Ascension Campaign Rules

Need to learn what the cards mean? Before starting, we would suggest reviewing the Card Overview Page (click here) to better understand how each character card is setup for gameplay.

PREFACE

Ascension Campaign is the advanced mode of Tribes of Wondervale.

HOW TO WIN

Win Ascension Campaign by reducing your opponent’s (also known as Champion) health to 0.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 2 players.

• Each player must have a deck of Tribes of Wondervale cards.

• A standard constructed deck contains exactly 60 cards.
• A standard constructed deck contains no more than 3 copies of any character card with the same name.
• A standard constructed deck contains at least 10 apprentice cards.
• A standard constructed deck requires that for all heroes included, you must include the preceding guardian cards and for all guardians included, you must include the preceding apprentice cards.

• Health counters (or other method to track health - feel free to choose any method you like: paper, plastic counters, phone app, etc.).

• One six-sided die (d6) per player (a phone app dice roller can also be used).

SETTING 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 may set the amount of Champion health for the match.

• Both players will receive the same amount of health.

• Champion health may be set by:

• Using our suggested standard for competitive play, which would set Champion health at 250 per player, or
• Both players may agree on an amount, or
• Players may implement 'Chaos Mode' by having one player roll a die and if the roll > 1, multiplying the roll result by 50. If a 1 is rolled, have the opposing player roll again until the result is 2 or greater.

TO START

• Both players draw 7 cards.

• After drawing your initial 7 cards, if your hand contains no apprentice character cards, you may reveal your hand, 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, with the higher roll indicating who will go first.

TURN OVERVIEW

On your turn, do the following, in order:

1. Discard up to 2 unwanted cards to the discard pile from your hand (optional).

2. Draw 1 card, plus 1 card for each card just discarded.

• If a player must draw a card but their deck is empty, they shuffle their discard pile to form a new deck, and their Champion takes 40 damage. Do not include characters in the defeat pile in the new deck.

3. Flip your cards that are currently horizontal vertical [see Card Orientation below].

4. Deposit up to 2 tribe cards into your tribe bank (optional) [see Tribe Cards below].

5. Deploy to the battlefield (optional) [see The Battlefield below] by laying down, upgrading, and/or promoting characters.

6. Take action — swap or attack [see Action below].

7. Discard excess cards to ensure only 7 are in your hand.

8. End turn.

CARD 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, horizontal cards flip vertical and become ready.

• Only vertical character cards may enter battle.

• Only vertical character cards may be upgraded.

• A character card may be active (vertical) without being in the battle position.

TRIBE CARDS 

• Once played out of your hand, tribe cards always start in your tribe bank (a side pile on the battlefield) and their purpose is to be attached to character cards during the deployment phase of the turn.

• Tribe cards must be deposited into the tribe bank before they can be attached to characters during deployment.

• By depositing a tribe card into the tribe bank, it does not automatically attach the card to a character card.

• A character card requires the number of tribe cards equal to the value shown on the character card to lay it on the battlefield during deployment.

• During deployment, you can use any tribe card in your tribe bank to lay any character card out of your hand; however, if the tribe card matches the tribe indicated on the character card it is attached to, that character card gains +10 health.

• This bonus stacks per tribe card when in use within a unit [see Unit Structure below].
• The maximum number of tribe cards that can be attached to any character, or unit, is set by the highest value listed on any character card in that unit (example: Blizzmaul is value 5, a unit containing Snowlitt, Frothyim and Blizzmaul can have a maximum of 5 tribe cards attached).

• Once a tribe card is attached to a character card, those tribe cards cannot be used by any other character card (aka cannot be moved to other characters or back to the bank) unless by Tribal ability, but can be shared amongst that unit [see Unit Structure below].

THE BATTLEFIELD 

Each player may have:

• One character card (or unit) in Battle Position (typically at the front of your side of the table).

• Up to 7 additional character cards/units on the bench (immediately behind battle position on the table). 

• Tribe cards in the tribe bank (set to the side on the table).

• A defeat pile and a separate discard pile.

DEPLOYMENT PHASE

During deployment, you may do any (and all) of the following:

• Play apprentice character cards from your hand to the bench by attaching a tribe card from the tribe bank to the apprentice character card and placing it horizontally on the bench.

• Upgrade your active characters by placing a character card out of your hand on the immediately preceding version (as indicated on the bottom left of card) of a card, along with the required additional tribe cards from the tribe bank to match its required value indicated on the new character card.

• Upgrading a character does not reset any previous damage applied to the card.
• When you upgrade an active (vertical) character, the newly placed Guardian or Hero inherits the active (vertical) status and is ready for use immediately.
• Each character card may be upgraded a maximum of one time per turn.
• Example: You have a apprentice card that is value 1 with one attached tribe card, you play a guardian card that is value 3 on top by attaching it and 2 additional tribe cards from the tribe bank to create the unit. This means there are a total of 3 tribe cards in the unit, not 4.

