Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Sites and Abilities
Abilities on single-color sites are always active.  Abilities on multi-color sites are only active when they are added to battle.

Limit of One Successful Rescue per Opponents' Turns
If a player makes a successful rescue attempt, that player may not make another rescue attempt until each of their opponents has had a turn.

Hand Limit
At no time may the cards in a player's hand exceed 16.  This rule takes precedence over any instruction on a card.  If a card is played that instructs a player to draw cards, that player must stop at 16 regardless of the number of cards to be drawn.  During Discard Phase the active player must still reduce their hand to 8 or less.

Maximum Deck Size
No Type 1 Deck may contain more than 154 cards.  No Type 2 Deck may contain more than 252 cards.

Actions During Discard Phase
All actions that are legal during the discard phase can be performed in any order the player chooses, including the discard of cards from their hand. Discarding cards from hand does not have to be the last action taken by the player.

Duplicate Character Rules
Players are restricted from performing optional game rules that would result in a player controlling multiple copies of the same unique character.  A card is protected from any ability that would cause that card to become a second copy of a unique character controlled by a single player.  If a player does end up controlling multiple copies of a unique character, all copies of that character except the original copy are discarded regardless of protection. 

Note: Captured characters are not characters and thus do not affect these rules.

Custom Heroes Not Legal
Custom Heroes purchased at Boston Nationals in 2010 are no longer tournament legal.

Sleeved Tournament Decks
All decks submitted for tournament play must be appropriately sleeved.

First Strike
If there are first strike abilities on both sides of battle and the battle ends in a mutual destruction state, the characters are discarded as normal for mutual destruction, regardless of first strike.  If both sides have characters with the ability, then no character gains the benefit of surviving mutual destruction.

Territory-Class Character
Territory Class characters have abilities that activate when placed in battle in the same way as all other characters.  The abilities also activate each time the character is placed in a territory.  Territory Class character abilities that are active outside of battle are active while the character remains in the territory.  This also means that their ability ends when they leave battle or territory.

Special Initiative
Special Initiative now suspends abilities (see link for details).

Toss
Toss is now regardless of protection or immunity.

What are the rules on 'same card' for deck-building?
See this post.  Essentially, the old rules referred only to characters, but the new language in the REG is cards.  Questioning whether this is intentional or an oversight, given the responses of Elders on the issue of 'same card' enhancements.

Do characters/enhancements have only one chance to activate?
Evolved through a discussion regarding Foreign Wives, where a lot of the debate boiled down to whether characters/enhancements that were prevented could later activate.  Elders (past and present posts) on both sides.

A lot of these rules are specific to certain abilities but this is another good list to keep an eye on for major rule changes.

http://www.cactusforums.com/rules-announcements/