Early Access Player Manual

Version 0.5 Early Access - Released 15.12.21

Contents
Winning The Game

Preparations

Cards
Name
Artron Cost
Life Form
Rarity
Card Type
Ability Text
Attack & Health

The Arena
Attacking with a Creature
Blocking with a Creature
The Hand
Artron
Activated Abilities
Shared Past & Separate Futures
The Booster

The Arena: Quick Guide

Playing the Game

Turn Flow
Taking a Reaction

Keyword Glossary
Winning The Game
Each match is a 1v1 test of will, taking place in a changing environment that encompasses all of
time and space. Your goal is to destroy the shields of your opponent’s Time Capsule, sending
them flying into unknown reaches of the Time Vortex.

Both players start with 30 health on their Shields. If your opponent’s Shield is reduced to 0, or
they are unable to draw a card from their Future (their deck of cards), they lose the game. If
both players' Shields are reduced to 0 or both players are unable to draw a card at the same
time, the game ends in a draw.

Creatures, Weapons, even Environments are all summoned to the field through the use of your
Time Capsule’s Artron, the resource used in order to move through time and space. You and
your opponent take turns, and during your turn you may play cards, attack and use abilities in
the order you like.

Preparations
Before playing you must assemble your Future, the deck of cards you will take with you to
battle. Futures contain 50 cards, including at least one Environment card.

Your Future can contain up to 4 copies of most cards at the start of your game (unless that is
changed by a card effect), but you are limited to 2 copies of any Legendary cards and only 1
copy of any Unique cards.

From the Future you draw cards during your game into your hand and play them onto the board,
which combined is known as the Present. Once they have been spent, destroyed, or have
fought to the death for your goal, cards are sent to the Past.

The Past is a shared pool of cards between both players that contain all the cards that have
been played and destroyed. In the core game card set there aren’t any cards that interact
directly with the Past, but there are more in the released sets.

Cards
Your cards are the vital tool you wield in battle for victory. Your cards might be decorated with
different frames around the outside to indicate your favourite encounters in time and space, but
they will also usually come with the following information:
Name
The name of your card. Some cards may refer to each other directly by their name, combining
for a powerful effect.

Artron Cost
At the start of each of your turns you gain an Artron crystal and all of your spent crystals are
refilled. When you play a card or activate an ability, this number shows you how much Artron
must be spent to activate it.

If the card is a creature or affector, you must choose a lane to play the card into when you play
it. Also, for some cards you must pick a target for their effects as well.
Life Form
There are 3 different forms of life in this game: Organic, Mechanical, and Elemental.
Some cards can only be used on cards that are a specific Life Form.

Rarity
Useful to know when you are opening a pack of cards! This can also impact gameplay: cards
with a gold rarity gem (Legendary) are limited to two copies in your Future.

Card Type
The Card Type tells you information about how the card can be played. Cards belong to one of
the following five types:

● Creature - The soldiers of your army, the supporters, and the greatest threat to your
opponent. These cards sit in your front row and fight for you.

● Affector - The weapons and tools you have at your disposal to sway the battle in your
favour. These cards sit behind your creatures and can provide power ups to them, or put
your opponent’s creatures in a disadvantageous position. Some affectors affect the
entire lane of creatures that they are in.

● Attachment - These cards are placed on the creatures on the board, permanently
augmenting them with powerful new weapons, or inflicting your opponent’s creatures
with a horrible disease, until the end of the match. Attachments stay on cards even if the
card is removed from the board, but they can be removed by card effects.

● Moment - These cards don’t sit on the battlefield at all, and instead they represent
pulling on a powerful event in history to change the tide of battle, such as the Cardiff
Space Time Rift or even reading The Veritas. Moments go directly to the Past after
resolving.

● Environment - Each player can have one environment card in play at a time in their
environment zone. These environments dictate the conditions under which you build
your Future, limiting the cards you can play. However, Environments come with powerful
abilities when played; and if you already have a copy of an Environment in play, playing
a second copy will magnify its effect.

In addition, the card might have the word Flash, which means it can also be played during your
opponent’s turn in response to their actions, or the word Unique, which means that only one
copy of the card can be included in your Future.
Ability Text
The effect of the card goes here, if it has one. Some cards have “keyword” effects, which are
abilities that are shared across multiple different cards and so have a word that signifies that
effect. For example, most Dalek’s share the EXTERMINATE keyword.