• In the event your battle position is open, you may promote a character (or unit) into battle position.

• Only one character card (or unit) can be in the battle position.

You may also choose to do nothing during the deployment phase.

UNIT STRUCTURE

Each character belongs to a unit, which includes:

• Apprentice

• Guardian

• Hero

The card in which it can be placed upon is indicated on the bottom left of the character card.

Additional rules related to a unit:

• Only apprentices may be played directly from your hand onto the bench.

• Guardian and heroes may only be played by upgrading an active character card that is depicted on the character card being placed.

• 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 treated as one combatant. Only the topmost character card in the unit provides the unit’s printed stats (Health, Power, Intellect, Offense, Defense, tribe strengths/vulnerabilities).

• The unit has one set of damage counters.

• If a unit’s damage equals or exceeds its current Health (including tribe-match health bonuses), the entire unit is defeated and all character cards in that stack are placed in the defeat pile together.

ACTION 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 your character currently in battle position [see Attacking below].

ATTACKING

BATTLE SELECTION

• If you have defeated at least 3 of the opposing player’s characters (units count as one for this calcuation), you may elect to attack the other Champion (optional) [see Champion Battle below]. If not, 

• If a player has no character card in battle position but has multiple active (vertical) character cards on their bench, the defending player may choose which one enters battle.
• If the defending player only has one character card active, it is automatically promoted to battle.
• If at least two turns have passed since the start of the match and if the defending player has no character cards active, but you have not defeated three of their character cards/units, your active character may attack their Champion directly, dealing your character's full Power as damage. This bypasses the 3-defeat requirement.
• Otherwise, only the character card (or unit) in battle position may attack or be attacked.

COMBAT:

Do the following in order:

1. Both players roll a d6

2. Add the following modifiers:

Attacker adds:

• Offense listed on their character card.
• +1 for each guardian and hero in their unit.
• +1 if strong against defender’s tribe (indicated in green on the attacking character card).
• −1 if vulnerable to defender’s tribe (indicated in red on the attacking character card).

Defender adds:

• Defense listed on their character card.
• +1 for each guardian and hero in their unit.
• +1 if strong against attacker’s tribe (indicated in green on the defending character card).
• −1 if vulnerable to attacker’s tribe (indicated in red on the defending character card).

3. Compare totals:

• Higher total wins.

• If a tie, repeat combat by re-rolling and re-adding modifiers.

4. Apply damage (damage is tracked using counters):

• Attacker wins: defending character card takes damage equal to attacker’s power.

• Defender wins: Attacking character card takes counterattack damage equal to defender’s intellect.

5. Determine character card status:

• When a character card’s health reaches 0, it is defeated and placed in the defeat pile.

• All attached tribe cards are placed in the discard pile, except for when a unit is defeated:

• When an entire unit is defeated, you may return up to 2 tribe cards to your hand: 1 per guardian and 1 per hero.

• When the character card is defeated, the losing side may draw one card. Additionally, the winning tribe’s special ability is activated immediately:

• Duneward (Desert): Draw one extra card and discard any card in your hand.
• Juryn (City): 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 card that is replaced).
• Verdari (Jungle): You may lay one extra tribe card onto the battlefield from your hand or from your tribe bank (if, and only if, neither are available, you may elect to draw another card instead). 
• Aegaryn (Tundra): Blindly select one card from your opponent’s hand to discard (they may draw a new card in exchange).
• Ascyr (Mythic): Add 10 damage to the opposing Champion.
• Abyssal (Ocean): Add 20 points of damage to a character card on the opponent’s battlefield (if none on the battlefield, damage is applied to the Champion instead).

CONTINUING COMBAT

• During your turn, your character card 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.

CHAMPION BATTLE

You may attack the opposing Champion only after you have defeated at least 3 of their character cards/units (units count as 1) and as long as you have not attacked any other character cards during that turn.

CHAMPION COMBAT

• Champion combat is limited to two attacks per turn.

• Both players roll 1 die

• Players add +1 to their roll total for each of characters/units they have defeated (the defending player will always add a minimum of 2). For example, player A attacks having previously defeated 4 characters/units, player B defends and has only defeated 1 character/unit, player A would add +4 and player B would add +2.

• The higher score wins.

• If the attacker wins, the defending Champion takes damage equal to the attacking character card’s power.

• If the defender wins, the defender deals 50 damage to the attacker’s character card in battle position.

• In Champion battle, Champions never take counterattack damage—only attacking character cards do.

• If the attacker’s character 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.