Superjack

The game

1. Theme

Superjack is a game of warfare, played with standard playing cards.  Each player acts as a commander for a warring kingdom, utilizing magic and military resources to eliminate all opposing commanders.

What is the game about?

Conflict between two massive kingdoms has resulted in warfare.  You act as the commander for one of the kingdoms.  Your goal is to destroy the commander of the other kingdom.  To do this you will use magic from gems which are routinely mined in your kingdom.  These gems power your magic abilities, as well as your army of warriors and spirits.  Superjack is a game of warfare, construction, and strategy.  

2. Overview

What happens during a game?

Superjack is a turn-based competitive game where the last commander standing wins.  

Superjack is played with a 40 card deck per player.

The cards can be divided into two classes: Gems and Creatures.

Gems:                 All number cards                 (2 through 7)

Creatures:         All face cards and Aces         (J, Q, K, A)

Gems contain energy that is used to cast spells and put creatures into play.  Using this energy drains a gem until it is reset.

The creatures possess varying levels of attack capability and health points.  If a creature’s health reaches 0, it is removed from the board and put into the controlling player’s graveyard.

Each commander starts with 20 health, and draws 5 cards.

Each player’s turn consists of 3 phases:

1. First Main Phase: This is where you draw a card, reset all of the resources (gems and creatures) under your control, and put more resources into play.
2. Combat Phase:  This is where you initiate attacks on the opposition.
3. Second Main Phase: This is where you are able to add more resources to your board.

The goal of the game is to reduce the opposing commander’s health to 0.

3. Structure

How does the game advance?

A game of Rock Paper Scissors determines who goes first.

Players take turns building their arsenals, strategizing, and launching attacks.

The game is concluded when only one commander remains alive as the winner.

The losing player goes first in the next game of the set.

4. Actions

What do the players do?

• On your turn:

• Draw a card
• Reset resources - return all gems that were drained last turn to their normal state, and do the same for all creatures, turning them upright
• Put resources on the board

• Play a gem - limit 1 per turn
• Play creatures - pay for creatures by draining (turning sideways) the appropriate number of gems

• Launch attacks - attack with your creatures by turning them sideways (tapping them).  Creatures that are tapped are unable to block.
• Put more resources on the board
• Say “pass” - to conclude your turn, say “Pass”

• Any time:

• Gem Sacrifice - tap a gem and put it into your graveyard to activate it’s special ability.
• Straights - certain combinations of gems produce magical abilities that range from defensive to offensive
• Aces - like magic, the Ace can be played at any time.  
• Equipping - attaching pairs of gems to creatures adds to the creature’s attack capability and health points.

5. Rules

How do the players do what they do?

Gems

• Gems are number cards 2 - 7.  There are 2 colors: red (♥♦) and black (♠♣)

• Each turn, you may put one gem from your hand into play.
• Tap a gem to produce one energy of its color.
• When a gem has been tapped, it cannot be used for anything until the following turn.

• Gem Sacrifice Actions

• Each gem can be tapped and sacrificed to perform one of the following actions based on its rank:

• 2 or 3 - Fireball

• Deal 2 damage to target creature or 1 damage to target player.

• 4 or 5 - Mine (+3 energy)

• Generate 3 energy of its color.

• 6 or 7 - Draw a card

• Draw a card.

•  Straights

• A three, four, five, or six card straight can be tapped to activate one of the following effects:

• 3 card straight - +1 Life

• Gain 1 life

• 4 card straight - Research

• Draw 1 card, then discard one card from your hand.

• 5 card straight - Gravedigger

• Return a creature from your graveyard to play
• Sacrifice one of the gems in the straight

• 6 card straight - Mind Control

• Gain control of a creature an opponent controls
• Sacrifice one of the gems in the straight

• Pairs

• Each creature has two equip slots, where pairs of the same color can be equipped.
• Once a pair is equipped, those gems are considered tapped and cannot be used for anything else until the your next turn.
• Pair cannot be unequipped until your next turn, when they automatically unequip and untap.

• One pair gives a creature +1/+1

• Two pairs give a creature +2/+2

• Four of a kind gives a creature +3/+3

Creatures

• Creatures are face cards (Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, red and black)

• Normally, creatures come into play untrained , which means they cannot attack the turn they come into play.
• Creatures have power (the amount of damage they deal in combat) and toughness (the amount of damage it takes to kill them). If a creature is dealt damage greater than or equal to its toughness over the course of a turn, it dies and is put into your graveyard. Any damage dealt to a creature is removed at the end of the turn if it is still alive.

• Jack

• 1/1 (1 power, 1 toughness).
• Cost: 2 energy of its color.
• Jacks can be stacked. If you control two or more jacks, you may combine them. The power of a jack is doubled for every additional Jack stacked on it. If a jack has two or more additional jacks stacked on it in the same turn, it becomes overencumbered and cannot attack that turn. Once they are stacked, jacks cannot unstack.

