Build Divide

INTRODUCTION:
---What is Build Divide?
Build Divide is a media-mix franchise consisting of a paper TCG and anime from Homura Kawamoto (Kakegurui) and anime industry giant, Aniplex. The TCG is spearheaded by JP game company Yuhodo with Satoshi Nakamura as lead designer. Nakamura has been lead designer for some of the biggest TCGs in JP including Bushiroad's Weiss Schwarz and Cardfight!! Vanguard. He was also involved in the creation of the ruleset and design of the first two sets of Duel Masters as well as being a former pro Magic player.

---Introductory lore of Build Divide
A world far beyond our dimension. There are countless "Divide" worlds that differ from our own in terms of ecology and even physical laws. The "Aces" of each Divide have their own "territories," the source of their power. They have been fighting each other for the survival of the Divide. You, as an agent who makes a contract with the Aces, lead the army through the cards and must draw out the power of the Territory to win the battle across dimensions!

Note: This game currently has not been announced for an English release. It is only available in JP.

HOW TO PLAY BUILD DIVIDE:
---Deckbuilding
1. You must have a minimum of 40 cards and can have a maximum of 50 cards in your deck.
2. You must prepare 1 Territory card for use outside the deck. It does not count towards your deck size.
3. There must be no more than 4 copies of any single card in your deck.
4. You must have exactly 12 Buster Triggers in your deck.
5. You may have up to 12 Shot Triggers in your deck.

---Types of Cards
Units:
These are the cards you will typically summon to help you take down opposing units and deal damage to the opponent. Besides just having "Unit" as part of the card attribute it is easy to tell a card is a unit given its Power and Hit. Units typically come in 4 types of colors: red, white, black, and blue. Units will also have a cost on them letting you know how much and exactly what amounts of energy you need to pay.

EXAMPLE: Gambler of Souls, Bloom has a Total Cost of 5 which is broken down into 2 Black and 3 Colorless. This means you must pay exactly 2 Black energy then any combination of colors as long as there's 3 energy from that combination.

Ace:
This is a special type of Unit that can be thought of as a boss unit for your deck. Every Ace has a special territory that it works with to bring out its full potential. Ace is usually denoted in the attribute section of the card. Another effect intrinsic to every Ace is that as soon as it is played, the territory it is specifically connected to opens. To figure out which territories the Ace can open there is a purple emblem on the Ace displaying what is called its "Title". A territory can be opened by an Ace with a matching "Title." You do not need to play the proper territory to play an Ace. Aces usually have 2 effects, 1 general and 1 territory specific. It is to your benefit to experiment and see what Aces mesh well with which playstyles and if you can take advantage of some of the general effects of Aces when using a different type of territory.

Commands:
Simply put these are like spell cards. Once their effect resolves they go straight to the cemetery. Much like units, they also have certain costs on them that need to be paid with the proper amount of energy.

Territories:
This is the true gimmick of the game. Where the namesake Build Divide really comes from. You choose which territory appeals to you based on its gimmick and then build your deck around that territory making sure to include the special Ace which can synergize best with it. A territory card is typically double-sided with one side showing art of the Ace and the other side showing the actual effect of the territory. Territory cards are placed face-down at the start of the game and as soon as the conditions are met to open them they are flipped face-up for the remainder of the game.

Triggers:
Build Divide utilizes a trigger system borrowing from the gameplay of Duel Masters and Cardfight!! Vanguard. There are two triggers to be aware of in Build Divide.

1. Shot Trigger: These triggers are denoted by having a Star shaped symbol on the top right hand corner. Typically Shot triggers are "good" triggers that help you gain an advantage. When they are checked from the life zone as a result of taking damage you are allowed to play them for free without paying their cost. Afterwards you put them in the cemetery as with any Command. As of right now the only Shot triggers available are Command cards but the way Build Divide is designed there is definitely design space there to incorporate Units as Shot Triggers in the future.

