How to Play SPAM: Beginner's Guide to the SPAM Card Game

SPAM is a free-to-play PvP card battler from the French studio Ticroco, released on Steam on October 7, 2026. It looks like a collectible card game, but a match plays very differently from Hearthstone or Magic: there is no hand, no draw and no mana. You bring four cards, all four are on the board from the first turn, and the match is about which side turns its abilities, element bonuses and Tox purchases into damage faster.

The board: four cards, no hand

Both players start with all four cards of their deck in play. Each card has its own HP, up to three ability or Tox slots, a Spamton income printed in the gold hexagon and six elemental resistances. There is nothing to draw and nothing to play from hand: the only decisions are which abilities to cast, in which order, on which target, and what to buy in the Tox Shop. A player loses when none of their cards are left on the board; if both sides run out at the same time, the match is a draw.

Browse the card database to see every card's abilities, talents and resistances, or start from the card tier list if you just want to know which cards are strongest.

Turns and cooldowns

Turns alternate and the first player is chosen by coin flip. The player who goes second starts with every cooldown reduced by 1 to make up for it. Each ability shows a number in a ring: its cooldown. An ability with cooldown 1 can be used every turn; cooldown 3 means every third turn. After you cast it, the counter resets to the full value and ticks down at the end of each of your turns.

1. 1
   Start of your turn

   You gain 1 Luck and your Spamton income, start-of-turn effects resolve (Hearts, healing, poison), and on even turns the Tox Shop opens.

2. 2
   Cast your abilities

   Every ability that is off cooldown can be used this turn, in any order. Cast element-point abilities first so the damage that follows is already boosted.

3. 3
   Shop (even turns)

   Buy one of three Tox, reroll, skip for 10 Spamtons, or ban a Tox family for the rest of the match.

4. 4
   End of turn

   Cooldowns tick down by 1. Your turn timer is 15 seconds per card you still have plus 20 seconds.

Elements and element points

There are six main elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Nature, Shadow, Light) plus Ether, which only Aeltheria, Primordial Mother uses. Every player keeps a pool of element points. Abilities like Blaze on Fire Spirit or Cigarillos on Commando Gerz add points, Heart Tox add points every turn, and each point makes every ability of that element deal 10% more. Points stay for the whole match, which is why decks that stack one or two elements snowball. The elements guide goes deeper.

Resistances

Each card has a resistance percentage per element: 10% Fire resistance means 10% less Fire damage taken, and a negative value is a weakness. Resistance applies to the element of the attack, not the attacker's card, so a Shadow card casting a Light ability deals Light damage. Ether damage ignores resistances completely.

Spamtons and the Tox Shop

Spamtons are the in-match currency. At the start of each of your turns you earn the turn number plus the sum of your cards' Spamton values, and you get 50 extra whenever one of your cards is destroyed, which keeps a player who is behind in the game. Every second turn the Tox Shop offers three Tox, passives you attach to one of your cards. Rarity depends on Luck, which grows by 1 every turn, so later shops offer rarer, stronger Tox. See the Tox Shop guide for what to buy.

Talents

Every card has three talents, but only one is active in a match. In casual it is set in your collection; in ranked you pick it in a 30-second talent draft before the match. Talents unlock when you pull duplicates of a card. More in the talents guide.

How a match unfolds

1. Turns 1–3
   Set up

   Cooldown-1 abilities fire every turn, element bonuses start stacking and the first shop opens on turn 2 with only Common Tox.

2. Turns 4–10
   Scale

   Luck reaches the Rare and Epic range, decks with an element engine pull ahead and the first cards fall. Each loss refunds 50 Spamtons to its owner.

3. Round 20+
   Overtime

   From round 20 every card loses at least 10% of its max HP at the start of its owner's turn, growing each round, so stalled matches end.

Your first deck

If you are starting out with commons, try one of the starter decks: Polychrome Owl, Moxilys, the Humming One, Aidan and Catimimi are all common and work together. Then use the deck builder to swap in the cards you own.

• Cast element-point abilities before damage
• Track which enemy cards resist your main element
• Buy or skip at every shop — never waste a window
• Pick your talent before ranked matches
• Check the tier list after each patch