All cards have a Ready Value. This value, depicted in the bottom left corner of the card, determines how long a card must wait in the Generals staging area until it is able to be played.
Each turn, on both sides, one ready counter is removed from all cards in the staging areas. Cards that reach zero ready counters (or start with zero) are immediately deployed in your turn, from left to right, out of the staging area, in the following ways:
- Spells take immediate effect
- Troops are deployed to the battle line at the right-most end
- Artifacts are deployed to the first eligible Troop (i.e. a Troop with no Artifact already) and if no suitable Troops exists, to a special side area of the battlefield. Artifacts sent here are deployed to a Troop as soon as one becomes available at any point (e.g. a Spell deploys one suddenly) in the order first in, first out
Nearly all of ready values of cards are of even number. These range from 0 to 18, generally cards with higher ready value are stronger.  A very rare exception to this is Red Tide Ambusher, who has 5 or 3 ready.
Abilities[]
Some Abilities can affect the cards or ready counters of cards in the staging area.
Rush x will remove x ready counters from the card with the current highest number of ready counters in your staging area.
Rush All x will remove x ready counters from all the card in your staging area.
Harass x will add x ready counters from the card with the current highest number of ready counters in your staging area.
Harass All x will add x ready counters from all the card in your staging area.
Sabotage will destroy the card with the highest number of ready counters in an opponents staging area, sending it immediately to the graveyard without even being played.
Rarity[]
Cards of the same title also come in different rarities, and this sometimes means that the more rare card has a lower initial ready value than similar, less rare cards. This means that the card gets deployed quicker, an extremely valuable benefit.