How to play Dragon Ball Super!

Deck Construction

Deck construction is super simple, you choose 1 Leader and then build a deck of at least 50 Battle and Extra Cards. A deck can only include up to 4 copies of a card with the same card number. You should also make sure to check the banned list for any cards that you can't include in your deck.

You should also take notice of the colours of the cards that you include in your deck. The colours are red, blue, green, yellow, and black. Many cards require a specific colour of energy so it is a good idea to utilise only one or two colours in a deck.

Areas

Like all TCGs Dragon Ball Super utilises zones for placing cards, these are called areas!

Deck Area You place your deck, except your Leader Card, in this area on the right hand side. A player also loses if there are no cards in their Deck Area.

Hand Like in all TCGs, you keep a number of cards in your hand. At the start of the game, each player draws 6 cards.

Drop Area The Drop Area is where cards go after they are used, similar to a graveyard or discard pile in other games.

Leader Area Analogous to the command zone in Magic the Gathering, your leader remains in the Leader Area throughout the game

Battle Area The Battle Area is where all of your fighters are placed and your battles take place, similar to the Monster Zones in Yu-Gi-Oh!

Combo Area You can also place your Battle Cards into the Combo Area during battles to boost your fighters. This is located below the Battle Area.

Energy Area The Energy Area is where you place cards used to pay the costs of other cards. This is a similar concept to Land Cards in Magic the Gathering.

Life Area The simplest way to win a game of Dragon Ball Super is to reduce your opponents life to zero. A player's life is represented by 8 cards and they draw a card from the area when they lose life, just like Prize Cards in Pokemon.

Gameplay

Gameplay is divided into turns that alternate between 2 players. Each of these turns is divided into 3 phases. The aim of the game is to reduce your opponent's Life to zero before they can do the same to you. Cards in the game can be placed in 2 distinct ways, Active Mode and Rest Mode. Cards in Active Mode are placed vertically and Rest Mode cards are horizontal.

Setup

Before a game can begin, you place your Leader Card in the Leader Area and shuffle your deck. Each player then draws 6 cards and has the option to mulligan once. If they are happy with their hand then they place 8 cards from the top of their deck face down in the Life Area. You then randomly determine who will go first, usually by a coin toss.

Charge Phase

The Charge Phase is the first phase of a turn and is comprised of three actions:

Switch You switch any cards from Rest Mode into Active Mode. This is very similar to untapping in Magic the Gathering.

Draw You draw 1 card from your deck. The player that goes first, skips this on their first turn.

Charging You can place any card from your hand into the charge zone. These cards are used to pay for the costs of other cards throughout the game.

Main Phase

As it's name would suggest, most of the action of the game takes place during this phase.

During the Main Phase you can do the following:

• Play Battle Cards from your hand into the Battle Area.
• Activate Card Skills (special abilities similar to activated abilities in Magic the Gathering)
• Activate your Leader Card's Awaken ability
• Battle - a player can choose to battle as many times as they are able

Playing Battle Cards

You can play Battle Cards by first paying their cost in the Charge Area (you switch a card from active mode into rest mode) and then placing them into the Battle Area. Unlike Magic the Gathering, cards don't suffer from summoning sickness so they can attack on their first turn.

Awaken Abilities

Leaders have a second powerful form on their reverse side. This usually comes into play later in the match and can be used once certain parameters are met. In most cases this is when your life has been reduced below a certain level.

Battles

By switching a either your Leader Card or a card in the Battle Area into rest mode you can order it to attack. You can either attack your opponent's Leader or one of their Battle Cards that is in rest mode. Once battles are declared they are resolved in 3 steps.

Step 1: Offense Step This is the attacking side's step. The attacking player can combo (see Combos below), activate skills or awaken their Leader if the conditions are right.

Step 2: Defence Step The defender now has the opportunity to respond. They can counter by using the combo area (see Combos below), activating skills or awakening their Leader if the conditions are right.

Step 3: Damage Step At this step you compare the Power of the 2 battling cards and decide the winner. The higher Power wins but a tie is considered a win for the attacker. When a defending Leader loses the player takes 1 damage and draws a card from the life area. A defending Battle Card that is KO'd is sent to the Drop Area and this doesn't inflict damage on the player.

Combos During a Battle you can play cards into the Combo Zone to power up your Leader or Battle Card. You can play from your hand or the Battle Zone, but you must pay the energy cost next to the Combo value. In many cases the cost is zero. There is no limit to the number of combo cards that you can utilise during a battle. Any cards that are used to combo are placed in the Drop Area after the battle has ended.

End Phase

Once a player has decided that they have performed all the actions that they want during the Main Phase, they can end the turn and pass to the opponent.

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