2. Playing cards
Abilities you use
What your cards on the table let you do
A unit or gear doesn't stop working once it's played. Its text keeps doing something for as long as it's on the table. Some of that text is just true, and some is something you can choose to do.
Text you use
says ": Deal 2 to a unit at a battlefield." Before the colon is a cost, and after it is what you get. The symbol means exhaust this card. So you can turn the sideways to deal 2 to a unit, and it's ready to do it again on your next turn. An ability written like this, cost then colon then effect, is an . Cards call it "using" the ability.
's cost has two parts: "
, ". Pay 1 Energy
and exhaust it, and you can move one of your units at a battlefield back to
your base.
Using an ability works like playing a spell that has no card:
- You use it in your main phase, with nothing on the chain, unless it says Action or Reaction.
- You make its choices, such as its target, then pay its cost.
- It goes on the chain. Your opponent can answer it, and it resolves once you both pass.
You can use an ability as many times as you can pay for it. A cost with in it limits that to once each time the card is readied.
Note
Some abilities add Energy or Power, such as 's, which gives you 1 Energy when you exhaust it. Those resolve the moment you use them, like a unit or gear, and nobody can answer them.
Text that's just true
also says "This enters exhausted." That isn't something you do. It's a fact about the card, and it holds whenever it applies. Text like this is a . "I get +1 while you have 2 or more cards in your hand" is another: no cost, no colon, and nothing goes on the chain.
Try it
Use a gear's ability, and let your opponent answer it before it resolves.