What Do You Need to Play?
Well, you and your opponent will each need your own deck of 40 cards or 60 cards, a coin to flip, and some counters to mark damage to your Driver. You can use pennies or whatever else you want to if you run out of counters.
You deck can be Pre-Build or make from booster Packs, We will have many options to add different and new cards to the game.
How to Win
In Dealin’ Dirt Trading Card Game, you can win in three different ways.
- First, at the start of the game, you set aside 6 of your cards as Prize cards. Every time one of your opponent’s Drivers is Wrecked Out, you take 1 of your Prize cards and put it into your hand. When you’ve taken all 6 of your Prize cards, you win the game! (You’ll win most of your games this way.)
- Second, you also win if your opponent doesn’t have an Active Driver (or a Staging Area Driver to replace it with) at the end of any turn.
- And finally, you win if your opponent’s deck is out of cards at the start of his or her turn.
What Are the Different Kinds of Cards?
- Hot Lap Drivers are your most important cards. They fight for you turn after turn against your opponent’s Driver. You use the Race Progression cards from Hot Laps to Heat Race to Feature and some RARE Winner Cards will be in the Mix..
- Race Progression cards are played on top of your Hot Lap Drivers (or sometimes on top of other Race Progression cards). They make your Driver skill go up and be more powerful.
- Horse Power cards are attached to your Driver to give them the Horse Power they need to use their attacks.
- Pit Strategy & Track cards are one-shot cards that do something once or more and are then discarded.
- More in the works…
Starting the Game
Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of 6 cards for decks of 50, and 7 cards for a deck of 60. Put the rest of your deck face-down in front of you.
We feel a well built deck has and even amount of Driver, Pit Strategy, and Horse Power Cards, Like splitting your deck into 1/3’s, for example if you have a 60 card deck you would want 20 of Drivers, Pit Strategy, and Horse Power Cards. You can mix this up as you see fit and grow your collection.
What If I Don’t Have a Hot Lap Driver Card in My Hand?
Then show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it back into your deck, and draw new cards per deck size. Your opponent can then choose to draw up to 2 extra cards. If you still don’t have any Hot Lap Drivers in your new hand, you repeat this process, but your opponent gets to draw up to 2 extra cards each time!
- You and your opponent each choose a Hot Lap Driver card (it’ll say “Hot Lap Driver” in the upper left-hand corner) from your hands and put them face-down. These will be your starting Active Driver.
- Each player may, if he or she wishes, choose up to 5 Hot Lap Drivers from his or her hand and put them face-down on his or her Staging Area (this is where Drivers wait when they’re not the Active Driver).
- Put the top 6 cards of your deck face-down in front of you. These are your Prize cards, which you take when your opponent’s Driver is Wrecked Out. You can’t look at a Prize card until you take it.
- Flip a coin to decide who goes first. You can use your special Driver coin if you have one.
- Flip over all the Active and Staging Area Drivers that have been put on the table.
How Your Play Area Should Look
Let’s Play!
As you play, you and your opponent take turns. During your opponent’s turn, you don’t do anything except replace your Active Driver if it gets Wrecked Out (see below). During your turn, go through the steps below.
What Can You Do During Your Turn?
You can do lots of things during your turn! You always draw a card first, and you always attack last. Here’s everything you can do:
DRAW a card- DO ANY of the following in any order and as often as you like:
- Put a Hot Lap Driver in the Staging Area
- Race Progression a Driver in play
- Attach an Horse Power card to a Driver (only once per turn)
- Play a Pit Strategy, Pit Crew, Pit Tool or Pit Item card
- Get Passed your Active Driver
- Use a Driver Power
- ATTACK with your Active Driver
- Your turn is OVER now
1) DRAW a card
You always begin your turn by drawing a card. (If your deck is empty at the beginning of your turn, the game is over, and your opponent wins.)
2) DO ANY of the following in any order and as often as you like:
Put a Hot Lap Driver in the Staging Area
Choose a Hot Lap Driver from your hand and put it face-up in your Staging Area. You can have no more than 5 Drivers in your Staging Area at any time, so you can only put a new Hot Lap Driver there if your Staging Area has 4 or fewer Drivers on it.
Race Progression a Driver in play
If you have a card in your hand that says “Race Progression from so-and-so” and so-and-so is the name of a Driver you already have in play, you may play that card in your hand on top of the Driver so-and-so. This is called “Race Progression” for a Driver.
Example: Hot Lap Driver progress to Heat Race Drivers and Heat Race Drivers Progress to Feature Drivers.
When a Driver Race Progresses, it keeps all cards attached to it (Hot Lap cards, Race Progression cards, etc.) and any damage it might already have, but the old attacks and Driver Horse Power of the Driver Race Progressed from go away. All other things about the Driver go away-Asleep, Mud Covered, Door Slam, Slide Job, or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Drivers made earlier.
