Shaman King Trading Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Trading Card Games
• Game Overview
• Basic Card Types
  • Strikes
  • The Shaman Card: Short Version
• Basic Game Concepts
  • Zones
  • Defending in a Zone
  • Furyoku
  • Paying Furyoku Costs
  • Overpaying Furyoku
  • Focusing
• Starter Deck Instructions
• General Setup
• Opening Attack
• Basic Combat: Counterattacking
• Turn Sequence
  • Cleanup
  • Replenishing
  • Signature Move
  • Defending in a Zone
• Scoring and Winning
  • Cleanup
  • Celebration
  • Opening Attack
• Payment Powers
  • Eliminate
• Other Card Types
  • Teamworks
    • Playing Teamworks
    • Using Teamworks
    • Celebration
  • Advantages
    • Playing Advantages
    • Charging Your Zones
  • The Shaman Card: Long Version
    • Signature Moves
    • Spectergrams
• Keywords
• Deckbuilding and Traits
  • Rules for Traits
  • Trait Descriptions
    • The Advantage Group
    • The Strike Group
    • The Teamwork Group
• Rules Questions
  • Timing
  • Negative Numbers
  • Running out of Cards

Trading Card Games

If you've never played a trading card game (TCG) before, prepare yourself for a whole new level of challenge and discovery. TCGs are different from other games in two ways.

First, the cards in the game can change or go beyond the basic rules. The golden rule of TCGs is that the card is always right. Always do what the cards say, even if the rules say something different.

Second, you can choose what cards you want to play with. You can decide which strikes Yoh will make, what tactics he will use, and which of his friends will help guide him to victory. In the end, the power of your deck depends only on the strength of your imagination.

Game Overview

The Shaman King TCG is kind of like the traditional card game War. Like War, Shaman King TCG players don't have a hand of cards. Instead, players take turns flipping cards from the top of their decks and comparing their attacks.

The Shaman King TCG is also different than War. When you play War, you only have one chance to match or defeat your opponent's attack. In the Shaman King TCG, you have three chances, represented by the three colored zones. In War, cards are free to play, but in the Shaman King TCG, cards cost furyoku to play. Watch your furyoku carefully, and you'll be successful.

The Shaman King TCG is easy to learn. Players take turns attacking their opponents with strike cards while defending against their opponent's attacks at the same time. If your opponent fails to stop your strike in each of his or her three zones, you score a point. The first person to score three points wins the game.

Strikes aren't the only thing you need to win a shaman duel. Sneaky tactics, represented by advantage cards, and help from one's friends, represented by teamwork cards, will mean the difference between winning and losing the game.

Each shaman also has a different set of signature moves that you can find on the special pull-out card inside the Shaman Card. These represent each shaman's powerful attacks and may only be played under certain conditions. Keep reading along, because we'll be getting to exactly what those are later on.

Basic Card Types

Strikes

Strikes represent the powerful attacks and defensive maneuvers that a shaman can play. Strikes have blue backgrounds. Every strike has a defense, represented by the Intercept number on the upper right side of the card. Each strike also has an attack, represented by the Force number on the lower right side of the card.

• Card Name: This is the name of the strike.
• Trait Requirement: The trait requirement is only used when you build your deck. In order to play a strike with a trait requirement, there has to be a matching symbol on your shaman card. Don't pay attention to trait requirements when you play the Starter Deck game.
• Base Cost: You have to pay this much furyoku to play the strike.
• Rules Text: These are the special rules that you need to follow to play the strike.
• Intercept: The Intercept number has a little shield by it, meaning that it's the strike's ability to stop other strikes. A strike has to have Intercept greater than or equal to the Force of the incoming attack for you to play it.
• Force: The Force number has a little lightning bolt by it, meaning that it's the attack value of the strike. When you counterattack with a strike, your opponent can't play a strike unless its Intercept is equal to or greater than this number.

The Shaman Card: Short Version

When you play the Shaman King TCG, you adopt the role of one of your favorite shamans. Shaman cards have a front and a back. You can tell the front from the back by looking at the bottom of the card. The front shows the shaman's trait symbols at the bottom of the card. The back of the card has the Shaman King logo instead. Your shaman card starts in play with the front side face up.

