DEILINK
DeiLink is set on a fantasy world, where society was disrupted when a derelict ship from an extinct advanced alien race entered orbit, and advanced tech and debris from the ship began falling to the planet. Among the debris were creatures that looked like pigeons, but were secretly drones, whose previous mission was to spy, but were now left with nothing to do.
“One Page Rules”
The aim of DeiLink is to reduce your opponent’s life to 0. Once this happens, or once your opponent runs out of cards in their deck, you win.
Each player starts the game with 7 cards in hand, and 20 life. *
The player who goes first does not draw a card – their advantage lies in earlier board presence. *
‘Charge’ is the energy system of this game; it’s used to summon cards and activate Character abilities.
Both players start with 0 mana and gain 2 Charge every time it is their turn, until they reach 10 Charge. *
E.g., On your first turn, you have 2 Charge, the turn after you have 4, and so on. *
Units can be placed in either the top row or the middle row. The central position is where the Character is placed. Your deck and exile are on opposite ends of the bottom row, with space for 3 fields.
During your turn, you can perform a variety of actions:
- Play a unit if you can pay the Charge cost (units cannot attack or activate abilities the turn they are played)
- Activate a Mantra
- Equip a unit on the field with an Artifact
- Move 1 unit between the front and middle rows
- Activate any unit’s effect (but they cannot attack)
- Attack with a unit
- All actions can be taken in any order
Units
Units are categorised as either ‘Frontline’ or ‘Supplyline’.
Units will only get their effects if they are in their specified row, however units can be played in either row.
A unit in the front must attack opposing front units, before attacking the Character. If only backline units are in play, the Character can be attacked. If two units in the Frontline fight, both take damage equal to the opposing unit’s attack. Health is not regained between turns, and if a unit’s health reaches 0, they die.
Units in the backline can attack if they have a ‘ranged’ ability, or unless otherwise specified. They do not take damage in this process.
Characters
Characters are placed at the centre of the field at the start of the game. To activate any of their effects, it costs the Charge cost at the top left on the card, unless stated otherwise.
Characters may also have passive effects. A common passive effect is ‘the Unit in front of this row gains 1 attack and 1 health’.
Fields
The bottom 3 zones are specific for Fields. Each Field has effects based on the number of cards below them (a card that leaves your hand or field is first placed in one of these zones, they are only exiled when specified).
There is a limit of 3 Fields in a deck, and if all 3 are in play, a certain bonus will be given (undetermined yet).
| KEY WORD / MECHANIC | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hoard | When a unit of the same type as the hoard (e.g., playing a Zombie while a ‘Zombie Hoard’ is in play), the new unit can be added to the hoard by being placed beneath the hoard card. This will provide the hoard unit with a bonus. When removed from the field, all other units placed within the hoard are removed from play, not placed in a field space. |
| Armor | When this unit takes damage, all damage is first taken on the Armor value of the unit. If the damage surpasses the value of the Armor, the unit will only take damage equal to the Armor value. When the damage threshold is met, the Armor will ‘break’, and the unit will take damage equivalent to its Armor value. |
| Rally | Increase the attack of another unit by 1 until the end of the turn. |
| Bolster | Increase the health of another unit by 1 until the end of the turn. |
| Piercing | When a unit with piercing attacks and deals damage to a unit in the front row, any residual damage (i.e., if the attackers damage is higher than the opponents health) is taken by the unit behind (but does not affect a character). |
| Scry | Look at the top card of your deck; either keep it on the top of your deck or exile it. |
| Target | When in the Front, a unit with Target is prioritised for all enemy attacks. |
| Mercenary | When this unit destroys another unit, gain Charge equal to the other units Charge cost/ 2 (rounded down). |
| Ammunition | When attacking from the back, the unit can only make a total number of attacks equal to its Ammunition value. Ammunition can be increased by other effects. |
| Toxic | After damage is calculated, destroy the opposing unit that took damage from a Toxic unit (even if the unit with Toxic was also destroyed). |
| Equip | When placed, equip one Basic Artifact from your hand or a field space to this unit. |