How to Play Clamor

1 · What is Clamor

Clamor is a card game for two to four players. Each player brings a 60-card deck and a single champion called an Ascendant. You win by being the last player standing. Life starts at 30 and counts down.

But every powerful card you play makes noise. That noise is tracked on your clamor counter, from 0 to 30, and it only goes up. When the table gets loud enough (10, then 20, then 30), the bell rings itself and a boss spawns, sized to the table's combined noise. The whole game lives between two clocks: your life running down, and the table's clamor running up.

2 · The Two Costs ↑ top

Every card costs two things:

Elements: the mana you pay from your Sources. Element pips must be paid in that element; Neutral pips are generic, so any Source pays them. Most cards ask for only one or two of their element, so two-element decks can cast reliably.
Clamor: the number in the ember badge. When you play the card, add that much to your clamor track. Clamor measures how far above rate a card is: fair cards are quiet, pushed cards are loud. You never get it back unless a card says so.

Playing strong cards is how you win, and how you ring the bell. That tension is the whole game.

3 · Setup

Place your Ascendant face up in your Recovery zone (it is not part of your 60).
Shuffle your deck. Life to 30, clamor to 0.
Draw 7. One free mulligan (redraw 7); each mulligan after is London-style: draw 7, put N on the bottom.
The cut: your opponent cuts your deck from the middle and reveals the card; you cut theirs. Higher mana cost goes first (ties: coin flip). Reshuffle. The first player skips their first draw. Online, the cut happens automatically.

Zones: Deck, Hand, Battlefield, Graveyard, Recovery, Exile. Life, clamor, and Scars are tracked openly. Hand size is 7; discard down at the end of your turn.

4 · The Turn

Untap → Draw → Main → Combat → Main → End.

Play one Source per turn, during either main phase.
Creatures, Actions, Artifacts, and Equipment are played in your main phases. Reactions can be played in response windows too (see the Stack).
At the end of your turn, discard down to 7.

5 · The Card Types

Type	How it works
Creature	Stays on the battlefield. Attacks and blocks. Can't attack the turn it arrives unless it has Charge. Its stats are power/toughness; damage it takes heals at the end of the round.
Action	A one-shot spell. Play it in your main phase, do what it says, put it in the graveyard.
Reaction	A fast spell. Play it in your main phases, in combat windows, or in response to another spell on the stack. One Reaction per player per window.
Artifact	A permanent that stays on the battlefield. Many have activated abilities ("Tap: …", "Tap, sacrifice: …") usable at Reaction speed. A paid, untapped ability can be used as often as you can pay.
Equipment	Cast it like an artifact; it enters the battlefield unattached. Attaching is a separate cost, the printed Attach N, paid during your main phase. Move it by paying again. When its bearer dies, the equipment stays on the battlefield.
Source	Your mana. Tap for one element. Basics are free and quiet; dual Sources tap for either of two elements but carry Clamor 1.

Reading a card

Top right: the element cost as pips. The grey numbered pip is generic (any Source); colored pips are strict.
Bottom left: the CLAMOR badge, the noise you make when you play it.
Gem on the type line: rarity. CommonUncommonRareMythic
Bottom right: power / toughness for creatures.

6 · Combat

Declare attackers. Each attacker targets a player or the active boss; you may split. Reaction window.
Declare blockers. The defender assigns blockers; any number may gang one attacker. The attacker splits its damage among them in declaration order (excess is lost), and every blocker strikes back. Reaction window.
Damage: simultaneous, and it cannot be reacted to.

Flying can only be blocked by Flying or Skywatch.
A committed block stays committed, even if abilities change afterward.
Combat is loud: the first time your attack deals unblocked damage to a player each combat, you gain 1 clamor.

7 · Reactions & the Stack

When a spell is played, each other player may answer with one Reaction; the caster may answer that with their own. Cards go on a stack and resolve top-down: last played, first resolved.

Worked example. Ana casts Wildfire Rite. Ben responds with Deny. Ana responds to that with Silence the Current. Resolving top-down: Silence the Current counters Deny; Deny does nothing; Wildfire Rite resolves. Had Ana passed, Deny would have countered Wildfire Rite.

