How to Play Tournamon
Tournamon is a free browser-based card dueling game for two players. Build a deck from nine elemental themes, summon monsters, set hidden traps, and race your opponent to 6 Tournament Points — all in your browser, no download required.
Quick Start
- Pick a deck — choose one of nine elemental themes.
- Draw 5 cards — your opening hand.
- Play an Element crystal — one per turn, it powers your monsters and tricks.
- Summon a monster to your Bench, then Promote it to the Active zone.
- Attack in the Battle phase — your Active monster clashes with the opponent's.
- First to 6 Tournament Points wins.
Turn Structure
1. Draw Phase
Draw 1 card from your deck. All tapped Element crystals untap automatically — your energy refreshes every turn.
2. Main Phase
Play cards in any order: play 1 Element crystal, summon monsters to the Bench, promote a Bench monster to the Active zone, evolve monsters, attach Assets, or set Trick cards face-down. Newly summoned monsters have summoning sickness and cannot attack until your next turn.
3. Battle Phase
Declare an attack with your Active monster against the opponent's Active monster. Both players get a response window to flip face-down Trick cards. Damage is simultaneous — if both monsters die, both players score 1 TP.
4. End Phase
Turn-based boosts expire. If you hold more than 7 cards, discard down to 7. Play passes to your opponent.
Card Types
🦎 Monster Cards
The backbone of your deck. Each monster has ATK (attack power), DEF (defense), a cost in Element crystals, and a Stage (0, 1, or 2). Stage 0 monsters are your base units; Stage 1 and Stage 2 are their evolved forms with higher stats. Some monsters have triggered abilities that fire on summon, attack, or KO. Rare monsters have Grave Abilities you can activate from the graveyard, or an Ascend ability that permanently boosts their stats mid-game.
💠 Element Crystals
Your energy source. Play one per turn from your hand to your Element Pool. Each crystal is typed (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Spirit, or Prismatic). Typed crystals can only pay for cards of the matching element; Prismatic crystals pay for any element. Elements untap at the start of each of your turns.
⚡ Trick Cards
Tricks are set face-down in trick zones during your Main phase — your opponent cannot see what you've set. Reaction tricks flip automatically when your Active monster is attacked, acting as hidden traps (ATK boosts, DEF shields, counter-damage, forced retreat). Ritual tricks are activated on your own turn as powerful spell effects (draw, destroy, steal elements). You can hold up to 5 trick zones at once.
🛡 Asset Cards
Equipment that attaches permanently to a monster, providing +ATK and/or +DEF buffs that last until the monster is KO'd. Some assets deal damage on attach or let the equipped monster draw a card each turn. A single monster can hold multiple assets.
Battle & Combat
Combat in Tournamon is simultaneous. When you attack, your monster's ATK is compared to the defender's DEF, and the defender's ATK is compared to your monster's DEF — at the same time.
- If attacker ATK > defender DEF → defender is KO'd, attacker scores +1 TP.
- If defender ATK > attacker DEF → attacker is KO'd, defender scores +1 TP (counter-kill).
- Both monsters can die and both players can score in the same clash.
- When your Active is KO'd with no Bench monsters, you lose 1 TP (floored at 0).
If ATK equals DEF exactly, a War tie-breaker triggers: both players reveal cards from their deck one at a time, adding their costs to ATK or DEF, until the tie breaks. The player with the higher final value wins the clash.
The Bench & Promoting
Your Bench holds up to 3 monsters that are safe from direct attack. Only your Active monster can attack or be attacked.
- Promote — move a Bench monster to the Active zone during your Main phase (free).
- Retreat — swap your Active with a Bench monster during your Main phase (costs 1 Element crystal).
- Tag In — when your Active is being attacked and you have no Active, you can swap in a Bench monster for free during the response window.
- Force Promote — when your Active is KO'd, you must immediately promote a Bench monster.
The Nine Deck Themes
Each deck theme has a unique elemental identity, monster roster, and playstyle. All themes are available for free.
Fast, low-cost monsters with on-attack damage abilities. Overwhelm your opponent before they can set up defenses. Best for players who like attacking early and often.
Defensive tricks that punish aggression. Force opponents to retreat, steal their elements, or drain their hand. Best for patient, reactive players.
Monsters that generate value from the graveyard. Revive fallen allies and activate grave abilities to outlast opponents in long games.
Card advantage and hand refills keep you one step ahead. Stormcaller decks are flexible and hard to predict — they never run out of options.
