Disco Infinity

Intro

Disco Infinity is a 1v1 competitive deck building card game. The game is played in rounds, and in each, both players will place 3 cards into the action row. The game involves a lot of strategic positioning.

It includes elements of deck building games as well as a placement mechanic where players take turns choosing a card from their hand and placing it anywhere in the card sequence. In order to outplay your opponent, you will need to think carefully about where and when you play your cards.

Objectives

Achieving any of these objectives ends the game immediately:

• Your opponent has no BASE_SHIPS in their deck (across draw pile, discard pile, hand, and in play).
• Acquire 10 Research Points.
• Have 15 more Power Tokens in play than your opponent.
• Your opponent has exactly 3 cards remaining in their deck (combined total across draw pile, discard pile, and hand).

Game Structure

• The game is played with 2 players, seated across from one another with the play space between them.
• Each player has a draw pile, a discard pile, and a hand of cards.
• The game board consists of an action row where cards are played, and orbit rows where satellites orbit the action row. Satellites act as persistent effect cards.
• Players take turns placing cards in the action row and once there are 6 cards in the action row, the cards' action effects are triggered.
• The game ends when one player meets any of the win conditions.

Starting the Game

Each player chooses two of the 6 factions and starts with the 12 base cards from the combined faction starting decks. These are indicated by the text below the card name in the upper left of the card.

Each player starts with 3 BASE_SHIPS in their deck, 0 Research Points, and 0 Power Tokens on the board. You cannot go negative in Research Points or Power Tokens.

Hand Mechanics

At the start of each round, draw 5 cards from your draw pile into your hand. When your draw pile is empty and you need to draw, shuffle your discard pile to create a new draw pile, then continue drawing.

At the end of each round, all cards from your hand and from the action row (except those in the orbit row or trashed) move to your discard pile.

Important: Only shuffle your discard pile into your draw pile when you actually need to draw a card and your draw pile is empty—not before. This matters because newly acquired cards go to your discard pile first.

Round Structure

Each turn consists of the following phases:

• Start of Round
• Placement Phase
• Action Phase
• End of Round
• Draft Cycle (optional)

There will be more details about the phases after a description of some of the game mechanics.

Game Board

The central piece of the board is the Action Row. The Action Row is 6 spaces, numbered 1-6. These are called action spaces. This is where you and your opponent will compete to create action sequences that advance your agenda and stop your opponent from advancing their agenda. Once a round starts, you and your opponent take turns placing cards into the Action Row. Every time you place a card, you may place your card in any action space, and if necessary you may slide other cards out of the way.

This means that before the last card is placed, the action space that a card occupies is ambiguous. It also means that the player going last in the round has the advantage of being able to place the final card and guarantee the action space it is placed in. Players take turns going first each round.

TODO: Create some really nice diagrams of this!

Some cards have an effect that triggers on Placement. This is denoted by the card section "Placement:" in the yellow section. If you place a card with such an effect, do what the card says in the Placement section when you put it in the Action Row. Often these effects can help you rearrange other cards in the Action Row or have other immediate impact on the game such as moving a Satellite or getting a card out of the trash pile.

Once all 6 cards have been placed in the Action Row, their Action effects trigger in order from Space 1 to Space 6. Begin in Space 1 and do what the card says in the "Action:" section, and go in order to Space 6. After the cards in all 6 Spaces have been triggered, the Action Phase is over.

Base Ships

Each player starts with 3 BASE_SHIPS in their deck. BASE_SHIPS are special cards that cannot be trashed by normal damage effects. If a BASE_SHIP would be trashed due to damage, it is instead destroyed and removed from the game permanently.

If all 3 of your BASE_SHIPS are destroyed, you immediately lose the game.

BASE_SHIPS have their own unique effects when played in the action row, functioning as powerful cards that can turn the tide of battle.

Shields

Shield cards' default Action effect is to be moved into your Shield Reserve.

When you would take damage, you may first play any number of cards from your Shield Reserve to reduce that damage by their total Shield_POWER. Played shields are moved to your discard pile unless noted otherwise.

Shields only block one damage instance—excess Shield_POWER is lost and doesn't carry over to other damage sources, such as being hit by another missile or damaged by a trap.

Damage

When you take damage after shields have been applied:

1 Damage: Draw 1 card from your draw pile and trash it. If the card is a BASE_SHIP, it is destroyed instead of trashed.

2 or More Damage: Draw that many cards from your draw pile. Your opponent chooses one of those cards to trash (or destroy if it's a BASE_SHIP). You also choose one of those cards to trash (or destroy if it's a BASE_SHIP). This can activate trap card effects and allows you to strategically thin your deck. If you drew only 2 cards, the same card may be chosen by both players.

The remaining cards that were drawn but not trashed are placed in your discard pile.

