Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game

The Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game is a collectible card game originally released by ' in Japan and translated into English and released internationally by ' in 2007. There are eight card sets in Japan, four of which have been released internationally.
 *     - The first set of cards, consisting of 91 cards.
 *     - A combination of the Japanese sets Force from a Dark Realm and Dawn of a Friend. Consists of 128 cards.
 *     - A combination of Japanese Light & Darkness set and the Glico Wafers set of promotional cards released in packs of . Consists of 91 cards.
 *     - The final set of cards released in English. The cards have a new layout, and feature characters, items, and worlds from Kingdom Hearts II. Consists of 162 cards.
 *     - This set is exclusive to Japan, and consists of 37 cards.
 *     - This set is exclusive to Japan, and consists of 54 cards.
 *     - The final set of cards, exclusive to Japan. It consists of 72 cards.


 *     - This set of cards is exclusive to Japan, and was released in packs of . The cards were released in English as part of the Light & Darkness set. It consists of 30 cards.
 *     - A series of cards that are not part of any set.

Player Cards
Player (プレイヤー) Cards represent the players of the game. Each player places their Player Card on the Player Card area at the start of the game. When the HP of the Player Card reaches 0, that player has lost the game. Player Cards come in three varieties:
 * Player/Light (プレイヤー/光): These cards depict protagonists like Sora. Player/Light Cards can use Friend Cards as allies.
 * Player/Dark (プレイヤー/闇): These cards depict antagonists like Ansem. Player/Dark Cards cannot use Friend Cards, but can play Dark Cards as if they were Friend Cards.
 * Player/XIII (プレイヤー/XIII): These cards depict members of Organization XIII. Like Player/Dark Cards, Player/XIII Cards cannot use Friend Cards. However, they can play both Nobody Cards and other Player/XIII Cards as if they were Friend Cards.

FC Player Cards (short for Form Change) are a special kind of Player Card. FC Player Cards can be placed on top of a regular Player Card containing the same name, when certain conditions are met. They provide additional effects, and can be discarded.

Friend Cards
Friend (仲間) Cards depict allies from the  series, like Donald Duck, Phil, or Lumière. Friend Cards can only be played by Player/Light Cards. When played, Friend Cards are placed in the Friend Area. Friend Cards can be used to power up a Player Card during a battle or challenge, but have to be discarded afterward. A player can't have two Friend Cards with the same name on the field.

Magic Cards
Magic (魔法) Cards depict magic spells like Fire or Cure. Magic Cards can provide various effects, from dealing damage to the opponent to restoring the player's HP. Later sets differentiate between regular Magic cards and Magic/Attack cards, which deal damage.

Magic/Friend Cards
Magic/Friend (魔法/召喚) Cards depict Summons like Simba or Tinker Bell. Magic/Friend Cards are played like Magic Cards, but act like Friend Cards. Like Friend Cards, Magic/Friend Cards are discarded after participating in a battle or challenge, but also at the end of the player's turn.

Attack Cards
Attack (アタック) Cards depict Keyblades or the Soul Eater. They can be played to increase the Player Card's Attack Value, or provide certain effects. Some Attack Cards get a bonus when 2 or more of the same Card are played at the same time. Attack Cards are replaced with Equipment Card in later sets.

Equipment Cards
Equipment (装備) Cards depict weapons like the Kingdom Key or Axel's Chakrams, but also items like the Magic Lamp. Equipment Cards can be attached to a Player Card or Friend Card to power up that card.

Dark Cards
Dark (闇) Cards depict enemies from the Kingdom Hearts series. Dark Cards are placed on the opponent's World Card to prevent them from playing another World Card. Dark Cards can be defeated through a battle. Player/Dark Cards can also play Dark Cards as if they were Friend Cards. Dark Cards come in two varieties:
 * Dark/Heartless (闇/ハートレス) depict Heartless like the Shadow or Darkside.
 * Dark/Villains (闇/ヴィランズ) depict villains like Maleficent.

Nobody Cards
Nobody (ノーバディ) Cards depict Nobodies like the Dusk. They function the same as Dark Cards, except they can be played by Player/XIII Cards as Friend Cards. Since Nobody Cards were introduced in a later set, they are not mentioned in the effects of older cards. However, older cards that affect Dark Cards also affect Nobody Cards.

World Cards
World (ワールド) Cards depict various Worlds from the Kingdom Hearts series. Playing a World Card lets the player "travel" to that World. World Cards are played on top of each other. If the total value of all World Cards' levels is 13, that player wins the game. Opponents can prevent players from playing World Cards by placing Dark Cards or Nobody Cards on their current World Card. World Cards cannot be played until all Dark Cards or Nobody Cards are removed from the current World Card.

Technique Cards
Technique (技) Cards depict Limits from Kingdom Hearts II. They can be played during a battle when the required Cooperation characters are on the field. Technique Cards have powerful effects. Some Technique Cards can only be played after another Technique Card is in your discard pile.

Event Cards
Event (イベント) Cards are special Cards that depict various Key Art. They can be played to activate an effect, after which they are immediately discarded.

Certificate Cards
Certificate (認定証) Cards are special Cards that were awarded at the Kingdom Hearts TCG Official Tournament. They cannot be played. <!--

Card types
Player: This card stays in play for the duration of the game. Each player card has a level, starting Heart Points, an attack value, and a magic value. At the beginning of the game, the player with the lowest-level player card goes first. There is no maximum number of Heart Points a player can have, as the printed number of Heart Points is merely the starting value.

