Within a realm shattered by war, shrewd nobles back opposing factions to secure their place in the future. Lend your support at the right time to wrest control of the realm from your rivals.

Players square off as influential nobles vying for leadership of a war-torn realm. Each turn, players manipulate three elemental factions, backing one in their fight against their rival. Over a series of battles, one player can solidify control of the realm and earn the victory.

Element of Surprise is a 1-2 player expansion to the Mysticana deck. In this game of strategy and manipulation, players battle to control the shifting power among the factions.

The game is played over a series of battles. For each battle, players first build up the three elemental factions by allocating cards from their hand to the three elemental factions. Next, they secretly assign two cards to the shadows and select a Herald by placing a card face-down, which represents the faction they wish to support.

Battle is then joined: each player reveals their Herald, totals the value of their chosen faction, and multiplies that value by the lowest matching element card in the shadows. The player with the highest total wins the battle, and the first player to win 3 battles wins control of the realm!


Mysticana is a Foundation Deck: an 18-card deck that includes multiple core games using just the base cards with even more games added through small expansions. The deck features cards with 6 ranks across 3 suits (elements) which have a “rock-paper-scissors” hierarchy. While each game might make use of the deck’s design in different ways, the flexible foundation enables new games to fit in seamlessly alongside previous entries.