I was going to find a Mysticana game I didn’t like

One of the first questions I asked myself when I first looked at Mysticana was ‘Is there going to be a trick taking game?’ Because I feel like that is one of the baseline genres a game system using cards is contractually obligated to tackle.

Of course, one of the base games is a trick taking game, Sorcerers’ Showdown.

 

As one of the base games, Sorcerers’ Showdown doesn’t use any expansions. You just use the regular eighteen-card deck. I also have to add the caveat that I taught to myself using the fan-made solitaire variant. 

Shuffle up the deck. Discard two cards, sight unseen. Then deal out eight cards to each player (Did I mention it’s a two-player game?) The players then discard two cards each and start the game with a hand of six cards. You’ll be playing six tricks.

One player leads. The other one must follow suit if they can. If the suits are the same, higher rank wins. Otherwise, stronger suit wins. One rule I couldn’t find was, after the first round, how to determine who leads.

If one player wins every trick in a round, they win. Otherwise, you go on to the next round. Only this time, you discard four cards. Eventually, if no one wins before then, you’ll be down to a hand of one card and someone has to win.

Um…

I have a number of issues with Sorcerers’ Showdown. 

While there was a time when I wasn’t sure if a two-player trick taking game was even a viable idea. And Haggis changed my mind. In 2010. But Sorcerers’ Showdown is no Haggis. (Okay, Haggid is a climbing game but they are very closely related concepts)

The actual individual play is so simple that I think it ends up being too simple. Far worse, the fact that, if someone doesn’t win every single trick, it renders the entire round meaningless. I know I played the solitaire varient but I think playing it two-player would have been more frustrating.

And I feel like there could have been simple solutions. Like stealing from Pico 2’s playbook, playing two rounds with swapping hands on the second round and whoever wins the most total tricks wins. 

And I think the Mysticana deck could make for a good trick taking or climbing game. Like an expansion that adds conditions or determines which suit is trump for example. But Sorcerers’ Showdown isn’t that game.

I am very glad I played other Mysticana games like Cave of Djiins and Wild Magic before I played this. Because Sorcerers’s Showdown would have put me off the system.