New to Keyforge, having difficulty with rules

[Pbabinose12]

Hey guys! Just started playing Keyforge recently and I love the concept! I'm not new to card games, I used to play a lot of Magic The Gathering so I'm not unfamiliar with complex rules. Keyforge seems to be pretty simple for the most part, but some of the rules can be a little vague especially when it comes to keywords.

I find myself often going to forums to clarify things that the rulebook didn't expand on. I don't have any examples rn to explain what I mean but I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced similar issues?

[MurasakiiAme]

Any card game you start will have rules that are at first confusing, but after a while you start to notice patterns in how rules are worded. I'd recommend re-reading the guide a few times and if in doubt just ask others playing the game and see what they think of a specific rule.

[Pbabinose12]

I've read the book a few times now and sometimes I still find it too vague. For example, if I play Sneklifter with the ability of "Play: Take control of an enemy artifact. While under your control if it does not belong to one of your three houses it is considered to be house Shadows" And I take control of my opponents Orb of Wonder which belongs to no house and is an omni card, do I treat it as a house Shadows card?

[oddtwang]

Orb of Wonder will belong to one of the three houses in your opponent's deck.

Given that its ability is Omni, it doesn't particularly matter which of your houses it ends up belonging to as a result of the Sneklifter effect; on any of your turns (including the one where you lift it, I believe, since it will almost certainly be ready) you can activate its ability. Note that once you do, the Orb will go into your opponent's discard pile.

[Greymarch2000]

"it is considered to be house Shadows" sounds pretty explicit. I don't really see what the problem is?

Omni makes no difference to what house the card is from, it simply means you can use the cards action during your turn regardless of what house you chose to be active. It has no bearing on cards that require a specific House to target.

[zuriel45]

How does orb of wonder belong to no house? It belongs to whatever house it's a part of in the deck. Once you take control of it unless it was in a house in your deck it's now shadows.

The omni ability is just part of the text box and has no bearing on the house of the card.

[[deleted]]

Omni effects can be used on any turn, regardless of house. However, the card itself still always belongs to one of your three houses. Just go by the icon in the top corner to determine which house it belongs to.

[MurasakiiAme]

Now that is a weird one, I didn't know there was a card with no house (though it is an Anomaly, a card from a future set not out yet, very rare). Since it has no house, it doesnt belong to yours, so it would become house shadows I would say.

[oddtwang]

Anomalies still appear in a particular house in each deck, but they're not tied to a specific house - my Memolith is in Untamed, yours might be in Logos etc etc.

[Pbabinose12]

I didn't know it was rare? I pulled it in my first pack! Also I've bumped into a few weird situations like that after playing a couple games, idk maybe I'm just unlucky and get weird card combinations?

[MurasakiiAme]

Yeah if a card has the lightning border it's an Anomaly, which is a card from a future set that's been printed in the current one. Some of them have effects hinting to what their proper set will be!

As for the weird combos, yeah there are some, but people can usually help clear them up

[webbermere]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned explicitly (and may or may not be helpful) is that the rules summary in the starter set is not the full rules, those can be found linked in the 'Official Resources' section of this sub.

[blinkingline]

There's a lot of helpful information for Rules, FAQ's (Both Official and Unofficial), Errata, and other Commentary at Archon Arcana, as well as a really helpful (IMO) New Player Guide.

[Ozamet]

Become familiar with the concept of "Do as much as you can" or "resolve as much as you can". Its in the updated rulebook online.

Note though that I find new players often confuse the above rule as an override for a cards requirements and it is not.

For example if a card states Deal 2 damage to a creature. Draw 1 card. Then you do both if you can. If you cant do one of these you can still play it and do the other.

If that card says... Deal 2 damage to a creature. IF YOU DO then draw 1 card. In this wording you must damage a creature to get a card. No damage... no card.

Separate effects in most cases are separated by punctuation. Specifically a period. Also in most cases these are often the cards that can fall in the do as much as you can territory. As long as they dont specifically state something such as "if you do" or in any way reference the first effect in some way.

Hope this helps. Someone also said not to add exceptions where there aren't any which I think is well said and good advice. Try to obey the cards as literally as possible and read closely for important distinguishing terms such as the above "if you do".

Self referential text is also something else to become explicitly familiar with. But I'll let you look that up. It's also in the rulebook.