2. Buster Trigger: These triggers are denoted by having a Skull shaped symbol on the top right hand corner. Typically Buster triggers are "bad" triggers that put you at a disadvantage. When they are checked from the life zone as a result of taking damage you immediately take one more damage. It is worth noting this extra damage sustained from a Buster trigger being checked does not count towards the damage you take from an opponent's attack. Additionally, if you check a Buster trigger as your final damage you will take one more damage thus ending the game resulting in your loss. Taking an extra damage counts as a damage check so any additional Busters checked will activate but also any Shot triggers that get checked could activate too.

EXAMPLE: Deadrook, Liverwort deals 2 damage to a player. That player performs a damage check by flipping over the top card of their life zone. A Buster trigger is revealed. That player immediately takes one more damage. No Buster trigger is revealed. Then the second damage that player normally would have taken from Liverwort resolves. In total, the player has taken 3 damage from an original damage of 2.

---Preparation
1. Shuffle your deck thoroughly and give it to your opponent to cut/shuffle and then decide who goes first (rock-paper-scissors, flip coin, roll dice, etc).
2. Place your territory card face down on the territory zone.
3. Draw 5 cards from the top of your deck. If you do not like this hand you may set it aside and draw the next 5 cards from the top of your deck. Afterwards, take the original 5 cards you drew and put them back on the top of the deck. Then shuffle the deck. This is called a mulligan and it can only be performed once per game.
4. Take the top 10 cards of your deck and place them onto your life zone from right to left. You will have two zones: Yellow and Red. The first 5 cards go in Yellow and the latter 5 cards go in Red.
5. Finally, take the next top 2 cards of your deck and place them in your energy zone face up. This will be your starting energy.

---Game Flow
STAND PHASE:
This is typically when you start your turn. All you do is stand or untap any rested units and energy. To stand something simply turn the card until it is in a portrait orientation.

DRAW PHASE:
Draw 1 card from your deck. The player who goes first cannot draw on their first turn. If you have no more cards in your deck but do have cards in life you are required to draw the foremost card in your life.

MAIN PHASE:
This is where you will perform most of your actions on your turn. During your main phase you can charge energy but only once per turn and play any number of units and/or commands provided you can pay the appropriate costs. You may do any of these things in any order you desire. To charge energy you simply take 1 card from your hand and place it in portrait orientation on your Energy Zone.

ATTACK PHASE:
In the attack phase you can either choose to attack a player's units or the player. To declare an attack, rest your unit by turning it sideways and select a target (unit or player). Do note that under normal circumstances you cannot attack a unit that is standing unless some effect or mechanic allows you to. Typically you can only attack a unit that is resting. Once the target has been confirmed, damage calculation occurs. Damage is done by each unit dealing damage to the other unit equal to their respective power. Once a unit has sustained equal or more damage than their power, that unit is destroyed.

EXAMPLE: Player A's Brahmadatta Nadia with 2000 power battles against Player B's Lutex, Squall Spirit with 4000 power. Damage calculation ensues. Nadia will deal 2000 damage to Lutex while Lutex deals 4000 damage to Nadia. Since Nadia only has a power of 2000 she is destroyed after damage calculation because she took more than 2000 damage. Lutex on the other hand will still stay on the field because he can still take 2000 more damage before he's destroyed.

If a player is successfully hit by a unit deal damage to the opponent equal to the unit's Hit value. The player being dealt damage then flips over the foremost card in their life and performs a damage check to see if any trigger activates. They continue to do this until the damage equals the Hit of the unit.

EXAMPLE: Eubat, Raging Dragon's Warrior with a Hit of 2 attacks a player. That player flips over their foremost card in life and no trigger is revealed. The player then flips over the next card in life and no trigger is revealed. Both revealed cards go straight to the cemetery and the player successfully took 2 damage from Eubat.

If a player has 1 life left and takes damage from a unit with 2 or more Hit this will also count towards taking extra damage as damage in Build Divide is processed one by one rather than simultaneously. So the player will flip over their last life and then take 1 more damage to satisfy the 2 Hit attack.