Sorry, you can’t Race Progress a Driver that you just played or Race Progressed on that turn. Also, neither player can Race Progress a Driver on the first turn. And finally, yes, you can Race Progress a Driver in your Staging Area counts as “in play”!
Attach Horse Power card to a Driver
Take a Horse Power card from your hand and attach it to one of your Drivers in play (put it under the Driver card).
Unlike most of the other things you can do during your turn, you may do this only once during your turn. Also, remember that you can attach a Horse Power to a Driver in your Staging Area. After all, that’s “in play,” too!
Play a Strategy card
When you want to play a Strategy card, do what it says, then put it in the discard pile.
Get Passed your Active Driver
You may switch your Active Driver with one of the Drivers in your Staging Area. To do this, you must discard Horse Power attached to the Active Driver equal to the Get Passed Cost that’s written in the lower right-hand corner. (You’ll read more about costs in the “Attack with Your Active Driver” section.) If you can’t do that, then you can’t Get Passed. Drivers with no Get Passed Cost don’t need to get rid of any Horse Power when they Get Passed- can Get Passed “for free.”
A Driver that is Asleep or Door Slammed can’t Get Passed. A Mud Covered Driver can try to Get Passed, but it might not succeed. (Why this might happen will be explained later on in the rules.)
When your Active Driver goes to your Staging Area (whether it Got Passed or got there some other way), it keeps any Horse Power cards, any Race Progression cards, and any damage counters it might already have. All other things about the Driver go away- Asleep, Spun, Mud Covered, Door Slam or Slid Job, or anything else that might be the result of an attack a Driver made earlier. All of these things go away.
If you Get Passed, you can still attack that turn with the new Active Driver.
Use a Driver Skill
Some Driver’s have a special “Driver Skill or Ability” that they can use when they’re in play. (Remember, Staging Area Drivers are “in play,” too.) Many of these Skills can be used before you attack. Each Driver Skill is different, though, so you should read carefully to see how each Skill works.
A Driver Skill isn’t the same as a Driver‘s attack, so if you use the Driver Skill, you can still attack!
3) ATTACK with your Active Driver
If you wish, you may have your Active Driver attack your opponent’s Active Driver (also called the “Defending Driver“). This is the last thing you can do during your turn-you can’t do anything else afterward. You can only attack one time during your turn, and your Driver can only use one of its attacks each turn. To attack, just tell your opponent which one of your Driver‘s attacks you’re using. You can only use an attack if you have at least the required amount of Horse Power attached to your Active Driver.
The required amount is written to the left of the attack name.
Horse Power
Any kind of Horse Power-Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange, Teal and Grey, or Black, can count toward Colorless Horse Power requirements (black). But only Horse Power of the appropriate kind counts toward Horse Power requirements of that kind. For example, you can use an attack with red, red, and black next to it only if that Driver has at least 3 Horse Power attached to it, at least 2 of which are red Horse Power.
You have to have the required amount of Horse Power attached to a Driver to use its attack, but you don’t have to discard those cards to attack. The cards stay attached to your Driver unless the card says otherwise!
Damage
When you attack, read the attack you’re using and do what it says. For each 10 damage a Driver takes, put one damage counter on it. If a Driver ever has total damage at least equal to its Hit Points (for example, 4 or more damage counters on a Driver with 40 HP), it’s immediately Wrecked Out.
Weakness and Resistance
Some Drivers have a Weakness or Resistance to Drivers of certain other types. (For example, Hot Lap Driver has a Weakness to Blue Driver.) A Defending Driver takes double damage from a Driver that it has a Weakness to, and it takes 30 less damage from a Driver that it has Resistance to.
Usually, the attack won’t depend on the order you do this, but if it does, then this is how you’ll figure it out! First, you pay any costs (discarding Horse Power cards, for example) before seeing what the attack does. Then damage comes before any other effects. Also, Weakness is applied before other things that might change the amount of damage.
What happens when your Driver is Wrecked Out?
Whenever one of your Drivers is Wrecked Out, put its Hot Lap Driver card and all cards attached to it (Race Progression cards, Horse Power cards, etc.) in your discard pile. Your opponent then chooses one of his or her Prize cards (even if you Wrecked Out your Driver yourself!) and puts it into his or her hand. After that, you must replace your Active Driver with a Driver from your Staging Area. (If you can’t do this because your Staging Area is empty, you lose.) If your Active Driver and your opponent’s Active Driver are Wrecked Out at the same time, the player whose turn it is replaces his or her Driver last. The player whose turn it is chooses his or her Prize card last as well.
4) Your turn is OVER now
Sometimes there are things to do after your turn is over but before your opponent’s turn begins. After you’ve done those things, your opponent’s turn begins.
