How to get started with SeaRealm

• • A standard personal deck contains exactly 60 cards, no more than 4 copies of one card, at least one base Foundation, and at least 30 total printed VP.
• • “30 printed VP in your deck” is a construction rule. “30 current VP in play” is the recommended full-game win target.
• • Coral, Creature Schools, and their stages go in the Foundation Deck.
• • Regular creatures, Support cards, and playable Habitat cards go in the Main Deck.
• • Conditions use a separate shared deck and are not part of either player’s 60 cards.

• • Upgrade only to the next printed stage during Build. Meet its requirement, pay its RP cost, and place it over the current card.
• • Existing damage remains through an upgrade. The higher stage changes maximum HP as printed; it does not fully heal the Coral.
• • A Coral normally upgrades only once per turn.
• • When a Condition matches a Coral weakness, that Coral does not produce RP for the round. The weakness alone does not remove or damage it.
• • A destroyed Foundation leaves play for discard and its VP immediately stops counting.
• • The current knowledge base says occupants should move to compatible empty slots when possible. Because cleanup for creatures with no legal slot is not fully ruled, use the latest official ruling for that edge case.

• • Creature Schools are Oceanic Foundations with School Density and HP.
• • Add the School Density on your Creature Schools to find your total capacity. After reductions, each density-using creature commits its effective requirement while it remains in play, so those requirements add together.
• • Committed capacity becomes available again when that creature leaves. School Density is not permanently spent like RP: the capacity remains on the Creature School instead of leaving a bank.
• • If a Creature School leaves or changes and your commitments exceed the new capacity, keep the creatures already in play. You cannot play another creature with a positive School Density requirement until enough capacity is restored.
• • Non-school Oceanic creatures live in open water rather than Reef or Deep Coral slots. Obey any printed School Density and Habitat requirements.
• • Creature Schools do not roll Defense. An attack deals the attack roll ×10 as damage, and the School is discarded at 0 HP.
• • Oceanic Apex requirements are card-specific. Shortfin Mako, Sperm Whale, Pilot Whale, and Killer Whale require Open Ocean and 2 Oceanic Predators already in your ecosystem; those Predators stay in play. Bluefin Tuna requires Open Ocean, while Swordfish allows Open Ocean or Abyss.
• • Ocean Triggerfish's Territorial gives 1 chosen Creature School +30 HP while that Triggerfish remains in play. The choice is not transferable.
• • Thresher Shark requires 3 Oceanic Fish. Its Stun Strike adds +2 when the attack roll is 4 or higher; that bonus does not require Open Ocean.
• • Sardine Run and Krill Bloom can reduce the next qualifying School Density requirement once per player as printed.

• • A Passive is active while its card remains in play and its printed condition is true.
• • An On Play ability resolves when a card is successfully played. It does not repeat each turn.
• • An Action is chosen at its printed timing: pay its cost, choose legal targets, and resolve its instructions in order.
• • Special Rules has no universal effect. Apply the exact text on that card.
• • A Support normally resolves and goes to discard unless it explicitly remains in play.
• • Search the named deck or zone for a matching card, reveal or move it as instructed, and shuffle when required. Recovery moves an eligible card from discard to its stated destination.
• • Moving a physical card does not reset its identity or a once-per-turn use that belongs to it.

• • When an Apex or Filter Feeder is destroyed, place that physical card in its owner's Lost Zone instead of the discard pile.
• • A card in the Lost Zone is no longer in play, so its VP and in-play abilities stop applying immediately.
• • Lionfish has no Lost Zone instruction, so destroying it or discarding it with Spearfishing returns the Lionfish to its original owner's discard pile.
• • An Apex or Filter Feeder discarded as a cost, sacrifice, hand-limit overflow, or card effect goes to discard unless that instruction explicitly names the Lost Zone.
• • Other destroyed cards go to discard unless their own printed text gives them another destination.

• • Invader triggers at the start of the turn of the player whose ecosystem physically contains Lionfish.
• • Ownership does not change when Lionfish invades another ecosystem. Resolve “opponent” and “your own” from the Lionfish owner's perspective.
• • On heads, perform the D4-1 attack against a Fish controlled by the Lionfish owner's opponent, normally the ecosystem holder. On tails, attack another Fish controlled by the Lionfish owner.
• • The triggering Lionfish is not a legal target. Flip before choosing a target; if the rolled branch has no legal Fish, that attack fizzles and you do not switch branches.

• • D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20 name dice with that many sides. Apply a written + or − after rolling; modified totals cannot fall below 0.
• • Advantage rolls twice and keeps the higher result. Disadvantage rolls twice and keeps the lower result.
• • Toxic When Eaten triggers only when a creature successfully consumes that Toxic card, unless explicit immunity or protection applies.
• • Regenerate is optional. After a successful attack, the controller may pay the printed RP to keep that creature in play.
• • Cloak does not make a creature untargetable; current Cloak cards grant their printed +3 Defense benefit.
• • Transparency checks the attack’s printed die size, not the modified result.
• • Massive is not identical on every card. Read whether that card changes the attack roll or Defense roll.

• • Habitat cards are played from the Main Deck and remain as independent cards in the ecosystem. Each physical copy tracks its own HP and effects.
• • Every current Habitat has 40 HP. Check each copy at the end of its controller's turn; a copy whose full composition is not met takes 10 HP of damage and is destroyed at 0 HP.
• • Coral Reef requires 4 Reef Corals, 2 Reef Fish, and 2 Reef Invertebrates.
• • Open Ocean requires 4 Creature Schools, 2 Oceanic Fish, and 2 Oceanic Invertebrates.
• • Abyss requires 4 Deep Corals, 2 Deep Fish, and 2 Deep Invertebrates.
• • Open Ocean and Abyss enable their related strategies. Deep-targeting restrictions still apply; a similar tag does not make a Reef creature Deep.
• • Hosted or attached cards are legal only when printed text permits the host, tag, and capacity. The hosted card keeps its own physical identity.
• • A hosted card moves with its primary host only when the applicable rule says it does.
• • Continuous HP bonuses raise current and maximum HP while active without erasing damage. Removing the bonus reduces both; a card at 0 HP is destroyed.

• • Reveal and apply a shared Condition at the start of each round. Read its printed duration; some effects last for the round and some are persistent until used.
• • Conditions can prevent card types from being played, change RP costs or bank caps, add draws, set a hand limit, suppress Coral RP, or reduce School Density requirements.
• • The default RP bank cap is 8. When the active cap becomes lower, discard RP above it as instructed.
• • There is no default hand limit. If a Condition sets one, complete the draw, search, or recovery first; then, if your hand is over the limit, choose and discard enough cards from your entire hand to meet it.
• • A required draw causes a loss when both personal decks are depleted.
• • VP counts only while its card is in the ecosystem and any printed VP condition remains true.

The current source set does not prescribe a first-player method, a complete Conditions Deck exhaustion procedure, or an exact tiebreaker when players reach identical VP simultaneously. Agree on a neutral method before play or check the latest official ruling.

A Stunned Coral produces no RP, cannot use its own actions or passives, and cannot be upgraded through the end of its controller's next turn. Coral Heal removes Stunned early because it removes all effects from the chosen Coral. The Lost Zone is defined above for destroyed Apex and Filter Feeder cards.