Starting a game

How to set up a game of NEA
To start a game of NEA, firstly you must build a deck, or buy a pre-made deck in the form of a trial deck. Once you and your opponent has a deck, your game can begin!

First place your Deity card face down on the table, and make sure both deck are thoroughly shuffled and randomized. Once this is complete, you must determine the order of play. Roll a dice (or use any randomization method) to see which player goes first, and once this has been decided, both players flip their face down Deity cards face up.

Both players draw an initial starting hand of 5 cards from the top of their deck. If you are unhappy with your opening hand, you have the opportunity to mulligan - to do this shuffle your entire hand back into your deck, and then draw that many cards again. You may not do this more than once, so be careful when you chose to mulligan!

Both players then add 1 soul to their maximum soul slots, and the game begins!

The first player, on the first turn of the game, may not attack. After this, either player can attack freely.

Matches are taken to be best of three (or first to 2 wins). In between each game the players have a chance to take cards out of their main deck, and replace them with an equal amount of cards from the side deck (therefore the size of the main deck and side deck must not change in between games).

Once a match is over, the players must return their decks back to the state they were in before the match begun.