THE MUSIC DECK
THE MUSIC DECK
  • Overview
  • Rules
  • Cards
  • Genres
  • Rarities
  • Collection
  • Catalog
  • Track Lists
  • Battles
  • Career
  • Glossary
  • Charter
ObjectiveComponentsCard AnatomyTrack List BuildingSetupSlotsCrateTurnsPre-mixMixScoring & StacksWinningGlossary
Game

Rules

How to play The Music Deck, start to finish — objective, cards, track list building, and how a DJ battle is won.

Objective
  • Bring a Track list preset — both DJs load one into the DJ battle.
  • Grow your own DJ Vibe — fill deck slots with songs, build stacks, and trigger synergies. There's no shared gauge to fight over.
  • Reach 1,000,000 DJ Vibe first — and you win.
Components

A track list is built from two card types:

  • Song — the core collectible.
  • Synergy — cue it in like a song card; it waits in its deck slot until you replace it with a song — one of its own genre plays immediately, even into a genre your current playing song doesn't permit.

Songs can appear as variants — remix, cover, live, acoustic, and more — which stack onto their base song without costing an extra deck slot. Each DJ tracks their own DJ vibe score, starting at 0 and climbing as the match plays out.

Card anatomy

Every card exposes five stats that stacking, synergy, and matchup rules read from during resolution:

  • Play Vibe — a 50-120 score reflecting how broadly the song connects with the audience. A few special songs fall below 50 or above 120, anywhere in the full 0-200 range.
  • Transition Vibe — a second 50-120 score, alongside Play Vibe. It only scores while the card is transitioning in or out of its deck slot.
  • Intensity — pop, soft, experimental, or hardcore, set by the card's genre or subgenre.
  • Advantage / Weakness — the genres this card is strong or weak against.
  • FX box — an FX name and effect description printed on every card, applied during resolve FX.

Your own DJ vibe gates which intensities you can play: below 100 DJ vibe, only pop cards; below 1,000, pop and soft; below 10,000, add experimental; below 100,000, all four — including hardcore.

Full frame breakdown with all variant art: Cards — Anatomy.

Track list building
  • Assemble a Track list — before battling, put together exactly 60 cards.
  • Build and name multiple Track list presets — no limit on how many you keep.
  • Save a Track list preset — freeze a lineup configuration for a given battle context.

Builder and full spec: Track Lists.

Setup
  • Load Track list presets — both DJs bring one into the battle.
  • Reset DJ Vibe — each DJ's DJ vibe is set to 0.
  • Start on the MP3 Player — the base gear tier, 1 deck slot.
  • Resolve opening Queue and first DJ — draw 7 cards each before turn 1 begins.
Slots

Your gear — how many deck slots you have — is gated by your own DJ vibe, and upgrades mid-battle as it climbs:

  • MP3 Player — 1 deck slot, below 100 DJ vibe. One deck means nothing to transition between, so cards are played straight away.
  • Turntables — 2 deck slots, below 1,000. Your first real transitions.
  • Controller — 3 deck slots, below 10,000.
  • Full Rig — 4 deck slots, from 10,000 onward.
Crate

Cards you no longer control leave into your own crate. A card lands there when:

  • Discard — move a card from your queue directly to the crate.
  • Card effect — an effect sends it there directly.
  • Pre-mix / mix — cards transitioning out of a deck slot move to the crate, along with any synergy card replaced during mix.
Turn structure

Each turn follows a fixed order:

  1. Draw — draw 1 card into your queue.
  2. Pre-mix — cards resolve automatically.
  3. Mix — you may cue a card in or out, replace a waiting synergy card, or discard.
  4. Resolve FX — each card's FX box is applied.
  5. Score phase — each of your playing songs that isn't silenced adds its play vibe to your own DJ vibe; a song transitioning in or out also adds its transition vibe.

Fuller visual walkthrough: Battles — Game turns.

