Getting Started

Quick Start Guide

Click to download the Rulebook PDF (118mb)

How to Win

During deck construction, you select 1 Master Plan to accompany your deck. This serves as your deck’s win goal, and is public knowledge to all players once play begins. Your Master Plan may require you to sacrifice a certain number of your cards, successfully resolve a time-expensive card, or have a specific collection of cards in play. As soon as the conditions written on your Master Plan are met, you win the game!

Over the course of a game, it may become impossible for one or all players to achieve their Master Plan. If a player ends their turn with no cards in countdown and no cards left in their deck, they win!

What You Need

Deck – A Doom Pile deck consists of exactly 30 cards. You can only have a maximum of 3 copies of a card with the same name in your deck. Additionally, some cards may be illegal to play, or limited to only 1 or 2 copies per deck. A deck can contain any Doom Pile card types, except Master Plans. Your Master Plan is kept separate from your deck, and does not count towards your deck’s 30-card requirement.
Countdown Mechanism – During play, you will need to keep track of the number of turns each of your cards has left before they resolve. This can be done by placing one or more counters or dice on a card with the visible result being the number of turns it has left.

The Play Area

1
Deck Zone – This is where your deck is kept during play, face-down. You draw cards from here, and add them to your hand. If a card requires you to reveal or search through your deck, you return it here, unshuffled. Unless a card specifies otherwise, you cannot change the order of your deck during a game.
2

Master Plan Zone – This is where your Master Plan is kept during play. It must be face-up at all times during gameplay. Before the game begins, it should be kept here, face-down, until all players reveal their Master Plans.
3

Countdown Zone – Most cards require you to wait a certain number of turns after playing them before they resolve. During this time, the card is considered “in countdown” and is kept here, face-up, with a Countdown Token or die indicating the number of turns it has left until it resolves. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in countdown.
4

Field Zone – Some cards remain in play after they leave countdown. These cards remain on the field in the Field Zone. They have fully resolved and may have actions they can be used for depending on the type of card. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have on the field.
5

Discard Pile – This is where cards go after they leave countdown (unless they go to the Field Zone), or are removed from the Field Zone by some other means. Any card sent here is added face-up to the top of the Discard Pile. Unless a card specifies otherwise, you cannot change the order of your Discard Pile during a game.

Card Types

Master Plan

Master Plans are not like normal cards in your deck. Your Master Plan represents the end-goal you are trying to use your deck to achieve, often represented by some manner of taking over, or otherwise destroying, the entire world. Master Plans are kept face-up in the Master Plan Zone during gameplay, so all players can see what the others are trying to work towards and take that into account with how they use the cards in their deck, either to work faster themselves or slow down their opponents. When a Master Plan’s conditions are achieved, its owner wins the game!

Card Name – The name of the card.
Card Type – All Master Plans have the Master Plan card type.
Card Text – Here, the win conditions for the Master Plan will be written. As soon as the condition is met, its owner wins the game! Cards and effects cannot be activated, played, or resolved in response to or after a Master Plan has been achieved; the game is over immediately.

Plots

Plot Cards are your standard action cards. They may represent a spell being cast, a punch or kick being thrown, or an event taking place. These are the primary ways you will be trying to protect and achieve your Master Plan, and one of many ways you will interact with your opponents. When a Plot resolves, it is sent face-up to the top of its owner’s Discard Pile.

Card Name – The name of the card. You can only have three cards of the same name in your deck.
Starting Countdown – When a Plot is played, this is how many turns will need to be indicated until the card resolves.
Card Type – All Plots will have the Plot card type.
Subtype – This represents the kind of villain or monster that would use this plot, such as a wizard’s spell or a beast’s claw. Your deck can contain any number of Plots with different subtypes.
Card Text – This is where the Plot’s effects will be described. This is explored further in “Card Effects.”

Minions

Although Doom Pile is about you as the villain concocting a dastardly plan, no villain would get anywhere without some loyal minions to order around. Minion Cards aim to provide support for your Plots, either by making it easier to play them or acting as fodder for any additional costs those Plots may have. Some Master Plans may even require Minions to achieve victory. Minions can also be used to defend your Artifices, or to destroy your opponents.’ When a Minion resolves from countdown, it is placed face-up in the Field Zone and remains there until killed. When it is killed, it is sent face-up to the top of its owner’s Discard Pile.

