Board. 3 lanes x 5 tiles. You start owning the left column, the opponent the right. Each tile you own holds 1 to 3 pawns.
Cost. The pips on a card are its cost: how many pawns a tile must already have before you can play the card there. (The game calls this "rank".) A 1-pawn card goes on any tile you own; a 3-pawn card needs a tile you have built up.
Building up. Each card has a pattern. Playing it adds one pawn to every tile in the pattern (max 3) and claims those tiles, even from the opponent, unless a card already sits there. Cheap cards build tiles; built tiles unlock expensive cards.
Abilities. Gold tiles in a pattern are "affected" tiles: enhance, enfeeble, destroy, or ongoing auras hit cards there. After a play, affected tiles pulse and power changes float up. Tap or hover a placed card to see its pattern on the board. A card at 0 power is destroyed.
Turns. Play one card or pass. You draw a card at the start of every turn after your first. If you have no legal move you must pass.
Ending. The game ends when both players pass back to back. Each lane's higher power wins that lane and scores its power; ties score nothing. Highest total wins.
Reading the board. Dots on a tile = its pawns (also written 2/3). "+3 here" on an empty tile = an allied aura already covers it. Under a placed card's power you see where extra power came from.