Every good turn
starts with a plan.

Build the decks

Prepare exactly 50 main-deck cards and 10 Soul cards. Choose up to two colors from Red, Blue, Green and Purple; Colorless cards can join any deck. Include no more than eight cards bearing a Lucky icon.

The usual limit is four copies of the same complete printed name, including its subtitle. Different card numbers or artwork share that cap when their complete names match. Specific text can override construction rules: Beegarde's unrestricted-copy ability is an example.

Authority: Comprehensive Rules 6.1; color restriction also confirmed by official Q17 and the February 6 product announcement.

Set up a game

1. Shuffle both main decks and place the ten Souls in each player's Soul deck.
2. Randomly choose a player, who decides who goes first.
3. The second player starts with one standing Soul.
4. Both players draw five cards. Starting with the first player, each may return their entire hand, shuffle and draw five once.
5. Set life to 10, Material and Ingredient to 0, then begin the first player's turn.

Each base can hold five Pals. Deploying beyond the limit keeps the newest Pals; the owner chooses which older Pals to send to the graveyard until the base is legal. Structures and Gear do not use Pal slots.

Authority: 4.4.5, 6.2, 11.5.

Follow the five phases

Stand your base cards and Souls, except cards that an effect prevents from standing.

During Main, deploy cards, activate abilities, attack and use the once-per-turn Soul draw action in any legal order. Pals can attack the turn they enter the base. At End, resolve end-of-turn triggers, clear damage from all Pals and structures, and expire effects whose duration ends there.

The player going first skips their first Draw phase. Standing Pals does not happen automatically when an attack finishes.

Authority: 7, 8, 9.2.2.3.

Spend your Souls

In Soul phase, move two Soul cards into your Soul area, or all remaining cards if fewer than two remain. They enter standing. Pay a card's cost by resting that many standing Souls. Rested Souls stand again in your next Stand phase unless an effect says otherwise.

Once each Main phase, you may rest three Souls to draw one card. Material and Ingredient are separate resources; they do not replace Soul costs unless card text says so. You must have enough of a resource to pay a consumption cost.

Authority: 3.3, 7.4, 8.5, 10.4.

Attack and block

Choose your standing Pal and a legal target, then rest your attacker. The ordinary targets are the opposing player, any opposing structure, or an opposing rested Pal. Assault also allows standing Pal targets. If a Taunt card can legally be targeted, you must target one of the legal Taunt cards.

The defender can rest a different standing Pal to block; that Pal becomes the target. Stealth prevents blocking. Once blocking and defensive Quick choices finish, Pals deal their Power to each other simultaneously. Structures take the attacker's Power and do not strike back.

Damage remains on surviving Pals and structures until End phase. A Pal with damage greater than zero and at least its current Power is destroyed. Power becoming zero on its own does not destroy an undamaged Pal.

Authority: 9.2–9.6, 11.4, 12.10–12.15.

Resolve damage and Lucky checks

A player attack deals the attacker's Strike. To resolve player damage, put cards from the defender's deck into their graveyard one at a time. A Lucky icon cancels the entire pending damage and stops the check. Otherwise, once enough cards have been discarded, the player loses the full damage amount.

Every revealed card stays in the graveyard, including a Lucky card. A player whose deck is empty loses at the next rule check, even if a Lucky card cancelled life loss. There is no damage check when Strike is zero or negative.

Authority: 9.6.3.3, 11.2, 11.3.

Quick and Interrupt

After the block step, the defending player receives the Quick step. They can play legal Quick Events or Quick activated abilities repeatedly. The attacker does not receive a matching opportunity to play during this step.

Interrupt is a hand ability that cancels the attack. Its standard payment is one Soul plus discarding the Interrupt card, or discarding the Interrupt card and one other hand card. The attacker remains rested after cancellation.

Authority: 9.5, 12.2, 12.8.

Structures, Gear and work

Structures can have durability, continuous effects or activated abilities. An Assign cost rests a standing Pal and associates it with that structure's activation. It also triggers On Assign or Serious when present. Work suitability identifies a Pal's specializations; a specific ability may care about that information.

Gear stays in your base and can be rested or otherwise used according to its printed text. It is separate from your five Pal slots. Read the whole activation cost: resources, resting, assignment, discards and once-per-turn limits must all be satisfied.

Authority: 2.5, 4.4, 5.17, 10.4.

Keyword reference

Brave

Adds the printed Power bonus when the Pal attacks, until End phase.

Serious

When assigned, gives a chosen Pal the printed Power bonus until End phase.

Vigilance

Stands the Pal at the end of its controller’s turn.

Taunt

Requires a legal Taunt target to be chosen when one is available.

Stealth

The Pal’s attacks cannot be blocked.

Retaliate

When destroyed in battle, also destroys its opposing combat Pal.

Nocturnal

Adds 300 Power while night is active; multiple instances can apply.

Breakthrough

When the attacked combat Pal is sent to the graveyard, also deals the attacker’s Strike to that Pal’s controller.

Assault

Allows the Pal to attack standing Pals.

Authority: 12.

End the game

A player loses when life is zero or below, their main deck is empty, or they concede. If both lose at the same check, the game is a draw. Card effects can define other victory or loss conditions.

Life has no upper cap in the official rules. Material and Ingredient cannot be negative. After a game, use the table counter's reset or start a new practice match.

Authority: 1.2, 3.2–3.3, 11.3.