⚔️ Duel Rules Summary

Christianity Strategy Card Game — Righteous vs Evil decks

⚠ Beta: the duel rules are still in beta and actively being play-tested — expect them to change.

⚔️ Duel Mode — Righteous vs Evil decks (experimental)

A head-to-head variant: any number of players split into two sides — at least one Righteous deck and one Evil deck (the Evil deck: Temptations and Evil Habituals). Righteous seats share the Righteous win; Evil seats share the Evil win.

Co-op and duel, side by side

Turns

Evil goes first, and the sides do not alternate: every Evil seat takes its turn, then every Righteous seat (E E → R R → E E…). Evil opening is the point — the Righteous side answers a board that already has something on it.

Every seat, either side, takes the same full turn: Draw → Cost Zone → Main → End of Turn. There is no separate Evil or Resistance phase in a duel — threats are answered the moment they land.

Attacking & Defending

• Evil plays at instant speed. A Temptation or an Evil Habitual may be played at almost any time — including in the middle of a Righteous player's turn — aimed at whichever Righteous player Evil picks.
• One limit, and everyone shares it: no plays while a player is laying their Cost Zone. Before or after, never during.
• You answer immediately. The moment a threat is aimed at you, you get a window to resist: rotate Cost Zone cards or play a Resistance card, even on somebody else's turn.
• And only then. There is no separate Resistance phase in duel mode, so a Resistance card may be played only in response to a Temptation or an Evil Habitual — never on its own, and never held out in front of you before one arrives.
• Evil may keep coming for as long as it can pay the Cost of each threat. You answer each one on its own.
• What gets through, sticks. An unresisted threat costs you −1 Humility (Power), and an Evil Habitual takes hold — blocking your L3 win until it is resisted.

The whole interrupt behaviour is toggleable: Evil Interrupt in the game menu (or ?evilInterrupt=0). Turn it off for the classic rule where Evil only acts on its own turn.

🔥 Evil Combo — back-to-back plays get cheaper

• First play full price, the next C1 less, then C2 less, and so on.
• A play that lands free (C0) restarts the chain.
• The chain also resets when the Righteous side responds — resists, or takes the hit — and at the next turn.
• With more than one Evil seat you cannot combo against yourself: a partner has to play the next card. One Evil deck alone may chain solo.

🔥 Habitual Dominance — a standing discount

• C1 less on all your cards per 3 of your own Evil Habituals in play — ones that took hold and were not resisted. 3 → C1, 6 → C2, and so on.
• Only that seat's own Habituals count, never a partner's.
• It falls again as Habituals leave play.
• Righteous resistance is untouched. Each temptation is still resisted at its written cost.

🔥 Evil Micro-Rewards

An Evil seat earns a micro-reward in either of these ways:

• Habitual pair — you have 2 of your own Evil Habituals unresisted and both in play at the same time. That pair is then spent (flagged) and never counts again; the next pair you hold in play (any turn) earns the next reward. A Habitual resisted/removed before it pairs never counts.
• 4 plays in a turn — you play 4 cards on a single turn (resisted or not). Every 4th play that turn earns a reward.
• 3 failed temptations in a turn — when 3 non-Habitual Temptations get through unresisted in one turn (counting all Evil seats together), the seat that played the 3rd (last) one earns a reward. Every 3 that turn triggers again.
• Combo finale — chain your plays (see 🔥 Evil Combo) all the way down to a free (C0) card, aimed at one Righteous player (a chain must stay on a single target). If the righteous player does not resist that free finale, every Evil seat that played into the chain earns a reward. (So the righteous player will usually want to resist the free finale to deny it — but that's their call.)

For each reward, that seat chooses one of:

• Draw 2 cards.
• Untap 2 Cost Zone cards (frees Cost to spend).
• Flip 2 random Cost Zone cards face-up (so the Righteous side sees them coming) — each becomes a playable card (and is still tappable for mana) with a play-replace-spent flag: when you play one you immediately draw a card from your deck into your Cost Zone tapped (a spent replacement). You can tap face-up Cost cards for mana and use it to play them.
• Destroy a Righteous Habitual (special — only available on every 5th micro-reward this turn, counting all Evil seats) — remove one Righteous Habitual in play (or in hand) from the game (the Evil side agrees which).

