Ascension Campaign
The advanced game. Sixty-card decks, a tribe bank, complex strategy, and a Champion whose health is the match.
2
Players
60
Cards in a constructed deck
250
Champion health, competitive standard
1 d6
Per player, plus health counters
v1.1
Rules version · changelog
AlphaWant to help make the game better?
Tribes of Wondervale is currently in its Alpha phase. While the game has undergone extensive internal playtesting and advanced statistical modeling, we believe great games evolve through community engagement. Some mechanics represent deliberate design choices after significant debate, including choices that could have gone either way. Others may continue to refine over time as real players bring new perspectives and strategies into the Vale. If you have thoughtful feedback on gameplay, balance, pacing or clarity, we welcome it. Wondervale is being built for the long haul, and early player insight helps shape the future of the universe.
Need to learn what the cards mean?
Before starting, review the Card Overview page to see how each character card is set up for gameplay: health, power, intellect, offense, defense and the tribe marks.
01How to win
Win by reducing your opponent's Champion health to 0. You are the Champion, the final boss, and your health represents your life in the match.
02What you need
At the table
- 2 players.
- A deck of Tribes of Wondervale cards each (see standard constructed deck next).
- Health counters, or any other way to track health: paper, plastic counters, a phone app.
- One six-sided die (d6) per player. A phone dice roller works too.
A standard constructed deck
- Contains exactly 60 cards.
- No more than 3 copies of any character card with the same name.
- At least 10 apprentice cards.
- For every hero included, you must include the preceding guardian; for every guardian, the preceding apprentice.
03Setting Champion health
You are the “Champion,” the final boss, and your health represents your life in the match. At the start of the match, players set the amount of Champion health. Both players receive the same amount. Three ways to set it:
Competitive standard
250
Our suggested setting for competitive play, per player.
Agreed
Any
Both players agree on an amount.
Chaos Mode
d6 × 50
One player rolls. A roll above 1 is multiplied by 50. On a 1, the opposing player rolls again until the result is 2 or greater.
04To start
- Both players draw 7 cards. If your hand has no apprentice character cards, you may reveal it, shuffle your entire hand back into your deck, and draw 7 new cards. For each time you re-draw, your opponent has the option to pick up an additional card.
- Both players roll a die. The higher roll goes first.
05Turn overview
On your turn, do the following, in order.
Discardoptional
Discard up to 2 unwanted cards from your hand to the discard pile.
Draw
Draw 1 card, plus 1 card for each card you just discarded. If you must draw and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck and your Champion takes 40 damage. Characters in the defeat pile stay out of the new deck.
Flip
Turn your horizontal cards vertical. See Card orientation.
Depositoptional
Put up to 2 tribe cards into your tribe bank. See Tribe cards.
Deployoptional
Lay down, upgrade and/or promote characters on the battlefield. See Deployment.
Action
Swap or attack. See Action phase.
Trim your hand
Discard down to 7 cards in hand.
End turn
Your opponent begins at step 1.
06Card orientation
- Apprentice cards enter play horizontal. Tribe cards enter play vertical.
- Horizontal cards are not ready for use. At the start of your next turn they flip vertical and become ready.
- Only vertical character cards may enter battle, and only vertical character cards may be upgraded.
- A character card may be active (vertical) without being in the battle position.
07Tribe cards
- Once played out of your hand, tribe cards always start in your tribe bank, a side pile on the battlefield. Their purpose is to be attached to character cards during the deployment phase.
- Tribe cards must be deposited into the bank before they can be attached. Depositing one does not attach it to anything.
- A character card requires the number of tribe cards equal to the value shown on the card to lay it on the battlefield.
- Any tribe card in your bank can lay any character card from your hand. If the tribe card matches the character's tribe, that character gains +10 health. The bonus stacks per tribe card in use within a unit.
- The maximum number of tribe cards on any character or unit is the highest value listed on any card in that unit. Blizzmaul is value 5, so a unit of Snowlitt, Frothyim and Blizzmaul can hold at most 5.
- Once attached, a tribe card cannot move to another character or back to the bank, unless by Tribal ability. It can be shared within its unit.
08The battlefield
This is your side of the table, laid out the way the playmat prints it. Your opponent's side mirrors it across the middle, so the two battle positions face each other.
Opponent's battle position
Same places as the upcoming playmat. Defeat and Discard on your left, Deck and Bank on your right, Battle in front of the Bench.
09Deployment phase
During deployment, you may do any, and all, of the following. You may also choose to do nothing.
- Play apprentices from your hand to the bench by attaching a tribe card from the bank and placing the apprentice horizontally on the bench.
- Upgrade an active character by placing a card from your hand on its immediately preceding version (shown bottom-left on the card), along with the additional tribe cards from the bank needed to reach the new card's value.
- Upgrading does not reset damage already on the card. An upgraded active (vertical) character stays active: the new Guardian or Hero is ready immediately. Each character card may be upgraded a maximum of once per turn.
- Promote a character or unit into the battle position if it is open. Only one character or unit can be in battle position.
You have an apprentice of value 1 with one tribe card attached. You play a guardian of value 3 on top by attaching it and 2 more tribe cards from the bank. The unit now holds 3 tribe cards in total, not 4.
