Mysticana - Wild Magic is the Schotten Totten/Scopa mashup I didn’t realize the world needed

I realized that I hadn’t really looked at the Mysticana system so I decided it was time to do something about that.

Mysticana is what Button Shy calls a foundation deck. It’s what I would call a game system (like a regular deck of cards) but most of the games require small expansions. To be fair, Looney Pyramids work the same way. 

I decided to start into the expansion games with Wild Magic, which could be described as Mysticana’s take on Schotten Totten. Which isn’t a knock. Building on a preexisting idea is a core element of developing, well, anything. And Schotten Totten isn’t a bad place to start.

Of course, the real question isn’t have you given us a Schotten Totten that can be played with a Mysticana deck. The real question is ‘have you added anything new?’

Yeah, it adds a card drafting using fishing mechanics like Scopa or Casino. It also adds special powers but Knizia already did that himself when he redesigned Schotten Totten as Battle Line.

The base Mysticana deck consists of three suits with six cards each. (The suits have a rock-paper-scissors relationship) Wild Magic adds a seventh rank to each suit and three double-sided cards of special powers.

It’s a two-player game where you are building opposing columns for each suit. There is a solitaire mode with an automated opponent.

There’s a pool of face-up cards that starts off with two cards. Each turn, you play a card to the pool and capture cards according to the following rules. You get all the cards of the same rank. You get a card of the same suit and one row lower. And, if you play a seven, you also get the lowest card of its weaker suit. All the cards you draft get added to your columns.

When you get down to one card, you add that to your columns. You THEN have to check for backfires. If you have precisely two cards of the same rank, you flip the weaker suit over and it now counts as minus one.

Compare the values of each column to see who wins which suit. High card wins ties. Most column wins.

The advanced game adds the special powers, which are called styles. Most of the styles are actually pretty low-key, often making adjustments to the final scoring. With that said, Wild Magic can be tight so slight shifts can be big.

What struck me about the game is how fluid and intuitive it became. After having to consult the rules regularly on the first play, my subsequent plays developed a smooth rhythm. To a degree that surprised me.

You only have nine moves and those go by fast. At the same time, the element of backfire makes the game more than just trying to grab all the cards you can. Wild Magic is light but it’s not mindless.

On the downside, I have to admit that it’s a little frustrating how you sometimes have to make moves that don’t draft any cards and trying to set up moves will inevitably be disrupted by your opponent.

Wild Magic isn’t perfect but it recycles different ideas well. And it is surprisingly bingeable.