Glossary

Entries in purple apply to the Red Rains game mode only.

Ability

A named effect on a unit or Phoenixborn. A unit ability with a number after its name will stack if the unit receives an additional copy of that ability. See Stacking Abilities.

Activate

Use an activated effect on a card in play or on a die on its power side. To activate an effect, announce it, pay the associated costs, and then resolve it.

Activated Ability/Effect

A card effect or dice power that only resolves when you pay its activation cost, which will always include a main or side action. 

Active Dice Pool / Active Pool

The place where you keep dice that are available to spend.

Active Player

The player whose turn it is or, if it is not during the player turns phase, the player with the first player token.

Adjacent

Units to the immediate left or right of a unit are adjacent to that unit.

Affect

A card or dice power affects a spell if it does any of the following to that spell: places or removes tokens/dice, adds or removes effects, causes the spell to be attached to a different card, or moves it in or out of play. 

Aspect

A type of unit. Aspects are considered to be all other types of unit (allies, conjurations, and units). Aspects always counter if unexhausted, and they do not exhaust as a result of countering. When an aspect is destroyed or discarded from the battlefield, place a number of wound tokens on the Chimera equal to its blood value.

Attach

The process of placing an alteration spell underneath a target unit and applying its effects and value bonuses to that unit. Attaching an alteration spell to a unit targets that unit.

Attack

The rules for attacking are on p.10. Some additional clarifications: Attackers deal attack damage and blockers/guards/targets can deal counter damage. A unit with 0 attack value that attacks or counters does not deal damage, but still receives an exhaustion token. (Dealing 0 damage = not dealing damage.) Precise timing for attack resolution is found on p. 16. 

Attack Value

The damage a unit deals when attacking or countering. Attack value can be negative, but whenever it is used in resolving a game effect or battle, the minimum is 0.

Attacker

An unexhausted unit that has been declared to be attacking when taking an Attack main action. 

Attacking Player

The player that is taking an Attack main action. 

Battle

An attacker is in battle with the unit or Phoenixborn it is dealing attack damage to.

Battlefield

The part of your play area where units are placed. The number of units on your battlefield cannot exceed the battlefield value on your Phoenixborn. When playing an ally with placement = Battlefield from your hand, you can only play it to your  battlefield. All face up cards on your battlefield are in play under your control. 

When you place units on any battlefield, they must be placed to the right of all other units on that battlefield and the position of units cannot be changed relative to each other. As units leave the battlefield, slide the remaining units to the left to fill in gaps.

Blocker

Unexhausted units you control may be declared as blockers when your Phoenixborn is targeted with an Attack action. Up to one unit may be declared as a blocker per attacking unit. Blocking is not the same as guarding. Blockers must counter.

Blood Value

When an aspect is destroyed or discarded from the  battlefield, place a number of wound tokens on the Chimera equal to its blood value.

Cancel

When an effect is canceled, immediately stop resolving that effect and all remaining effects that are in the process of being resolved on the canceled effect’s card.

If a behavior card lists multiple actions, only the remaining effects in the current action are canceled.

Chimera

While playing the game the Chimera is considered to be a player, opponent, and its own Phoenixborn.

Choose

Some effects ask players to choose something, e.g. targets, options, or other game elements. Choosing a card or other game element does not, by itself, affect or target it, but may cause an effect to affect or target it.

If a player’s card effect asks the Chimera to make a choice, that player chooses for the Chimera.

Conjuration

A type of unit that starts the game in a conjuration pile and can be brought into play by a card effect.

Conjuration Limit

The number of copies of a conjuration or conjured alteration spell that you must put into your conjuration pile before the game begins. It is located in the lower left hand corner of those cards.

Conjuration Pile

A face down stack of all the conjurations and conjured alteration spells that your deck is capable of producing. The number of cards in any conjuration pile is public information.

Conjured Alteration Spell

A type of spell that starts the game in a conjuration pile and can be brought into play by a card effect. Conjured alteration spells are considered alteration spells while in play. 

Control

The following are under your control: your Phoenixborn and its abilities, any face up cards on your battlefield or spellboard and their abilities and effects, and any action or reaction spells, dice powers, attacks, or counters that you are resolving. Alteration and conjured alteration spells are under your control while you are attaching them and then are under the control of the player who controls the card they are attached to. 

Counter

Countering is when a defender deals counter damage equal to its attack value back to the attacking unit. Blockers and unit guards must counter.

Aspects always counter if unexhausted, and they do not exhaust as a result of countering.

Current / Currently

The words “current” and “currently” in an effect refer to the game state before the effect resolves.

Current Value

The attack, life, and recover values of a unit after modifiers have been applied. When an effect references the current values of a unit it refers to the values before the effect resolves.

Damage

Dealing damage is what starts the damage resolution process. Dealing damage is not the same as placing wounds, but usually leads to placing wound tokens. Dealing 0 damage does not start the damage resolution process and therefore is considered not dealing damage.