On a 5th (special) reward, you may also direct any of the rewards (Draw / Untap / Flip) to another allied Evil player instead of yourself.

Same-turn bonus. If you rack up rewards fast, you get an extra one:

• Solo Evil — earn 2 rewards in one turn → 1 extra reward (per 2 earned).
• Multiple Evil seats — if 2+ Evil seats each earn a reward on the same turn, every earner gets 1 extra reward (you may pick the same one again).

✨ Righteous Micro-Boosts

The Righteous side earns micro-boosts two ways (both count all Righteous players together):

• Cards per phase — every (3 + number of Righteous players) cards the Righteous side plays in one phase earns a boost. (So 4 cards with 1 Righteous player, 5 with 2, 6 with 3…) Only played cards count — using a Maturity Ability does not. The tally resets at the start of each phase.
• Clean resistance streak — if a Righteous player resists 3 Temptations / Evil Habituals in one turn (by any means — Resistance card, tapping Cost, or breaking a Habitual with an ability) without any Temptation being failed that turn, they earn a boost. If a Temptation is failed that turn, the streak is voided for the rest of the turn.

For each micro-boost, the Righteous side chooses one — and may give it to any Righteous player (more options added later):

• Draw 2 cards.
• +1 Humility (Power) (progress toward the next Maturity Level).

Cost Zone & Draw per side

• Righteous — opening Cost Zone (one-time, at game start): 3 + (extra opponents) cards. Draw each turn: own Maturity + 2 + (extra opponents). Cost intake capped at 4/turn.
• Evil — opening Cost Zone (one-time, at game start): 3 + (extra opponents) cards (same as Righteous). Draw each turn: when outnumbered, Evil draws the sum of every Righteous player's draw — Σ (their Maturity + 2). Example: one Righteous at L1 and one at L0 → 3 + 2 = 5. When not outnumbered it's the top Righteous Maturity + 2. Cost intake capped at 4 + 2 × (extra opponents) per turn (so 4 when not outnumbered, 6 when outnumbered by one, …). Evil's Maturity-tracking draw + outnumbered bonuses are its counterweight to never leveling up.

"Extra opponents" = how badly a side is outnumbered — the other side's seat count minus your own, never below 0. The outnumbered handicap is now the same for both sides (+1 opening Cost + 1 draw per extra opponent). Only the smaller side gets it; an even match (1v1) gives neither side one.

Humility (Power) & Maturity

Start at 3/10 Humility (Power). Humility (Power) changes only via card effects and by failing temptations: −1 Humility (Power) if you have any; if your Humility (Power) is already 0, the overflow forces you to discard a card per point — from hand OR Cost Zone (your choice). Level up Maturity by playing Maturity-type cards — but Maturity may only grow 1 level per turn in a duel (no racing to L3 in one turn). Need to clear stuck Evil Habituals for the win? Unlock the ✝ Deliverance Maturity Ability (see below) — then use it once per level-up to break up to 3.

Right-click the Humility (Power) or Maturity badge to adjust either stat manually (house rules / testing).

Duel Win Conditions (no round clock)

🏆 Righteous win: every Righteous player reaches Maturity L3 and there are no Evil Habituals in play — and that clean state must hold for one full round (mirroring the Evil win). Reaching L3 with a clear board arms the win; if any Evil Habitual comes back into play during that round (even one that's then removed), the countdown resets and you need a fresh full clean round. Take as long as you need — there is no time limit.

💀 Evil win: get 7 Evil Habituals in play per Evil player (1v1 = 7, 2 evil = 14 …) and keep them there for a full round. Habituals count whether they've taken hold on a player or are sitting on the field. The moment the limit is hit, the Righteous side gets one full round — their next turn — to resist one back below the limit and avert the loss. See it on the board, answer it on your turn; only if it survives does Evil win.

⚖️ Stalemate? Neither side is forced to end the game, but the app tracks a running score to break a drawn‑out game — Righteous: Maturity ×5 + Resisted pile; Evil: Failed pile + Habituals in play ×5.

Start a duel: the ⚔️ New Duel item in the game menu, or the duel scenarios menu.

✦ Maturity Abilities — "Mature Together"

The Righteous side can unlock shared abilities in duel too. Each time you reach the next Maturity Level (L1, L2, L3) you choose one ability — free. In duel there is no buying with Cost — abilities are earned only by leveling up. Double Resistance is available only at Maturity Level 2 or higher.

