The Pixie's Box: Part 2

Waiting

at the

Tavern

Part Two: A Wizards vs A Wizard

In my last post I began an article concerning what to do while you are waiting for all your players to show up for your RPG game day/night. This continuation brings you another idea for a quick game. Again I present a filler game to play that won’t put a dent in your RPG gaming time. The last blog introduced to you a quick dice game called Inn-Fighting. Now here is a fast-paced card game to keep your minds on myth and magic.

If you have not played, or seen yet, let me introduce you to…

EPIC SPELL WARS OF THE BATTLE WIZARDS: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre

Created By: Cory Jones Designed By: Rob Heinsoo

Art By: Nick Edwards Game Publisher: Cryptozoic Year Published: 2012 Number of Players: 2 - 6 Player Age: 13+ Game Time: 30 - 45 minutes Game Type: Fantasy Fighting, Humor, Card Management

Set-Up Time: Minutes

ISBN: 978-1-61768-029-8

MSRP: $29.99

Game Box Contents:

40 Spell Source cards 40 Spell Quality cards 40 Spell Delivery cards 25 Dead Wizard cards 25 Treasure cards 8 oversized Hero cards 8 Wild Magic cards 7 Last Wizard Standing chips 6 Skull life counter chips 4 Six-sided dice

1 Mt. Skullzfyre cardboard stand-up 1 Rulebook

First, let’s check out the box and art…

The box is not very big and actually it is very easy to travel with. It measures only 6.2 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches and weighs a measly 1.5 pounds. In fact I almost missed it when I went down to my local hobby store, the Complete Strategist. Thankfully Larry knew exactly where it was. The box itself is rather standard. The art (by Nick Edwards) has heavily been debated by other reviewers, it seems that there is almost no grey area, people either love it or hate it. I find the art perfect for this high-octane, slap-to-the-face, arcane gladiator match. Just go with it, it works.

Second, let’s talk about out the game components…

The 186 spell cards, dead wizard cards, treasure cards, wild magic cards, and oversized Hero cards are all medium-weight glossy cardstock that hold up well to constant gaming, and trust me, this game will be pulled off your shelf often as a fast, fun filler game. The rule book is presented as white font on black pages. I love this; it really makes reading much easier on the eyes.

The 4 black six-sided dice that come with the game are standard as are the “Last Wizard Standing” chips and the “Skull Life Counters” that track your health, hit points.

The game comes with 8 different battle wizards, or Oversized Hero cards.

This is a problem with the game. Although they all have interesting art, look different and have funny names, i.e. “Pisster the Pissed Wizard” they are all the SAME. There is NO difference between choosing Pisster or “Lady Lazervere of the Space Kingdom” other than whatever funny or dramatic voice and personality style you want to give them. Considering the level of designer games these days it feels wrong that all these character choices are exactly the same. These heroes are SCREAMING to be individualized. This will make even more sense once we discuss the spell cards. Cryptozoic, the game’s publisher, should have foreseen this and yet they dropped the ball. This is the day and age of personalized gaming characters and this game is begging for that aspect.

Another component the game comes with is the standup cardboard icon of Mt. Skullzfyre itself. Now I Love 3-D tile/components to a board game. That’s the equivalent of an automatic point in the gam’s favor for me usually. I say usually because in this case it serves no purpose other than to be a 3-D piece to a card game. Yeah, it looks cool and is themed perfectly for the game but why is it even in the game? Yes, in the second game in the set, “Rumble at Castle Tentakill” it serves a purpose to the game but here, in this first game it’s just a piece of eye-popping candy. This stand up, like the cards in the game, is made of a good medium-weight glossy cardstock that holds up well to repeated use – IF you even bother to pull it out of the box after the first few times.

Lastly, before we move on to the spell cards which will be discussed in the mechanics of the game, let’s look at the last components; the 6 Skull Life Counters and the 7 Last Wizard Standing Tokens.

The Skull Life Counters are small and can be lost easily if you’re not careful. During the game they never stay put for very long as the magical attacks are flying so fast and you never know who’s going to hit you next.

The Last Wizard Standing Tokens are used when you are playing a best of series of games such as a best 3 out of 5 games. Whoever has collected the most Last Wizard Standing Tokens after the set number of games has played is the winner.

Third, let’s go over game play...

At the start of each round each player whose wizard is still standing draws cards until he has eight (8) cards in his hand. Naturally, this means that during the very first round of the game each player randomly draws eight cards from the top of the spell deck and looks at them without revealing their cards to other players, yet. The reveal happens during combat when everyone reveals the spell they have put together on the fly with the random cards they have in their hands. At the start of subsequent turns each player ONLY draws enough cards face down from the top of the spell card deck to bring his current hand of cards up to eight.

