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You’re the hero of this game!

In this game you are the hero of the Nostalgix universe. An ordinary night at home becomes the extraordinary start of your adventure as your dreams are intercepted. Unable to wake, your spirit is whisked away to a strange new land of dimensions and memories. With all-out war looming, your only choice is to assemble a team of fighters with amazing abilities, and battle your way to obtain the ten shards of the Keyspark - a portal that will return you home.

Getting Started

This guide will provide all you need to know to start playing the Nostalgix Trading Card Game. Trading card games are strategy based duels between 2 or more players that use collectible cards in a deck to determine the outcome of the duel. The best way to learn how to play the Nostalgix TCG is to get a friend who knows the rules to play an open-hand battle with you, using one of our Nostalgix Starter Decks. These ready-to-play decks are battle-tested and strategically built to ease you into the experience of playing before you build your own deck for the first time. Once you’re ready to forge your own deck, you can build your collection with Nostalgix TCG booster packs. Trade with friends to snag the cards you need for your deck and enjoy the thrill of collecting your favorites Fighters! You can even customize your Hero, but we’ll get more into that later.

HOW TO WIN

You can win in 2 different ways in the Nostalgix TCG.

• Reduce your opponent’s Hero’s life to 0.

• Retrieve all 10 shards of the Keyspark, collectively known as prize counters.

One prize counter is awarded for every Fighter of your opponent’s that you destroy. However, destroying Fighter Tokens does not award prizes.

**Quick Play/Demo Game**

If you want to play a quicker version of Nostalgix TCG, or if you have one of our 2 official demo decks we recommend using the following gameplay modifications. These modifications were created for games that last on average 15 minutes.

• Both players’ heroes start the game at half health (rounded up). Example: Hero has 40 health on card, you start the game with 20 health.

• Both players’ prize counters start at 5, instead of 10.

• Maximum mana increases by 2, instead of 1 each turn.

PARTS OF A NOSTALGIX CARD

FIELD LAYOUT & DESCRIPTIONS

Deck

Each deck is 50 cards + 1 Hero. In general you may have up to 4 copies of a single card in your deck, but you may only have 1 Hero.

Void

This is where cards that are discarded, destroyed or removed from play go.

Hero

Each player can choose 1 Hero to represent them (this does not count towards the 50 card deck amount). Heroes have abilities that can be activated once per turn, usually at the cost of mana.

Your Hero always goes in the back row of play with 3 slots left and right of it for Surprises, Spells & Equipment cards.

Custom heroes can also be used. Which is to say, any card or reasonably sized depiction may represent your hero, so long as it has stats and card effects that are exactly equal to a currently legal Hero card in Standard Play.

MANA METER

Mana is required to play nearly all cards except your Hero. Every game starts with both players at 0 mana. At the start of your turn your mana drains to 0 and then refills, gaining an additional maximum mana in the process (up to a maximum of 10 mana). Some card effects may allow you to temporarily go beyond 10 mana in a turn. You may wish to use a playmat with 2 Mana Meters. One for Current Mana and one for Maximum Mana to better track your running total.

Surprises, spells & Equipment

You may have up to 6 of these in play at any time. If all 6 spots are currently in use you may not play additional Surprises, Spells or Equipment until a slot is opened up.

Spells

Spells are typically quick effect, single-use cards. Spell cards are voided after their effect has been resolved. These can only be played during your turn.

Surprises

Surprises are played face-down and can be activated any time the effect on the card can be used, even if it is your opponent’s turn. At such a time, flip the Surprise face up. Declare that a Surprise has been activated, resolve the effect and then void the used Surprise card. Surprises cost mana to play, but cost nothing to activate. Since their cost is variable, you must place an indicator on the back of them, once you play them indicating the cost of the Surprise you played face-down so your opponent can verify this once the surprise is played. You cannot sacrifice these to make room in your back row.

