Rising Sun

Some time ago, when I was very unhappy with everything Magic I was invited to play Rising Sun, a new area control board game by Eric Lang (CMON) who is well-known for his earlier game - Blood Rage. Rising Sun is a game which probably got the most successful kickstarter project and the person that invited me to play was one of the backers. We got to play with the truly awesome Kickstarter version.

The game is set in (mythical) feudal Japan where clans are trying to fight over provinces and the rule over Japan. The base game is for 3-5 players and I'd recommend playing in odd number of players because you form alliances of two.

There are 5 or 6 clans (the sixth clan is in the Kickstarter version), each having beautiful minis, and special ability. There are Koi clan which have the ability to exchange coins and Ronin as they please making them rather unpredictable in battle (and also good at winning battles with Force), Dragonfly clan that is able to move all around the board/map without restrictions and they can also summon anywhere on the map, Bonsai clan doesn't pay a coin cost (Train cards are free, same with building a Stronghold), Lotus clan has the power to choose whichever Mandate they want, Turtle clan has moving indestructible Strongholds that also contribute Force in battles, Fox clan (the 6th clan) has the ability to place a Bushi at a province where they do not have any Force at the start of each battle.

Gameplay

There are four phases in the game named after the four seasons - spring, summer, autumn, winter. Three are being played out, Winter is a scoring phase. Each season consists of the following phases.

Setup
At the beginning of each season there is a setup phase. During it players will obtain coins, provinces where battle will happen are chosen along with their order, hostages are returned, and cards that can be bought are revealed.

Tea Ceremony
After that comes tea ceremony where players can form alliances. Alliance is very powerful because allies of active players also get to do special actions. Allied players do not battle each other.

Political Phase
There is a stack of 10 Mandates. There are five different Mandates in two copies. The active player takes four Mandates and chooses one they like and put it on the gaming board and resolve it.

• Betrayal - this breaks the alliance in which the active player is. The player loses Honor. Then they remove one unit of two players and replaces it with their own unit of the same type (Daimyo is immune to this effect).
• Harvest - gives 1 coin to each player. The active player and their ally then can gain rewards from Provinces in which they have the most Force.
• Marshal - allows the players to move their units by 1. The AP and their ally can build a Stronghold anywhere for 3 coins.
• Recruit - allows players to summon a unit (including Oni) at each of their Strongholds. Shinto can be summoned at a Kami card. The AP and allied player can recruit one more unit.
• Train - allows players to buy cards that can give them additional abilities, ways how to obtain VPs, hire more ronin or hire Monsters.

After three Mandate turns there is a Kami turn (That is again followed by two Mandate turns and a Kami turn, and once again two Mandate turns and a Kami Phase)

Kami Phase
There are seven Kami cards in the game. At the beginning of the game 3 cards are chosen and placed on their respective places on the board. During the Political phase players are able to place one or more of their minis on the Kami cards. During the Kami turn the player with most Force on the Kami card gains the favor of the Kami. For example Amaterasu moves a player to the top on the Honor track.

War Phase
During the setup phase provinces where battles can happen where randomly chosen in a certain order. If there is only one player in the province, they claim the province. If there are allied players, the one with biggest Force (Honor being the tiebreaker) takes the province card. If there are two or more opposing players they battle. Each player will take their coins and hidden bidding begins. There are 4 War Advantages and each player may want a different Advantage. Based on what is the best and if they can win the battle or not they bid. Amount of coin is a public information which makes it easy to figure out how to bid. One though needs to understand that there may be more battles and the coins are lost in the battle if one wins (the losing player receives the coin). During battle resolution the player with most Force wins the battle. The other players' units are removed from the province. The winner then distributes their spent gold among the losing players evenly.

• Seppuku - allows the highest bidding player to kill all their units and gain 1 Victory point and Honor or each unit. At first I wasn't really sure what this would be but it is actually a very powerful Advantage, especially if your clan is not a military one. This way you can earn a lot of VP and also keep yourself high on the Honor track.
• Take Hostage - the highest bidder gets to take one unit from another clan and return it during the setup of next season (note that units can have different power so this can result in a big difference in Force).
• Hire Ronin - the highest bidder can add the Force of Ronin tokens to the total Force of their army (Ronin don't go away after they are used in one battle, they stay for all battles during one season).
• Battle Resolution
• Imperial Poets - the winner of this bid gains 1 VP for each unit killed during the battle.

After three rounds that go like this there is Winter which is the scoring phase. During the game each player can get Victory Points during Political Phase and War Phase but additional points can be gained at the end of game. Some points can come from the number of province tokens one obtains during the game. Some points can be gained from Season cards. The player with most VPs is the winner of the game. In case of a tie, Honor is used as tiebreaker.

Impression

The game is truly amazing in every aspect. The first thing I saw were the minis, game board and tokens needed in order to play. The kickstarter version has truly amazing tokens and additional minis but even the normal version of the game has nicely done cardboard pieces. Everything is nicely illustrated and I had the urge to paint some of the minis when I would get the chance to do so. As for the rules and game play I had to wait a bit. Our first game did not even last longer than 2 hours which surprised us and gave us more time to play more games.

I like the way how the game is played and what kind of politics or diplomacy it requires. Even though playing this game with a group of very competitive players makes it a very different experience I suppose. It is not a simple game and one needs to plan ahead and then somehow steer other players to help achieve your goal. Every mistake will punish the player a lot. If you fall behind, you probably won't recover. There is no deus ex machina to save you (there is an actual element of variance in the game otherwise the game wouldn't be that much fun, it's most probably not going to totally screw one player or make another win out of the blue though). Everything needs to be coldly calculated ahead and that takes time. Figuring out which Mandate you want to use depending on your Clan (each clan has an unique ability, some are military focused, some are more politically focused) is relatively simple and deploying units takes a while but it is the War Phase that will take a lot of time. If there are more battles you need to fight, you will have to carefully think ahead. There's nothing like 'I'll try this and then I'll see'. You need to fight your battles with a very specific strategy and then know the probabilities of being able to win or lose and act accordingly. If you know you won't win, there is always something you can do. You need to devise a different strategy and that may work well too. Timing is very important in the game too which adds even more complexity. Honor is way more important than I originally thought.

The downside of the game is that setup may take a while if you use the original packaging and don't buy something where to store your minis in a better way. The minis can be a problem for some but I seriously love them. The detail is just insane. Putting everything back in the box is quite a puzzle!

This game is certainly one of the best games I ever played. It is not a game for everyone though because of its complexity and also the fact that the game contains relatively a lot of 'pieces'. I wouldn't recommend this game to casual players.

Verdict: 4.5/5

Dragoborne CCG - Introduction

Dragoborne is a new CCG by Japanese company Bushiroad, released on August 4, 2017 with 3 “Trial” preconstructed decks, Shadow Legion, Mystical Hunters and Alpha Dominance, soon followed by the 1st set (with randomized boosters), Rally to War on August 17. Another set, along with 4th Trial deck is scheduled for release on November 10.

