Huddle Phase

Note: these are the base rules and can be altered due to card effects.

[] button: displays card info
r1/l1: toggle between teams
/\: go into field scan mode

start: brings up menu, select first option to go the next step

step 1: Draw a card

If your ace is on the field you can draw as many cards as you want until his stamina is full.
Pressing X will stop drawing cards but you must always draw at least one card.

step 2: Set Characters

3 characters can be set at once. Deployment is not final until start is pressed and confirmed.
When a card is taken of the play field any RED cards placed on the character will be discarded.

step 3: Set a Play card

This is where you set Play cards(BLUE) to determine possible yardage on the play. Non-play cards can also be set and will count for 3 pass yards and 2 running yards on Offense and 1 yard each on defense. Certain play cards can be only set in certain situations and have different costs and effects.

Step 4: Main Phase

This is where you set any other cards including RED and ORANGE ability cards, PURPLE Counter cards, and Green Field cards.

RED cards are set on characters and stay until the character is taken off the field or a discarded by another card.

ORANGE cards are general effect cards and have a variety of uses including but not limited to temporary team stat boosts or discarding/retrieving cards. When boosting team stats ORANGE cards are set onto the team logos.

PURPLE counter cards are displayed face down. Pressing [] will still display card info. Counter cards are set in the same spot at the bottom of the screen as GREEN field cards.

GREEN field cards consist of long effect cards and halftime cards. Halftime cards have a standard effect and an effect that activates if the card is on the field when halftime starts. Certain halftime cards have a different halftime effect depending on if the team was on offense or defense when halftime started. Green cards stay on the field until you run of cards and the deck reshuffles.

Combination cards are also set during this phase. Combination cards are character cards that feature more than one character in the art. To set these cards, all characters shown in the art must be on the field.

Character huddle abilities can also be activated during this phase. Press /\ than use the analog to select the flashing character and press O. The game will then ask for confirmation.

Step 5: Discard Phase

While you can have up to 10 cards at once, you must discard down to 6 cards to end the discard phase.

Step 6: Player Select Step/Strategy Select Step

Here you will be shown 4 characters to use on the play consisting of a nameless player and the characters you set previously. If you set less than 3 characters the remaining slots will be nameless players. Use the dpad to choose the character and press O to select him.

Next, you will choose the type of play, pass, run, or kick. When on defense your options are limited to pass defense or run defense.

If the character you picked has the ability you may discard to add yards to the play.

Now the game will calculate the yardage on the play. If the defense choose the same play type the game will subtract the defensive yards from the offensive yards to determine final yardage. If the defense did not guess correctly no yardage will be subtracted. If the defensive yardage meets or exceeds the offensive yardage the result is a busted play and the play phase is skipped. Usually this results in no change in yardage, although busted run plays will occasionally lose a yard.

How nameless players affect yardage:

If you pick a nameless player and the defense
picks one as well regardless of the yards, you will lose the down(if they
guessed right in terms of pass or run). However, if they did not guess right
than the offense will automatically get those yards(it is possible to score a
touchdown this way). Keep in mind that when you pick a nameless player your
yards go down by half. If you put down say 20 yard pass, 1 yard run card. It will
become a 10 yard pass 0 yard run(the game rounds down they don't give you the benefit of the doubt when the yardage is that low.

Now if you pick an actual player and run a play that they can not perform(for example
running the ball with Kid from the Wild Gunmen) you will not lose any yards. You will
actually run the ball as a nameless player. However, if the defense picks a nameless
player and guesses right you will still automatically lose that down.

All of this stuff is actually pretty important for certain teams and situations
so it is good to know when to take advantage of it.

Keep in mind that nameless players do have defined stats. The runningback for the Wild Gunmen is actually much faster than the White Knights runningback for example.