Game Rules

• Azuki TCG has no ties/draws.
• When a player’s leader health reaches 0, that player loses the game.
• If a player is to draw a card from their deck but cannot, that player loses the game.
• If a player initiates an action that simultaneously bring both players’ leader health to 0, the player that is forcing the double KO would lose the game.
  • Example A: If player A and B are both at 1 health, and player A uses Fireball on Player B to bring both players to 0 health, player A loses.
  • Example B: If player A and B are both at 1 health, and player A equips their Raizan leader with a weapon to attack player B to 0 health, and player B uses a response weapon that would also take player A to 0 health, then player B loses.

The field consists of the following zones:

The Garden (Front Row)

• Leaders are always placed face-up in the Garden at the beginning of the game and cannot be removed.
• You can only use entities and Leaders in your Garden to attack entities and Leaders in your opponent’s Garden.
  • Leaders can always be targeted, whether tapped or untapped.
  • Entities in the Garden can only be targeted by attacks when tapped.
  • Entities in the Garden can always be targeted by spells and abilities, whether tapped or untapped.
• The Garden has a maximum field size of 5 entities (not including the Leader).
  • If the Garden is full and a new entity enters, an existing entity must be replaced and placed in your discard pile.
    • Replacing does not count as being destroyed, removed, or sacrificed.
      • You may replace a card with the “Godmode” ability.

The Alley (Back Row)

• Entities in the Alley cannot be targeted by attacks or abilities, except by card effects that specifically state so.
• The Alley has a maximum field size of 5 entities.
  • If the Alley is full and a new entity is played there, an existing entity must be replaced and placed in your discard pile.
    • Replacing does not count as being destroyed, removed, or sacrificed.
• If entities in the Garden and Alley swap places while both rows are full, no entities need to be replaced, as the swap resolves simultaneously.
• If a player forces their opponent to replace an entity on the field, the opponent can choose which entity to replace.

Gate

• Tapping the Gate portals entities from the Alley into the Garden, activating the Gate ability, which scales based on the Gate Power of the portaled entity.

Other Zones

• IKZ Pile
  • This zone is for IKZ that you cannot yet use.
• IKZ Area
  • This zone is for IKZ that you can use to tap to play cards.
• Main Deck
• Discard Pile

Leader

• Each player has one Leader, which is a permanent card in the Garden.
• Your Leader starts with the amount of Health indicated on the card.
  • We recommend using a 20-sided die to keep track of Health.
• Your Leader has an elemental type, which determines what cards can be played in your deck (e.g., using a Fire-type Leader means you may only play Fire or Neutral cards).
  • Neutral cards can be played in any deck.
• Leaders do not have Cooldown and can attack any turn it gains Attack value.
• Leaders cannot attack when they have no Attack value.

Gate

• The Gate is a permanent on the board.
• Gates have no Health and cannot be attacked or destroyed.
• Your Gate must match the type of your Leader (e.g., a Fire Leader must use a Fire Gate).

IKZ

• IKZ is a colorless resource that can be used to pay costs for any card type.
• The IKZ token is a single-use resource. The token does not have to be used right away and does not expire, but once used, it is gone for the rest of the game. The player going second in a game gains an IKZ token at the start of their first turn.

Main Deck

Your deck consists of three main types of cards:

• Entities
  • Entities can be played in either the Garden or the Alley during the Main Phase.
• Spells
  • [Main] spells can only be played during the Main Phase.
  • [Response] spells can only be played when an opponent declares an attack.
    • Multiple [Response] spells can be played during one attack.
    • The active player cannot play [Response] cards.
• Weapons
  • Weapons can be attached to Leaders or entities in the Garden.
    • Weapons cannot be attached to cards in the Alley.
  • Weapons go to the discard pile at the end of each turn.
  • Multiple weapons can be attached to the same card.
  • When an entity with attached weapons leaves the field (e.g., destroyed or returned to hand), the weapons that were attached to the entity are sent to the discard pile.
  • [On Play] abilities for weapons are activated when they enter the field. Re-equipping weapons from one entity to another does not re-activate the [On Play] effect

• Game Start
  • Draw 7 cards from the top of your deck.
  • Mulligan Rule: Once per game, you may place your entire hand on the bottom of your deck, draw 7 new cards, then shuffle your deck.

Start of Turn Phase

• The player going first skips their first start of turn phase.
• In the Start of Turn Phase, take the following actions in order:
  • Reset: Untap all tapped cards.
  • Effects: The active player activates any “Start of Your Turn” and “Start of Each Turn” card effects in the order of their choosing, resolving them one at a time. Then the opponent activates any of their card effects in the order of their choosing, resolving them one at a time (see Card Resolution Order section for details on resolving card effects).
  • Draw: Draw 1 card per turn.

