☿ MAGNUM OPUS ☉

I. The Great Work

Four alchemists. Three contested treasures. One victor.

In Magnum Opus, you are not a warrior — you are a legendary alchemist, a master of the hermetic arts who commands from the safety of your laboratory. You send your creations, your bound spirits, and your human agents to fight over Materia — the raw treasures and resources that fuel the Great Work.

But alchemy is not merely about power. Each alchemist pursues a secret Opus — a personal win condition hidden from rivals. The first to complete their Opus wins instantly. Fail to complete it, and victory goes to the alchemist who has accumulated the most Opus Points through claimed Materia and completed Objectives.

Every game begins with a draft. Every card in your deck was chosen by you, one pick at a time, while your rivals chose from the same pool. The draft is where the game is won or lost — and where the mind games begin.

II. The Laboratory & The Battlefield

The game takes place across two zones: the private Laboratory where your Alchemist works, and the shared Battlefield where your creatures contest Materia.

Your Laboratory Contains:

• Your Alchemist card (commander, never leaves the lab)
• Attached Principles and Reagents (slotted onto the Alchemist — attachments produce their element AND grant bonus effects)
• Reagent resources (Reagents played in resource mode — produce their element only, cannot be sacrificed for advancement)
• Apparatus (persistent support cards)
• Resting creatures (Homunculi and Agents between deployments, possibly wounded)
• Claimed Resource/Relic Materia (moved here after claiming)

The Battlefield Contains:

• 3 Materia locations (the contested prizes)
• Deployed creatures (Homunculi, Minions, and Agents sent to fight)

III. Card Types

The Alchemist (Your Commander)

Your Alchemist is a legendary figure from the hermetic tradition. They sit in your laboratory for the entire game, never entering combat. Instead, they provide:

• A Passive Aura — always active, affects all your creatures globally
• An Activated Ability — costs resources, targets a single location
• Principle slots and Reagent slots — limiting how many cards you can attach

Your Alchemist begins at Nigredo (Stage 1) and can advance through Albedo, Citrinitas, and Rubedo by paying an escalating cost of attached Reagent sacrifices and resources.

Reagents (Your Economy AND Your Power)

Reagents are the most important card type in the game. Every Reagent you draft can be played in one of two modes:

You may play only one Reagent per turn (in either mode). This is your "land drop" — the single most important decision each round.

Principles

Major strategic paradigms that attach to your Alchemist and fundamentally alter how you play. Examples: "Solve et Coagula" lets you reclaim a Reagent from discard whenever you sacrifice one. "As Above, So Below" mirrors effects between you and opponents.

Principles occupy Principle slots on your Alchemist.

Praxis

One-shot alchemical processes played during the Laboratory phase. Pay their cost, resolve the effect, discard. Praxis are your sorceries — proactive spells for setup, card draw, resource generation, and creature preparation. Some Praxis cards have bonus effects that trigger when played on the same turn you advance a Stage.

Creatures

Three types, three identities, three lifecycles:

Homunculi — Your alchemical creations. The most powerful creatures, carrying elemental tags (☉ Sulphur ☿ Mercury or 🜔 Salt) that interact with the elemental combat system. They scale with your Alchemist's Stage. When they die, they return to your lab exhausted. Damage persists between rounds.

Agents — Human disciples, mercenaries, scholars, spies. Mid-range stats and cost. Their unique strength is interaction — espionage, sabotage, infiltration, political mechanics. If they survive a round, they return to your lab. If they die, they're gone permanently. Damage persists between rounds.

Agents are organized into four subtypes:

• Scholars — Information and card advantage. Peek at hands, scry Materia, draw cards.
• Merchants — Economy and resource manipulation. Generate resources, reduce costs, trade.
• Officials — Control and disruption. Tax opponents, restrict actions, enforce rules.
• Guards — Protection and combat support. Guardian keyword, damage reduction, bodyguard effects.

