Ember & Tide

Two covenants. Forty cards. One surviving mage.

At the Shattered Altar, a single well-timed enchantment can turn a fragile creature into your strongest threat. Choose the Cinder Covenant or the Tidal Court, build your mana, and find the sequence that breaks the rival's defenses.

Ember & Tide is a solo fantasy card duel for Windows and macOS. Play against an Easy or Hard rival, follow a saved journey through five trials, or solve six handcrafted tactical puzzles.

Your cards. Your order. Your opening.

In-engine capture: a staged midgame reached through legal card actions. Open screenshots for a closer look.

Each covenant has a fixed 40-card deck: 13 energies, 19 creatures and eight spells. Play one energy per turn to grow your mana capacity. Mana refreshes each turn; damage on creatures stays. Reduce the rival mage to zero life.

Actions resolve immediately. There are no interrupts to wait through: summon, enchant, pick a target, and watch your plan unfold. Click or drag cards, and hover a visible card to inspect its full rules.

Fire presses the attack

Enlarged reference plate made from the game's actual card artwork.

Send a Swift Cinder Fox straight into battle. Use Hunters such as Ember Lynx and Obsidian Hound against Water elementals. Put a Furnace Golem in front of your mage, then bring out the Volcanic Titan.

Fire's enchantments can turn a small creature into a dangerous counter. Its beasts also avoid Water's bonus against Fire elementals. Pressure works best when you know which creature to protect.

Water makes every exchange count

In-engine capture: a separate staged Water duel, advanced through the real simulation.

Enlarged reference plate of actual card artwork.

Guard forces attackers to deal with your defenders first. Ward absorbs one damage event. Freeze delays an attack, healing buys another turn, and cleansing can dismantle an enchanted threat. Water elementals have an advantage against Fire elementals—but Fire Hunters are waiting for them.

Both decks use the same rules on Easy and Hard. Hard searches legal move sequences and weighs trades; it does not know your hidden card identities or either deck's order.

Five trials. Rewards that stay with you.

Travel from the Ember Gate to the Twin Crowns through five duels with different openings. After each of the first four victories, choose a reward for the rest of your journey:

• Emberheart: four more starting life.
• Tideglass: one extra opening card, up to three stacks.
• Wellspring: one extra starting mana and capacity.

In-engine progression captures from an isolated checkpoint earned with legal actions.

Rewards stack. A defeat lets you retry the current trial with your earned rewards intact. Progress saves between duels; returning to an unfinished trial restarts it from its opening.

Six puzzles. One turn to find the win.

Actual built-in puzzle position in the game engine.

Learn to remove a Guard, break Ward before a Hunter strikes, cleanse an enchanted defender, and sequence your final attack. Every puzzle uses the ordinary card rules. Ask for a hint to learn the line, then retry without help to earn an unassisted medal.

Choose your covenant—and your mage

Caius and Pyra represent Fire; Lucan and Naia represent Water. Change wizard in the menu whenever you want. Their appearance is cosmetic; the covenant determines your deck.

Controls

• Mouse: click or drag cards; click a ready creature, then its target.
• Enter: end turn. Right click: cancel targeting.
• D: card library. H: rules. Escape: close an overlay or pause.
• R: another duel or retry. M: sound. W: change wizard in the menu.

Free standalone downloads for Windows 64-bit and macOS. Single-player against AI, with local journey and puzzle saves. No account, Ruby installation, or internet connection is needed to play.