Heroes & Treasure: Arena -- card game rules

This is a combat card game in the style of M:tG / Pokemon / etc., but aimed at ages 6 and up (basic readers). This is obviously not final.. I'm using this to organize stuff that needs to be organized.

The overall plot idea is that, within my Heroes & Treasure world, there's an event like the Olympics, where teams come and compete across species/enemy lines.

---

Every seven years, the tribes of Goblins hold a grand combat tournament, where generals face off against each other one on one, bringing in creatures and spells to defeat their opponent. After the recent Goblin defeat at the hands of a group of Adventurers, the Goblin tribes agreed to allow the Adventurers themselves to join the games, in hopes of restoring some peace between the Goblins and their Human neighbors.

---

There is one shared deck for both players.

Deal 10 cards to each player. Each player chooses 3 cards to discard out of the game, face down, and keeps 7. Players keep the cards in their hands hidden at all times.

Each player starts with a permanent Crystal card, the "Seed Crystal", already in front of them on the Field.

Each player starts with 12 health tokens.

On your turn, you will put mana crystals on any Crystal cards that don't have mana, then draw a card from the deck. You may play one Crystal card from your hand, if you have one. You may then use your mana crystals to play creature cards, to cast spell cards, or to power creature abilities. You may use some or all of your creatures to attack your opponent, who may block with their own creatures or play their own spells to try to stop you. Creatures that take damage equal to (or greater than) their health value are discarded from play. Each unblocked creature inflicts 1 point of damage on the defending player. When your opponent runs out of health, you win!

If nobody wins during the attack, then after combat, all remaining creatures recover all their health, any stun tokens on the attacking player's creatures are removed, and the turn passes to the other player.

---

Terms:

Deck: The face-down pile of unused cards.

Discard Pile: The face-up pile of used cards.

Field: The play area between the two players, where creatures are placed and combat occurs.

Creature: Any card with a health value. Creatures cost a certain number of mana crystals to be played. When played, a Creature is placed on the Field with a Stun Token on it, unless it is an Adventurer (see below).

Stun Token: A black plastic chip used to mark Creatures that are tired, frozen, stunned, etc. A Creature with a Stun Token on it cannot attack, defend, or use an effect. It can still take damage or be the target of Spells or effects.

Adventurer: A Creature with the "Adventurer" type. An Adventurer starts play without a Stun Token on it. It can therefore be used to attack during the turn in which it is played.

Spell: A card powered by mana crystals that has an immediate effect when played, according to the text on the card. Spells are placed in the discard pile when they are played.

Mana Crystal: The blue gems that power creatures, spells, and effects. These are generated at the start of each turn on empty Crystal cards and are removed from play when used for power. You may also choose to discard two cards from your hand to gain one mana crystal.

Life Counter: The red plastic chips that indicate how much health each player has. A point of damage taken by the player removes one life counter. Each player starts with 12 and loses when they have no Life Counters left.

---

All combat effects from spells or abilities (e.g. "+1 attack") from spells or abilities are temporary and disappear at the end of the combat phase.

All creatures' health values reset to full at the end of each turn.

A creature that is stunned cannot use any ability (whether or not that ability costs crystals or is an ongoing effect) and cannot attack or block. Stunned monsters are marked with a plastic stun token on them.

If a creature becomes stunned during the combat phase, it deals 0 damage but can itself still be harmed. If the stunned creature was blocking another creature, that creature is still blocked.

Invisible creatures cannot be blocked except by creatures with the See Invisible trait. A creature that becomes invisible during the combat phase takes no damage from its opponent(s), but may still deal damage as normal. If it was blocked, it is still blocked even though it has become invisible.

On your turn, you may spend 4 mana crystals to draw a card from the deck.

With the exception of cards that enter the Field, all played, discarded, or removed cards are placed in the discard pile. If the deck is ever empty, reshuffle the discard pile to create a new deck.

Any non-Adventurer Creatures that are played come into play tired, with a Stun Token on them. They may not attack immediately.

Adventurers are NOT tired when they are played. They MAY attack and use abilities on the turn in which they are played.

---

Here is the detailed turn order, which is not as complex as it looks:

Turn Start:

Put a mana crystal on every Crystal card that doesn't have one.

Draw one card from the deck.

Play 1 Crystal card if you wish. Only 1 Crystal card may be played on a turn, and only by the Active Player. Note that the Crystal card does not start with a crystal on it.

Pre-Combat:

Can play any relevant cards.

Active Player may discard 2 cards to gain one mana crystal, which must be used immediately.

Active Player may spend 4 mana crystals to draw a card.

Active player declares the start of combat.

Defender has a last chance to play any cards or use abilities before combat starts, and then Active Player may play more cards, as a response, and then re-declares the start of combat when ready.

Combat:

This is the only phase in which any damage can be done to creatures or by creatures.

Active Player declares attackers by pushing cards forward that are to be part of the attack.

Creatures with an attack value of 0 cannot attack, nor can stunned/tired/frozen creatures.

Defending Player declares blockers by moving cards in front of attacking cards, as desired. Each blocker can block only one attacker, and each attacker can be blocked by at most one blocker.

Defending Player can use relevant cards or abilities at this time.

Attacker may counter, if able.

Attacking Player can use relevant cards or abilities.

Defender may counter, if able.

Resolve combat:

-- Attacking cards do specified damage to their blockers, and blockers do damage to the cards they block, simultaneously.

-- If there are multiple defenders for a single attacking card, the Active Player chooses which one blocker takes all the damage.

-- Any attacking card that is not blocked can (at the discretion of the Active Player):

------ Attack the Defending Player directly, doing 1 damage, or

------ Attack any one blocking card of the Active Player's choice. Non-blocking cards cannot be attacked in this way.

-- Players may again use cards or abilities at this time.

-- Any card that takes damage equal to or higher than its health value is removed from play and placed in the discard pile.

-- Any cards not removed from play are considered to have returned to full health at the end of the Combat phase.

Post-Combat:

Active Player may play any relevant cards.

Turn End:

Active Player removes stun tokens from any of their creature cards that have them.

---

Including 4 prototype card images. I'll be changing the background colors a bit more to make the types more easily distinguishable. Final versions will have a background behind the creatures, but I'm trying not to use too much of my artist's time in this phase.

Cards made using NANDeck, with art by Xin Ye, and are Copyright 2019, Davis & Daughters Games, all rights reserved.