Bloom Wars: Duelists of the Veil
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Bloom Wars: The Veil

How a duel works

Easy to start, deep enough to keep you building decks. Here's the whole game on one page.

A duel in progress: both players' units in the Waking World and the Dreaming, with the two Anchors in the centre
A round

From the first draw

  1. 1Setup

    Draw six, resource two

    Each side has a leader and an Anchor. Draw six cards (one mulligan allowed), then put two of them face down as resources. Every card you resource is one you won't play, so choose carefully.

  2. 2Action

    Take turns, one action at a time

    Players alternate single actions: play a card by exhausting resources equal to its cost, attack with a ready unit, use an ability, or pass. The phase ends when both players pass in a row.

  3. 3Initiative

    Claim the initiative

    Claiming the initiative passes for the rest of the phase, but you act first next round. Sometimes going first matters more than one more play.

  4. 4Regroup

    Draw, resource, ready

    Draw two, resource a card if you want to, then ready everything. Then the next action phase begins.

Two battlefields

The Waking World and the Dreaming

The Waking World

Reality · Order · Technology

The physical world: the University, guilds, courts and laboratories. Its units are students, knights, inventors, mercenaries, golems and armoured war-beasts.

The Dreaming

Dreams · Emotion · Possibility

A realm beside our own, shaped by desire, memory and fear, where thoughts become physical facts. Its units are mythical beasts and monsters, shaped by the faction they serve.

The essentials

What makes it tick

Two worlds
Units fight in the Waking World (soldiers, knights, golems, war-beasts) or the Dreaming (pegasi, shadow-stalkers, iron-scaled dragons). They attack enemy units in the same world, or the enemy Anchor.
Anchors
Your Anchor is what holds your side to the world, with up to 30 HP. Bring the opposing Anchor to zero and the duel is yours.
Leaders
Your leader has abilities from the first turn, and once you have enough resources it deploys onto the battlefield as a unit.
Damage sticks
Combat damage is simultaneous and stays on a unit until it's healed or defeated, so a wounded unit can still matter three rounds later.
Factions
A card in a faction your leader and Anchor don't cover costs 2 more for each missing sigil. Build around your leader, or pay for the splash.
Keywords
Sentinel, Ambush, Raid, Overwhelm, Restore, Shielded, Saboteur and more. Hover any card in the game to read it in full.
The Malvoren leader card at full size beside her deployed unit side
Learn by playing. The prologue's duel against Cade walks you through all of this one step at a time. In every duel, everything you can do glows green.
Six factions

Pick a side, or two

Each faction is a philosophy for fighting in both worlds. Your leader and your Anchor decide which ones your deck plays cheaply.

Verdant Covenant

Growth, life, transformation

Big bodies, healing and patience. Outlast the other side.

Thorn ravens, moss stags, bramble wolves

Iron Syndicate

Engineering, order, ingenuity

Ramp into resources, then land the biggest threats in the set.

Armored wyverns, iron-scaled dragons

Unbound

Freedom, speed, improvisation

Cheap units, raids and burn. Hit the Anchor early and often.

Flame falcons, fire imps, fang wyverns

Somnial Veil

Dreams, illusion, transformation

Tricks, ambushes and tempo. Never quite where you expect.

Shadow-stalkers, mirror-wraiths, mimics

Astral Collegium

Knowledge, memory, mastery

The heroic alignment. Pairs with any of the four above.

Pegasi, starlit griffons, a phoenix-titan

Gilded Court

Ambition, influence, control

The villainous alignment, and the faction behind the story's threat.

Nightmare dragons, the shadow-basilisk

Help shape the game

Patrons help decide where the game goes next, and higher tiers get early builds.

Become a patron