Core mechanics

Luriel rolled 1s on his dice and thus decided to be rather aggressive than trying to use these dice to help him protect his Forts. He used the dice to Dragocross his creatures and played Ambush cards in order to have some kind of defense against STsung's attacks.

The most significant feature of the gameplay are its dice. At the start of each of their rounds, players roll three colored Dragon dice and then decide to either assign them to forts with a banner of matching color as damage buffer against enemy attacks (Dragoshields) or as creature buffs, increasing that creature’s main stats (Dragocrosses). The dice rolls are fairly well incorporated with the rest of the game and feel integral to the game mechanics, so, even if they increase the game randomness, it can be skillfully managed by players and, actually the mechanic spreads the overall randomness of the game into several “pillars” that the game stands on (above and beyond shuffling the cards in the deck).

Another significant feature of the game is the three fort system and the limit and location of creatures on the board. A player can only have two creatures in play at a single fort, totaling 6 creatures on board at a given time. Which incentivizes players to prefer attacking to bunkering themselves and it makes the game much more dynamic. The forts are also the central win condition. Each player begins the game with two face down barrier cards at each fort that are put into that player’s hand as soon as the fort is damaged. If a player loses all fort barriers, that player’s forts are destroyed and thus loses the game. A key mechanic, Fort Burst triggers when a card with the ability would be put into a player’s hand because of fort damage, quite often interfering with opponent’s attack plans. Therefore Fort Burst is another of the “pillars” that spread out the overall randomness. Putting the extra cards in your hand while losing objective can turn the game around and is a balancing factor in the game. To damage a fort barrier, any amount is enough, so all creatures are accentuated and even tiny creatures can be useful in late game states.

And the last significant feature of the game is the ambush system. A player may prepare an ambush at each of their forts. Ambush effects trigger when the card’s conditions are met—usually when a battle takes a place at that fort.

Late stage of the game where STsung (brown sleeves) can't win the game anymore.

These three mechanics combined create a unique game experience, where even if apparently a player would be able to win that round, the game may yet be turned around by the defender. Despite that, game fashions a relatively high amount of open information, making it easier for skilled players to predict the course of the game.

Resources

Starting setup of the game. Each player starts with 3 banners (resources) of a chosen color.

Unlike most other CCGs the players begin the game with three usable resources and may gain one more each round. That increases the game’s pacing and allows for more card combinations to be played early in the game.

Cards are split into five colors and when played, those cards require to be paid by at least one resource of the matching color, but there is no other restriction. So a player may opt for a three colored deck easily, also increasing the number of card combinations possible in decks, while at the same time significantly decreasing the impact of having mismatched resources and cards or other arbitrary color limitations that we can see in other CCGs.

Combat

Combat system comes after the opportunity to summon creatures and creatures aren’t restricted from attacking or using their abilities immediately. Creatures have a Power stat that sets the amount of damage they can do to other creatures and Dragoshields and Endurance stat that sets the amount of damage it can take and survive in a single turn. Creatures attack one by one, and defenders battle with them in duels that exhaust them. So a creature may sacrifice itself against a strong defender while a bunch of goblins dismantle the fort.

Apart from creatures, there are spells that provide immediate or short-lasting effects. The only opportunity to cast spells is before the attack phase, so players need to plan ahead when using these cards.

Summary

The game is easy to learn, but harder to master. Anyone can summon a few creatures and then swing with them, but it needs practice and experience to learn how the pace of the game works and how to force an opponent into the pace the player’s deck works best at. For example, a player may opt to destroy an opponent’s fort as soon as possible, but the opponent then gains up to two creatures that can attack without fear of leaving their keep undefended and a Dragon die to Dragocross any creature, free of consequence.

More info can be found at the official site at https://www.dragoborne.com/index.

Luriel

Final Fantasy TCG Type-0 Starter Deck

With OPUS III a new Final Fantasy TCG expansion set we can also buy two different FFTCG Starter decks. There is a Final Fantasy Type 0 Starter deck which is a Lightning/Wind aggro deck and Final Fantasy IX Starter deck which is a Water/Fire control deck. All decks contain cards from OPUS I, OPUS II, OPUS III, some of the cards can only be obtained by getting the Starter decks (or can still be opened as premium foil in OPUS III packs, but that's pretty rare). Some of the OPUS III cards have an alternate image (at least Rem looking like a peaceful student and Amarant going berserk) which can't be obtained in booster packs. Each deck also contains quick rules sheet, paper game mat, decklists of the five Starter decks and strategy guide for the OPUS III starter decks.

If you've never heard of Final Fantasy TCG I wrote an introductory article some time ago. You can find the article on my blog as well Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. It is a certainly good card game with nice mechanics and I'd recommend you to try it out if you get the chance. The following review if for those that already have some knowledge of the game.

Final Fantasy Type-0

FF Type-0 starter deck is a tribal deck. Many of the Characters in the deck have a job "Class Zero Cadet". The cards then have effects that either check for the job or their abilities are dependant on the number of job Class Zero Cadets etc. For example one card pumps a Forward by 1000 for each Class Zero Cadet under your control.

The decklist is as follows

3	Ace	3-153-S	Light	Forward
3	Queen	3-151-S	Lightning	Forward
3	Nine	3-113-R	Lightning	Forward
2	Chocobo	1-075-C	Wind	Forward
2	Chocobo	1-076-C	Wind	Forward
2	Ninja	1-078-C	Wind	Forward
2	Dragoon	1-148-C	Lightning	Forward
2	Dragoon	2-148-C	Lightning	Forward
2	Seven	3-148-C	Wind	Forward
2	Eight	3-051-R	Wind	Forward
2	Sice	3-109-C	Lightning	Forward
3	Rem	3-072-R	Wind	Backup
3	Moogle (Class Zero)	3-150-S	Wind	Backup
3	Arecia Al-Rashia	3-097-R	Lightning	Backup
2	Evoker	1-068-C	Wind	Backup
2	Black Mage	1-130-C	Lightning	Backup
2	Summoner	1-138-C	Lightning	Backup
2	Ninja	2-115-C	Lightning	Backup
2	Deuce	3-062	Wind	Backup
2	Ramuh	1-143-C	Lightning	Summon
2	Cyclops	2-107-C	Lightning	Summon
2	Diablos	3-061-R	Wind	Summon

 

Type-0 deck is a fast aggro deck of a swarm type. The last damage point or points it is capable to deal through either certain special abilities or Forwards with Haste. This deck features some good backups with good abilities. Moogle Class 0 is actually a good backup in this deck. It pumps all your Job Class Zero Cadet Forwards by 1000 which is a very strong effect in this deck. I'm not a fan of this kind of effects in general, but this deck really needs it and makes it way more powerful.