Attack & Health

Attack and Health only appear on creature cards. When a creature takes damage, the Health
decreases for each point of damage taken. When a creature’s health is reduced to 0, it is
destroyed and sent to the Past.

Meanwhile, Attack is used when the creature fights another creature, usually when attacking or
blocking. When two creatures fight, they deal damage to each other’s health equal to their
attack. Some keywords, like Upper Hand, give creatures an advantage to swing fights in their
favour.

The Arena

Each player has 5 creature zones and 5 affector zones on their side of the board, as well as 1
zone for environments. These are arranged into 5 lanes, with each player having 1 creature and
1 affector per lane. Creatures and affectors that are in the same lane as your opponent’s
creatures and affectors are considered “opposing”.
In this example, Thomas has just played a Ghost Shift Cyberman into the same lane as Marcie’s
Wounded Diplodocus, meaning that the creatures are opposing each other and might fight next
turn if one player chooses to attack. They have no cards in any of the other lanes.

Attacking with a Creature

You can declare an attack with your creature at any time during your turn that you could play a
card. When a creature declares an attack, it can only be blocked if there is an OPPOSING
creature as a reaction by your opponent. That means that Creatures in other lanes are unable to
block the attack unless they have a card effect that would allow them to. If the creature is
blocked, they fight. Otherwise, the damage is dealt directly to your opponent’s Shields instead.

After a creature attacks, it is disabled, which means it is unable to attack, block, or activate any
abilities until the beginning of your next turn (unless it is enabled by a card effect).

Creatures cannot attack on the same turn that they are summoned (unless it has Alacrity).

Blocking with a Creature

Creatures can block as soon as they have been played. Blocking with a creature disables it until
the start of your next turn.

Blocking with a creature counts as your reaction to that attack. Instead of blocking, you could
play a card with Flash or use an activated ability on a card you control to deal with the threat,
but you can only take one reaction to an attack.

The Hand
Your hand contains the cards you can play. At the start of the game you are presented with four
cards from your Future, and you may choose up to 2 cards from your Hand to shuffle in and
redraw.

The maximum number of cards you can hold in your hand is 10. If you draw more cards than
that, those cards are sent directly to the Past.

Artron
All cards and abilities cost Artron to play. When a match begins, both players start with 4
Artron cells, which increases by 1 at the start of their turn. When a player plays a card, their
Artron is spent by an amount equal to the card's Artron cost, but that spent Artron is refilled at
the start of their next turn.

The maximum number of Artron a player can have is 15.

Activated Abilities
Some creatures and affectors feature ability text with an Artron
amount on it, followed by a colon and an effect. When you click on
this card when it is on the game board you can activate this ability,
often choosing a target for it. Activating an ability can be done during
your turn or your opponent’s turn, at any time you could use an
action or a reaction.

Activating the ability of a card disables it until the start of your next
turn. Creatures cannot activate their ability until the end of the
following turn after they are summoned (unless they have Alacrity).

Shared Past & Separate Futures

On the left and right of the game board are the players’ shared Past and their respective
Futures. When a card is removed from the board it is sent to the Past, which both players can
view to see what cards have been played in this game. When cards are drawn, they are drawn
from that player’s Future, which is found on the right side of the screen.

The Booster
Once during your turn, the player can destroy 2 of their unspent Artron cells to draw a card.

The Arena: Quick Guide

Playing the Game
Before the first turn can begin, the players must go through the mulligan phase, where after
shuffling the Futures they look at the 4 cards they would draw for their opening hand and can
“influence the timestream” - returning up to 2 cards to their Future to draw new cards.

In this case, the player decides that despite being the cheapest creature in hand, that since they
effectively start the game with 5 Artron when going first, they’d like to replace the “War Games
Paramedic” card with another card from their Future and keep the others.

Whether you take your turn first or second is decided at random. What’s the difference between
going first and second?

First Second

The player that goes first gets the first The second player starts with 4 unspent
opportunity to play cards (and therefore Artron during the opponent's first turn, letting
attack). them play Flash cards before their own turn.

