---

How to Play — Master Rulebook

Set 1: Strongholds · Version 1.1 (Draft 4)

"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." — John 1:5 (KJV)

1. Welcome to Light VS Darkness

Light VS Darkness is a cooperative-competitive trading card game for 1 to 4 players. Together, the Light players battle an automated Dark Deck of fifteen Strongholds — spiritual fortresses of lies such as Pride, Fear, Shame, and Grief. One Stronghold already looms over the table at setup, and more rise as the game progresses.

The Light must demolish five Strongholds to win — but if five Strongholds are ever active at once, the Darkness overwhelms the Light and wins. You must topple the darkness faster than it can rise.

Victory is shared, but glory is personal: when the fifth Stronghold falls, players count their Maturity Points (MP) to crown the most spiritually mature Light player. You win together — and one of you shines brightest.

Every card is rooted in Scripture (KJV). As you play, you wield real spiritual truths: the sevenfold Spirit of Isaiah 11:2, the Armor of God, the Fruit of the Spirit, the Beatitudes, and the names and promises of the Lord.

What Makes This Game Different

• One enemy, many lights. You never fight each other. The enemy is automated; all hostility flows from the Dark Deck.
• Draft your disciplines. The standard game is a draft: keep your Mentor’s fixed core, then draft the disciplines and truths you’ll carry into battle. Every game is different.
• Rising darkness. A Stronghold stands from turn one and the pile grows every other round. Let five stand together and the Light falls — the clock is always ticking.
• Two layers of victory. The cooperative win plus individual MP scoring rewards both teamwork and personal excellence.

2. The Sevenfold Spirit — Color System

Every Light card belongs to one of seven anointing colors, drawn from Isaiah 11:2 (KJV): "And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD."

Color	Symbol	Spirit Aspect	Play Style
Red	R	Spirit of the Lord	Holy fire, sacrifice, cleansing, direct damage. Red also serves as the wild/universal color.
Orange	O	Wisdom	Clarity, card draw, buffing allies.
Yellow	Y	Understanding	Illumination, damage prevention, negating effects.
Green	G	Counsel	Guidance, healing, regeneration, team synergy.
Light Blue	L	Might	Strength and valor, power buffs, attack multipliers.
Dark Blue	D	Knowledge	Prophecy and foresight, deck manipulation, card advantage.
Purple	P	Fear of the Lord	Awe and holiness, banishing, sealing effects.

Cost Notation

Playing costs appear as a color letter plus a number. The letter is a colored anointing requirement; the number is generic anointing payable with any color. R+2 = 1 Red AND 2 any (3 total). Y+1 = 1 Yellow AND 1 any (2 total). "Free" cards cost nothing. Costs range 0–7 in Set 1.

3. Card Types in Detail

Anointing Cards (Light Resources)

• You may play one anointing generator per turn — Basic or Discipline.
• Exhaust a Basic Anointing to add 1 anointing of its color. Spiritual Disciplines are dual generators: exhaust for 1 anointing of either printed color.
• Basic Anointing cards cannot be sacrificed or committed; they are your foundation. All anointing cards ready at the start of your turn.

Living Truth Cards

• Permanents with printed ATK/HP. They attack Strongholds and shield you from Stronghold attacks.
• A Living Truth exhausts when it attacks. Damage persists until healed; a Living Truth at 0 HP is destroyed and discarded.

Equipment

• Attach to a Living Truth or Transformed Mentor you control; grants the printed bonus while attached. If the host leaves play, its Equipment is discarded.

One Time Cards

• Resolve the effect, then discard permanently. Cards marked Reaction may be played during the Dark turn in the Reaction Window.

Mentors

• Each player begins with their Mentor in play (no playing cost). Side A grants a passive ability.
• When the specific Truth card named by your Mentor is played, flip it: the Transformed Mentor is a 7/7 Living Truth. It can attack, defend, be equipped — and be destroyed. A destroyed Mentor is removed from the game.