The 'main Forward' of the deck is 6CP Light Ace. I was very surprised by what the card does because it just seemed too good to be true. "When Ace enters the field, you may play 1 Job Class Zero Cadet Forward from your hand onto the field. When Ace is put from the field into the Break Zone, choose 1 Job Class Zero Cadet Forward other than Card Name Ace from your Break Zone. Add it to your hand." Ace may be a high cost card but in reality your paying for two cards instead of one which can create a huge tempo swing (especially if the other card is Nine). When Ace dies, you can return a Job Class Zero Cadet Forward to your hand which means that Ace doesn't really cost anything. These are both very strong effects in any TCG or CCG so the card can't be bad.

Nine is the primery beater in this deck. It is a Lightning Forward for 4 CP with Power 8000. When Nine attacks it can make a Forward bigger by 1000 Power for each Job Class Cadet Forward under your control which makes him either very big and hard to block or can make on of the 'small' Forwards relatively big. This card reminds me of Wakka rrom the Final Fantasy X starter deck but the card doesn't seem to be that powerful (maybe also because there is no Minwu in these colors which make Wakka invincible, at least what concerns combat damage). Nine's special ability can win a stalled game out of nowhere (SLLLL: All Forwards cannot block this turn) but so far I haven't had the chance to use it yet.

Seven is a very interesting card, because it has two very strong abilities attached to it. Type 0 is a tribal swarm deck and this means that it can die to global removal effects like Shantotto for example. There's not so many cards like this yet but they mean GG for this deck. Seven's ability can counter a Special or auto-ability. Her static ability says that all Forwards under your control cannot be blocked by Forwards with cost 4 or more. The majority of relevant (see good) Forwards (unless they are Warrior of Light or Zidane) have the cost 4 (or more). This deck doesn't really have strong Forwards this a pretty good ability and your opponent won't be happy to see Seven in play unless they are also on some kind of a Swarm deck.

Sice seems to be a good constructed card in theory so I will have to try playing with it more. Sice needs some support though in the form of either abilities on Characters or Summons. The Starter deck has Ramuh as one of the possible support cards and Diablos which is actually an overpowered card (at least seems so!). Sice costs 2CP and has Power of 5000. Whenever she attacks, she lowers the power of an opposing Forward by 1000 for each Job Class Cadet under your control. Thanks to her, you can deal with big Forwards like Amarant for example (during the turn it can't still use it's ability)

Diablos is a Summon which always reminds me one epic battle I had the opportunity to experience in one of the Final Fantasy games. Its Gravity ability, other forbidden magic and regeneration always made all the battles quite difficult for me. Diablos Summon battles are the ones I remember the most. I hoped that Diablos in FFTCG would be some awesome card. When I read the card I was like "WHAT? I can play this card for free?". Yes, under some conditions this card doesn't cost anything. It is also a removal spell which makes it a future staple in my eyes. It deals damage to a Forward based on the number of Characters under your control. If you have a Job Class Zero Cadet Forward under your control you can activate up to 3 backups making it 'cost' 0. This card just seems to be pretty insane.

Deuce is a Backup for 2CP. I find 2CP backups very important and ones that have a good ability are even stellar. Deuce certainly falls into this category. This Class Zero Cadet can ping an attacking Forward for 2000 damage or she can also double as a one time removal. It's the best Type-0 tribal Backup and you certainly want to play 3 of it. Rem is similar to Lightning backup Sage which certainly showed up to be good. This one's ability is actually an EX burst one!

If you'd be thinking about upgrading this deck, you should get rid of the basic cards like Summoner, Evoker, Ninja, Dragoons, Chocobos etc. Instead you can put in Red Mage that gives Haste for L and Maria that pumps all your Forwards for 1000. And of course add a third Deuce.

Concerning Forwards. I'd think about adding Amon and any all jobs Bartz. This deck needs to go through at a certain point and Nine's ability is not something that I was able to use. I'd fancy a good tap effect or more hasty but reasonable Forwards. Amon is an idea card because it has a decent body and it taps when it enters play AND when you need it later. Unlike Queen it can be played or used anytime you want. The other possibility in which direction this deck could go is by being able to deal the remaining damage and dependent more on Sice. This would mean playing Forwards like Rygdea from FFXIII Starter Deck or Onion Knight (1-125-R) but I'm not honestly really a fan of that. Lightning/Ice tempo decks never needed to kill often, usually just once per game (in the later stage of the game). The deck could possibly use more Forwards with the Haste ability but thanks to Red Mage you don't really need to specifically look for such Forwards. It is a nice thing to have a few so you can produce two hasty Forwards in one turn and thus deal the remaining damage. I'd even play Queen from OPUS III if I would have difficulties finding better Forwards to play. She's more expensive than the Starter deck one with Power 7000, usually has First Strike (so good with some ping abilities) and her Special ability allows to deal 1 unblockable damage. 3CP and 4CP 'vanilla' Bartz is also a Job Class Zero Cadet which means that it can suddenly be a very powerful card for low cost.

As for Summons. I wasn't fan of Ramuh. It always messed up my sources and it didn't usually kill anything. Diablos is an auto-include. You want 3. Cyclops is good with the bunch of low power Forwards. This also can turn Sice into a Forward killer. As noted above this is also the kind of a deck that sometimes needs to kill something. In this case you don't need to worry about really big Forwards usually but you need to deal with some costing 4 (or less). For that we have Odin (1-123-R). If you'd be going for cards like Rygdea you certainly do not need to run the card Ramuh.

I'd say that Type-0 starter deck is the best of the five. It seems that with little bit of tweaking this can become a tournament deck. I don't know what will change with OPUS III cards but in the earlier metagame Lightning was well positioned. The Lightning part either supported by Wind or Water can be very efficient.

Happy tweaking!

S'Tsung

Ascension War of Shadows

• Ascension: Dreamscape
• Ascension: Realms Unraveled
• Ascension: Rise of Vigil
• Ascension: Dawn of Champions
• Ascension: Storm of Souls
• Ascension: Chronicle of the God

A year ago more or less at Origins Stone Blade Entertainment released Ascension X: War of Shadows. I knew that it would come out one day but I had no idea when that would be available here (and so far still hasn't seem a copy of the game). There is also a way how to play the game online and since the iOS version is way better than the Steam version I tried to run that one.

Ascension the game

If you are unfamiliar with Ascension the game here is a description I wrote for my review of one earlier Ascension games.

Ascension has a very simple rules and can be setup really fast. Each player gets a starting deck containing ten cards. There is a central row which contains a pool of cards from which you either buy cards or defeat monsters. After a card is bought or destroyed a new card fills the vacant slot. To buy a card you need a certain amount of Runes. To defeat a monster you need Power. Your starting deck contains 8 Apprentices (Runes) and 2 Militia (Power). You start the game with five cards.

On your turn you can buy anything as long as you have runes and you can also defeat monsters as long as you have Power. At the end of each turn you discard the remaining cards you did not use and draw 5 new cards.

