Cards

Cards are the fundamental building blocks of Collective. In the Card Creator, players design all aspects of a card before submitting it for voting. In a match, players use cards drawn from their deck to contest board presence, card advantage, and life totals in order to win. A list of all in game cards can be found here.

Units


Units occupy the board and are the primary means of board interaction during the combat phase. Each unit has an attack value and a health value, located in the lower left and lower right corner of the card respectively. During combat, units deal their attack value to their combatant's health value. Damage persists on units through each turn, and do not get cancelled by permanent or temporary buffs. Units that reach 0 health instantly die and go to the discard. Non-permanent stat modifications are reset when a unit goes from in play to any other zone.

Places
Places are a special card type in Collective created and enforced entirely by players. They are non-combative units that serve as support for a certain strategy. See here for a list of their identities and cards.

Actions
Actions are usually one-time effects that don't have attack or health values attached. After the effects of an action resolves, it goes straight to the discard. An action can be targeted or untargeted, and its effect can be instant, delayed, passive, or even one that lasts for the rest of the game.

Certain keywords that work on units can also work on actions. Examples of this include Rebound, Deadly, Fast, and Feed.

Rarity


The rarity of a card determines how frequently it appears in in game and out of game drafts, the amount of amber it gives when a player refuses to add a drafted card to their deck at the end of a game or removes a drafted card from their deck at any time, and the amount of amber its blueprint costs. Each card's rarity is shown by the color of the gem beneath its name box. A list of current rarity distributions can be found here.

Common
Common cards are denoted with a white gem. Cards with this rarity usually have the most simple designs, with straightforward effects that are easily understandable. They serve as the basic bread-and-butter of decks, ensuring that gameplay doesn't get overcrowded with complex effects. Good examples of common cards include Pack Raptor, Bullfrog Trainer, and Data Processor.

Uncommon
Uncommon cards are denoted with a blue gem. Cards with this rarity are the middle of the pack, with effects that are a step above the simplicity of commons, but aren't complex or impactful enough to be considered a rare. They might have more unique effects, more complex mechanics, or some synergistic potential. Due to this, however, the uncommon rarity feels easy to slot into, and consequently frequently contain the highest number of cards. Care should be taken to ensure that a card that could've been a common or rare does not get slotted into uncommon. Good examples of uncommon cards include Corpse Eater, Ry'vn, Windcaller, and Counterspell.

Rare
Rare cards are denoted with a purple gem. Cards with this rarity are usually the most complex and/or powerful. Such cards may be the lynchpin of a strategy, a niche build-around card, or have a unique and complex effect. Good examples of rare cards include Red Dragon Monarch, Necronomicon, and Mad Scientist.

Legendary
Legendary cards are denoted with a yellow gem. You are allowed to post a card with this rarity only to finish an age of a realm. Unlike other cards, the legendary cards have smaller font size in their text box. Good examples of rare cards include Vox, Moonlight's Calling, and Sunada, The Radiant.

Undraftable
Undraftable cards are denoted with a grey gem. Card with this rarity cannot be added to a player's collection, deck, or be drafted in and out of game. The rarity is used for created tokens that don't reference another already in game card. Their affinities are usually either neutral, or match the affinity of the card that creates them. Good examples of undraftable cards are seen in Lizabo Warchief, Dandy Lion, and Honorable Boi.

Affinity


Affinities constitute the main factions of Collective's world, and serves to sectionalize the card pool both mechanically and flavorfully. There are three main affinities: Strength, Spirit, and Mind, with a fourth neutral affinity that can be freely matched with the main three.

Descriptions
This is an overview of the general themes each affinity exhibits. A more detailed documentation of mechanical affinity themes can be found here.

Strength
Strength is the affinity of religion, might, and sacrifice.

They are the faction of fierce warriors, supernatural beings, and devoted cultists. Their signature tribes include Lizabo, Frogs, and Demons.

Strength excels at having a controlling board presence, exerting their influence with powerful buffs, unexpected attacks, and aggressive duels.

Some of Strength's defining traits are weapon synergies, forced attacking, unit sacrifice, and self damage.

Spirit
Spirit is the affinity of nature, stability, and regrowth.

They are the faction of untamed flora, carefree fauna, and ethereal spirits. Their signature tribes include Undead, Spiders, and Plants.

Spirit excels at generating the most use out of their resources, copying and recurring their best assets repeatedly from the discard, on the board, and into the deck.

Some of Spirit's defining traits are discard synergies, unit creation, life gain, and defensive keywords.

Mind
Mind is the affinity of magic, knowledge, and trickery.

They are the faction of alien beings, scholarly arcanists, and complex machinery. Their signature tribes include Fish, Aliens, and Robots.

Mind excels at having versatile and efficient options, using an accrued suite of card advantage, hero rewards, and board disruption to out value their opponent.

Some of Mind's defining traits are card draw, mana manipulation, direct damage, and XP gain.

Antifinity Costs
Every deck is built under one of the three affinities as its main color. The sectionalization of cards with different functions under each affinity helps to create gameplay diversity.

When a card with a different affinity than the main color is put into the deck, a cost penalty of 1 is given.

Neutral cards can be slotted into decks of any affinity without cost penalties.

A card can also be made affinity exclusive, in which case it will have a circle around its mana cost, and would be unable to be put into decks not of its color. Cards with an exclusive affinity are usually very powerful cards that exemplify the most unique traits of the affinity it's in.