Basic Game Concepts

Zones

Each player has three zones where that player can defend against his or her opponent's attacks. These zones are colored in order to represent the level of danger that the shaman is in while defending. The green zone is a shaman's first line of defense, followed by the yellow zone, before the shaman takes a final stand in the red zone. If you fail to defend in the red zone, your opponent's attack will succeed, and he or she will score a point.

Unless a card says otherwise, you always begin defending in the green zone.

These three zones don't represent actual places where things happen. Instead, they represent different opportunities you have to respond to your opponent's attacks, as well as different chances to develop your own plans.

Zones serve three functions in the Shaman King TCG:

1. They are the places where you flip new cards (in the places that say "Flip Here").
2. They are the places where you store your furyoku, which you use to play your cards.
3. They are the places where you play teamwork cards, which stay in play to help you out.

Defending in a Zone

Defending in a zone means you flip new cards from your deck into that zone. Whenever you are defending in a zone, flip a card face up from your deck into the play area marked "Flip Here" in that zone.

Once a card is flipped, you have a chance to play it by paying its furyoku cost. If you decide not to play it, or if you can't play it, you can focus the card instead by adding it face down to the furyoku stack in that zone. If you do focus the card, you are now defending in the next zone. Players defend first in the green zone, then in the yellow zone, and finally in the red zone.

Because of different card effects, sometimes you will not be able to either play or focus a card. When this happens, you have to discard that card instead. You can also choose to discard a card instead of playing or focusing it. Whenever you discard a card, put it in your discard pile. You are now defending in the next zone.

Furyoku

Furyoku represents the spiritual energy that a shaman uses to perform all of his or her actions. Your furyoku is represented by the number of face-down cards on the right side of each of your zones.

Furyoku has different colors. Red furyoku is the most powerful, yellow furyoku is in the middle, and green furyoku is the weakest. A shaman starts the game with two of each color of furyoku. Whenever you add furyoku, take a card from your discard pile and place it face-down in the appropriate furyoku stack. The amount of furyoku you can use will change as you play.

Paying Furyoku Costs

Most cards cost furyoku to play. The furyoku cost of a card is represented by the colored sidebar on the left side of the card. The numbers inside the colored bands show you how many of each color of furyoku you need to play the card.

It's easy to pay furyoku costs. If a card costs one green furyoku, remove one of the face-down cards from the stack of furyoku you have in your green zone and put it into your discard pile, face up.

In order to play this strike (Furious Response, with a base cost of one green and one red furyoku), you would need to pay one green and one red furyoku. Take one furyoku from the stack in the green zone and one furyoku from the stack in your red zone and put them into your discard pile, face up.

Overpaying Furyoku

What if, in the above example, your furyoku looked like this? The good news is that you can still play Furious Response. The bad news is that if you decide to play Furious Response, you will be forced to overpay for it.

Overpayment works like this:

• Any green furyoku cost can also be paid with either yellow or red furyoku.
• Any yellow furyoku cost can also be paid with red furyoku.

In the above example, you could pay for Furious Response by spending a yellow furyoku (overpaying for green) and a red furyoku. You could also pay for Furious Response by spending two red furyoku, but since red furyoku costs can only be paid with red furyoku, you might want to hang on to those.

Focusing

Focusing is one of the three ways that you can gain furyoku. Instead of playing a card, a shaman can choose to gather his or her spiritual power.

When you decide to focus a card instead of playing it, take the card that is currently flipped face up in one of your zones and put it into the furyoku stack in that same zone, face down. You will then start defending in your next zone.

You can focus a card even if it would result in your opponent scoring a point. In fact, in most cases when your opponent scores, you will focus in the red zone.

Example: Ben flips Furious Response in the green zone. He decides not to play the card. Instead, he focuses it, placing it in his green furyoku stack, face down. He is now defending in the yellow zone.

Starter Deck Instructions

Each player selects one of the two shaman cards and one of the wrapped packs of 30 cards. Each player opens his or her pack and shuffles the cards together. These will be the decks.