In the center row there are three types of cards - Heroes, Constructs and Monsters. Constructs, after being played, stay in play. Monsters can be defeated in order to gain a reward. Heroes are one time effects that can be used on the turn they are played.

Each player has access to some common cards - Mystics, Heavy Infantry and Cultist. The first two are unaligned Hero type cards that give you Runes (Mystic) or Power (Infantry). Cultist is a monster that can be defeated if you have at least two power (you gain one honor when you defeat him).

The game ends when a pool (depends on the number of players) of Honor points is depleted.

When the game ends each player counts the number of honor points they have (cards in your deck have them and you also get them after defeating a monster).The player who gets the most points wins the game.

Ascension: War of Shadows - Components

• Cards (177)
• 50 Honor tokens
• Game board
• Rules

Ascension X: War of Shadows

Ascension: War of Shadows is the tenth game in the series suited for 1 to 4 players. Each new set brings new mechanics and this one is not an exception. There are two new things - Day and Night mechanic and dual-cost of heroes/constructs.

Day and Night mechanic

The cards in the center deck are either Day cards or Night cards. Day cards have a white/gold border with an icon of a sun on them, night cards have black/silverish border with a crescent moon icon. Some of the cards have different effects during the Day and Night. There are three states though (not just two) - Day, neither Day or Night, Night. If there is more Day cards in the center row, it is Day and you can use the Day effects. If there is more Night cards it is Night and thus can use the Night effects. If the number is the same, it's neither and none of the Night or Day effects can be used.

If one starts to buy control cards for a construct base deck, they need Day to make the constructs work. If this is achieved this deck can't be stopped by any means. Other decks do not rely on Day or Night that much and thus one can look at it Night and Day effects as nice bonuses. These don't usually turn the game around unless something like this happens (that was my turn 1). There are two cards (one for Day and one for Night) in the set that can be acquired/defeated using alternate cost. Ta'hyr the Sun can be acquired for free when all cards in the center row are Day cards.

Constantly checking the Night/Day can be straining at first because one needs to get used to it. Using Day/Night to your advantage and using it to make things worse for your opponent is quite tactical and the timing of playing cards and acquiring cards is important. Sometimes it is better to risk to gain the effect of a card later (keep it in hand) and sometimes it is better to play safe and play the card. This depends on the overall power level of the cards having Night/Day effect.

Dual-cost
Next new change is that some cards have a cost that requires the player to spend both Runes and Power to acquire a card. This is a feature I liked since it makes Heavy Infantries more relevant early game and not just for mid- to lategame. This creates a different balance between the Rune heavy decks, usually control decks and Power heavy decks that were fast aggro decks. The balance of Runes/Power in each set is different. In the first game it was the Power deck in favor, in Storm of Souls there was a good balance. In this game the balance is taken to a different level but is more dependent on the actual cards and their power level (or how they were acquired).

1 Power Monster
This isn't a new feature like the dual-cost or Day/Night but is notable change. This is one thing that the previous Ascensions really lacked. The cheapest Monster was Cultist but for that one needs 2 Power. This way the singleton Militia that ends up in your hand can be used. In this set it's not that relevant since there you have more use for Power than in the previous sets. I find the addition of this Monster a good thing though and hope there will be more of these in the future.

My experience

The changes done in this version are nice and I like them. Tracking of Night/Day in paper means either moving Day cards little but up and Night cards down (as drawn on the game board) or just looking at it and figuring it out without any help. Both of this can make the game a bit longer than usual game of Ascension.

Dual-cost cards make you, the player, count more. For people like me who have problems with basic numbers it can become a problem. Keeping track of one number is easy and natural, but keeping track of two numbers can be difficult at some point when you need to sequence acquiring certain cards and defeating certain monsters. For me playing Ascension is already tiring and this makes it exhausting sometimes (this is a hyperbole but both of these things are to be considered depending on how good you/your group are at these things, not usual 'skills' needed)

As for deckbuilding. I probably still haven't explored everything. The set seems to be limited in cards (even though it's a big one). So during a relatively short games you end up seeing the same cards over and over unlike in some of the bigger sets when this doesn't necessarily happen. This also means that the number of combinations is limited and the fact that some cards are seriously over powered doesn't help this because they get the priority to be acquired/defeated because they are a win condition on their own (Legion of Aklys, Vyrak, the First). These cards still require a certain strategy used or deck tweaked but it is a relatively simple thing to do, compared to a whole deck built.

When I first played the game I tended to play a heavy construct deck because it seemed the best way to win the game. The deck would then either try to buy Night cards in order to keep Day 'online' or acquired Shade Converter that allowed its controller if they had 3 or more constructs in play to treat their turn as Day. The players I played against just got terribly crushed by his strategy and that wasn't a good sign because it was suggesting the game is unbalanced. For that when I started to play with my flatmate that tends to play these kind of decks I tried to beat him with a different kind of a deck (aggro). I had no idea how the deck should look like though. Usually Lifebound/Void combination was good at this, sometimes Enlightened cards were capable of accelerating such a deck. In this set though Lifebound/Void is not fast enough and does not generate bigger amounts of honor points constantly nor it is capable of producing a lot of honor in the last few turns (not even with Deadeye Assassin in a the deck). Enlightenment on the other hand can really be the fastest deck.

I wasn't really successful with my strategies fighting against good players who played this kind of a control deck so I started to play against the AI on iOS version of the game to explore more decks. Usually I won by 5-10 points which wasn't a result I wanted to see because this could easily mean I'd lose to a random Day/Night effect for example or just the fact that someone ended the game a turn sooner (against human players I mean). When I played my first few games against the AI I was surprised to actually lose (doesn't happen in other sets). This suggested that my understanding of the set is either wrong or the set is truly unbalanced (note I was pushing non-Mechana strategies). In the end I tried a different strategy that I avoided right from the beginning because I didn't like it. I started with getting few Heavy Infantries and cards like Bringer of Hope and Shrine Attendant (Arha Historian and Searing Askara are cards I instantly liked but Bringer of Hope didn't seem good to me at all, I didn't realize the tempo swing though). I added some Void cards to the mix and occasional Lifebound card like Marsh Ranger and finally started winning by 50-70 points. It didn't make much sense to me because in my eyes this was not supposed to work but it did. This was a good wake up call to go back and review the set and see if I can't find other strategies I dismissed because they couldn't possibly keep up with Mechana control.

I had to reevaluate all the cards in the set in context and forget about past experience gained. For example Inspired Templar effect was very solid in the previous Ascension games but not in this one. Banishing cards which was often stellar or very much needed feels totally different. There is only one deck that really needs it and often having 3 cards that can banish other cards is too many. In many games I nervously stare at my deck because I know there is too few of them (in what other Ascension did this ever happen, in none). Ironically in this set 'the more cards you can get' is actually often better. I mean the original 'the more cards the more diluted deck' is still valid but we can experience huge swings that are often the result of acquiring a bigger amount of cards in one turn and being able to play them.