Damage Resolution Process

The process by which damage becomes wounds and then destruction. It is covered in detail on page 16. 

Defender

A unit or Phoenixborn that has been declared as a blocker or guard, or is the target of an attack.

There is also an ability named Defender. When capitalized, Defender refers to an aspect with the Defender ability.

Defending Player

The player whose Phoenixborn or unit has been declared the target of an Attack action.

Dice Power

An effect that can be activated by spending a side action and a die on its power symbol side. Each die type has a different dice power. 

Side actions on a behavior card are considered dice power effects.

Discard Pile

The place in your play area where you place discarded cards. Cards are placed face up, and the contents are public information.

Draw Pile

The face down pile of cards that you draw from during the game. The number of cards is public information.

Effect

An effect is any text that is resolved from a spell or ability. Attack and counter damage are not effects.

Exhaust

The process of placing exhaustion tokens on a card OR the process of moving dice from an active pool to an exhausted pool.

Exhausted

A card that has 1 or more exhaustion tokens on it OR a die that is in your exhausted pool. An exhausted card has no ability or effect text (except for inexhaustible ones) though it retains everything else including attack, life, and recover values (on units), and value bonuses (on alteration spells). Exhausted units cannot attack, block, guard or counter.

Exhausted Dice Pool / Exhausted Pool

The place where you keep dice that have already been exhausted/spent this turn.

Face Down

A card that is face down underneath a card in play is not considered to be attached to that card and is not considered to be in play. 

First Five

When setting up a game of Ashes, select 5 different cards from your deck to become your starting hand. You cannot include more than one copy of a card in your First Five. In a competitive setting, find a non-player to verify that the cards are unique.

First Player

The player who currently possesses the first player token. The First Player takes the first turn of each round.

Focus

When multiple copies of a spell are on your spellboard, it is focused. Some ready spells modify existing effects or grant additional effects when they are focused. Any additional effects must be resolved in order as usual. See Focusing a Ready Spell on p. 9.

Game Event

Anything that could occur in the game as a result of following the rules or resolving effects. Examples: a unit comes into play, an alteration spell is attached, a player declares attackers, wound tokens are placed on a Phoenixborn, etc. 

Guard

Your Phoenixborn or an unexhausted unit you control with the Unit Guard ability can be declared as a guard when a unit you control is targeted with an Attack action. A Phoenixborn may only guard once per round, indicated by rotating a Phoenixborn 90° after guarding. Guarding is not the same as blocking. A guarding unit must counter. 

A Chimera may guard multiple times per round. If a player’s attacking unit cannot be guarded against (such as from the Bypass or Stalk ability), the Chimera does not roll to guard. If a Defender unit cannot guard due to effects like Terrifying or Gigantic, select the leftmost Defender that can be declared as a guard.

Inexhaustible Effect

An effect on a card that remains even if that card is exhausted. A card may grant a unit an ability in an inexhaustible box. In this case, the granted ability is inexhaustible on that unit. However, if the effect that grants it (“This unit now has the following ability”) is not inexhaustible, the ability can be removed by exhausting the granting card.

Status abilities are a special type of inexhaustible effect.

Level

Dice have 3 levels: basic, class, and power. When an effect raises a die one level, basic dice turn to class sides, and class dice turn to power sides. When an effect lowers a die one level, power dice turn to class sides, and class dice turn to basic sides.

Rage dice have 2 levels, so raising a basic rage die one level turns it to its power side and lowering a rage power die one level turns it to its basic side.

Life Value

The number of wound tokens that a Phoenixborn or unit can have on it before it is destroyed. A card’s life value is constant unless modified by a game effect. It is not reduced when wound tokens are placed on it.

Magic Play Cost

The magic play cost of a card is the total number of die symbols that must be spent to play the card from your hand. Action, exhaust, and discard costs are not included and “X” equals “0” for the purpose of calculating magic play costs. The magic play cost of a card with a parallel cost is the maximum number of symbols that could be spent to play that card. 

Main Action

You must take one main action on each of your turns. The possible main actions are: Pay a cost, Attack, or Pass. See pp. 7-12. 

Move

When a game element (e.g. token) is moved from one location (e.g. card) to another, it is removed from the first location and placed on the second location in a single resolution. If a move effect is canceled, leave the game element in the first location. 

Opposing

Your battlefield and the Chimera’s battlefield that is directly facing yours are opposing one another. The units on your opposing battlefield consider you their opposing player.

Owner

A card’s owner is the player whose deck or conjuration pile that card started the game in.

Parallel Costs

Some cards have two or more connected costs in their play cost or their activation cost. These costs are called parallel costs. To pay a parallel cost, pay one of the options, plus any other costs. 

Passive Effect

A card effect that is active just by being in play. It may always be active or it  ay only be active while a certain game state exists. Example: “While this unit is attacking” is a passive effect whereas “When this unit is declared as an attacker” is a triggered effect.