Card Name – The name of the card. You can only have three cards of the same name in your deck.
Starting Countdown – When a Minion is played, this is how many turns will need to be indicated until the Minion resolves.
Card Type – All Minions will have the Minion type
Subtype – This represents the kind of monster this minion is, such as a demon or zombie. Your deck can contain any number of Minions with different subtypes.
Card Text – This is where the Minion’s effects will be described. This is explored further in “Card Effects.”
Strength – A Minion’s Strength (blue number) is the amount of damage it deals to opposing Minions or Artifices during attacks.
Health – A Minion’s Health (red number) is the amount of damage it can receive before being killed.

Artifices

Artifice Cards are another way to support your Plots and achieve your Master Plan. These may represent spellbooks, machines, locations, and more, and provide either continuous or repeatable effects. Some Master Plans may even require Artifices to achieve victory. Artifices can be attacked by your opponents’ Minions, so you may need Minions of your own to defend it. While you control at least one Minion, any Artifices you control cannot be attacked. When an Artifice resolves from countdown, it is placed face-up in the Field Zone and remains there until destroyed. When it is destroyed, it is sent face-up to the top of its owner’s Discard Pile.

Card Name – The name of the card. You can only have three cards of the same name in your deck.
Starting Countdown –When an Artifice is played, this is how many turns will need to be indicated until the Artifice resolves.
Card Type – All Artifices will have the Artifice type.
Subtype – This represents the type of object or location this Artifice is, such as a monolith or spellbook. Your deck can contain any number of Artifices with different subtypes.
Card Text – This is where the Artifice’s effects will be described. This is explored further in “Card Effects.”
Health – An Artifice’s Health is the amount of damage it can receive before being destroyed, either by being attacked by Minions or by Plots

How to Play

A game of Doom Pile can last between 10 minutes to one hour. The game ends when one player’s Master Plan is achieved, or if a player meets an alternative win or loss condition. Often, Doom Pile may be played in a best-of-3 match, consisting of up to 3 games.

Alternate Win Conditions

Instead of a Life score to keep track of, all players have a Master Plan that they are trying to achieve in order to win. However, over the course of the game, one or all players may become unable to achieve their Master Plan’s condition. You can also win the game if you end your turn with no cards left in your deck and no cards currently in countdown. There is no penalty for attempting to draw while you have no cards left in your deck, nor for having no cards in countdown while you still have cards in your deck.

Preparing to play

Before gameplay begins, each player “stacks their deck” by putting all 30 cards of their deck in any order they choose. This is done before players know what their opponents’ Master Plans are. This process should not take longer than 5-10 minutes. In an official tournament, your deck may need to be stacked and ready to play before the start of the round. Once you have placed your deck face-down in your Deck Zone, its order cannot be changed for the rest of the game, except by a card effect.

After all players have placed their decks face-down in their Deck Zone, all players reveal their Master Plans to each other and place them face-up in their Master Plan Zone.

Randomly determine which player will go first, such as by rolling a die. All players draw 5 cards as their starting hand, and then the chosen player begins their first turn.

Turn Structure

Each player’s turn is divided into the following phases.

Start Phase – The Start Phase occurs as two steps, before you can take any actions.
- Countdown Step: Reduce the remaining count of each of your cards in countdown by 1, simultaneously.
- Resolve Step: Resolve any cards that had their count reduced to 0, in any order.
Draw Phase – At the start of the Draw Phase, draw 1 card from your deck. Each player skips their respective first Draw Phase of the game.
Plot Phase – You can play any number of Plot, Minion, and Artifice cards from your hand. Put those cards in countdown with an indicator matching their Starting Countdown. You can also activate On Command effects at this time.
Attack Phase – Each of your Minions can attack up to 1 Minion or Artifice. If a Minion attacks an Artifice, inflict its strength to the Artifice’s Health. If it attacks another Minion, both inflict their Strength to the other’s Health. If a card is reduced to 0 Health, it is killed or destroyed accordingly.
End Phase – The End Phase occurs as two steps, after all other actions have been taken.
- Maintenance Step – Some cards allow or require you to perform actions at this time. If no cards mention it, nothing happens, but it still occurs.
- Cleanup Step – All Minion and Artifice Cards return to full Health.

Other Rules and Keywords

Starting Countdown vs. Count Remaining
Some cards may refer to a card in countdown based on either their Starting Countdown or their count remaining. A card’s Starting Countdown is the value written on the card, and never changes. A card’s count remaining is the number of turns left before the card resolves, shown by the counters or dice on the card. This number will change every turn. Plan your deck accordingly to take advantage of cards that affect others based on either their count remaining or Starting Countdown!
Playing a Card
A card is “played” when it is moved into countdown from any zone (including your hand) except the Field Zone.