Searing Askara is by far my favorite card. It is one of the true control cards while gaining value which seems to be a very good card and it turned out to be even better than in the previous sets. The reason is that the dual-cost cards create a certain imbalance. If you are a Magic player and ever cast Bust with Goblin Dark-Dwellers or via Brain in a Jar you probably can see what I mean. The problem with this was that cards asking for a mana cost could check one half of a split card while playing the other half. This way Goblin Dark-Dwellers could play Bust which is way stronger effect than destroying a target land (2 lands) vs all lands. Similarly in Ascension the dual-cost cards with rune cost being 3 and lower are checked as cost 3 and lower. This means that a card like Isha, the Pursuer can be acquired with Searing Askara. That is a hell of a value compared to let's say Mystic. I also find Marsh Ranger to be a very solid card that should cost 6 and certainly shouldn't be allowed to be acquired with Searing Askara.

Verdict

So far I still can't make up my mind about this version. While I knew instantly I wouldn't be a fan of Rise of Vigil, I can't make up my mind about this one. I liked the game when I played it the first time, liked it even after long hours of our trip to a Grand Prix far away and I still enjoyed the games I played with my flatmate. There were times of frustration I didn't experience in the previous versions, not even in Rise of Vigil (I don't like it because I find it too swingy). I have difficulties evaluating the power of cards and seeing a good deck, or rather the deck that I expected to be broken, actually is. This makes it less enjoyable for me because I don't feel like picking cards at random or facing the same deck all the time. I'm usually very good at seeing the whole picture and knowing what to play. From those possibilities I chose the ones I like usually and play those. War of Shadows though doesn't give me that much of a freedom to choose something I like in this case and for that I will have to give the game a rating of 3 out of 5. The game is still solid, offers a nice change and offers enough depth and complexity to keep a player interested. I find this set rather unbalanced primarily due to the dual-costed cards and some cards that really stand out with their effects.

It is the most unique Ascension game out there but its uniqueness alone doesn't make it the best game which could possibly result in the love or hate scenarios. I'm torn somewhere in between. Due to its uniqueness and difficulty of tracking other stuff (runes/power/day/night) I wouldn't recommend it to new Ascension players. If you are considering trying out Ascension the game it's always the best to start with the base set - Ascension: Chronicle of the God. The following block (Storm of Souls, Immortal Heroes) is very good. The complexity is already very high but the game is still very similar to the first block (Chronicle of the God, Return of the Fallen). If you want to play a more unique version of Ascension and you are not familiar that much with Ascension I'd go for Dreamscape which is easy to play but has a lot of depth on various levels (and if needed these can be omitted, not playing on a higher level won't punish the player and has quite high variance). War of Shadows is way more compact and everything is more entwined. This means that a new player trying to figure out one aspect of the game won't be able to concentrate on another aspect that is needed in conjunction to the first one. I don't really know how to describe this but it is something that is certainly not beginner friendly, it requires a quite vast understanding of how this deckbuilding game works and seeing many things at once. The games are fast (in terms of turns) and solid plan has to be executed right from the beginning and requires a different skill set. There is no 1-3 turn set up to start doing something like in the previous games. One could say the games are more intense (or condensed?). A player can get punished for his misplays in this game (if you are wondering how a player can misplay in the first place don't attempt playing this before you get familiar with the first 4 Ascensions at least, or just don't play with players that have years of experience). Ironically this version of the game seems to have less depth than Dreamscape though due to this. It is a very good base for an expansion that can quite easily make this version a way better one though. On the other hand I do not see this version mix well with other sets even though there are cards I'd happily put in my cube (that I can hardly fit in the box it is in now).

Rating: 3/5

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game - Introduction

Final Fantasy is a name of a game series that you've probably heard of even if you have no idea what it is. FF is a famous JRPG series from SquareEnix. The very first Final Fantasy game was released in 1987. For those who have no idea about the worlds and 'magic' of Final Fantasy I would recommend you to watch a CGI movie FFXV Kingsglaive. It is a prequel to the Final Fantasy XV game that came out last year in summer.

Many of FF players wished for a card game with FF theme. Seven years ago, in Japan, they actually got it. The game - Final Fantasy Trading Card Game - was first released in 2010 and over 2000 cards were printed during the six year period the game was in print (15 distinct sets named Chapter [number]). Last year the western world got an English version of this game. The game also is being reprinted in Japan so the cards would be the same for all regions. Few years ago I read the rules of the game but it did not really caught my interest. Since I couldn't get my hands on the game itself I couldn't try it out. This time though I was sent a copy of this game to review it.

The designer of the game is Taro 'John' Kageyama which is a name that some of you might know. He is a former Magic pro. He won Japanese Nationals, top8ed a GP and played in several PTs. If I tell you that FFTCG is similar to Magic, it won't be a surprise to anyone. FFTCG is produced by SquareEnix itself which is a good thing. There won't be any kind of license problems (and premature end of the game).

The new FFTCG came out when people were still playing Final Fantasy XV and probably because of this fact the game was sold with more success. It spread after its release at PAX in Australia. The question is who buys the game? Collectors that buy the FFTCG packs because they want to collect their favorite character, similarly to why people buy Weiss & Schwartz booster packs? Or players of other TCGs like Magic: The Gathering? The answer is: Both. For the time being there are three Starter Set decks available - Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XIII. These games were chosen for the western market because those were the games with the most success in Europe and United States. Then the very first set named OPUS I is available. It contains 216 cards which of 186 are new cards. The set contains cards from Dissidia Final Fantasy, FFVII Remake and World of Fantasy. The next set will contain cards from FFXII, FFVIII, FFIV. The set will feature 148 new cards.

The game is very easy to explain but has a great tactical and deckbuilding depth. The games do not take long in general (20 minutes even if you struggle?). Those that know how to play Magic won't have problems learning this game and will have much deeper understanding of the game than new players to TCGs. The simplicity of rules is something that surprised me because I can't really remember a game that would have such simple rules but would have such a depth as well. When I was playing the game for the first time it reminded me of Cardfight Vanguard and Duel Masters (with ofcourse Magic rules).

Each player tries to win the game by dealing 7 damage, milling their opponent or dealing damage when there are no cards left in opponent's deck. Each player uses cards that represent characters from the games and Eidolons . Some characters are meant for attacking - Forwards, and some are support characters - Backups - that produce CPs primarily but they have abilities of their own. Eidolons have immediate effects on the game. Each of the characters/Eidolons have a certain element. All this tries to represent what we know from the Final Fantasy games. Snow will be Ice, Shiva as well. Leviathan is going to be a Water card etc. Lightning is Lightning^_^.

