Card Commander Rules

Card Commander is a is a high-stakes card game where each player uses commanders and unit cards to battle with their opponent. The goal is to capture enough of your opponent's commanders in order to declare yourself the winner of the war!

This page explains the basic gameplay of the game. This is the default mode of play, but you are free to experiment with your own rules or gameplay format.

Deck Setup:

Separate into two decks:

• 15 Commanders (CMD) cards

• 45 Attack Units (UNIT) cards

Draw 3 commander cards and place face down in any order.

Battlefield Setup:

[         ] - [UNIT 1] - [UNIT 2] - [UNIT 3] - [CMDs CAPTURED]

[UNIT DECK] - [UNIT 1] - [UNIT 2] - [UNIT 3] - [   CMD DECK  ]  

[ DISCARD ] - [CMD  1] - [CMD  2] - [CMD  3] - [ CMD DISCARD ]

Conditions for Wining:

The player that captures one CMD of each type first. Colorless counts for any element.

Tie-breaker - Capture a CMD of each element.

Deployment Phase:

Draw until you have 7 UNIT cards.

Place down one UNIT card face down above each CMD.

After the first 3 UNITs are placed for both players, reveal those cards.

Place another UNIT card face down with the previous UNIT.

After final 3 UNITs are placed by both players, reveal those cards then proceed to attack phase.

Attack Phase:

Each column totals attack values. The CMD/UNITs with the highest total win that battle, unless specified by an ability.

Abilities have two types:

• BONUS - This is a passive bonus that is applied automatically.

• ACTION - This card activates at the end of the turn, in order from last to greatest value.

If two or more abilities would activate at the same time, CMD with advantage goes first.

If two or more abilities contradict one another, they are negated and do not activate.

Additional Notes:

After calculating attacks, designate the losing CMDs by rotating the card 90 degrees.

UNIT synergy bonus gives +1 attack.

• Synergy = Complementary elements:

  • Earth + Fire

  • Air + Water

  • Colorless + any element

CMD synergy bonus gives +1 attack.

• Synergy = Same /or/ complementary element

For a tie, nothing happens.

Any losing CMD can be captured, but only one CMD is captured. Winner chooses which CMD to capture.

If a card targets another card and there is more than one of the same target, choose the closest card to the attacking UNIT.

Dice or counters can be used to track synergy and attack bonuses.

• For a 2-dice setup, Dice 1 (by UNIT) is synergy bonus, Dice 2 (by CMD) is attack bonus.

Gameplay continues until conditions for winning are met. If a deck runs out, reshuffle discard pile and place in the deck space (do not reshuffle any captured CMDs).