The Living Atlas · mixed-faction deck building
WAYBOUND
Open Atlas · discover, test and refine your strategy
Browse every current card
Every character remains available. Choose full faction decks or use the custom editor. Companions sit outside the 30-card deck; Vanta remains Mythbound with a one-per-deck limit. See the current card catalog for every card, path and Ascension.
The Missing Road · a world shared by nine factions
A road vanishes from the Atlas. A lantern keeps burning where an infirmary once stood. Nine expeditions follow its light, each carrying a different answer to what a road is for.
Some would rebuild it. Some would guard it. Some remember why it was erased. Their stories meet at the same crossing—and your deck decides which strengths travel together.
Read all nine faction chapters · Explore every Companion’s growth
Matches save on this browser after every action.
Prismforge update: Opposing Constructs block Explore until destroyed or relocated. Resonance Spire adds +1 Renown to the first friendly Explore there each owner turn; the Explore button includes this bonus. New full decks contain 15 Allies, 9 Tactics and 6 Constructs (two of each). Existing saves retain their original decks. Rules, deck changes and tests.
Full balance update: Hourglass gains explicit Construct counterplay and an Orryx planning reward. All changes and fresh nine-faction results. Start a new match for revised cards; existing saves retain their stored cards.
Digital tabletop · nine-faction prototype 1
All current cards · Balance results · New faction illustrations · Original faction illustrations
Resume an earlier version
Original four-faction game · Previous seven-faction game · Construction draft · First Prismforge draft
Open Atlas · build beyond factions.
Experimental mixed-faction format. Choose one Companion, then 30 Allies, Tactics or Constructs from any faction. Shared-name copy limits still apply. Reserve and Claim come from your Companion’s faction; foreign cards do not grant faction-wide benefits. This edition has its own saved match. See the tested decks and results · Nine-faction play
Historical faction test results (v0.30)
Open matchup details and test limitationsChoose a Companion from any of the nine factions, then combine current cards into a 30-card mixed deck. Build around a synergy, test it against a rival and refine your list. Browse the full nine-faction card library.
Race to 20 Renown. Explore to score, protect routes with ready units, or challenge opponents to open a path.
Charge grows with experience: each player begins with 1 Charge capacity, gains +1 on each later turn, and eventually refills to 6.
Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced describe learning complexity, not faction strength. You can also choose any two factions freely.
Beginner takes short turns with basic cards. Intermediate uses immediate faction tactics. Advanced compares action sequences and visible opponent replies, boosts scoring before exploring and reinforces vulnerable blockers. All use the same cards, Charge and rules; difficulty applies to practice matches.
Turn order and shuffle
Try a discovered build
Load a tested list into either deck, then edit it. Companion faction selectors choose your Companion family.
Custom build · edit your selected faction decks
Start from each full faction list and edit either or both decks. Exactly 30 cards per deck; no required Ally/Tactic/Construct ratio. Use up to three copies per identity, except Vanta: maximum one. Companions and path references stay outside the deck.
Matches save on this browser after every action. Reopening this page restores an unfinished match. Clearing site data or using another browser will not carry the save over.
Complete starter deck contents
Your hand
Select a card to play it, or discard it for 1 Charge during your main turn. No replacement draw.
Choose an action
Select a unit or a card to see its role, stats and available actions.
Select one of your units or a card in hand.
Match log
How to play · full alpha rules
New-match trial: After choosing a path, earn three more Journey marks and pay 3 Charge to ascend once. Keep the path; gain +2 Force / +2 Guard and a new ability. All eight Companions start with Guard 5. Existing path stats remain unchanged. Companion defeats reset all Journey marks and skip two owner turns. Glass Orchard grants +1 Force. Start a new match to use these rules; older saves retain their rules.
Goal: finish your turn with at least 20 Renown. At the end of round 12, higher Renown wins, then Companion journey marks; a further tie is a draw.
- Current four-faction/custom balance opening: the first player cannot Explore on their first turn. The second player receives +1 available Charge on their first turn only; capacity and later income do not increase.
- Both Companions start ready at Lantern Crossing. Each 30-card deck draws five. Each player may replace their full opening hand once.
- Start a turn: ready your units, reset movement limits and turn effects, draw one, then refill charge. If your hand is empty at the start, draw five instead of one (as many as available). Emptying your hand does not draw immediately. The first player skips their first normal draw. Capacity starts at one, rises on each later turn, and caps at six.
- Pay charge to play Allies ready at any open Route. There is no character limit. New Allies may Explore (when opening rules allow), Challenge or move immediately; normal movement exhausts them. On-entry choices happen immediately.
- Each ready unit may normally move once to an adjacent route for one charge. Moving into Windbridge is free. Explicit card effects ignore readiness and normal movement limits.
- Explore: exhaust a ready unit and gain Renown equal to Insight. ANY ready enemy at the same Route blocks Explore, regardless of Guard or Insight. Exhausted enemies do not block it. Each Companion earns at most one journey mark per turn.
- Challenge: declare with a ready unit. If the opponent has one ready unit at that Route, it defends automatically; with several, the defending player chooses one. If there are no ready defenders, the attacker chooses any opposing unit there. Exhaust the attacker and deal its Force with no retaliation; the defender stays ready. Damage persists. At damage ≥ Guard, an Ally is discarded; a Companion returns exhausted to Lantern Crossing, clears damage, loses all journey marks, and keeps its chosen path. It stays exhausted through its next two owner turns, with no active abilities; it readies on the third. It remains vulnerable to attack; another defeat restarts recovery.
- At three journey marks, pay two charge and permanently choose a path. Keep location, damage, readiness and marks. Hearthkeeper: 1/7/2, Explore heals another friendly unit here by one. Trailblazer: 3/5/1, first normal move free. Windguide: 2/5/2, first normal move free. Stormwing: 4/5/1, its own Challenge defeat of an Ally scores one Renown.
- Glass Orchard gives every character there +1 Force. Lantern Crossing has no extra effect.
- Ironmaw Claim the Way in the current four-faction/custom balance draft: gain 1 Renown from the first own-turn Challenge that defeats an opposing Ally, maximum 1 per turn in new matches. Companions, direct Tactics and Cleave spillover do not count.
- Act in any order on your own turn. The opponent makes defender, dodge and Cleave choices when prompted; Tactics remain main-phase actions. Win is checked when you end your turn; otherwise discard to seven, clear temporary effects, and pass. Empty decks recycle their discard pile; if both are empty, skip the draw.
Expansion paths: Korr chooses Shellwarden or Bridgewright; Nima chooses Chartweaver or Stormdancer. Resolve actions and defeats before path triggers. The first Ally played anywhere this turn counts for Bridgewright, even before transformation. Movement attached to Explore or Challenge is optional: choose the action with movement or the plain action to skip it. Rooted Allies cannot move; Swift only changes normal move cost.
A normal move exhausts the moving unit. Movement printed as part of a card or ability does not exhaust unless that effect says so. Card effects with no legal target do nothing; the card still costs charge. You choose healing and movement targets explicitly. The optional experimental first-player rule prevents only the starting player's first-turn Explore.
Layout 0.3 uses separate journey reference cards outside the decks. Original starter costs and stats remain alpha 0.2. Expansion cards use draft 0.3.