Discover the KeyForge: Call of the Archons Glossary

Do you love exploring the fantastical world of KeyForge: Call of the Archons? If so, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the game’s glossary. In this guide, I’ll introduce you to important terms and concepts that are essential for understanding the game.

The Essential Terms

To fully immerse yourself in KeyForge: Call of the Archons, it’s important to understand the key terms used in the game. Here are some of the key terms you should know:

• Archon: In the game, an Archon refers to the unique deck you use. Each deck has a distinct combination of cards and serves as your identity in the game.
• Houses: Houses are the different factions you can align with in KeyForge. Each house has its own unique set of cards and playstyle.
• Forge: To forge a key is one of the primary goals in KeyForge. You need to gather enough Æmber, a crucial resource, to forge keys and gain points.
• Æmber: Æmber is a valuable resource in KeyForge. Collecting Æmber allows you to forge keys and take control of the game.
• Chains: Chains represent the number of limitations or restrictions you have in a game. Accumulating chains can hinder your strategy.
• Key Cost: Each key in KeyForge has a key cost, indicating how much Æmber you need to spend to forge it.

Unlock the Concepts

Now that you know the essential terms, let’s dive deeper into some important concepts:

• Creature: Creatures are the cards you play on the board. They have different powers and abilities and can attack your opponent or protect your Æmber.
• Action: Action cards allow you to perform various actions that can impact the game. They can be used to deal damage, heal creatures, or modify the board state.
• Artifact: Artifacts are special cards with unique abilities that can have a lasting impact on the game. They can provide additional resources, boost creatures, or trigger powerful effects.
• Upgrade: Upgrade cards are used to enhance creatures, improving their abilities and making them more formidable on the board.

Armed with these concepts and key terms, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the intriguing world of KeyForge: Call of the Archons. So, what are you waiting for? Dive in and discover the excitement that awaits!

Hey there! I’ve put together a Glossary of concepts and terms that you might come across while playing the game. It’s all in alphabetical order to make things easy to find. But don’t worry, you don’t have to read it all at once. Just look up a new concept when you come across it during the game.

Ability, Card Ability

An ability is the special text on a card that does something unique in the game. But here’s the thing: abilities can only interact with cards that are in play, unless they specifically mention other areas like the hand, deck, archives, or discard pile.

Action Ability

If you want to use an “Action:” ability during your turn, you’ll have to exhaust the card first. Once you do, the ability will happen.

Active House

The active house is the house that you, the active player, have chosen for the current turn.

Active Player

I am the player who is currently taking my turn. I have the responsibility of making all the important decisions regarding card abilities and resolving any timing conflicts that may arise during my turn.

Timber

Timber is measured using ?mber tokens and is a vital resource for forging keys.

Take a look at these related terms: Capture, Keys, Reap, Steal.

Archives

My archives are a secret stash right in front of me. It’s where I keep my cards face-down. I can only add cards to my archives using special card abilities. When it’s my turn and I choose a house to play with, I can pick up all the cards from my archives and add them to my hand.

Once a card goes into my archives, it’s out of the game. It’s like a secret hiding place, away from the action.

I can take a peek at my archives anytime I want. Unfortunately, I can’t snoop around and see what’s hiding in my opponent’s archives. That’s off-limits for me.

If a card ability tells me to put a card in my archives without saying where it should come from, it means I have to take it from my hand.

Armor

Some creatures have a special feature called armor. It’s like having extra protection. The armor value is shown next to the creature’s name. The armor helps to reduce the amount of damage that the creature takes each turn.

Let me explain with an example: if a creature has 2 armor and is attacked for 1 damage, the armor absorbs that 1 damage. So now, the creature has 1 armor left for the rest of the turn. But let’s say that later in the same turn, the creature gets hit again, this time for 3 damage. The armor absorbs 1 damage, leaving the creature with 2 armor points, and the remaining 2 damage are dealt to the creature.

