Welcome, esteemed players of "Kiri-ai: The Duel," to a realm where strategy and skill intertwine, where every move is a brushstroke on the canvas of victory. Today, we unveil a special advanced rule that will elevate your gameplay to new heights, allowing you to delve deeper into the Samurai Dueling. 

Advanced Battlefield Setup

These rules only apply to setup when using the advanced battlefield. In this rule, each player can choose their stance and the location of the samurai. Here is how it works.

At the beginning of the game each player will start the game by receiving one Special Attack Card at random. This may affect their strategy for the placement and stance of their samurai. These will be hidden from their opponent and added to their hand at the start of the game after setup.

Each player will plan their setup on the battlefield using the following 4 cards:

• Heaven Strike 
• Earth Strike
• Change Stance
• Balanced Strike

In this setup the Heaven Strike Card will represent the Heaven Stance, and the Earth Strike will Represent the Earth Stance.

The Change Stance Card will represent the player’s samurai when choosing a location on the battlefield.

The Balanced Strike Card will be a placeholder in order to hide information about the starting location that the players have chosen.

Players will be placing their samurai in the battlefield according to the color of their samurai, with 3 possible starting locations instead of the single location on the standard battlefield. The location behind the starting location matching the opponents color is an additional battlefield location available for movement, but not available during setup.

Once each player has secretly picked the card to represent their stance, players will plan to set out three cards in a row facedown lined up towards their opponent.

These cards will represent the location that their samurai will start on the battlefield and the Stance that their samurai will be in to start the game. At this point each player should have one of the two attack cards to represent stance, the Change Stance card, and the Balanced Strike card. When placing these cards facedown, the location of the Change Stance card will determine the starting location of the players’ samurai. If the Change Stance card is in the spot closest the opponent, the samurai will being in the location closest to the opponent. If it is the middle of the three cards, the samurai will start in the middle location, and if it is the card farthest, the samurai will start in the farthest battlefield location.

Once both players have placed all three cards faced down, they will simultaneously reveal their cards in order and place their samurai on the battlefield in the location determined by the change stance card, and in the stance indicated by choosing to reveal either the Heaven Strike or Earth Strike attack card. Once they have placed their samurai, the game begins and follows the same rules as the standard battlefield for play.