First Clash deck accounting / terminology
Before: public wording often treated the 40-card Silverpool as the full or main deck and described the 2 Guardian Dragons as outside the deck. That also made Settlements look like they might be four extra setup cards.
Now: each faction deck contains 42 cards total. 2 of those 42 cards are Guardian Dragons that are set aside during setup. The remaining 40 cards form the Silverpool. Settlements are normal cards within the Silverpool, not a separate four-card pool.
Mechanical change: none to the card list. This is a counting/terminology correction so the site describes the physical deck correctly.
Meltdown becomes Silverpool Recall
Before: the empty-deck recovery mechanic was called Meltdown and older Recovery Turn wording suspended mining, disabled Blessings, restricted broad card actions, and previously included a Builder Pool Settlement penalty.
Now: the mechanic is Silverpool Recall. It triggers only when a required draw cannot be completed because the Silverpool is empty. Shuffle the discard pile — the discarded memories — back into the Silverpool, take Recall damage, then continue through Untap / Upkeep and Mine normally.
Restriction: only the Middle Phase is skipped for that turn: Build, Action, and Combat. Mine remains available. Blessings and other card effects follow their normal printed timing and may interact with or override rules where specifically allowed.
Lore reason: the Silverpool is the planet's living source of memory — everything that has come before and everything still to come. Recall represents discarded memories being reintegrated into that source, not discarded Silver being recovered.
First Clash moves to 40 cards
Before (v7.1): each faction used a 39-card Silver Pool / main deck, including 4 Settlements and 7 Reactors, with 2 Guardian Dragons outside the deck.
Now (v7.1.1): each faction uses 40 cards total in its Silver Pool / main deck. Those 40 cards include 4 Settlements and 8 Reactors. The 2 Guardian Dragons remain outside the deck.
Why: 40 cards gives First Clash a cleaner deck size and the extra Reactor improves resource consistency while Settlement development remains draw-dependent.
Turn phases separated
Before (v7.0): Draw → Untap / Upkeep → Build / Mine / Main → Combat → End. The combined phase allowed building/rebuilding a Settlement, mining a Reactor, and playing one Silver Pool card.
Now (v7.1): Draw → Untap / Upkeep → Mine → Build → Action → Combat → End Phase → End.
Why: mining must generate AP without preventing the player from developing the board and then using that AP. Build and Action now have distinct jobs.
Build and Action terminology
Before: Reactors and Settlements were described inconsistently as normal card plays inside Build / Mine / Main.
Now: Settlements and Reactors are built during the Build Phase. Creatures, Relics, and Enhancements are played during the Action Phase.
Blessing timing exception
Before: Blessing timing was mixed into general reaction / activation language.
Now: after Untap / Upkeep, Blessings may be used at legal timing windows and do not consume the normal Action Phase play.
Settlements moved into the deck
Before: exactly four Settlements lived in a separate Builder Pool and could be built on schedule.
Now: the four First Clash Settlement cards are shuffled into the main deck and must be drawn before they can be built.
Why: guaranteed Settlement development was allowing Creature Capacity to come online too predictably and could flood the battlefield too quickly.
Settlement destruction became recoverable damage
Before: a destroyed Settlement returned to the Builder Pool and could be rebuilt later.
Now: a destroyed Settlement remains on the battlefield tapped/damaged and supplies no Creature Capacity. During the Build Phase, one damaged Settlement per turn may be rebuilt by paying AP equal to its printed DEF.
Why: Settlement destruction should be a meaningful setback without becoming a permanent dead end.
Meltdown follow-up — later resolved in v7.1.2
At v7.1 this remained unresolved because the Builder Pool had been retired. Rules v7.1.2 later replaced Meltdown with Silverpool Recall and removed the old Settlement-specific penalty entirely.
Turn structure
Draw → Untap / Upkeep → Build / Mine / Main → Combat → End.
Combined development phase
During Build / Mine / Main, a player could build/rebuild up to one Settlement, mine up to one Reactor, and play at most one Silver Pool card from hand.
Builder Pool
The 35-card Silver Pool was separate from exactly four Settlements in the Builder Pool. A destroyed Settlement returned to that Builder Pool.
Rules retained into v7.1
The one-time Reactor Mulligan, first-player first-draw skip, Guardian Dragons sharing 20 HP, AP clearing on the next Untap / Upkeep, creature ATK / DEF combat model, and maximum four Settlements remain part of the current playtest unless the current Rules page says otherwise.