The Founders' Forge

How to play

Each player brings a 30-card deck and starts with 20 life. Shuffle, draw five, and take turns: draw one card, play one Location or Artifact, then send Creatures forward. A Creature deals its Power to the defending player unless another Creature blocks it; a blocking Creature survives if its Shield is higher than the attacker's Power. First player to bring an opponent to zero life wins. No tokens, no counters, no phases to memorise — everything you need is printed on the nine founding cards.

Speed and the initiative

Speed is the tie-breaker. When two Creatures trade, the higher Speed resolves its Power first, so a fast Creature can finish a slow one before taking a scratch. Creatures with no printed Speed act last, in the order they were played. If both sides match on Speed, the defender resolves first — attacking is a choice, defending is not.

Building a deck

Thirty cards, at most three copies of any one card, at most one Legendary. Locations stay on the table and change the rules of the board for everyone, so a deck rarely wants more than four. Artifacts are the cheap glue: they turn a losing trade into an even one. A good first deck is sixteen Creatures, four Locations, four Artifacts and six of whatever you enjoyed drawing most.

Three ways to win

Damage is the obvious one. The second is the Vault: control three Locations at the end of your turn and you win immediately. The third is the Archive: if your opponent must draw from an empty deck, they lose at the start of their next turn. A deck built for one of the three usually loses to the other two — pick your road before you shuffle.