Redakai Trading Card Game

Logo

The Redakai Trading Card Game is an entertainment and gaming property created by Spin Master, famous for creating Bakugan. An animated television series of the same name will be released simultaneously as the game in hobby stores on June 4th, 2011 and major retailers in August 2011.

Gameplay

X-Drives and Blast 3D™ Technology

In the Redakai Trading Card Game, cards are referred to as "X-Drives". Every character and monster features Spin Master’s proprietary Blast 3D technology – 3D images that move as the X-Drive is moved by the player. Attack X-Drives also feature images that animate to illustrate the attack.

Gameplay

Redakai’s X-Drives enable a “Stack to Battle” format for the game. Attacks and monsters are stacked directly on characters, where the cards themselves track damage. It features both a basic game for younger fans, and a tournament caliber advanced game with reacts, deckbuilding stion points. you can attack as many times as you need.

Rules

Note: Credit for rules goes to the official Redakai website.

Basic Gameplay

Setup

• Before battle, each player places one CHARACTER CARD in front of them.
• CHARACTER CARDS represent heroes and villains with the power to harness Kairu energy
• Each of these cards has up to 3 different DEFENSE ZONES. Each DEFENSE ZONE has a number and color. Every card also has 3 DAMAGE ZONES.
• Each player also builds a deck of ATTACK CARDS and MONSTER CARDS. Basic Game decks can be anywhere from 10-20 cards. Shuffle the cards together to make a DECK.

Gameplay

• Flip a coin to determine who will go first.
• On each player's turn they will draw the top card of their deck, then play that card immediately.

Monster Cards

• When you draw a MONSTER CARD, put it on your own CHARACTER. They often increase your DEFENSE ZONES and sometimes can even heal DAMAGE ZONES that ATTACK CARDS have Hit.
• MONSTER CARDS are never discarded.

Attack Cards

• Play ATTACK CARDS on top of your opponent's CHARACTER CARD, to deal damage in DAMAGE ZONES.
• When you play an ATTACK CARD, compare the ATTACK POWER and COLOR to the opposing character's defense in that color.
• If your Attack Card's Power Number is greater than the defender's combined Defense Zones of your Attack Card Color, the attack "Hits" and is laid on top of your opponent's CHARACTER. If the there are no defnese zones for that specific color, it is automatically a "Hit."
• Abilities on your cards are not used in the Basic Game. Ignore the text in the Ability boxes on the bottom of CHARACTER CARDS.
• If the Attack Card's power number is lower, put it into your discard pile.
• When all three of your opponent's DAMAGE ZONES are damaged and red, you win the game!
• If a player runs out of cards in his DRAW PILE and is unable to draw a card at the start of his turn, that player loses the game.
• Once you've mastered the Basic Game, you're ready to move on to the Advanced Game!

Advanced Game

• Each player puts his CHARACTER CARDS face up in front of him. The goal of the game is to defeat all three characters on your opponent's team before he defeats yours.
• Each player starts the game with 3 kairu.
• Randomly determine who will be going first,by flipping a coin.  Then each player shuffles their deck and draws three cards.

Kairu Energy

• kairu (KAIRU ENERGY) is used to play monsters and attacks. Each card has a kairu cost, and this cost is paid for with your charged kairu. At the start of each of your turns, you gain 1 maximum kairu, and recharge all of your kairu.

Turn Breakdown

• Start of Game: Each player begins the game with 3 kairu. If it is your first turn, you will start with 3 kairu and move your counter up to 4 kairu, then recharge all your KAIRU.
• Start of Turn: On every new turn, gain 1 kairu and recharge all your exhausted KAIRU.
• Draw: Draw one card. If you have more than 6 cards in your hand, you must discard a card immediately. If you have to draw a card and have no cards left in your deck to draw, you lose the game.
• Play: On your turn, you may play MONSTER CARDS and ATTACK CARDS. You pay for their costs by spending KAIRU. When you spend KAIRU, it becomes EXHAUSTED, which means you cannot use it until it RECHARGES at the start of your next turn. See the "PLAYING MONSTER CARDS" and "PLAYING ATTACK CARDS" sections for more details.
• End of Turn: When you choose not to play any more cards, your turn ends.
• Opponent's Turn: On your opponent's turn, you may only play cards if they have a special React Ability.
• New Turn: At the beginning of a new turn, advance your MAXIMUM KAIRU to the next higher number and reset your REMAINING KAIRU to match it. You may have a maximum of 20 kairu, so if you already have 20 kairu, you cannot gain any more.
• If your Attack doesn't Hit, it is considered STOPPED, and the ATTACK CARD is put onto your DISCARD PILE.

Playing Monster Cards

• To play a MONSTER CARD, pay its KAIRU COST, then choose a Character on your Team to turn into that Monster. Stack your MONSTER CARD onto that Character. You can not play MONSTER CARDS on Characters that have already been defeated, though you can play them on Characters that have already turned into a Monster earlier in the game.

Playing Attack Cards

• To play an ATTACK CARD, you pay its KAIRU COST, then choose a Character on your opponent's Team to Attack. Compare your ATTACK POWER to that Character's DEFENSE NUMBER(S) in the SAME COLOR by adding up the DEFENSE NUMBERS in the corresponding color.
• If your ATTACK POWER is greater than his DEFENSE NUMBER, you Hit and stack your Attack onto that Character. If that Character has all three of his DAMAGE ZONES filled with red, that Character is defeated. When all three of your opponent's CHARACTERS are defeated you win the game!!!

