Blob's Card Engine

Trading card games ​

The fastest start is a template. In the match manager, go to Games → New game, then pick Resource TCG, Lane Battler, Energy Battler or Skirmish (simple duel). Each one is a complete game with a sample card set that you can change. Everything below is in the Game Builder: no code.

Cards ​

  • Card Designer: the fields your cards have, for example cost, power and health, an Abilities field (type tags) and a face template.
  • Library: one row per card, edited like a spreadsheet, with CSV/JSON import.
    • Token: tick this for cards that effects create but decks never contain, such as a 1/1 Sapling.
    • Abilities written on cards that don't exist yet are outlined in red.

The table ​

  • Zones tab: set battlefields to "Toward the middle". They then face each other in a duel, and abilities treat cards there as in play.
  • Info tab → Card game settings:
    • Graveyard: the zone the Destroy effect sends cards to.
    • Abilities field: the card field that lists each card's abilities.

Abilities (Rules → Card abilities) ​

Write each ability once. Cards then list it by name, with an optional number: Skyborne, Warcry 2 gives Warcry x = 2. Inside an ability, this is the card that has it.

  • Keyword: does nothing on its own. Your rules check it with has(card, 'skyborne').
  • When something happens: for example this arrives, this is destroyed, a turn starts, or a signal (the Attack action sends attacks).
  • A choice in the card's menu: players click the card in play to use it. These have a cost (for example turn this sideways) and can be any time (instant).
  • While in play: changes a stat of the cards it applies to, for example other units you control get +1 power.

Plays and combat (Rules → Actions) ​

  • Played from / Onto: dragging a card from one zone to another. Whose decides whether Onto means your own zone or an opponent's, for example an attack.
  • Onto a card: the card is dragged onto another card. Use this for a spell on a unit, a blocker on an attacker, or energy on a creature. In its effects, target is the card it landed on.
  • Steps (Flow tab): split a turn, for example main → blocks → after combat. Actions can be limited to steps, and the Go to a step effect moves between them.
  • Marks (attacking, blocking) and counters (damage) track combat. The Flow tab clears them at the end of every turn.
  • If the condition fails, the player is told why. For example: "Not enough Mana: you have 1, it needs 4 (its Cost)". You can write your own message instead.

The stack (Flow tab) ​

  1. Turn on Stack and priority.
  2. Mark spells as Goes on the stack with speed Instant.

Their cost is paid at once, then they wait so the other player can respond. When everyone passes, the newest one resolves. Add a shared zone with id stack so spells sit there visibly.

Decks ​

  • Info tab → deck rules: deck size, copy limits, and per-card exceptions such as basic resources.
  • Decks tab: players build decks there.
  • Starting a match: tick Players choose their decks first. Everyone picks a legal deck in the lobby (or the starter deck), and Rematch keeps the decks.
  • Flow → Add a mulligan: adds a keep, or shuffle away and draw one fewer phase.

Test it ​

Test Play → Run 100 random games plays your rules with random legal moves and reports games that get stuck or never end.

Players' own cards and imported decklists ​

  • Import a decklist: in the deck builder, paste a decklist exported from Moxfield, Archidekt, MTGGoldfish, Arena or MTGO and press Load this list. Card names are matched to the game's cards. Names it doesn't know can become proxies: cards with just a name, owned by that deck.
  • My cards: add cards of your own to a deck, with any of the game's fields and an image. Upload an image, paste a link, or upload many images at once matched by file name. Players without upload permission still can: the GM's client stores the image for them.
  • Forbidding them: a game can switch this off in its deck rules (allowCustom: false).

Commander-style games ​

The Champions template is the starting point: up to four players and 100-card singleton decks led by a Champion.

  • Deck rules (format.commander): how many commanders, which cards may lead (eligible, e.g. has(card, 'champion')), and the identity field every card must share with its commander.
  • Deck builder: pick Set as commander, then click the card. A Commander section in an imported list fills the slot.
  • In play: the command zone, the casting tax, champions returning to the command zone, and 21 champion damage are all ordinary rules on the Rules tab, so you can change them.