Contract

Contract:

When you play this card, you may take that much Debt to get the effect.

Debt:

Your available power is spent to pay off Debt. If you can't pay it all, the remaining debt carries over to the next turn where you pay as much as you can until the totality of the debt has been paid.

Contract is a keyword. It was first introduced in Cold Hunt, along with the corresponding Debt keyword.

Find more cards with Contract in its category page.

Details

When you play a card with Contract, you will be prompted to play the additional effect. This can be skipped so the Debt is not taken.

Playing a card with Contract lets its player take on Debt for an additional effect. The player is prompted to choose the target for the effect, or to skip and avoid taking on the Debt. The Contract effect can only be played once, at the time the card is played.

Debt

Debt is shown next to the power indicator.

When Debt is taken, it will immeditaly use any available power toward the total. If the Debt is higher than the available power, it will remain until paid off, possibly for one or more additional turns. Any time the player gains power, including when their power is replenished at the start of their turn, the power will be paid toward the debt immediately.

Strategy

Contract can help make cards more viable in both the early and late game, as you may want to choose not to use the contract early to avoid tempo loss, whereas in the late game it is often beneficial to use it and gain the additional value.

Notes

You can use a Contract ability even if the card wasn't played normally from your hand. Cards played from the void or deck, or units created by copy effects, still have the Contract prompt.

The Contract keyword was first revealed in an article by Dire Wolf Digital preceding the release of Cold Hunt