Attacking isn't the only thing you can do during the Attack phase. As a defending player you are also allowed to block opponent's attacks. In Build Divide, any unit can block. In order to declare a block with a unit, that unit must be in the stand position. Once a block has been declared, tap the blocking unit or turn it sideways and assess damage calculation between both units like any other battle.

You can also activate any unit abilities that have Quick timing specification or commands with quick timing.

END PHASE:
Here any abilities that state "until the end phase" or "during this turn" are fully resolved. All damage done to units is reset. Build Divide also has a hand size limit. If you have more than 5 cards at the end of the turn you must discard until you have no more than 5 cards in hand. Once all these things have been resolved the turn passes to the next player.

HOW TO WIN:
There are currently 2 ways to win Build Divide.
1. The opponent has 0 cards in life and successfully takes one more damage.
2. The opponent has no cards left in deck or life and cannot draw for their turn.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Timings
Build Divide has two types of timings: Normal and Quick.
1. Normal - Normal timing is quite simply any action taken on your turn only. You can play a command, a unit or activate any kind of Normal ability only on your turn.

EXAMPLE: Player A's Gambler of Souls, Bloom has a "Normal" timing ability that allows her to rest herself and then remove 6 cards from the cemetery to play a unit. This can only be activated on Player A's turn, not on Player B's.

2. Quick - Quick timing is any action that can be taken on any turn: yours or your opponent. For the time being only Commands and Unit abilities have Quick timing but the design space is there for units themselves to have a Quick timing cost in the future. You can play a Quick timing card/ability at anytime on your opponent's turn by declaring use of the card/ability. Additionally, if the opponent plays a card you may respond with a Quick timing card/ability of your own.

EXAMPLE: Player A's Lead Striker, Claudia makes an attack for Player B's life. Even though it is Player A's turn, Player B can respond with a Quick timing card/ability. Player B chooses to use the Quick command, Cursed Trump Card which allows Player B to target Claudia and destroy her in order to prevent damage to life.

Chain
When two or more card effects/abilities are activated in response to one another a chain occurs. Build Divide treats chains with the "last in, first out" philosophy like with YGO. This means the card/effect that was played most recently is resolved first and then the chain of effects resolves until the first card/effect played resolves last.

EXAMPLE: Player A's Trishula, Freeda with 7000 power attacks Player B's life. Player B decides to use the Quick command Capital Breaker to deal 8000 damage to Freeda and destroy her. Player A does not want Freeda to be destroyed so they respond with a Quick command of their own, the Quick command Armament Supply. Player B can now respond but has nothing left to respond with so they decline. Player A has nothing to play either. Now a chain has finalized and the card played last resolves first. Armament Supply's effect activates first giving Freeda 2000 extra power making her power 9000. Then Capital Breaker resolves dealing Freeda 8000 power. However, since Freeda's power rose to 9000 she is not destroyed as she has not taken at least 9000 damage, only 8000 damage from Capital Breaker. Her attack on Player B's life is successful.

Observers
Observers a special type of Unit card much like the Ace. An Observer card is denoted by having Observer written in the attribute area. The value of Observers is that they can open territories when you do not have access to your Ace. However, unlike Aces that can open specific territories, Observers can open any kind of territory as long as it corresponds to the correct color written in their text. Additionally, while Aces can open territories for no cost, an Observer can open a territory but must pay the difference in total cost of the territory and total cost of the Observer.

EXAMPLE: Player A is using the Casino of Doom territory that has the Black color. Player A does not have Gambler of Souls, Bloom in play to open the territory but has Xenos, the One Who Stares in their hand. Xenos is an Observer whose text states that it can only open Black territories. Therefore, Casino of Doom is a valid territory to open with Xenos. Player A has 5 energy. They pay the required energy to summon Xenos. Casino of Doom has a total cost of 5 while Xenos has a total cost of 4. Therefore, Player A would need to pay 1 more energy in order to open Casino of Doom. This 1 energy is considered colorless and can be any color.

