THE RULES OF THE OPEN GRAVE
How to Play MORANA: The Open Grave
Two Wardens, three sacred Sites, and a graveyard that hands your cards a second life. No dice, no mana screw, no pay-to-win. You can learn it in five minutes and lose to it for years.
MORANA: The Open Grave is an original two-player card game rooted in Slavic folklore and the world's oldest public-domain fairy tales. Death is not the end of a card, it is the middle. This page teaches the whole game, from your first turn to building your own deck. New to it? You can play the First Duel free in your browser right now.
1 The game in thirty seconds
Each turn, both players secretly place cards face-down at three Sites, then flip them at once. For every Site where you have strictly more Power, you score +1 Slava (glory). The first player to 13 Slava wins immediately. Everything else is written on the cards.
The one thing that makes MORANA different from every other card game: nothing dies. A defeated Spirit does not go to a discard pile, it crosses to your underworld face-up and can be summoned back stronger. You are not spending cards, you are sequencing their deaths.
2 The three worlds
Slavic cosmology has three realms, and in MORANA the board is those realms.
YAVThe living world. Three Sites stand in a row. Fight for them, this turn.
NAVThe underworld beside you. Defeated Spirits rest here face-up, waiting to return.
PRAVThe heavens. Your Slava track, counting 0 to 13. First to the top turns the wheel.
Everything except the cards in your hand is open information. Your fallen Spirits, their return costs, your opponent's Slava, all of it is visible. That is what makes MORANA a game of pure skill, closer to chess than to a booster-pack gamble.
3 Embers, your resource
On Turn N you have N Embers to spend (Turn 1 = 1, rising to Turn 7 = 7). Embers do not come from cards and they do not save up. That single rule means you can never be mana-starved or mana-flooded. Skill decides every game, never the luck of the draw.
4 The turn: four steps, together
- 1Dawn. Both players draw one card and gain Embers equal to the turn number.
- 2Commit. Secretly place Spirits and Charms face-down at the Sites, paying their Ember cost. You may also Reborn a Spirit from your Nav. Bluffing is encouraged.
- 3Dusk. Flip everything at once and resolve the Sites left to right. Omen and Clash effects fire now.
- 4Rite. For every Site where you have strictly more Power, gain +1 Slava. Then check for 13.
5 The Turning: the signature mechanic
When a Spirit is defeated, it does not die. It crosses to your Nav (underworld) face-up. From there you can Reborn it, pay its Reborn cost to summon it again and trigger its second life. Every Spirit prints two effects:
- Omen fires the first time the Spirit is revealed.
- Reborn fires when it returns from Nav, usually stronger or stranger than the first.
Knowing when to let a Spirit fall so it comes back at the perfect moment is the heart of the game. The graveyard is not where cards go to be forgotten. It is your second hand, face-up, for both players to read.
6 The six keywords
Every card prints a small reminder the first time a keyword appears, so you never memorize, you just read.
| Omen | Fires when this card is revealed. |
| Vigil | An ongoing effect, active the whole time this card is in play. |
| Clash X | On reveal, send one enemy Spirit at this Site with Power X or less to Nav. |
| Ward | Cannot be targeted or sent to Nav by the enemy. |
| Step | After reveal, move this Spirit to a neighboring Site. |
| Rooted | Cannot move, by you or by the enemy. |
7 Reading a card
- Cost orb (top-right): the Embers you pay to play it.
- Power badge (bottom-right): wins Sites and is the card's durability.
- Omen band: what happens on reveal. Reborn band: its second life from Nav.
- The little wheel means a Reborn life waits in Nav. The rarity gem is cosmetic only, never power.
You can browse every card, full size, in The Grimoire.
8 Quickstart
- Lay out three Sites. Set both Slava tracks to 0. Place both Wardens face-up.
- Each turn: gain Embers equal to the turn number, draw one card.
- Secretly place cards face-down at the Sites, then flip together.
- Resolve left to right, then score +1 Slava for each Site you out-power.
- First to 13 Slava wins. That is the whole game.
Playing your very first game? Start with the "Your First Duel" card, it walks you through a scripted opening.
9 Building your own deck (optional)
The two starter decks in the Core Set are ready to play and tuned so none of the advanced rules can even come up while you learn. When you are ready to build, open the Warden's Codex:
- Deck size: exactly 20 cards plus 1 Warden. Maximum 2 copies of any card, maximum 1 copy of any Legendary.
- Wardens sit face-up all game with a Vigil (a passive) and an Invocation X (a once-per-game power you pay Embers for during Commit).
- Reborn limit: at most 2 Spirits per turn; minimum Reborn cost is 1.
- Off-board Slava from Charms and Omens is capped at +4 per turn. Slava from controlling Sites is unlimited.
- Comeback lever: at each Site, the player with less Slava resolves first.
- End of Turn 8: if nobody has 13, the most Slava wins (tiebreak: most Sites, then most total Power).
10 Frequently asked questions
How long does a game take?
About 15 minutes for two players. A game lasts at most eight turns and usually ends sooner, the moment someone reaches 13 Slava.
Is it a game of luck?
No. Everything except your hand is open, and your Embers are fixed by the turn number rather than drawn, so you can never be starved or flooded. Skill decides, never the shuffle.
Is MORANA pay-to-win?
No. Every product is fixed distribution with known contents. No blind packs, no chase economy. Premium editions are the same cards in foil, not stronger ones.
Do I need to build a deck to start?
No. The Core Set's two starter decks play straight out of the box and are tuned so the advanced rules never come up while you learn. Deckbuilding is an optional second tier.
Who owns the world and the characters?
MORANA is built on Slavic folklore and public-domain fairy tales, material that belongs to everyone. No license fees, no licensor veto. The game design, card text and art direction are original work.
MORANA: The Open Grave, First Turning set (62 cards). Rules summarized from the official Rules Reference; everything else is printed on the cards. Card art is AI-assisted illustration, art-directed in-house. Product names, prices and dates are planned targets and may change before the campaign.