One question, every turn

You don't play a card: you build a chain. Every technique has an opening and an ending, and it only links to the technique that fits. You lay them face down, and when both duelists are done, the two chains meet position by position.

The longer the chain, the more damage it carries. But every position is a clash, and a technique that loses its clash adds nothing. You build the chain. Your opponent decides how much of it lands.

The edge, the feint and the guard

Attack beats Maneuver. Maneuver beats Defense. Defense beats Attack.

When two techniques of the same type meet, no number saves you: the position goes to whoever holds the initiative — and if nobody holds it, both cancel out. Win a position and the initiative is yours on the next one. The duel has momentum, and taking it from your opponent is half the craft.

Two schools, two stretches of the wheel

• Kurenai River — water. Its techniques live in the low values and link into each other readily: the river doesn't strike, it drags.
  
• Mount Okuribi — ember. Its techniques live in the high values and open harder: fire doesn't flow, it catches.

The two schools overlap on only a handful of values. Mixing them means fewer techniques that link — and a deck built on purpose to bridge the gap.

Paths

Each school keeps combinations that only work if you build your deck for them: a precise pattern of edges and feints that pays off when it closes. The easy ones you'll see in almost every duel. The masterful ones will make you build the whole deck around them.

The Dojo Path

A campaign across regions where you choose your opponent at each stage, and a forge where the pieces you gather matter for what they share: their region, their material, their element. Like matching affinities, but with steel.

And when the Path is done

• Free Duel — your decks against any rival.
  
• Daily Challenge — a fixed duel, the same one for everybody, every day.

What it is, and what it isn't

• A single-player game, paid and complete. You buy it once.
  
• No microtransactions, no passes, no energy. Not now, not later.
  
• No always-online requirement.