In Curse of Dragons, Mysticana ups its game

Curse of Dragons was actually the second Mysticana game I learned because I was part of its playtest forum. But approaching it again after learning Cave of Djinns, Wild Magic and Harbingers, I have a different perspective.

Mysticana is a game system that is designed to use small expansions to create new games. This is a tried and true formula. I mean, chips + cards

= poker. The basic Mysticana deck consists of six ranks in three suits and the suits have a rock-paper-scissors relationship. And, to be honest, I have been surprised and happy with what Mysticana has offered. 

Every Mysticana expansion/game has consisted of six cards so far. In Curse of Dragons, those six cards are five dragons and a reference card that I’ve found quite helpful. Each dragon has three bits of mechanical info on it: its difficulty ranking, its hoard/attack effect and the card sequence you need to make to defeat it.

You fight three dragons in every game. While it can be random, the fact that they have a difficulty rating means you can curate how tough you want your game to be. After you select your dragons, you draw a hand of three. One of those cards immediately goes to the hoard. More on the hoard later.

You have four actions you can take. Draw a card. If the value of your hand is fifteen or bigger, you bust. More on that later. Summon: if you have at least three of a suit, you can deploy one of those cards for free. Rescue, if you have at least three of a suit, you can discard one to get pull a card from the hoard that’s a weaker element.

And deploy. Deploy is the main action of the game. You play cards next to dragons to build up a pattern to defeat them. (And they all have specific requirements) The cards must be in ascending or descending order. And you have to discard their value or greater to place them. But you do get to do a bonus action, depending on their suit. Water lets you add a card from the discard pile to the dragons. Fire lets you discard cards beside one dragon. Wood lets you rearrange all the cards of a single rank.

Remember how I’d get back to hoard? The hoard is a separate stack that is how the game puts the hurt on you. When you bust, each dragon gets to use its hoard effect, forcing you to add a card from your hand to the hoard. The hoard being fifteen or higher automatically makes you lose.

From my perspective, since I’m not quite sure what order Mysticana games came out, Curse of Dragons represents a jump in both depth and complexity. It is meaningfully more difficult than, for example, Cave of Djinns, which I think was the first solitaire expansion. 

There is a lot going on, given its small scale. Four different types of actions, plus three types of bonus actions. The decision tree starts to build up as you play. Gameplay isn’t complicated but there’s a lot to keep track of in a fifteen minute game.

The hoard definitely adds good tension to the game. Managing the hoard can be more important than managing the dragons because it’s the game losing condition. The hoard is your AI opponent playing by its own rules.

Curse of Dragon is fun and interesting. At least for me, it’s a tough game to beat but I enjoy trying. I don’t know what the end goal of the Mysticana system is but Curse of Dragons indicates ambitious plans.

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.

Cave of Djinns is an addictive introduction to Mysticana

If there is one thing that I have found as I’ve started exploring the Mysticana system, it’s that Button Shy is making a real effort to make sure there’s some variety.

Mysticana is a game system with a base 18-card deck with three suits that have a rock-paper-scissors dynamic. The hook is adding small expansions (usually six more cards) to make a distinct game. 

At some point, when I’ve played enough of the games, I’ve promised myself to give Mysticana as a concept a good write up.

(Transparency time: I wasn’t part of Cave of Djinns play test group but I was part of the group to look over the rules copy editor style. I didn’t contribute much, to be honest)

Cave of Djinns is a solitaire game with a real puzzle feel. And if you want to argue all solitaire games are really puzzles, well, Cave of Djinns is extra puzzley.

You add six double-sided Djinn cards to the game. Each one has an element/suit, a riddle and a reward along with a strange name and an eldritch illustration. You’ll shuffle them up and place them in a pyramid with space to play a card on all four sides of each Djinn.

Riddles are actually the conditions needed to capture the Djinn. They can be all low cards, all even cards, sequences with numbers and so on. Rewards are bonus actions that you may use if you capture a Djinn. Rewards include moving, removing or switching cards.

Shuffle the base deck up. Each turn, you draw and place two cards. And keep in mind that some of the spaces count for more than one Djinn. You capture a Djinn if you surround it on all four sides and the cards match of its rules. If at least one of the four cards is the suit/element the Djinn is weak to, you flip it over and cover the Djinn. If no card has the stronger suit, you use the top card of the deck. Which is actually a big deal because you only have eighteen cards to work with. 

After you capture a Djinn, you get to use its reward to rearrange the tableu. And if you potentially capture more than one, you have to choose the order you resolve them since the tableu might change enough that the second (or more) capture doesn’t take place.

Depending on the difficulty level, you win when you capture four, five or all six Djinn.

Cave of Djinns isn’t what I would have thought would be to my taste in games but I actually quite enjoyed it. A large part of that is because it just makes sense. Gameplay is very intuitive. You understand what you are trying to do.

