From the Desk of Donovan Raidor
From the Desk of Donovan Raidor
Somewhere between dimensions, in a pocket of time and space just beneath the surface of reality, lies the Nexus. It is a battlefield. Heroes and villains from all corners of the cosmos, past, present, and future, have been drawn here by an unknown force to wage war against each other in the ultimate clash of Good and Evil. Ruthless terrorists, valliant patriots, midieval wizards, alien beasts, futuristic machines, and primitive swordsmen all find their places in the greatest confrontation ever witnessed between the forces of Light and Darkness... the battle of the Nexus...
Disclaimer: Nexus is NOT an original game concept. It is a rebuild of the G.I.Joe TCG by Hasbro & Wizards of the Coast. No permission has been granted to use their intellectual property, and no credit for its creation is being taken by me. While the original game itself was simple to learn and fun to play, the "G.I.Joe" franchise holds little appeal to my main gaming audience: my children. Before Nexus, they enjoyed the Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh TCGs, but regularly voiced "wishes" for card games based on some of their other interests, like Metroid and Final Fantasy X. Seeing the potential for an extremely simple conversion, I used the pre-existing rules and card set, but changed the card names, two mechanics points, and a few game terms (for uniformity), and created Nexus. Drawing heroes and villains from several of their favorite TV shows, video games, and movies (and some of mine), Nexus sets the stage for the ultimate battle of Good versus Evil. As a tip-of-the-hat to G.I.Joe, I did leave in a few of the original characters that I liked when I was little (...it WAS their game to begin with, after all). The artwork used in the recreated cards is also unoriginal, and used without permission. I am grateful to all of the original artists for their contributions, and assume they won't mind my kids playing with their artwork (or else they should have taken stronger measures to protect their work from being found by me and the Google image search engine). I am unable to post all of the card images online due to size restrictions, but if you would like a copy of the Nexus set for your own personal use, you may e-mail me with a request, and I will be glad to send you printable scans of the cards ("jpg" images, 6.1Mb), usually within a week or so.
OBJECT OF THE GAME
Use your warriors and mecha to defeat your opponent’s units and send them to the discard pile. At the end of any turn, if you have at least one unit left but your opponent has none, you win!
SETUP
During setup, each player will create 2 rows of units: a front rank and a back rank. A “unit” is either a warrior or a mecha. Each player reveals cards from the top of his deck and puts them into those ranks until he reaches his supply point limit. Here’s how it works:
PARTS OF THE TURN
There are only 2 parts of the turn, each with 3 steps:
TAPS - When one of your units is chosen for a Duel as either an attacker or a defender, you tap that unit. To tap a unit, turn the card sideways. This shows that you’ve used it! You’ll have to wait until it untaps (turns right side up) to use it again.
YOU’RE PROMOTED! - If a space ever opens up in your front rank and there’s a unit behind that space, move it up to the front rank immediately! Always move it up before doing other things, like following card instructions.
Duel Example:
You have Boba Fett in the front rank. You tap him to attack your opponent’s Donatello, which is in his front rank. He taps his
Donatello. You tell your opponent that Boba Fett is yellow and has 7 Power, and your opponent says that Donatello is blue and has 6 Power. You each play a Boost card face down, then reveal them. Your yellow Boost number is +8. Your opponent’s blue Boost number is also +8. Boba Fett’s total is 15, while Donatello’s total is only 14. Boba Fett wins and Donatello is discarded, as are the 2 Boost cards.
DIRECT HIT! - Some cards have a special kind of Hit called a “Direct Hit”. A Direct Hit works like a normal Hit in a Battle, with an added bonus. If you put all your Battle cards on a single enemy unit, and at least one of those cards has a Direct Hit icon on it, that unit is defeated no matter what its Power is!
INCOMING MISSILE! - Some cards in upcoming expansions will have a special kind of Hit called a “Missile Hit”. In a Battle, a Missile Hit is worth one Hit if played on a warrior, and worth 2 Hits if played on a mecha.
Battle Example:
You’re going first this game. At the start of a Battle, you have Cyborg Thug and Armored Scout in your front rank, and Omega Pirate in your back rank behind Armored Scout. Your opponent has Samurai Jack, Hermione Granger, and Cheetara, all in his front rank. You flip 5 Battle cards from your deck because 2 of your units have the Firepower ability. Your opponent flips 3 Battle cards. You use a 3-Hit card, a 2-Hit card, and a 1-Hit card to defeat Samurai Jack, a 3-Hit card to defeat Cheetara, and a 1-Hit card to defeat Hermione Granger. Then your opponent uses a 3-Hit card and a 2-Hit card to defeat Armored Scout and a 1-Hit card to defeat Cyborg Thug. You both discard your warriors that were defeated and your Battle cards. Your Omega Pirate moves up to the front rank. You have one unit left, but your opponent has none — you win!
