The Deck

Tarot Battle is played with the full 78-card tarot. The 22 Major Arcana are your heroes and game-changers; the four Minor suits — Cups (Water), Swords (Air), Wands (Fire) and Pentacles (Earth) — form the body of your army, fourteen cards apiece.

Each player drafts a deck and deploys units to the board. A unit is only as strong as its position — the deck is a promise, the board is the proof.

The M·A·D Line

Every unit is summarised by three numbers: Movement, Attack and Defense. They appear on the card front as the green M·A·D label with yellow values, and in full on the back.

Movement is the number of spaces a unit may travel per turn. Attack is the damage it deals when it strikes. Defense reduces incoming damage. Damage dealt is Attack − ½ Defense, to a minimum of 1.

Turn Structure

Each battle opens with a deployment phase: both commanders place their squad across their own back rows, then ready up. Once both are set, the battle begins.

Players then alternate turns. On your turn you may move and act with your units, trigger any abilities that read “at the beginning of your turn” or “once per turn,” then pass with End Turn.

Many effects are bounded — once per turn, once per game — and many are positional, triggering only within N spaces or while adjacent. Read the board as carefully as the cards.

Combat

To attack, move a unit adjacent to an enemy and strike. The defender loses health equal to the damage dealt; at zero health a unit is eliminated and removed from the board — unless an ability says otherwise (see Death’s Inevitability, which banks Debt instead of dying).

A surviving, adjacent defender counterattacks unless the attacker has First Strike. Abilities resolve before raw numbers: a well-timed Eye for an Eye reflection or a guaranteed Edge critical can overturn a fight the M·A·D line said was already lost.

The Fate Pool

Both players draw from one shared pool of six Fate, refilling +1 at the start of each turn. The deck’s most powerful abilities cost Fate — and because the pool is shared, every point you spend is a point your opponent cannot. Spending Fate is a wager as much as a cost.

Conditions

Named status effects that bend the rules for a unit:

Reversed — healing lands as damage and friendly buffs invert. Suspended — cannot act, but untouchable. Illuminated — the next attack is a guaranteed critical. Chained — leashed and slowed; using an active feeds the Fate pool. Bound — restricted targeting (The Lovers). Blinded — cannot attack or use abilities. Haunt — a spectral obstacle left where a unit fell.

Board Tokens

Some cards place tokens on the field. Walls (The Tower) and Haunts (Death) permanently block all movement. Lanterns (The Hermit), Stars (The Star), Light (The Sun) and Harvest (The Empress) are spendable resources — heals, buffs and lasting stat gains. Embers (Wands) burn any non-Wands unit that ends its move on them.

Faction Resources

Each Minor suit runs its own economy. Cups — The Tide: one shared token grants its carrier +1 to all stats. Swords — The Edge: attacks charge a 0–3 counter; at 3 the next strike is a guaranteed critical. Wands — Embers: lay fire-tiles that tax enemy movement. Pentacles — The Coin Pool: a shared economy that pays out in heals and permanent upgrades.

Resonance

Certain cards are stronger together. When a card’s named resonance partner is alive on your side, both gain a bonus — The Chariot’s charge doubles beside Strength; Death’s Debt slows beside Judgement; the Wheel steadies beside the Hanged Man. Build your squad to chain these pairs.

Ability Glossary

Every named ability across the deck. Keywords are bold & underlined on the cards.

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