• 2 jacks: 2/2
• 3 jacks: 4/4
• 4 jacks: 8/8, Superjack

• In combat, a Superjack deals damage in excess of what is needed to kill blocking creatures to the defending player.

• Queen

• 2/2 (2 power, 2 toughness).
• Cost: 4 energy of its color.

• King

• 3/3 (3 power, 3 toughness).
• Cost: 5 energy of its color.

• Ace

• 1/1 (1 power, 1 toughness). Rush (can attack the turn it is played).
• Cost: 3 energy of its color.
• Aces can be played at instant speed.
• Aces can also be played as spells (at instant speed).

• An ace played as a spell destroys target gem the opponent controls.
• Counter-ace: An ace can also be played in response to another ace, to counter its effect. This can be done to prevent an ace from coming into play as a creature, to prevent an ace from destroying a land, or to prevent an ace from countering another ace.

• Royal Charge

• If the gems tapped to play a creature form a straight, the creature has royal charge: it has rush (can attack the turn it is played) and can only be blocked by creatures of its own type.

• Royal Sacrifice

• If you control a Jack, Queen, and King of the same color (black or red), you may tap all three of them, and then royal sacrifice the jack to destroy target creature.

Turn Structure:

• First Main Phase (1/3)

1. Untap your gems and unequip your creatures.
2. Draw a card.
3. You may play any reactive or non-reactive actions. You retain priority throughout your first main phase and your opponent cannot play any actions unless a response window is created.

• Combat Phase (2/3)

1. Declare attackers

Attacking creatures are tapped.

2. Declare blockers

Priority passes to the defending player. They may play reactive actions. Then they may assign any of their untapped creatures to block any of the attacking creatures. Multiple blockers may be assigned to block one attacker, but one blocker cannot be assigned to block multiple attackers.

3. Attacker declares buffs

Priority passes back to the attacking player. They may equip creatures.

4. Defender declares buffs

Priority passes back to the defending player. They may equip creatures.

5. Attacker declares additional actions

Attacking player may play any additional reactive actions before combat damage.

6. Defender declares additional actions

Defending player may play any additional reactive actions before combat damage.

7. Combat damage is dealt

Each attacking creature deals damage equal to its power to the creature(s) blocking it (attacker can choose how to allocate damage if multiple creatures are blocking). Each blocking creature deals damage equal to its power to the creature it is blocking. If an attacker is not blocked, it deals damage equal to its power to the defending player.

• Second Main Phase (3/3)

• You may play reactive and non-reactive actions.
• End step:

1. When you are done, you pass priority to your opponent. They have a final opportunity to play reactive actions before your turn ends.
2. Priority passes back to you. You have a final opportunity to play reactive or non-reactive actions before your turn ends.

Finishing the game:

• When a player’s health total reaches 0, they are out of the game.
• If all of the cards in a player’s library have been drawn, gameplay continues as normal, simply skip the ‘Draw a Card’ step in the First Main Phase of each turn.

6. A few more things

Stacking and Royal Sacrifice

• Stacking - Jacks can be stacked on top of each other, doubling in power with each additional Jack.  All 4 Jacks stacked together is known as the Superjack.
• Royal Sacrifice - tap your Jack, Queen, and King to sacrifice the Jack and destroy a target creature.

Timing Rules:

• The following actions are reactive. They can be played any time you have priority to act, including during your main phase, during combat, within a response window, or before the end of your opponent’s turn.

• Gem Sacrifice
• Straights
• Aces
• Equipping
• Stacking
• Royal Sacrifice

• The following actions are non-reactive. They can only be played on your turn, during your main phases (they cannot be played during combat, within a response window, or on your opponent’s turn).

• Playing a creature
• Playing a gem

• The following actions create a response window. This means that when they are played, priority immediately passes to the opponent, who can respond by playing any reactive actions. The opponent’s actions in a response window resolve first.

• Playing an ace (in any form)
• Sacrificing a 2 or 3

Mulligan

• If you are unhappy with your starting hand, you can choose to mulligan. If you do, shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw five new cards. Players can only mulligan once.

7. Victory

How do you win?

If ever a player is completely out of health, that player is considered dead and is removed from the game. The game ends when there is only one player remaining: the winner!

8. Summary

What happens during a game... again?

Superjack is a game of warfare where each player acts as a commander for a warring kingdom, utilizing magic and military resources to eliminate all opposing commanders.

To recap:

Players act as commanders of warring kingdoms.

Commanders take turns building their arsenals, strategizing, and launching attacks.

The game is concluded when only one commander remains alive as the winner.

The losing player goes first in the next game of the set.

9. Strategy

What should the players do?

Superjack Cheat Sheet