Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre
Please be aware this card game might not be suitable for all gamers. The rulebook uses strong language and many of the cards contain artwork of graphic violence, strong language and crude humor that some might consider inappropriate.
Overview
Nothing warms you up for a night of gaming like an insane wizard duel to death. This is a filler game that accomplishes awesome. It’s fast, epic, fun where even if you die pathetically it’s the raddest magical death you’ll ever experience.
The Artwork
Warning: Extreme cartoon violence (which we are not showing in this review). May not be suitable for young children.
The artwork is totally insane. Anyone with the heart and soul of rowdy 15-year-old boy will love it. It could be described as Adventure Time meets Ren & Stimpy, and let’s be honest that may be over the top for some people.
However, while some may find the game’s artwork strange, perhaps obscene, the skill level of the illustrations are exceptional. In fact I think the artwork of all Cryptozoic games are a cut above the norm.
Gameplay Overview
Players assume the role of a Battle Wizard and fight to death in an insane tournament of sorcery. There will be several rounds of glorious battle. The goal is to collect 2 ‘Last Wizard Standing’ tokens, these can only be earned if you’re the last one alive after all your opponents have been obliterated.
1. Set Up
Players choose a Wizard Hero Card and are dealt a hand of 8 cards from the Spell Deck.The wizard cards do not have variable player powers, but I think it’s a good thing. Fewer rules keep the game flow from getting too bogged down.
What the cards do have are bizarre characters with ridiculous names, like Fey Tickle Bottom, and are used to track hit points. The hero wizards basically add flavor text because to be truly awesome you should read off spells in that character’s persona – duh.
2. Cast a Spell
Simultaneously players select spell cards from their arsenal to conjure an incantation made up of 1, 2, or 3 cards. The 3 types of spell cards are Source, Quality, and Delivery; you can tell which type you have by looking at the nameplate banner.
The number of cards in a spell and the delivery card’s initiative determines which wizard’s spell will go off first. Obviously having the highest initiative in your incantation is not only hardcore but could potentially destroy another wizard before he has a chance to do any damage – what a looser.
There will be dice rolling, sweet treasure, and some major ‘pwnage’.
3. Dead Wizard Deck
A cool game mechanic is that if you die in battle the game is not over for you. Defeated wizards get to draw from the dead wizard deck and rack up bonuses for the next round of battle. Dead wizards can even wreak havoc on the current battle from the after life. This mechanic not only adds an extra level strategy but keeps the losers from getting bored while they wait for the true champion to be declared.
Who would enjoy this?
Strategy vs. Luck
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards is easy to learn but takes some strategy. Spell initiative is the key strategic element — Is it better to make a weaker 2-card spell in order to go first? Or should you hold out and deliver a devastating 3-card spell?
This game is random but I’d call it ‘good random’. You’re at the mercy of the cards you’re dealt but it totally doesn’t matter because the joy of unleashing a Maggoty Gore-nado in your opponents face is so satisfying.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve ever tried the card game Creatures, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards is similar but in my opinion more exciting. Correspondingly, the artwork in Creatures is not as intense.
If you’re ready for an all out wizard smack down with exploding carcasses and bloody entrails this game is ridiculous fun.
User Reviews (8)
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I would like to start off by saying that for this game to be fun, you are going to need to be willing to feed into the zaniness. This means using an exaggerated dramatic voice to say the name of your spell, speaking in the third person with the name of your character, that sort of thing. If you and your group are looking for a more laid back, serious card game, this isn’t it. I don’t drink and I enjoy the game, but I would certainly say that drinking wouldn’t hurt. One last disclaimer, this game isn’t for children. The depictions, while cartoony to the extreme, are graphically violent and there is profanity sprinkled in among the cards. You have been warned.
You open the box and you will find 199 different cards, several tokens, 4 six sided dice, 8 hero cards and one cardboard stand-up of Mt. Slullzfyre, the latter being absolutely useless except for ambiance. The art on everything is South Park quality cartoon stills. This may put some off, so I recommend looking at the box or the rulebook before purchase. What you see is what you’re getting. I have no complaints about the overall quality of the contents of the box, although the instructions can be a bit tiresome to read. It is one thing to use a stilted font on a game like this, it is quite another to have the size and lines change mid-statement.
Everybody picks a wizard. They have names such as Zanzabart the **** Genie, Lady Lazervere of the Space Kingdom, Princess Holiday & her Furicorn and Fey Ticklebottom the Enchanter. You choice doesn’t really matter since there are no character specific powers so pick whichever one makes you laugh.
Everybody picks 8 cards and then at the same time build their spells face down. There are three types of spell components you build your spell from; A Source, Quality and Delivery. You can build your spell from one to three cards consisting of no more than one of each of the spell types. Players who played one card go first, two cards second and three cards third. The delivery of a spell has a number on it that determines initiative. The higher the number, the sooner your turn. If there is no delivery card, initiative is considered 0. Ties are determined by die roll.
