How to Play ยท Quick Play
The Miras 9 TCG is a tactical, cinematic card game about characters, ships, spirits, and planets fighting over meaningful locations. Players build presence at Sites, move across lanes, launch ships, declare attacks, and use Echo to awaken powerful spiritual consequences.
Goal
Each player tries to outlast and defeat the opponent by controlling Sites, landing attacks, Pressuring enemy lanes, and draining the opponent's life force.
Your Main Deck, Resource pile, and Used pile together represent your long-term life force. You lose when you begin your turn with all three empty, or when you cannot finish resolving required Battle Damage using Echo or eligible cards.
Board
Each player has three lanes. Each lane begins with a basic token Site, and real Sites can overlay those lanes.
Cards
Turn flow
Ready your cards. Then choose one innate card-flow option: draw the top card of your Main Deck, or move the top card of your Main Deck to your Resource pile. Then generate resources from Sites, Ship-Sites, and card effects as allowed.
Play Units, Sites, Events, and Equipment. Use abilities whose text specifically requires the Action Phase. Freely embark and disembark eligible units on Vehicles, Ships, and Ship-Sites.
Declare attackers, choose legal unit or Site targets, assign blockers, and resolve Battle Damage from successful attacks against Sites.
Move units, Vehicles, Ships, and Ship-Sites. You may also freely embark and disembark eligible units. Vehicles, Ships, and Ship-Sites carry embarked units with them when they move.
Manifest, Pressure, Restore, draw cards from the Resource pile, and resolve end-of-turn effects.
End the turn. Units that entered play this turn stop being Unattuned when their controller passes the turn.
Life force
Resources are generated by moving cards from the Main Deck to the Resource pile. When resources are spent, cards move from Resource to Used. During Attune, you may draw any number of cards from your Resource pile to hand.
Cards in Main Deck, Resource pile, and Used pile are your remaining life force. Drawing and spending give options, but also reduce long-term survival.
Units
Units take wounds instead of being defeated immediately. A unit is defeated when its wounds equal or exceed its GRIT. Defeated cards go to the Discard pile unless a card says otherwise.
Unattuned units cannot attack, Manifest, Pressure, add ATK to Battle Presence, or use tap abilities until their controller passes the turn.
Timing
Activated abilities use reaction timing unless their card text names a specific phase or response window. You may activate an eligible ability during any active phase, at a legal reaction opportunity (during a wave, only when you have priority), while still paying every cost and meeting every target, status, and once-per-turn requirement.
An ability with a tap cost requires its source to be ready and Attuned. Using an ability does not tap its source unless tapping is part of the cost or effect.
Movement
Vehicles and Unit-Ships usually need crew to operate. If unmanned, they can remain in play, be attacked, and take wounds, but they usually cannot move, attack, Pressure, or add ATK to Battle Presence.
Vehicles and Unit-Ships may Manifest or Pressure if manned and eligible. They use their own Echo score for the Echo gained or reduced, regardless of crew aboard.
Ship-Sites are not Units. They act more like mobile locations. The Miras 9 is a Ship-Site and lets friendly Characters aboard it Manifest while embarked if the Ship-Site is active at a friendly site or lane with no active enemy Battle Presence.
Combat
A unit can attack a legal opposing unit in its current lane. Blockers and combat wounds are resolved in the Attack view, and defeated units go to the Discard pile unless a card says otherwise.
A unit can attack the opposing Site or Ship-Site in its current lane. An unblocked hit against a standard Site assigns Battle Damage to the defending player. A Ship-Site instead takes combat wounds and may deal retaliation wounds back.
Unblocked attacks against standard Sites deal Battle Damage. Ship-Sites are attacked and wounded like combat defenders.
Attacks
Each Site allows one full attack wave per turn. Finish all seven steps before starting another wave.
Reactions and passing: Choose targets and pay costs when announcing a Reaction. The opponent may respond. Later responses resolve first. Two consecutive passes resolve one pending effect; after it resolves, the attacking player gets the next opportunity. Only two consecutive passes with nothing pending close a window. No player acts in the middle of an effect.
Escaping: A Unit that leaves the Site before damage contributes no combat damage and cannot rejoin that wave. An attack remains blocked even if every committed blocker escapes or is defeated. If an unblocked Unit target escapes, the attack does not switch to hitting its Site. A surviving Unit may escape afterward if the card's targeting requirements still hold; wounds remain.
Card exceptions: Specific functional card text overrides a general rule. Raithe, Government Weapon's Killing Machine readies him and grants an extra attack when his attack defeats a Unit and he survives. After the current wave finishes, he may make that extra attack alone, using all seven steps. This does not reopen a full wave for other Units, and readying alone grants no extra attack.
Echo
Echo represents spiritual force, memory, and attunement. Characters and Spirits have ECHO values, and players can gain Echo tokens.
Manifest: At a friendly site or lane with no active enemy Battle Presence, an eligible Character, Spirit, Vehicle, or Ship may Manifest during Attune to gain Echo equal to its Echo score. Vehicles and Ships must be manned, and use their own Echo score regardless of crew aboard.
Pressure: At an enemy site or lane with no active enemy Battle Presence, an eligible unit, Vehicle, Ship, or card ability may Pressure during Attune. Pressure reduces the opponent's Echo by the pressuring unit's Echo score, to a minimum of 0. Vehicles and Ships use their own Echo score regardless of crew aboard. Only one Unit can Manifest or Pressure at a given site or lane each turn.
Aftershock
Aftershock is tabled for current playtesting. Echo still matters for Manifest, Pressure, awakened Spirits, and reducing Battle Damage.
Older Aftershock experiments may remain in prototype code, but the current attack and Battle Damage rules are official going forward.
Timing
En Route cards are moving toward a site or lane but have not arrived yet. They do not count for Battle Presence and are not legal attackers or blockers until they arrive.
Spotted is the exception. A Spotted En Route card becomes active and present for combat purposes for the duration of the effect.
Quick reference