React Ability

• Some cards have REACT Abilities on them. On ATTACK CARDS, REACT Abilities may be used while the card is in your hand. On MONSTER CARDS, REACT Abilities may be used while the card is stacked on one of your CHARACTER CARDS.
• REACT Abilities may be used after any player plays an ATTACK CARD, but before the ATTACK CARD compares its POWER NUMBER to DEFENSE ZONES. Each player may play any number of REACT Abilities starting with the attacking player. Once no player wants to play any more REACTs, the ATTACK will then hit or be STOPPED.
• REACT Abilities have costs that must be paid to play them. For example: With COLD BEAM ATTACK, if you want to use the REACT Ability, you must discard it and pay 3 KAIRU. Once you do so, Characters on your team will get bonus Defense for that turn.

Winning the Game

• Whenever a CHARACTER CARD has all of its DAMAGE ZONES filled with red, it is defeated. Defeated Characters have no abilities and cannot transform into monsters. When all three of your opponent’s CHARACTER CARDS are defeated you win!

• At the end of the game, don't forget to take back the ATTACK CARDS you played on your opponent's Characters and to give back the ones that your opponent played on you.

Hobby Launch

Spin Master has announced major hobby store support for Redakai. The game will first be released exclusively at hobby and specialty shops in June 2011, with Organized Play support offered to these stores as well. There will also be products and X-Drives that are exclusive to hobby stores. Spin Master has announced that these will include:

Hobby Power Pack

Includes eleven X-Drive cards with Blast3D technology. Each pack comes with Character, Monster, and Attack cards.

Hobby Gold Pack

Includes six X-Drive cards. They are guaranteed to contain one Rare or Super Rare X-Drive card as well as one "Gold Pack Rare". Gold Pack Rares are only found at hobby stores.

Hobby Structured Deck

Includes 43 X-Drive cards along with one bonus Gold Pack Rare X-Drive card.

Hobby Championship Set

Includes a full deck and battle field accessories. Comes with 43 X-Drives, one Gold Pack Rare, three Character Bays, one Card Screen with a Kairu Counter, and one Draw Deck.

Other

There will also be action figures, online communities and content, publishing and more to go along with the Trading Card Game.

While not as popular as Bakugan, Redakai has seen sales spike for Spin Master in August through December 2011.

Glossary

ABILITIES - Character and Monster Abilities are special powers that affect the game as long as the Ability text is visible. An "Activated Ability" is an ability that you must pay an additional cost to play.

ATTACK CARDS - These cards are played on your opponent's Characters to deal damage to them. You may play attacks on your turn by paying their KAIRU COST.

ATTACK POWER - Each attack has a power that consists of a NUMBER and a COLOR. The power number must be higher than an opponent's defense in that attack's color in order for the attack to hit that Character.

CHARACTER'S ABILITY BOX - These cards can be played when your opponent attacks you and will have effects that can change what happens.

DEFEATED - When a Character is damaged in each of its three DAMAGE ZONES, it's defeated. Defeated Characters aren't considered to be in play any more and have no abilities. Cards can't be played on Characters that are defeated.

DEFENSE NUMBER - These numbers are found on the side of CHARACTER and MONSTER CARDS. There will always be a COLOR of defense. Any attacks of that color played against a Character must have a higher power number than the defense number in order to HIT. Any attacks that don't have enough power are blocked and put into the attacker's DISCARD PILE.

EXHAUST - When KAIRU is used it's exhausted until your next turn. Exhausted KAIRU can't be used to pay for costs.

HIT - When an attack is played against an opposing Character and its power is higher than that Character's defense in that color, that attack hits. When an attack Hits it's placed on that opposing Character.

KAIRU - Each player gains KAIRU each turn. KAIRU is exhausted to pay the KAIRU COST of your cards.

MAXIMUM KAIRU - Your maximum KAIRU is the total number of KAIRU energy you can spend to play cards and abilities. You increase your MAXIMUM KAIRU by 1 each turn. Some cards will let you increase or decrease that number as well.

MONSTER CARDS - These cards are played on your CHARACTER CARDS to make them more powerful.

REACT - Some cards have the word REACT in their ability box. These cards can be played when your opponent attacks you and will have effects that can change what happens.

RECHARGE - At the start of each of your turns you'll RECHARGE all your KAIRU. Some other cards will allow you to RECHARGE KAIRU as well.

STOPPED - If your attack is STOPPED, it doesn't hit and is put into your discard pile instead of on an opponent's character. An attack is STOPPED if the defense of the character is higher than the power of the attack or if a card tells you to STOP an attack.

TURN - A turn consists of a player gaining a KAIRU, recharging their exhausted KAIRU, drawing a card and playing Monsters and Attacks. Your KAIRU recharges only on YOUR turn. On your opponent's turn you can only play REACTS and only if you have enough KAIRU to do so. A player's turn ends when he can't or does not wish to play any more cards. That player declares his turn is over and it then becomes his opponent's turn.