Equipment

Equipment cards attach to a Hero or Fighter when played. In fact, you may attach multiple Equipment to a single target, or even attach them to your opponent’s Hero or Fighters. These cards stay in play until the equipped Hero or Fighter is destroyed or the Equipment is destroyed by an effect. You cannot sacrifice these to make room in your back row. Equipment attached to a Hero typically, but not always, breaks and is voided if that Hero is damaged by a direct attack.

FIGHTERS & TOKENS

Fighters

Fighters are the lifeblood of your game. They can attack your opponent’s Hero or their Fighters.

You may have up to 7 (non-token) Fighters on your side of the field at any one time. Most Fighters can be summoned right away, provided you have the amount of mana necessary, but some require pre-existing cards to be in play before you can play them. See Fighter Evolution for more information.

Fighters can be ‘restored’ to their maximum health by card effects, but other card effects may increase their maximum health further yet via ‘gain’ or ‘give’. (See Health Counters)

FIGHTER EVOLUTION

Fighters can be Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3.

Fighters that are Level 2 or Level 3 will need a lower level to be in play already, before they can be played. To play these cards, stack them on top of the lower level Fighter in play. You may evolve Fighters on the first turn you play them, but the entity will still have summoning sickness the first turn it is in play and cannot attack right away as a result. If you evolve a Fighter after the first turn it is in play, the elevated levels of it do not have summoning sickness, and may attack immediately.

When a Fighter evolves, all Equipment and damage remain on it. Any negative temporary conditions like Binding or Shocking are removed during evolution.

Evolving a Fighter unlocks devastating new attacks and abilities. Typically with each increase in level, both the attack power and health of a Fighter increase.

Arenas

Arenas stay in play when they are used and can change the battlefield for both players, drastically swinging the tide of battle for either player. Only 1 Arena may be in play at any time. Either player may play an Arena from their hand during their turn to destroy the Arena currently in play. (A typical game board will show 2 Arena slots for player ease of reach, but only 1 Arena may be in play at any time.) You cannot sacrifice Arenas currently in play. Arenas can only be destroyed by playing another Arena or by certain card effects.

Prize Counters

The 10 shards of the Keyspark are collectively referred to as Prize Counters in game. To indicate these shards, we recommend using a D10 dice or other indicators. Place this Prize Counter in a location that is visible for both players.

Setting up to play

1. Shake hands with your opponent.

2. Place your Hero face-down.

3. Set your mana meters to 0.

4. Place 10 Prize Counters down (or use a dice to keep track of them).

5. Shuffle your 50 card deck, allowing your opponent to cut the deck, and then draw 6 cards.

6. You may now select any number of cards from your opening hand to shuffle back into your deck and draw replacements for. This is commonly known as a mulligan. You may only do this step once.

7. When both players are satisfied with their hands, flip a coin or roll a dice (even=heads, odd=tails) to determine which player gets to decide turn order. The player who goes second gets to keep the coin or dice used to select turn order. This now becomes a temporary mana token which that player may void it at any time during the game to add +1 mana to their mana meter until end of turn.

8. Once turn order is established, flip your heroes face-up, and start the game.

Parts of a turn

1. Draw a card.

2. Drain and then refill your mana meter, plus one.

3. Do any of the following actions, in any order:

   • Spend mana to play and/or evolve Fighters

   • Spend mana to play Spells

   • Spend mana to play an Arena

   • Spend mana to play Surprises face-down.

   • Spend mana to play Equipment and attach it to a Hero or a Fighter.

   • Void a temporary mana token to add temporary mana to your meter.

   • Use your Hero’s Ability once per turn.

   • Use your Fighter’s abilities where applicable.

   • Attack with any Fighter that does not have summoning sickness.

• Attack with your Hero, if they have any attack points gained by card effects or equipment

4. End your turn.

parts of a turn Detailed

Draw a Card

Draw a card at the beginning of your turn. If there are no cards in your deck at the beginning of your turn and you cannot draw a card, you do not lose the game. Your opponent takes a prize counter and play resumes as if you had drawn a card. The same goes for any time you would be required to draw or void a card from your deck because of a card effect. If you cannot draw a card or void a card from your deck, your opponent takes a prize counter.