Activated abilities may be used any time you could play a Reaction. Stealing effects (playing cards you don't own): the thief pays all costs from their own Sources, and the thief's clamor takes the Clamor cost.

8 · Keywords & Tokens

Keyword	Meaning
Charge	May attack the turn it enters play.
Flying	Can only be blocked by Flying or Skywatch.
Aggro	(Boss keyword) While this boss lives, players cannot attack each other; every attack targets the boss.
Skywatch	May block creatures with Flying.
Cannot block	Exactly that. It may still attack.
Enters tapped	Arrives tapped; untaps normally.
Resound	Blocked attacks push excess damage through the blockers to the defending player. Bosses flip it as a behavior; some treasures grant it to creatures.

Tokens are Neutral, cost 0, and named: Levy (1/1), Gale Wisp (1/1 Flying), Warband (1/1 Charge). A token that leaves the battlefield ceases to exist. "Divided as you choose" damage is divided when played, minimum 1 per target, whole numbers.

9 · Clamor & the Bells

Clamor comes from: the Clamor cost of cards you play, combat (first unblocked hit each combat: +1), your Scars when your Ascendant returns, and cards that push it onto you.
The track caps at 30; excess is lost. It never resets unless a card says so. "The last threshold you passed" means the highest of 10/20/30 at or below your clamor, else 0.
Thresholds at 10, 20, 30. The instant any player reaches one, the boss spawns. Nobody chooses. The bell rings itself.

10 · Bosses

All bosses (numbered B1 and up, three per element including Neutral) are shuffled as one Boss Deck; a bell flips the top card, so you never know what answers. Every boss is printed 0/0 and enters with:

Health = the combined clamor of all players.
Attack = half its health, plus two (round down).

First strike falls on the player who rang the bell. After that, its attention swings to the next player each round, around the table, until it or someone dies.
It attacks at the start of each round; the defender may block with one creature. At the end of each round, flip the top card of its behavior deck and resolve it. If the deck runs out, reshuffle.
Punching the bell is never free: a creature that attacks the boss is dealt the boss's attack in return, simultaneously.

Aggro & treasure

Aggro. Some bosses are printed with Aggro: while one lives, players cannot attack each other. Every attack must target the boss; the table's war waits.

Treasure. Treasures are a shuffled face-down deck. When a boss dies, its killer draws the top treasure and it enters play immediately as a token artifact with a one-time sacrifice effect. Kept in your collection afterward; your treasure deck grows by slaying bosses.

11 · The Ascendant

Any creature can be your Ascendant. It starts in Recovery and is cast like a creature. Its first entry makes no clamor; the printed cost is forgiven once.
When it dies, choose: Graveyard (gone, unless recurred, which is Earth's specialty) or Recovery.
Returning from Recovery costs its printed cost plus 1 Neutral per prior death, it gains a Scar, and you immediately gain clamor equal to your Scars. By the fourth death, letting it rest is often correct. That is intended.
Cost reduction can never bring its return below the printed cost.

12 · Winning & Losing

Last player standing. 0 life is elimination.
Deck-out: if you must draw from an empty deck, you are eliminated.
Simultaneous death: everyone at 0 is out; the active player falls first for tiebreaks.

13 · Deckbuilding

Exactly 60 cards plus your Ascendant. Max 4 copies of any name (basic Sources exempt). About 24 Sources is right.
Your deck may only contain cards of your Ascendant's elements, plus Neutral. A two-element Ascendant opens both elements and that pair's hybrid, gold, and dual-Source cards.
No cards sharing your Ascendant's name. Only one copy of a given legendary on the battlefield at a time.

14 · Quick Reference

Moment	Rule
Turn	Untap · Draw · Main · Combat · Main · End (discard to 7). One Source per turn.
Stack	One Reaction per player per window, resolve top-down.
Combat windows	After attackers · after blockers. Damage is uninterruptible.
Combat clamor	First unblocked hit on a player each combat: attacker +1 clamor.
Bells	10 / 20 / 30. The boss spawns instantly when reached.
Boss	HP = combined clamor · ATK = half +2 · strikes ringer first, then alternates · retaliates vs attackers.
Ascendant	First entry quiet · return costs +1/death · Scars become clamor.

🔔

The bell hears all of it.