Set aside the special card named "Opening Attack." This will be useful as a reference once you begin playing the game.

General Setup

1. Play mat. Each player lays out his or her half of the play mat. Overlap the two halves of the play mat so that each player has only one advantage area.
2. Initial placement. Each player puts his or her shaman card and deck in the marked play areas. Make sure that your shaman card is placed with the front revealed (the side with the trait symbols).
3. Starting furyoku. Each player puts two cards from his or her deck face down into the play area marked "green furyoku." Don't look at these cards. Each player then puts two face-down cards into both the yellow and red furyoku play areas. Don't look at these cards, either.
4. Establish discard pile. Each player puts the top four cards from his or her deck face up into his or her discard pile, which is the play area just below the deck. You can see it in the diagram in the rulebook.
5. Determine who goes first. Each player adds up the total Force of the cards in his or her discard pile. The player with the highest total Force will decide who defends against the Opening Attack. If the numbers are tied, each player flips an additional card from his or her deck into the discard pile until one player has more Force than the other.

Opening Attack

The opening attack represents the first move in a Shaman King TCG duel. The person with the highest Force total in his or her discard pile at the start of the game decides if he or she will make the first move or wait for the opponent to strike first.

In game terms, this means that the person with the highest Force total chooses who will defend against the opening attack. The Starter Deck includes a reference card for the opening attack to help remind you what happens. This card is only for reference, so you can't actually play with it in your deck.

The opening attack is an attack with a Force of 4. The player that's defending against the opening attack adds a green furyoku before he or she starts flipping cards in the green zone.

Example: The total Force in Erin's discard pile is 13, and the total Force in Ben's discard pile is 9. Since Erin has the higher total Force, she gets to decide which player will defend against the opening attack. Erin decides that Ben will defend first. Ben adds a green furyoku and is now defending in his green zone against an attack that has a Force of 4.

Later in the game, Erin scores a point on Ben. Since Ben was scored on, this time he decides who will defend against the opening attack. Ben decides that he will defend, adds a green furyoku, and once again starts flipping cards in his green zone.

Basic Combat: Counterattacking

Now you know that all strikes have both an Intercept, which is the defense number, and a Force, which is the attack number.

When you want to play a strike, the Intercept of the strike has to be equal to or greater than the Force of your opponent's current attack. You also have to pay the furyoku cost of the strike you want to play.

If the strike doesn't have enough Intercept to stop the Force of your opponent's attack, you can't play it. If the strike does have enough Intercept to stop the Force of your opponent's attack, you can choose whether to play it or not.

You can decide not to play a strike for any reason, like if you're hoping to find a more powerful strike to attack your opponent with. If you decide that you don't want to play a strike, you must either focus it to gain furyoku or discard it to your discard pile.

Besides when you respond to the opening attack, all the strikes you play will be played in response to your opponent's attacks. When you play a strike, it's called a counterattack. When you counterattack with a strike, you turn it sideways. This indicates that your turn is over. Your opponent must now defend against the Force of that strike.

Example: Ben is defending in the green zone against Flamboyant Arrival, which has a Force of 4. The first card he flips over is Seismic Eruption, which has an Intercept of 3. Since the Intercept of Seismic Eruption is less than the Force of Flamboyant Arrival, Ben cannot play this strike. Instead, Ben focuses Seismic Eruption, adding it to his green furyoku stack, and flips a new card in the yellow zone.

This time he flips Barren Justice, which has an Intercept of 5. Since the Intercept is greater than the Force of the incoming attack, he may counterattack with it if he wants. Deciding that this would be a good plan, Ben pays for Barren Justice and turns it sideways, indicating the end of his turn. Erin must now defend against Barren Justice, which has a Force of 5.

Turn Sequence

Cleanup

The first action the defending player takes on his or her turn is to clean up his or her board. To clean up, the defending player removes all of the cards he or she played when last defending and puts them into the discard pile. Normally, this includes:

• The last strike that he or she played.
• Any advantages in his or her advantage area.