DOING WHAT CARDS SAY
Sometimes cards will tell you to do something you can’t do. For example, Samus Aran has the special ability “Blast — After Samus Aran wins in a Duel, discard any warrior with Power 3 or less behind the losing unit”. If Samus Aran wins a Duel, and there is no warrior of Power 3 or less behind the unit that lost, just skip that instruction. This is different from cards that say you have to do a particular thing to use them. For example, a card might say, “Before you flip Battle cards, you may discard a warrior from your back rank. If you do, flip 2 extra cards in that Battle”. When a Battle starts, if you don’t have any warriors in your back rank, you can’t use the ability. Sometimes, one card will tell you to do something while another card says you can’t. Whenever this happens, the “can’t” card always wins. Usually, the order things happen in doesn’t matter. But if it does, the player who is going first this game does all of his things first, in any order he chooses. Then the other player does all his things, in any order he chooses.
RUNNING OUT OF CARDS
If your deck ever runs out of cards, just shuffle your discard pile and use that as your deck. There is no penalty.
MECHA
Look for incredible mecha cards to come roaring into the Nexus card game in the first expansion, Armored Assault. Light and
Dark mecha are bigger and tougher than most warriors, and they have larger Power numbers and more Hits. Some mecha are so huge that they cost 4 or even 5 supply points to play! Mecha work like warriors do, with 3 big differences:
BUILDING YOUR OWN DECK
One of the most exciting parts of the Nexus card game is building your own deck! You can find more cards to play with in booster packs or by trading with your friends. You can build your deck however you like, as long as you follow these simple rules:
UNIQUENESS
In the world of Nexus, there’s only one Samus Aran and only one Yoda. Here’s an optional rule to show that a warrior like Snake Eyes is truly one-of-a-kind. When you set up your team at the beginning of the game, if you reveal a unit with the same name as one you already have in your ranks, discard the duplicate card you revealed and reveal another card instead. When you’re using the uniqueness rule, if you put 10 or more cards into your discard pile during setup, you have to stop setting up even if you haven’t reached your supply point limit yet. You’ll have to play the game with the units you already have in your ranks.
MULTIPLICITY
While some warriors and mecha are unique, others are a dime-a-dozen. One-of-a-kind heros and villains might lead the way, but undistinguished warriors of all shapes and sizes also rally behind the banners of both Light and Dark. Using this optional rule in addition to the Uniqueness Rule will allow for some types of generic warriors or mecha to be present on the battlefield in larger numbers. Unique units have standard black bars to represent their supply points, but if a unit's supply points are indicated with red bars instead of black, then that unit can be played in multiples. Such units need not be discarded during setup if a duplicate is already in play. You can still only have one Witch King, but now you could get up to 4 Ringwraiths in play to back him up if you're lucky enough to reveal them all during setup!
QUESTIONS ABOUT GAME PLAY
Q: Does one player have to play Light and the other Dark?
A: No. Each player can have his own deck made up of whatever cards he likes. If the game ends up as Light vs. Light, think of it as a training mission. If it ends up as Dark vs. Dark, think of it as internal strife.
Q: Does my deck need to be all from one side — either Light or Dark?
A: No. You can mix Light and Dark cards if you like. But we don’t recommend it. If you play a Light Boost card on a Dark unit, the Boost number counts as +0 because the colors will never match up!
Q: Will the Boost ability of a Light card work if I play it on a Dark warrior?
A: Yes. Even though the Boost numbers are always +0 when you play a Boost card on a unit from the other side, the Boost abilities still work.
Q: How many Duke cards can I put in my deck?
A: You can have 4 copies of any card that has its own name and subtitle.
Q: My opponent and I are using the Uniqueness Rule. Can we each have a Yoda card in play?
A: Yes. The Uniqueness Rule only states that one player can’t have multiple cards with the same name in play.
Q: I’m not using the Uniqueness Rule, and I have 2 copies of a warrior in my ranks. If he has an ability, do I use that ability twice?
A: Yes. If the ability is one that happens at a specific time, like Kimahri’s Dauntless ability, you do each ability one at a time. See the section, “Doing What Cards Say.”
QUESTIONS ABOUT SETUP
Q: If I put one mecha behind another mecha, are either of them considered manned?
A: No. A mecha is manned only if there is a warrior behind it.
Q: How many units can I have in my front rank?
A: There is no maximum. You can choose not to put any units in your back rank during setup, and instead have them all in the front. The back rank is an option, not a requirement. So, in theory, if your entire deck is full of cards that cost one supply point, you could have 15 units in your front rank.
Q: How can I get more units into my ranks?
