The Duel in One Paragraph
Both players start at 30 Hit Points with a 52-card deck built from up to 2 main races, plus 2 Deputies that wait outside the deck. You draw 7 cards for your opening hand. You win by dragging your opponent to 0 HP — or by decking them out, because a player who cannot draw during their Draw Phase loses on the spot. That second win condition matters less in your first duels, but it means one thing: never stall for the sake of stalling. Somebody has to run out of cards eventually.
The Four Phases of a Turn
Every turn walks the same four steps, and knowing them cold is half the fight:
- Draw Phase — draw 1 card. If you cannot, you lose the duel.
- Resource Phase — your Mana refills to the turn count with no cap (turn 1 gives 1, turn 5 gives 5). Gold refreshes to a flat 1, plus any bonus Gold you earned from damage dealt to the enemy sheriff last turn.
- Action Phase — play cards, activate abilities, and attack, in any order, as many times as your resources allow.
- End Phase — "until end of turn" effects expire and the opponent takes the reins.
The Action Phase is deliberately loose. You can attack first and play cards after, or summon a creature with Ambush and swing with it immediately. Sequence your plays around information: attack with the creatures whose trades are already good, see what survives, then spend the rest of your mana.
Ride the Mana Curve
Mana climbs by exactly 1 every turn, forever — there is no cap and no mana cards to draw. That makes the game a schedule: turn 2 you have 2 mana, turn 4 you have 4. The classic rookie mistake is a deck full of expensive haymakers that sit in hand while a cheap swarm chews through your face. Your deck needs plays for turns 1 through 3, and the deck builder shows your curve so you can check it before you queue.
A healthy first deck spends nearly every point of mana, nearly every turn. A 1-mana creature like a 2/1 with Ambush is not impressive on turn 6, but on turn 1 it is the whole board. Some cards also list a Gold cost — a card marked 3M/2G costs 3 mana and 2 gold — and Gold plays by very different rules than mana. It stays flat at 1 per turn unless you earn more by dealing damage. The short version: mana is your schedule, gold is your bounty money. The long version lives in our mana vs gold guide.
Trade or Go Face?
Combat on the frontier is open: any creature can attack any enemy creature. Nothing is lane-locked. That means every attack is a choice — kill their creature (a "trade") or hit the enemy sheriff (esteemed frontier parlance: "going face").
Rules of thumb for your first duels:
- Trade when their creature will out-earn yours. A 1/4 that generates Cover Tokens every turn it lives, or a healer restoring 3 HP a turn, costs you more the longer it stands. Shoot the engine, not the sheriff.
- Go face when your board is bigger and faster. If they must trade up into your creatures to survive, every point of face damage shortens the game on your terms.
- Mind Quickdraw before you attack. A Quickdraw creature strikes first — if it kills the attacker, it takes no damage at all. Attacking a 2/3 Quickdraw with your 3/2 just kills your creature for nothing.
- Remember damage pays. Each instance of damage you deal to the enemy sheriff earns +1 Gold for your next turn. Going face is not just pressure — it is income.
One more wrinkle: creatures with Warrant force your attackers to hit them first. If the opponent hides behind a Warrant wall, you do not get the choice — so bring spells or Overshot damage that can punch through anyway.
Respect the Cover Tokens
Cover Tokens are 0/1 blocking tokens raised by card effects. While your opponent has even one Cover standing, you cannot hit their sheriff directly — every last token has to fall first. Their creatures can still be attacked freely; Cover only guards the face.
Three ways through the barricade:
- Chip it down. Any creature can attack a Cover Token, and at 0/1 they die to a stiff breeze. The cost is tempo, not damage.
- Fly over it. Creatures with Flying bypass Cover Tokens entirely.
- Blast through it. Overshot lets excess damage spill over to the next target or the opponent, so heavy hits break through Cover.
Run some Cover of your own, too — it buys turns against aggressive starts, and every turn bought is more mana on your side of the ledger. The full targeting picture, including the two High-Rise lanes where fresh creatures dodge single-target attacks until they attack, is in the lanes and positioning guide.
Your Sheriff and Your Deputies
Before the duel you pick 1 Sheriff, and your deck brings 2 Deputies that never get shuffled in. Deputies live in their own zone: summon one during your Action Phase by paying its Mana and Gold costs (only 1 may be on the field at a time), or spend Gold on its Off-Board ability while it waits. They can never be drawn or discarded, which makes them the most reliable cards you own — a guaranteed late-game play even when your hand runs dry.
For a forgiving first ride, Sheriff Ironhold starts at 35 HP with damage reduction — extra padding while you learn. When you want to lean into economy instead, Calloway gains Gold every third turn and Cogsworth starts with extra Gold and trims costs on even turns.
What to Buy First (Answer: Nothing Yet)
Goblins & Gunslingers is free to play. The browser beta needs no account and no download, and the account version hands you starter decks with their issued Deputy pairs. Play those first — a starter loss teaches you more than a booster pack ever will.
When you are ready to grow the collection, packs are bought with Dust, which you earn from gameplay as well as purchases. The smallest cache in the store is 100 Dust for $0.99 — enough for 5 booster packs — and every pack guarantees 2 Uncommons plus 1 Rare or better. Sensible first spend: play free until one faction clicks (our faction picker speeds that up), then buy toward that faction's deck instead of spreading Dust thin. Note that all Dust purchases are final.
Saddle Up
That is the whole first lesson: follow the phases, spend your mana, pick your trades on purpose, and treat Cover with respect. Skim every keyword explained when card text surprises you, browse the card gallery to see what is out there, and read up on the eight factions before you commit to a posse. The rest is reps.