Kult - death is only the beginning

Hello there! I hope you don't mind the ruggedness of this page, but I don't really have all that much time to spend on it.

[Tournament rules] [Timing rules] [Published decks] [Links]

NEW It's about time to shut the page down. Might as well admit it. The game is dead. I will not update anymore.

Tournament rules

As Target Games have not yet released any official tournament rules, theese are my suggestions. Also look at Target games recommendations. Theese include the following:

Restricted cards

The following cards are restricted to one per deck. In other words, when you build a deck, you may not have more than one of each of these cards in your deck.

CLEANSING
ASTAROTH STIRS
OUT OF CONTROL
FETTERED - Restrict this card by the number of opponents: If you have only one Adversary, you may only have 1 FETTERED in your deck. If you have 2 Adversaries, you may have 2 FETTEREDs in your deck. And if you have 3 or more Adversaries, you may have 3 FETTEREDs in your deck.

Removed from play

The following cards are removed from the game after they are played, and may not return during the same game.

CLEANSING
ASTAROTH STIRS
KARMA
OUT OF CONTROL

Other rules.

As stipulated by myself.

Conditions of victory

The first one to get 5 popmarkers to his hub is the winner of the current set (as per the usual "continent"-rules). As usual, the winner of a duel is the one to first achieve two set-wins. If the timelimit expires before anyone has fulfilled the victory-condition of the duel, the player with the most popmarkers in the hub will win the ongoing set. If several players has the same number of popmarkers in the hub, the one with the most popmarkers in the Scene wins. If this fails to separate the players, the one with the most popmarkers in the cast will win. If there is still a tie, one more complete turn (all around the table) is played, and the conditions evaluated again (sudden death mode, although death is only the beginning :-).

Timelimit

The maximum time for a three-set-match is one hour. The final should, however, be played to a proper conclusion.

# of cards

Two legal decks (legal by the definition in the basic rules and the additions in this document) are required. The decks have no special limitations except that you must use two different major arcana cards. NO cards may at any time during the tournament change decks. (This means that you need 6 copies of a card to utilize it fully in both decks.)

The metagame rule

This is a major rule. If several players in the same game use the same major arcana, the decks of those players will be shifted counter-clockwise one step, to the "previous" player with the same major arcana.

The metagame

Before the game starts, each player (simultaneously) declares what major arcana he will use. After this, the metagame rule comes into play.
A player may switch his decks between sets as he wishes, and due to that, the metagame takes place between each set.

Tournament mechanics

This is entirely up to the organizer of the tournament. Swiss is preferrable.

The major arcana:

Kether
Thaumiel
Chokmah
Chagidiel
Binah
Sathariel
Chesed
Gamichicoth
Geburah
Golab
Tipareth
Togarini
Netzach
Hareb-Serap
Hod
Samael
Yesod
Gamaliel
Malkuth
Nahemoth

Timing rules

A couple of problems with timing has occured during play. What happens if two players want to play a card at the same time (when the outcome of one will affect the other)? I will try to clarify theese in this section.
The rules in this section are only to be used in case of an argument on who gets to play first.

Definitions

Each turn a player takes is devided into the following phases: 1) Draw cards. 2) Recruit. 3) Sway. 4) Preform deeds. 5) Fight. 6) Discard cards and 7) Flip cards. Each of theese phases are self-contained when it comes to putting cards into play.
An Action is any atomary thing that might occur during gameplay. For example a sway, playing a commandment or putting a creature into play.

Order of play

The first Action of every phase belongs to the player whose turn it is, although he may choose to give this up. After that the other player(s) have a chance to preform an Action. The order of those are clockwise around the table. Each Action played may, of course, be countered, see that section. This continues until no player wishes to preform an Action in the current phase. A new phase is initiated. This means that only one player have Actions that are legal to preform, he plays them without interviening players.

Countering Actions

Every Action played may be countered. This means that for every action played the other player(s) have one (and only one) chance to unmake the results of the Action. The order of countering is clockwise around the table ONE time only. Of course everything is complicated by the fact that countering a card is itself an Action that may be countered.

Example of play

Three players, Arnold(1), Burt(2) and Caesar(3). They are seated around a table in clockwise order. Burt has just started his turn.