Minions — Bound spirits, familiars, elemental wisps. Cheap, disposable, one-shot utility. They go to the discard pile at the end of every round regardless of whether they survived. Their value comes from entry triggers, death triggers, and cheap board presence. No elemental tag.

"A Homunculus is a child you raise. An Agent is a servant you hire. A Minion is a candle you light — useful, brief, and gone."

Apparatus

Persistent support cards that sit in your laboratory. Furnaces, lenses, vessels, stills. They provide ongoing effects: resource generation, creature buffs, healing, information. They are never deployed to the battlefield.

Arcana

Instant tricks and disruption. Two sub-types:

• Instants — playable during the Deployment or Contest phases. Combat tricks, removal, protection.
• Rituals — playable during the Laboratory phase. Healing, card draw, laboratory manipulation.

Materia (Not Drafted)

The contested prizes at the center of the game. Drawn from a separate Materia deck and placed in the central zone. Four types:

Opus (Secret Win Condition)

Dealt before the draft. Your Opus defines a unique condition — if you fulfill it, you may reveal and win immediately. If your declaration fails (the condition is disrupted before the round ends), the Opus becomes public knowledge.

The Opus deck contains 30 unique cards spanning six strategic archetypes:

• Stage-focused (5): Require reaching specific stages plus additional conditions. E.g. The Emerald Tablet: Rubedo + 6 Reagents in play.
• Board-state (5): Require controlling specific configurations of cards. E.g. The Living Laboratory: 4 Apparatus simultaneously.
• Combat / Materia (4): Require battlefield dominance or kill counts. E.g. The Conqueror's Crown: claim 4 Materia.
• Element-focused (4): Require deep commitment to one or all elements. E.g. The Solar Furnace: Citrinitas + 4 Sulphur cards in play.
• Tempo / Strategy (7): Require specific timing or unconventional play. E.g. The Swift Ascent: Rubedo before Round 5.
• Interaction / Political (5): Require manipulating opponents. E.g. The Puppeteer: 3 enemies die at locations where you're absent.

Difficulty varies intentionally — The Harvest Moon (1 Materia + dual-mode Reagents) is achievable by almost any deck, while The Hermit's Victory (Citrinitas with zero creature losses) demands extreme discipline.

Objectives (Public Goals)

Two Objective cards are revealed before the draft. Any player can race to complete them for bonus Opus Points (2–3 OP each). Objectives create shared incentives that warp the draft.

IV. Game Setup

Step 1: Choose Alchemists

Each player receives a base Alchemist card from the roster of 16.

TODO: Method to be finalized. Options: random deal, player choice in random order, or a separate Alchemist draft.

Step 2: Deal Opus Cards

Shuffle the Opus deck. Deal one Opus card face-down to each player. Look at your Opus — this is your secret win condition for the entire game. Do not reveal it.

Step 3: Reveal Objectives

Shuffle the Objective deck. Reveal 2 Objectives face-up in the public zone. All players can see these and may work toward completing them.

Step 4: The Draft

Draft Tip: Your first few picks should answer two questions: What does my Opus need? and What does my Alchemist do well? Mid-pack, start reading signals — what's being passed to you tells you what your neighbors aren't drafting.

Step 5: Game Start

1. Place your Alchemist in your laboratory zone (Stage: Nigredo).
2. Determine first player randomly. Turn order proceeds clockwise.
3. Draw an opening hand of 5 cards.
4. Shuffle the Materia deck. Reveal the first 3 Materia into the central zone.

V. The Round

Each round follows seven phases. After all seven, the first-player marker rotates clockwise.

Phase ①: Upkeep

All players simultaneously:

• Untap all tapped Reagent resources and attached Reagents in your laboratory.
• Collect resources from your Reagent resources (tap each to gain its element).
• Collect resources from your attached Reagents (tap each to gain its element — attachments produce AND grant their bonus effect).
• Collect bonus resources from any claimed Resource Materia in your zone.
• Resolve any "start of round" triggers.
• Draw 1 card from your deck.