If a creature gains armor, it adds on top of the original armor value. So, if a creature with 3 armor gains 2 more, it will have a total of 5 armor.

It’s important to note that if a creature gains armor during a turn, it won’t protect against damage that was already dealt. Similarly, if a creature loses armor during a turn, it won’t make the previous damage count.

Hey there! Have you ever noticed the “~” symbol in a creature’s armor field? Well, that means the creature has no armor at all. But here’s the interesting part – these creatures can still gain armor through card effects. How cool is that?

Let’s talk about Assault (X)

Now, when a creature has the assault (X) keyword, things get exciting! When that creature attacks, it gets to dish out damage equal to its assault value, represented by “X.” And get this – it deals that damage to the creature it’s fighting before the actual fight happens. Woah! The active player even gets to decide whether this damage comes before or after other “Before Fight” effects and keywords. If that damage ends up destroying the other creature, well, the rest of the fight simply doesn’t happen. That’s a knockout!

But wait, there’s more! If a creature with the assault (X) keyword somehow gains another instance of that same keyword, the two X values get added together. Talk about a double dose of assault!

Now, let’s tackle the Battleline

The battleline is basically the organized line of creatures that a player controls in the game. It’s like their lineup, ready to take on whatever comes their way. It’s where all the action happens in play.

And what about “Before”?

If a card ability uses the word “before,” like “Before Reap:” or “Before Fight:”, that ability happens first, before the game effect of reaping or fighting takes place. However, it happens after the card exhausts if exhaustion is needed to use the card.

Capture

Capture means taking amber from your opponent’s amber pool and putting it on one of your creatures. The captured amber cannot be spent by any player.

When a creature with amber on it leaves the game, the amber goes to your opponent’s amber pool.

By default, the amber goes on the creature that captured it, unless the ability specifies otherwise.

Chains

Some card abilities give you chains. When you gain chains, you increase your chain tracker by the number of chains you gained.

Hey there! So, if you’ve got at least one chain, things get a bit tricky when it’s time to refill your hand. You won’t be drawing as many cards as usual. Take a look at this chart to see how many cards you’ll be missing out on:

• Chains 1-6: draw one fewer card.
• Chains 7-12: draw two fewer cards.
• Chains 13-18: draw three fewer cards.
• Chains 19-24: draw four fewer cards.

Now let’s get into control.

When the game starts, you own all the cards in your deck. But, here’s the thing, my friend – if a card enters play, it’s under its owner’s control. Simple enough, right?

But here’s where things get interesting. You can actually take control of your opponent’s cards. How? Well, all you have to do is snatch ’em away! Once you’ve taken control of an opponent’s card, it goes into your play area. And if it happens to be a creature, it’ll join your battleline, taking up position on one of the flanks. Cool, huh?

If you take control of a card that belongs to a different house than the ones in your deck, you can make that house the active house during your turn’s second step.

If a card you control changes ownership and leaves play, it goes to the appropriate out-of-play zone of its original owner.

Cost, At Current Cost

The base cost to forge a key is six ^mber. Card abilities can modify this cost, which is called the current cost.

Damage

To track the damage a creature has taken, place damage tokens on it. If a creature has accumulated damage equal to or greater than its power, it is destroyed. Damage does not decrease a creature’s power.

Destroyed

When a card is destroyed, it goes to its owner’s discard pile.

If a card has a “Destroyed:” ability, that ability triggers automatically when the card is destroyed, right before it leaves play.

Discard Pile

When a card is destroyed or discarded, it goes on top of the owner’s discard pile. You can look at the cards in any player’s discard pile at any time.

The order of the cards in a discard pile stays the same, unless a card ability changes it.

When someone runs out of cards in their deck, they mix up their discard pile to make a new deck.

Elusive

When a creature with the elusive keyword is attacked for the first time in a turn, it doesn’t get hurt and it doesn’t hurt the attacker in battle.