Each card in the spell indicates that something should happen. Damage may be caused to a player on your right or left, randomly or to strongest/weakest. if you have a specific target, care needs to be taken that you choose cards that will damage that player, so there is a strategic component to the game. This though is mitigated in that if your target was the strongest opponent when you built your spell, there is no guarantee they will remain so when your turn comes up. Delivery cards generally tell you to roll dice to get x/y/z result. Each spell component has a different magical glyph, arcane, dark, elemental, etc. Each glyph in your spell that matches the glyph on the delivery generally gets you another die to roll to determine the delivery’s result.
The names of the cards are pretty crazy, and you are encouraged to read the spell when it is cast. You then end up with combinations such as “Bleemax Braniac’s – Mysterious – Fist O Nature” or “Muzzlesnap’s -Ballsy – Testikill” for example.
The spell may also cause you to get a treasure card or cause someone to loose or gain one. Treasure cards often increase the power of your spells by adding dice to the power rolls, acting as an addition glyph of a certain color in any spell or cause damage to another player when they play certain types of spells.
You may also end up with a Wild Magic card, which can be played as a wild in place of any spell component. When resolving that part of the spell you draw from the draw deck until you end up with that component and add it to your spell. This can allow you to play components that were not available in your hand or let you take a chance on scoring a card with a glyph you wanted to play but didn’t possess.
Each player has 20 life, and it often disappears pretty quickly. It isn’t unusual for three rounds to go by for a winner to be declared. The winner, who killed everyone else, gets a “Last Wizard Standing” token. The ultimate goal is for one player to get two of these tokens to be declare the overall winner. However, when you die, you get a random “Dead Wizard” card. This card gives you some kind of boost the next game, be it additional hit points, larger hand size or a treasure card to start. This results in whoever got the Last Wizard Standing token last game to be the weakest wizard this time round. I would plan on a full game taking half an hour to an hour.
So, basically what you have here is a card game light on strategy and heavy on sophomoric humor, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you take the game as seriously as it takes itself, you will have a good time.
I walked into forbidden planet the other day and found this. I’ve been having quite a lot of fun with it ever since!
Gameplay:
To get the first thing out of the way, yes this game does rely a fair amount on luck. However, if you can get over that, there is a fair amount of thinking involved as well with the biggest combo you can pull off with your current hand. The game is quite forgiving to those doing badly, as when you die you get a dead wizard card, which will help at the start of the next round by giving extra life, or more cards.
Art:
The art for this game is fantastic. If you like shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show, you will probably like the art style for this game. If you line up all the cards you play, they all merge together into one long card, even with borders which is a very nice touch.
Pieces:
The cards are all quite high quality and the backs are very nice to start with, there’s no chance of ever mixing them up. The manual is very detailed, has a quick referral guide on the back and has some setting fluff as well. The character cards, while silly, are all very well produced and amusing.
The dice are very nice quality, as are all the Last Wizard Standing tokens and the life counters. The mountain standee that’s included is quite pointless, but does add a little amusement for the first little bit.
I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun sidetrack between sessions of any other game they’re playing, as it tends to go for about half an hour or so. I would recommend 3 or more players though, as the dead wizard cards and some of the effects don’t work quite as well with only 2 players.
This is a cracking game to play, easy to learn and fun as well. Now plenty of games say that they are these things and as we all know they lie, but this game is these things.
The art of the cards sums up just what you are getting an irreverant game that pokes fun at all the serious fantasy card games that are on the market. Now there is nothing wrong with the serious card games out there, I enkoy them as much as anyone. However if you want a game that isnt going to task the grey matter too much (if at all)fancy reading out some insane spells and being mean and smashing your opponents all at the same time then this is the game to consider.
A word of warning though, for some reason the designers have used an awful lot of bad language and I mean serious bad language in the rule book. Not in the actual how to play section itself, but in the introduction and there is no need for it. In my opinion its not clever and its not even funny.
The game itself has cards with cartoon violence on it, but that is no problem to me. We all know that its cartoon violence its a cartoon. Some have got sniffy at the cards but I dont worry about that, the humour for the most part is simple but fun. Now that works for me, but may not be everyones cup of tea if your looking to play with young children.
The mechanics of the game are simple and while there is an element of strategy it isnt realy that big a thing and anyone over the age of 8 could grasp how to play in minutes.
All in all a real fun game only spoiled by the bad language in the handbook, and why they have to write like so kind of surfer dude is beyond me. Its a game I want to know what its about not that your trying to be hip and trendy, so cut it out and get back to real English please. Whinge over, sorry.
Buy it! enjoy it! ignore the stupid language.
OK. First, the name is unwieldy. Second, there is a lot of VERY mature language in the rule book and some hormonal teen humor in the name of some of the cards. But, looking past that, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre is one of the most fun, most laugh-inducing games, drawing the players in quickly with its simple ruleset, fast gameplay and pure tongue-in-cheek playability.
The game: You have a hand of eight cards. From those cards, you can choose 1, 2 or 3 of them to combine into a spell designed to totally eviscerate your opponents. A spell can be made up of a single Source (the magician who came up with the spell and is being lauded for it), Quality (a portion that inflicts some traumatic effect on the target(s)), and the Delivery (which determines the damage the target(s) will take). You can only have one of each in your attack unless you have a card that says you can do otherwise. The object is to twixe be the last wizard standing.