Pre-mix

Your deck slots turn over here automatically — no choice, cards resolve:

  • Transitioning in — a song card becomes a playing song.
  • Transitioning out — the card moves to the crate.
Mix

After pre-mix, you may:

  • Cue in a card — move a song or synergy card from your queue into an open deck slot. It doesn't play immediately: it starts transitioning in next turn. Exception: with only one deck slot, there is nothing to transition between, so the card is played immediately.
  • Cue out a card — move a playing song out of its deck slot, sending it into transitioning out. It moves to the crate at the next pre-mix.
  • Play an evolution — if a song in your queue is the evolution of one of your playing songs, playit directly into that song's deck slot, skipping transitioning in. The displaced playing song is cued out onto another open deck slot if you have one — it still scores its transition vibe before landing in the crate at the next pre-mix. Exception: with no open deck slot elsewhere, it goes straight to the crate instead.
  • Replace a waiting synergy card — a synergy card doesn't transition in: it waits in its deck slot until you replace it with a song from your queue. Same genre as the synergy card — the song plays immediately, even into a genre your current playing song doesn't normally permit. Different genre — the song is cued in instead. Either way, the replaced synergy card moves to the crate. Exception: you don't have to replace it — a waiting synergy card can stay in its deck slot for as many turns as you like.
  • Discard — move a card from your queue directly to the crate.
Scoring & stacks
  • Score phase — each of your playing songs that isn't silenced adds its play vibe to your own DJ vibe; a song transitioning in or out also adds its transition vibe.

All of this nets into a shift applied to your own DJ vibe each turn.

Stat reference: Battles — Card attributes. Full advantage/weakness matrix per genre: Genres — Associations.

Winning

The battle ends the instant either DJ's own DJ vibe reaches 1,000,000 — that DJ wins on the spot, with no fixed turn count and no waiting for a track list to run out.

Glossary

Core, battle, and card terms only. Venue and career terms live in the full Glossary.

