This is a fairly easy game to learn. Even if you have trouble following the written directions, playing one round is enough to understand what’s going on. The only things that really change game play are the judges (changing the power limit and disallowing certain cards) and fighters like the Skeleton (inverts the power on spells). It is important to remember which cards are played face up vs face down. We had to refer back to that rule several times (Enchant cards are the only spells played face down).
Since this was a new game, we were a little hesitant playing cards during round one. Was it worth it to discard in order to look at the face down cards next to a fighter? Yes. This ability was used several times in rounds two and three in order to adjust strategies.
I really got lucky on the first round. I bet on the succubus simply because I hate fighting succubi in Diablo III.
Colors on cards cause confusion. I thought mana and strength were the same because they both looked red to me and sitting at the end of the table, I couldn’t see the text on the cards. I feel that they could have used a blue or green for mana to better distinguish it from strength.
The second time we played we had some confusion during the first round. I played a card that switched out the judges mid round. We had to look online to see what happened to cards that the new judge wouldn’t allow. According to the post we found, the cards already in play remained in play. To avoid any confusion with face down cards, we marked them. We felt this was needed just in case someone accidentally played a card that wasn’t allowed (it happens sometimes).
Shutter took an early lead when she won with the Dark Elf. She then won again with the Skeleton. This made her the one to beat during round three. For some of us that wasn’t really a possibility, but Clumsy Ninja was close enough to beat Shutter depending on how the round played out. It seemed like it was possible when Shutter flipped over her betting card, thinking she had picked the Skeleton but she had the wrong number!
Despite that mix up, Shutter still won!