Phoenixborn

Each player controls a Phoenixborn which is not a unit. When your Phoenixborn is destroyed, you lose the game.

In a 2-player co-op game, if either player’s Phoenixborn is destroyed, both players lose the game.

Placement

Direction on where a card goes when it is played. Note that when played from your hand, a card with placement of Battlefield, Spellboard or Discard must go to your own Battlefield, Spellboard or Discard, but a card with placement of Unit may be played to any unit in play.

Play / In Play

A card is in play if it is any player’s Phoenixborn or if it is face up on any player’s battlefield or spellboard.

Printed Value

These are the values printed on the card for attack, life, and recover values. Example: You have a Blue Jaguar (printed with Attack 1; Life 2) with Root Armor attached (Life +1) so it is currently Attack 1; Life 3. You play an effect that swaps the printed attack value and the printed life value. The Blue Jaguar is now Attack 2; Life 2. 

Rage Dice

Whenever all rage dice are on their power side, place 1 Red Rains  token on the Chimera, set all rage dice to their basic side, and if you were in the middle of raising multiple rage dice, continue doing so. Do not resolve the Chimera’s Ultimate card until you are done raising rage dice. The Chimera has no exhausted dice pool, so rage dice can never be exhausted.

Reaction Ability/Effect

Some cards have reaction abilities or effects on them, indicated by a blue box. These cards may be played from your hand as reactions when their conditions are met. Using a reaction ability or effect counts toward your limit of 1 reaction per turn. 

Recover Value

The number of wound tokens that are removed from a unit during the recover step of the recovery phase. If the recover value is larger than the number of wound tokens, remove them all. Recover value can be negative, but whenever it is used in resolving a game effect, the minimum is 0. 

Aspects do not have recover values, and cannot gain recover values.

Side Action

You may take one side action on each of your turns. You may take it before or after your main action. The possible side actions are: Pay a cost, Meditate, or Activate a dice power. See p. 12.

Spell

Any card that has the word “spell” as a part of its card type.

Spellboard

The part of your play area where ready spells are placed. The number of ready spell slots on your spellboard equals the spellboard value on your Phoenixborn, but multiple copies of the same ready spell only take up one slot. When playing a ready spell with placement = Spellboard from your hand, you can only play it to your spellboard. All face up cards on your spellboard are in play under your control. 

The Chimera’s Ultimate card is a ready spell and is considered to be on a spellboard.

Stacking Abilities

A unit ability with a numeral after its name will stack if the unit receives an additional copy of that ability. Add the numerals in the ability names together, and change the corresponding numeral(s) in the ability text to that sum. Focus effects and abilities without numerals after their name do not stack. Example: Blood Ritual 1 reads: “When this unit is destroyed as a result of a spell, ability, or dice power you control, you may remove 1 wound token from your Phoenixborn and then raise 1 die in your active pool one level.” If a unit with Blood Ritual 1 receives the ability Blood Ritual 2, it will now have “Blood Ritual 3: When this unit is destroyed as a result of a spell, ability, or dice power you control, you may remove 3 wound token[s] from your Phoenixborn and then raise 3 [dice] in your active pool one level.”

Status Ability

A type of inexhaustible ability that comes into play with status tokens that refresh every round.

Target

An effect targets a game element if it uses the word “target” in relation to that game element or if it is an alteration spell being attached to that game element. Choose the target of a targeted effect immediately before resolving that effect.

Triggered Ability/Effect

A card effect that can only be used when or after a game event occurs, such as “when this unit comes into play” or “after an opponent declares attackers.” Some triggered effects are mandatory, some are optional (“you may”), and some require an additional cost.

• When: Triggered effects that happen “When” a game event occurs are resolved immediately after the game event completes.
• After: Triggered effects that happen “After” a game event occurs are resolved after that game event, and after all related “When” effects.

If players wish to resolve multiple triggered effects off of the same game event, start with the Active Player. For more details, see Simultaneous Effects on p. 17.

Type

Each card has a type. Examples: Ally, Conjuration, Alteration Spell, Conjured Alteration Spell, Ready Spell, Action Spell, Reaction Spell. 

Unexhausted

A card that does not have any exhaustion tokens on it. 

Unit

An ally or conjuration. 

Value Bonus

An alteration spell’s modifier for the attack, life, or recover values of the unit it is attached to. 

Wound Tokens

Tokens placed on units and Phoenixborn as a result of receiving damage through the damage resolution process. When the number of wound tokens on a unit or Phoenixborn are equal to or greater than that card’s life value, destroy that card. If an effect “places wound tokens,” begin the damage resolution process at step 2. See Damage Resolution on p. 16.

X

Cards that use X as a value will also feature a definition of X for that card. X = 0 for the purposes of determining magic play cost. Example: Out of the Mist deals X damage to a target unit and X, for that card, is defined as the number of units you have in play.