Doctor Who: Worlds Apart Basics — Attacking & Blocking
In this article we will cover the combat mechanics of the Worlds Apart TCG:
- Understanding which card types can and can’t attack.
- Playing a Creature.
- Attacking with a Creature.
- Blocking with a Creature.
There are 8 card types in Worlds Apart, all of which cost from 0–15 Artron Energy to cast (shown by the blue number in the upper right), but only 2 of them have attack and health values, meaning only those 2 card types can attack and block.
We will cover the other 6 types in later articles, for now let’s focus on those 2:
Creatures & Companions
Creatures come in many shapes and sizes, but what they all have in common is that if their Health (displayed in the lower right symbol) reaches 0, they die and enter the past as shown in the previous article.
Most Creatures can also deal combat damage, unless their Attack Power (displayed in the lower left symbol) is 0. However, if they are still alive, they can still block enemy Creatures.
As seen on our Pterodactyl here, some Creatures have the Flight keyword, meaning they can only be blocked by other Creatures with Flight. We will dive deeper into Keywords and Abilities in a later article.
Each player can control up to 10 Creatures at a time on their side of the battlefield, and your deck can contain anywhere from 0 to 40 different Creatures, although you can only have up to 4 of the same Creature.
“Companion” — a subtype of “Creature”
Companions, however, work a little differently as you are limited to 1 of each in your deck, but again there’s no limit to how many different Companions you can have.
Companions, whether good or evil, represent important characters in Doctor Who, and they often bring unique Keywords and Abilities to the table. Since YOU, the player, are the center of attention in Worlds Apart, even The Doctor and The Master have this designation because they can become YOUR Companions.
All Companions are Creatures, but not all Creatures are Companions.
So everything we write about Creatures also includes Companions.
Attacking & Blocking
Most Creatures get Summoning Sickness after being summoned, meaning they need to wait until your next turn before they are ready to attack or block.
Let’s end our turn and see what the other player does.
Okay! A single Mondasian Cyberman. Nothing we can’t handle.
It’s our turn again, and the Creatures we played last turn now no longer have Summoning Sickness.
Creatures always target the opponent’s TARDIS by default, but in order to avoid taking damage, they can choose to block our Creature with one of their own. However, the Mondasian Cyberman still has Summoning Sickness but will wake up as soon as you pass the turn.
Let’s attack! But be careful, our Creatures can only attack or block in a single turn — never both.
Notice that the shields of your TARDIS are at a point where the enemy Mondasian Cyberman could destroy it in a single hit. Therefore it would be wise to keep your Cyber-Warrior active on your opponent’s turn, but that means you lose out on damage to your opponent’s TARDIS.
We still have the Pterodactyl though, so let’s just attack with that for now.
Great, our Pterodactyl dealt 2 damage but now needs to rest for a turn before it can attack or block again. Let’s play the 3 Cyber-Warriors from our TARDIS, just for good measure.
The Mondasian Cyberman is attacking! Let’s block it with the Cyber-Warrior we kept in reserve last turn.
Phew! We successfully protected our TARDIS. The Mondasian Cyberman had dealt 2 damage to our Cyber-Warrior, but took 2 damage in return. Our Cyber-Warrior was destroyed in the process, but at least we’re safe!
Let’s end this! Luckily our opponent did not play any other Creatures, so it seems like there’s no more danger ahead.
We’ll attack with one of the Cyber-Warriors first.
Take that! Only 2 more damage to go before we win.
Wha- an Energy Surge! This card has the type ‘Flash’ which is a category of cards than can be played on the opponent’s turn.
The Energy Surge put all Mechanical Creatures out of order for a turn.
Luckily our Pterodactyl remains unaffected by this effect since it’s an Organic Life Form and doesn’t have the Mechanical trait like the Cybermen do (indicated with the yellow symbol to the left on the card).
Let’s finish the job with our Pterodactyl! Screech!
That’s it! We won! The cards we played during the match now gain a bit of experience which will help you unlock cool cosmetic Core frames, from Bronze and Silver to Gold and eventually Black Diamond.
