Cirtemin

CIRTEMIN

A combat card game where you win by clearing the board. Not by points, not by chipping down a life total, by removing every enemy card from play. Build a deck, spend your turns carefully, and outlast whatever your opponent brought.

How you win

Last card standing. That's it. Everything your opponent puts on the board is something you'll eventually have to remove, and the same goes the other way. Game ends when one side has nothing left.

Three actions a turn

You get 3 actions per turn, chosen from:

• Draw a card

• Place a card onto the battlefield

• Attack an enemy card

• Use a card's special ability

That's the whole engine. Draw twice and place once, or hold your hand and attack three times, the constraint is what makes it interesting. Your opponent can see how many actions you have left, so they can usually guess what's coming. Usually.

The triangle

Every attack type is strong against one type and weak to another. Brute beats Magic, Magic beats Influence, Influence beats Brute. The rule takes ten seconds to learn. Reading which one your opponent is about to commit to is the part that takes a while.

The five card types

• Silver — Standard board units. Consistent damage, no frills. Most of your deck will be these.

• Gold — Cards with a special ability. Same role, one extra trick.

• Element — Gold's ability plus significantly higher stats. Expensive and rare; you build around them rather than slotting them in.

• Consumable — Single use, then gone.

• Over — Attaches on top of one of your units and absorbs damage for it. Your opponent has to get through the Over before they touch what's underneath.

Deckbuilding

Two directions people tend to go. Swarm decks run heavy on Silver and win by having more bodies than the opponent can clear. Fortress decks run thin and stack everything behind one Element and a pile of Overs. Both work. Most decks end up somewhere in between.

Starter decks are included if you'd rather not think about it yet. The builder's there when you do.

The setting

Cirtemin has a history, factions, long-running grudges, heroes with actual biographies. It's on the cards and in the art rather than in a cutscene. Read as much or as little of it as you want.