Advantage / Weakness — The genres a card is strong or weak against; applied as matchup modifiers during resolution.
Card — The unit a track list is built from — either a song (core collectible) or a synergy card. Exactly 60 make up a track list.
Country genre — A subgenre parented to a country or region instead of a root genre, its card border showing that country's flag instead of a genre colour, e.g. J-Pop under Japan.
Crate — Each DJ's own discard zone. A card lands here when you discard it from your queue, when a card effect sends it there, or during pre-mix or mix — cards transitioning out of a deck slot, a synergy card replaced during mix, and a playing song displaced by an evolution with no open deck slot to cue out onto, move to the crate.
Cue in — Move a song or synergy card from your queue into an open deck slot during mix. It doesn't act immediately — starting next turn, a song transitions in and becomes a playing song, while a synergy card instead waits in its deck slot, available to be replaced. Exception: with only one deck slot, there's nothing to transition between, so the card is played immediately.
Cue out — Move a playing song out of its deck slot during mix, sending it into transitioning out — it moves to the crate at the next pre-mix. A card effect can also send a playing song into transitioning out, outside of mix.
Deck slot — One scoring slot in a DJ battle. Your slot count is gated by your own DJ vibe: 1 below 100, 2 below 1,000, 3 below 10,000, 4 from 10,000 onward.
Discard — Move a card from your queue directly to your crate.
DJ — You. The name for a player of The Music Deck, everywhere in the game — collecting cards, building track lists, battling, and climbing a career. In a battle, each DJ loads their own track list and tracks their own DJ vibe score.
DJ battle — A match between two DJs, played out in turns until one DJ's own DJ vibe reaches 1,000,000.
DJ Vibe — Each DJ's own score, from 0 to 1,000,000. Reaching 1,000,000 first wins the battle. Also gates which card intensities you can play and how many deck slots you have.
Draw — The first turn step: draw 1 card into your queue.
Evolution — A directional link from one song card to another — a remix, cover, reused melody, inspiration, or sample. During mix, you may play a queued song directly into the deck slot of one of your playing songs it is the evolution of; see play.
Experimental — The third intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs.
FX — The name and effect description printed in a card's FX box, required on every card and applied during resolve FX.
Gear — The name of each deck-slot tier, upgrading mid-battle as your own DJ vibe climbs: MP3 Player (1 slot), Turntables (2), Controller (3), Full Rig (4).
Genre — One of the 8 top-level styles a card belongs to (Mainstream, Rock, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Disco/Funk, Reggae/Dub, Classical, Vintage), setting its intensity colour scale and its position in the genre wheel's advantage/weakness matchups.
Hardcore — The fourth and highest intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs.
Intensity — A card's power tier — pop, soft, experimental, or hardcore — set by its genre or subgenre. Your own DJ vibe gates which intensities you can play.
Mix — The turn step, after pre-mix, where a DJ may cue a card in or out, play a queued song as the evolution of a playing song, replace a waiting synergy card with a song, or discard.
Play — Move a card directly into an open deck slot, entering play as a playing song immediately, skipping the transitioning-in step. This happens with only one deck slot (nothing to transition between), when replacing a waiting synergy card with a song of that synergy card's own genre — even a genre your current playing song doesn't normally permit — or when playing a queued song into the deck slot of a playing song it is the evolution of. Contrast with cue in, which stages a card in over two turns.
Play Vibe — A 50-120 score printed on each card, reflecting how broadly the song connects with the audience. Distinct from a DJ's own DJ vibe score; a few special cards fall below 50 or above 120, anywhere in the full 0-200 range.
Playing Song — A song card currently occupying one of your deck slots, contributing to scoring and matchups each turn.
Pop — The first and always-available intensity tier a card can carry.
Pre-mix — The turn step, after draw, where cards resolve automatically: a song card transitioning in becomes a playing song, and a card transitioning out moves to the crate.
Queue — The cards a DJ holds and can play from, drawn from their track list. Starts at 7 cards (opening queue) and gains 1 card each draw step.
Resolve FX — The turn step, after mix, where each card's FX box is applied.
Score phase — The last turn step: each playing song that isn't silenced adds its play vibe to your own DJ vibe; a song transitioning in or out also adds its transition vibe.
Silenced — A playing song whose genre is weak against one of the opponent's playing songs. A silenced song doesn't add its play vibe or transition vibe to its DJ's DJ vibe during the score phase.
Soft — The second intensity tier a card can carry, unlocked as your own DJ vibe climbs.
Song — A card type: the core collectible. Contrast with synergy.
Song family — A song and its variants (remix, live, acoustic, etc.).
Stack — A group of linked cards that occupies one deck slot.
Subgenre — A specific style nested under one or two root genres, each carrying its own intensity tier; a cross-genre subgenre (e.g. Nu Metal, under Rock and Electronic) blends both parents' colours.
Supplementary stacked card — A linked card in a stack beyond the strongest base card; adds +15% to that stack's value.
Synergy — A card type. Cue it in like a song card; instead of transitioning in, it waits in its deck slot — for as many turns as you like — until you replace it with a song from your queue. A song of the same genre as the synergy card plays immediately, even into a genre your current playing song doesn't normally permit; a song of a different genre is cued in instead. Either way, the replaced synergy card moves to the crate.
Track list — The track list preset a DJ has loaded into the current battle — exactly 60 cards.
Track list preset — One of a DJ's saved, named 60-card configurations (cards and stacks), managed outside battle before one is chosen to play.
Transition Vibe — A second 50-120 score printed on each card, alongside its play vibe. It scores only while the card is transitioning in or out of its deck slot, rewarding transition-heavy play; a few special cards fall below 50 or above 120, anywhere in the full 0-200 range.
Transitioning in / out — The state a card holds in its deck slot for a turn, resolved at the next pre-mix. Transitioning in: a card cued in becomes a playing song. Transitioning out: a card cued out — or sent there by a card effect — moves to the crate. A cued synergy card doesn't transition in; it waits in its deck slot instead. Transitioning is skipped while a DJ has only one deck slot.
Variant — A version of a song.