Beginning the Game

Each player begins the game with 10 health and their own shuffled deck which is placed face down. Then each player draws 7 cards from the top of the deck. Each player may redraw one new hand if they aren’t satisfied with their first hand. To draw a new hand, shuffle the current hand back into the deck and draw a new 7 card hand.

To determine which player starts the game, a simple contest may be used, such as Rock, Paper, Scissors or rolling a die. Whoever wins the contest decides who takes the first turn. 

The player who goes first must skip the Draw Action on their first turn and on each player’s first turn, that player only has 1 action that they may or may not use to place a card. 

Taking Turns

At the beginning of a player’s turn, that player has a mandatory action called the Draw Action. During the draw action, that player must draw one card. After taking the Draw Action, that player has two actions that they may or may not use that turn.

With an action, a player may either place 1 card onto their hero, or attack another player with their Hero. Player’s may only attack once on each of their turns. Cards that say they may be placed for free however may be placed without the use of an action.

Cards that have been placed onto a hero are now Equipped to that Hero. Each card has a designated slot that it must be placed into, which is indicated by the map of the grid at the bottom right hand corner of each card. 

At the end of a player’s turn, if they have no more than 10 cards in their hand, they must pass their turn. If a player has more than 10 cards in their hand, then that player must discard cards from their hand until they have 10 cards, and then they must pass their turn. 

Replacing Cards

Only one card may be in each slot at a time, unless a card says otherwise. Players may not remove or destroy cards equipped to their Hero at will, however, players may destroy cards equipped to their Hero if they are placing a new card into that slot. If a player chooses to place a card onto their Hero, and there are cards in that slot already, any cards in that slot will be destroyed first and then the new card will be placed into the empty slot.

Abilities

Abilities on cards may not be used while the cards are in your hand and may only be used after it has been placed onto and is equipped to a Hero, unless the card says otherwise. 

All abilities function in one of three different ways. Some abilities are always active while they are in play, some abilities are triggered when certain requirements are met, and some abilities may be activated by their controller. Abilities that are activated by their controller such as abilities on Spells and Artifacts do not take an action to use unless stated otherwise. 

If multiple abilities would take place at the same time, then all of the abilities happen at once. 

Example: If a player has ‘Baller Gown’ and ‘Heal Pool’ equipped to their Hero, which each give that player 1 health at the beginning of their turn, then at the beginning of each of that player’s turns, both abilities trigger at the same time and that player gains 2 health.

Abilities may trigger on an opponent’s turn, but any abilities that a player must activate may only be activated on that players turn after that player takes their Draw Action, before the end of their turn, and not during the battle phase on their turn. However, some abilities may ignore the timing rules and activate at times outside of the listed restrictions.

For Example: ‘Right of Way’ ignores the usual activation rules and allows a player to activate its ability on an opponent’s turn if and when they are being attacked. 

The Trash 

The Trash is where all discarded or destroyed cards go. Cards in the Trash may only be used if a card allows you to bring that card back from the Trash first. 

Players may not destroy cards on their Hero unless they are replacing them with another card or if they have a card that allows them to destroy that card. Players may not discard cards from their hand unless an ability allows them too or if they must discard down to their hand limit at the end of their turn.

Battle

Each turn, players may use one of the actions to attack an opponent of their choice with their hero. Players may only attack once on each of their turns. When a player attacks one of their opponents, the battle phase begins. (If an ability is triggered while you or another player makes an attack, then that ability triggers as battle begins.) During battle, players may not activate abilities unless the card says otherwise.

After the battle phase begins, the defending player may choose whether or not to block the incoming attack. Then, Attack Damage is calculated. Attack Damage is damage that is assigned from a Hero’s attack stat during battle to a player’s health.

If the attacking player’s Hero has more attack than the defending player’s Hero’s defense, then the defending player loses health equal to the difference. However, if the defending player chooses not to block the attack, subtract the defending player’s health by the attack of the attacking player’s Hero. After Attack Damage is calculated, Battle ends.

Ending the Game

You win the game when all of your opponents have been eliminated. Players are eliminated when their health is reduced to 0 or less, or when there are no cards to draw from their deck during their draw action. 

Life Loss and Damage

To defeat an opponent, players must reduce that opponent’s health to 0 or less by dealing damage to that player or making them lose health, however, losing health and taking damage are not the same thing. 

Health Loss is caused by Attack damage or by certain card abilities. Attack damage is dealt by the combined Attack stat of a player’s hero. It can be blocked by the Defense stat of the defending player’s hero. Non-attack Damage is dealt by certain card abilities. This kind of damage cannot be blocked by Defense..

Example: The card “Knightmare” says “Whenever you are dealt any amount of damage, your opponents lose 1 health.” If Player A has Knightmare equipped to their hero and they take damage, Knightmare’s ability will trigger and Player B will lose 1 health. If Player B also has “Knightmare” equipped to their hero, the ability on their Knightmare card will not trigger and Player A wouldn’t lose 1 health because Player B didn’t take damage, they lost life.

Deck Building

Every Heroes of Levendale deck must have a minimum of 54 cards for the deck to be playable; however, there is no maximum limit to the number of cards a deck may have. Each deck can have no more than 3 copies of any card with the same name.

Additional Rules

Discard vs. Destroy

Cards that are discarded must come from a player’s hand, and only cards that are currently in play on a player’s hero can be destroyed.

Hero Cards

Hero Cards are cards that have the name of an existing character in the card’s name, and can activate the abilities of cards that require them.

Example: ‘Signet of The Black Heart’ requires Knightmare cards. All cards with “Knightmare” in their name are Knightmare cards and can activate the ability of Signet of the Black Heart.

Card Types

All cards have a card type such as Spell or Bow which is shown on the right side of the rarity gem at the bottom of each card. 

Some cards also have Subtypes, such as Battle Spells, and Large Weapons. All Battle Spells also count as Spells and will trigger abilities that require Spells, but not all Spells are Battle Spells, and the same goes for Large Weapons and Weapons.