ESSVEIL

The Duel

2 players · 20 Life each · reduce your opponent to 0 to win. Decks are 50–60 cards, max 3 copies of any card. Opening hand of 5. Games aim for ~8–10 turns.

The Veil — Essence as Cards

You own exactly 10 Essence cards, separate from your deck. They cycle: Reserve (face-down stack) → Veil untapped (your bank) → Veil tapped (spent this round) → back to the bottom of the Reserve when you Refresh. Unspent Essence never resets — bank turns and drop a 7-cost early. Nothing ever leaves the 10-card cycle, so 10 is the most you can hold.

Your Turn

1. Refresh — untap your creatures; tapped Essence returns to your Reserve.
2. Attune — choose one:
   Flow: move 2 Essence to your Veil, then draw a card.
   Deep Attune: move 4, but skip your draw (not on your first turn).
   The first player Attunes only 1 on the game's very first turn.
3. Main phase — play cards, attack, and use abilities in any order, freely interleaved.

Combat

Attack with creatures one at a time, mixed freely with playing cards. Attacking taps the creature. Target any enemy creature or the enemy player. Fighting creatures deal their Might to each other's Endurance simultaneously; damage persists between turns. 0 Endurance → the graveyard. Creatures can't attack the turn they arrive unless they have Swift.

Guard — the defender chooses

When an attack is declared, the defender may redirect it to one of their untapped Guard creatures, tapping it (once per round each) — unless the attacker has Veilstep. Intercepting is never forced; a Guard that attacked on your turn is tapped and can't intercept.

Card Types

Creature — fights, stays in play. Spell — one-time effect, then the graveyard. Equipment — attach to a friendly creature (max 1 each); the bearer keeps the printed bonus; if the bearer leaves play, the Equipment is destroyed.

Keywords

Guard	May intercept an attack on you or a friendly target; taps after intercepting.
Swift	Can attack the turn it's played.
Drain	Combat damage this deals also heals its controller.
Venom	Any creature damaged by this is destroyed.
Grow X	At the start of your turn, gains +X/+X.
Aegis	Prevents all of the next damage this creature would take, then is spent. Doesn't stack.
Veilstep	Its attacks can't be intercepted by Guard.
Silence	Loses all card text and keywords. Stat changes, damage, and Equipment bonuses remain.
On Play	Triggers when played from hand (never when returned from the graveyard).
Last Rites	Triggers when the creature dies.

Table Rulings (this demo)

Tokens vanish instead of entering the graveyard · Drain triggers on combat damage · an empty deck simply stops giving draws · you can never pay Life that would drop you to 0 · effects with no legal target fizzle, the card is still played · simultaneous deaths resolve active player first · optional module Pierce the Veil (3 Life → Attune 1, once per turn) can be enabled at setup.