Did you know that the ability called Elusive only protects you from damage caused by a creature’s power? That means any damage caused by keywords or other abilities still applies.

When a Player’s Turn Ends

End of turn effects happen after a player finishes their turn, specifically after step 5 which is the “Draw Cards” step.

What Does “Enemy” Mean?

If a card ability mentions an “enemy,” it’s talking about a game element that is currently controlled by your opponent.

Understanding How “Fight” Works

When you decide to have one of your creatures fight, you have to exhaust (or tap) that creature, and then choose one of your opponent’s creatures. Both creatures will deal damage to each other equal to their power values, just for the duration of that fight. It’s important to note that a creature engaged in a fight is considered to be “attacking” and can be referred to as “the attacker” during that specific fight.

When two creatures engage in combat, we witness a clash of power and strategy. Let me explain how it all works.

Firstly, if the attacking creature isn’t destroyed, any “Fight:” abilities it has will take effect. However, there’s a catch. If a creature involved in the fight has a special ability that relies on the fight ending, then that creature must survive the fight in order for the ability to resolve. And remember, only the attacker can trigger these “Fight:” abilities.

Now, let’s talk about what it means to “fight with” another creature.

If you come across an ability that tells you to “fight with” or “ready and fight with” a creature, it’s granting you permission to use that specific creature as your combatant. This fight follows the standard rules for combat, pitting your designated creature against one controlled by your opponent.

Lastly, we have the concept of “flank.”

When it comes to a player’s battleline, the creatures positioned on the far right and far left are known as the flanks. These flank creatures hold important positions in the line. Whenever a creature enters play or changes control, the active player gets to decide which flank of their battleline it will be placed on.

Your Own Side

If a card ability refers to something “friendly,” it means it is talking about something that is currently under your control as the player.

Watch Out! (X)

Whenever a creature with the “watch out!” X keyword gets attacked, it will deal X damage to the attacking creature right before the fight happens. You, as the active player, can decide if this damage happens before or after any other “Before Fight” effects or keywords take place. If the damage from “watch out!” destroys the attacking creature, the rest of the fight is cancelled and doesn’t happen.

If a creature with the “watch out!” (X) keyword gains another instance of the keyword, it gets even more dangerous!

In the dangerous world of keyword abilities, the values of two Xs are combined together.

Restore

When an ability “restores” a creature, it magically removes a specified amount of damage from that creature.

But when an ability “fully restores” a creature, it’s like a complete reset button – all damage is eradicated.

Choosing a House

Every turn, I have to pick one of the three houses available to me. These options are clearly shown on my identity card. But sometimes, certain card abilities can limit my choices.

However, if I suddenly gain control of a card that doesn’t belong to any of my three houses, that card’s house becomes a valid option for me. Of course, this only lasts as long as I still control the card.

But what happens if none of the houses are available to me? Well, I’ll just have to go through the turn without an active house – it’s a challenging situation, but it happens.

And what if I’m forced to make multiple “must choose” decisions? In that case, I have the freedom to select either of those options – it’s entirely up to me.

“If You Do” and “In Order To”

When an ability contains the phrases “if you do” or “in order to,” it means that you must successfully and completely perform the action described before you can proceed to the next part of the ability.

In simpler terms, if you don’t complete the first part of the ability, you won’t be able to do what comes after the phrase.

Keys

In the game, the first player to forge all three keys wins instantly.

The color of a key doesn’t matter in the game. In the future, there might be cards that interact with specific-colored keys.

Least Powerful

When we talk about the “least powerful” creature, it means the creature on the field with the lowest power. If there are multiple creatures that qualify, each of them is considered “least powerful.”

So, here’s the deal. If you have an ability that requires you to choose the weakest creature, and there happens to be multiple creatures that are equally weak, it’s up to you to pick one. The power is in your hands.