Resource Phase

• Gain 1 IKZ (take an IKZ card from the IKZ pile and place it face-up in your IKZ area, up to a maximum of 10).

Main Phase

• Playing cards, attacking, and using abilities all occur during the Main Phase.
• Certain cards have [Response] in their text:
  • [Response] cards can be played when the opponent declares an attack.
  • [Response] abilities from entities on the field can also be activated during this time.
  • The attacking player does not have a window to play [Response] cards or abilities.
  • If an ability does not specify [Response], treat it as a [Main] phase ability.
• Within the Main Phase, you may take actions in any order (e.g., attack, then play a card, then attack again).

End of Turn Phase

• End of Turn Effects:
  • If you have multiple effects, you choose the order in which they resolve.
  • If both players have end of turn effects, the active player chooses the order.
• At the end of each turn, all entity stats are reset to their original values unless they are affected by another active effect.

• You can play entities in either the Garden or the Alley by paying their IKZ cost.
• Entity and Weapon cards are considered on the field when they are played
  • Example A: If Fumiko is played in the Garden, it can target itself for “Return an entity in your Garden to your hand”.
  • Example B: If Zero (AZK01-064) is in the Alley, and you portal Zero in the Garden, the “Deal 2 damage to all entities” also deals 2 damage to itself.
• Using your Gate, you can portal entities from the Alley into the Garden.
• Entities have Cooldown on the turn they enter the Garden and cannot be tapped to use abilities or attack that turn.
  • Cooldown applies to entities on the turn they enter the Garden whether they are played directly into the Garden or portaled from the Alley, even if they were played in the Alley multiple turns ago.
  • The “Defender” ability is not affected by Cooldown.
• You can portal an entity from the Alley into the Garden the same turn it was played, but you are not required to.
• You can use your Gate once per turn as it must be tapped to activate its effect.
  • If you have multiple entities in the Alley, you may portal only one per turn.

Combat Phase Order:

1. Declare attacker and target.
2. Resolve any [When Attacking] effects from the attacking card.
3. Enter [Response] phase, where response abilities can be activated or response spells can be played
   1. If an attacking entity is removed from the field during the response phase, such as by “Commune with Water,” then the attack fizzles, and no combat occurs.
4. Declare defender.
5. Defending player activates any [When Attacked] effects of the leader or entity being attacked.
6. Resolve combat damage.
7. Resolve any [After Attacking] effects from the attacking card.

• Damage is dealt simultaneously.
  • When attacking or being attacked, entities and Leaders deal damage to each other at the same time.
    • If a Leader has no Attack, the attacking entity takes no damage.
    • If a Leader equipped with a weapon attacks into an entity, the Leader takes permanent damage. On the other hand, if the damage does not destroy the entity, the entity’s Health resets at the end of the turn.
• Entity Health resets at the end of each turn.
  • For example, if an entity with 3 total Health takes 2 damage during the turn, it returns to full (3 Health) at the end of that turn.
  • This reset does not count as healing.
• Leader damage is permanent.
  • When a Leader’s Health reaches 0, that player loses the game.

• Each player shuffles their main deck.
  • Let their opponent cut the deck when playing competitive formats.
• Use any fair and random method, like rolling a die or flipping a coin, to decide which player goes first.
• Players start the game by drawing 7 cards and 0 IKZ.
• First Round:
  • The player going first skips the first start of turn phase (does not take any of these actions: untap cards, activate start of turn effects, or draw).
    • The player going first starts with the resource phase: gaining 1 IKZ.
  • The player going second gains 1 IKZ and an expendable IKZ token.
    • The player going second does not have access to the IKZ token until their first turn.
  • You may attack on your first turn if you play an entity with Charge or if your Leader has gained Attack, such as through card effects or having a Weapon equipped.
• Afterward:
  • Each turn, the active player gains 1 IKZ and draws 1 card.

Players do not have a maximum hand size.