1.	Arnold - "I want to play an AGITATOR"
2.	Burt - "No go, bozo, I go first"
3.	Burt - Draws cards.
4.	No one wants to counter.
5.	Arnold - "I want to play my AGITATOR"
6.	Caesar - "Not until I have made my move"
7.	Caesar - Plays an AGITATOR, aiming to takes 2:s only popmarker in the ensemble.
8.	Burt - "I want to counter that!"
9.	Arnold - "Not until I have, you don't"
10.	Arnold - Plays a SORRY on 3:s AGITATOR.
11.	Caesar - "I'd like to counter that SORRY"
12.	Burt - "Not until I have...I don't need Arnold to protect me"
13.	Burt - Plays his SORRY, and loses his popmarker.
14.	Caesar - "I want to play ASTAROTH STIRS"
15.	Arnold - "Not so! I have my turn first"
16.	Arnold - Plays his UNDERTAKER on Caesar, Caesar looks rather sour.
And so on.

Explanations to the action. In line 14 and 15, player Caesar is refused to play his ASTAROTH STIRS because, in this phase, he just played a card. All other action was just counters and conter-counters to that Action. This means that both Arnold and Burt have a chance to preform one Action each before Caesar gets his next shot. OK?. Fortunantely this kind of thing happens only one in a thousand.

A shorter and more realistic example is the following:
Arnold has just finished his turn, and immediately wants to play a card. Before he can do this, the other players have one chance each to do something (since the first action in the recruit phase belongs to the player to the left of Arnold). Only if no other player plays a card, or in the case of Burt a recruit, can Arnold play his Karma and win.

Atomic actions

Some atomic actions are not obvious. If, for example, you choose to play with Chesed and Gamichicoth, the playing of a card and the drawing of a new one is atomic. That means that they may use the new card to counter a counter to the card they just played.

If you decide to use theese rules...

...drop me a line. I'd love to keep track of what tournaments are going on. Feedback is imperative for improvement of the rules, so comment away :-)

Published decks

Here are the two decks that has been published on Targets Kult CCG forum.

The Stairway To Heaven Machine Gun Mix

This deck is constructed by yours truly, and won the Swedish championship 1996. Also used as grounds for the ban on Gamichicoth and Chesed. Now beaten by at least one other deck.

Major Arcana:
Gamichicoth

Commandments:
3 Just in time
3 Purge power
3 Sorry
3 Faith shortcut
3 Mislead (Vilseleda, take from scene, put in cast)
3 Outcast (Utstött, take from scene, put in pool)
3 Redemption (Befrielse, take from hub, put on scene)
3 Agitator
1 Astaroth stirs
1 Out of control
3 Fly in the ointment
3 Unhuman appearance
3 Tomb bondage
3 Undertaker
3 Plauge
3 Skin trade

Areas:
3 Hayworth emergency aid

Beings:
1 Azaqui

Junk to fill the deck:
3 Manipulate death
3 Manipulate senses
3 Manipulate dream
1 Perpetuity

Instructions for use

Put all areas and the being in the cast. This deck has no scene. Recriut as usual, but instead of swaying, use the Faith shortcut. Always use as many cards you can. Always. When you end up stuck with four cards you will find that you can bombard your Advesaries pop-markers with them (hence he will seldom have a single pop-marker when you win). If you should fall behind for some reason, use the Plauge and the Out of control cards.

Who's the King

This deck was constructed by Mateusz Mizera as an attempt to construct an anti-deck to the Stairway.

Major arcana
Gamaliel

Comms:
3x Sorry
3x Undertaker
3x Faith Shortcut
1x Plague
1x Astaroth Stirs

Infl:
3x No Man's Land
1x Vacum (? allows you to discard any #of cards)
   (Should be the Abyss. Ato's note.)

Being:
1x Purgatov
3x Kingpin
3x Petty Criminal
3x Secret Agent

Place:
3x Borderland

And also 33 Pawns to fill deck (29 in 2nd version) 
(I suggest to put 3x Teacher)

(+ instead 4 pawns:
3x Ktonor
1x Le Marquis)

Instructions for use

Put Borderlands in your cast (1,3,4) and every turn place there as much pawns as you can. Put Purgatov on 1 (to kill Azaqi). Put 3x No Mans Land in your opponents cast but do not discard Azaqi! Kill Azaqi. Put Secret Agent instead. Use Undertakers and Astaroth Stirs to speed up. Approximately after 4 rounds your opponent hasn't cast and your deck contains only 10 cards (3x Sorry, 3x Faith Shortcut, 3x Undertaker, 1x Plague) and all of them you have on your hand (Kingpin), so the only thing you have to do is to win! There are two ways of using that deck - with or without stage (stage is 3x Ktonor + Le Marquis). As you can see that deck can be based on any Major Arcana but using Gamaliel/ Yesod it is more effective (you may put No Man's Land in 3 different places). If you want to use this deck to play with other decks than the Stairway it may be difficult, but I tried. So I suggest to put also 3x Haury to take your pawns OUT of the game.