Drain and then refill your mana meter, plus one

Every turn you drain whatever mana was left in your meter, and then refill it to whatever your previous maximum mana was, plus one (up to 10). You may use anything to keep track of this including a sliding scale, a pad of paper and a pencil, scraps of paper a dice, or a mobile app – just as long as your opponent can also see how much mana you have left, and what your maximum is.

Do any of the following actions, in any order:

Spend mana to play and/or evolve Fighters from your hand.

• Using the cost in the upper right hand corner of your Fighter card, you may reduce your mana by that amount to summon or evolve a Fighter.

• Fighters cannot attack on the first turn they are summoned, (commonly referred to as summoning sickness) however evolved Fighters can attack on the first turn they are evolved if the entity has been in play for 1 turn.

Spend mana to play Spells from your hand.

• Using the cost in the upper right hand corner of your Spell card, you may reduce your mana by that amount to play the Spell, resolve its effect and void it.

Spend mana to play an Arena from your hand.

• Using the cost in the upper right hand corner of your Arena card, you may reduce your mana by that amount to play the Arena, voiding any Arena that was previously in play.

Spend mana to play Surprises from your hand face-down.

• Using the cost in the upper right hand corner of your Surprise card, you may reduce your mana by that amount to play the Surprise face-down.

Spend mana to play Equipment and attach it to your Hero or a Fighter.

• Using the cost in the upper right hand corner of your Equipment card, you may reduce your mana by that amount to play the Equipment and attach it to any Fighter or Hero.

Use a temporary mana token to add temporary mana to your mana meter.

• If you went second, you were given the turn order selector (be it a dice or coin). You may void it from the game to add 1 temporary mana to your meter.

Limitation: You may only spend up to 20 mana in any turn (Added October 6, 2024)

• In any given player’s turn, they may not spend beyond 20 mana. Hard limit. You cannot go over. Regardless if you have additional mana or ‘permanent’ mana.

Use your Hero’s Ability once per turn.

• You may use your Hero’s Ability once per turn at any time. Simply indicate that you are using it, pay the mana cost and resolve the effect.

Use your Fighter’s abilities where applicable.

• Some Fighters have effects that may be used once per turn. Simply indicate that you are using this and resolve the effect.

Attack with any Fighter that does not have Summoning Sickness.

• You may attack any opponent’s Hero or Fighter with a Fighter of yours that was not summoned this turn. Attacking does not cost mana and may be done prior to or after playing any other cards you normally could during a turn. (For example you could play a spell, attack with 1 Fighter, play another Spell after, and then attack with a different Fighter.)

Attack with your hero, if they have any attack points

• Some Equipment or card effects can give your Hero an attack value. If your Hero has an attack value, they may attack any opponent’s Fighter or Hero.

End your turn

• Resolve any end of turn effects or abilities.

• Ensure you have less than 10 cards in your hand. If you have more than 10, you must void some until you have 10.

parts of an attack

1. Choose a Fighter, and a target they will be attacking.

2. Choose an attack from your Fighter you would like to use if they have more than 1.

3. Resolve any attack effects that increase or decrease the amount of damage the attack will deal.

4. Calculate the incoming attack damage taking into account any +/- ATK counters. (The attacking Fighter takes no attack damage from the Defending Fighter.)

5. Check Weakness and Resistance of the Defending Fighter.

6. Apply the Weakness or Resistance of the Defending Fighter to the incoming damage. Note that this is after +/- ATK counters.

7. Apply the incoming damage to the Defending Fighter’s health, placing damage counters (we recommend using flat marbles or a colored dice indicator) on the Defending Fighter to represent the total damage taken.