There are eight elements in FFTCG and won't be any surprise to a JRPG player. Ice, Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Light and Dark. Light and Dark are rather special elements and use different rules. Fire is very straightforward, it deals direct damage, has strong characters. Ice is the opposite. It stalls the game, can tap characters or discard cards. Earth is capable to pump Forwards and protect them, but it can also deal some damage globally. Wind can untap characters and mill. Lightning can destroy Forwards unconditionally, has fast Forwards. Water is the control element, it can bounce or counter for example.

Final Fantasy TCG uniqueness is in its resource system. Cards are played by using CP (Crystal Points). 1 CP paid has to correspond to the card's element and the rest can be paid by generic CPs meaning any element CP. CPs can be generated in two ways, either by discarding a card and gaining 2 CP of the element of the discarded card or by tapping a Backup character that produces one CP of its own element (note that the Backup character has to be already played and thus paid by those CP). This system may not sound complicated or special but when you actually try to play the game you will find out that there is way more to it than it seems.

FFTCG is a fast paced game that has a very competitive feel even if you play with the Starter Set decks. The game punishes its players for badly reading the board state and resources' total. I don't think that this is a bad thing but it means that for some casual players this game might be too 'complicated' or 'harsh'. Those players that want to just chill out and play the cards they like without their game being disrupted by their opponents might not like it. But players with a bit more competitive attitude might love the game. The game has a random effect that may be a target of hate or love. It is called EX Burst. Some cards have EX Burst effects. Whenever a player is dealt damage, the top card of their deck is put into their Damage Zone. If the card has a EX Burst ability, the effect may be immediately used during Damage Resolution. EX Burst effects are often very strong and can turn a winning game into a losing one.

When OPUS I was being released there was a series of (pre)release tournaments. After this there were tournaments throughtout the world with 50-70 participants which seems pretty good.

The only thing I do not currently like much is the card design (I mean graphically speaking), it was redesigned a bit but that did not help much. I always loved Final Fantasy games for its awesome CG rendition and art be it by Amano or Nomura. But the cards seem to be rather 'bleak' even when it features screenshots from the game or the art by the mentioned artists. There is something that is missing. It does not have the awesome feeling as the Final Fantasy digital games and I find this to be a little bit sad. Otherwise the game is 5/5 for me but because of some things I don't understand how it came to them I would give it just 4/5 (for example no worldwide release on the same date, graphics, no comprehensive rules etc) but even this can get better (I'd like to actually see the FFXIII Eidolons in their 'normal mode' rather than the Gestalt one)

Apart from these little things, if you are wondering what kind of a game to pick up next, I can recommend this game. I don't know if it is sold by your LGS or anywhere in your country, but if it is available, give it a try, because it is totally worth it.

If the tournament scene will flourish we will be able to play both constructed and limited. Packs in this game contain 12 cards and 4 packs are drafted. Sealed deck is also possible and is played with 9 booster packs. This should also help people get the cards they need.

Here are few useful links.
Official English site -> https://fftcg.cdn.sqexeu.com/en
Card database can be found here -> http://www.fftcgmognet.com/search/
Official Japanese webpage -> http://www.square-enix-shop.com/jp/ff-tcg/news/index.html

Ascension: Dreamscape

It's been several years that Gary Games (now Stone Blade Entertainment) published their first deckbuilding game - Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer.

Even though I probably cannot be called a hardcore fan of Ascension I'm someone who really likes the game. When a new set is announced I look forward to it. I follow the visual spoiler and then I try to get my hands on the set. Unfortunately it is difficult to get it here and it usually comes out with 6-12 months delay. In the meantime a tenth set Ascension X: War of Shadows was released and new expansion is on its way. But I just discovered Ascension: Dreamscape.

Ascension Dreamscape is a ninth expansion set (stand-alone for 4 players) which was released in a digital version few days ago, but which was released in December 2015 in paper.

For those not familiar with Ascension the Game here's what I wrote to describe the first game.

Ascension the game

Ascension has a very simple rules and can be setup really fast. Each player gets a starting deck containing ten cards. There is a central row which contains a pool of cards from which you either buy cards or defeat monsters. After a card is bought or destroyed a new card fills the vacant slot. To buy a card you need a certain amount of Runes. To defeat a monster you need Power. Your starting deck contains 8 Apprentices (Runes) and 2 Militia (Power). You start the game with five cards.

On your turn you can buy anything as long as you have runes and you can also defeat monsters as long as you have Power. At the end of each turn you discard the remaining cards you did not use and draw 5 new cards.

In the center row there are three types of cards - Heroes, Constructs and Monsters. Constructs, after being played, stay in play. Monsters can be defeated in order to gain a reward. Heroes are one time effects that can be used on the turn they are played.

Each player has access to some common cards - Mystics, Heavy Infantry and Cultist. The first two are unaligned Hero type cards that give you Runes (Mystic) or Power (Infantry). Cultist is a monster that can be defeated if you have at least two power (you gain one honor when you defeat him).

The game ends when a pool (depends on the number of players) of Honor points is depleted.

When the game ends each player counts the number of honor points they have (cards in your deck have them and you also get them after defeating a monster).The player who gets the most points wins the game.

Ascension: Dreamscape - Components

Cards (214):

• there are 4 starting decks (8 Apprentices,2 Militias per player)
• 1 Cultist
• 20 Heavy Infantries (not sure if it is 20/20 because in some of the games I bought there were more mystics)
• 20 Mystics
• 98 center deck cards
• 35 dream cards

Counters/tokens:

• 50 Honor tokens, clear diamond ones - 1 honor each, red diamond ones - 5 honor each
• 30 Insight tokens, faceted egg orange ones. There are also two types, the bigger one is worth 5 Insight and the smaller ones 1 Insight.

Game board
Rules

Ascension: Dreamscape

Each Ascension expansion set brings something new to the game. In this game a new resource is added - Insight - that is used to buy Dream cards.

At the start of a game each player chooses 3 Dream cards from 5 Dream cards that are dealt from a shuffled Dream deck. The rest of the cards are shuffled back into the deck. The cards are put into Dreamscape zone and are hidden from other players (placed face-down on the table).

Dream cards can be either Heroes, Constructs or Visions. Heroes and Constructs when acquired are put into the discard pile as any other acquired card. When drawn they behave in the same way as normal versions of these card types. Vision is a new card type. Some Vision cards have only one time effect that you can thus resolve 'anytime (on your turn)' you wish (when you buy the card, the card is removed from the game then) or have an Ongoing effect (those stay in play).

Dream cards can be bought with Insight. Unlike Power or Runes Insight does not dissipate at the end of turn but stays till it is spent (orange egg shaped counters are used for this, yes the counters are round!).

In the digital copy Dreamscape zone can be brought by tapping the cloud icon on the left side of the screen.

Insight can be gained from cards' effects that you acquire from center row. Additionally if a Dreamborn card shows in the center row, each player gets 1 Insight. The player to acquire the card will gain additional 1 Insight.

