The clash: both sides start with a 20-card deck and a hand of 5, Shelter 12 in the Arena. Each round both play one card face down and flip on “1, 2, Bomb Drop!” Higher total wins — the loser’s Shelter takes damage equal to the difference. Ties fizzle. Both cards go to the Worn Out pile and each side draws 1.

Faction wheel (+2 Power): if your card’s faction beats the opposing card’s faction on the wheel, you get +2.

Note-tag abilities: every scent's real notes are counted by tag — the dominant tag deals the card its one ability. Every card in the set carries one: the twelve tag abilities, plus the expanded pool (CRUSH, SIPHON, COMEBACK, FIRST BLOOD, LAST STAND) dealt to the cards whose notes run thin — tuned per card, so no two play quite alike. Tap a card anywhere in the game to see its notes, tags and exact rule.

Hand actions: once per match you may Scavenge (draw 1 extra card) and Swap Out (send a hand card back into your deck and take the top card instead). Watch the economy: CRUSH winners force a discard, SIPHON losers draw, THE STAREDOWN swaps a draw for a discard.

🦜 Poki cards: wild — no faction, no wheel, and no freebies: nothing is switched off just because a parrot showed up. What Poki brings is the strongest specials in the game, and they fire every time a Poki card is played. Poki vs Poki is a straight head-to-head of two monsters… and there are only ten of them.

Element cards — the field: every match opens on a random Element, face-up in the field slot. Between clashes — never during one — a player may play one of their 2 carried Elements to replace it; each carried Element fires once per match. The field resolves first, then abilities, then the damage math.

Cards marked ★ Legendary are the Top-10 sellers from the real lineup. A match ends when a Shelter hits 0 — or by the deck-out rule: a player who can't play a card at the start of a clash loses on the spot, exactly like the printed game. An empty deck with cards still in hand plays on. One Arcade house rule: if a match would end dead even — both Shelters hitting 0 on the same clash, or both hands empty at clash start — the printed game calls it a draw, but the Arcade rolls dice until one side rolls higher, and that side takes the match. Physical decks run 20–30 cards; the Arcade plays 20.

🤝 Friends of the Drop — MORALE: fourteen gold WILD cards honoring the reviewers and friend brands who backed Bomb Drop. Every one is support — heals, shields, draws, recursion — never damage. Max 1 copy of each, and the MORALE cap allows at most 2 in a deck. Three of them ask the player a question after the clash (a discard for a heal, a Worn card back into the deck, a draw-then-discard) — watch for the prompt under the arena.