Elestrals

Some effects tell you to Nexus: this moves Spirits from one of your Elestrals or Runes to a different one! Nexus instructions always tell you how many and sometimes what kind of Spirits you can move. First, pick an Elestral or Rune on your field, and which Spirits you’re taking from it *(You can’t choose set cards, or Invoke or Counter Runes)*. Then pick a different Elestral or Rune on your field to receive them. Those Spirits are Disenchanted from the first and Enchanted to the second at the same time!

If either card can’t receive Spirits, can’t Nexus, or isn’t on the field anymore, then nothing happens.

Game Mechanics

Nexus

*Updated following the How to Play Guidebook: [Version 4.0](chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://elestrals-resources.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/HowtoPlayGuide_V4.pdf).*

**Active**: a category of effect that players announce and add to the chain, so that it eventually resolves and impacts the game. They can be used once per turn.

**Artifact:** a type of Continuous Rune that Empowers an Elestral. You choose which at the time you cast the Artifact.

**Ascend:** a way to Cast an Elestral that includes sending an Elestral already on your field to the underworld and re-using its Spirits.

**Attack:** part of an Elestral card used to decide the outcome of a battle when that Elestral is in Attack Position.

**Attack Position:** when an Elestral is placed upright on the field, facing its owner.

**Attack Step:** the part of the Battle Phase where the turn player chooses an Elestral to attack their opponent or an opponent's Elestral. Players have a chain window, and if the attack becomes illegal, it is cancelled.

**Battle:** a process for attacking an opponent or their Elestrals, using your own.

**Battle Phase:** the part of a turn where one player can declare battles against the another.

**Cast:** the typical process for playing Elestral or Rune cards from your hand to the field.

**Chain:** a system that allows players to act in response to an opponent’s action, sometimes preventing it.

**Closed:** a chain closes when players have finished adding Counter Runes and effects to it. Once a chain closes, it fully resolves before the next chain opens.

**Conditional:** a category of effect that can be activated only after a certain event or during part of a turn. They can be used once each time their condition is met.

**Continuous:** a category of Runes that includes Artifact, Divine, and Stadium. These Runes stay on the field until they are destroyed or aren’t meeting their Enchantment Cost.

**Counter:** a type of Instant Rune that must be Set for a turn before use, but can then be Cast on any player’s turn. Counter Runes can form chains.

**Damage:**

1. the amount of Spirits a player must Expend when an opposing Elestral battles their Spirit Deck.
2. comparing states to determine whether an Elestral is destroyed when two Elestrals battle each other.

**Damage Step:** the part of the Battle Phase where Elestrals' stats are compared and the results of the battle happen. Players have a chain window after damage happens.

**Defense:** part of an Elestral card used to decide the outcome of a battle when that Elestral is in Defense Position.

**Defense Position:** when an Elestral is placed sideways on the field, not facing a player.

**Destroy:** to move a card from the field to its owner’s Underworld as a result of battle or because an effect says to do so.

**Discard:** to move a card from a player’s hand to that player’s Underworld.

**Disenchant:** to remove one or more Spirits that are currently Enchanting a Rune or Elestral on the field, usually as a cost to activate an effect or as part of a Nexus

**Divine:** a type of Continuous Rune that lets you Enchant it with additional Spirits, then Disenchant it once per turn for an effect.

**Draw:** to move a card from a player’s Main Deck to that player’s hand. If a player tries to draw a card when they have no cards in their Main Deck, they lose the game.

**Draw Phase:** the first part of a turn, when one player draws a card.

**Effect:** text that an Elestral or a Continuous Rune has that impacts the game. There are three categories: active, conditional, and passive. Invoke and Counter Runes also have effects, but they don’t fall into these categories.

**Elestral:** a card type that has an Attack and Defense stat and is used to attack your opponent.

**Empower:** a relationship between an Artifact and the Elestral chosen for it. An effect impacting an Elestral this way can be positive or negative.

**Enchant:** to put one or more Spirits beneath a face-up Rune or Elestral on the field, as part of Casting it or when a rule or effect tells you to.

**Enchanted:** when there are enough Spirits of the appropriate Elements to meet an Elestral or Rune's Enchantment Cost. This is mutually exclusive with "Misenchanted".

**Enchantment Cost:** part of an Elestral or Rune card that shows how many Spirits it needs to be cast and to remain on the field. See also “Misenchanted”.

**End Phase:** the final part of a turn, where effects often wear off or can be activated.

**Expend:** to move a Spirit card from a player’s Spirit Deck to their Underworld. If a player tries to Expend a card when they have no cards in their Spirit Deck, they lose the game.

**Field:** where cards that have been Cast or Set are placed between players. This area is broken up into several zones.

**Field check:** a process performed after each chain to confirm the field is in a legal state. Cards with too few Spirits and Artifacts that are not Empowering an Elestral are sent to the Underworld, and an attack that has become illegal ends.

**Hand:** where cards that you have drawn from your deck but haven’t played yet are kept. There is no limit to cards you can have in your hand at once.

**Instant:** a category of Runes that includes Invoke and Counter. These Runes immediately impact the game, then are sent to the Underworld. You can Disenchant Spirits that are already on your field to cast these.

