How to Play
Master the elements, command your faction, and conquer the battlefield. Learn everything you need to start your journey in Colvaron Conquest.
Quick Start Overview
Colvaron Conquest is a strategic trading card game for 2 players. Each player builds a deck of 40 cards representing their chosen faction and elemental affinity. The goal is to reduce your opponent's Core Health to zero while protecting your own.
Victory requires careful resource management, tactical positioning, and mastering the elemental advantage system.
Game Setup
Prepare for battle with these essential steps
Build Your Deck
Construct a 40-card deck with up to 3 copies of any card. Choose cards that synergize with your faction and elemental strategy.
Shuffle & Draw
Shuffle your deck thoroughly. Each player draws 5 cards to form their starting hand. You may mulligan once, shuffling and redrawing.
Set Core Health
Both players start with 20 Core Health. Place your Core card in your play zone. Your Core represents your faction's power source.
Determine First Player
Flip a coin or roll a die. The winner chooses to go first or second. The first player skips their initial draw phase.
Card Types
Understand the different cards at your command
Unit Cards
Units are your warriors on the battlefield. Each unit has Attack Power (damage dealt) and Health (damage it can take). Units can attack the opponent's Core or other units.
- • Summoned to your Field Zone
- • Cannot attack on the turn they're played (Summoning Fatigue)
- • May have special abilities that trigger on play or attack
Spell Cards
Spells are one-time effects that can turn the tide of battle. They resolve immediately and are sent to the Void (discard pile) after use.
- • Deal direct damage to units or the Core
- • Heal your units or restore Core Health
- • Draw cards, manipulate the battlefield, or counter opponents
Artifact Cards
Artifacts are permanent objects that provide ongoing effects. They remain on the field until destroyed or removed by card effects.
- • Placed in your Artifact Zone (max 3 at a time)
- • Provide passive bonuses or triggered abilities
- • Some can be activated for powerful effects
Turn Structure
Each turn follows these phases in order
Draw Phase
Draw 1 card from your deck. If you cannot draw, you lose the game. The first player skips this phase on their first turn.
Essence Phase
Gain 1 Essence (your resource for playing cards). You may also play 1 Essence Crystal from your hand to gain additional Essence generation. Your Essence pool refills at the start of each turn.
Main Phase
This is where the action happens. You may perform any of the following in any order: summon units, cast spells, play artifacts, activate abilities, or attack with units that don't have Summoning Fatigue.
End Phase
Resolve any "at end of turn" effects. If you have more than 7 cards in hand, discard down to 7. Summoning Fatigue is removed from units played on previous turns. Your turn ends.
Elemental Advantages
The five elements form a cycle of strengths and weaknesses
Advantage Bonus: When a unit attacks a unit of a weaker element, it deals +2 bonus damage.
Disadvantage Penalty: When a unit attacks a unit of a stronger element, it deals -1 reduced damage (minimum 1).
Note: Fire, Nature, and Water form a triangle. Light and Night oppose each other directly. Strategic deck building often focuses on one primary element with a secondary for coverage.
Combat
Understanding how battles unfold
Attacking Units
When your unit attacks an enemy unit, both units deal damage equal to their Attack Power simultaneously. Units with 0 or less Health are destroyed and sent to the Void.
Attacking the Core
If your opponent has no units, you may attack their Core directly. The Core cannot fight back, so your attacking unit takes no damage. Reduce their Core Health by your unit's Attack Power.
Blocking
Some units have the Guardian keyword. Guardian units must be attacked before other units or the Core can be targeted. Strategically placing Guardians protects your key units.
Keywords
Units may have special keywords: Swift (can attack immediately), Stealth (can't be targeted until it attacks), Lifesteal (heals your Core when dealing damage), and more.
Winning the Game
There are three ways to claim victory
Core Destruction
Reduce your opponent's Core Health to 0. This is the most common path to victory through aggressive unit attacks and direct damage spells.
Deck Exhaustion
If a player must draw but has no cards remaining in their deck, they lose immediately. Control decks often use this as a win condition.
Special Victory
Certain legendary cards have unique victory conditions. Collect all five Octastar Fragments, or fulfill a faction's ultimate quest to claim an alternate win.
Tips for Beginners
Start with a Single Element
Focus on one primary element when building your first deck. Multi-element decks are powerful but require careful balancing.
Balance Your Essence Curve
Include a mix of low-cost and high-cost cards. Having only expensive cards means slow starts; only cheap cards limits your late-game power.
Protect Your Core
Don't neglect defense. Guardian units and healing spells can buy you crucial turns to set up your winning strategy.
Learn the Meta
Study what decks and strategies are popular. Understanding the meta helps you build decks that can counter common threats.
Practice Makes Perfect
Every loss is a learning opportunity. Analyze your games to understand what went wrong and how to improve.
Ready to Start Playing?
Explore the card gallery, learn about the factions, and begin your conquest of Colvaron.