When Stuff Disappears

Now, let’s say that a card that’s been playing around exits the stage. This could be due to it being sent back to the hand or the deck, destroyed, discarded, put in the archive, or purged. Well, in that case, all those non-?mber tokens and status cards on it, they all go. And any upgrades on the card? Yup, they’re gone too. And hey, those lasting effects applied to the card? Yeah, they’re done as well.

Now, let’s talk about ?mber. If a creature that happens to have some ?mber on it leaves play, guess what? That’s right, it goes back to the opponent’s ?mber pool. Easy peasy. On the other hand, if a non-creature card with ?mber on it leaves play, then that’s where it gets a bit different. This time, the ?mber goes back to the general token pool. Got it? Good.

Oh, and if a card has one of those cool “Leaves Play:” abilities, well, do me a favor and pay close attention. The effect of that ability happens all on its own, right before the card leaves play. No need for anyone to step in or anything. It’s automatic. Just like magic.

The Maverick

Hey there! Let me explain what this symbol means – it indicates that a card is a maverick. Now, a maverick is a really special case where a card has actually left its usual house and joined a new one. But here’s the thing, even though it’s in a new house, when it comes to playing the game, you still treat a maverick as if it belongs to the house that’s printed on its graphic template. Pretty cool, huh?

Let’s talk about the word “may”.

When you see this word in an ability, like “may”, it means that what comes after it is optional. So, it’s up to you whether you want to use that part of the ability or not. But remember, if you do decide to use it, you have to resolve as much of the ability as you can. You can’t just pick and choose bits of it. Gotta play fair!

Now, what do we mean when we mention the “most powerful” creature? Well, it’s the creature on the playing field with the highest power. If there happens to be more than one creature that qualifies as the “most powerful,” then each of those creatures is considered to hold that title. So basically, there can be a bunch of beasts sharing the throne!

But what if an ability specifically asks you to pick just one “most powerful” creature, and you have a few that are tied for the top spot? Well, it’s time for the active player (that’s you, buddy) to make the call. You get to choose from the tied creatures and decide which one takes the crown.

Now, let’s dive into mulligans.

When setting up the game, we each get a chance to decide if we want to switch our starting hand of cards. It’s called mulligan. If I choose to mulligan, I shuffle my starting hand back into the deck and draw a new hand with one less card.

Once a player mulligans, they have to keep the new hand they drew. They can’t mulligan again.

Neighbor

The creatures on the left and right of a creature in my battleline are its neighbors. They’re like the creature’s close friends!

Omni

I can use any “Omni:” abilities that I have during any of my turns, even if the card with the “Omni:” ability doesn’t belong to the house I’m currently using.

Off House

An off house card is a card that belongs to a house that I’m not currently using. It’s like having a visitor card from a different house!

Opposing

When I’m in a fight, which could happen if I fought someone or if someone fought me, the other person I’m fighting is called the opposing person.

Payment

If I have to pay “mber” to someone I’m fighting against, I have to take that “mber” from my own stash and give it to them.

Playing

When a card says it has a “Play:” ability, that means something special happens when I play the card. If it’s a creature, an artifact, or an upgrade, the special thing happens right after I put the card into play. If it’s an action card, the special thing happens first, and then the card goes into my discard pile.

If an ability lets me play a card from somewhere other than my hand, like a different source, the “Play:” ability on the card still happens. But if an ability just puts a card into play without saying “Play:”, then the “Play:” ability doesn’t happen.

Poison

When a creature has the poison ability, any damage it deals during a fight will completely destroy the creature it damages. This only happens when the damage is actually applied to the opposing creature.

If all the damage is absorbed by armor or prevented by another ability, poison has no effect. Poison only takes effect when at least one point of damage is successfully dealt.

Poison specifically refers to damage caused by the creature’s power, not damage caused by keywords or other abilities on cards.

+1 Power Counter, Power Status Card

When a creature receives a “+1 power counter,” it means a power status card is placed on the creature. Each of these cards increases the creature’s power by one.