Friend: Friend cards have a level, support value, and a magic value. Friends stay on the field until they are used in battle against dark cards, or after participating in a challenge. Friends can only be played during the action phase. The level of a friend card determines whether or not it can be played. A player cannot play a friend card whose level is more than one above the highest level of any friend or magic/friend card on your side of the field. For example, a level three friend cannot be played unless you control a friend of at least level two.

The "Unique Card" rule states that a player cannot have two friends with the same name in play at one time. If a player wishes to play a friend card from his/her hand and a card with the same name is already in play on his/her side of the field, the card on the field is sent to the discard pile, then the card from the hand is played.

Magic: Magic cards have a wide variety of effects. To play a magic card, the player's Player card or one of the player's Friend Cards in play must have a total magic value greater than or equal to the level of the magic card. Once played, the player follows the effects on the card and then sends the magic card to the discard pile.

Magic/Friend: These cards are considered Magic cards while in the deck, hand, or discard pile. Once they are on the field, they are treated as friends.

Dark Cards: These cards are played on an opponent's World card. Dark cards have a level and a Power value. The number of Dark cards that can be on a single World card is equal to that World card's level. A Dark card can only be played if its level is equal to or less than an opponent's combined world levels.

World Cards: World cards are played on top of one another and can only be played once per turn. When a player plays a world card, he or she gains one Heart Point. When the total of a player's World card's levels is greater than or equal to thirteen, he or she wins. A player cannot play a World card if there are any Dark cards on his or her topmost world card.

Attack Cards: These are played when battling Dark cards or during challenges. When played, they boost the attack value of the Player card by the support value on the Attack card. After they are used, they are sent to the discard pile.

Equipment Cards: These function in a similar manner to Attack cards, but are not discarded at the end of a challenge. Unless otherwise stated, a card may only have one Equipment card equipped to it at any one time. The "Unique Card" rule also applies to Equipment cards, so that characters who can equip multiple Equipment cards may not wield multiples of the same card.

Form Cards: These cards are placed atop a Player card and give that Player card new stats and effects. The criteria for playing a Form card or losing it are detailed on the particular card in question.

Event Cards: These cards are unique in that they are unnamed and may only ever be included once in a deck. When played, they are simply referred to as "Event", and followed by a number (e.g. Event 1). They have potentially game-changing effects when played, which is why they are limited to a single copy per deck.

Gameplay
The game is generally a two player game (although more than two may play) and each player has a deck consisting of between forty-one and sixty cards, with one card from their respective decks as a Player card. To win the game, the player needs to bring their opponent's Heart Points (HP) to 0 or attain a combined world level of 13 or higher. Each player's turn has four phases.

Draw Phase: During the draw phase, a player draws cards from his/her own deck until they have six cards in their hand. If the player's deck has no cards, the discard pile is then shuffled and becomes the player's deck.

Action Phase: During this phase, a player can play a World card, Friend cards, Magic cards, Magic/Friend cards, and/or Dark cards. The player can also choose to battle any Dark cards on his/her World card. With the latest rule-set provided by Fantasy Flight Games, a player may now also initiate a Form Change in their Action phase.

Challenge Phase: During this optional phase, a player may challenge his/her opponent. The loser of the challenge loses HP depending on which cards were played during the challenge.

Discard Phase: During this phase, a player may discard any unwanted cards from his or her hand and must discard any cards from the field that participated in a Battle or Challenge that turn. Magic/Friends are also discarded at this time.

A rulebook for the game was published by Fantasy Flight Games upon release of the English sets, and can be viewed here.

Deck and Player types
A deck consists of a minimum of forty-one cards, including the Player card, and has a maximum of sixty cards, including the Player card. The Player card chosen can change the deck type drastically, as there are three different types of Players to choose from:

Player/Light: A large amount of cards are categorized as Light, and, as such, allow the easiest construction of decks.

Player/Dark: A player with one of these cards may not play Friend, Magic/Friend, or Attack cards. Instead, they may play Dark/Heartless cards in place of Friend cards. Cards categorized as Dark are smaller in number than those categorized under Light, although they have the advantage of having a much wider range of Dark/Heartless cards, as opposed to Friend cards, as Dark/Heartless ignore the "Unique Card" rule.

Player/XIII: These cards function exactly as Dark/Player cards, but play Nobody cards in place of Dark/Heartless. The Player/XIII cards also have access to Equipment cards, which give them devastating effects, such as the ability to Challenge their opponent twice in one turn. Player/XIII cards may also use other Player/XIII cards in their deck as Friend cards. Nobody cards ignore the "Unique Card" rule, but Player/XIII cards used as Friends do not.

Styles of play
There are three main styles of deck building and playing the Kingdom Hearts TCG:

Aggro (Attack build)
An Aggro build focuses around winning challenges. These deck will likely consist of many cards that will support the Player in a challenge, have lots of draw power, and very few World cards (if any at all). This type of deck will more likely consist of lock-down and control cards to try and keep the upper hand in a challenge. These decks can be expected to be Attack and Equipment card heavy to increase their attack power in tight situations. Buying the Break of Dawn Valor Form deck would be a good choice for a player building an Aggro deck.

World Racer (Rushing build)
A World Racer deck relies on fulfilling the World Count 13 victory condition. These decks typically have lots of draw power, lots of healing cards and cards that will help them clear their World zone of Dark cards so that they can play more World cards. However, this deck will not include many cards to help them win Challenges and rely on the HP gain they can use to restore the HP lost in Challenges.

Jack of all Trades (Balanced deck)
Jack of all Trade decks, commonly referred to as JoaT decks, do not focus entirely on either win condition and instead try to include a balance of powerful challenge cards and enough World cards to fulfill the World Count 13 victory condition. These decks have no set theory behind them other than to fulfill either victory condition as soon as possible, and the deck will most likely depend on the Player.--> TCG undefined