• Cards fully resolve before the next card’s effects take place.
• Example:
  • If player A plays Black Jade Decoy and targets player B’s Cinderwake Ritualist, the Black Jade Decoy resolves all its effects, including playing an entity, and then the Cinderwake Ritualist resolves all its effects, which is then able to deal damage to the entity that was played off of the Black Jade Decoy.
• If multiple card effects are to resolve simultaneously, the active player resolves all their card effects first in the order of their choosing, and then the opponent resolves all their card effects in the order of their choosing.
  • Example A:
    • Player A and Player B each have a Pekiro in their Garden.
    • Player A uses Collateral Burst to deal 1 damage to their own Pekiro and then 2 damage to Player B’s Pekiro.
    • Player A as the active player would resolve their Pekiro effect first and redirect the damage to Player B’s Pekiro.
    • Then Player B would resolve his Pekiro effect by redirecting the damage from “Collateral Burst” first, which can be redirected back to Player A’s Pekiro, destroying it.
    • Then Player B’s Pekiro would take the redirect damage from Player A’s Pekiro and be destroyed
  • Example B:
    • Player B has a Pekiro and Cinderwake Ritualist in their Garden.
    • Player A equips an Ikazuchi to their Raizan leader and attacks Player B’s leader, dealing 1 damage to all entities in Player B’s Garden.
    • Player B can choose which effect happens first between Pekiro and Cinderwake Ritualist. But regardless of ordering, one of the 2 entities would be destroyed.

Leaders

• Health – When your Leader reaches 0 Health, you lose the game.
  • There is no overheal. If a Leader has a max health of 20, any additional heal effects would not push the health past 20.
• Leaders do not have an innate Attack value. A leader may attack if it gains Attack value from card effects or from equipping weapons.

Entities

• IKZ Cost (top left) - you must tap the specified number of IKZ to play the card.
• Gate Power (beneath IKZ Cost) - your Gate card’s ability scales in power according to the Gate Power of the entities you portal through.
• Attack (top number in the bottom-right corner) - how much damage this card deals in combat.
  • Entities can attack even if they have 0 Attack
• Health (bottom number in the bottom-right corner) - when an entity’s health reaches 0, it is destroyed and goes to the discard pile.
  • There is no overheal. If an entity has a max health of 3, any additional heal effects would not push the health past 3.

• All entities have a Gate Power stat, and each Gate has an effect that activates based on the Gate Power of the entities that are portaled through.
• Gates are type-locked to the Leader, so your Gate has to be the same element type as your Leader.

• All text on cards are considered card effects.
• When a card on the field leaves the field, all of its stats and effects are reset.
• If a card cannot be affected by certain card effects, it can still be targeted by card effects, the effect just fizzles and does nothing.
  • Examples:
    • I can target a “Godmode” card with sacrifice or destroy, but the effect will not affect the card.
    • I can target a card that “cannot take damage from card effects” with damage effects, but the effect will not affect the card.
• Zone specific effects restrict a card’s ability activation to a certain zone — either the Garden or the Alley.
  • For example, an ability that states “In Garden Only Ability” means it can only be activated while the card is in the Garden.
• Once per Turn effects can only be activated once during a turn.
  • If a card leaves the field (e.g., to the hand or discard pile) and then re-enters the field, the effect can be activated again.
• Timing windows indicate when effects can be activated.
  • For example, [On Play] effects can only be activated when the card is played onto the field.
• Carapace can stack
  • For example, an entity with Carapace 1 will have Carapace 2 if you play “Oathstone” on it.

• Text before the colon “:” indicates the cost of activating a card effect.
  • Paying the cost is optional, but if you do not pay the cost, you cannot activate the resulting effect (the text after the colon).
  • If you attempt to pay the cost but the cost condition is not met, you cannot activate the resulting effect.
    • Example: If you tap Dropline Station to use its ability on Teb Fea, but Teb Fea cannot be sacrificed, then you cannot get the resulting damage effect from Dropline Station’s ability.
  • If you pay the activation cost, you must resolve the resulting effect.
• If a card effect says “you may,” you may choose to activate or not activate the effect.
• If a card says “up to,” you may choose 0.
  • For example, with Firebrand Renji, which says “Whenever this card takes damage from 3 different damage sources in one turn, deal up to 3 damage to a leader or an entity in any Garden.” you may choose to do 0, 1, 2, or 3 damage to a leader or entity.
• Card effects that do not say “may” or “up to” require the player to take the action.
  • For example, if a card has the card effect “[On Play] Discard 1.” then the player must discard 1 card from their hand when they play this card.

• Every deck must contain exactly 1 Leader gate, 1 Gate card, 50 main deck cards, 10 IKZ cards, and 1 IKZ token card.
• Decks may use up to 4 copies of any card with the same card ID.
  • You may use multiple different versions of the same card, but you cannot have more than 4 total copies of that card in your deck.
  • Different card IDs are considered different cards, even if they share the same name, so 2 cards with the same name but different card IDs and card text are considered different cards.
• The Leader determines the deck’s elemental type.
  • All cards in the deck, including the Gate, must match the Leader’s element.
  • If a Leader has multiple elements, the Gate must match one of the Leader’s elements.
• Neutral cards can be played with any Leader of any element.

Current Elements:

• Fire
• Water
• Earth
• Lightning
• Neutral