Danmaku!! Wolf of Black Market

Wolf of Black Market is an expansion to Danmaku!! that can be played by itself or in combination with any other expansions. Wolf of Black Market expands on the card exchanging introduced in Lunatic Extra by adding a market row and several always-available animal spirits that can be purchased by exchanging cards according to their point value. This updates and unifies rules established in Lunatic Extra.

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Concept

Shop decks and trade rows as game mechanics often appear in more “core gamer” board games such as deck builders and economy games. By contrast, Danmaku!! is a party game where cards are drawn and played rapidly with little to no investment from turn to turn. Players must typically rely on the luck of the draw, which may or may not favor their game plan.

The animal spirits cards and shop deck added in Wolf of Black Market provide two ways of putting more agency in the hands of players. In contrast to Lunatic Extra, which adds more randomness in the form of the lunatic deck, players can see the cards available for purchase in the market row and animal spirits piles, so they know what they’re getting before they buy it.

Because fewer cards are seen from the shop deck on an average game than main deck or even lunatic cards, we hope that this helps add more variation from game to game. Additionally, by having cards that have a much higher cost, such as 7 or 8 points, we are able to add some extremely powerful, game-changing effects that create exciting moments, but are balanced by  the increased cost. This allows us to represent even more iconic and powerful items from Touhou lore.

The animal spirits deck further serves two purposes. First, it provides a guaranteed way for players to get three important staple effects. Eagle Spirit provides attacks, Wolf Spirit gives players range and increased danmaku limit (Power), and Otter Spirit allows players to activate their Spell Card.

Secondly, whenever an animal spirit card is used, it is turned into a points card worth 1, 2, or 3 points respectively. This allows players to accrue value from turn to turn, eventually allowing them to build up to a large purchase from the market row.

Contents

Wolf of Black Market introduces the following cards:

40 shop deck cards
8 eagle spirit / small points cards
8 wolf spirit / medium points cards
8 otter spirit / large points cards
2 new incidents, Free Market and Wily Beasts

Setup

When playing with Wolf of Black Market, before the game begins, do the following:

• Shuffle the shop deck cards together and place it in the middle of the table
• Put the eight eagle spirit cards into a pile, spirit-side-up near the shop deck
• Do the same for the wolf spirit and otter spirit cards, each into their own pile
• (Optional) Shuffle the Free Market and Wily Beasts incident cards into the incident deck

At the start of the Heroine’s first turn, put the top four cards of the shop deck face up next to the shop deck to create the market row. This happens after turn zero. This means that players can’t exchange for shop cards during turn zero, though they may still exchange for lunatic cards if you are playing with the Lunatic Extra expansion.

Gameplay

Shop Cards and Animal Spirit Cards

Shop cards and animal spirit cards are playable cards like main deck cards.

When a shop deck card would be put into a discard pile, put it into the shop discard pile next to the shop deck. Whenever the shop deck becomes empty, shuffle the shop discard pile to make a new deck.

When an animal spirit card would be put into a discard pile, instead flip it over to the other side (the points side) and put it into play under your control. These cards can’t be collected by incidents.

Like item cards, points cards are placed face-up in front of the player that controls them. Because they aren’t item cards, they aren’t affected by cards or incidents that affect items and they can’t be destroyed. Instead, points cards are spent as though they were main deck cards when making an exchange (see below).

After points cards are exchanged, return them to their respective animal spirit pile, spirit-side-up. Points cards can’t be collected by incidents.

Exchanging and the Market Row

Players can exchange cards from their hand for cards in the market row, an animal spirit pile, or the lunatic deck. To exchange, discard any number of main deck cards from your hand and/or point cards you control with a total point value equal to or greater than the cost of the card you are exchanging for. If you are exchanging for a shop card or animal spirit card, put the chosen card directly into your hand. If you are exchanging for a lunatic card, draw the top card of the lunatic deck.

The cost of a shop deck card or animal spirit card is indicated on the card’s cost tag. The cost to exchange for a card from the lunatic deck is 5 points.

Once a card is bought from the market row, a new card is immediately flipped and put in its place. As such, there will always be four face-up cards available for exchange in the market row.

By default, players can only exchange once per turn. Cards available in the shop deck may increase a player’s exchange limit. The exchange limit applies to and counts all exchanges — when a player exchanges for a shop card, they can’t also exchange for a lunatic card in the same turn unless an effect gives them additional exchanges per turn. Exchange limits reset for all players at the start of each player’s turn.

Players can only exchange during their turn as an action (whenever they could play an action card), or during the discard step of any turn, before discarding down to max hand size. Players must declare whether they are going to exchange or not in turn order, starting from the current turn player. If a player can make more than one exchange per turn, they make all of their exchanges back-to-back.

Assist Characters

A returning mechanic from Mutiny of Belittled Spirits, assist characters are a kind of item card that a player can activate once per turn for an effect. While these appeared exclusively on midboss cards in MoBS, in Wolf of Black Market, these appear as stand-alone cards in the shop deck and represent various villagers and noncombatants from Touhou lore.

Unlike most other item cards, an assist character doesn't provide a continuous bonus. Instead, the card's rule text describes a one-shot effect like those usually found on action cards. This effect is that card's assist action.

A player that controls an assist character can use that card's assist action once per round whenever they could play an action card. After using an assist action, rotate the card to indicate it has been used this turn.

Each player can only control at most three assist characters at a time. If a player would ever control more than three, they choose three to keep and discard the rest.