When you clean up, you only get to remove cards from your side of the board. Your furyoku, as well as any teamworks you have in play, never get cleaned up. Teamworks and furyoku remain in play even after someone scores a point.

Replenishing

After cleanup, the defending player now has a chance to replenish his or her furyoku. Replenishing is another way in which each player gains furyoku. Replenishing furyoku represents the chance a shaman has to focus spiritual energy while his or her opponent is busy defending against his or her last attack. The deeper the zone from which your opponent was forced to counterattack, the more furyoku you gain.

It's easy to find out how much furyoku to add. Which zone did your opponent counterattack from? You get to add a furyoku of the same color as that zone. Additionally, you add one furyoku for each zone above it. Remember that whenever you add a furyoku by replenishing, you take the top card of your discard pile and put it into the zone of the color you are adding, face down.

There are four different cases in which you replenish your furyoku.

• If your opponent is counterattacking from the red zone, you get to add a red, a yellow, and a green furyoku.
• If your opponent is counterattacking from the yellow zone, you get to add a yellow and a green furyoku.
• If your opponent is counterattacking from the green zone, you get to add a green furyoku.
• If your opponent is counterattacking with his or her signature move, you don't get to add any furyoku.

The reason you don't replenish your furyoku when your opponent plays his or her signature move is that he or she isn't counterattacking from any zone.

Signature Move

Before the defending player starts defending in the green zone, he or she has a chance to play a signature move, the special pull-out card inside the shaman card. You can only play your signature move if all of your zones are charged. If you cannot or decide not to play your signature move, you begin defending as normal in your green zone.

Defending in a Zone

The defending player continues defending in each of the three zones until he or she counterattacks or his or her opponent scores a point.

Scoring and Winning

If a player cannot or chooses not to counterattack in all three zones, his or her opponent scores a point. If a player scores three points, he or she wins the game. If no one has won the game after a point is scored, the following three steps happen.

Cleanup

When a point is scored, each player cleans up by putting all cards from his or her advantage area and any strikes he or she played when defending last into his or her discard pile.

Celebration

Whenever a player scores a point, he or she gets to celebrate. The player that scored a point adds a furyoku to each zone in which he or she has a teamwork.

Opening Attack

Just like at the beginning of the game, after a point is scored, one player will start the next action by defending against the opening attack. After a point is scored, the person who had the point scored against him or her decides who will defend against the opening attack, instead of having both players compare Force totals in their discard piles.

Payment Powers

Some cards have payment powers in their rules text boxes. Playing a card with a payment power can allow you to put in some extra effort to make the card you are playing much better. You can recognize payment powers because they have the ➔ symbol. If you pay the cost before the ➔, you get the effect after the ➔. You can pay the cost as many times as you like, unless the card says you can't.

When a strike has payment powers, you must pay the costs of the payment powers before you pay the base cost on the side of the strike. Paying the extra cost could let you counterattack with a strike that doesn't have enough Intercept to stop an incoming strike. For example, some payment powers can give your strikes more Intercept or can reduce the Force of your opponent's attacks.

Example: Erin is now defending against Barren Justice, which has a Force of 5. She flips the card Shikigami. Shikigami only has an Intercept of 3, so she can't counterattack with it. But in its rules text, Shikigami says, "Red ➔ +4 Intercept. You may do this only once." Erin decides to pay the red furyoku, giving Shikigami a total Intercept of 7. She then pays Shikigami's furyoku cost and turns it sideways, indicating that she is counterattacking with it. This ends her turn. Ben now has to defend against a Force of 1.

Some payment powers have costs that aren't furyoku. Unless the card says something else, you pay these costs by changing the numbers on the card. You can never reduce the total Force or Intercept below 0 by paying the cost of payment powers. The Force and Intercept of a strike act like money. Just like in real life, you can't spend more of something than you have.

Example: Ben is now defending against Erin's attack, which has a Force of 1. He flips Owned! Ben decides to use the payment power on Owned!, which says, "-3 Intercept ➔ If you counterattack with Owned!, add a yellow furyoku." Ben uses the payment power, reducing the Intercept of Owned! from 6 down to 3, which is still enough to intercept Erin's attack. He then pays the base cost of three green furyoku and turns Owned! sideways, counterattacking with it. Since he counterattacked with Owned!, the payment power triggers, and he adds a yellow furyoku. Erin is now defending against a Force of 4.

