Introduction
Scrolls can have different abilities or effects (AORFX), that affect how spells interact with other spells, materializations or give bonuses, handicaps or tactical advantages. Some abilities are only applicable to creatures, others can be in any scroll. AORFXs also have a lifecycle or temporal dimension, which are defined as:
natural: when it's present in the original scroll;permanent: when it's not present on the original scroll but the scroll in its current state has that ability permanently enabled;temporary: when it's not present on the original scroll, currently is in effect but on the nextEnd Of Turn(EOT)will be removed;
Many of these abilities are symbolized by specific icons in conjunction with other visual details to represent their lifecycle. When in the scroll viewer AORFXs will also have a descriptive text explaining them in more detail.
Lets start by portals which can be any scroll.
Portals
In game they're displayed as
Any scroll can be in the game-state of portal but by default it's when a scroll has the portal ability and is played. The icon is accompanied by a number, in this case 2, that means that when this scroll is played, instead of going directly into the game area or executing its FXs, it will instead be placed on the portal area of its owner with that numerical value. Then on each Beginning of your next turn (BYNT) that player's portals all tick down 1 value. It's only when they reach 0 or less that they effectively play out their FXs or are placed in the game-area accordingly. Until then they're un-interactive.
Creature Abilities & Effects
There are different AORFXs a creature can have. AORFXs are shown in creatures in several places in the UI depending on their nature or current state and shown both on scroll preview and scroll viewer. This aids in identifying quickly what are the AORFX that are naturally present on the scroll, which ones are temporary and which are permanent.
An ability that is present in the original scroll will have its icon shown in the body of the scroll preview, while an ability that isn't will only be shown on the right side of the scroll in the scroll preview, or the summary and descriptions in the scroll viewer, with exception of markers, even if the marker being present is written in the scroll rules body, for it to exist the scroll first has to enter the game so it's always considered not natural. Additionally temporary effects will have a background of striped bordeaux color, to symbolize they won't remain beyond the next EOT.
Strike/Guard Markers (SGM) or just markers
SGMs are specific to creatures and they are color coded to represent stats boosting as green and stats reduction as red. They can also vary on their center shape, representing if the marker is originated from a proper marker effect, or from a general effect, e.g. a scroll can have the text Add 1 +1/+1 markers, either in a GIFT or as the effect of the scroll, and a hex, or some global effect, may say all creatures receive -1/-1. In this case proper markers are square and effects are circular in the center.
Or
Berserk
Berserk is an ability that represents a state of mind where the creature if sent to battle will always go in a war-like transe, driving it to attack beyond what others do, even if fatally wounded, they will use their last breath to strike at guarders and if possible their opponents too. When striking with a berserk creature any difference in excess between its striking points and the total guard points "overflow" to the opponent, independently if the creature survives the battle or not. E.g.: if you strike with a 5/3 creature with berserk and the opponent guards with two 2/2 creatures, your striker will deal 2 damage to each of the guarders (killing them) and the remaining 1 strike point is dealt to the opponent's face. Your creature dies too because it's dealt 4 damage (2+2) from the two guarders. In a non-berserk strike only the creatures die, no point of damage is inflicted on the opponent because the striker was guarded.
Flying
Creatures with the flying ability when striking can only be guarded against by other creatures with flying. Notice that giving flying to the striker after the guards have been declared won't prevent it from battling the assigned guarders.
Impetuous
Creatures with the impetuous ability do not suffer from materialization delay, meaning they can strike or use abilities that require exhausting the creature from the moment they enter game. If you give impetuous to a creature that is suffering from materialization delay, when that creature didn't previously have impetuous then the materialization delay is removed.
Mastery
Mastery is always related to a domain and the icon is that of the domain it has mastery over. A scroll can have more than one mastery.
A scroll with mastery is impossible to be targeted by any spell or ability originating from a source of that same domain. Additionally, creatures with mastery can attack unguarded opponents that have any in-play flux of that domain and can't be dealt damage by sources of that domain.
Paralysis
Only creatures can have paralysis and when a creature has it it means it doesn't recover from exhaustion naturally and can't strike or guard.
Healing
All creatures have a healing ability with a numeric value. When not shown by default it means it's 1. It can be any value, including negative, 0 or infinity. Your creatures heal damage at the end of your turn, equal to the healing value, in case it's negative then the creature receives additional damage points, when it's infinity the creature removes all damage points and when it's 0 the creature doesn't naturally heal.
Materialization Delay
Only creatures can have materialization delay and by default any creature that enters the game, be it from a portal, effect (FX), or summoning has it. While a creature is under materialization delay it can't strike or be exhausted although it can guard. At the beginning of your next turn (BYNT) the creature looses materialization delay and can play as normal.
Exhausted
Only creatures can be exhausted. By default creatures start without being exhausted and become so either after executing a strike, activating an ability that requires exhausting the creature or by way of external FXs. At the BYNT the creature looses exhausted and can play as normal.
Damage
Only creatures can have damage. By default creatures start without any damage and suffer damage by entering battle or by FXS. Damage is accompanied by a number representing the amount of damage and is removed by the healing value of a creature on their owner's EOT. If the amount of damage a creature has is equal to its current guard value the creature dies and is placed in the tomb.
Negative Effects
There can be varied FXSthat "remove" abilities, or counters, or other aspects of the game. For abilities it will show their icon but with a RED background. This means FXS that add or remove abilities can stack. For instance if two abilities give flying to a creature and then an FX says target creature loses flying, the creature will still have flying. If another negative flying effect is added to it then it stops having the flying ability, since they cancel each other out.
GIFTs
Giant Ragnak
Many scrolls have GIFTs which are abilities their summoners can activate, with effects that vary as much as there's possibilities.
GIFTs are visible in the form of colored buttons inside the scroll view, green background when you can activate them and red when you can't. They're composed by the cost to activate the GIFT, its name in gold letters and the ruleset for that GIFT.
In the scroll preview for Giant Ragnak you can see it has 2 GIFTs, namely Grow and Reanimate. You can see one of the gifts is activable because its box is green. Although GIFTs can have different pre-conditions to be activated by default they require the scroll to be in play, nonethless you can see Giant Ragnak's Reanimate GIFT can only be activated when the scroll is in the tomb instead.