HOW TO PLAY

Rules Version 1.0

Gameplay Overview

Step onto the battlefield as a powerful mage locked in a duel of wits in this exhilarating deck-builder that teaches quickly but plays deeply. Each turn, you will roll and manipulate your resources, then strategically craft your deck from The Rift, a shared pool of unique spell cards – or choose to cast and burn a spell, immediately benefiting from a fraction of its full potential. When you’re ready, chain together spells from your hand into a single, devastating attack to disorient, disarm, and destroy your opponent. Every decision matters, and you will need to balance short-term gains against long-term strategy. Do you have what it takes to outsmart your rival Riftblade and claim victory?

How to Play in 6 Steps

Players receive 2 copies of each of the following cards: Lunar Infusion, Cinderblast, Thunderclap, and Void Storm. Shuffle these together to form your starting deck and draw 4 cards. 

Note: These cards do not display a Mana cost in the top-right corner.

Set Mana tokens in a shared central pool within reach of all players.

Players take 4 Riftstones (dice) and roll these to create their starting resources.

2 Players: the second player rolls 6 Riftstones instead. After the first turn, both players receive 6 Riftstones per turn.

Shuffle all remaining (nonstarter) cards together to form The Rift. Draw 4 cards and place them face up in the center row.

Players set their life counters to 40 Life.

Randomly select a player to go first. Alternatively, roll your Riftstones, rerolling ties. The player with the highest Mana count goes first.

Anatomy of a Turn

3-4 Player FFA: At the beginning of your turn, select an opponent as your target. That player receives 2 additional Riftstones (dice) and rolls them immediately for use on their turn.

Note: You must target an opponent, even if you deal zero damage during a turn.

Start of Turn

Attack Phase

On your turn, perform any of the following actions in any order, any number of times:

If you have not yet started a Spell Chain, play a card from your hand to begin one.
Add a card to your existing Spell Chain.
Activate one of your Riftstones for its secondary effects.
Purchase a card from The Rift using Mana.
Trigger a card from The Rift using Mana.

If at any point you need to draw a card and have none remaining in your deck, shuffle your discard pile and place it face-down to form a new draw deck.

CleanUp Phase

Discard & Redraw: If you have more than 7 cards, discard down to 7. If you have fewer than 7 cards, draw up to 4 cards. Stop drawing if your hand size reaches 7.

Reset Mana: Forfeit all unused Mana.

Reroll Riftstones: Reroll all of your Riftstones.

Refresh The Rift: Draw cards from the Rift deck to fill any empty slots, ensuring there is one face-up card in each of the 4 slots.

Pass Turn: Play proceeds to the next player in clockwise order.

All games come with quick reference cards, so you’ll never need this page again. Unless you lose them…

Don’t do that.

End of Game

If your Life reaches 0, you're out of the game. Play until only one player has Life left — that player is the winner!

Adding a Card to Your Spell Chain

Soul

Void

Chaos

Each turn, you have the opportunity to cast a single Spell Chain, weaving cards from your hand together for maximum effect. In order to play a card, you must be able to activate one set of effects from the card. This means cards with a Basic effect may be activated without Riftstones, but any card without Basic effects will require a suitable Riftstone (Empowering, Overcharging, or Wild) to play. When playing a card, select the Riftstone you will use to activate it, and gain the corresponding effect(s) on that card immediately.

Celestial

Infernal

Thunderclap’s Chaos Aspect chains into Rift Burn’s Chaos. However, neither of Rift Burn’s Aspects match with Void Snap’s Void Aspect.

However, if we flip the order of Rift Burn and Thunderclap, then we can transition from Chaos/Infernal to Void/Chaos to Void Aspects, completing our chain.

Using Riftstone Secondaries

A Riftstone may be used for either its Primary or Secondary effect, but not both.

Mana Riftstone

Primary: Gain 1 Mana

Secondary: Discard all cards in The Rift and draw 4 new cards

Empowering Riftstone

Primary: Empower a card

Secondary: Discard a card, then upgrade this Riftstone to an Overcharging Riftstone

Overcharging Riftstone

Primary: Overcharge a card

Secondary: Draw 1 card

Wild Riftstone

Primary: Use as a primary effect of any other Riftstone

Secondary: Trigger a card from your hand

Purchasing Cards from The Rift

Each card in The Rift may be purchased for its Mana cost and added to your discard pile. The Rift does not refresh until the end of the turn unless a Mana Riftstone is spent to refresh it. Mana gained from cards, or Wild Riftstones, may not be used to refresh The Rift.

Instead of purchasing a card, you may spend Mana to activate the card’s Trigger Line as a one-time effect. If Triggering from The Rift, pay the Mana cost, activate the effect(s), and immediately discard the card into The Void. When Triggering a card from your hand, you do not need to pay the Mana cost again, simply activate the effect(s) and move the card into The Void. In either case, the Triggered card does NOT affect the current aspect(s) of your existing Spell Chain.

