Economancy Rules

Modern-day wizards are tired of hiding in remote places, studying ancient tomes, and practicing magic. These days, wizards want to make money. In Economancy, ambitious wizards compete to gain economic dominance of the modern world.

Players take on the role of wizards buying cards to build their army. Players win by either eliminating their competition or by gaining 7 victory points, casting a spell over the economy of the world. Economancy can be played by 2-4 players and games typically last 10-20 minutes.

1 Setup

The picture above shows the initial setup for Economancy. The shop area stores cards players can buy. The day tracker card helps keep track of the current day (marked with a coin). The discard pile stores cards that have fainted. The coin reserve stores coins the players can earn during the income phase.

Each player has their own army area, which stores the cards they have bought. Players keep these cards in the order they bought them, from left to right. Players start with one coin and one Sorcerer's Stipend card. Each player has coin cards, which they used to signal how much money they are spending during the attack phase. They also have reference cards, used to signal what card they are buying during the buy phase.

The base game contains 13 types of cards in the shop. Each player starts with one Sorcerer's Stipend card. The rest of the cards are placed on the table in the shop area. Each card has a player count , which determines how many of that card is used per person. For example, in a 3-player game, there will be 6 Wall of Wealth cards in the shop.

2 General Rules

Economancy is played in rounds called days, each round corresponding to a day in a 3-day cycle. First day 1, then day 2, then day 3, then back to day 1 again. The current day can be tracked by placing a coin on the Day Tracker card.

Each round consists of 3 phases: the income phase, the attack phase, and the buy phase. The income phase applies effects from each card each player owns. The attack phase allows one player to attack all other players. The buy phase allows players to buy new cards. These phases are explained in the following sections.

Economancy cards have a cost in the lower-left, a strength in the upper-left, and a defense in the upper-right. They also have a player count in the lower-right, which determines how many of that card are used per player. Cards also have a description of their effects during the income phase. Sometimes, cards have special effects during other phases, such as the attack phase. In such cases, the description of the effect will explicitly state when it applies.

3 Income Phase

During the income phase, each player applies the effects of each card they own. All players perform the income phase at the same time. However, each player must apply the effects of their cards in order from left to right. For example, the Magic Bean Stock card gives the player coins after the cards to its left and before those on its right.

For example, if a player currently 0 coins at the start of day 1 and has Sorcerer's Stipend, Worker, Magic Bean Stock, and Senior Worker cards acquired in that order, then Sorcerer's Stipend adds one coin, Worker adds no coins (because it’s day 1), Magic Bean Stock adds no coins (because the player has only 2 coins at that point), and Senior Worker adds 1 coin, leaving the player with a total of 3 coins. Had the player started day 1 with 1 coin, instead, then Magic Bean Stock would have added a coin (since the player would have 3 coins at the point of considering the card), leaving the player with a total of 5 coins.

4 Attack Phase: Investing

During the attack phase, players pay money, investing in their army for the opportunity to attack the other players. They do this by choosing, secretly, how much money they want to spend. First, players pick up all of their coin cards and hold them in their hand. Then each player picks one or more coin cards from their hand and places them face down on the table. When all players have chosen their coin cards, they simultaneously reveal them. Each player pays the sum of the number of coins on the coin cards they revealed.

If one player paid more than all other players, they attack the other players. For example, if player A paid 3 coins, player B paid 2 coins, and player C paid 2 coins, player A gets to attack the other players. In the case of a tie, no player gets to attack.

5 Attack Phase: Attacking

The attacking player may attack with each of their cards at most once (except as noted on a card, such as the Bubble card), in the order of their choosing. Likewise, each defending player may defend with each of their cards at most once (except as noted on a card, such as the Wall of Wealth card). After a card attacks or defends, it is tapped (turned sideways) to indicate that it has been used. The attacking player may choose not to attack with some cards or choose not to attack at all. After the attack phase, all cards are untapped.

Each time the attacking player chooses a card to attack, all other defending players secretly choose a card to defend with. Each player chooses a reference card, placing it face down on the table. Simultaneously, all players reveal their choices. If a defending player has no untapped cards to defend an attack, they are eliminated from the game. If a player has multiple copies of a card, they may choose any of them to defend with. The attacking card fights the defending cards.

During a fight, the attacking player’s card may faint and some or all of the defending cards may faint. If any defending card has a higher attack than the attacking card’s defense, the attacking card faints. For any defending card, if the attacking card’s attack is higher than the defending card’s defense, the defending card faints. Note that, even if the attacking card faints, it still can cause defending cards to faint.

In the above example, the attacking player chose a Ghost card to attack with. The defending players chose a Ghost card, an Shield of Greed card, and a Worker card, respectively. As a result, the attacking Ghost card faints, because the defending Ghost card has a higher attack than the attacking Ghost card’s defense. Also, the defending Ghost card and Worker card both faint, since they have lower defense than the attacking Ghost card’s attack. Finally, the defending Shield of Greed card does not faint.

After a fight, the tapped cards are placed back in the army area in the same order they were in before. Any cards that fainted are placed in the discard pile.

6 Buy Phase

During the buy phase, players may buy cards from the shop. Each player gets one free buy per round. Some cards, like the Apprentice card, can give players more buys during the income phase. All players buy from the shop simultaneously so that no player knows what the others are buying.

To do this, all players first pick up all their reference cards. Then, each player with a buy remaining chooses one reference card and places it face down on the table. Simultaneously, all players reveal their choice. Each player pays the price of their chosen card and gains that card, placing it in their army area to the right of the cards already there.

Note that if a player does not wish to buy a card, they can place the Pass reference card. However, the pass reference card still uses a buy.

If at least one player still has a buy left, this process continues. Only players that still have a buy left pick another reference card. Once all players have run out of buys, the buy phase ends.

Sometimes, multiple players choose the same card and there are not enough for all of them left in the shop. In this case, discard all remaining cards of that type in the shop. The players that chose that card still spend their money, but none of them get the card. For example, there could be only two Wall of Wealth left in the shop but three players have chosen to buy it. All three players would pay 1 coin, and the two Wall of Wealth cards in the shop would be discarded.

7 Win Conditions

Multiple players can gain 7 or more victory points at the same time. In that case, play continues until one has the most points (or until only one player is left).

Ties are also possible, in the case that the players exhaust the supply of victory points and are unable to eliminate each other.

8 How To Make a Physical Copy