The Quickstart

1Win the battle

You are your Nexus Lord. Your Lord's Life is your Life, and most games begin at 20 Life. Reduce the enemy to 0 Life, or make them draw from an empty deck, to win.

Your Nexus Lord begins in play and shapes your deck. It has an Affinity, Intelligence (INT), Leadership (LDR), an Edict, an Ascend condition, and an Ascended side with stronger abilities.

2Build your deck

• Choose 1 Nexus Lord.
• Build a 50-card deck using your Lord's Affinity, up to one additional Affinity, and Prismatic cards allowed by the rules.
• Use up to 3 copies of a named card unless an exception says otherwise.
• Leylines are included in the deck and power your cards and Lord.

3Your two resources

Resonance — what you spend now

Leylines Channel for Resonance. Resonance pays for creatures, Chants, Enchantments, Relics, and many abilities. Unspent Resonance disappears at the end of the shared turn.

Focus — power you bank for later

Leylines can also Concentrate to gain Focus. Focus stays in your pool between turns and pays for Edicts, Ultimates, Champion abilities, and other effects.

Channel and Concentrate are separate Leyline functions. A Leyline normally exhausts to do one of them. If an effect readies that Leyline again, it can be used again.

4One shared turn, alternating Actions

Leylines of Power does not give one player a long solo turn. Both players act inside the same shared turn. One player has Initiative and takes the first Action opportunity; then players alternate Actions until both pass in a row.

Common Actions

• Summon a creature by casting it.
• Cast a Ritual Chant.
• Play an Enchantment or Relic.
• Activate an ability, Edict, Signature, or Ultimate.
• Declare Combat.
• Pass.

An Interrupt is different: it is normally cast in response to something and does not use your next Action.Intervene X lets a card or ability be used like an Interrupt by paying X additional Resonance.

5Creatures and the battlefield

Most creatures enter exhausted. A creature that entered this turn normally cannot attack or exhaust itself to use an ability.

Prepared

Enters ready and can block immediately, but cannot attack or use its own exhaust ability that turn.

Rush

Enters ready and can attack or use its own exhaust abilities immediately.

Steadfast

Does not exhaust when attacking.

Soar

Can normally be blocked only by Soar or Reach.

Reach

Can block Soar.

Summon means a creature enters the field, whether it was cast, returned from the Dustrealm, or conjured as a token. If a card cares specifically about casting, it will say cast.

6Combat

Each player may Declare Combat once per shared turn as an Action. Combat happens inside that Action; players do not take normal Actions in the middle of it.

1. Declare Combat. This opens a response window before attackers are chosen.
2. Declare attackers. Choose what attacks the Enemy, or use Hunt to attack an enemy creature directly. Attackers normally exhaust.
3. Declare blockers. The defender assigns ready legal blockers. This opens the final normal response window before damage.
4. Swiftstrike damage happens first.
5. Normal combat damage follows.
6. Combat ends and the other player receives the next Action opportunity.

Useful combat keywords

Swiftstrike

Deals combat damage before normal damage.

Stampede

After assigning lethal damage to blockers, excess damage can hit the Enemy.

Hunt

Attack an enemy creature directly; other creatures cannot block that hunter, and the hunted creature cannot block somewhere else.

Venom

Any positive damage this deals to a creature destroys it; for Stampede, 1 assigned damage counts as lethal.

Impose

Creatures with Attack 1 or less cannot block it.

7Protecting creatures

Protection

Protection N is a targeting tax. When an enemy spell or ability chooses the protected card, that spell/ability is countered unless its controller pays N extra Resonance. Multiple Protection effects stack.

Resistance

Resistance N prevents N damage from each applicable source. Multiple applicable Resistance effects stack.

Ward

Each Ward counter prevents 1 damage after Resistance. Remove only the Ward counters needed; any extras stay. If several sources deal damage at the same time, the controller of the warded creature decides which source(s) the Ward counters prevent.

8Your Nexus Lord

Edicts

Edicts are powerful Focus abilities. A Nexus Lord can use one Lord Action each shared turn for its Edict or Ultimate. Champions can have Edicts too, but Champion Edicts do not use the Lord Action.

Remember: using any Edict or Ultimate means you cannot Concentrate that turn, and Concentrating means you cannot use any Edict or Ultimate that turn.

Ascend

Each Nexus Lord has a unique Ascend condition. When you complete it, the Lord's Ascension trigger flips it to the stronger side and resolves its printed reward. Progress you already earned is not normally erased just because your board changes.

Signatures and Ultimates

Ascended Lords unlock their defining Signature Ability and, for Ultimate Lords, a once-per-game Ultimate. Activated non-Ultimate Signatures use your player Action but do not use the Lord Action. Ultimates use the Lord Action, are once per game, and cannot be activated during the same shared turn in which the Lord Ascends.

9Reactions and the stack

When a spell, ability, or trigger goes on the stack, the other player gets the first chance to respond with an Interrupt or another legal response. Responses resolve last-in, first-out. Once both players decline, the top object resolves.

If an enemy removes the source of an ability that is already on the stack, the ability normally still resolves. If all required chosen objects become illegal before resolution, the effect fails to affect them. Costs and Actions are not refunded when a spell or ability is countered.

10Five Affinities, five styles

Prismatic cards sit outside a single Affinity and are generally available to any deck unless their own text says otherwise.

11A simple first-turn example

Divinity has Initiative.

1. Both players Awaken and draw a card.
2. Divinity receives the first Action opportunity. They play a ready Leyline (not an Action), then cast a creature as their Action.
3. Corruption gets the next Action opportunity, plays a Leyline, and casts a Ritual.
4. Divinity receives another opportunity. They could Declare Combat, play another legal Action, Concentrate with a ready Leyline, or pass.
5. Eventually one player passes. If the opponent also passes with the stack empty, the Action Phase ends.
6. Dusk resolves end-of-turn effects. Turn Reset clears damage and temporary bonuses, discards down to hand size, removes unused Resonance, and passes Initiative to Corruption.