8. If the Defending Fighter is dealt terminal damage, void it. Take a prize counter.

9. Resolve any additional effects of the attack.

Keyword glossary

ARMOR:

Fighters and Heroes can be given Armor or may have an Armor stat printed on their card. This is a separate stat from Health. Armor must be fully destroyed before the Health of a Hero or Fighter may be damaged. That is to say that if a Fighter has 1 Armor and 2 Health, and is dealt 12 damage from a single attack, the attack does all that damage to the Armor stat leaving the Fighter with 0 Armor and 2 Health remaining. A new attack could then damage that Fighter’s Health value. Similarly, Fighters with Armor are immune to Deathtouch when the damage is being dealt to their Armor stat. Deathtouch may only apply when the attack is damaging a Fighter’s Health stat.

Evolving a Fighter into one that has an Armor stat restores the Armor value to the new evolved Fighter’s Armor value. However damage to a Fighter’s Health remains.

Adjacent:

Cards immediately left and right of the card with this word on it. Once placed, cards may not switched around so place cards strategically.

Attack Counters (+1ATK):

These are indicators placed on a Fighter or Hero that tell both players that this entity’s attacks deals 1 additional damage before applying weakness and resistance, with any attack that it uses. These can be stacked. We recommend using a colored dice to indicate ATK counters. Attack counters only boost the numbered attack value, not any damage applied as a result of attack effects.

Binding:

When this Hero or Fighter attacks, the opponent’s defending Hero or Fighter is bound in place and is unable to attack during their next turn. Mana can also be bound, in this case the player whose mana was bound does not refill the quantity of bound mana during their next turn. We recommend rotating bound Fighters 90° to indicate that a Fighter is bound.

Charge:

A Fighter with this is immune to summoning sickness, which is to say it can attack the same turn it was summoned.

Crescendo:

If this Fighter attacked this turn, give it a +1ATK token at the end of your turn.

Deathtouch:

Any damage this Hero or Fighter deals to a Fighter destroys the defending Fighter. Heroes are immune to Deathtouch. Fighters with Armor are immune to Deathtouch so long as they have any Armor remaining. Once the Armor reaches 0 and damage from a Deathtouch Fighter is dealt to their Health stat, a Fighter may be destroyed by Deathtouch.

Divinity:

When your Hero is healed or gains health, give each of your Fighters 1 additional health counter , and a +1 attack counter.

Heal (Restore):

A Hero or Fighter can only be healed or restored to their maximum health as printed on the card.

Health Counters (+1♥):

These are indicators placed on a Fighter or Hero that tell both players that this entity has 1 additional health beyond its maximum health. If a card tells you to place these on a Fighter or Hero that is below maximum health, simply heal it by this amount. These can be stacked.

Immune:

A Hero or Fighter with this effect cannot be damaged or destroyed by card effects or attacks. Cards can also be immune to specific effects or even entire types of cards. For example these may be phrased as “Immune to Binding”, in this case the card in question can be damaged or destroyed but can’t be affected by Binding. Or “Immune to Surprises” meaning that they cannot be targeted by Surprise cards.

Last Dance:

If this Fighter is at 1 Health, when it attacks you get to draw a card and give it a +1ATK token before dealing damage from that attack. This +1ATK token only affects the numbered attack damage on a Fighter card, not any damage dealt in the Attack Effect box.

Lifesteal:

Any damage this Hero or Fighter deals with attacks is also healed to it.(For example if Demle deals 1 damage to an opponent’s Fighter, you would heal 1 health on Demle, up to its maximum health.)

Lifetouch:

Any damage this Hero or Fighter deals with attacks also heals your Hero by an equivalent amount. (For example if Falkyrien dealt 9 damage to an opponent’s Fighter, you would heal 9 health to your Hero. However, if the Fighter that Falkyrien attacked only had 4 remaining health, you would only heal 4 to your Hero. That is to say, only the damage actually dealt will heal your Hero.