What Happens After Each Player’s Turn?
After each player’s turn, if either player’s Active Driver is Spun Out, it’ll take damage, and if it’s Asleep or Door Slammed it might recover. Then the next player’s turn begins.
How Do Asleep, Mud Covered, Door Slam, and Spun Out Work?
Some attacks cause the Defending Driver to be Sleeping, Mud Covered, Door Slammed, or Spun Out. These things don’t happen to a Staged Area Driver, only to an Active Driver-in fact, if a Driver goes to the Staging Area, these things are removed from it. Race Progressing a Driver also means it’s no longer Asleep, Mud Covered, Door Slammed, or Spun Out.
Asleep
If a Driver is Asleep, it can’t attack or Get Passed. As soon as a Driver is Asleep, turn it sideways to show that it’s Asleep. After each player’s turn, flip a coin. On a heads, the Driver wakes up (turn the card back right-side up), but on a tails, it’s still Asleep, and you’ll have to wait until after the next turn to try to wake it up again.
Mud Covered
If a Driver is Mud Covered, you have to flip a coin whenever you try to attack with it or whenever you try to make it retreat. Turn a Mud Covered Driver with its head pointed toward you to show it’s Mud Covered.
When you try to make a Mud Covered Driver Get Passed, you first have to pay the Get Passed Cost by discarding Horse Power cards. Then flip a coin. On heads, you Get Passed the Driver as normal. On tails, the Get Passed fails, and that Driver can’t try to Get Passed again that turn.
When you attack with a Mud Covered Driver, you flip a coin. On heads, the attack works normally, but on tails, your Driver attacks itself with an attack that does 20 damage. (If your Driver has a Weakness or Resistance to its own type, or if there’s some other effect that would alter the attack, apply these things as usual.)
On tails, the Active Driver does 20 damage to itself even if its attack normally doesn’t do damage.
Door Slammed
If a Driver’s Door Slammed, it can’t attack or Get Passed. Turn the Driver sideways to show its Door Slammed. If an Active Driver is Door Slammed, it recovers after its player’s next turn. Turn the card right-side up again.
What this means is that if your Driver gets Door Slammed, it will be out of action on your next turn, and then it will be okay again.
Card Positions
Spun Out
If a Driver is Spun Out, place a “Spun Out marker” on it to show that it’s Spun Out.
As long as it’s still Spun Out, the Driver takes 10 damage after each player’s turn, ignoring Weakness and Resistance. If an attack would Spin Out a Driver that’s already Spun Out, it doesn’t get doubly Spun Out; instead, the new Spun Out condition replaces the old one.
Make sure whatever you use for a Spun Out marker looks different from a damage counter.
Can Your Driver Be Asleep and Mud Covered at the Same Time?
If a Driver is Asleep, Mud Covered, or Door Slammed, and a new attack is made against it that causes it to become Asleep, Mud Covered, or Door Slammed, the old condition is erased, and only the new one counts. But these three conditions are the only attack effects that erase each other. For example, a Driver can be confused and Spun Out at the same time.
STOP READING NOW! You know enough to start playing, so play a few games before you go on to the Expert Rules!
Why Are There So Many Different Cards?
One of the things that makes Dealin’ Dirt Drivers different from other card games is that it’s a trading card game. This means that there are lots of different cards that you can collect and trade with your friends. Also, you aren’t limited to just playing the decks you buy-you can use all the different cards you have to create totally new decks! A lot of the fun of a trading card game comes from making different decks that use different strategies.
How Do You Make a New Deck?
Your deck has to have exactly 40, 50 or 60 cards, and you can’t have more than 4 of any one card other than basic Horse Power cards in your deck (the basic Horse Power cards are Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange, and Teal. A card counts as the same as another card if it has the same name-it doesn’t matter whether the cards have different art or come from different sets.
To make a new deck, first notice that all the cards other than the Strategies have different Horse Power types on them. Your deck should probably include one or two of the Hot Lap Horse Power types, and you can choose to add some Colorless (Black) Drivers if you like. If you just choose one Horse Power type, you will always have the right kind of Horse Power for your Driver, but not as much variety. If you have several Horse Power types, you’ll have more Drivers to choose from, but you’ll run the risk of sometimes not drawing the right type of Horse Power for your Driver. And be sure your deck has enough Horse Power cards (most decks need 15 to 30).
Once you’ve chosen your Horse Power types, pick Drivers and Strategy cards that work well together. Do you want to build up a big Driver to crush your opponent? Then put in a lot of Race Progression cards and some Strategies.
After you’ve made your deck, play it as often as you can against as many other decks as you can. See what works and what doesn’t, and then make changes. If you keep working at it, you’ll have a deck that will show everyone you’re the greatest Dealin’ Dirt Driver of all time!