Not only do I love Fire Emblem but I enjoy to play card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic The Gathering, LORCANA, & VANGUARD so I thought 
… Hmm… What if NINTENDO & Intelligent Systems launched a Fire Emblem based TCG. How would it be like? To answer that question I came up with the rules of the game.
Emblem of Legends: Game Rules
Objective
To conquer the opponent’s fortress by reducing its health to zero using a strategic combination of units, spells, and equipment.
Game Setup
-
Deck Construction: Each player builds a deck of 50 cards, including Unit Cards, Spell Cards, Promotion Cards, Terrain Cards, and Equipment Cards.
-
Fortress: Each player starts with a fortress card in play, which begins with 20 health.
-
Starting Hand: Each player draws an initial hand of five cards.
Card Types
-
Unit Cards: These cards represent various characters and creatures, each with a cost, attack value, and health points. Each unit has a class such as Mercenary, Mage, Priest, Thief, etc.
-
Promotion Cards: These cards are used to promote your base units. Cards such as Hero Crest, Knight Crest, Orion’s Bolt, Guiding Ring, Fell Contract, and Master Seal (which can be used on any base unit regardless of class).
-
Spell Cards: Used to cast effects that can alter gameplay, requiring mana to activate.
-
Terrain Cards: Impact the battlefield by providing bonuses or penalties to units.
-
Equipment Cards: Attach to units to modify their abilities or stats, adhering to durability and the weapon/magic triangle rules.
Turn Structure
- Draw Phase: Draw one card from your deck.
- Mana Phase: Gain one mana point, increasing your total available mana up to a maximum of ten.
- Equip Phase: Equip your units with equipment cards from your hand. You can promote an unit with a promotion card in this phase as well.
- Main Phase 1: Play unit, spell, terrain, and additional equipment cards. Units may be set in attack or defense positions.
- Promotion Phase: Apply Promotion Cards to eligible units.
- Battle Phase: Engage in combat with units. Units can attack opponent units or directly attack the fortress.
- Main Phase 2: Play any additional cards.
- End Phase: Resolve any end-of-turn effects and check for game-end conditions.
Promotion Mechanic
Specific Promotions: Each Promotion Card specifies which unit type it can promote, detailing the enhanced abilities and stats.
Promotion Requirements: Units must be in play for a specific number of turns before they can be promoted.
Promotion Process: Attach a Promotion Card to an eligible unit during the Promotion Phase; replace the base unit card with its promoted version.
Combat
-
Units can attack in a manner similar to Magic: The Gathering, where they deal damage equivalent to their attack value, and receive damage against their health simultaneously.
-
Equipment and terrain can influence the outcome of battles.
-
Special abilities may trigger based on the unit’s, spell’s, or equipment’s specifications.
Equipment and Weapon Triangle
-
Equipment Cards enhance units but come with limited durability. These break after their specified uses.
-
Weapon Triangle: Swords > Axes > Lances > Swords. Units gain +1 attack and +1 defense when they have a triangle advantage.
-
Magic Triangle: Fire > Wind > Thunder: (Light & Dark cancel each other out and are excluded from the Magic Triangle) with similar bonuses for advantageous matchups.
Mana System
- Each card has a mana cost, and mana replenishes at the start of each turn, allowing for the continuous play of cards.
Victory Conditions
- The game ends when a player’s fortress health is reduced to zero.
- A player also loses if they need to draw a card and cannot because their deck is empty.
These rules are designed to create a strategic and dynamic gameplay experience that honors the spirit of Fire Emblem while incorporating familiar elements from popular trading card games. What do you guys think? Would y’all play this TCG?