Ben could have used the payment power one more time, which would take the Intercept to exactly 0, but he could not have used it more than once, since you can't spend more Intercept than you have. However, if he had used the power again, he would have been forced to focus Owned!, since it would no longer have had enough Intercept to stop Erin's attack.

Eliminate

Some cards will tell you to eliminate other cards, such as teamworks or furyoku. A card that is eliminated is placed directly in the discard pile.

Elimination can also be a cost you pay to use a payment power. For example, Lililala reads, "Eliminate Lililala ➔ Before flipping, draw three cards, place two in the discard pile and one on top of your deck." To use her power, you have to put her in the discard pile before you would normally flip a card in her zone.

Other Card Types

Teamworks

Teamwork cards represent your friends and allies helping you out. Teamwork cards have a purple border. You can have more than one copy of the same teamwork in play in different zones. This means that someone is giving you even more help.

Playing Teamworks

When you flip a teamwork, you may play it by paying its cost. If you pay the cost on a teamwork, place it in the teamwork slot in that zone. Teamworks remain in play until the conclusion of the game unless other cards get rid of them.

A teamwork only affects cards flipped in the zone it's in. When a teamwork occupies the teamwork slot of a zone, that zone is now referred to by the name of that teamwork. For example, if you play Marco in your green zone, that zone becomes known as Marco's zone.

If you play a teamwork, you do not change zones. Instead, you flip a new card in the same zone. If you focus or discard a teamwork, you move down to the next zone, just like when you focus or discard a strike or advantage.

Only one teamwork can be in play in each of your zones. If you flip a teamwork in a zone that already has a teamwork, you may still pay its cost. If you do, you may choose whether this teamwork replaces the teamwork that's already in that zone. If you don't want to replace the teamwork that's already in the zone, go ahead and put the new teamwork directly into the discard pile. No matter what you choose, if you pay the cost of the teamwork, you continue to flip cards in the same zone.

Example: Erin is defending in her green zone against Ben's attack, which has a Force of 4. She flips Turbine. Erin decides to pay Turbine's cost, which is one yellow and one green furyoku, and places Turbine in the empty teamwork slot in the green zone. This is now Turbine's zone.

Erin then flips another card in the green zone. This time, she flips Mari. Erin now has to make a choice. She can focus Mari and then start defending in the yellow zone, she can pay Mari's cost and replace Turbine with Mari, or she can discard Mari. She decides that she wants to stay in the green zone and pays Mari's cost. Once she has paid Mari's cost, she decides to keep Turbine, so she discards Mari. She now will flip a new card in the green zone.

Using Teamworks

A teamwork only affects the zone that it's in. Lots of teamworks have continuous effects on cards in their zones. For example, Turbine says, "Your strikes in Turbine's zone get +1 Force." Any strike flipped in Turbine's zone will receive this bonus. If a game effect gets rid of a teamwork, the bonus that the teamwork was providing will go away as well.

Example: Erin is defending against an attack that has a Force of 4. Turbine is in play in her green zone, giving all strikes she plays there +1 Force. She flips Blistering Onslaught, which has 6 Intercept and 6 Force. She decides to counterattack with Blistering Onslaught, pays the cost, and turns the strike sideways, indicating the end of her turn. Ben is now defending against an attack of 7 (6 + 1 from Turbine's effect). He cleans up his board and replenishes one green furyoku, since Erin counterattacked from the green zone. He flips Isolate, an advantage that lets him eliminate a teamwork. He plays Isolate and eliminates Turbine. Since Turbine is eliminated, he no longer affects Blistering Onslaught, and Erin's attack now has a Force of 6.

Other teamworks have payment powers. You can use these special powers only when you are defending in the zone that the teamwork is in. Just like when you play a strike, when you use the payment power of a teamwork, it affects the card currently flipped in that zone.