I have to say that I like the idea of Insight. I wasn't a big fan of Energy from Rise of Vigil. That worked like Threshold, you could reach certain amount of Energy on your turn and profit from all cards that required that amount of Energy. That set was very swingy. While it was fun to play one long turn and gain all the Honors it wasn't an interactive game that I would prefer, it did not really make sense to play a multiplayer game from my point of view. The solitaire game was quite good though actually.

Insight and one's own pool of cards is something that looks balanced to me and I actually like the idea. It is simple but gives us more options to what we can do. For me this is a good idea how to add something new to the game. If one knows how to use the Dreamscape well, they can get some advantage that does not usually end in a huge swing. Also since the Insight does not dissipate at the end of turn it is easier to work with it and you don't need to be frustrated like in Rise of Vigil when you couldn't get the right amount of energy you needed and your opponent got it and just ended the game on his turn. The cards added to Dreamscape are added randomly but we get the choice to buy the cards we want and when we want which gives us control over our decks and I really like that.

What I do not really like about this new instalment is the art. I know that is a subjective thing. I already got used to the new frames and new look of Sabee's work but in Dreamscape the illustrations' feel is different and I'm not a big fan of it. Some of the Void cards do not really look like his work. I miss his omnipresent lines I guess. But this also means that for the same reason I do not like the art, someone might like it even more.

Apart from the art the game is solid and beginner friendly even though building a deck is not that easy in this game and the game has more depth that won't be seen at first sight. The only problem the set has is the fact that it cannot be well mixed up with earlier expansions much. Certain amount of cards will be fine, but after certain number of cards added it will become too diluted and no one will be able to buy the Dream cards easily (because gaining Insight will become rather tricky). This game allows a four player game but for 6 player game it needs cards from other sets to be added (I actually played it with the promo packs and that worked fine, but some promos are rather strange so I wouldn't recommend it, but I did not have problem producing Insight).

Certain cards are really powerful and Chaos Cannon can produce way too much power per turn when there are other Mechana constructs in play! My relatively power centered deck couldn't keep up with it. Probably needed some Lifebound as well to gain more honor per turn.

Strategy and other comments

At first sight Ascension players always tend to try what worked in earlier sets. Dreamscape looks very much like a return to the very first set even though it is not. The first thing one will learn is the fact that one should be careful with buying Mystics and Heavy Infantries. Dreamscape might seem simple but actually requires more thought and planning in order to win. The balance between gaining Insight, adding cards to Dreamscape and the timing of when to buying Dream cards should be balanced and well thought out. When a swing happens there is usually way how to deal with it unless the game takes longer than it should (or some of the big impact dream cards was acquired on turn 5-6). Players should remember that the usual control/aggro strategies work here even though all of these are way more tempo oriented and thus a single misstep can be a problem. It is not the randomness of the game that makes huge swings but rather decisions taken at a wrong time.

As I mentioned earlier, the games I played so far were very tempo oriented. It is very important to buy cards at a certain moment. One needs to have the right amount of runes or power or buy Dream cards at very specific moment not to lose tempo, rather than be able to produce the same amount of runes/power per turn. This is also due to the fact that there isn't too many cantrips nor cards that banish other cards from the deck. Even though Arha Sensei upgrades Apprentices to Mystics or than changes runes into power it does not help get the deck thinner. But I don't find that to be wrong, the game just plays out differently and needs some getting used to.

As for the Dream cards. People might to tend to compare them to Soul Gems but these cards have a different impact on the game. First of all, those cards are not cards from previous sets, they have other effects. These effects shouldn't be thought of as a random additional effect we can get but rather something we should incorporate into our strategy plan and use it well. There are cards that are situational, can be really good or just totally useless. For example Technological Leap is such a card. I like this one but I'd rather see a different cost on it (higher one). Some cards might seem useless at first (Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes) but actually come pretty handy and Dust to Dust played at the right moment can save you and win you the game. Test of Faith is seriously a test of how lucky you feel like and that is something I'd like to avoid. Armistice is a card that at first I totally ignored but then I realized...it gives an extra turn!

There are two cards that acquire a random card from the Dream deck and I really wish they would have MAY in their text because there are sometimes cards that are being added to one's own deck that simply bog it down. And it is not uncommon to hit three Dream cards that have no impact on the game.

The game feels to be quicker than the previous sets but in reality it is not in terms of turns. We usually finish the game around 16th turn. If we both go for similar strategy it either speeds up or slows the game down but when both players are trying to win the game and take the path that is open the game lasts around those 16 turns. This was true for the previous sets as well. The thing what makes it feel 'faster' is actually the fact that we can observe a power creep and that sometimes 20 honor can be taken from the pool in a single turn.

Verdict

This game feels more like the base game but requires planning and different style of play. This game can be played on different levels which adds more depth to the game. Even though it introduces a third resource I do not find that as something bad. It is actually good. It is not difficult to keep track of it and does not require too much of concentration or going through cards to check the amount of Insight one has (other players can check that easily and it is easy information to remember). Even though it has certain similarities with Rise of Vigil (tempo, card draw inexistant, too few banishing of cards) the game feels different if one discovers the routes one can take. If someone likes very swingy games and likes doing crazy stuff this is not the set for him even though it allows for it a bit as well. But it is something that happens 'randomly' rather than I will acquire this and that and go crazy (if you see what I mean).

No matter if you are a new player or an experienced one, you like to learn, discover and think ahead this set is for you.

Rating: 4/5

World of Robotics Deck Building Game

Game description
World of Robotics is a Czech deck building game for 2 to 4 players. Each player takes on the role of a 'programmer' of a massive alpha robot. These programmers duel against each other by using their alpha robot, beta robots, equipment and programs. Each player starts the game with randomly chosen programmer and then chooses an alpha robot.

Programmers have two abilities that cost them Exhaustion Points and can be used once per turn (turn meaning one round of turns of all players till it reaches you once again). Each programmer has a limit of how many points that card can use. If maximum is reached (9 usually) the player with exhausted programmer loses the game at the end of his or her turn.

Alpha robots have Hit Points' value and Shield Points' value. They also have an ability. It can be used as many times as you want.

Each player has a starting deck consisting of 10 Titanium cards that give 100 resources, 2 Smoke Bombs that either draw a card or prevent next 20 damage dealt and 1 card that negates any action or reaction. Each player starts with seven cards in their hand.

During their first main phase they can buy cards from robomarket, use actions/reactions, play equipment/bots.

Next is attack phase in which robots can attack opposing alpha robot. Robots can only attack if they have a weapon equipped. Damage is first dealt to the 'Shield Points' and then HP is used. When both reach zero the player controlling that robot loses the game.

This phase is followed by another main phase (because for example you can draw more cards during combat but wouldn't be able to play the cards otherwise). The cards can be bought from 'Robot market' - area consisting of 8 piles of cards. In those piles one can encounter beta robots, programs and equipment cards. There are three more piles with resource giving cards - Titanium, Uranium and Platinum. In order to buy a card a player needs to play enough resource cards in order to pay the cost of the wanted card (played cards go immediately to robot scrap - discard). When a card is bought it is put on top of the player's deck.

