Guardians (card game)

Guardians is a fantasy-themed collectible card game published in 1995 by the Friedlander Publishing Group, designed by fantasy illustrator Keith Parkinson together with Luke Peterschmidt. The game launched through sixty-card starter decks and fourteen-card booster packs, and each player builds a fifty-five card deck that must include at least one Guardian character card and three Stronghold cards, supplemented by Terrains, Shields, Magic Items, Bribes and Creature cards. Matches are designed for two to four players and typically run about forty-five minutes. The game's defining physical feature is its battlefield, a grid of four columns by three rows laid out between the opposing sides: each player places their three Strongholds in the row closest to themselves, leaving the two middle rows as contested territory where armies clash. Thematically, each match represents two armies led by rival Guardian characters fighting for control of the board, with Creatures and Magic Items used to break through an opponent's Strongholds while defending one's own.