Phase ②: Laboratory

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, players take turns performing laboratory actions. On your turn you may perform any or all of the following:

• Play one Reagent (as resource or attachment — limit one per turn. Attachments enter exhausted.)
• Attach a Principle to your Alchemist (pay its cost, occupy a Principle slot)
• Play an Apparatus (pay its cost, enters your lab)
• Play a Praxis (pay its cost, resolve its effect, discard. Some have bonus effects when played on a turn you advance a Stage.)
• Advance a Stage (sacrifice attached Reagent(s) and pay the escalating resource cost)
• Activate your Alchemist's activated ability (pay its cost)
• Play Ritual Arcana (lab-phase-only spells)
• Pay ✦ to reactivate an exhausted Homunculus
• Pass

Laboratory phase continues until all players pass consecutively.

Example: It's Round 3. You have ☉ and ☿ from your two Reagent resources, plus ☉ from your attached Philosophic Sulphur (which also grants +1/+0 to your ☉ Homunculi), plus ☉ from a claimed Sulphur Well. You play a Salt Reagent as your third resource. Then you pay ☉☿ to attach Solve et Coagula. Then you play Panacea (Ritual Arcana, 🜔🜔), fully healing your wounded Golem of Prague. You pass.

Phase ③: Deployment

Starting with the first player, players take turns deploying creatures to Materia locations. On your deployment turn, you may:

• Deploy any number of creatures from your laboratory to any Materia locations (paying their costs)
• Reassign Homunculi/Agents already deployed this round

After each player's deployment, other players may respond with Instant Arcana before the next deployment turn.

Deployment continues until all players pass consecutively.

Phase ④: Contest

Resolve combat simultaneously at all contested Materia locations.

Step 1: Declare damage

Each player at a contested location distributes their creatures' total Power as damage across enemy creatures at that location.

Step 2: Apply elemental bonuses

Step 3: Resolve damage

All damage applied simultaneously. Creatures whose accumulated damage meets or exceeds their Toughness are destroyed.

Step 4: Arcana window

Before damage resolves, players may play Instant Arcana as combat tricks.

Step 5: Death triggers

Destroyed creatures resolve their death effects.

Phase ⑤: Claim

At each location, check:

• One player has survivors, no one else does? → That player claims the Materia.
• Multiple players have survivors? → Materia remains contested for another round.
• No one has survivors? → Materia remains unclaimed, round counter ticks.

After claiming, if any player's secret Opus condition is now fulfilled, they may reveal their Opus and declare instant victory.

Phase ⑥: Materia Rotation

• Any Materia unclaimed for 2 consecutive rounds is removed and placed at the bottom of the Materia deck.
• Refill the central zone to 3 active Materia locations.
• Volatile Materia may have special effects when they rotate out.

Phase ⑦: End

• Surviving Homunculi return to your laboratory (with damage).
• Surviving Agents return to your laboratory (with damage).
• All Minions go to the discard pile, regardless of survival.
• Destroyed Homunculi return to lab exhausted (pay ✦ to reactivate).
• Destroyed Agents go to discard permanently.
• Discard down to hand limit of 7 cards.
• Rotate first-player marker clockwise.

VI. Resources & Economy

The Reagent Dual-Mode System

Your economy runs entirely on Reagents. There is no base income — if you play no Reagents as resources, you have zero income.

One Reagent per turn. Whether you play it as a resource or as an attachment, you may play only one Reagent per turn. This paces the game and makes every Reagent placement a meaningful commitment.

Resource Materia supplements your economy. Claiming Resource Materia (Sulphur Well, Mercury Spring, Salt Flats) gives you additional income each Upkeep — effectively a free Reagent without spending a card or a slot.

Typical Economic Curve

VII. The Transmutation Track

Your Alchemist progresses through four classical stages. Each step demands more than the last.