A card may specify a COST, which is an additional action or condition that must be performed or met, such as “Sacrifice 1 Minion.” The text specified must be met or performed in order to play the card into countdown. These costs and conditions do not need to be paid or met when the card resolves later.

Some Minion or Artifice cards may have effects that apply when another card is played. These effects apply after any costs of that card are paid and it is placed in the Countdown Zone.
Resolving a Card from Countdown
When a card’s count remaining is reduced to 0, it is ready to leave the Countdown Zone and begin to resolve. Only one card can resolve at a time, and must resolve fully before another card can start resolving. If multiple cards would resolve at once, their owner first decides the order they resolve in, and then resolves them in that order.

Plots apply as much of their RESOLVES text as possible, and then are sent to the Discard Pile. While they are resolving, Plots are not considered to be in any zone. If a resolving Plot’s RESOLVES text cannot be performed, it resolves without effect and is sent to the Discard Pile.

Minions and Artifices are placed in the Field Zone as they resolve. Some Minions and Artifices may have effects that apply when they resolve. These effects apply after the card has resolved and has been placed in the Field Zone, but before any other cards or effects can activate or resolve. Additionally, if the resolution of a Minion or Artifice card that has an effect that applies when it resolves would cause another Minion or Artifice’s effect to apply, the newly resolved card’s effect activates first.
0 Count Remaining
If at any time a card has 0 count remaining outside of the Countdown Step, including if it had 0 Starting Countdown or an ability reduced its count remaining to 0 or less, it resolves immediately, even if you are not in the Resolve Step. If other cards are also at 0 count remaining at the same time, such as during the Resolve Step, you can still choose the order it resolves in along with any other cards that are already at 0 count remaining.
Card Effects
Some Minions and Artifices have effects that can be activated when certain conditions are met, or on command. Only one card’s effects can resolve at a time, and must resolve fully before another card can be played or effect can activate.
- Conditional EffectsSome cards have effects that will activate whenever a condition is met. This can be a game action such as a card resolving, a Minion attacking, or the card itself being killed or destroyed.If multiple cards owned by the same player have their conditions met at the same time, their owner first chooses the order they activate in, then resolves them in that order. All of those effects must resolve fully before any new cards can be played or effects can be activated.If multiple cards owned by different players have their conditions met at the same time, the turn player chooses one of their cards’ effects to activate first, then an opponent (in turn order, if multiple opponents) chooses one of their card’s effects to activate next, and so on until all cards that had their effects’ conditions met have been activated. Then, starting with the first effect to activate, each of those cards resolves in that decided order (not backwards). Only once all those effects have fully resolved can new cards be played or new effects be activated.
  If while resolving multiple conditional effects in sequence, another effect’s condition is met, that effect cannot activate until all other conditional effects that are waiting to be resolved have done so fully. If multiple effects’ conditions are met by this process, their owners choose the order according to the above priority, regardless of the order their conditions were met in.
  
  For example, consider if two conditional effects had their conditions met at the same time. The first one resolves, killing a Minion, then the second resolves, destroying an Artifice. Two other cards have effects that had their conditions met by this process: a thirdwhen a Minion is killed, and a fourth when an Artifice is destroyed. If the third and fourth effects’ cards are controlled by the same player, they can then activate in either order, but neither could activate until after the second effect fully resolved, destroyed the Artifice.
  
  A conditional effect will specify their condition, such as “If another Minion resolves” followed by a “:” (colon). The text before the colon is the condition, and/or any additional costs that must be paid when the effect is activated, such as discarding a card. The text after the colon is the effect. Only perform the actions listed after the colon when the effect resolves.
  
  Unless a card specifies otherwise, all conditional effects that include “you can” can only be activated once per turn, per card. If you have two copies of the same card on the field at the same time, they can both activate their conditional effects up to one time each turn. Conditional effects that do not include “you can” are mandatory activations, and can activate multiple times per card, per turn.
- On-Command Effects
  Some Minions and Artifices have effects that can be activated ON COMMAND. These can be activated during the owner’s Plot Phase, by the player declaring their intent to activate the effect. This can only be done while no other cards or effects are resolving or waiting to be resolved.An on-command effect will have the ON COMMAND indicator, followed by some additional text, and may include a “—” (dash). The text before the dash is the timing that must be met for the effect to activate, and/or any additional costs that must be paid when activating the effect, such as discarding a card. The text after the dash is the effect. Only perform the actions listed after the dash when the effect resolves.Unless a card specifies otherwise, all on-command effects can only be activated once per turn, per card, and only while that card is on the field. If you have two copies of the same card on the field at the same time, they can both activate their on-command effects up to one time each turn.
On the field
Any card in the Field Zone is considered “on the field.” Some cards or effects may affect all cards “on the field,” which affect all cards in all players’ Field Zones. Other cards or effects may affect only one or more cards “on your field” or “on an opponent’s field.” These affect only that card or cards in the specified player’s Field Zone.

