Introducing the Grand Archive TCG

Grand Archive is an anime-inspired CCG released by Weebs of the Shore in which two champions fight until one remains standing. The game offers a significant amount of flexibility in deck building, boasting 24 deck archetypes in the first set alone. You can learn more at the official site.

Players start with 2 decks. First, the Material deck contains up to 12 cards, with only one copy of a given card allowed. It must contain at least 1 level 0 champion, and can contain other champions as well as Regalia cards. The Main deck requires at least 60 cards, and contains everything that doesn’t go into the Material deck. An easy way to tell which deck a card goes to is to look at the cost in the top left corner. A blue background means it goes to the Material deck, while yellow means it goes to the Main deck.

Each card has an element type. The basic elements include Water, Fire, and Wind. Norm is another basic element and is available to everyone. The other three depend on “enabling” an element by having a champion of the element, usually a level 0. Some champions unlock other, advanced elements. In any case, you can only play cards of elements you have enabled.

Grand Archive has two types of cost, and the background of the card cost tells what type of payment is required. The yellow, Main deck cards have a Reserve cost, where you place that number of facedown cards from your hand to your Memory area. Material deck cards have a Memory cost with a blue background. To pay for Memory cost, you banish, or remove from the game, that number of cards from your memory at random. Cards in the memory zone eventually return to your hand, but a banished card will not.

There are 6 phases during a turn. First is the Wake Up phase, where all units you control wake up, or turn to a vertical orientation. Next is the Materialize phase. You can play exactly 1 card of your choice from your Material deck, such as a higher level champion. After that is Recollection, which returns all cards in your Memory to your hand. During the Draw phase, you simply draw a card. The Main phase is where most of the action takes place. You can play cards with Slow timing, such as Allies or Attacks, or declare an attack. An attack creates its own splinter phase. When the Main phase end, play moves to the End phase, which is a clean-up step to remove temporary damage on allies and cancel “until end of turn” effects.

There are 3 basic ways to make an attack. The most basic is to use an Ally. You can Rest an Ally and target an opposing Ally or Champion. Champions can attack in 2 ways: using an Attack card, or using a Weapon. You can even use an Attack alongside a Weapon to deal extra damage. Doing either or both Rests the champion. After declaring the attack, play moves to the Retaliation step. If the attacked unit is Awake and has a Power stat, it can Rest to retaliate. Then, move to the Damage step. The attacker deals damage equal to its power. If the defender retaliated, then the attacker takes damage equal to the defender’s power. If an Ally takes damage equal or greater than its life stat during the course of a single turn, it dies. After resolving damage, play returns to the Main phase.

Grand Archive balances anime-style aesthetics with a Western-style design philosophy, making the game play differently from other games available now. The game reminds me of Magi-Nation with a Final Fantasy TCG influence. You can show off your favorite character with Grand Archive art sleeves featuring Loraine, Arthur, Lunete, and Nia.