A: There is no game rule that lets you add more units to your side. You need cards with special abilities in order to do that. For example, check out the Boost abilities on Chozo Warrior and Mumm-Ra. There are other cards in the game that let you add more units as well.
QUESTIONS ABOUT BATTLE
Q: What do I do with my hand of cards when the Battle begins?
A: You should never have a hand of cards when the Battle begins. If you do have cards somehow, simply discard them.
Q: Do tapped units count toward my total in a Battle?
A: Yes. A tapped unit is the same as any other unit in a Battle. You flip one Battle card for each unit you have in your ranks, whether tapped or not.
Q: In a Battle, I use 3 Hits on a warrior with 5 Power. Is the warrior “wounded”?
A: No. Hits don’t stay around after a Battle. Either a unit is defeated or it isn’t. In this case, the unit isn’t defeated,
and the 3 Hits are wasted.
Q: Can a Direct Hit card be used against a mecha?
A: Yes. A Direct Hit can be used against any kind of unit, including mecha.
Q: If I defeat my opponent’s last unit, do I automatically win?
A: No. For example, say your last unit is Duke and your opponent’s last unit is Cobra Commander. If you attack and win in a Duel, your opponent has no units, but he still gets to use Cobra Commander’s Revenge ability to discard Duke, making the game a draw. The game officially ends when one player has no units left after a Battle is over, so you always do any effects that happen when you discard units.
QUESTIONS ABOUT ABILITIES
Q: Can a warrior with the Fury ability end up in the back rank somehow?
A: Yes. You must put warriors with Fury in the front rank during setup, but a unit’s ability in the game can move that warrior to the back rank.
Q: Can I choose to attack with a warrior who has the Stealth ability if that warrior is in the back rank?
A: Yes. Even though the rules say you must attack with a front-rank unit, units with Stealth are an exception to that rule.
Q: Does the “anti-draw” Boost ability (like that found on The Norseman) work when my opponent uses a “This combat is a draw.”
Boost card, or does it work when our Duel totals are the same?
A: Both. It doesn’t matter how the Duel became a draw; your opponent’s unit is discarded either way.
Q: In Duels, I play a Boost card that gives +20 but says that my unit is discarded. My opponent plays a Boost card that says, “This combat is a draw.” What happens?
A: The combat is a draw. Your Boost ability says that your unit is discarded, so you must discard it. Your opponent’s unit isn’t discarded.
Q: I have a mixed deck, and I use a Dark “DRAW” Boost card on my Light warrior. Is this Duel a draw?
A: No. If the unit you use the “DRAW” Boost on is gray, red, or yellow, the combat would be a draw. Since your Light Warrior doesn’t match the color of any of the colored boxes printed on your Boost card, nothing printed in those boxes happens. Your warrior gets a +0 Boost. If your Boost card has a Boost ability, that ability would work because it doesn’t have a color.
Q: I use the Explode ability of one of my units. Do I flip a normal Battle card for that unit in the Battle?
A: No. By the time you flip Battle cards, the unit with the Explode ability isn’t in your ranks anymore, so you don’t flip a card for it. You just get the extra cards from the Explode ability.
Q: If I use a unit’s Explode ability, when does the unit behind it move up?
A: Right away, before you flip Battle cards. Units in the back rank with no unit in front of them always move up as soon as possible.
Q: Can a Direct Hit card be used against a unit with the Concealment ability in a Battle?
A: No. Concealment means that no Battle cards can be used on that unit, not even Direct Hits.
Q: What happens in a Battle if all the units in one player’s front rank have the Concealment ability?
A: The other player won’t be able to use his Hits. He still flips Battle cards, but he just discards them, since there are no units he can use them on (unless he has units with Long Range or similar abilities).
Q: I have one unit with Long Range. Can I use a Direct Hit card on a unit in my opponent’s back rank to defeat him?
A: Yes, if you only flip that one Battle card. If you flip more Battle cards, the Direct Hit won’t defeat the back-rank warrior. You must assign all your Battle cards to the same unit for Direct Hits to work. Otherwise they only count as single Hits and don’t have any special effect.
QUESTIONS ABOUT SPECIFIC CARDS
Q: What if I have Sabertooth in play, and my opponent has only mecha in his ranks? Does Sabertooth have 0 Power?
A: Yes. Treat the 0 just like any other number in Duel. In a Battle like this, if your opponent uses any Hit cards on Sabertooth, he will be defeated.
Q: In a Duel, I play Metroid as a Boost card and lose. Can I put Metroid into play before I move my back-rank unit up?
A: No. Units in the back rank with no unit in front of them always move up as soon as possible. You don’t put Metroid into the front rank until after the Duel is over, and units will have moved up by then.
Q: How does Morph's Disguise ability work? If I switch him for Splinter in the middle of the Duel, what Boost number do I use?