Before, Repeat The Previous Action

Hey there! Let me break things down for you. If a card tells you to repeat an effect, then you need to go back and do the effect all over again. Easy, right?

Let’s Talk About Purging

So, when a card gets purged, it’s basically kicked out of the game. You take it and place it facedown under the player’s identity card. Purged cards no longer do anything in the game. They’re just outta here!

Rarity Matters

Now, let’s chat about rarity. You can find a card’s rarity symbol at the bottom of the card, near the collector number. Rarity is important because it determines how often a card will show up in decks. There are four types: common, uncommon, rare, and special. But special cards are a bit different. They don’t follow the usual rules and have their own way of appearing in decks.

Reap

When I use a creature to reap, I tire it out. But in return, I gain 1 ?mber for my ?mber pool. And that’s not all! I also get to activate any “Reap:” abilities this creature has.

Return

When captured ?mber is given back, it goes straight into my opponent’s ?mber pool. They can’t hold on to it!

Sacrifice

If I’m told to sacrifice a card, I have to remove it from play. It’s gone for good. And when a card is sacrificed, it’s like it was destroyed, triggering any “Destroyed:” abilities it has.

Search

When I search a part of the game (like a deck), I get to check out all the cards there without showing them to my opponent. But here’s the fun part: I can decide not to find anything if I want!

If I search a whole deck, I need to shuffle it up properly when I’m done. Can’t leave any trace of my snooping!

If you search through a discard pile, you must keep the cards in the same order they were found.

About the Card’s Title

If a card’s ability refers to its own title, it is only talking about itself and not any other copies of the card.

Skirmish

When a creature with the skirmish keyword is used to fight, it doesn’t take damage from the opposing creature during the fight.

This only applies to damage caused by the opposing creature’s power, not damage from other card abilities or keywords.

Splash Damage

When an ability deals damage to a creature “with splash damage,” the splash damage affects the creatures next to the target creature as well.

Steal

Hey there! Let me explain to you what happens when an ability steals Amber. When this happens, the stolen Amber is taken away from the opponent’s Amber pool and given to the player who activated the steal ability.

But here’s the thing: if the ability steals more Amber than the opponent has in their pool, it can only take the amount that’s left. It’s not like you can steal what isn’t there!

Now, let’s talk about Stun and Stun Status Card.

When a creature gets stunned, a stun status card is put on it. So, the next time the creature is used, it does something pretty simple – it just exhausts and the stun card is taken away. No reaping, no fighting, and no resolving any abilities that require it to reap, fight, or be used.

But here’s an interesting twist: even though a stunned creature can’t do much, if it gets attacked, it can still fight back and deal damage to the attacking creature.

When a creature is stunned, it can’t be stunned again.

Swap

If two game elements swap, they switch places.

When two creatures swap, they exchange positions on the battleline. The creatures being swapped must always belong to the same player.

If cards from different game areas swap (like a card in play and a card in hand), the cards switch game areas.

Taunt

If a creature has taunt, its neighbors without taunt can’t be attacked by an enemy creature in combat.

On the battleline, taunt creatures are moved slightly forward to show their presence to the opponent.

In the midst of battle, Anaphiel, the powerful Champion, takes center stage with the taunt keyword, drawing attention to himself and standing boldly on the front lines.

This Way

When an ability mentions an event happening “this way,” it’s referring to an effect that was triggered by the same ability that’s being resolved.

Traits

Traits are special characteristics like “Knight” or “Specter” that define a card. These traits can be referenced by other cards and are displayed at the top center of a card’s text box.

While traits don’t have any inherent impact on the game, they can be utilized by card abilities.

Unforge

When a key that was previously forged becomes “unforged,” the key token is flipped to its unforged side. At this point, the key no longer contributes towards its controller’s victory condition and must be forged again in order to secure a win in the game.