Learning the Advanced Game
By now you should have played a few games using the basic rules from the playmat. All the rules you need to play with the cards in the Harry Potter trading card game (TCG) Starter Set are there on the playmat. This rulebook covers the rules you'll need for cards you'll find in the Harry Potter TCG boosters.
In these advanced rules, you'll learn about new kinds of cards like Adventure cards and Item cards. You'll also learn some new things about the cards you've already seen in the basic game. And best of all, you'll learn how to build your very own Harry Potter TCG deck!

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Advanced Play: Adventure Cards
Adventure cards are a new kind of card you can play to give your opponent a challenge to overcome. You don't need any Lessons on the table to play Adventure cards, but you do have to use 2 Actions to play them instead of 1. Each player can have only one Adventure on the table ('in play') at a time, so if you already have an Adventure in play, you can't play another one. An Adventure card has three parts:

Effect: This is what the Adventure does as long as it's in play.
To Solve: This is what your opponent needs to do to solve the Adventure. She can do this any time during her turn after she's drawn her first card, but she has to solve the Adventure all at once -- not one piece at a time (unless the card specifically says otherwise).
Opponent's Reward: If your opponent solves the Adventure, she's the school hero! The Adventure card will say what her reward is. Then you put the Adventure card in your discard pile.

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Advanced Play: Item Cards
Item cards are a new kind of card that are a lot like Creatures: you need to have a certain amount of Power to play them, and then once you play them they stay on the table (unless some card tells you to discard them). Some Items (Wands and Cauldrons) give you extra Power -- just like Lessons, but even better. Other Items have all sorts of different effects.

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Advanced Play: More About Character Cards
When you play the Harry Potter trading card game, you always start with a Character in play that represents you. In the advanced game, you can also have other Character cards in your deck! Just like Adventure cards, you play a Character card by using up 2 Actions, and it doesn't matter if you have any Lessons in play or not.
Once you've played a Character card, you can use its special ability. Whether it's the Character you started with or one you played during the game, you can use the ability any time during your turn after you've drawn your first card.
Your starting Character is special in another important way: it can never be discarded from play for any reason. For example, if a card tells you to discard three of your cards from play, you can't pick your starting Character as one of those three. As long as the game is still going, your starting Character is there -- because it's you!

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Advanced Play: Uniqueness
All Character cards, and a few other special cards, say 'Unique' on them. This means there can be only one of them in play at a time. There's one exception -- if you and your opponent both have the same starting Character, that's fine. Otherwise, once a Unique card is in play, nobody else can play another copy of that same card.

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Advanced Play: Damage
If you do less damage to a Creature than its Health, you'll need to mark the damage somehow. You can use counters or markers of any kind (such as coins). For example, if you have a Creature on the table with 6 Health and it takes 2 damage, put 2 counters on it. If later on it takes 4 or more damage, discard it.

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Advanced Play: 'In Play'
Cards are described as 'in play' when they're on the table. The cards in your hand, your deck and your discard pile are not in play. Cards that can be in play are printed sideways (Lessons, Creatures, Characters, Items and Adventures); cards that can't be put in play are printed vertically (Spells). Unless the card says otherwise, whatever is written on the 'sideways' cards happens only while that card is in play.
In general, there's no limit to how many cards you can have in play. The only exceptions are Adventures (only one Adventure can be in play on each side at a time) and cards that are Unique (see 'Uniqueness').

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Advanced Play: Keywords
Some cards have special words on them that other cards, or the rules, refer to (see p. 4 for an example). These keywords come right after the type of card. For example, the card Boil Cure has the keyword 'Healing' after 'Spell.' If some other card makes you discard all your Healing cards from your hand, and you have Boil Cure in your hand, you'd have to discard it.
For most keywords, everything you need to know is on the cards, but there are special rules for the Unique, Wizard, Witch and House keywords (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff). (See 'Building Your Own Deck' for more about the Wizard, Witch and House keywords.) Other keywords are there for fun or for other cards to refer to.

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Advanced Play: Power Needed
Spell, Item and Creature cards have a 'Power needed' number that tells you how much Power you need in play if you want to play the card. Each Lesson gives you 1 Power. So in the basic game, you can just count the number of Lessons you have in play to see if you have enough Power to play a card.
In the advanced game, there are cards that give you more than 1 Power each. So if a card needs 8 Power to play it, and you have in play a Wand that provides 3 Power, a Cauldron that provides 2 Power, and 3 (or more) Lessons, you would be able to play the card. Just like in the basic game, only one Power has to match the symbol underneath the Power needed number on the card you wish to play.

Power Symbol Lesson Type

Care of Magical Creatures
Charms
Potions
Transfiguration

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Advanced Play: Building Your Own Deck
One of the most exciting parts of the Harry Potter trading card game is building your own personal deck! You can build your deck however you like, as long as you follow these simple rules:

1. Your deck must have exactly 60 cards. You must also have 1 card that's your starting Character (which has to be a Wizard or a Witch).
2. Your deck can have, at most, 4 copies of any card, except for Lesson cards (you can have any number of those).

It's tricky to build a good deck, but a good way to start is by picking two or three Lesson types. Put in some Spell and Creature cards that use those Lesson types, but be sure to put in plenty of Lessons -- about half is a good starting point. Then play your deck a lot, and replace cards that don't help you or that you can rarely play. Keep playing and refining your deck, and soon you'll be able to out-duel your opponents!

Optional deckbuilding rule: If you want, you can build a 'House deck.' This means that all the cards you choose are from a single House (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff). Pick a House, and use cards that have keywords from that House or cards that have no House keywords at all. But don't use any cards from any of the other Houses.

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Advanced Play: Steps of Your Turn
You'll probably find the steps on the playmat are all you need, but a few more things can happen in the advanced game. Here are all the steps, just in case:
1. Before your turn
If a card tells you to do something before your turn begins, do it now.
2. You draw a card
3. Your Creatures damage your opponent
4. You use 2 Actions
5. End of your turn
If a card tells you to do something at the end of your turn, do it now.

You can solve Adventures and use your Characters' special abilities any time during your turn, after you draw your first card (step 2).

Usually it doesn't matter in what order things happen within a step, but if for some reason it does, the player whose turn it is decides the order.

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