Celebration

Celebration is another one of the three ways that you can gain furyoku. When you score a point, you get to celebrate with all of the members of your team. The positive energy this creates makes you feel good and gets you ready for the next battle.

When you score a point, you get to add a furyoku into each of the zones in which you control a teamwork.

Example: Erin scores a point on Ben. She controls Mari in her red zone and Turbine in her green zone. During celebration, she adds a green and a red furyoku, taking the top two cards from her discard pile and putting them into these zones, face down.

Advantages

Advantage cards represent special tactics available to each shaman based on his or her personality. Advantage cards have gold borders. You can use advantages to make your strikes better. You can also use advantages to change other parts of the board, including adding or eliminating furyoku or teamworks, or even searching through your deck.

Playing Advantages

Like both teamworks and strikes, advantages are played by paying their base costs. When you play an advantage, put it into your advantage area. Until you clean up at the start of your next turn, that advantage will affect all the cards that you play.

Advantages with the keyword "Immediate" have effects that resolve as soon as you play them. These advantages are not placed in the advantage area. After you play them, put them directly into the discard pile.

If you play an advantage, you don't change zones. As long as you can pay the cost of each advantage, there is no limit to the number of advantages you can play in a zone without moving to the next one. If you focus or discard an advantage, you move to the next zone as normal. Just like with teamworks, if an advantage is ever removed from the advantage area, all bonuses that it was giving to your cards go away, too.

Example: Ben is defending against an attack that has a Force of 5. Ben flips Dragon Aura while defending in his yellow zone. He decides to play it, paying the cost of two green furyoku. Dragon Aura is moved to his advantage area. He defends again in the yellow zone, this time flipping up the strike Flamboyant Arrival, which has an Intercept of 4 and a Force of 4. However, Dragon Aura says, "Your strikes have +1 Intercept and +1 Force." Since Dragon Aura is in Ben's advantage area, Flamboyant Arrival actually has an Intercept of 5 and a Force of 5. He decides to counterattack with it, paying the cost and turning it sideways to indicate his turn is over. Erin must now defend against an attack with a Force of 5.

Charging Your Zones

In addition to the bonuses they provide, advantages are important for other reasons. Playing advantages is the primary method of charging your zones. Charging all three of your zones is the only way to play your shaman's signature move.

Whenever you play an advantage, you can charge the zone in which it was played. To show that a zone is charged, turn the cards in the central column sideways to the left. To charge your green zone, rotate your shaman card. To charge your yellow zone, rotate your deck. To charge your red zone, rotate your discard pile. Once charged, a zone will stay charged until you use it to play your signature move.

Example: Ben only has to charge the red zone in order to use Yoh's signature move.

The Shaman Card: Long Version

The shaman you choose affects your game in three different ways.

First, your shaman determines which signature moves you can play. Second, the traits of your shaman determine which cards you can play in your deck. Third, each shaman has a unique spectergram card that only he or she can play, featuring his or her guardian spirit.

Signature Moves

Each shaman card contains two signature move cards inside it, one on the front and one on the back. Although the front signature move is pretty good, the back signature move is really powerful, and a lot of times it has effects that you can't find anywhere else. While you're playing the game, you can look at either of these cards at any time, but you shouldn't show them to your opponent until you want to play them.

In order for you to play your signature move, all of your zones must be charged. Normally, a zone gets charged when you play an advantage in that zone, but there are lots of card effects that can charge or uncharge zones as well.

Once all your zones are charged, you don't get to play your signature move right away. Your signature move can only be played before you start defending in a zone. See the Turn Sequence section.

In the Shaman King: Reincarnation set, all of the signature moves are strikes. In addition to having all of your zones charged, you treat your signature move just like a strike. In order to play your signature move, you must be able to pay its furyoku cost, and it must have Intercept greater than or equal to the Force of your opponent's attack.

Once you've done all of these things, you can play your signature move. To do so, uncharge all of your charged zones by turning your shaman card, deck, and discard pile sideways to the right so they're straight up-and-down again. Then, pull out the signature move, show it to your opponent, and pay its furyoku cost if it has one.

