Learn to Play
Learn all about playing Ashes!
Abbreviations, the "meta", archetypes, and more...
- Starting Off
- How To Play
- Where To Play
- What To Buy - PvP
- What To Buy - PvE
- What To Play
- How To Organize Your Collection
- Preconstructed Matchups
- Magic/Dice Flavours
- Archetypes
- The Meta
- Etiquette
- Abbreviations
- Strategy Tips
- Variants
- Ashteki
- Player Resources
Starting Off
Get started on your Ashes journey with help on what to buy, where and what to play!
How To Play
Never played Ashes before but are interested in learning how it works?
YouTube: Ashes Reborn - How To Play
Ashes Reborn Primer for the differences from 1.0 to 1.5
Would you rather learn by trial and error against a computer?
Felt Table has 13 of the Preconstructed decks to try against a simple AI player.
Where To Play
Ashteki
The primary platform for online play. The majority of games and tournaments run by Ashes Discord members are played here.
Felt Table
Felt Table is a fan created website to play card games against AI opponents. Think of it as playing virtually over Skype or webcam except instead of another player, you will be playing against a computer in your web browser.
The Master Set and some expansions are supported, but not all. This site is intended for people looking to learn the mechanics of the game.
Team Covenant - Webcam
This league has been discontinued.
https://discord.com/channels/727928658190401636/741054569093660784
https://teamcovenant.com/product/discord-ashes-rise-phoenixborn-online-league-subscription
Interested in playing a casual Ashes Reborn match every week, getting a set of alt-art promos, including a promo phoenixborn, and using those beautiful, real cards? Join us for our Ashes Reborn Discord League – a recurring, quarterly (three month) league open to all players!
The league runs for 12 weeks, with one match happening every Wednesday night at 8PM Central Time. Games are played via webcam in the Covenant Discord, with pairings announced that night. At the conclusion of the league, every participant who was present for at least 8 of their 12 games will be mailed 4x Alt-Art Cards (usually a phoenixborn with a playset of alt-arts in the same style). Spoiler alert – these promos are unbelievable. Scroll through the images to see this league’s cards.
Format: Constructed, webcamRoll call: 7:45PM Central Time, Wednesday nightsRound start: 8PM Central Time , Wednesday nightsSign Up Period: Sign-ups close ~2 weeks before the start date
Cost: $30.00 USD / release
Tabletop Simulator
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2386753960
This mod features complete organized card collection, all preconstructed decks and all of Plaid Hat Games' Re-Constructed Decks, as well as tokens, dice reference cards and full Rulebook. It also features a deck builder tool as well as full integration with Ashes.live to spawn decks directly from the website!
What To Buy - PvP
Ashes 1.0 vs Ashes Reborn 1.5
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn was the original game developed by Isaac Vega in 2015. This game has been supplanted by Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn, developed by Nick Conley and released in 2021.
Differences
Ashes (2015) is common referred to in the community as "1.0". All products (master set and expansion) are sold in white boxes
Ashes Reborn (2021) is commonly referred to in the community as "1.5" or simply "Reborn". All products are sold in orange-red boxes. The ruleset was completely revamped, and a large portion of the original card base were replaced, therefore 1.0 and 1.5 are incompatible with each other. For details on what changed, see the Plaid Hat Games "Ashes Reborn Primer" document on https://www.plaidhatgames.com/board-games/ashes-rise-phoenixborn/
The upgrade kit will replace cards from the Master Set through all the original expansions to make them playable for 1.5. The only exception to this is the Jericho 1.0 deck which was completely retired and eventually replaced by The Breaker of Fate expansion.
In general, 1.0 is no longer played in any form.
If you own (or buy on the secondary market) the 1.0 collection (and any number of expansions), you should buy the 1.5 Upgrade Kit. This will update the cards in your collection to be 1.5 compatible, and is often cheaper than re-purchasing all 1.5 products from scratch.
If you do not own any original products, you can jump straight in with the Ashes Reborn Master Set.
Which expansions
Once you've purchased the Master Set the common advice is to pick whichever expansions appeal, either art style or card-wise. Most expansions require either Divine, Sympathy, or Time** dice and therefore it is strongly recommended that the Deluxe Expansions (which introduce those dice) are purchased earlier.
**The Time magic (introduced in Jericho, Breaker of Fate) doesn't begin to "shine" until the later expansions (Hope, Dimona, Tristan, Rowan) when status tokens have more uses and impact.