Mystic Vale by John D. Clair
Games In One Page by Steve Lewis
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group, 2016
v1.0 pub6/1/17
In Mystic Vale, you will be building your deck by inserting clear plastic overlays into a
card’s sleeve. In each turn, you must decide whether to press your luck and reveal more cards, or
stop and spend resources you’ve accumulated this turn to buy new enhancements and vale cards.
To set up, each player takes a deck of 20 cards (8 blank, 9 Cursed Land, 3 Fertile Soil)
and shuffles them. Separate all of the Fertile Soil enhancements from the other Level 1
enhancements. In a [2, 3, 4]-player game, shuffle the other Level 1 enhancements, make a pile of
[12, 15, 18] of them face-down, and flip the top three over. Shuffle the Level 2 and Level 3
enhancements and flip the top three of each pile over. Shuffle the Level 1 and Level 2 vale cards
and turn four of each face-up. Count out a supply of [23, 28, 33] victory point tokens. Each
player takes one starting token (which starts grey-side up) at random; the player who takes the
starred token plays first.
All players set up for the first turn by turning over the top card of their deck and placing
it until their field until two cards in the field have decay symbols (red trees), and a third decay
symbol is revealed; that card is placed on top of the deck (face-up) as the on-deck card.
A turn consists of four phases:
1. Planting - You must choose to pass (stop the phase immediately and proceed to Harvest) or
to push. If you push, move your on-deck card to your field, and flip the top card of your deck. If
you have revealed a total of four or more decay symbols, you have spoiled; as a consolation, flip
your starting token to its blue side, then go to the Discard phase. (The limit on decay symbols is
increased by one for each growth (green tree) symbol in your field.) If you don’t spoil, you must
again choose to pass or push.
2. Harvest - In this phase, you can spend the mana (blue circles) from cards in your field (and
your starting token, if you’ve spoiled in a previous round) to buy up to two face-up
enhancements in the supply, and spirit symbols (squares) to buy up to two vale cards (a purple
spiral spirit symbol can be used as any symbol in a card’s cost). You can also resolve any
abilities on cards specific to the Harvest phase. If a card has a blue shield in its left tab, you take
that many victory points from the supply.
3. Discard - During this phase, place any enhancements you purchased into cards currently in
your field. Enhancements may not cover up any other enhancements or starting card segments
(however, covering up a vertical strip from another enhancement is allowed). All cards in your
field are discarded (do not discard your on-deck card). Replenish each row of vale cards up to
four cards, and each row of enhancements up to three enhancements (if you run out of
enhancements to fill one row, use enhancements from the next Level’s pile). After doing this, the
next player can begin their turn.
4. Prep - Turn over cards until you reveal two decay symbols in your field, and a third on-deck,
as in the first turn setup. Resolve any “When Played” abilities when they are played. If your ondeck card causes you to have four or more decay symbols, you will automatically spoil during
your next turn.
Play continues until a player takes the last victory point token from the supply (take any
extras, if needed, from the box); continue the round until all players have taken an equal number
of turns (the player to the right of the starting player will have the last turn). Players count up
their total victory points from grey symbols on the right sides of enhancements and vale cards
and victory point tokens; the player with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the tied player
with the most Level 3 enhancements wins, then the player with the most Level 2 enhancements.
The text on this page: © 2017 Steve Lewis. The game described on this page is the property of its creator and/or publisher; no challenge to
ownership is implied.
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