Because the signature move is not sent from any one zone, your teamworks don't affect it, but your opponent doesn't replenish furyoku when you counterattack with it.

Signature moves also clean up differently than other cards. Even if your opponent counterattacks you or you don't score a point, do these two things:

1. Push the signature move back into the shaman card.
2. Flip the shaman card over.

The next time you charge up your zones, you'll be able to play your back signature move. If you just played your shaman's back signature move, flip your shaman back over to the front and start all over again.

Spectergrams

Each shaman has a special spectergram card that can only be played when you assume the role of that shaman. These cards feature the shaman's guardian ghost and are very powerful.

If you open up a spectergram card in your Starter pack, you can play with it even if you aren't playing the right shaman. This will help you learn how spectergram cards work.

Keywords

Some cards have keywords in their rules text. These represent special abilities that different groups of cards have in common. Keywords are a shorter way to describe certain effects, so you don't have to keep saying the same things over and over again.

As more card sets of the Shaman King TCG are released, you'll get to see new keywords. These are the keywords you'll see in the Shaman King: Reincarnation set:

1. Immediate. Cards with the immediate keyword don't get placed in the advantage area, but get discarded right after their effect is played.
2. Tactical: [cost]. Cards with the tactical keyword have the option of replacing themselves, if you're willing to pay the price. For most cards with the tactical keyword, this cost will be one green furyoku. If you pay the cost that's right after the tactical keyword, put that card in the discard pile and flip another card in the same zone.

Example: Erin is defending in her red zone against Ben's attack, which has a Force of 4. She flips Volatile Exhumation. Although it has a Force of 8, Volatile Exhumation only has an Intercept of 1. Since the Intercept is less than the incoming Force, she cannot counterattack with this strike.

Normally, she would be forced to focus it instead, giving Ben a point. Luckily for her, Volatile Exhumation has "Tactical: Green" and can replace itself without changing zones. Erin pays the Tactical cost of a green furyoku and puts Volatile Exhumation in the discard pile. She then flips a new card in the red zone.

3. Pitch ➔ [effect]. Cards with the pitch keyword may be discarded in order to generate the effect after the ➔. Just like when you discard a card, when you play a card with the pitch keyword, you are now defending in the next zone.

Example: Ben is defending in the green zone against an attack that has a Force of 5. He flips Sideswipe, which only has 4 Intercept. Instead of focusing it and gaining a green furyoku, Ben decides to play Sideswipe's pitch ability. Sideswipe says, "Pitch ➔ Put Sideswipe in the advantage area. Your strikes have +1 Intercept." Ben puts Sideswipe into the discard pile. From the discard pile, Ben moves Sideswipe up to the advantage area. All his strikes now have +1 Intercept. After it's pitched, Sideswipe works just like an advantage. Ben is now defending in his yellow zone.

Deckbuilding and Traits

The following rules do not apply to the Starter decks.

After you've gotten comfortable with the game by playing the Starter decks, you'll probably want to build your own decks with your favorite shaman or with your favorite cards.

There are certain rules you have to follow when you're building Shaman King TCG decks:

1. Your deck has to have at least 60 cards.
2. Your deck can't have more than four copies of any single card.

Some teamworks may have the same card name but also have different version names and different game text. In this case, you can play four of each version of the card, since these are actually completely different cards.

For example, there are two different teamworks with the name Venster. However, if you include the text on the version line underneath the main card name, one of these cards is Venster-Tactician, and the other one is Venster-Punisher. They also have different art and rules text. Because they're different, you can play four copies of each of these cards.

Rules for Traits

In addition to numerical restrictions, the cards that you can play are restricted by the traits of your shaman. There are nine different traits in the Shaman King TCG, three for each of the card types. Each shaman will have three of these traits (one for each card type) that tell you which cards can be played in that shaman's deck. You can only play a card if the trait symbol on the card matches the trait symbol on your shaman. You can still focus a card that does not have a matching trait symbol, but you can't play it or use its keyword powers.

If a card does not have a trait symbol, then any shaman can play it. This type of card is known as generic.