Satellites

One type of card has the ability to stay on the board at the end of the round. Satellite cards' default Action effect is that they launch into your Orbit Row. This is the row between you and the Action Row. The Satellite launches into the Space in the orbit row aligned with the Space in the Action Row where it was triggered. Then the Satellite will generally stay in that place (with some exceptions) until it is either destroyed (generally by a Missile Card) or moved or stolen (by a card with the ability to Select a Satellite and move it).

Note: Satellites can stack! There can be multiple Satellites in one Space.

If a Satellite has the ability to launch a Missile, that Missile launches as if it launched from the action row. This means if the Missile is reversed, it will hit the Satellite that launched it!

Drift -- Satellites with this symbol move 1 Space downstream during the End of Round phase. All satellites with the drift effect move simultaneously. An example is Space Mine. This card moves 1 Space at the end of each round, enabling it to likely run into another Satellite if there are any downstream of it and blow them up.

End of Round

At the end of the round, any Satellites with the drift effect move 1 Space downstream simultaneously.

Power Tokens

Several cards generate Power Tokens, and Power Tokens are always on a card. At the end of a Round, any power tokens that are on cards in the Action Row will go away with those cards. So if you want to accumulate Power Tokens and hold onto them, you will need to do so with Satellites. This makes Satellites a key part of the game if you are pursuing a Power Token victory or if you are using Power Tokens to support some other strategy!

Note: If you ever have 15 more Power Tokens than your opponent, the game ends, and you win.

Research Points

While Power Tokens are attached to cards, Research Points are attached to the Space in which you got them. If you gain a Research Point in Space 2, that Research Point is located in that Space. Some cards scale based on the number of Research Points in the space where they are triggered. Other cards can steal or destroy Research Points in the Space where they are triggered. You should think carefully about where you want your Research Points to be.

However, regardless of which Spaces your Research Points are in, you win immediately if you ever accumulate 10 total.

Missile Cards

Missile Cards exist primarily to do Damage to your opponent, but Missiles can also be used to shoot down Satellites. You must trigger the Missile Card from the Space in the same column as the Satellite(s) you want to shoot down (unless otherwise noted on the Missile Card!). This means that a Satellite in Space 3 of your opponent's orbit row may only be shot down by a Missile Card Triggered from Column 3. If there are multiple Satellites stacked, they are all destroyed (unless there is a Satellite with some special defensive ability that protects the others).

If a Missile hits a Satellite (or Satellites), the Missile Damage is absorbed by the destroyed Satellite and does not affect your opponent. This means Satellites also have the potential to play a defensive role in certain situations.

If your Missile does not hit any Satellites, the Damage is dealt to your opponent according to the damage rules.

Round Structure Part 2

Start of Round

At the start of each round, you and your opponent both draw 5 cards, and do the Start of Round effects on any Satellites you have in orbit.

Placement Phase

Take turns placing cards in the row. Ends after 6 cards are in the row.

Action Phase

Action effects on cards are triggered starting in space 1 and moving to space 6.

End of Round

Any Satellites with the drift effect move 1 Space downstream simultaneously.

Draft Cycle (optional)

Optionally, take 3 cards from the top of the draft deck, choose one and add it to your discard pile. The other two are moved to the cycled deck.

Card Specific Round Effects

• Some cards have an effect that says "end the round immediately" which does as it says and skips all remaining parts of the round. After this effect is triggered, the next thing that will happen is the Start of Round phase of the next round.

Game Terms

BASE_SHIP

• Each player starts with 3 BASE_SHIPS in their deck at the start of the game.
• BASE_SHIPS go to the trash pile when trashed, just like any other card.
• BASE_SHIPS can be recovered from the trash pile by either player using appropriate card effects.
• If you ever have no BASE_SHIPS in your deck (across draw pile, discard pile, hand, and in play), you immediately lose the game.

Shield Reserve

• This is where Shield cards go when their Action effect is triggered.
• Before taking damage, you may play any number of cards from your Shield Reserve to reduce the incoming damage.
• Shield cards played from the reserve are trashed unless otherwise noted.

Research Points

• These points accrue to the board space where you gain them.
• If you reach 10 research points, you immediately win the game.

Missile

• Missiles launch in the column where they are triggered. If there are any opponent satellites in orbit in that column the missile will hit the satellite(s) and destroy them rather than doing damage to the opponent. If there is no satellite in the way, the missile deals damage to the opponent according to the damage rules.

damage

• When you take 1 damage: draw 1 card and trash it.
• When you take 2+ damage: draw that many cards, opponent chooses one to trash, you may optionally choose one to trash, remaining cards go to discard pile.
• Before damage is resolved, you may play Shield cards from your Shield Reserve to reduce the damage.
• If both draw pile and discard pile are empty, shuffle your hand and draw from it to resolve damage.
• If you ever have exactly 3 cards remaining in your deck (across draw pile, discard pile, and hand combined), you immediately lose the game.

