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KARMA'S GAMBIT

an endless card duel against the Hooded Stranger — first to the house tab limit gets thrown out

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THE OATH

Karma's Gambit is for Tavern members. Sign in (or create a free account) to enter the game.

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No account, no email — sit down at Learn, Story and Practice on house decks. Your own cards, a collection and Descend wait behind the Oath, and the game will ask when it matters.

Tavern accounts live on the server — sign in once and your legend follows your account.

THE CARD WALL

· Best descent 0 · ·

New to the Tavern?

Learn the ropes — the Learn table below deals you a guided first bout, and the Stranger pays a card from his stash to everyone who finishes it.
Claim your starter twenty — a free pack of twenty cards waits in the Shop, once, on the house. They are a whole deck: name it, save it, and the tables are yours.
Grow the wall — Story and Practice lend you a deck while yours is thin, and time at the table earns card drops. Once 20 or more cards are yours, Descend — Ranked and PvP call for a deck of your own, too.

Tap cards to add or remove them from your run deck. 20–30 cards — the Stranger refuses a thinner or thicker deck.

You are sitting in as a guest — the house lends you decks at Learn, Story and Practice. Browsing the archive is free; cards of your own, deck building and Descend live behind the Oath.

Deck Vault

Table Style

Your legend, your look — avatar, mat, card back, borders, title and theme. Every pick previews live and saves to your Tavern account.

Run deck0(20–30) Owned0 Card size

Choose Your Table

IN DECK (0)

COLLECTION (0)

The full 2,767-card archive — dimmed cards aren't yours yet. Owned cards show their copy count; tap one to add a copy to the deck.

THE ENDLESS TAVERN

Spirits purse 0Ash purse 0Deck 0

Slide your tankard down the bar. The Tavern has no last door — choose your next room.

locked✓ cleared✨ pulsing — your moveelite boss

THE FIVE TABLES

Five duels, five teachers, one road. Old Merrow is dealing you in — win a table to open the next.

Guest tables: the house starter deck stands in, and the road is not kept when you leave — sign the Oath to make your tables count.

THE GOD'S ROAD

Three gods were stolen from Merrow's lockbox — and it was not Skitterjack. Descend the three roads beneath the Tavern and win them back, seven tables a road.

PRACTICE TABLE

A quiet corner of the Tavern. No tabs that matter, no rewards — just you, the cards, and a dealer who deals fair. Hone your timing against the Gravity Tides and the Signal before you descend for real.

THE DEALER

YOUR DECK

The Hooded Stranger

Your tab0 / 50

nothing ordered yet

His tab0 / 50

nothing ordered yet

Spirits0

Ash0

Clay0

Chit debt0

Round1

TideSlack

Signal0

Field Annex

His side

His traps

Your side

Your traps

Your hand

⚔️ Strike!

Tap your creatures to attack, then tap a target.

Priority W1

Both players must pass to close the window.

⚜ Wild field felled — install a field spell

You felled the wild field spell. Pick one field spell from your deck to install into play under your control — the deck is shuffled after. Installing replaces any field already held in the annex.

Are you sure?

Destroyed Clayborn — pick one to reassemble

▼

The Hooded Stranger teaches

▼

Step 5 of 5 · Your choice

Your deck is saved. The Tavern is yours.

Two doors, both open. Pick the one that sounds like tonight — the other will still be here tomorrow.

Tap anywhere to return to the table

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Ranked Rewards

The Stranger pays his debts in Coppers and finery — finer the higher you climb. Bronze pays copper-quality; Diamond pays the best.

Ranked PvP

Official matchmaking — real opponents, real rating, played live, move by move. Queue up or challenge a friend; when both players accept, enter the duel and play it out — the result reports itself when the bout ends.

Consulting the ledger…

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tap to continue ▸

🏆 The House Pays Its Debts

Four gods walked out of the King's deck. One walks out with you — choose.

Ash Pile

Rules of Karma's Gambit

An original roguelike card battler. You and the Hooded Stranger each field creatures across five lanes. Ring the bell to take your creatures to battle: tap a creature, then tap what it strikes — an enemy creature, the enemy's tab, or the Field Annex. House limit is 50 in practice and campaign bouts (100 on the endless road, 200 in ranked): first to the limit is cut off and thrown out.

Draw: draw 1 card at the start of each of your turns after the first (+1 spirit too — the still drips from your very first turn). Trailing by 7+ tab? The bar roots for the underdog — you draw a second card (once per bout).
Spirits pay for cards. Distill one of your creatures to bottle spirits equal to its printed cost. Oathbound creatures cannot be distilled. Fixtures cannot be distilled.
Ash is gained by both duelists whenever any creature dies. Some cards also cost Ash.
Chit: chit creatures play free — but their cost goes on your chit debt (cap 6). Spirits you gain pay the chit first. A chitkeeper discounts garnish for both sides.
Fixtures raise in their own slot each lane: they never strike, and strikes only hit them when the lane's creature slot is empty. They never trigger lastdrop.
Field spells & the annex: off the left of the mat sits the field annex — one shared contested zone. At game start the Bar Squatter (8 HP, passive) holds it — strike him down to take the annex and open it. A field spell played from hand runs WILD: it manifests as a neutral NPC, and while it stands, every attack — yours and his — must strike the annex until the wild field spell is destroyed; only then may attacks continue against each other. Whoever lands the felling blow searches their deck for a field spell and installs it into play under their own control (the wild card is consumed; no field spell in deck, nothing installs). A held field spell warps the whole bout for its controller — and the duel is open season again: the opponent may strike the held field if they choose, and destroying it sends it away with no reward. Only field spells (kind "field") may enter the annex.
Tavern Tricks (spells) are one-shot plays. Traps are set face-down and spring on their trigger — most cost 1 less than printed (min 1). You can also bluff: any hand card, face-down, for 1 spirit, doing nothing. The Stranger sets his own.
Sigils: lastcall (effect when it leaves play without dying), lastdrop (effect on death), haunt (leaves a 1/1 Patron Spirit), drowned (+1 Ash on death), grind (+1 ATK per counter each turn), nightcap (+1/+1 each turn after round 5), omen (peek at his deck's top card and one of his face-downs), bouncer (no tab from its lane — ever), shieldwall (adjacent allies take 1 less damage), topshelf (only blocked by topshelf), watereddown (loses 1 ATK each of your turns), chitkeeper (garnish costs 1 less), toast (drink buffs doubled), oathbound (cannot be distilled), chit (play now, debt later), bounty (combat kill → +1 spirit), rally (adjacent lanes +1 ATK), laststand (survive the first lethal hit at 1 HP), breed (death → a 1/1 Rat Pup), brew (transforms at X counters), suspend (wakes after N turns), saga (chapters I→II→III each turn), doomsaga (death → 2 on the enemy Tab), regular (no tricks — just a regular).
The endless Tavern: slide your tankard down the branching pathways — Bouts, Elite Bouts, Drafts, Tribute Shrines, Rests, Tavern Events, the Dealer's Game, and the Back-Shelf Shop. The map never ends; the Stranger's decks only get sharper.
Death: lose a bout and the Stranger mocks you — but the first loss each descent, he drags you back for one more game. The second loss ends the run.

Sigils — know them by sight

All cards, names, and art are original to The Broken Tavern.