The political and the social areas can be just as dangerous as any battlefield. Social combat is the war fought with words. It functions just like physical combat, but relies on charisma and mental abilities versus physical attributes.
Social combat takes place, much like physical combat, during a specific scene and is divided into turns. These turns are longer during social combat though. This is due to it sometimes taking longer to speak than it does to pull a trigger. Each turn in social combat is a full thirty seconds. This is to allow your character, and others, to fully plan and say what they intend to say or do for their action.
Most social combat can take place without card draws, as long as those involved role play the events properly and are willing to do so. If they cannot, then a GM or judicator can step in and facilitate the card draw system.
The order of mental combat is exactly the same as that of physical combat. Initiative and actions occur in the same order, with only subtle differences in the skills used to determine outcomes. Instead of a dodge rate to elude and attack, your character’s mental resist helps your character to parry and ignore the words of others. No damage is dealt, but if a social attack is successful and its point is made all those in the social combat feel its effect and may have their opinions swayed.