MORANA Rules Reference

The precise rules, in one place, for players who want the exact wording rather than the gentle introduction. If you are learning, start with How to Play. This page is the reference you return to for a ruling.

The numbers at a glance

How you win

You earn Slava (glory) by controlling Sites. The first player to reach 13 Slava wins immediately, the moment it happens during the Rite step. If neither player has reached 13 by the end of Turn 8, the player with the most Slava wins. If that is level, the tiebreak is most Sites controlled, and if still level, most total Power on the board.

The three worlds

Everything except your hand is open information, which is what makes MORANA a game of skill rather than luck.

• Yav, the living world: the three Sites in a row where the fight happens now.
• Nav, the underworld beside you: defeated Spirits rest here face-up, waiting to return.
• Prav, the heavens: your Slava track, from 0 to 13.

Embers, your resource

At the start of each turn you gain Embers equal to the turn number. Embers do not come from cards and do not save up, so you can never be starved by a bad draw or flooded by a lucky one. Every game the two players have the same Embers on the same turn. The draw never decides a game of MORANA.

The turn: four steps, taken together

1. Dawn. Both players draw one card and gain Embers equal to the turn number.
2. Commit. Secretly place Spirits and Charms face-down at Sites, paying their Ember cost. You may also Reborn a Spirit from your Nav now. Bluffing with face-down cards is part of the game.
3. Dusk. Both players flip everything at once and resolve the Sites left to right. Omens and Clash fire during this step.
4. Rite. For each Site where you have strictly more Power, gain +1 Slava. Then check whether anyone has reached 13.

Scoring a Site

At each Site you compare total Power. You score +1 Slava only with strictly more Power than your opponent at that Site. A tie in Power scores nobody. Power is also durability: it is both what wins a Site and what a Spirit survives on. Sites always resolve left to right, which is why the order you place threats, and where you place removal, matters.

The Turning: nothing dies

When a Spirit is defeated it does not leave the game. It crosses to your Nav, face-up. From Nav you can Reborn it by paying its Reborn cost, summoning it again and triggering its second-life effect. Every Spirit has an Omen (which fires when it is first revealed) and a Reborn (which fires when it returns from Nav). Knowing when to let a Spirit fall so it comes back stronger is the deepest layer of MORANA.

The Reborn limit

You may Reborn at most two Spirits per turn, and the minimum Reborn cost is one Ember. Both Nav zones are face-up, so you can always count exactly what your opponent is able to bring back next turn.

The six keywords

Every card prints a short reminder the first time a keyword appears, so you read rather than memorize.

Timing and initiative

Two rules govern who acts first, and both reward the trailing player:

• Less Slava resolves first. At each Site, the player with less Slava resolves their effects first. Falling behind hands you the first move, a built-in comeback lever.
• Initiative breaks simultaneous ties. Some effects grant Initiative. The holder wins any simultaneous-timing tie on the following turn.

Off-board Slava

Slava earned from controlling Sites is unlimited. Slava from other sources is capped: you may gain at most +4 Slava per turn from Charms and Omens combined. This keeps the game a fight for the board rather than a race of side effects.

Wardens and Invocation

Your Warden is chosen before the game and sits face-up the entire game. It carries a Vigil (a passive ability) and an Invocation X (a once-per-game power you fire by paying X Embers during Commit). Invocation is a Warden-only ability and is not one of the six card keywords. Because the Warden is public and permanent, it is the backbone of your plan. See the deckbuilding guide.

Building a deck

A constructed deck is exactly 20 cards plus 1 Warden. You may run at most 2 copies of any card and only 1 copy of a Legendary. The two starter decks are tuned so none of the constructed-only rules can come up while you are learning.

Reading a card

The cost orb at the top right is the Embers to play it. The Power badge at the bottom right both wins Sites and is the Spirit's durability. The Omen band is its on-reveal effect; the Reborn band is its second life from Nav. A small wheel means a Reborn life waits in Nav. The rarity gem is cosmetic only and never affects power. See every card in the Grimoire.

A worked example

It is Turn 3, so both players have three Embers. You are one Slava behind, so you resolve first. You Commit a cheap Spirit with Clash 2 to the left Site and hold a second Spirit face-down in the centre. Your opponent Commits a Power 2 Spirit to the left. At Dusk the left Site resolves first: your Clash 2 sends their Power 2 Spirit to their Nav before Power is compared, so you take the Site uncontested and score. Their Spirit is not gone, though. Next turn they can Reborn it for its stronger second life, and you have to answer that. That give and take, death as a doorway rather than an ending, is a normal turn of MORANA.

Frequently asked rulings

This reference summarizes the official MORANA Rules Reference for the First Turning set. Exact card wording is printed on the cards. Details may change before the campaign.