Summoner Wars: Master Set

To set up Summoner Wars, each player first selects a faction deck. From this deck, they place their unique Summoner card, one Wall card, and one Common Unit card onto designated starting spaces on their side of the battlefield. The remaining cards from their chosen faction deck are shuffled and placed face-down to form their draw pile. Players also establish an empty magic pile and an empty discard pile on their respective sides of the game board. The game board itself is composed of two halves, one for each player, which are placed together to form the full battlefield.

The primary objective in Summoner Wars is to strategically maneuver your units and utilize your cards to defeat your opponent's Summoner. The Summoner is a unique and arguably the most important unit in each player's deck, representing the player themselves on the battlefield. Once an opponent's Summoner is removed from the battlefield, the game immediately concludes.

A player's turn in Summoner Wars is structured into six distinct phases, which are conveniently listed on a reference card provided with each faction. These phases are: 1. Draw Phase, where players draw cards until they have five in hand. 2. Summon Phase, allowing players to summon new units to the battlefield by paying their summoning cost from the magic pile. 3. Play Event Cards Phase, where players can play Wall cards and Event cards from their hand, provided they meet any listed requirements. 4. Movement Phase, enabling players to move up to three of their controlled units up to two spaces each, without moving diagonally or through other cards. 5. Attack Phase, where players can attack with up to three different units, rolling dice equal to the unit's attack value, with rolls of 3 or higher being hits. 6. Build Magic Phase, where players can place any number of cards from their hand into their magic pile face-down.

Summoner Wars does not involve a traditional scoring system. Instead, the game is a direct conflict between two players, with the ultimate goal being the elimination of the opponent's key unit. Therefore, there are no points to accumulate or track throughout the game; victory is determined solely by the destruction of the opposing Summoner.

The game concludes instantly when a player successfully removes their opponent's Summoner from the battlefield. The player who achieves this feat is declared the winner. At this point, the defeated opponent might express a desire for a rematch, claiming the first game was a fluke, but the victory stands.