Cards Explained

There are 1,209 cards in Aether Chronicles: 787 Summons, 225 Spells, 106 Events and 91 Sigils. Every one follows the same layout, so once you can read one card you can read them all.

Anatomy of a card

Under the card, the detail view shows chips for its cost, element, rarity and type. Below those, the Coaching panel tells you which element it's strong and weak against ("Sworn rival: Light, ×1.25 dmg both ways" for Shadow), which lane suits it and why, and what each of its keywords does.

The four card types

Summons (787 cards)

Units that take a lane and fight. Summons have Attack, Defense and Health, and are the only cards that are never element-gated: they're what unlock their element for your other cards.

• Play one into an empty lane, or onto your own unit to Eclipse it.
• New Summons are exhausted and attack from your next turn, unless they have Vanguard.
• "Invocation:" text happens once, when the Summon arrives.

ExampleEmber Acolyte (3 Aether, Common Fire, 3/1/3): "Robed novices of the Ashen Vow sprint into battle before their cinders cool. Vanguard." A cheap attacker that hits the turn it lands.

Spells (225 cards)

One-time effects that resolve immediately and go to your discard: damage, removal, healing, card draw, buffs. You can only cast a Spell while you control a Summon of its element. If a spell needs a target and there's more than one choice, the game asks you to pick; with just one, it picks for you.

ExampleVolcanic Rite (4 Aether, Common Fire): "Deal 4 damage to a target enemy summon."

Events, which become Decrees (106 cards)

An Event stays in play as your standing Decree and keeps working every turn. You can only hold one: playing a new Decree replaces the old one. Like Spells, Events need a Summon of their element to play.

ExampleThe Face Ignites (2 Aether, Uncommon Fire): "Decree: at the end of your turn, deal 2 damage to the enemy Summon with the most Attack."

Sigils (91 cards)

Equipment you bind to one of your Summons of the same element. The bonus lasts as long as that Summon stands, and each Summon can carry up to two. A handful of Blightfen Sigils are auras that bind to nothing and tick each turn instead.

ExampleSpark-Brand (2 Aether, Common Fire): "Equip: +2 ATK and Vanguard."

Rarities

Rarity decides how many copies you can put in a deck, how often a card turns up in packs, and what it costs to craft.

Rarity	Cards	Copies per deck	Craft cost	Duplicate refund
Common	396	4	40 Motes	5 Motes
Uncommon	310	3	100 Motes	20 Motes
Rare	264	2	400 Motes	50 Motes
Epic	130	2	800 Motes	100 Motes
Legendary	71	1	3,200 Motes	400 Motes
Mythic	38	1 (max 3 Mythics per deck)	12,800 Motes	1,600 Motes

Higher rarities aren't strictly stronger, but they tend to do bigger, stranger things. Mythics usually reshape the whole board when they land.

How each rarity looks

• Common and Uncommon: a plain frame. "A common should look like paper."
• Rare: a gold frame and a fine foil press that shines when the card tilts.
• Epic: a heavier gold frame with corner flourishes and a faceted diamond sheen.
• Legendary: all of that, plus a light that sweeps around the border and a gilded finish over the art.
• Mythic: a full prismatic holo. On the battlefield most Mythics also rise as a 3D statue that hovers over the card and dissolves in embers when it leaves.

Foils

Any card from a pack can come out foil, with a holographic shimmer. The chance rises with rarity: 2% for Commons, 4% Uncommons, 6% Rares, 10% Epics, 20% Legendaries, and every Mythic is foil. A foil copy looks one rarity step fancier than normal (a foil Rare gets the Epic diamond sheen, and so on). Foil is purely cosmetic. Crafted copies are never foil.

Your collection

The Cards tab shows every card in the game, grouped by set, with a counter for each set ("6/71") and your overall progress ("13 of 1,209 gathered"). Cards you don't own yet show as locked silhouettes with a "???" name.

• Search covers names, rules text and keywords, and understands everyday words like "taunt" or "wall".
• Filters: owned or unowned, favourites (★), cards in a deck or in none, set, element, type, rarity, Aether cost, keyword, plus lenses for Extras (spare copies) and Craftable now. Save filter combinations you use often.
• Sort by name, power, cost, rarity, newest, element, set or what's missing.
• Set rewards: completing a set pays a one-time bonus of 20 coins and 5 Motes per card in the set.

Crafting with Motes

Any card you're missing can be crafted with Motes: tap it in the Collection and press Craft, or press Forge on a missing card in the deck editor. Costs are in the rarity table above.

• Where Motes come from: duplicates. Packs never give you a second copy of a card you already own. Instead the duplicate turns into Motes automatically. Motes also come from quests, achievements, the Covenant and set rewards.
• Extra copies for a full playset (say, your third and fourth copy of a Common) come from crafting.
• Craft limit: you can craft up to 2 more than the deck limit (6 of a Common, 3 of a Legendary).
• There's no disenchanting. You can't break cards down for Motes, so craft what you'll actually play.
• Not craftable: The Covenant, The Chronicle and Sealed Promos cards. They're earned through the Covenant track, the Story and Collector's Tins.

Alt art

Many cards have alternate paintings. An alt art changes only the picture; the rules stay the same. Open a card's detail page to see its Alt Art strip, preview a skin on the real card ("Original" or "This skin"), and equip one you own. Your opponent sees your alt arts in online matches. There are 670 alt arts:

The seasonal Hallowfall: The Lantern Wake collection adds 80 autumn alt arts to the Shop. See Cosmetics.

Card mastery

Every card tracks how often you've played it. Play it enough and it ranks up. At rank 3 it rewards you with a Proven alt art painting, or a mastery foil border if the card has no painting. "Earned through play. No currency required."

Cost curve at a glance

Most of the game's cards cost 3 or 4 Aether. Here's how all 1,209 break down:

Browse them all in the Card Database.