Force of Will Pastebin

1.0 Introduction
	1.1 How to Play (Beginner's Guide)
	 1.11: Official Rules
	 1.12 Deck Construction
	  1.12.1 What are all these Extra Decks???
	 1.13 Playing the Game
	  1.13.1 Combat
	 1.14 Where to Start
2.0 Product guide
	2.1: Wut 2 buy?
	 2.11: Starter Decks
	 2.12: Vingolf Boxes
	 2.13: Booster Boxes
	 2.14: Limited Print Runs
	 2.15: Secondary Market
3.0 Where to Play
	3.1 Local Scenes
	3.2 Online


1.0 Introduction:
Force of Will (FoW) is a Trading Card Game that plays a lot like Magic: the Gathering with the key differences being in how combat progresses and how mana(will) is produced.

Pick a J/Ruler, the leader of your deck, and outwit your opponent with fast spells, powerful creatures, synergistic combos, and anime waifus!
In FoW, you can tap(rest) your J/Ruler each turn to flip over(call) the top card of your magic stone deck once per turn. These magic stones act like lands, and you can rest them to produce will for your spells. Choosing between calling a magic stone or activating rest abilities of your J/Ruler makes the game more than just ramping into big spells! Let your opponent control the pace of the game and you can expect a struggle to catch up. Each player starts the game with 4000 life points! If that sounds like a lot, don't worry! Creatures(resonators) deal damage in multiples of 100 and resonators are generally much stronger for their mana cost than MTG's creatures. Reduce your opponent's life points to 0 and you win! Other alternate win-conditions apply as well, such as decking your opponent.

More of this is available in the rules section.

1.1 How to Play (Beginner's Guide):

1.11 Official Rules:
http://www.fowtcg.com/docs/rules/overall

1.12 Deck Construction:
Force of Will can be described in many ways as "Its like Magic but..." and since many people are familiar with Magic this can be a good way to introduce it.
In Force of Will you have 3 components to your deck. You have your Ruler, your Main Deck, and your Magic Stone Deck.
Your Ruler is a single card of a unique card type that cannot be played anywhere else(except be included in the sideboard). Many people will describe it similar to a Commander in Magic, but it isn't actually that similar. Your Ruler's color identity has no bearing on deck construction and almost every Ruler has an alternative side called the J-Ruler. You flip to your J-Ruler from your Ruler by paying a cost. Both the Ruler and J-Ruler have abilities that usually make them an omnipresent factor in the game. Your Ruler or J-Ruler can be rested(the word for tapped in FoW) to call a Magic Stone. Speaking of which...
The Magic Stone deck is the second major difference. It consists of 10-20 Magic Stone cards that are only played in this deck. These are your sources for Will(Mana) and they are "called" by resting your ruler. When called they enter the field and can be rested. One thing of note is that Force of Will manabases are much more lenient than Magic. The dual color Magic Stones are reprinted with regularity and have no downsides. Due to this most decks run 3 colors without much pain.
The Main Deck is comprised of 40-60 cards. These are where your Resonators(creatures), Chants(Sorcery/Instants), and Additions(Enchantments) reside. Each card can be included in up to 4 copies.

1.12.1 What are all these Extra Decks???
Certain Rulers allow you to have either a set of Runes or a Stranger Deck. For Runes your ruler requires an ability called "Divinity" and for Strangers the Ruler will specify that it is allowed.
Runes are special cards, often chants, that have the "Rune" subtype and a "Divinity" value. You may have up to 5, and they are kept seperate from the rest of your cards. You may look at them at any time. You may play Chant Runes in your Main Deck as well ,obeying the 4 copy limit. To play a rune you simply pay its cost and leave it face up on the field after it resolves. You may not play Runes that would raise thier combined Divinity over the Divinity printed on your Ruler.
Strangers are special Resonators that MAY NOT be included in your Main Deck. A Stranger Deck may have up to 2 copies of a Stranger and consist of 10 cards, no more and no less. You may look at your Stranger Deck at any time. Strangers will be moved from the Stranger Deck to your hand, field, or grave by card effects.
There is a third "Grimoire " Extra Deck that is unique to a single Ruler with its own rules.

1.13 Playing the Game:
Both players begin the game by shuffling both their Main Deck and Magic Stone Deck. After determining the first player you draw 5 cards and take a mulligan. A mulligan in Force of Will is returning any number of cards from your opening hand to the bottom of your deck and then drawing the same number. This is only done once. Each player starts with 4000 Life Points.
Each turn has a sequence of: Draw, Recover, Main, and End Phases in that order. Of note here is that you draw before you recover, allowing you to play cards with Quickcast and abilities before you untap your field.
During the Draw Phase the turn player draws 1 card, unless it is the very first turn in the game.
During the Recovery Phase you recover all of your entities, which refers to all cards on your side of the field(Ruler, Stones, Resonators, etc).
The Main Phase is where most of the action plays out. Players may summon Resonators, cast Chants, and perform Combat. Unless specified otherwise a Resonator that is summoned cannot be Rested until the next Recovery Phase, meaning no combat on the same turn.
In the End Phase damage is taken off of Resonators and the turn passes to the next player.
The game ends when one player is reduced to 0 Life Points or has no cards left in their Main Deck and must draw a card.