• Benevolence / Double Resistance — spend/rotate your own Cost Zone to resist a temptation.
• Brotherly Love — redirect your next card's beneficial effect (self in 1v1).
• Restoration — once each time you reach a new Maturity Level, every Righteous Player shuffles up to 15 random cards from their discard pile back into their own Deck. Recharges at every new level.
• ✝ Deliverance — once each time you reach a new Maturity Level, break up to 3 Evil Habituals in play (removed to the Resisted pile). Clears the board toward the "L3 + no Habituals" win. Recharges at every new level.
• Vibrancy — flip 2 Cost Zone cards face-up after your Cost phase.
• Cost Zone Power — gained 3+ Power this turn? Draw a card straight to your Cost Zone at end of turn.
• Speed — play 1 Habitual/Maturity card at any time on your turn.

Toggle the whole system on/off in the game menu (Maturity Abilities) or with ?matAbilities=0.

Game modesCo-op: the deck plays Evil · Duel: a person does

Co-op (the original game)

Any number of players on the Righteous team, together against the Evil deck. Nobody plays Evil: the deck runs itself to a fixed set of rules, and the table wins or loses as one.

Solo — one player

The co-op rules, played alone: your Righteous deck against the Evil deck.

Solo plays fine with the many cards that do not involve another player on your team. For a card that does need one — a boost somebody else would pay, an effect aimed at a teammate — pay a Target-Change fee of C1 and read the card as pointing at you. Pay it the ordinary way, by rotating #rot# a card in your Cost Zone.

Raise the fee to C2 or C3 for a harder game.

Duel (experimental)

People on both sides. One or more players run Righteous decks; one or more run Evil decks, choosing which Temptations and Habituals to play and who to play them at. That is the whole difference: in co-op the Evil deck follows fixed rules and cannot think, and in a duel it can. The Righteous side still wins by Maturity; the Evil side wins by grinding Humility (Power) to nothing. Everything in the duel half of this book is the machinery that keeps a played Evil side fair — micro-rewards, micro-boosts, and a Cost Zone sized to how outnumbered each side is.

Playing a Card — the order of things

Every play follows the same five steps, whoever made it and whatever the card is. Boosts are not an exception to this; they are step five.

1. Pay for the card and play it.
2. It may be resisted. The resistance cost on the card — R5, RX — is what answering it takes. Resisted, it never reaches the stack and nothing on it happens.
3. Unresisted, it goes on the stack, ready to resolve.
4. If nothing else is played onto the stack — an instant, a fast card — the card resolves fully: its rules text first, and then its boosts.
5. Boosts, in any order. Whoever is allowed to pay may take any boost on the card, in whatever order they like — the printed order is how they are listed, not a sequence you are held to. Nothing is taken that is not paid for.

A boost goes on the stack like a card

Pay for a boost and its action goes on the stack, exactly as if it had been played as a card of its own. The same window opens: anyone may respond, and a response goes on top.

But a boost action cannot be countered — as the game stands today. A response can do its own work around a boost, and it can change what the boost lands on, but nothing takes a paid boost off the stack.

The boosts belong to the player who played the card, whoever is allowed to pay for them: the glyph says who may pay, never who decides.

The exception is marked on the card

A boost that changes what the card itself is about to do cannot wait until afterwards — by then there is nothing left to change. Those carry the fast mark, a bolt before the boost glyph, and they are taken before the card's own action. Everything else about them, the stack included, is unchanged.

If a card shows no bolt, its boosts are offered after the action. The bolt is the only thing that moves a boost earlier, so a card cannot be ambiguous about its own timing.

The Marks on a Card

Every symbol a card can carry, and what it means. These are the real marks, drawn by the same code that prints the cards — so this list cannot fall out of date with the deck.

Humility (Power) Loss at 0 (Overflow Rule)

If a card causes you to lose Humility (Power) H-1 while already at 0 H0, you must discard 1 card per Humility (Power) lost from your hand or Cost Zone.

Card Rules Glossary

For every keyword, cost pattern, and trigger that appears on cards in the deck — boosts, rotate, search, attach, reveal, conditional effects, and so on — see the full 📖 Rules Glossary (opens in a new tab).

More reference

📖 Every keyword, cost pattern, and trigger on the cards: see the Rules Glossary.

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