Durable monsters with healing tricks. Radiant decks absorb punishment and stay alive long enough to deploy powerful late-game Stage 2 monsters.
Fill your bench fast and apply constant pressure. Thornveil's wide board creates devastating Force Promote chains and tag-in opportunities.
Strip your opponent's hand and field resources. Duskfang tricks destroy bench monsters and force discards, leaving opponents with nothing to play.
Area damage and sacrifice mechanics that punish large benches. Ashborne ignores individual monster strength and damages everything at once.
Prismatic crystals pay for any element, enabling a mix of the best tricks and monsters from multiple themes. Harder to master, but extremely versatile.
Advanced Mechanics
Evolution
Play a Stage 1 card from your hand onto a matching Stage 0 monster (Active or Bench) to evolve it. The evolved monster inherits all assets and takes the higher stage's stats permanently. Evolved monsters gain one turn of summoning sickness. Stage 2 monsters (✨ Ascend) are rare, signature powerhouses — some can spend elements to permanently boost their own ATK and DEF once per life.
Grave Abilities (⚰️)
Some monsters have a Grave Ability activated from your graveyard. Tap the required elements on your Main phase, click the monster in your grave, and either revive it to your Bench or return it to your hand. Grave Abilities turn losing a monster into a resource rather than a pure loss.
Ascend Ability (✨)
Signature Stage 2 monsters can spend elements during your Main phase to permanently upgrade their ATK and DEF. This can only be used once per monster lifetime — if the monster is KO'd and revived, the Ascend resets. Timing the Ascend correctly is often the winning moment in long games.
Trick Chains
After the attacker declares, the defender may flip a Reaction trick. After the defender flips, the attacker gets a counter-response window and may flip a Negatetrick to cancel the defender's trap. Only negate-type tricks are available to the attacker in the counter-response — offensive traps can only be used while defending.
Game Modes
- Solo Duel — play against the CPU with any deck. Good for practice.
- Tutorial Campaign — 6 story opponents that each teach one core mechanic, starting from summoning basics up to full trap chains and evolution.
- Campaign — 6 named rivals with unique decks and difficulty tiers. Defeat each for booster pack rewards and bonus tokens.
- Online vs Friend — create a room, share the 5-letter code, and duel live across any device in real time.
- Gauntlet Run — roguelike mode. Win 8 consecutive fights against escalating CPU opponents. Between each fight you choose new cards to add to your deck.
- Draft — pick 20 cards from a random pool, build a deck on the fly, then duel the CPU with it.
- Daily Challenge — a fixed matchup that changes every day. Complete it for tokens and build your daily streak.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you win in Tournamon?
The first player to reach 6 Tournament Points (TP) wins. You earn 1 TP each time your monster defeats the opponent's Active monster in battle. Both monsters deal damage simultaneously, so aggressive players risk counter-KOs.
Is Tournamon free to play?
Yes. Tournamon is completely free to play in any browser with no download or installation required. Optional token purchases let you unlock cosmetic backgrounds, but all gameplay content is free.
How many players does Tournamon support?
Tournamon supports 1v1 duels. You can play against the CPU (Solo Duel), work through a story campaign, or duel a friend live cross-device using a 5-letter room code in Online mode.
What are the deck themes in Tournamon?
There are nine deck themes: Emberclad (fire aggro), Tidebound (water control), Gravebound (shadow recursion), Stormcaller (wind tempo), Radiant (light healing), Thornveil (earth tokens), Duskfang (dark disruption), Ashborne (ash burn), and Twilight Order (prismatic hybrid).
Can monsters evolve in Tournamon?
Yes. Monsters come in Stage 0, Stage 1, and Stage 2. Playing a Stage 1 card on top of a matching Stage 0 monster evolves it with a permanent ATK and DEF upgrade. Evolved monsters gain summoning sickness for one turn after evolving.
What are trick cards?
Trick cards are set face-down in trick zones during your Main phase. Reaction tricks flip automatically when your monster is attacked, acting as hidden traps. Ritual tricks are activated on your turn as spells. Your opponent never knows what you've set.
What happens when my Active monster is knocked out?
When your Active monster is KO'd, you must Force Promote a monster from your Bench. If you have no Bench monsters when attacked, you can Tag In a Bench monster for free during the battle response window. If your Active is KO'd with no Bench monsters left, you lose 1 Tournament Point.
Does Tournamon work on mobile?
Yes. Tournamon is a Progressive Web App (PWA) that works on any modern phone or tablet browser. You can also install it to your home screen for an app-like experience with offline support.