1.13.1 Combat:
Combat is handled during the Main Phase. Any Resonator that is able may attack. Only one Resonator can declare an attack at a time. Resonators can attack players, or other Resonators that are rested. An attacking Resonator may be blocked by single other Resonator as well. In order to block you must Rest a recovered Resonator. Resonators that fight deal damage equal to their attack to each others defense. Any Resonator that falls below 0 is destroyed.
A major difference in the nuance of combat is that if a blocking Resonator is destroyed before damage is dealt between the attacker and blocker, the attack continues on its normal path. This is unlike Magic where even a "failed" block is considered blocked for damage.

1.14 Where to Start:
If you are completely new to the game and want to learn it is best to get a couple starter decks and play with a friend. If you cannot play in person than simply find a starter deck list and put it into Untap.in and play with a friend. No friend? Ask /acg/. Really desperate? The R*ddit D*scord can help you find a game.

2.0: Product Guide:

2.1: Wut 2 buy?:
It's recommended that you choose what to purchase based on what you want out of the game (shocking).
If you want to play competitively, it's generally best to start with a starter deck, if you just want to collect and build your own decks, your options are more complicated.

2.11: Starter Decks:
If you're just getting into the game and you want to pick up a functional deck, the best place to go is the newest block's starter decks. Starter decks in FoW typically come with playsets of rares and super rares, as well as a powerful J/Ruler to build your deck around. If you're less interested in raw power but want several decks for cheap, you can pick up starter decks of older blocks(clusters). The original Alice cluster has notoriously cheap starter decks.

2.12: Vingolf Boxes:
Vingolf boxes are box-set cards with pre-determined cards in them. Vingolf 1 and 2 are very cheap and are excellent places to start a collection to play with friends.
Vingolf 1 Engage Knights is about $40 as of 06/20 and come with a decent selection of cards with admittedly mediocre art for most of them. However, they do come with a half-playset of all the dual stones and lots of rulers to play with including Vlad Tepes, who is quite good.
Vingolf 2 is only about $20 as of 06/20 and is generally considered pretty lame. The cards are a collaboration with Valkyria Chronicles and the art is mediocre, but you do get a lot of cards and it comes as pre-made decks so it's good to play with friends.
Vingolf 3 is FANTASTIC. It is an absolute home run, but was underprinted and is around $400 as of 06/20. If you find one for cheap, somehow. BUY IT and post about it on the thread so other anons can be jealous.

2.13: Booster Boxes:
Like any card game a booster box is a good way to grow a collection but not a good way to make a competitive deck. If you are interested in testing the waters of the game in general a booster box might be a good idea. With the Alice Origin Cluster you should note that the first two sets largely compliment the starter decks and the third and fourth set are balanced for the rulers inside that are box toppers.
The cheapest place to get booster boxes is eBay. With earlier boxes you must know that mileage will vary. You may notice some very cheap boxes for sale! Please note that these boxes likely hold very little value. Millennium of Ages is a good example of this. You can find boxes for under $20 but one box will get you full sets of most of the cards. Other boxes aren't exactly this bad, but keep it in mind.

2.14 Limited Print Runs:
Force of Will has a unique way of solving the issue of overprinting sets in that they just dont. Every set and product is printed to preorder. This means that if you want a product the best time to get it is when it releases. Talk to your local stores and see if they can get it for you, and if they cannot then there are online options.

2.15 Secondary Market:
The secondary market for Force of Will is generally pretty good. Cards are often rather cheap. There are exceptions, and due to the limited printing of the game you cannot always find the cards that you may want. There are several places to find cards. TCGPlayer, CardKingdom if you are in the EU or have a mail forwarding service, and the Facebook marketplace page can be good sources to check.

3.0 Where to play:

3.1 Local Scenes:
There is no blanket guide for a local scene in Force of Will. If you are lucky you will have a few players near you that play on a regular basis. Places like Reddit or the Facebook page can be helpful for finding local groups. Otherwise you can ask around at your local stores.
If there is no scene or you are part of a group that doesnt play FoW but plays other card games you could try to start your own play group. The best way to support the life and longevity of a game is to play it.

3.2 Online:
Force of Will has 2 ways of playing online. The first is Untap.in and the second is Tabletop Simulator on Steam. Both of these options are manual simulators, meaning that you will have to know the rules and perform all actions yourself. Untap is free, while Tabletop Sim requires a copy of the game for all players. Untap comes with a deck builder while Tabletop Sim requires a bit more effort.
Here on /acg/ we are in the process of setting up a weekly games "tournament" where Force of Will will be played regularly. Everyone is welcome to join and people on /acg/ are willing to help new players learn.