Gain

• For Power Tokens, this means you get a new Power Token and may place it on any card in the action row or in either orbit row.
• For Research Points, you get a new Research Point in the space where the card that is gaining the point is triggered.

Accumulate

• This is similar to gaining a Power Token, but the token can only be placed on this card.

Transfer

• You may move Power Tokens from one card to another. The instructions on the card will specify which cards are eligible for you to move Power Tokens from.

Spend

• When you spend a Power Token, you remove it from play. Cards with this effect will specify which tokens are eligible to be spent.

Action Space

• This is used to refer to a specific space in the action row. Once there are 6 cards in the action row, you can tell what space each card is in, but before that, the space that a card is in is fluid.

Orbit Space

• orbit space refers to the static space in a player's orbit row that sits above the action space of the same number. This just means that orbit space 1 is above action space 1. And each player has their own orbit space 1 through 6.

Column

• A column is comprised of an action space and both of the orbit spaceS above it. Cards that refer to a column are referring to all of the contents of the action space and both orbit spaceS. For example, if a card does damage equal to all of the Power Tokens in column 3, you would sum the Power Tokens on Satellites in both players orbit space 3 plus any Power Tokens on the card in action space 3.

Retain

• At the end of a round, you may hold a retained card to use in the next round. This does not impact how many cards you draw at the start of the next round.

Draw

• Draw a card from your draw pile. If there are no cards in your draw pile, shuffle your discard pile into your draw pile and draw. If both are empty, nothing happens.

Select

• When a card has an effect that operates directly on another card, this term is used to signify how you choose the card it will operate on. This is important, because some cards may protect others from being selected, and some cards could have an effect that is triggered by them being selected.
• Any card that is selected, immediately spends half the Power Tokens (rounded up).

Launch

• This is the standard action of every Satellite card when it is triggered in the action row. It needs to launch into orbit before its various Satellite effects begin to take effect.

Owner

• When a satellite is in a player's orbit row, they are considered to be the owner of the satellite.

Stack

• When more than one satellite is in the same orbit space, they are stacked with each other.

Power Token

• You win the game immediately if you ever have 15 more Power Tokens than your opponent.
• Power Tokens are always on a card. When you spend them, they are removed from the board.

Transfer

• Move Power Tokens from any card you have in play to some other card.
• Some cards will allow you to transfer from cards you do not own, but by default you may only transfer from your own cards.

Draft

• Take 3 cards from the top of the draft deck, and choose 1 of them. Place it in your discard pile.

Discard

• Put a card into your discard pile. During a round, some cards have effects that cause you to discard a card.
• At the end of a round, all the cards in your hand that were not placed and all the cards still in the action row move to your discard pile.

Trash

• Cards that are trashed during play are moved to a shared, face up trash pile. Certain cards in the game allow a player to get a card out of the trash, and both players' cards are moved to the same trash pile if they are trashed.
• BASE_SHIPS are trashed normally and can be recovered from the trash by either player.

Downstream

• The flow of the action row flows downstream. For example, space 2 is downstream of space 1.

Upstream

• Opposite of downstream. A card upstream of another card is triggered before that card.

Next

In different contexts, the term "next" can mean different things. - The next space is the space immediately downstream. For example, space 4 is the next space after space 3. - The next card placed is referring to the next card sequentially that is placed during the PLACEMENT_PHASE. - The next missile launched/satellite launched/shield card triggered, all refer to during the Action Phase, the next time a specific event happens, and it does not have to do with the space where it happens.

Trigger

• This is the term used to indicate that an effect happens. A placement effect is "triggered" when the card is placed. A card's action effect is "triggered" when it is that card's turn in the action sequence.

Alien Tech

• This is a class of card that typically is used to manipulate the board or move other cards around in unusual ways.
• These cards all have a "value" that is written on the card next to the Alien Tech symbol in the top right.

Draft Deck

• This is the shared deck that both players draft cards from. Every time a player does a draft cycle, they do it from this deck, and the cards not chosen go next to it in a cycled deck.
• If there is a situation where you go through the entire draft deck during your game, the cycled deck is shuffled, and it becomes the draft deck.

Orbit Row

• Each player has an orbit row between them and the action row. This is where satellites are launched into.

Action Row

• All cards are placed into the action row.
• After there are 6 cards in the row, the action effect of each card is triggered in order starting from space 1 and moving downstream until reaching space 6.

Special Situations

• If a card in the action row is trashed during the Action Phase, this does not result in any reordering or movement of cards from their spaces, unless the card effect specifies this.

• Any time an effect is triggered that ends the round immediately skips all the remaining parts of the round and players go directly to the Start of Round phase of the next round.

• When drawing cards for damage, if both your draw pile and discard pile are empty, shuffle all cards in your hand and draw from those shuffled cards to resolve the damage effect.

• When taking damage of 2 or more, if you only draw 1 card total (due to deck size), your opponent must choose that card to trash. You may also optionally choose to trash it (which would have no additional effect since it's already being trashed).