilities work the same as in the normal rules.

Monkey Ability - The Nawal gains +2 Life.
Eagle Ability - Always target the lane to the right. If it is in the right most lane, Attack the lane to the left.
Wind Ability - Always Shifts the Player Nawal to the right. Shift them left if they are in the right most lane.
Shifting Abilities (Rain, Jaguar, Deer, Rabbit, Wind) - Always Shift to the right. If they reach the far right lane, shift left instead. They now always move left until they reach the far left lane. Shift right again from the left most lane.

Recruits & Treasure

Recruit - After each battle, place out the Nawals you encountered on the board and each player chooses 1 to add to their deck. If you already have 4 Nawals, you may swap 1. Return the remaining cards to the top of the sorted piles face up.

Treasure - After battles 2-4, place out 3 Spells on the board per player and each player chooses 1 to add to their deck. If you already have 4 Spells, you may swap 1. Return the remaining cards to the top of the sorted piles face up.

Battle 2 - Place level 1 Spells.
Battle 3 - Place Level 2 Spells.
Battle 4 - Place Level 2 Spells.

Final Boss

BOSS SUMMON - After the Players win the 5th battle, the boss appears! Place all of the opponent's Nawals on the board into the burn pile, but do not remove any of your cards. Reset all 13 Tonalli gems to the side of the board.

Roll the dice and summon the Guardian Nawal in the middle row. Equip it with the Level 3 Sacred Item chosen at the beginning of the game. Summon Nawals from the Encounter Deck as normal if there are any. The Guardian Nawal Attacks right away.

You must defeat the Guardian without letting the opponent take all of the Tonalli to win!

For 2 Player, if the Encounter Deck is empty when the Guardian is summoned, Summon two additional Nawals from the sorted piles into the back row: 1x Level 4 Nawal and 1x Level 3 Nawal.

Nahuatl (Nah-wahtl)

The cards in Nawalli are written in the INALI spelling of Nahuatl, a native language from central Mexico spoken by the Aztecs. Nahuatl is still spoken to this day by 2 million people despite colonization.

When the Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs captured the capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1524, the Spanish and their Catholic priests burned the libraries and forced the people of Mexico to learn Spanish. However, thanks to those who resisted, the Nahuatl language and its stories have survived.

Pronunciation Guide

Use these sounds when pronouncing the following: A = ah, E = eh, I = ee, O = oh, X = sh, TL ending a word = T with a silent L.

Examples: Axolotl (Ah-shoh-lohtl), Sipaktli (See-pahk-tlee), Teskatl ipoka (Tehs-kahtl ee-poh-kah).

Nahua Mythology

In the beginning, there was only void, but then the Creators, Mother and Father Duality, were born. Together they gave birth to the Teotl of the Four Directions, the Sacred Forces that created the universe.

Each Teotl took turns becoming the Sun to provide Tonalli, the energy that powers all life, but each Sun would fail until our 5th Sun, Tonatiw, was born.

Every day is powered by 1 of 20 Tonalli Signs that grant Nawalli born under them their Nawal and unique Powers. Bond to your Nawal to unlock your abilities and fight back against the evil Nawalli destroying the sacred land!