Xenos is one Observer that can open only Black territories but every color has its own Observer that can open their respective colored territories.

Keywords/Symbols/Misc.
Build Divide uses several keywords and symbols in its effect text to denote certain abilities or conditions for abiltiies to be active. Note the amount of keywords/symbols is subject to change overtime as the card pool expands with future sets.

---List of keywords/symbols:
DECOY - When a player would declare an attack against the opponent, he/she must attack any units with Decoy first before attacking any other unit or the opponent.
BLITZ - When performing damage calculation, a unit with Blitz will deal damage first to the opposing unit before that opposing unit has a chance to deal damage. Similar to First Strike from MTG.
JUDGEMENT - Some cards have the Judgement keyword which allows you to gain a Judgement Counter depending on if you fulfill the card's requirement. There are different ways to gain counters (anytime your opponent plays a unit, if Temple of Justice is open anytime one of your units is destroyed, etc)
SCOUT (X) - This allows you to look at the X top cards of your deck and place them on the top or bottom of your deck in any order.
BERSERK - A unit with Berserk must attack Decoy units or the Player as much as possible.
TERRITORY - Some cards have a "Purple Globe" icon next to an effect/ability. This means your territory must be open in order to activate that particular ability.
ACT - This is short for Activate and typically means you can activate this ability as long as you meet the conditions stated on the card. Usually this is tied to Normal timing so you'll only be able to activate it on your turn.
AUTO - This is short for Automatic. This ability will activate anytime the proper conditions are met as stated on the card; it will activate on either player's turn.
CONT - This is short for Continuous. Simply put a CONT ability will always be active on either player's turn.

One thing to note is that if a card ability specifies you take a card from life and put it in the cemetery, it is NOT counted as a damage check. Therefore, if the card sent to life is a Buster trigger you do not take an additional damage. If the card sent to life is a Shot trigger you do not activate it.


ANIME:
Build Divide currently has an anime slated to air for 2 seasons. Season 1 in October 2021. Season 2 in April 2022. It is an anime that seeks to connect the cards used in the TCG to the setting of the anime to provide an immersive experience.

Synopsis:
In a city where the King reigns supreme, your strength in Build-Divide determines everything...
— Neo Kyoto —
There is a rumor circulating in Neo Kyoto.
“Anyone able to defeat the King in Build-Divide shall be granted whatever their heart desires.”
In order to challenge the King, one must first enter the battle known as Rebuild.
There, they will have to complete the “Key.”

— Everyone Has a Wish They Hope To Have Granted—
The young Teruto Kurabe vows to defeat the King so that he can get what he longs for.
He, with a little guidance from the mysterious Sakura Banka, dives headfirst into the Rebuild Battle.

Now, the city of Neo Kyoto is the stage and BUILD-DIVIDE is the game!
Watch as the battle unfolds for Teruto and his friends！

WHERE TO BUY:
As the game is only available in JP you would have to import it.
Here are several sites:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
https://tcgrepublic.com/
https://www.amiami.com/eng/

RESOURCES:
Unofficial How to Play - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIeyecTp6AU
Freedomduo's blog with detailed visual slides on how to play - shorturl.at/ltIMU
Freedomduo's blog with updated card of the day - http://freedomduo-hobby.blog.jp/
Google doc with EN translations of first two starter decks and first booster set (updates whenever new set releases) - shorturl.at/drxX8
Official JP Twitter (new card reveal during reveal season at 18:00 JST everyday/other news) - https://twitter.com/build_divide
Official JP TCG site - https://tcg.build-divide.com/official
Official EN Anime site - https://builddivide-anime.com/
Funimation site for Anime streaming - https://www.funimation.com/shows/build-divide-000000-code-black/
Crunchyroll site for Anime streaming - https://www.crunchyroll.com/build-divide-000000-code-black
Twitter hashtag to find topping decklists - ビルディバイド 優勝
Tag to use to find fight videos on Youtube - ビルディバイド