Frozen deckmasters become corporeal only near the squad leader and erase or disable pre-positioned attacks when combat begins.
Crawlers attempt to surround inactive token holders with traps, structures, weapons, and allies. The deckmaster remains frozen and incorporeal until the squad leader approaches.
At activation, traps and placed structures inside the engagement ring teleport away. Crawlers caught within the protected ring are knocked unconscious, sometimes with disastrous results.
Long-range attacks are also corrected. Tserendolgor posts a sling sniper on a hill, but his targeting spell fails and the opponent shifts one meter sideways as combat starts. He still lands a later shot.
The rules block the easiest ambushes without solving the underlying imbalance: many parties continue killing deckmasters before totems matter.
A frozen enemy inside a glowing ring that erases traps, knocks out allies, and shifts away from a sniper line.
The protections enforce ordered live encounters while revealing improvised corrections to a poorly balanced card system.