Reveal:

Flip face up or otherwise show to all players temporarily, once all players are satisfied with their observation of the card. Place it back where it was.

shocking (shocked):

Fighters damaged by a Fighter with the “Shocking” ability become “Shocked”. Shocked Fighters deal 2 less damage during their owner’s next turn. A Fighter can have their Shocked status effect removed by evolving the Fighter, similar to how Binding is removed via evolution.

Stacked:

Some cards can be stacked with each other to either increase their attack, or prevent the opponent from taking prize counters for destroying them. In these cases the cards in question should provide more detail. Typically cards that are stacked cannot be unstacked at any time.

Taunt:

The Hero or Fighter with this ability must be attacked first. The opponent’s Heroes and Fighters cannot attack non-taunt Heroes or other Fighters of a player with a taunt Hero or Fighter in play.

Tokens:

A temporary card or element of the game created by the effect of a card in play. Fighter Tokens are the only Tokens that count towards token-based rules at this time. The rest of these are shorthand for effects given to cards.

Fighter Tokens

In reference to Fighter Tokens, these have a Health stat, an attack stat, a subtype, and possibly an ability. When summoned, these will be written in a manner similar to this: “Summon two 1♥ 1ATK Lifesteal Apple Tokens”. In this case, you would summon two tokens with a subtype of apple that have 1 health and an attack that does 1 damage. These two apple tokens would have the Lifesteal ability. All Token Fighters are Fighters. However they do not grant a Prize Counter when destroyed and do not take up a Fighter slot on your side of the field.

Attack Tokens

Attack tokens are generally our way of phrasing that you give your Fighter or Hero a temporary boost to their attack power.

Weapon/Equipment Token

A temporary Equipment given to a Hero or a Fighter. These do not take up an Equipment space on your side of the field.

ZAP:

This Fighter’s attacks ignore Armor and instead damage Health directly.

Specialty Rules

What if both players win at the same time?

If this occurs, you will play a Sudden Death match.

What is a Sudden Death match?

A Sudden Death match is an ordinary game with 2 key differences. Both player’s Heroes now start the game with 5 health and each player starts the game with 2 prize counters, instead of the usual 10.

Permanent Loops (Added October 6, 2024)

In the event that an infinitely loopable action or series of actions is discovered, a player may only loop said actions up to 3 times per turn. They may end the 3rd loop at any stage in the loop but they may not enter a 4th cycle. (Attempting to interrupt a loop with non-loop actions whilst the fundamental of the loop exist and are being abused, still constitutes it as being a loop and the minimal actions necessary to accomplish the loop constitute as the ‘steps of the loop’.

Limitation: You may only spend up to 20 mana in any turn (Added October 6, 2024)

In any given player’s turn, they may not spend beyond 20 mana. Hard limit. You cannot go over. Regardless if you have additional mana or ‘permanent’ mana.

DECK BUILDING

Now that you know everything you need to start playing Nostalgix, you may be interested in building your own deck! Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. When building a deck, consider what game end goal you are building towards. Would you like to take out the enemy hero or defeat 10 of their Fighters?

2. When adding cards towards your 50 card deck, remember that you may only have up to 4 of any given card in your deck, and only 1 Hero.

3. Read the full abilities and attacks of your Fighters, and consider how spells and equipment can enhance the power of your Fighters.

4. Don’t stack your deck with too many high mana cost cards. Remember that for much of the game you won’t have 10 mana to spend, come prepared with many 2, 3, or even 4 mana cards to balance your strategy.

5. Building a deck can be a lot more fun when you are playtesting with a friend. Consider new ways to build your favorite Fighter’s power and experiment over and over with a friend until your strategies are refined.

Advanced rulings & errata

To assist with advanced rulings and track any errata (errors in card versions) we have created a living spreadsheet that will always contain the latest on these. It will be updated as time goes on. If you have a question on a specific ruling not listed, we recommend hitting up the community discussion under the #rules-discussion channel on our official Discord or emailing herohelper@nostalgixtcg.store so we can get your unique case added!

View the Advanced Rulings & Errata Database