These are commonly used terms you'll find during the course of playing Sentinels of the Multiverse. Card effects can sometimes be a bit ambiguous, this should help clarify the wording. Some are keywords on the cards themselves, but sometimes an effect is triggered by an action such as drawing a card.
Destroy means to remove a card from the playing field & place it in the appropriate discard pile. Only cards that are already in play on the table can be destroyed, cards in a deck or the player's hand would be discarded.
Cards are typically discarded from the player's hand, but some effects may cause you to discard revealed cards from the bottom or top of a deck. Discarded cards go into a separate pile corresponding to the deck they came from.
Cards are usually drawn from the top of the deck, but some effects might say to draw the bottom card. Cards or powers that let you search your deck or discard pile for cards & place them in your hand are not considered drawn.
Every turn is finished with the End of Turn phase. Some hero cards and many Villain & Environment cards have End of Turn effects that must be resolved before the turn passes to the next deck or player.
The environment represents the battlefield where the fight between the villain & heroes takes place. Each Environment has its own deck & theme, but no default target to attack.
Most heroes have some kind of equipment as cards in their deck. These cards remain in the field once played and may have passive abilities or powers to enhance the heroes capabilities. Equipment may only be removed by cards that specifically target them.
Heroes are the characters that the players control and make decisions for as they play the game. Hero targets include the character cards and any additional cards the heroes play that have health.
Cards that are immune cannot take damage. Immunity may apply to a specific type of damage like fire or projectile, or it may be all damage types. Effects that say destroy rather than deal damage may still destroy immune targets.
If a hero reaches zero hit points they are incapacitated. The hero character card gets flipped over, any cards that hero has in play get removed and the player's hand is discarded. The player can no longer draw or play cards, but they do have a choice of three powers on the back of the hero card that can be used on their turn.
Very few cards are considered indestructable in Sentinels of the Multiverse. In these rare cases a card that is indestructable cannot be removed from play by any means, even if it's hit points reach zero.
In the middle of most cards is a box with one or two keywords that define the type of card. These card types can vary and generally denote which card effects apply to that card. Particularly in the case of villian and environment cards these keywords can be unique to that deck.
Most decks will have multiple copies of each card. In the case of cards with the keyword Limited you may only have one copy of that card in play at a time. A new copy may be played, but will force the player to destroy the copy that is already in play at the time.
One-shots are cards that are played once, the effects are resolved, and it then gets discarded with no lingering effect.
Cards with the keyword Ongoing will remain in the field once played. These cards typically have effects that last until the card is destroyed, and some will give the heroes additional powers to be used on their turn.
Heroes usually play one cards from their hand, while environments and villains play the top card of their decks, unless a card allows any of them to play more than one per turn. Once played text on the card will be resolved and will stay on the table or be discarded based on the keywords or effects of the card. Play is also the second phase of any turn to specify the timing of the play action.
Each hero has a built in power on their character card. Other cards in their deck may have extra powers for them to use. Each power may only be used once per turn. Power also refers to the third phase of the hero's turn when they can use a power. Only one power may be used per turn unless a card says otherwise.
Some heroes have a villain that is there nemesis. When these villains & heroes face each other they do one extra damage to each other from all of their abilities. This bonus damage only happens if the nemesis is the source of the damage, but does not happen if a different card is the source of that damage, as in the case of an ability that redirects damage or if its a villain's henchman that does the damage.
Each round starts with the villain turn, then each hero in order, and ending with the environment turn. Once the environment turn is over a new round will begin. There is no limit to the number of rounds, play will continue until either the villain or all of the heroes are reduced to zero hit points.
Every turn begins with the Start of Turn phase. Villain and environment cards frequently have Start of Turn effects, and some heroes have them as well. These effects resolve before the rest of the turn & is followed by the Play phase.
Target refers to any card that has hit points. Hero targets include the character card as well as any cards from their decks that may have hit points, though the latter is not common. All environment & villain decks will contain targets in addition to the villains themselves.
Each deck will have a pile for cards that are destroyed or discarded. This pile is called the Trash, and some cards will call for you to search or reveal cards from the Trash.
The villain & environment turns consist of three phases: Start of Turn, Play, and End of Turn. Heroes have two extra phases, Power and Draw, that happen after the Play phase. These phases determine which actions can be taken.
Villains are the primary enemies of the heroes. They each have their own innate abilities as well as a deck of cards that enhance their offensive and defensive capabilities, in addition to providing distractions and disruptions to the heroes.