Strategy is almost non-existent, with the only true strategic element of this game is whether to perform a 1, 2 or 3 part spell. Whoever uses the least number of cards in their attack gets to play first. So, if you’re low on health or you have opponents who are about to be destroyed, you will want to play fewer cards in hopes to attack them before they have the chance to attack you. Otherwise, it’s coming up with card combos that will quickly and painfully destroy your competition. For instanc, I ended up going last on the opening round of the second turn of the game I demo’d at my FLGS the other night. By the time it came to my turn, I was down to one hit point left (out of 20) and was out of the game so fast it made my head spin.
But boy did we have fun and have a good laugh over the combos created that wreaked so much havoc on my poor wizard, aptly named Fey Tinklebottom!
Pros:
Quick and easy to learn
Fast gameplay (games won’t last more than 40 minutes for the most part)
Comical, whimsical artwork
Cons:
Comical, whimsical artwork that has a cartoonish goriness
Some teenage hormonal sexual innuendo/play on words text on the cards
EXTREMELY adult language in the rule book. (Personally, I don’t see the reason for using that type of language in the rule book.)
If you’re looking for a light filler game, one that can be enjoyed by a fun-loving, albeit more mature (age-wise) group, you should definitely check out ESWOTBW:DAMS. If you like tongue-in-cheek card games, you should definitely check out ESWOTBW:DAMS. Actually….just check out this game. You won’t regret it. Just skip the first two pages in the rule book because it contains offensive, inappropriate and unnecessarily foul language.
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We have played this game numerous times now and have found that it’s best played with 3 or 4. We have played two 6 person games and the really drags out. One game lasted over 1.5 hours, the other we quit after an hour and fifteen minutes (during the third round) when it looked like a third person was going to get the Last Wizard Standing token. Just too many playing and it got a little stale.
Epic Spell Wars is a very simple game to learn and play. Each spell has 3 components, a source, delivery, and quality. You can build a spell using up to one of each of these pieces. Also, each part of the spell has an element attached to it. The more of the elements that match the more die you get to roll when the time comes to give your opponents extra damage. You can end up picking up treasures that boost your game along the way. The goal is to be the last Wizard standing on Mt. Skullzfyre. Kill your opponents to gain the last Wizard standing token. Get two and you’ve won the game! Very simple playing.
The artwork and names of the spells are a lot of fun. Gore-nados and Testikills are two of my favorites along with the Double-downer treasure. If you are looking for something serious to play the name should have warned you otherwise. This game is NOT for the hardcore or serious gamer. It is lighthearted fun.
Even though you are killing each other off the game never seems to get personal as Munchkin or other stab your partner games can be. First, you are against everyone so you want everyone else to die. Second, spells tend to target a specific person in relation to your physical position or health. It never seems as if the group is picking on an individual for no reason Third, there is a lot of luck involved (die rolls, draws, etc) which lightens some of the blame. This keeps the game fun and not personal. Also, death is not the end as Last Wizard Standing cards are given out for each round someone is dead. These give a boost in the next round or damage an opponent in the current game for sweet sweet revenge.
The game is best taken in small rounds until there is a winner. It probably cannot fill a whole night on its own. It is a great way to end an evening with a fun bang or to fill time between games or while waiting for the pizza to show up. Also, don’t forget to set up the Mt. Skullzfyre prop. It is half the fun!
I played a few matches of this game for the first time last night. I had an old CCG buddy come over and we had a good time.
I really dig the ********* ‘feel’ of the game. In the 2 player matches we played, it’s definitely got a quick pace to it – which is great. This isn’t one of those games where you set up to an amazingly intricate move late in the game. If that’s what you’re looking for, look elsewhere. No, this is definitely ‘wham-bam-and no thanking any ma’am’ because I have a feeling Battle Wizards just aren’t that polite.
The overall product has great polish. The game text on the cards adds great flavor and we didn’t run into too many that made us work to understand what they do. There were a couple portions of the game that weren’t entirely clear after reading the manual. i.e. We weren’t sure if the surviving wizard resets to 20HP at the end of a game or just leave the HP counter where it was at the end of the game… before starting the next one in the match.
Update: Have learned that, yes, the last wizard standing does indeed reset to 20HP at the beginning of the next match.
We both enjoyed it and will be playing again… hopefully with a larger group.
So, I’ve been wanting this game quite some time and owned it just recently. I played it once with 2 players (with my girlfriend) and it’s awesome. It’s a take that card game with unique game play. Players gonna need to mix and match the cards (maximum number of 3 cards) into a powerful spell from their hands to obliterate their enemies.
It is hilarious, the artworks, the spell names and chaotic game play.
But there is a small downside, it has high luck factor (from the dice and cards draw) and some combination spell could be unforgiving.
I like and didn’t regret blind buying this game.
I played this last night at our gamer night… and it was an instant classic. Tons of replay value. Lots of card inspired banter and table talk. Great artwork. Lots of screw your neighbor play.