Deck · 1. General card rules
How your Deck works
Your Deck represents your Main Hero's Abilities and gear; it starts with 9 cards.
All players have a unique Deck representing their Main Hero's Abilities and Equipment. Decks may contain Statistic, Ability, Spell, Artifact and the Main Hero's Specialty cards. Each Deck starts with 9 cards, built during setup.
The Player Deck
Play cards only on your Turn or in your Main Hero's Combat; discard after use.
Cards can be played only on your Turn, or in a Combat involving your Main Hero. After a card is used, discard it; each player has their own separate Discard Pile.
Playing & discarding
If your Deck is empty when you must draw, shuffle your Discard Pile into a new Deck.
Your Deck of Might and Magic can run out during a long game. If your Deck is empty at the moment you need to draw a card, simply shuffle your Discard Pile to form a brand-new Deck and continue drawing from it. Nothing is lost - the same cards keep cycling back through your Deck for the rest of the game.
Empty Deck
A gained card goes directly into your hand unless stated otherwise.
Whenever your Hero gains a card for any reason - exploring the Map, purchasing a Spell, or a card or reward effect - you put that card directly into your hand unless the effect says otherwise. Gained cards do not go on top of your Deck, so you can use them right away on the same Turn if you wish.
Gaining cards
Поиск(X): look at the top X and take one, or take the top of the Discard Pile.
When instructed to Поиск(X) the Ability, Artifact or Spell Deck, you may either look at the top X cards, take one to your hand and discard the rest, OR instead gain the top card of that Deck's Discard Pile.
Searching
Each of those Decks has its own Discard Pile; refill/reshuffle when empty.
The Ability, Artifact and Spell Decks each have their own Discard Piles, created during setup. If a Deck runs out, reshuffle it and discard its top card to form a new Discard Pile. Whenever a Discard Pile is empty, refill it with that Deck's top card.
Decks & Discard Piles
Card effect types: Instant, Activation, Map, Ongoing, Permanent.
Instant - resolved immediately. Activation - must be played when Activating your own unit in Combat. Map - cannot be used during Combat. Ongoing - lasts until used up or until the player who played them starts their next Turn. Permanent - stays in play until discarded or replaced, played like other cards; you may have only one at a time (playing another discards the first), and while in play you may use either its Basic or Expert effect, not both at once.
Effect types
When told to remove a card, remove it completely from the game.
Removing a card is different from discarding it. Whenever the game instructs you to Remove a card, you take it completely out of the game and return it to the box - it does not go to your Discard Pile and will never cycle back into your Deck. This is how cards are permanently thinned out of your deck.
Removing cards
Search example (Bob / Deemer the Warlock).
Bob, playing Deemer the Warlock, built a Mage Guild last Round and can now use his Spell Book Token to buy Spells. He spends the token, pays the cost of 5 shown on his Town Board, and may Поиск(2) the Spell Deck. He can take the top card of the Spell Discard Pile, or draw the top two and gain one. Not wanting the Curse on the discard, he draws two - Magic Arrow and Fireball - keeps Fireball in hand and discards Magic Arrow.
Searching example
optional: card anatomy, PDF p.22-23
Deck · 2. Card types
Choose Basic or Expert when you play a Statistic or Ability; Expert uses per Round are limited by your Level.
All Statistic and Ability cards have a Basic Effect and a stronger Expert Effect below it; choose which you use. The number of Expert Effects per Round is limited by your Main Hero's Level (track with Black Cubes on your Hero Board). Necromancy cards are Necropolis-only; a non-Necropolis player who draws one may discard and redraw or keep it, but cannot otherwise use Faction-specific cards. Empowered Statistic (Inferno) and Empowered Ability (Naval Battles) cards have a single effect equal to the Expert one without using your Expert slot.
Statistic & Ability
Basic or Expert effect; Necromancy is Necropolis-only
Spells have three primary effects plus an alternative bottom effect. The basic top effect is usually free; Empower a Spell by paying Power (e.g. by playing a Power card) to reach stronger effects. Casting consumes all played Power; you may use a cheaper effect than paid for. In Combat you may play only one Spell per Combat Round. Spells come from building the Mage Guild, which also enables the Spell Book Token (not the Round it is built). Each Spell belongs to a School - Air, Fire, Earth or Water; one symbol = Basic, four = Expert. Magic Arrow is Basic - choose its School when cast.
Spell
three effects; Empower with Power; one Spell per Combat Round
Artifacts have a top and bottom effect; choose one when played. They have three Levels - Minor, Major, Relic (border color) - referenced by some effects and at setup, but otherwise shuffled together into the Artifact Deck. They are gained through map exploration and can be traded in Alliance and Cooperative Scenarios.
Artifact
top or bottom effect; Minor/Major/Relic; gained by exploring
Specialty cards are gained from Level ups and are unique to each Main Hero. Some resemble Spells and even use Power, but they are their own category - the limit of one Spell per Combat Round does not apply to them.
Hero Specialty
from Level ups; own category; ignores the 1-Spell limit
optional: card type examples, PDF p.24-26
Deck · 3. Spell Scrolls & War Machines
Expansion cards
Spell Scrolls: hold 2 hidden Spells, off your Hand Limit; up to 2 Scrolls.
During setup, shuffle 10 Spell Scrolls into the Artifact Deck and set 10 aside as a Spell Scroll Deck. When you gain a Scroll, place it by your Hero Board and put the top 2 Spell cards face-down on it; you may look at them anytime and they do not count toward your Hand Limit. You can have 2 Scrolls; gaining a third, draw the new Spells then decide to discard the new Scroll or replace one you have (with all its Spells).
Spell Scrolls
Casting from a Scroll: off the Spell limit, lowest effect free, no Empower.
You play Spells from a Scroll like any other, except: they do not count toward your Spell limit (you may also play a hand Spell that Combat Round); you use the Spell's lowest Power effect without paying its cost; you cannot Empower it or use it to add Power to another Spell.
Casting Scroll Spells
Selling Scrolls; used/sold Spells are removed; Scrolls don't carry between Campaign Scenarios.
You can sell Scroll Spells at a Trading Post for 2 gold each (in addition to other Trading Post effects). After using or selling a Spell, the Spell card is removed, not discarded; when the last Spell on a Scroll is gone, return the Scroll to its Deck. Spell Scrolls are not part of your Deck, so they are not carried between Scenarios in a Campaign.
Selling & carryover
War Machines: permanent cards bought at a Trading Post or Factory.
War Machines are permanent cards that can be bought at either a Trading Post or a War Machine Factory. If you buy one at the Trading Post, you cannot use any of that Field's other functions during that Visit, and they are more expensive there.
War Machines
optional: Scroll & War Machine cards, PDF p.27