Strongholds (Dark)

• The Dark Deck: 15 boss cards deployed automatically. No cost — Darkness pays no price.
• Each has ATK/HP, a persistent negative effect afflicting all players while active, and a printed MP reward for whoever demolishes it. Stronghold stats scale with player count (see Section 6).

4. Game Setup

Step 1 — Choose your Mentor & Core

Each player chooses a Mentor (its anointing-color identity) and takes that Mentor’s fixed 20-card Core: 7 Basic Anointing, 3 Spiritual Disciplines (dual generators), and 10 identity Living Truths. Place your Mentor face-up (Side A) in your play area. The Core guarantees your colors and your creatures — you will never be color-screwed.

Step 2 — Draft your 16 (the standard game)

• Form the shared Market Deck from all Equipment and One-Time cards. Shuffle it and deal a face-up Market Row of 6 cards.
• In turn order using a snake pattern (in a 4-player game: P1-P2-P3-P4, then P4-P3-P2-P1, and repeat), each player drafts 1 card from the Market Row into their deck; refill the row to 6 after each pick.
• Continue until every player has drafted 16 cards. Draft cards you can actually pay for — favor your Mentor’s colors, colorless cards, and Red (wild).
• Your deck is now 36 cards: 20 Core + 16 drafted. (For a fast start, skip the draft and use a preconfigured deck — see Section 10.)

Step 3 — Open the board

• Shuffle your 36-card deck and draw a starting hand of 5. Set Life to 30 and Maturity Points to 0.
• Shuffle the 15 Stronghold cards face-down to form the Dark Deck (the Dark Field, center of table).
• Seed the darkness: reveal the top Stronghold into play now. Its persistent effect is active immediately, but it does NOT attack until the first Dark Turn (Round 3).
• Apply player-count scaling to every Stronghold, including the seeded one (see Section 6).
• Choose a first player at random. Play proceeds clockwise.

Starting Value	Amount
Deck size	36 cards (20 Core + 16 drafted)
Starting hand	5 cards
Maximum hand size	7 (end-of-turn limit)
Life (Vitality)	30
Maturity Points	0
Anointing pool	0 (empties at end of every turn)
Cards drawn per turn	1
Anointing generators playable per turn	1
Strongholds in play at setup	1 (seeded, scaled)

5. The Light Player Turn

Rounds alternate between Light turns and, from Round 3 onward, scheduled Dark Turns. Each Light player takes these phases in order:

1. Ready Phase

• Ready all exhausted cards. Resolve "at the start of your turn" effects.

2. Draw Phase

• Draw 1 card. If your deck is empty, shuffle your discard into a new deck, then draw.

3. Anointing Phase

• Play up to 1 anointing generator. Exhaust your anointing cards for anointing anytime this turn. "Sacrifice for anointing" cards may be used any time on your turn.

4. Main Phase

• Play any cards you can afford: Living Truths, Equipment, One Time. Activate abilities. Playing your Mentor’s trigger card flips it to Transformed immediately.

5. Attack Phase

• Declare readied Living Truths (and your Transformed Mentor) as attackers against any active Stronghold(s); attacking exhausts them. Split attackers freely. Damage on Strongholds persists between turns.
• If a Stronghold reaches 0 HP it is demolished: remove it, gain its printed MP, keep it as a trophy.

6. End Phase

• Resolve end-of-turn effects. Discard down to 7. Unspent anointing expires.

6. The Dark Deck (Automated Enemy)

The Dark Deck runs itself — no player controls it. One Stronghold is seeded at setup; the rest arrive on this schedule:

Round	Dark Activity
Setup	1 Stronghold seeded into play (effect active; does not attack yet).
1–2	Peace before the storm. No new Dark activity. Build anointing and battlefield.
3	First Dark Turn: summon 1 Stronghold, then ALL active Strongholds attack.
5, 7, 9, …	Every other round: another Dark Turn — summon 1, then all active Strongholds attack.