How to Advance

During the Laboratory phase, you may advance one Stage by paying the escalating cost. Only attached Reagents can be sacrificed — resource-mode Reagents cannot. This means you must plan ahead: attach Reagents at least one turn before you intend to advance.

Example: It's Round 5. You're at Albedo and want to reach Citrinitas. Last round you attached Philosophic Mercury (it entered exhausted). This round it's active — producing ☿ and granting +1/+1 to your Mercury Homunculi. You sacrifice it (losing both the production and the buff) and pay ✦✦. You also play Dissolution (Praxis, ☿) to draw 3 cards.

Why Advance?

Many cards have stage-gated effects that unlock at higher stages:

Why NOT Advance?

To reach Rubedo you must sacrifice 4 attached Reagents — cards that were each producing an element AND granting a bonus effect. You've spent 6✦ on advancement instead of deploying creatures. Your engine is smaller, your tempo has been spent climbing instead of fighting.

A fast, aggressive deck that stays at Nigredo and runs all Reagents in resource mode is a powerful strategy. You keep all your Reagents generating immediate income. You never lose a turn to exhausted attachments. You never sacrifice anything.

Albedo is the sweet spot for most decks — cheap enough to reach (1 attached Reagent + ✦), unlocking a large number of stage-gated effects.

"The fool rushes to Rubedo and arrives naked. The wise alchemist knows that sometimes Nigredo is enough."

VIII. Victory

Three Paths to Win

If no Opus is declared by the end of Round 8, the player with the most Opus Points wins. Tiebreaker: most creatures on the battlefield, then most attached Reagents.

IX. The Alchemists

"Choose your master wisely. Their art will shape your war."

The Primordial — Semi-divine figures from before recorded history

Hermes Trismegistus — The Thrice-Great

Fusion of Hermes and Thoth, author of the Emerald Tablet. The origin of all alchemy. Playstyle: Correspondence and symmetry. Mirroring, copying, echoing effects.

Isis the Revealer — The First Alchemist

Received the secret of transmutation from an angel. Playstyle: Secrets and revelation. Unveiling hidden information, forcing Opus reveals.

Thoth-Aat — The Law-Writer

Ibis-headed keeper of divine formulas. Playstyle: Law-writing. Creates persistent rules affecting all players.

Ostanes the Mage — The Shadow Teacher

Legendary Persian magus who taught alchemy to Democritus. Playstyle: Transmission and teaching. Your creatures gain abilities from each other.

The Ancient Practitioners — Mortals who shaped the art

Zosimos of Panopolis — The Visionary

Egyptian-Greek alchemist whose terrifying visions are the most vivid imagery in alchemical literature. Playstyle: Sacrifice and rebirth. Destroy your own creatures to bring them back transformed.

Cleopatra the Alchemist — The Ouroboros

Alexandrian philosopher credited with the iconic Ouroboros illustration. Playstyle: Cycles and loops. Effects that return to hand, Reagents that regenerate, infinite engines.

Maria the Jewess — The Inventor

Legendary Alexandrian alchemist who invented the bain-marie, the tribikos, and the kerotakis. Playstyle: Apparatus mastery. Your Apparatus cards cost less and have enhanced effects.

Paphnutia the Virgin — The Unknown

Egyptian alchemist running a rival school to Zosimos. Playstyle: Secrecy and counter-play. Disruption, redirection, stealing opponents' effects.

The Esoteric — Scholars who blurred science and sorcery

Paracelsus — The Destroyer

Swiss physician-alchemist who publicly burned Avicenna's books. Playstyle: Poison and entropy. Damage over time, weakening, blight effects.

John Dee — The Angel-Speaker

Elizabethan mathematician who attempted to communicate with angels. Playstyle: Angelic invocation. Powerful one-shot effects requiring buildup.