10Unit structure
Apprentice → Guardian → Hero, stacked as one unitTribe cards tuck in behind
Each character belongs to a unit: Apprentice, Guardian, Hero. The card it can be placed upon is shown at the bottom left of the character card.
- Only apprentices may be played directly from your hand onto the bench. Guardians and heroes are played only by upgrading the active character depicted on them.
- Only one copy of each level may exist in a unit at a time.
- Tribe cards attached to any member of the unit count for the entire unit.
- A unit is one combatant. Only the topmost card provides the unit's printed stats: Health, Power, Intellect, Offense, Defense, tribe strengths and vulnerabilities.
- The unit has one set of damage counters. If damage equals or exceeds its current Health, including tribe-match bonuses, the whole unit is defeated and goes to the defeat pile together.
11Action phase
Choose one.
Swap
Swap your character in battle position with one bench character.
- Switching is free.
- Switching ends your action. You cannot switch and attack on the same turn.
Attack
Attack with the character currently in battle position. See Attacking & combat.
12Attacking & combat
Battle selection
- If you have defeated at least 3 of the opposing player's characters (units count as one), you may elect to attack the other Champion instead. See Champion battle. If not:
- If a player has no card in battle position but several active cards on their bench, the defending player chooses which one enters battle.
- If the defending player has only one active card, it is automatically promoted to battle.
- If at least two turns have passed and the defender has no active cards, but you have not defeated three of theirs, your active character may attack their Champion directly for its full Power. This bypasses the 3-defeat requirement.
- Otherwise, only the card or unit in battle position may attack or be attacked.
Combat, in order
Try a combat: Blizzmaul's unit attacks Jawbarr
Roll as many times as you like. Modifiers come straight from the cards.
Attacker
Blizzmaul, unit of three
- d6 roll 4
- Offense on card +5
- Guardian and hero in unit +2
- Strong vs Abyssal (green) +1
Defender
Jawbarr, unit of three
- d6 roll 3
- Defense on card +3
- Guardian and hero in unit +2
- No tribe bonus vs Aegaryn +0
- Both players roll a d6.
- Add modifiers. Attacker: Offense on the card, +1 for each guardian and hero in the unit, +1 if strong against the defender's tribe (green on the card), −1 if vulnerable (red). Defender: the same, using Defense.
- Compare totals. Higher wins. On a tie, re-roll and re-add the modifiers.
- Apply damage, tracked with counters. Attacker wins: the defender takes damage equal to the attacker's Power. Defender wins: the attacker takes counterattack damage equal to the defender's Intellect.
- Check status. A card at 0 health is defeated and goes to the defeat pile. Attached tribe cards go to the discard pile, except when a whole unit is defeated: then you may return up to 2 tribe cards to your hand, 1 per guardian and 1 per hero. The losing side may draw one card, and the winning tribe's ability triggers immediately.
Tribal abilities, on a defeat
Duneward
Draw one extra card and discard any card in your hand.
Juryn
Swap one tribe card with another from anywhere on your battlefield, or replace one from your hand. If the card comes from your hand, pick up the one it replaces.
Verdari
Lay one extra tribe card onto the battlefield from your hand or your bank. If neither is available, you may draw a card instead.
Aegaryn
Blindly select one card from your opponent's hand to discard. They may draw a new card in exchange.
Ascyr
Add 10 damage to the opposing Champion.
Abyssal
Add 20 damage to a character card on the opponent's battlefield. If none, the damage goes to the Champion.
Continuing combat
- During your turn, your character in battle may attack up to three times, as long as no character has been defeated during that turn.
- You may stop attacking at any time.
13Champion battle
You may attack the opposing Champion only after you have defeated at least 3 of their characters or units (a unit counts as 1), and as long as you have not attacked any other character cards that turn.
- Champion combat is limited to two attacks per turn. Both players roll one die.
- Each player adds +1 per character or unit they have defeated; the defender always adds a minimum of +2. For example: player A attacks having defeated 4, player B defends having defeated 1: A adds +4, B adds +2.
- The higher score wins. If the attacker wins, the defending Champion takes damage equal to the attacking card's Power.
- If the defender wins, the defender deals 50 damage to the attacker's card in battle position. Champions never take counterattack damage, only attacking character cards do.
- If the attacker's card in battle position is defeated during Champion battle, the turn is over.
- If at any point a Champion's health reaches 0, the game is over.
14Changelog
v1.12/27/26
- Clarified competitive rules around setting champion health at game start
- Capped discard and draw mechanic at 2 per turn.
- Clarified tribe card maximum per unit.
- Capped bench maximum to 7.
- Clarified maximum upgrades per character per turn.
- Clarified free promotion to open battle position.
- Clarified unit cohesion
- Removed action forcing horizontal cards into battle and implemented 10 champion damage penalty
- Changed ties from being defense wins to re-roll
- Clarified defeat vs discard pile
- Rebalanced tribal abilities
- Added 3 attack maximum per turn
- Clarified champion battle start mechanism
- Added two attack maximum during champion combat
- Changed champion battle from multiple dice to bonus mechanism
- Clarified upgrading and damage retention
- Clarified deck out rules
- Added deck building rules
- Added start-game mulligan re-draw
- Changed turn start discard to any card
- Changed no active characters on the board rule to allow champion attack instead of 10 damage
v1.0Original release
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