CATACLYSM
ARCADE

01 1P SETUP

• Two Boss-led decks: two sealed packs, or any two legal decks. Pack play ignores faction rules.
• CPU Boss face up — its faction sets its Personality (below).
• Both draw 4 — yours face up, the CPU's 4 are the face-down Queue (its Level draws go face down on the right end).
• Mulligan once: return any of your opening cards, shuffle them back, and redraw the same number. The CPU never mulligans. Then Level 1 begins — each side draws 1, so you open with 5.
• The CPU plays by all normal rules: track its Coins openly, it pays every cost.
• You are Player 1 at Level 1; rotate first player each Level as normal. Last Boss standing wins.

THE TABLE

Bosses on the left, decks on the right, the Queue at the top, your hand at the bottom. Everything the CPU owns stays face up or face down on the table — which is why an interrupted game rebuilds itself. Keep the Level Tracker on a clipboard at the side.

02 THE QUEUE — the CPU’s hand

• Hidden, in draw order. During DEPLOY, scan left to right: face-up (stuck) cards first, then flip face-down cards as you reach them.
• Play the first legally playable card found. Fighters need level ≤ current Level.
• Weapons: wield to its highest-Attack Fighter without one; else its Boss, if legal.
• A flipped card it can’t play yet (Level or Coins) stays face up in place: a telegraphed threat.
• A flipped Tactic with no legal target fizzles: discard it, keep scanning.

03 ACTION LADDER — each CPU action, first legal rung

1. 1
   LETHAL — if any single affordable attack kills your Boss, it makes that attack.
2. 2
   DEPLOY — re-wield a loose CPU Weapon (same targeting as new Weapons); otherwise scan the Queue and play the first playable card.
3. 3
   SPECIAL — use its Boss’s activated ability, if it can pay and still afford one attack with any ready unit (Boss or Fighter) this Level.
4. 4
   ATTACK — its highest-Attack ready unit it can afford (ties: lowest Attack Cost). Target per Personality.
5. 5
   PASS

Early Levels it develops for free; once its Queue jams with high-level cards, it converts Coins into attacks — same arc as a human.

04 TRAPS — responses

• The scan flips a Response with no combat relevance (Coins, draw, buffs) → pay its cost and resolve it immediately, like a Tactic. That’s the DEPLOY action.
• Combat-relevant Response → armed Trap: face up above the CPU Boss. Arming is free — the scan continues.
• Traps fire automatically and mandatorily at the first moment they matter that it can pay for: an attack they could blunt or punish (fire before damage), or a CPU unit about to die. Firing pays the Response’s printed cost — a broke CPU’s Trap stays armed and waits, so watch its Coins before you declare an attack.
• If several qualify, the one preserving the most CPU Health fires first.
• Response abilities on CPU units (Block, etc.) are permanently armed Traps — same firing rules, CPU pays the costs. Defensive ones fire only to prevent a death — chip damage can’t bait away its taps. Table tip: park a spare coin on any CPU unit that has one, so you don’t forget it’s loaded.

05 PERSONALITIES — the CPU Boss’s faction sets its targeting

06 THE CABINET

07 LEVEL TRACKER — lives in your browser, survives interruptions

Level start ritual: rotate first player · both draw 1 (CPU: face down, right end of Queue; TURBO: 2 if its Queue is empty) · gain Coins = Level number · Level 8+: HURRY UP. Then tick SET. Fill coin bubbles as they’re spent — the dashed bubble is the HARD/EXPERT extra.

08 PATCH NOTES — new challengers. balance changes. no refunds.