Giordano Bruno — The Infinite

Italian Dominican friar burned at the stake for proposing infinite worlds. Playstyle: Memory and recursion. Playing from the discard pile, effects that echo across turns.

Comte de Saint-Germain — The Immortal

European courtier who claimed to be centuries old. Playstyle: Immortality and persistence. Creatures extremely hard to kill.

The Eastern Mystics — Masters of the inner furnace

Wei Boyang — The Internalist

Chinese Taoist who wrote the earliest Chinese alchemical text. Playstyle: Internal transformation. Stage advancement bonuses, less reliance on creatures.

Ge Hong — The Balanced

Taoist scholar who believed in harmony between worldly and divine. Playstyle: Balance and equilibrium. Rewarded for symmetry.

Zhang Guo the Elder — The Trickster

One of the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Playstyle: Illusion and shapeshifting. Creatures that disguise themselves, flip face-down.

The Liminal — One who crossed the final line

Faust — The Bargainer

The scholar who sold his soul for knowledge and power. Playstyle: Faustian bargains. Extremely powerful effects with delayed costs.

X. Lasting Damage & Creature Care

Damage Persists

Unlike many card games, damage is not healed between rounds. A Homunculus that took 2 damage in Round 3 still carries that damage in Round 4. This makes every contest meaningful — even "winning" a fight can leave your army degraded.

Healing

Damage can be healed through specific card effects — Panacea (Ritual Arcana), healing Apparatus, stage-gated effects, and certain Alchemist passives. Healing is a draftable resource. Build around key Homunculi? Draft ways to keep them alive.

Exhaustion (Homunculi Only)

When a Homunculus is destroyed in combat, it returns to your laboratory exhausted. An exhausted Homunculus cannot be deployed. To reactivate it, pay ✦ during a Laboratory phase.

XI. Creature Keywords

Ten keywords define the combat vocabulary of Magnum Opus.

Notable Interactions

• Guardian + Elusive: Guardian takes priority — enemies must target it first, protecting the Elusive creature behind it.
• Purified vs. everything: Ignores Guardian, Elusive, Volatile, Deadly. Does NOT ignore Unaligned or Primal.
• Deadly + Fortified: If even 1 point gets through Fortified, Deadly still triggers destruction.
• Volatile + Volatile: Both death triggers fire simultaneously. Massive AoE. Deployment chicken.
• Recursive + Minion: Returns to hand instead of discard at end of round. Replayable every round with ETB triggers.

XII. Draft Strategy

Deck Composition

Three Archetypes

XIII. Glossary

XIV. Card Pool Status (v0.5)

Card Type         Count
─────────────────────────
Alchemists         9 / 16
Homunculi         73
Agents            31
Minions           27
Reagents          34
Principles        15
Praxis            14
Arcana            18
Apparatus         17
Materia           13
Opus              30
Objectives        12
─────────────────────────
TOTAL            ~293
Draftable (cube) ~229

Completed Since v0.4

• Reagent dual-mode system finalized (Resource vs Attachment, only attachments sacrificable)
• Generic resource symbol standardized to ✦
• 30 Opus cards designed across 6 strategic archetypes
• 12 public Objectives finalized with OP values
• 16 new Agent cards designed (Scholar, Merchant, Official, Guard subtypes)
• Citrinitas and Rubedo stage-gated effects added throughout card pool
• Card viewer with inline editor, HTML export, and password protection
• Stable Diffusion art prompts for all Arcana (18) and Apparatus (17) cards

Remaining Work

• 7 Alchemists need full ability designs (Nicolas Flamel, Jabir ibn Hayyan, Wei Boyang, Ge Hong, Khalid ibn Yazid, Zosimos of Panopolis, and Ogun under consideration)
• Card balance pass — stats tuning after Reagent system overhaul
• Art generation — SD prompts complete for Arcana and Apparatus; remaining types need prompts
• Solitaire prevention — some Opus conditions fulfillable entirely in-lab; lab raids under discussion