Each player provides an 8x4 grid of 3.5" tiles for their half of the board, combined into an 8x8 chess board; and begins the game with a deck of 32 Summoner's Chess cards, a general on the 4th tile from their left in their home rank, and 20 morale.
Each player draws a hand of 8 cards to begin play.
Exactly once, after drawing and before the game begins, each player may put any number of cards from their hand on the bottom of their deck, then draws that many cards.
Choose a player to go first. If this game is part of a match, the player who lost the previous game decides. Otherwise, a random player decides.
A Summoner's Chess deck consists of 32 non-general cards shuffled together, and 1 general card that begins on the field.
Each deck may contain up to -
Each deck may contain all copies opened during the limited event, whether pulled or drafted. However, limited decks may still only contain 1 copy of each legend card.
Actions require units to carry them out. In order to perform an action, you must choose a readied unit or general on your field that shares a type with it. Then, pay its devotion cost. If the unit performing the action is still readied after paying for the costs, exert it. Then perform the action's effects.
Actions are relatively difficult to use, but allow for your on-board units to surprise an opponent!
Spells allow you to perform a variety of effects regardless of the types of units you have on the board. To cast a spell, simply pay its costs, perform its effect, and send it to your discard.
The general card type is unique among card types in that you won't include one in your starting deck. Your general begins the game on your first rank, ready for combat and commanding your army.
Generals are one of the two types of objects that can produce mana. Exert a devotion-producing object to get one devotion (normally!) which will pay for the devotion costs of your cards (as seen to the left of their art box!)
If your general falls, your army will rout and you will lose the game! To protect your general, you will need units...
Minions are the other devotion producing pieces. These little dudes aren't very strong individually, but their ability to produce devotion in addition to their low cost makes them a necessary backbone of your army!
Champions are the brunt of your forces. They are your strongest attackers and contain
all the flexible utility and abilities you'll need to put up a fight!
However,
champions always require at least one of a certain type of devotion in order to be
summoned.
Legends are remarkably powerful and uniquely named individuals who only serve armies that strongly represent their faction. Each legend may only be included in a deck once.
The last piece type is structures. These objects don't move, and they aren't summoned. Instead, after paying for their mana cost, you will choose an open tile adjacent to an allied unit that helped pay for it. That unit will construct the structure on your behalf.
While generals and structures are pieces, and they will occupy space on the board, they are not units and will not be affected by rules and abilities that affects units.
Ready all of your exerted pieces. Pieces can become exerted by being commanded, by performing actions, or as payment for activating abilities; they will become readied again at the begining of each turn.
Then, all abilities that happen at the start of a turn will happen.
In this phase, you gain 1 command to use on your units. You must use at least 1 command before ending your turn, unless all of your units have already been exerted for other reasons.
All abilities that happen at the end of a turn will happen.
Then, if you didn't summon a unit, draw a card. If you have more than 5 cards in your hand, discard any excess.
Empty your starting hand onto the board while setting up a solid pawn structure that will provide devotion and defense for the remainder of the game.
Make more aggresive on-board plays, while recharging your hand by waiting to summon more units.
Actions can allow your units to do unexpected on-board movements, while spells will grant you access to a variety of other effects! Neither of these card types prevent you from drawing at the end of your turn.
Find advantageous trades to reduce your opponent's morale to 0, find a checkmate, or execute a devastating combo to close out the match!