Example: Yoh has the trait symbols Soul, Melee, and Yoh. This means that Yoh can play cards with these traits, in addition to generics.

Trait Descriptions

Each of the nine traits captures a different aspect of the characters in Shaman King.

The Advantage Group

This group of traits shows you different features of each shaman's personality, as well as how they relate to others and to the world around them.

• Mind: A shaman with the Mind trait likes to think a lot. Len is a good example of this trait. Mind advantages allow a shaman to manipulate his or her deck or attack his or her opponent's furyoku directly.
• Body: A shaman with the Body trait is more focused on the physical and emotional side of life. Rio is a good example of this trait. Body advantages allow a shaman to increase the raw power of his or her strikes, either when attacking or when defending.
• Soul: A shaman with the Soul trait is more spiritual and relaxed. Yoh is a good example of this trait. Soul advantages allow a shaman to charge his or her zones, as well as to shift the zone in which he or she is defending.

The Strike Group

This group of traits shows you a shaman's primary method of fighting. The special abilities of the card show off these different fighting styles.

• Melee: The shaman uses some type of hand-to-hand weapon, like a sword. Yoh is a good example of a melee fighter. Melee strikes hit fast and hard, making it hard for your opponent to respond. Some melee strikes start in your opponent's yellow zone.
• Ranged: The shaman attacks with something he or she can throw from far away. Trey is a good example of a ranged fighter. Ranged strikes are very precise and can punish weak attacks by either adding furyoku or increasing Force.
• Guardian: The shaman's guardian spirit does most of the fighting. Jun is a good example of a guardian fighter. Guardian strikes tend to be strongest on defense. They may also attack your opponent's furyoku directly, or to charge your zones.

The Teamwork Group

These represent the major alliances or groups of friends in the world of Shaman King.

• X-Laws: The X-Laws work strongly together as a team, which is reflected in the low cost of X-Law teamworks. The X-Laws also take advantage of others' weak attacks.
• Yoh: Although Yoh's friends may not have lots of experience, they are probably the best at quickly developing their own power. Yoh teamworks reflect this by helping you to hang on to or increase your furyoku.
• Zeke: Although they may not always work together as a team, Zeke's allies are often very strong by themselves. Zeke teamworks tend to be a little more expensive to put into play, but they are very good at directly attacking your opponent's teamworks or furyoku.

Rules Questions

Timing

Although the Shaman King TCG has much simpler timing than most TCGs, sometimes you might get confused about when or how effects will happen. The general rule to use if that happens is: if two or more effects would happen at the same time, the defending player chooses the order in which they happen.

Negative Numbers

Sometimes, modifiers to strikes would result in the Force or the Intercept of that strike going below zero. When you compare Force and Intercept, treat negative numbers like they're zero. Negative numbers in the Shaman King TCG are only used when you add or subtract more modifiers. They don't mean anything else in the game.

Example: Ward Off states, "Your strikes have +1 Intercept. In your opponent's red zone, they have -3 Force." If you played this with Bone Army, which has a Force of 1, in your opponent's red zone, the strike is treated as if it has a Force of 0 instead of a Force of -2 for purposes of what can intercept it. However, if some other card then added 4 Force to this strike, the total Force would still be treated as 2, instead of 4, since (+4) + (-2) = 2.

You can never reduce the total Force or Intercept below zero by paying the cost of payment powers. Last but not least, an Intercept of 0 stops a Force of 0, exactly the same way that an Intercept of 1 stops a Force of 1.

Running out of Cards

If you run out of cards in your deck, nothing bad happens. You will have to reshuffle all of your cards other than teamworks that you have in play and use those cards as your deck.

Write down how many furyoku you have in each zone and which of your zones are charged. Then, shuffle the cards from your furyoku stacks together with the cards from your discard pile. Once your opponent has cut your deck, re-deal your furyoku out face down and don't look at them. Flip the top four cards of your deck into your discard pile. Finally, recharge all of the zones that you had charged before. You can now go on with the game.

If you run out of cards in your discard pile, put the top four cards of your deck into your discard pile. This will make sure that you can always add furyoku by using cards from your discard pile.