card-zone

# Card Zone

Cards are data moving through **exclusive zones**. Depth comes from hand combinations; correctness comes from one-zone ownership, a seeded shuffle, a phase machine, and an effect interpreter that never grows a special function per card. If a card can live in two zones, you will ship duplicates and silent losses.

Inspired by gamedev-skills/awesome-gamedev-agent-skills card-game (Apache-2.0). Original Grok remake. Complements gold-sink (shop / meta sinks — not per-turn mana alone), board-rule (match/cascade boards), branch-talk (dialogue graphs), pawn-mind (opponent AI), save-slot (collection / run / seed), hud-stack (zone counts / targeting chrome), juice-pass (play/draw feel), stick-map (drag/confirm input), seed-map (procgen maps). Not craft-loop. Not a Godot tutor.

Read `references/zone-rails.md` before you design. Fill the three templates under `templates/`.

## When to use

- Deckbuilder, TCG/CCG, solitaire, roguelike deckbuilder — cards as the core objects
- Zones: deck, hand, play/board, discard, exile/removed
- Draw / shuffle / reshuffle / deck-out or fatigue rules
- Turn phases, costs (mana/energy/actions), hand size, mana curve
- Effect resolution order (queue vs stack), targeting, keywords/triggers
- Constructed collection decks vs in-run deckbuilding

## When NOT to use

- Match-3 / sokoban / cascade board truth → board-rule
- Loot tables, gold sinks, shop spreads as the main job → gold-sink
- Full RPG with an incidental card minigame → start elsewhere; only use this for the card layer
- Dialogue trees → branch-talk
- Opponent play picker as the main job → pawn-mind
- Persist schema / slot files → save-slot
- HUD layout for counts → hud-stack
- Play/draw juice → juice-pass
- Drag/rebind input → stick-map
- Heightmap / dungeon procgen → seed-map
- Survival gather-craft → craft-loop
- Godot/Unity APIs, copied GDScript/C# → godot-teacher
- Cheats, aimbots, wallhacks, malware, CSAM

## Inputs

- Fantasy in their words (classic TCG, roguelike deckbuilder, solitaire, hybrid — name the mix last)
- Mode: constructed (pre-built decks) / in-run deckbuilder / solitaire single-player
- Win / loss (life total, deck-out, objective, boss HP)
- Starting hand size, draw-per-turn, hand limit, minimum deck size
- Resource model (mana ramp, energy refill, action points)
- Whether they need replays / undo (implies seeded RNG)
- What later systems consume (gold-sink, save-slot, pawn-mind, hud-stack, juice-pass, stick-map)

## Procedure

1. Read `references/zone-rails.md`. Refuse cheats, aimbots, wallhacks, malware, CSAM, copied GDScript/C#, and Godot/Unity API tours. Hand off: board-rule (board puzzles), gold-sink (loot/shops), branch-talk (dialogue), pawn-mind (AI picker), save-slot (persist), hud-stack (chrome), juice-pass (FX), stick-map (input), seed-map (procgen), craft-loop (survival), godot-teacher (node APIs).
2. Fill `templates/zone-card.md`. Lock exclusive zones, draw/reshuffle/deck-out, hand limit, resource model, win/loss. Every card id appears in exactly one zone; move = remove-then-add.
3. Fill `templates/turn-effects.md`. Phases as a state machine; costs gate plays; effects are data ops through one interpreter; choose queue (FIFO) or stack (LIFO) and stick to it; targeting validates before commit (atomic play).
4. Curve and answers: name a cost distribution intent; every threat archetype needs an answer in the pool. Constructed vs in-run: say which progression owns the deck.
5. Seeded shuffle if replays/undo matter. Persist collection / run / seed via save-slot — this skill names *what*, not the file format.
6. Fill `templates/verify-zones.md`. Prove: one-zone rule, reshuffle or fatigue defined, phases unambiguous, atomic play, no per-card spaghetti functions, answers exist, *dt* only if real-time timers exist.
7. Tiny original engine-neutral notes only if useful. No copied tutorial snippets. No cheat overlays.
8. Deliver the three templates. One closing line: this is a card-zone worksheet; not a Godot tutor or a match-3 board.

## Output format

- Zone card (zones, draw/reshuffle, hand, resources, win/loss)
- Turn-effects card (phases, cost curve, effect ops, stack/queue, targeting)
- Verify-zones checklist (exclusivity, determinism, answers, atomic play)
- One line: card-zone worksheet; not a Godot tutor or a match-3 board

## Safety

- Follow `references/zone-rails.md` with no exceptions.
- Gaming design only. Engine-neutral notes. Not a Godot tutor.
- No cheats, aimbots, wallhacks, malware, or exploit kits.
- No CSAM in card names, art briefs, or flavor.
- No copied GDScript/C# or vendor TCG rules dumps. Tiny original notes only.
- Do not reproduce copyrighted card texts from living TCGs; invent original examples.

## Stop conditions

- Three templates delivered, or refused for cheats / wallhacks / godot-teacher API tours / board puzzles (board-rule) / loot encyclopedias (gold-sink) / dialogue (branch-talk) / AI picker (pawn-mind) / persist schema (save-slot) / HUD chrome (hud-stack) / juice FX (juice-pass) / input map (stick-map) / procgen (seed-map) / survival craft (craft-loop) / copied vendor card texts