Deck-to-Deck Combat (The Card System)
Cascadia's formal rules for the floor's card game, laid out after the recap. A deck needs at least six totem cards; in combat you draw a four-card hand (refilling one card every ten seconds) and may play five card types: Totems (summonable monsters), Utility (buffs on your own totems), Snare (debuffs on an enemy's totem), Mystic (spell-like effects), and Special (one-time tricks, like the Flee teleport). Crucially, once deck combat begins the squad leader loses access to their inventory and spells, melee and physically-held items only (potions, scrolls, wands, etc.), until the whole hand is spent, and enemy totems shield the rival leader from direct attack, so the rest of the squad must bodyguard their own leader. Kill an enemy squad and you claim all their cards. Saferooms now host a paid practice arena, where consumable cards are still spent forever.
Book 6 appearances
- Chapter 8 — Cascadia spells out the deck-to-deck rules after the recap.
- Chapter 28 — In the Mock Battle Arena the party tests an 18-card deck (≈80% odds of an opening totem) of six totems, utility, snare, mystic and a single Flee card.
- Chapter 29 — Peekaboo makes its actual debut here, cast by the NPC opponent Der Schachmeister against Donut in a mock battle arena practice match to see her hand.
- Chapter 37 — Phase two opens with only squad leaders entering the choice chamber, so each leader must survive a first deck fight solo before their party transfers in.
- Chapter 56 — Quan Ch weaponizes high-end mystic cards: Force Play (his actual debut of picking a card in an enemy’s hand and force-playing it) and Peekaboo (seen earlier in Ch29, here used by Quan), letting him weaponize their own Flee cards.
- Chapter 58 — The Capitol duel shows off the deck meta: Toss-Up (swap totem allegiances), Temporary Immortality, Glow-Up upgrades, and Carl’s teleport-trap trick to land Donut’s totems in a fight she isn’t even in.
Related entries
- The T'Ghee Squad System (Notification)
- Monk Seal Picket Sentry (Creature)
- Cascadia (Character)
- Princess Donut (Character)
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