Card Mechanics

This is a glossary of card mechanics and actions.

Numerical Values[]

There are four important numerical values that a card displays:

Grade: This gives a general idea of how powerful the card is. A unit's grade can be from 0 to 5, with grades 0-4 being the most commonly used. Many grade 0 units are trigger units, and those that aren't are usually suitable to use as a first vanguard. Generally, the higher a card's grade, the more [Power] it has and the less [Shield] it has.
- A unit's grade also generally determines what skill icon it has. For more information on skill icons, see the linked page.
Power : This is the offensive strength of the unit. When a unit attacks another unit, the attack hits if the attacking unit's power is greater than or equal to the unit being attacked. Grade 0 units can have as little as [Power] 0, while grade 4 units can have as much as [Power] 30000.
Shield : This is the defensive strength of the unit. When a unit is used as a guardian, it adds its [Shield] value to the [Power] of the unit being attacked for the duration of the battle. Grade 0 units can have as much as [Shield] 30000, while grade 3 and above units never have more than [Shield] 0, except G guardian.
Critical : This is the amount of damage that the unit deals when its attack hits a vanguard. Most units have original [Critical] 1, with a few exceptions that have low base [Power] as a trade-off.

Unit Abilities[]

ACT[]

- () Activated Ability: Activated abilities are abilities that a player can use during their main phase. A player can use an activated ability as many times as they want (unless otherwise stated), as long as they can pay the cost each time and any requirements stated by the ability are met. If there is no printed cost, they activate the ability simply by declaring that they are doing so.

AUTO[]

- () Automatic Ability: Automatic abilities are abilities that automatically take effect when an indicated condition is met. These abilities are formatted as "[AUTO](Zone):(Condition), (Effect)", where "condition" is either "When (event)..." or "At the beginning of (phase/step)...". As soon as the condition is met (meaning the event occurs or the phase/step begins), if the card with this ability is in the specified zone, the ability automatically activates.

AUTO abilities sometimes have a cost. When resolving such an ability, perform all actions listed before the point where the cost needs to be paid, then the player can decide whether they want to pay the cost. If they do, they continue with the actions within the ability until the end, otherwise the ability ends there.

CONT[]

- () Continuous Ability: Continuous abilities are abilities that take effect as long as the card is in the specified zone(s) and all the conditions are met. If no zones are listed, then the ability is active from all zones.

1/Turn[]

The icon 1/Turn indicates an ACT or AUTO ability that can only be used once per turn. On older cards, this was written out in full as "This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn."

If the condition for a 1/Turn ability occurs but the player chooses not to pay the cost to use the ability, then that does not count as the ability's one use per turn. If the condition occurs again later during the same turn, the player may choose to pay the cost this time and use the ability.

Actions[]

The following is a list of actions and their definitions:

Bind (バインドする Baindo-suru): To move a card to the bind zone.
Choose (選えらぶ Erabu): To select a card to apply an action on. If an action is applied to "all" cards of a specified characteristic (for example, "All units in your front row get [Power] +10000"), then it does not count as choosing.
Declare (宣せん言げんする Sengen-suru): To indicate information as specified by the card.
- When "declaring" a card name, you must be able to say or otherwise clearly indicate the name of a card that exists.
Draw (引ひく Hiku): To move a card from the top of your deck to your hand.
Discard (捨すてる Suteru): To move a card from the hand, deck or gauge zone to the drop zone.
- A card is counted as being discarded even if the effect that moved it from the hand, deck or gauge zone to the drop zone does not say "discard".
Heal (回かい復ふくするKaifuku-suru): To move a card from the damage zone to the drop zone.
Nullify (無む効こうにする Mukō ni suru): To cancel a specified effect.
Reveal (公こう開かいする Kōkai-suru): To take a card from a hidden zone and show it to all players.
- A revealed card remains revealed until the action or effect is fully resolved, at which point it returns to being hidden (unless it was moved to a public zone as part of the effect).
- When revealing one or more cards as a cost, decide all costs first, and reveal the cards at the same time that all other costs are paid.
- Revealing a card does not change the zone that the card is in unless the effect says otherwise. An example where this is relevant is "Goddess of the Treasured Mirror, Ohirume", which lets you reveal the top card of your deck and then draw cards; you may end up drawing the same card that you revealed.
Remove (除じょ外がいする Jogai-suru): To remove a card from the game.
Retire (退たい却きゃくさせる Taikyaku-saseru): To move a card from the field to the drop zone.
- A card is counted as being retired even if the effect that moved it from the field to the drop zone does not say "retire", such as by the effect of Lie-down Deletor, Given (V Series).
Search (探さがす Sagasu): To look through cards in a specified zone to find an appropriate card.
- If the zone is a hidden zone, then you may choose not to find the cards even if you know they are there. Examples are "Drangal", "White Dragon Knight, Pendragon", or Interdimensional Dragonknight, Lost Legend.
- If the zone is a public zone, then if you have any appropriate cards there, then you must find them.
Shuffle (シャッフルする Shaffuru-suru): To randomize the order of cards in a zone.
- If you are shuffling cards in a public zone or cards that have been revealed, you may not look at the cards while in the process of shuffling.
/ Soul Blast (X): Choose X cards from your soul, and put them into your drop zone.
/ Soul Charge (X): Put X cards from the top of your deck (or as many as possible up to X) into your soul.
/ Counter Blast (X): Choose X cards in your damage zone, and turn them face down.
File:CounterCharge.png / Counter Charge (X): Choose X cards in your damage zone (or as many as possible up to X), and turn them face up.