With this schedule the 5th Stronghold arrives on Round 9 (1 seeded + summons on Rounds 3, 5, 7, 9).

Player-Count Scaling

Darkness grows with the fellowship it opposes. For each player beyond the first, every Stronghold enters with +1 ATK and +1 HP (2 players +1/+1, 3 players +2/+2, 4 players +3/+3). Apply this to the seeded Stronghold too. Printed stats in Section 7 are the 1-player baseline.

The Encroaching Dark (Lose Timer)

If five Strongholds are ever active at the same time, the Darkness overwhelms the Light and immediately wins. Because a new Stronghold rises every other round, you must demolish them faster than they stack — you cannot simply turtle.

Dark Turn Sequence

1. Summon: reveal the top Dark card into the Dark Field. Its persistent effect is active immediately.
2. Attack: each active Stronghold attacks, one at a time in the order it entered play. Each Stronghold attacks EVERY Light player in turn order.
3. Resolve any "end of Dark turn" effects.

How Stronghold Attacks Resolve (per player)

1. Reaction Window: the defending player may play Reaction/One Time cards (prevention, buffs, healing).
2. Blockers first: assign the Stronghold’s ATK to your Living Truths (you choose the order). Each absorbs up to its remaining HP; destroyed blockers are discarded.
3. Overflow: any remaining damage hits your Life directly. No blockers? The full ATK hits your Life.

Your battlefield is your shield — a strong wall protects your Vitality, but every defender you lose weakens your next strike.

Persistent Stronghold Effects

Each Stronghold’s printed effect afflicts ALL players from the moment it enters until it is demolished. Multiple active Strongholds stack — the longer you wait, the darker the world becomes.

7. Stronghold Reference — Set 1

Stats below are the 1-player baseline. Add +1 ATK / +1 HP per additional player.

Stronghold	ATK/HP	MP	Persistent Effect
Pride	5/5	7	Mentor abilities are disabled while in play.
Fear	4/6	8	Player with the least anointing loses an additional 3 anointing.
Shame	6/7	9	MP rewards from demolished Strongholds are halved, rounded up (while in play).
Lying	6/6	8	Each player discards 1 card permanently each round.
Infirmity	6/5	7	Healing-related cards cost +2 anointing to play.
Heaviness	4/5	6	Players with fewer than 2 Truth cards in play must discard a card.
Abandonment	4/7	6	Players skip their next Draw Phase when this is first activated.
Lust	5/6	6	Each player must discard the highest-cost Truth card in hand.
Addictions	5/7	6	Each player loses 2 colorless anointing every round.
Anger	6/5	7	When any player uses 5+ anointing in a turn, they lose 1 MP.
Deaf & Dumb	7/5	6	Additional-draw and Meditate cards may be played but their draw effect is blocked.
Poverty	7/4	6	All cards cost +1 colorless anointing to play.
Jealousy	7/5	7	When another player gains MP, all other players lose 1 anointing.
Grief	7/6	8	Players who play fewer than 2 cards in a turn lose 2 anointing.
Occult	7/8	9	Negates the first Truth card played each round.

Total MP across all 15 Strongholds: 106. A game ends the moment five are demolished, so the MP actually claimed varies with which Strongholds appear.

8. Life, Defeat & Resurrection

• Players start at 30 Life.
• If your Life reaches 0 you are Defeated. At the start of your next turn you Resurrect at 15 Life and lose 5 MP (minimum 0).
• A second Defeat eliminates you; your cards leave play. If ALL Light players are eliminated, Darkness wins.

9. Winning the Game

Light Victory

The moment the fifth Stronghold is demolished, the Light wins. Then each player totals their Maturity Points:

• Printed MP from each Stronghold they personally demolished (dealt the final damage).
• MP gained or lost through card effects during the game.
• Resurrection penalties (−5 MP each).