A: You play a Boost card on Splinter and look at the white number. Then, you may choose to switch Morph and Splinter if you like. If you do, you keep the same Boost card, and look at the blue number now, since Morph is blue.
Q: How does Mystique’s Shapeshift ability work if I copy a warrior like Splinter? His ability refers to “Light warriors”.
A: The ability probably won’t help you much. Mystique will become a yellow, 4-Power warrior with the Healer ability that says, “Your other Light warriors get +1 Power in Battles”. If the rest of your warriors are from the Dark side, they won’t get the bonus.
Q: What happens if I copy my opponent’s Mystique with my Mystique?
A: You only get one chance to copy. If you copy Mystique, your Mystique stays as a yellow, 4-Power warrior. You won’t get another chance to copy anyone.
Q: What happens when Mystique comes into play in the middle of the game?
A: Nothing special. She only gets to use her Shapeshift ability right after setup, so she will stay as a 4-Power warrior.
Q: My opponent is going first and defeats my Destro in a Battle. Will Destro’s Arms Dealer ability still let my 1-Hit cards give me 2 Hits when I use my Battle cards?
A: Yes. Destro is still in your ranks when you use your Battle cards, so his Arms Dealer ability will work. The same
goes for IG-88’s Assassin ability and units with Long Range like Elven Archer. Defeated units are not discarded until both players have finished using their Battle cards, so their abilities may still be used in the current Battle.
Q: Darth Vader attacks, and my opponent plays a “DRAW” Boost card. My Boost card says: “If this Duel is a draw, discard the enemy unit”. Does Darth Vader get to attack again?
A: No. Even though the enemy unit was discarded, Darth Vader didn’t win the Duel. The Duel was a draw.
Q: Do I have to use Darth Sidious' Reclusive ability, or can I choose to leave him in the front rank?
A: You must move him before each Battle if you can. The ability isn’t optional.
Q: I have Paine and my opponent has Darth Sidious. I discard Paine from my ranks to skip the upcoming Battle. Does my opponent have to move Darth Sidious to the back rank?
A: It depends on who’s going first this game. Both of these abilities try to happen at the exact same time, before a Battle starts. In that case, the player who’s going first this game gets to do his thing first. Then the other player does his thing. If you’re going first, you choose whether or not to discard Paine. If you do, the game skips to Duels and your opponent doesn’t move Darth Sidious because you’re not before a Battle anymore. If your opponent is going first this game, he has to move Darth Sidious before you choose whether or not to discard Paine.
Q: I have Aku Drone v2.1 in my ranks and my opponent has Paine in his ranks. Can my opponent wait until after I use Explode and discard Aku Drone v2.1 before he discards Paine to skip the Battle?
A: No. Early Warning can only be used just before a Battle begins. After both players have attacked in Duels, a Battle will break out. Between these two parts of the turn is when a player can discard a unit with Early Warning. If nobody does, the Battle will start. The first thing that happens in a Battle is that each player flips Battle cards. Just before this happens is when players can discard units that have Explode. By this point, it's too late to use Early Warning.
Q: My Darth Tyranus is in a Duel with one of my opponent’s units. His Boost card is Lion-O. Lion-O is discarded and my opponent uses the top card of his deck as his Boost card. Does my opponent add Lion-O’s Boost number to his new Boost card?
A: No. Darth Tyranus’ ability means that you get to discard your opponent’s Boost card before it does anything. Ignore everything it says. Then your opponent gets a new Boost card from the top of his deck.
Q: I’m playing a mixed deck, and I have Donatello in my ranks along with some Dark units and some other Light units. Can my opponent use Battle cards on my Dark units, or does Donatello protect them?
A: Donatello’s ability lets your opponent use Battle cards on a maximum of 2 Light units, but it doesn’t affect how he deals
with your Dark units. He can use Battle cards on any number of your Dark units in the front rank.
Q: My Snake Eyes wins a Duel against Cobra Commander. Can I move Snake Eyes to my back rank before my opponent uses Cobra Commander’s Revenge ability?
A: It depends on who’s going first this game. Both of these abilities try to happen at the exact same time, right after the Duel ends. In that case, the player who’s going first this game gets to do his thing first. Then the other player does his thing. If you’re going first, you can move Snake Eyes to the back rank before Cobra Commander could have his Revenge. If your opponent is going first, Cobra Commander gets to take out a front-rank solder before Snake Eyes has a chance to move. If Cobra Commander leaves Snake Eyes alone, he can then switch places with one of your other soldiers.
GLOSSARY
CARD LISTS
Simple tables containing all of the relevant card data are available, sorted into several formats: Alphabetically by Name, by Color and Power, by Color and Boosts, by Side and Hits, by Side and Supply Point Cost, or by Source Universe