There are essentially three (3) types of spell cards that can be drawn from the deck; Source cards, Quality cards, and Delivery cards. During the course of your Building a Spell phase you can choose up to three cards from your hand to play for that round. You CAN NOT Have more than one (1) of each type of card in play per round; one Source, one Quality, one Delivery (UNLESS a card you or another player has played says otherwise). On the bottom right hand corner of each spell card is letter, “S” for Source, “Q” for Quality and “D” for Delivery. Spells are always lined up in that order, first your spells Source, then its Quality, and finally the spell’s Delivery.

Each spell card is aligned to one of the five particular schools of magic in this game;

- Arcane, Sophisticated magic that platters your foes while gaining you treasure.

- Dark, Risk a touch of magic backlash to send your foes to their messy deaths.

- Elemental, Blast your foes to kingdom come.

- Illusion, Quick and tricky spells that often allow you to choose your victim.

- Primal, The forces of nature can either heal you or deliver a slow death to your foes.

On the bottom left hand corner of each spell card is the Glyph symbol of the spells components particular school of magic; lightning bolts for arcane, skull for death, fire for elemental, etc. The name of the Glyph is also printed next to the symbol for quick reference which is great for new(er) players.

In the example below you can see that the three part spell on the top row has all of its cards from the Illusion school. The second row is casting a Dark Source, a Primal Quality, and an Illusion Delivery. The bottom row is setting up an Arcane Source, a Dark Quality, and an Elemental Delivery.

As you can see, when all three cards are used in a round and they are placed correctly the blast effect of the spell flows naturally from one card to the next. Different schools have different color schemes but the growth of the spell blast moves along normally from small, to medium to a big blast hitting an opponent.

You will also notice that when placed correctly the banners running across the cards has a beginning, middle, and an end part to it. These visual cues easily allow players to understand how to place cards during combat.

You don’t always have to play three cards. You can play two or even one. Maybe you don’t have a Quality card in your hands. Maybe you’re holding cards to make a better spell next round. For whatever reason you can only play one or two, again only one of each Source, Quality, and Delivery can be played regardless of how many cards you play.

That’s OK. In fact, the player who plays the least amount of cards goes first – Unless another card says otherwise. When more than one player has the same amount of cards to play there is an initiative number on the bottom right of each Delivery card just above the “D”. The highest initiative goes first. If there is still a tie than each tying player rolls a six sided die highest roll goes first. Keep rolling in the event of another tie.

With your Source, Quality, and/or Delivery card(s) played read each card, in that order, and resolve the effects of the cards before moving over the next player and resolving their cards.

There is one other type of spell card that can be drawn from the deck. The Wild Magic Card.

This is a bit of a Hail Mary pass, so to speak. When you decide to play this card it allows you to randomly take a card from the top of the spell deck. You do this until you find the card that this Wild Magic is in place of. If you used it in place of a Source than you draw until a Source card is revealed and then that is used as your Source for the spell. Blind luck but sometimes it works out real sweet. Sometimes it leaves you eating shit.

The Last to type of cards that effect game play are the Dead Wizard Cards and the Treasure Cards.

The Dead Wizard Cards come into play when a player bites it. If this is part of a longer versus mode style of playing, such as Best 5 out of 7 games, than when you die you get a Dead Wizard Card that will somehow effect the next game in a positive manner for you. Maybe you’ll start the next game with extra health or a treasure. Obviously, if you are just playing a quick one off game than these cards never have to leave the box.

The Treasure Cards are gained through the use of casting your spells. These cards directly affect either your spell casting, such as causing you to be casting an extra type of spell like Illusion or the treasure might boost how many dice you roll when resolving your Delivery component.

Final Thoughts…

When I first heard about this game I honestly didn't think much of it as it seemed like an immature attempt at a fantasy card game. All that changed after I saw a game played on Wil Wheaton’s YouTube show, Tabletop. Watching it played I could see how much fun this “Take That” style game was and made sure I added it to my gaming group’s shelf.

The set-up time for this game is almost no-existent, simply pull out and shuffle the cards, chooses a character card and you’re ready to start playing.

The action in this game is just as fast as the game’s set-up time. Damage is dealt fast and the games usually don’t last more than 15 minutes per battle.

This game plays fast enough and is entertaining enough to earn a place on every gamer’s shelf. It’s a perfect filler game for any game day but really shines as a lead-in to your day of hard-core fantasy role-playing, or a delving deep into Descent: Journeys into Darkness.

My 20-Sided Warriors love this game and I think yours will as well.