At the same time, because many of the same spaces will have different requirements for different Djinn, the game doesn’t play itself. You are going to have to priorize and actively use the Djinn rewards to try and win. And the small size of the Mysticana deck is going mean the game is going to be tight.

Cave of the Djinn, if memory serves me correctly, was one of the earliest Mysticana games . (I know, the system is less than a year old) And I think it was a good choice to introduce people to the system. It’s easy to learn, has a good scaling of difficulty and shows off the potential versatility of the decks. And it’s a banger. I want to just keep playing it one more time.

My April Gaming

I learned a number of games in April. That included a couple Roll and Writes and a game online via Yucatá. But looking at the month, Mysticana was my real focus.

I learned:

Dice and Divination- Palm Reading

Hyperstar Run expansions (playtest)

Wayfarer

A Year In…

Mysticana - Wild Magic

Mysticana - Harbingers 

Mysticana - Cave of Djinns

Instinkt

Mysticana - Curse of Dragons

Magic Rabbit

Mysticana - Conjuror’s Tome

I have been interested in game systems for most of my time in the gaming hobby. Icehouse Pyramids, now Looney Pyramids, were a very early fascination. Frankly, I’m surprised it took me this long to really check out Mysticana. So many games, so little time.

I already thought that Mysticana was an interesting system but my opinion is definitely even higher now. Two words that I think highlight the game family’s strengths are accessible and intuitive. Knowing how to make good decisions doesn’t always click but knowing how to play the games does. 

I am also amazed at how many of the games are either solitaire or have solitaire options. That clearly was a major goal in its development plan. Which, to be fair, works well for me.

I try and always learn at least one Roll and Write a month. And Flip and Writes count. While Palm Reading and A Year In… count, the good one for April was the Wayfarer. Simple but a lot of choices in every game.

I still have some Mysticana to try and I’ll work on doing that in May. I am not expecting a crazy month for learning new games, but I didn’t expect April would be either.

My April PnP

April was a busier month for making Print and Play projects than I expected. Playtesting, as often has become the case, played a major role in it but not in quite the usual way.

I made:

Stunt Kites

Hyperstar Run

Hyperstar Run expansions (set one and playtest)

A Year In…

Tou Shi

Inkalam

The Prefect 

Mysticana - Cave of Djinns

Mysticana - Curse of Dragons

Mysticana - Element of Surprise

Mysticana - Harbingers

Mysticana - Wild Magic

Mysticana - Realmseekers

13 Sheep

Mysticana - Conjuror’s Tome (playtest)

I had thought I had already made a copy of the final version of Hyperstar Run but I couldn’t find it so I made a fresh copy. At that point, I decided to make copies of the final versions of the first two expansions. And some months, that would be my big build. (I’m not that ambitious a crafter)

However, since the other playtest I’d signed up for was a Mysticana game, I decided to make copies of all the solitaire or solitaire friendly Mysticana expansion/games. I actually was able to learn some of them before the playtest. Taken as a single group, Mysticana expansions was my actual big project. 

And beyond those two, playtesting influenced projects, I made enough other games that I would have considered a decent month.

Harbingers makes Mysticana’s Nine Perils better

Mysticana - Harbringers is the first Mysticana expansion I’ve tried that isn’t an entirely new game hit an expansion for one that already exists. It’s an expansion for one the system’s starting games, Nine Perils.

Mysticana is game system from Button Shy, an eighteen-card deck that different expansions let you play different games. The base deck has three suits that have a rock-paper-scissors mechanic built in. While nothing will ever beat a regular deck of cards as far as a flexible gaming system is concerned, Mysticana keeps on delivering for me.

Nine Perils was the solitaire option for the base deck. It was my first impression of the system and I am sure it was for a lot of people. You lay down nine cards in a row. You flip one over and play a card under any space each turn. The goal is to have each played card be greater than the card it’s under. The twist is that if the cards tie, it and the next card in the line get resolved by the card after that one. So, you could end up only having to worry about five perils if you play your cards right.

My initial impression was that Nine Perils was nice with one clever bit but it was a good clever bit. However, over time, I noticed that I kept on pulling out the Mysticana deck and playing it, even if I hadn’t been trying the other games. Nine Perils really grew on me.

Harbingers adds six double-sided cards to the game. One side are harbingers, which do bad stuff. The other sides are visions, which are one shot, helpful powers.

Harbingers changes the game from one round to three. You shuffle the new cards and deal out three to be your visions for the game. They let you do things like move cards or rearrange the deck. But you only get to use each once per game, not round. 

Set up the line as usual. Then shuffle the three remaining harbinger cards. They go over the line, landscape style. Each one affects the three cards in the line beneath it. And they all add restrictions that make the game more difficult. My least favorite one makes Avatar cards automatically lose.