Triggering Cards from The Rift and from Your Hand

Seraph’s Touch can be played for free or with an Overcharging Riftstone for maximum effect. Triggering Seraph’s Touch would activate the spell’s Basic Effect, healing the player for 1.

Soul Reave must have either an Empowering Riftstone or Overcharging Riftstone in order to be played. If triggered, Soul Reave’s Empowered effects will activate, dealing an opponent 1 damage, while also healing the player for 1.

Spell (Card) Anatomy

Aspect

Cards must contain at least one common Aspect with the previous card in your chain in order to be played. There are currently 5 Aspects in the game:

Void

Soul

Chaos

Infernal

Celestial

While you may find Void cards paired with Celestial, Infernal, Chaos, or Soul, every other Aspect only has two or three potential pairings — pay attention to maximize your synergies!

Mana Cost

A card may be purchased or Triggered from The Rift by paying its Mana cost. Starting cards have no Mana cost associated with them and are easily identified by the lack of a Mana background.

Rarity

A card’s rarity is a rough indication of how powerful it is compared to other cards of the same Mana cost.

Common

4 / Set

Uncommon

2 / Set

Rare

1 / Set

Unique

Promo Only

Riftstone Activations

When playing a card, you must be able to activate at least one effect, usually by assigning a Riftstone. You may only activate a single set of effects on any given card.

Basic Effects may be activated without paying a Riftstone

Empowered Effects require an Empowering, Overcharging, or Wild Riftstone to activate.

Overcharged Effects require an Overcharging or Wild Riftstone to activate.

Effects

Every time you activate a spell, you immediately gain its effects. The base game consists of six core effects:

Attack
Deal 1 Damage

Heal
Gain 1 Life

Mana
Gain 1 Mana

Draw
Draw 1 Card

Burn
Deal 1 Damage, Opponent Chooses & Discards a Card

Siphon
Deal 1 Damage, Gain 1 Life

Trigger Line

When a card is Triggered, activate this set of effects (purple line).

2v2 Mode

Are you tired of team games that feel like nothing but an afterthought? We are too. Playing in teams is an exciting mode where, instead of creating a Spell Chain with yourself, you create Spell Chains with the help of your partner. This requires only slight modifications to the rules above, but leads to a unique and complex game where only the best strategists will survive!

In this mode, players share a life counter, set to 40 Life, but maintain their own Riftstone (dice) pool of 4 Riftstones each. Players no longer gain Riftstones for being attacked.

Each turn, you and your teammate will choose which of you will go first; that player will begin the Spell Chain. That player’s partner will then play a card, matching at least one Aspect of the previously played card. Play goes back and forth between teammates until one player passes, at which point the remaining player may continue playing cards. Mana may be spent to acquire or trigger cards in any order, at any point, by either player, but each player’s Mana pool is independent.

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FAQ

Are my cards played one at a time or all together?
Cards are played sequentially, allowing you to potentially benefit from the effects of the cards played earlier.

Do I discard my hand at the end of turn?
No, you only discard played cards.

What happens if The Rift runs out of cards?
If The Rift runs out of cards, remove any starting cards from The Void, then shuffle the remaining cards together to form a new Rift.

Can I heal over my starting Life?
No. You cannot heal over your starting Life.

In a 3 or 4-player free-for-all, can I spread my attacks across multiple opponents on a single turn?

No. At the start of your turn, choose one opponent as your target (required). That opponent immediately gains and rolls 2 Riftstones and is the target of your card effects until your turn ends.

What are the Mana Tokens for?

Mana tokens track Mana gained from card effects (not from Riftstones). Using tokens is optional.

Reminder: Only a Mana Riftstone’s Secondary effect can refresh The Rift.

Why would I want to use an Overcharging Riftstone for Empowering effects?
Some cards don’t have Overcharge effects; using an Overcharging Riftstone may be ‘overpaying’, but it gives flexibility in how you activate your cards.

Can Mana be carried over from turn to turn?
No. Mana does not carry over between turns.

Can I play a card with no effects to gain the Aspect benefits?
No. You must be able to activate at least one effect on a card.

Why do you roll your Riftstones during Cleanup, instead of at the beginning of your turn?

For one thing, it helps you plan your upcoming turn as your opponent plays, speeding up the game. More importantly, seeing what your rivals are packing allows you to adapt your own plans for maximum disruption!

Can I “go back” and switch the Riftstones on already-played cards, or discard a card to turn an already-assigned Empower into an Overcharge, netting the more powerful effect on the assigned spell?

Officially, no – the decision of whether to Empower or Overcharge a card, and with which Riftstone, is made at the moment the card is played. However, for a more friendly game, or with newer players, this is the sort of thing that a more experienced player might consider allowing on a case-by-case basis. Note that this can be very disruptive to strategies around card draws and discards.