Additionally, cards in your Field Zone are considered to be “in your control” and cards in an opponent’s Field Zone are considered to be “in an opponent’s control.”
Killed, Destroyed, and Sacrificed
When a Minion’s Health is reduced to 0, it is sent to the Discard Pile and considered killed. Some cards or effects may specify that they “kill” a Minion. When a Minion is killed by a card or effect, it is sent to the Discard Pile, and any effects that apply when a Minion is killed would apply at this time.

When a Minion is sacrificed, usually as a cost to play a card or apply an effect, it is also considered killed, however when a Minion is specifically “killed,” or dies due to its Health being reduced to 0, it is not necessarily considered “sacrificed” for the conditions of any cards or effects. You can only sacrifice Minions you control.

When an Artifice’s Health is reduced to 0, it is sent to the Discard Pile and considered destroyed. Some cards or effect may specify that they “destroy” an Artifice. When an Artifice is destroyed by a card or effect, it is sent to the Discard Pile, and any effects that apply when an Artifice is destroyed would apply at this time.

Artifices cannot be sacrificed. If an Artifice is destroyed as part of a card or effect’s cost, it is not considered to have been “sacrificed” for the conditions of any cards or effects.

If a Minion or Artifice card is sent to the Discard Pile from any zone other than the Field Zone, or is sent to the Discard Pile by any effect that does not specifically sacrifice, kill, or destroy that card, then the card is not considered to be sacrificed, killed, or destroyed for the conditions of any cards or effects.
0 Strength Minions
Minions with 0 Strength do not deal damage when they attack an Artifice or Minion, nor when they are attacked by another Minion. If a Minion with 0 Strength attacks another Minion with 0 Strength, neither takes any damage to their Health, and so neither is killed by the attack.
Targeted for an attack
Some cards may have effects that activate when they or another card is targeted for an attack. These effects activate and resolve before damage occurs.
Rules vs. Card Text
In situations where a card’s text seems to contradict the Rules, the card’s text takes precedence. For example, Minions cannot attack an Artifice if its owner controls a Minion, but a card or effect may allow a Minion to do so anyway.

Glossary

Target – Some cards may have you target another card on the field, in countdown, or in a Discard Pile. Unless otherwise specified, such as with text like “Target 1 card in your Discard Pile”, you can select any valid card owned or controlled by any player as a target.
Burn – Some cards may deal direct damage to a Minion or Artifice. These effects will be written as “Burn […] for 1”. They may specify whether a Minion or an Artifice is being burned in either the play conditions or as part of the effect or resolution text. When resolving a Burn effect, subtract the specified number from the target’s Health. If its Health becomes 0 as a result, it is killed or destroyed accordingly.
Thwart – Some cards may be used to try to stop an opponent’s card in countdown from resolving. When an effect Thwarts a card, the Thwarted card in countdown is immediately sent to the Discard Pile and does not resolve.
Stack – Some effects may have you choose one or more cards on the field, in a Discard Pile, in countdown, or in your hand, and Stack them on top of your deck. When you do, place those cards on top of your deck in any order. You cannot change the order of any other cards on top of your deck when resolving such an effect. Unless otherwise specified, the owner of the cards being Stacked chooses their order, not the owner of the effect causing the Stack, even if they chose the cards to be Stacked.
Restack – Some effects may allow you to Restack a certain number of cards that are already on the top of your deck. When you do, pick up that many cards from the top of your deck (they are not drawn and are not added to your hand), and rearrange them in any order, then return them to the top of the deck. Unless otherwise specified, if an effect causes another player to Restack the top of their deck, that player chooses the order of those cards, and they are not revealed to any other player besides their owner.
Inter – Some effects may allow you to Inter a card from a Discard Pile, or directly from the Field Zone or any other zone. When you do, take that card, and set it aside, face-up—for all intents and purposes, it is removed from the game. Other effects that target or consider cards in Discard Piles do not consider cards that have been Interred, and Interred cards cannot be interacted with or returned to the game unless a card specifically affects Interred cards of that type. Interred cards are public knowledge for all players.
Revive – Some cards may Revive a Minion or Artifice in a Discard Pile. When this happens, the chosen card is returned from the Discard Pile to the Field Zone. Unless otherwise specified, a Revived card returns to the field under its owner’s control and in its owner’s Field Zone