Kody

I grew up playing Magic: The Gathering so the mechanics here were very similar. I love the simplicity of the rules and the great artwork. I can even get my wife to play this game with me. It’s quick, strategy isn’t too complicated, and there are enough events that can completely shake up your plans that it requires some thinking on your feet.

Starting with the rules:

Three things to balance: honour, power, and runes. Strategies emphasizing any one of those can succeed and that is half the fun. There is no one strategy that comes out on top every time. Individual card effects are explained simply which makes it a simple game to pick up and play.

Artwork: More abstract than Magic: The Gathering and yet it confers a very complex and intricate fantasy feeling to the game and helps you to get into the game. The one drawback here is that the flavour text of the cards doesn’t involve you in the back story as much as I would like, but maybe I’m just a nerd that way.

Strategy: Again, simple and easy to mix up. The nice thing with this type of deck-building game is that everyone starts on equal footing and so no one comes to the table with a clearly superior deck and just beats the tar out of you. Being able to start that way gives you some leeway to try different mechanisms and effects to your liking and advantage.

Overall: A great game with great replayability. Just as you get bored, you can add an expansion to add another level to the game. It’s great. They even have a digital version to take and play wherever you go. I’m definitely a fan.