Machai (aka Mάχαi)

Introduction

Machai is a fast-paced, competitive 1v1 combat deck-building trading card game. Players take turns playing cards to deal damage, set up strategies, counter their opponent, and unleash powerful abilities.

Are you the charismatic leader wielding massive forces against oppressors, the wandering sage who has reached enlightenment, or the tyrant bending nations to their knees? In this world, power has no fixed shape – it is everywhere, waiting to be claimed.

Your Objective

Dominate your opponent on the battlefield. You win by:

Reducing their life to 0.
Exhausting your opponent 6 times. (exhaustion occurs when a player decks out. See Exhaustion rules below)

Deck-Building Rules

You construct multiple level decks that are combined into your main deck as you level up.

Archetypes

When building your list:

Choose 1 primary Archetype:
- You may include up to 2 copies of each card from this Archetype.
Choose 1 Sub-Archetype:
- You may include 1 copy of each card from this Archetype.
Add General cards:
- You may include 1 copy of each General card.

Level Deck Sizes

Your level decks must contain:

Deck Level	Number of Cards
Level 1	20 cards
Level 2	10 cards
Level 3	6 cards
Level 4	4 cards

You start the game with your Level 1 deck.
When you level up, you shuffle the deck for your new level into your current deck.

Turn Structure

Each turn is broken into phases:

Beginning Phase
- Effects that trigger “at the beginning of your turn” resolve in this phase.
- Resolve any “at the beginning of your turn” effects.
- Remove or update game pieces as needed.
Upkeep
- Resolve “at upkeep” effects.
- Untap appropriate cards, including Prepared cards that become ready this turn.
- Remove or update game pieces as needed.
Main Phase
- Play cards from your hand.
- Prepare cards into Prepared Zones for future turns.
- Activate abilities that can be used during the Main Phase.
Clean-Up / Leveling
- Resolve “end of turn” and “during clean-up” effects.
- Remove temporary effects and game pieces as needed.
- If you have 10 or more experience, you may level up:
  - Spend 10 experience.
  - Shuffle the deck corresponding to your new level into the remainder of your current deck.
Draw Phase
- Draw until you reach your minimum hand size.
End Step
- Final chance to play cards or respond with appropriate speed.
- Pass the turn to your opponent.

Opening Hand & Mulligans

Each player draws a starting hand equal to their minimum hand size.
The default hand size is 4. This can be modified by other cards.
If you don’t like your starting hand, you may mulligan once:
- Shuffle your entire hand back into your deck.
- Draw a new hand up to your minimum hand size.

Card Speeds & Playing Cards

There is no hard cap on how many cards you can play in a turn, as long as you can legally play them.

Machai uses three speed tiers:

Tier	Card Types
3	Counter cards, Quick cards
2	Prepared cards from Prepared Zones
1	Cards played freely from hand on your turn (default)

Responding by Speed

A card can respond to another card on the stack if its speed is greater than or equal to the speed of that card:

Speed 3 can respond to speeds 3, 2, and 1.
Speed 2 can respond to speeds 2 and 1.
Speed 1 cards normally cannot respond; they are usually only played when the stack is empty, unless they have Quick or Counter.

Playing a card

You play a card.
The game pauses for a moment before the card takes effect.
(This pause is called putting the card “on the stack.”)
Your opponent gets a chance to react.
They may play a card that is fast enough to respond.
(When it’s their turn to react, we say they “have priority.”)
Then the chance comes back to you.
After your opponent responds or decides not to, you also get a chance to play something else.
If both players say they're done, the cards resolve.
When both players pass one after the other, the game starts resolving the stack.
Cards resolve from the top of the stack downward.
The most recently played card happens first, then the next one underneath it, and so on.

Prepared Cards & Prepared Zones

Some cards have Prepared as an option. You can either:

Play them from hand at their normal speed
Prepare them in advance for later turns.

Preparing a Card

When you prepare a card, place it tapped into an available Prepared Zone.
At your next Upkeep, it untaps and becomes available to use
Prepared cards can be used on either player’s turn, as long as their speed allows it.

Prepared Zones

You have a number of Prepared Zones equal to your level + 1.
- Example: At level 3, you have 4 Prepared Zones (3 + 1 = 4).
Prepared cards must be placed into these zones.
If a Prepared Zone is ever lost:
- The card in that zone is not discarded and can still be played from that zone.
- Once that card leaves the zone, you cannot place another card there until you regain that Prepared Zone.

Preparing Attack & Skill Cards

When you prepare an Attack card, it gains +1 damage.
When you prepare a Skill card:
- It either grants you +1 experience, or
- Its experience cost is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0), depending on the wording of the card.

Benefits of Preparation

Hand Management - Preparing cards reduces your hand size, letting you draw more during your Draw Phase
Power Boosts - Prepared Attacks and Skills gain their respective bonuses.
Increased Spell Speed - Prepared cards are played from Prepared Zones at Spell Speed 2, allowing you to play Speed 1 cards during your opponent’s turn.
Explosive Turns- Multiple prepared cards allow powerful multi-card sequences and stronger turn setups.

Damage

When a card or effect modifies damage, you always change the value printed on the card, not the final total damage.

Example

Magic Missile reads: “Deal 1 damage per level.”
You are level 3.
An effect gives Magic Missile +3 damage.
You add 3 to the printed 1 resulting in 4, so it now reads: “Deal 4 damage per level.”
At level 3, it deals 12 damage (4 * 3).

If damage is Dodged:

The attacking card still gains experience as normal.
Any experience cost is still paid.
The defending player simply takes no damage.

Equipment

Equipment cards are permanents that stay on the battlefield add will have a durability value that acts as a buffer for your life.

Durability on a card or token acts as health for that permanent. If all of its Armor is removed, that permanent is destroyed, unless otherwise stated.
Damage is dealt to Equipment first, then to your life total.
If you have more than one permanent with Equipment, the attacking player chooses which piece is damaged first. Excess damage carries over to the next chosen target.

Eris Armor (aka Temporary Armor)

When you gain Armor that is not permanent, if you do not already have a Eris Armor token, create one and add that Armor to it.
If you already have a Eris Armor token, add the newly gained Armor to its current value.
During upkeep, you must maintain your Eris Armor by:
- First, removing half (rounded down) of the armor attached to it
- Then, lose Life equal to half of remaining armor attached to Eris Armor token

Drawing Cards

Machai uses a minimum hand size system.

At the start of your Draw Phase, if you have fewer cards in hand than your minimum hand size, draw until you reach that number.
If you had to pass your previous turn without playing or preparing any cards:
- During your next Draw Phase, you may discard up to half your hand (rounded down), then draw back up to your minimum hand size.

This gives you a way to dig for new options after a dead turn.

Exhaustion

If you must draw a card and your deck is empty:

You gain 1 level of Exhaustion.
Take your memory/discard pile, shuffle it, and form a new deck.
Pass this deck to your opponent. They randomly exile 4 cards face down.
- Neither player may look at these exiled cards.
Return the remaining cards to your deck area and finish drawing.

If a player reaches 6 levels of Exhaustion, they lose the game.

Experience & Costs

When a card that gains experience resolves, add that amount to your experience pool.
Cards with an experience cost require you to spend that amount of experience from your pool to play them.
You cannot play a card with an experience cost if you do not have enough experience to pay it.
You also spend experience to level up (see Turn Structure).