**Invoke:** a type of Instant Rune that is Cast during your Main Phase.

**Limbo:** a holding zone that contains the chain, cards, and effects are on the chain, and cards and effects that waiting to be chained.

**Main Deck:** where your Rune and Elestral cards are stored in a face-down pile. Your Main Deck is shuffled at the start of a game and also every time you Search it.

**Main Phase:** the part of a turn where one player takes most of their actions like Casting or Setting cards or changing Elestrals’ Positions.

**Misenchanted:** when there are enough Spirits Enchanting an Elestral to meet its Enchantment Cost, but their types do not match the Cost. It stays on the field and can still battle, but has no effect.

**Mulligan:** to shuffle your opening hand into your Main Deck and draw a new hand. Players can only this before the game begins, and must Expend 2 Spirits from their Spirit Deck each time they mulligan.

**Negate:**

1. To Remove a Rune or Elestrals' effect, because it is Misenchanted or as a result of an effect.
2. To cancel a card, an effect, or a turn action before it is performed.

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**Nexus:** to Disenchant Spirits from one of your cards and Enchant them to another card at the same time.

**Open:** an open chain allows players to add Counter Runes and effects to it. To resolve those effects the chain closes.

**Passive:** a category of effect that has an impact on the game constantly as long as the card it’s on is on the field and Enchanted. These effects can’t be activated.

**Piercing:** Elestrals that deal Piercing damage and destroy an opponent's Defense Position Elestral in battle cause that player to Expend Spirits the same way they would if the destroyed Elestral was in Attack Position.

**Resolve:** to have an impact on the game as a results of being Cast or activated. Effects can partially resolve if some of their instructions are impossible. Negated actions don't resolve.

**Response window:** a timing period that occurs after a chain resolves in which players can activate conditional effects and Counter Runes, but cannot take other actions.

**Rune:** a card type broken into two categories: Instant and Continuous. They are often less powerful than Elestrals, but easier to Cast.

**Search:** to look through your Main Deck for a card and reveal it to all players, usually in order to add it to another zone. Whenever you Search your deck, shuffle it afterwards.

**Set:** to place a Rune that isn’t a Stadium facedown in your Rune Row, to be cast on a later turn. Counter Runes can only be cast this way.

**Side Deck:** an optional deck containing up to 15 cards. Between Best of 3 games of tournament, these cards can be swapped with cards in your Main or Spirit Deck, however, the Spirit Deck must returned to its original state at the start of a new Best of 3 Clash.

**Special Ascend, Special Cast:** a way of modifying the Cast or Ascend process based on a card’s instructions. Casting an Elestral this way doesn’t count as your once per turn Normal Cast or Normal Ascend.

**Spirit:** a card type that acts as both your life total and your resource for playing cards. Each Spirit has an elemental type associated with it

**Spirit Deck:** where your Spirit cards are stored in a face-down pile. You can look through this deck at any time during a game.

**Stadium:** a type of Continuous Rune that impacts all Elestrals on the field. Only one Stadium can exist at a time; Casting a new one replaces any currently Enchanted.

**Target:** a temporary designation that some effects give to cards, zones, or players to indicate that they’re going to perform an action involving the designated object.

**Unaffected:** a keyword that protects a card from a group of other cards or effects. That group can't target, Empower, Suppress, destroy, or otherwise directly affect it, but any of their effects that change the rules of the game will still apply to it.

**Underworld:** where cards that you have spent in a game - usually discarded, Expended, or destroyed - are kept in a face-up pile.

Glossary

Counter Runes and conditional effects (ones that activate “when” an event happens) can form Chains! Chains allow players to react to an action and prevent it from happening or change what it does. Cards being Cast, Ascended, or Set can form the base of a Chain. So can declaring a battle, activating an effect, even Searching your deck!

To add a link to a Chain, a player announces that they’re Casting their Counter Rune or activating their effect “in response to” an action. That effect will resolve - have an impact on the game - before the action at the base of the Chain does. More links can be added to a Chain the same way, back and forth, and the turn player always gets to add links before the non-turn player.

Once players are finished adding links to a Chain, that Chain is closed - no more links can be added to it. Resolve the newest link first, then the next, all the way down to the base of the Chain. Any effects that meet their conditions during this process will wait to go onto the next Chain.

If an action gets negated, it counts as spent but nothing happens. If it wasn’t negated but it can’t be finished anymore, it either partially works, or it rewinds; check the rules on Casting and Ascending Elestrals, Casting Runes, and activating effects to know what to do if you can’t finish those actions.

Conditional effects activate only if a Chain ends and their condition was *successfully* met during that Chain. If an action is negated, it doesn’t happen - so it won’t activate effects. Actions that are rewound also won’t activate them.

Learn more about the keywords in Elestrals TCG via the [**Glossary**](https://www.elestrals.com/blog/blog__2e627311-ece5-433c-988a-62524aeb9fe5).

Chains

Month 1 of Shattered Stars packs are expected to be shipped by January 31, 2024. Month 2 will not be charged until AFTER Month 1 has been shipped.

Shattered Stars

Learn all about Elestrals’ Game Mechanics!