Destroy counts as demolish. A Stronghold removed by a card effect that says "destroy" is demolished for all purposes. The player who played that effect claims its MP, exactly as if they had dealt the killing blow.

Passive MP cap. The total MP a player may gain from passive and ongoing card effects — everything except Stronghold demolition rewards — is capped at +10 per game.

The highest MP total is the most spiritually mature Light player — the individual champion. Tiebreakers: (1) most Strongholds demolished, (2) highest remaining Life, (3) shared honor — the light is unified.

Dark Victory

Darkness wins immediately if EITHER: (a) all Light players are eliminated (each Defeated twice); OR (b) five Strongholds are active at the same time — the Encroaching Dark.

10. Modes of Play

Mode	Players	How It Works
Draft (Standard)	1–4	The primary game. Keep your Mentor’s 20-card Core, draft 16 from the shared Market Row. Every game is different.
Quick-Start (Preconfigured)	1–4	Skip the draft: each player uses a fixed 36-card starter deck tied to a Mentor. Best for teaching and first games.
Solo Pilgrimage	1	You alone vs the Dark Deck. Baseline Stronghold stats (no scaling).
Full Fellowship	2–4	Pure co-op: ignore individual MP; win or lose together. Great for teaching.
Iron Saints (hard)	1–4	Strongholds attack EVERY round once in play. For veterans.

11. Keyword Glossary

Standard keywords on Set 1 cards. A card’s full text always overrides the general rule.

Keyword	Meaning
Ready / Stand	Upright and available; may attack, block, or use abilities.
Exhaust	Turn sideways to show a card is used; readies at the start of your turn.
Sacrifice / Commit	Send a card you control to the discard pile as a cost.
Heal X	Restore X Life to a player or X HP to a Living Truth (never above printed HP).
Reaction	May be played outside your turn, during a Reaction Window.
Negate	The targeted card or effect does nothing; discard it.
Protection from X	Cannot be damaged, targeted, or affected by the named source.
Transform	Flip a Mentor to its empowered side (7/7 Living Truth).
Demolish / Destroy	Remove a Stronghold and claim its MP. A card that says "destroy" a Stronghold demolishes it.

12. Golden Rules & Timing

1. Card text overrides the rulebook. If a card contradicts these rules, the card wins.
2. Light before Dark: when Light and Dark effects would trigger simultaneously, Light resolves first.
3. Active player decides the order of their own simultaneous triggers.
4. No stack: effects resolve in the order played, except Reactions, which resolve immediately.
5. MP can never drop below 0. Passive-effect MP is capped at +10 per game.
6. A Stronghold "destroyed" by a card effect counts as demolished; its MP goes to the player who played the effect.
7. Damage on Living Truths and Strongholds persists until healed or the card leaves play.

13. Quick Reference (One Page)

Your Turn

1. READY all cards; start-of-turn effects.
2. DRAW 1 card.
3. ANOINTING: play up to 1 generator; exhaust generators for anointing anytime.
4. MAIN: play cards, equip, activate, transform Mentor.
5. ATTACK: exhaust Living Truths to strike Strongholds; demolish at 0 HP → claim MP.
6. END: discard to 7; anointing pool empties.

Dark Turn (Rounds 3, 5, 7, 9, …)

1. Summon 1 new Stronghold; then each active Stronghold attacks every player (Reaction Window → blockers → overflow to Life).

Key Numbers

Rule	Value
Start: Life / Hand / Deck	30 / 5 / 36
Deck build	20-card Mentor Core + 16 drafted
Hand limit / Draw / Generators	7 / 1 per turn / 1 per turn
Strongholds at setup	1 (seeded)
Dark Turns	Rounds 3, 5, 7, 9, … (5th Stronghold on R9)
Player scaling	+1 ATK / +1 HP per additional player
Resurrection	15 Life, −5 MP, once only
Light wins	5 Strongholds demolished
Darkness wins	All Light eliminated, OR 5 Strongholds active at once
Champion	Highest Maturity Points (passive MP capped +10)