In the first round, one harbinger goes in the middle. The second round, you place two, over the second and seventh card. In the last round, you place all three harbingers over two, five and eight so every card is affected. 

And, yes, you have to win all three rounds to win the game. 

I’m not prepared to say that Harbingers fires Nine Perils but damn if it doesn’t add a lot to the game. And it does so without removing core that makes Nine Perils have a strong ‘one more time’ factor.

I’m actually not sure what brings more to the game. Harbingers force to you change the way you play. I definitely have a pattern of how I play Nine Perils but the harbingers make me break out of that. On the other hand, the visions give you a level of control you didn’t have. And that adds depth to the play.

Harbingers also has variants. One is to play one round with you deciding how many harbingers and visions to set out. Another is to play it as a two-player cooperative game. Having an official one-round variant will help Harbringers hit the table more often for me, to be painfully honest.

Nine Perils is a game that has really grown on me and become part of my regular rotation of games. And Harbingers just makes it better.

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.

Nine Perils: Mysticana’s first steps

 It only makes sense that my first foray into Mysticana was Nine Perils, the solitaire option of the core games. I mean, I only have to find myself in order to try out the game.

For me, Mysticana is going to live or die by the solitaire games. If I’m not enjoying it, then at least I’m not spreading the misery around. Solitaire games are how you test drive game systems.

 

And I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am alone on focusing in on the solitaire options. It seems like more and more games have solo modes. There is a definite demand for it. Out of the first nine planned expansions, if I’ve counted right, six of them are solo or have solo options. (Holy cow, that’s a lot)

Mysticana is an eighteen card deck that has three suites ranked A to 6. The suites are elemental themed with a rock-paper-scissors hierarchy. Water beats fire. Fire beats earth. Earth beats water. If I keep looking at these games, I feel like I should copy and paste the paragraph.

Nine Perils is pretty darn simple. Shuffle the deck and make a line of nine facedown cards. The other nine cards are your draw pile. Draw a hand of one to three cards (the bigger your hand, the easier the game) Flip over the middle card in the line and you’re ready to go.

Turns are simple. Turn over a line card. Draw a card from the draw pile. Play a card under one of the line cards. Game ends and figuring out if you’ve won or not when you’ve got a line of your own nine cards under the original line.

If every card in your line is greater than the card above it, you win. Which would mean you have to be lucky and good at card counting. But there’s a twist. If there’s a tie, that card and the next card down the line are determined by third card.

Basically, if you can set up a cascade of ties ending with your card beating the last card in the line, you win. Ideally, four cards will get skipped over and it doesn’t matter what you played on those spots.

So, Nine Perils really comes down to trying to do this one clever thing. You could also hope to being really lucky but the cascade move is really the goal. And that one clever thing is a very obvious strategy.

But… I found myself playing three times in a row until I got that cascade. The game play and the goal are simple and obvious but it was still satisfying. I’ll keep playing it and probably at a higher difficulty.

Nine Perils isn’t revolutionary or brilliant. It is a solid little solitaire though. I don’t think it’s a killer game that will make Mysticana famous. It does make me think that the deck does have potential.

So what is a foundation deck?

 Button Shy’s June Kickstarter is Mysticana: A Foundation Deck. I haven’t finished making a copy of the demo version but I did want to get some thoughts out before the Kickstarter ends.

(And, yes, I can make a functional copy with a regular deck of cards. However, let’s be honest, artwork does make a difference in how a game feels. Also, the built-in rock-paper-scissors of Mysticana’s element system is a good visual shorthand)

So, what is a foundation deck? That just sounds like a way of saying a game system that you can try and copywrite. Well, it turns out a foundation deck is a subset of game systems. 

A game system is a set of components that you can use to play multiple games with. A standard deck of cards is the most quintessential example that I can think of. Even the most conservative estimates say there are over a thousand games you can play with the regular deck of cards.

A foundation deck is a game system where you add additional cards for different games. Some games just require the base deck but you can modify the deck with other cards for specific games.

This isn’t a new concept. Looney Labs Looney Pyramids is totally a foundation system. Almost all its games (at least the good ones) add things like boards and dice or other stuff. And I think there’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah, the purity of a game system that uses a core set of components is appealing but purity tests are just for gate keeping.

What I think will make or break Mysticana is whether or not it has a killer app. If a game system has one really good game, one that people want to play, then it will have legs. A game system can survive having plenty of meh games as long as it has one good one. Poker is a great example of a game system’s killer app, although the standard deck of cards has a whole bunch of them. (Being around for centuries helps with that)

And I don’t know the answer to that yet. It’s not even a decision I can come to. It will end up being a community call.

I was very pleased that the designer diary explicitly mentions the Decktet as a major influence. A six-suited deck with multi-suited cards, the Decktet remains one of the most flexible game system decks I have found that isn’t just a modified standard deck. And it’s killer app, Magnate, requires additional components so it’s a foundation deck too.