Play module — specification

The play module's methodology page — four player kinds + three archetypes + assumption table.

SEO-rich English beginner's guide; ~15-minute read; complete OPTCG rules.

Deep-dive synthesis: official Bandai rules + hobbyist-sim landscape + seven design choices for future engine.

L3 runtime substrate spec — event-sourced wire format, state machine, async-mode timers.

The competitive meta as a dated, sourced snapshot: tier list grounded in tournament results, recent winners with decklists linked at their publishers, and the tournament circuit (official + community). The as-of banner is the honesty contract.

The official banned/restricted list rendered from the same banlist.ts the deck checker, builder warnings, and refereed setup enforce — with the effective date and Bandai's authoritative source linked.

Machine-readable OPTCG tutorial in math-mirror form. Each section carries typed rule_structure + examples + keyword cross-refs.

Single tutorial section by id (deep link from glossary cross-refs). 404 with helpful body when id absent.

Multi-cultural OPTCG term glossary — 21 terms each with English + Japanese (kanji/kana + romaji) + structural definition decoderable without natural-language knowledge.

Single glossary term by id (deep link from tutorial cross-refs). 404 with helpful body when id absent.

Three player archetypes (hobbyist / collector / competitor) typed taxonomy. financial_boundary block declares fun-first stance.

Canonical OPTCG match-state shape — nine zones, five phases, four combat steps with strict-greater damage rule, three win conditions.

Card-text effect-token vocabulary — 12 structural markers + 4 keywords + 4 effect categories + 7 targeting-language phrases.

Sample MatchEvent + Intent sequence demonstrating lib/play/types.ts. First consumer of the L3 type skeleton; gives agents and engine builders a concrete shape to test against.

Starter-deck catalog as JSON — six tier-1 starters with leader, color, difficulty, and composition provenance per deck.

Single starter deck by id. ST-01 and ST-15 through ST-20 carry Bandai-official 50-card decklists (cross-source verified 2026-07-16); remaining tier-2 entries carry their own sourcing notes.

Starter-deck data layer — the rookie flow's typed catalog. Seven decks (ST-01, ST-15..20) carry full Bandai-official 50-card lists; decklist_source declares each deck's sourcing mode.

Printed stats (cost, power, counter, color, category, leader life) for every card in the encoded starter decks — researched from the official Bandai cardlist cross-checked against Limitless, per-card. Makes practice battles rules-real without a database round-trip.

Machine-readable meta snapshot with as_of/data_window/staleness note, results-grounded tiers, linked tournament results, and circuit links.

The dated meta-snapshot data: tiers, results, circuit links, sources. A photograph of a moving river — re-verified on set releases, restriction news, or monthly.

Machine-readable banned/restricted list with card names, effective date, official source, and the list of surfaces that enforce it.

Point-in-time mirror of the official banned/restricted page (5 banned cards, 3 banned pairs, effective 2026-04-10) — the game's one official restriction mechanism, enforced by the deck checker, the builder, and the validate endpoint.

The adventure ladder as embedded data — ten storyline opponents with AI aggression and an assigned starter deck. No rewards fields by design: practice battles pay nothing while durable PVE stays paused.

Pure function checkDeckLegality(declaration, cardMetadataLookup) → DeckLegalityResult. Returns ALL violations with stable codes.

Pure function parseEffectText(rawEffect) → ParsedEffect. Walks card-text, emits typed tokens, preserves body_opaque for 20% residue.

TypeScript L3 type skeleton — 10 vocabulary unions + 5 state-shape interfaces + MatchEvent 28-variant union + Intent 14-variant union. First consumer: /api/v1/play/example-match.

Tutorial section catalog (typed). Imported by the collection endpoint /api/v1/play/tutorial and the per-section endpoint /api/v1/play/tutorial/[section_id].

Glossary term catalog (21 terms, typed). Imported by the collection endpoint /api/v1/play/glossary and the per-term endpoint /api/v1/play/glossary/[term_id].

THIS file. Single source of truth for the play module's resource catalog. /play/spec and /api/v1/play/index.json both consume from here.

POST endpoint exposing the deck-legality validator. Substrate-honest about color-check graceful degradation.

Client-side deck helpers shared by the play surfaces — the localStorage SavedDeck shape, SavedDeck → flat PvE/PvP card-list conversion, and the auto-mounted default starter so a deckless visitor never hits a build-your-first-deck wall.

Starter catalog → playable practice deck. Every card always present with stats attached (no catalog resolution, no silent drops); only decks with full 50-card official lists are offered.

Live tabletop runtime — event-sourced match state, server-as-sequencer, async-friendly. Designed but not yet built (~3-4 weeks).

Server-side starter-deck resolution — card_number refs → wholesale catalog cards (SKU, name, image, rarity). Single source for /api/v1/play/starters/[id] and /api/play/load-starter.

Stateless practice-battle referee — the guest carries the game state, the house applies the official rules per move and enumerates legal actions with damage previews. Nothing stored, nothing paid; the agent seat at the practice table (xeniame).

Card metadata for legality checks — canonicalizes ids to card numbers and merges the encoded starter corpus, official bandai-en attributes, and the catalog rarity heuristic. One truth behind the public validate endpoint AND the refereed-room setup gate (CR 5-2-1-1).

The play hub. PVE battle and reward writes are paused; deck tools and status reads remain.

Polymorphic landing — three archetypes × player kinds; 17 paths visible.

Hobbyist's entry. PVE status is readable; battle and reward writes are paused.

Competitor's opinionated entry. Agent ladder publication and agent match writes are paused; tournament substrate is planned.

Read-only PVE level and prior-progress status; battles and rewards are paused.

Pause notice for an adventure level; no PVE match action or reward is accepted.

HTML adoption site for the deck-legality validator. Paste card IDs; see typed violations + substrate-honest perimeter.

Play module's own directory of itself — rendered from lib/play/resources.ts; HTML sibling of /api/v1/play/index.json.

Existing match page. Client-side state today; L3+ upgrades to event-sourced server-authoritative.

Machine-readable directory of every play resource. Sister to /play/spec (HTML); both render from lib/play/resources.ts.

Starter-deck picker for rookies — six 2024 reboot starter references (ST-15 through ST-20), one per OPTCG color, with leader styles, color characteristics, and source-specific decklist notes.

Human-readable OPTCG tutorial page — the HTML face of /api/v1/play/tutorial's math-mirror sections.

The play module is for fun only. No earnings, commission, store credit on play surfaces. Ratings are skill, not money. Prize pools live under future play-to-earn opt-in.