The Witch’s Brew

Final Match 3: The Witch’s Brew

What a mess.

Summary

The game will be played in two separate phases: the Cauldron Phase and the Placement Phase. In the Cauldron Phase, players will compete for better cards and Victory Conditions than their opponent. In the Placement Phase, players will attempt to fulfill their Victory Conditions by placing stones on a grid -- using the cards they earned in the previous phase!

Gameplay

Cauldron Phase

In the Cauldron Phase, there will be 22 rounds -- one for each MM (11 of them), DM (9 of them), and FM (2 of them). In each round, players will be given a question regarding the next Main Match / Death Match / Final Match in chronological order.

Example Question: In MM1, which player scored the most apples?

Players will race to first answer the given question correctly -- they are allowed to look through the server for this. If a player answers incorrectly, they cannot answer for the next thirty seconds. The first player to answer correctly wins the round. If three minutes pass, neither player gets any rewards (cards or victory conditions).

In MM or FM questions, two cards will be given out from an initial deck. The winner of the round picks one, and then the loser gets the other. Three cards each from values from 1-8 will be used in the deck, along with an additional 6 and 8.

In DM questions, two Victory Conditions will be listed. The winner of the round picks one, and then the loser gets the other. Each of the Victory Conditions are listed below, as well as the number of Victory Points you would get if you satisfy that particular condition at the end of the DM. Victory Conditions are only checked at the end of the DM, as stones get moved around.

Intermission

After the Cauldron Phase ends, players are given five minutes to assign at most three of their Victory Conditions to Round 6, at most three to Round 9, and at most three to Round 12. Both players are aware of each others’ final ordering.

Placement Phase

In the Placement Phase, there will be twelve rounds, played on a 7x6 (7 columns and 6 rows) size grid. In each round, both players select a card from their inventory and play it -- they have 60 seconds to do so. If a player does not have any cards in their inventory, the other player wins the Placement Phase by default -- if neither player has cards in their inventory, the game ends early. Both cards are discarded after they are played.

The player with the higher card wins, unless the winner is altered by a card effect. If there is a tie, the player who lost the most recent round wins instead. First, the winner plays a stone of their color on the grid, then the loser plays a stone of their color on the grid, and then the winner places a gray (neutral) stone. Players have 60 seconds to do each of these actions.

Each player has ten minutes of reserve time if they exceed their current time -- if they run out of reserve time, they instantly lose.

Scoring

On Rounds 6, 9, and 12, the Victory Conditions assigned for those rounds are checked and scored. If the game ends earlier, then all Victory Conditions not checked are then checked and scored.

The player with the most points wins the DM.

Card Effects:

1 - Snipe - Win if your opponent plays Freeze, Shift, or Diminish. 2 - Lock - Name a column -- this round, your opponent must play their color stone on the column of your choice. If there is no space available on that column, your opponent can play anywhere. 3 - Guess - Guess a card; if your opponent played that card, win regardless of what your opponent played. 4 - Copy - Gain a copy of your opponent’s card -- if it is a Copy, both cards are lost and no copying occurs. 5 - Leap - Immediately after placing the stone of your color, you may move one of your existing stones and specify a direction (up, down, left, or right) -- it will move to the nearest available space in that direction. If there is no nearest available space, nothing happens. 6 - Freeze - Select up to three stones. Those stones cannot be moved for the remainder of the DM. There are four copies of this card. 7 - Shift - Immediately after placing the stone of your color, you may move one of your stones or a neutral stone to an unoccupied orthogonally adjacent space. 8 - Diminish - Subtract one from the value of your next card. This does not change the identity of the card, only its value. There are four copies of this card.

Victory Conditions:

1A - There is a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal five-in-a-row consisting of either stones of your color or neutral stones. 1B - There is a 3x3 square with at least five stones of your color. 1C - There are at least six stones of your color on either Row 3 or Row 4. 1D - There is a neutral stone or stone of your color on all spaces diagonally adjacent to one of your opponent’s stones not bordering an edge of the grid. 1E - There is a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal four in-in-a-row consisting of only frozen stones. 1F - There are at least four frozen neutral stones. 2A - There is a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal four-in-a-row consisting of only stones of your color. 2B - There is a 2x2 square consisting of only stones of your color. 2C - There is a neutral stone or stone of your color on all spaces orthogonally adjacent to one of your opponent’s stones not bordering an edge. 2D - There are strictly more stones of your color on the four corners than your opponent. 2E - There are at least three stones of your color on Column 4. 2F - There are more frozen stones of your opponent’s color than there are of your color. 3A - There is a stone of your color on all spaces orthogonally adjacent to one of your stones not in the corner. 3B - There is a stone of your color on all spaces diagonally adjacent to one of your stones not bordering the edge of the grid. 3C - There is a 2x2 square consisting of only neutral stones. 3D - There is a column only consisting of neutral stones or stones of your color. 3E - There is a row only consisting of neutral stones or stones of your color. 3F - There is a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal four-in-a-row consisting of only neutral stones.

Items:

Duplicard - At the start of the game, get a Duplicard. You can play it once during the Placement Phase in lieu of another card. When you do so, you must select a card that you currently have at least one copy of -- this card will act as if it was that card. If you have no more cards, this cannot be played.

Discard - Once during the Cauldron Phase, you may choose to discard both victory conditions (not cards) after they would normally be distributed.

Tiebreaker - If you and your opponent have the same number of points at the end of the game, win instead.

Clarification: The first two items are one-time use. Duplicards are played as another card, and the other player is informed of it. Discard can activate after the question is answered, regardless of who won.

Clarification: Card effects are always activated regardless of who won.

Players must name their secondary submissions for Lock, Guess, and Freeze as they submit their card.

Clarification: If there is no space available on a column and your opponent chooses it with Lock, you can play anywhere.

Clarification: When a victory condition talks about a certain subset of tiles being all certain type(s) of stones, empty spaces do not count.