At the end of turn all cards (robots, used equipment, cards in hand) are put into player's discard pile. That player then draws seven cards and the game goes on till one of the players (erm alpha robots) dies/is destroyed or one of the programmers gets exhausted.

Contents
The box (which is kinda neat but cannot hold the cards when sleeved) contains:

• rules (that are supposedly simply but not explained well)
  
• game board (we never use something like that unless necessary for the game)
  
• damage counters (those are pretty bad, 20 sided die seems as the best counter)
  
• exhaustion point counters (same as above - 10 sided die is ideal)
  
• 203 playing cards (the quality of the print is meh, sleeves advised because this won't survive for long even though the game does not require excessive shuffling as most deckbuilding games do)
  

First experience (far from positive)
We borrowed the game from a local game store to check it out because we were both quite curious about it. We did not have time to try it out until recently. We both expected something completely different (we are used to deck building games and for me personally this would not qualify as one). I unsleeved several type two decks (because they are not legal anymore anyway) and sleeved the Robotics game. Zdenek read the rules and while reading them I already understood that the rules will be a bit problematic because the rules incited more questions then answers. There is not much explained in them and there are card effects that don't really make sense or it is not clear what the cards do (or rather when). He explained the game to me then and we tried to play our very first game.

I chose some programmer and later some random alpha robot because I did not understand the abilities just yet. Then we both started buying some resources so we could buy some tech or programs. When we finally managed to attack each other we got a bit stuck because there was no clear say about whether Shield Points kind of regenerate or just go down and then HP is used. But it seems we were just looking for some sense in the game because we expected a game to last for while (30 minutes). After trying to google something on the internet I landed on some description of a test game. After one player dealt 210 points of damage he won the game so we found our answer (simply the SP and HP go down) and started a new game. I chose one programmer (Lily) that can look at the top 5 cards of the deck. The second ability searches for a card in a deck but it costs two more cards from hand and discarded cards cannot be resource cards (so I never used that ability). As a bot I took one that seemed the most aggressive one - for sacrificing a beta robot it deals 10 damage to opposing alpha robot (Centurius).

Getting 600 resources on your first turn is nothing impossible and Merlin (beta robot) showed up. This robot when it comes into play will let you return one card from the discard pile to your hand. The next robot I bought is even better - Fox - "When Fox comes into play it deals 20 dmg to opposing alpha robot (if the bot does not have any SP left, it deals 30dmg), if opponent's robot is dealt damage this way, draw a card. If Fox is in play, you may discard a robot card from your hand and search your deck for a card, shuffle your deck afterwards". So 2 Merlins and Fox were enough to 'burn' my opponent via Centurius and Lily helped me look for Merlin. The game was pretty fast even with the possibility of preventing 40 damage per 1-2 turns. Preventing damage though is not what one wants. Drawing a card that was bought the same turn is way more important because still one needs to deal those 190 damage and one cannot fall behind.

The following game wasn't any slower. It ended very fast. We cannot imagine games taking more turns than let's say 6 turns. After those few games the game seemed to be primarily about choosing an alpha robot well. There are always alpha bots that counter different bots, so if the second player sees what bot is missing he or she can choose alpha robot accordingly. Then simply buy a weapon and swing. Some other cards may be needed but not a high number is needed. The deck alone works on 3-4 cards only plus those basic cards which one cannot really get rid of much. Getting defensive slows down hell a lot though and the game is not about being able to survive but about destroying opponent's alpha robot.

In the second game that I hoped to be longer I was discarding about 3 cards from my opponent's hand each turn (and the discard is random to make it even more annoying). The game ended soon as well as I just bought one weapon and attacked with that while not allowing my opponent to actually play something (my programmer also could discard a weapon if something would go awry). None of us enjoyed the game.

Anyway the very first impulse to try the game came from the fact that the game was advertised as deck building game and I usually like those. But in this case it feels completely different primarily because the game is so fast. The cards that one buys can oftentimes be used on the very same turn as there are two Smoke Bombs in the deck that allow you to either draw a card or prevent 20 points of damage. When someone uses the word deck building I would expect the players to buy more cards and when having a functional deck being able to do something (in this case attack and deal damage). In this game the cards can deal damage fast and in great amount and even those 40 damage prevented won't save the player or prolong the game much. So there is no time for different phases of the game like early/mid/late. Since here it is pure aggression (and judging from posts on the official page I guess that's what the authors wanted, just to run your opponent over and that's it. It is either you or him, not much of a way how to actually impact the game and turn the tides).

We still have to explore the game but after going through each single card we can clearly see what is possible and what not and I personally am not sure if I want to give it a second chance. Preparing the game and shuffling the cards pregame takes longer than the game itself (now that everything is sorted this statement probably won't apply much, but still you get the idea). Unless there is a market that offers only 700-900 cost cards the game will be too fast for my liking and well the game simply does not have 'control' as a deck type.

The biggest downfall though is the fact that this game simply does not have a future. The way the game is there is not much that could be done to make the game last longer or make more sense. Adding cards won't help no matter if they are more powerful or if they would be able to stall the game a bit because players will simply ignore those. The game is about buying the best card that shows up and finding a card that counters that and in the meanwhile buying something with what one can attack won't simply work. The whole design of the cards would have to be changed in order to make this game work.

This game though gave me some insight on what things to avoid when trying to come up with a deck building game and I can also see what should be done correctly:

• First the TEXT and icons and other stuff needed for the game should be visible. That means readable from a distance (of one's head from the card laying on the table).

• The game should be long enough to become relatively difficult or that interesting interactions can happen otherwise I don't really have a reason to play that game. If the game ends 'sooner than it begins' why bother.

• Seven cards in hand is too much.

• Rules should be well explained and structured. All keywords or effects explained clearly!

Additional Info
I mentioned (not really but you could deduce)that there is a possibility to get rid of a card from your deck. Some of the cards in the game have one of three icons. There is a trash icon, recycle one and Ti. The trash icon allows a player to put one of your cards from discard or hand (I think) on the bottom of one of the market deck piles. Recycle icon let's you discard the card with the icon and return a card from discard pile to your hand. The last icon simply gives you 100 resources (Titanium).

Also there three types of equipment. Weapons that allow a robot to attack, support equipment that can prevent damage or have other special ability stays in play till game effect destroys them and 'protective equipment that prevents damage (is discarded after it prevents the damage).

Verdict
1.5/5

I won't give it 1 because I see how difficult it actually is to come up with something and balancing something is even worse. Creating a game, marketing it and then actually selling it is not an easy feat. All those people merit respect for that. But game-wise this has nothing to offer me and thus I won't recommend it to anyone. (But I still have to see what attitude to the game non-TCG players will take).