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Goal

Keep more of your own side of the field open than your opponent keeps of theirs. The Tutorial game, under Variants, has a simpler goal.

Cards

Use 24 cards from a standard deck. One player takes the A to 6 of ♥ and ♠, and the other the A to 6 of ♦ and ♣. Each card is a particle. Its color is its charge: red is positive (+) and black is negative (−). Its number is its energy level, from the Ace, which is 1, up to the 6.

Starting hand

Each player holds all 12 of their cards. Both players always know every card the other holds.

Setup

The field is an empty grid of 4 by 4 cells between the two players. Your side is the 2 rows furthest from you.

Play

1. Opening. One player places any card except an Ace or a 6 on one of the 4 center cells. The other player takes the first turn, and then turns alternate.
2. The Fundamental Law. Every card you place is checked against the top card of each cell above, below, left, and right of it. Next to a black (−) particle your level must be lower. Next to a red (+) particle it must be higher. A face-down particle has no level or charge and doesn’t count.
3. Channel. Place a card on an empty cell above, below, left, or right of any particle. Only the law limits its level.
4. Invert. Place a card on top of a single face-up particle of the same level and the opposite charge. The law still applies to the neighbors. To invert, you must also discard 1 other card from your hand. It’s out of the game, so with no other card left you can’t invert. A stack never holds more than 2 cards.
5. Quark abilities. Levels 2 to 5 have abilities, set out under Card abilities.
6. Pass. Instead of placing, you can pass. If you can’t place, you must pass. The game ends when a player passes right after the other player passed.

Scoring

Count the open cells on your own side. An open cell is one with no card in it. The player with more open cells wins. If that’s tied, the player with fewer particles on their own side wins, counting a stack as 2. If that’s tied too, the player who opened the game wins.

Card abilities

Each level from 2 to 5 has a quark ability:

• 2, Tunnel. It can also be channeled onto an empty cell diagonally next to a particle.
• 3, Repel. After you place it, you can slide one particle or stack next to it 1 cell straight away from the 3. It must move onto an empty cell on the field, and the law doesn’t apply.
• 4, Anchor. Placed on a corner cell, it can ignore the level and charge of one particle next to it.
• 5, Polarize. After you place it, you can turn the 5 or a particle next to it face down. A face-down particle is neutral. It has no level or charge, it still fills its cell and its place in a stack, and it can’t be inverted.

Examples

• The 3♥ can go on 5 cells You sit below the field, so your side is the top 2 rows and your opponent’s side is the bottom 2. Your 3♥ is a red 3. Next to the 5♣, a black 5, it must be lower, and it is. Next to the 2♥, a red 2, it must be higher, and it is. Next to the 4♦, a red 4, it would have to be higher, so no cell next to the 4♦ is lit, even the one also next to the 5♣. The face-down particle doesn’t count, so the cell below it is lit. The 3♥ can go on 5 cells.

  Your side Opponent’s side You

• The 4♠ inverts the 4♦ The 4♦ is a single face-up particle. Your 4♠ has the same level and the opposite charge, so it can go on top. Your 4♥ can’t, because it’s red too. The law still applies: the 2♥ next to it is red, and 4 is higher. You place the 4♠ on the 4♦ and discard the A♥ from your hand. Discards are out of the game. A stack never holds more than 2 cards, so nothing more can go on this one.

Variants

• Tutorial game. There are no quark abilities and no passing. The first player who can’t place a particle loses.
• Torus field. The field wraps in both directions, so the left edge touches the right edge and the top touches the bottom. Every cell has 4 neighbors, and the law reaches across the edges. A Repel can slide a particle across an edge. An Anchor on a corner can ignore one card on its two ordinary sides and one more on its two wrapped sides. The torus works with either game.

How this version differs

• The Classic rules are always used. No Ace or 6 can open the field, and every inversion costs a discard. The published rules make the Classic rules optional, for either game.