Both players start with 4 Arton and 4 cards in hand. At the start of each of their turns, they
gain 1 unspent Artron and their Artron is refreshed. Both players start with 30 Shields.

Does not draw a card on their first turn. Draws a card on their first turn.

Turn Flow
At the start of your turn, the following effects occur:
 1. The turn player’s disabled cards become enabled. Cards with effects that trigger “when
enabled” do so now (e.g. EXTERMINATE effects).

2. Both players’ start of turn effects trigger, starting with the leftmost cards and proceeding
right. The turn player’s effects trigger first, before their opponent’s.

3. The turn player draws a card and gains 1 unspent Artron (unless they are taking the first
turn of the game, in which case they don’t draw a card but do gain 1 Artron).

The turn player can take actions in any order. That means you can attack with any creature (that
is able to attack), play cards, or activate abilities in any order.

However, in response to these actions, the opponent is presented with a short window where
they can declare that they are considering taking a reaction.

Taking a Reaction
When your opponent plays a card or activates an ability, the “Respond?” button will flash, giving
you a short window to consider playing a card in response.

If you’re uncertain as to whether you would like to take a reaction, just press the button!

In this example, Thomas has targeted Marcie’s Gallifreyan Military Craft with Five Rounds
Rapid, to try and destroy it before it can attack. Marcie would need to hit the “Respond?” button
before the timer runs out before considering what they could do to counter this threat.
Once you have clicked the “Respond?” button, you will be taken to the Reaction Phase, where
you will have 30 seconds to consider what you would like to do. If at this stage you change your
mind, you can click the “Pass Reaction” button with no penalty.

When your opponent declares an attack, you will be taken straight to the Reaction Phase. You
have the option of declaring a block, but you can also play a card with Flash or activate an
ability. If you have no response to the attack, you can click the “Skip Blocking” button.

You can only have one Reaction to each action your opponent takes, so choose your reactions
wisely. Some actions do not trigger reaction opportunities (such as activating the booster). You
also do not get an opportunity to respond to an opponent’s reaction.

Keyword Glossary

Keyword Definition

Absorb The target card is treated as being erased by the card with Absorb. Cards
with Absorb have methods of resummoning Absorbed cards.

Alacrity Can attack and use abilities on the turn it is summoned.

Cleanse Removes attack and health buffs and debuffs from the card. The ability of
the card is not negated, but if the card has any attachments, those
attachments have their effects negated.

Destroy The card is removed from the Present and put into the Past (the Vortex on
the left side of the arena).

Disable When a card is activated, attacks, or blocks, it is disabled. Disabled cards

 are unable to attack, block, or use abilities until they are re-enabled, either
at the start of their controller’s turn or via a card effect.

Enable When a card on the board becomes ready for use, it is considered
‘Enabled’. Cards come into play enabled, but creatures that do so cannot
attack or block the turn they are summoned.

Erase Removes the card from the game completely instead of sending it to the
Past. Erased cards are returned to the owner’s Future at the end of the
game.

EXTERMINATE Daleks with EXTERMINATE immediately fight the creature specified by its
effect when enabled (e.g. EXTERMINATE: Lowest cost Creature). This
disables the Dalek after the effect resolves. If a card with EXTERMINATE
has no valid target, it attacks the opponent directly instead.

Fight Two creatures deal damage to each other as if one were attacking and the
other is blocking. Abilities that affect the outcome of combat (e.g. Upper
Hand) trigger here.

Flight Creatures with Flight can only be blocked by other Creatures with Flight.

Gather Intel When a creature you control with Gather Intel deals combat damage to a
creature, you steal all Attachments from that creature and add them to
your hand.

Lethargic Poison When a creature you control with Lethargic Poison damages another
creature, that creature loses -1/-1 (the creature's attack and health are
reduced by 1, including its maximum health).

Rapidity Creatures with Rapidity can block attacks from creatures that are not
opposing them by moving into the opposing unoccupied zone.

Restore Increases the current health of the creature, “healing” it. Cannot be
restored above its maximum health.

Sacrifice Is destroyed as part of the cost to activate the ability of this card.

Upper Hand When a creature with Upper Hand fights another creature, it deals combat
damage before the opposing creature (unless both creatures have Upper
Hand). If that creature would die as a result, it does not deal damage.