- Wizards With Clubs -

A Fun Shared-Deck Tableau Battle Card Game (You can even play it with a regular Hoyle Deck)

A few years back (sometime in late '15) I had a very old friend come through town on a visit. It was perfect timing as I had recently finished a new card game that happened to be spawned off of ideas we had been passing back and forth years before.

Upon his arrival we were both very excited to play test the new game.

However, it soon became clear that the presence of family and friends would put a damper on our play testing rigor. So instead we all had a great night of catching up fueled by a little alcohol and far too many years apart.

When I awoke the next morning (with the workday I had requested off outstretched before me) I realized I needed to make a game we could play test that involved the whole group. So I moved to the couch and started brainstorming.

I spent the better part of that day iterating through mechanics but I had settled almost immediately on a base game design:

Diamonds were Resources,

Clubs were Spells,

and Spades/Hearts were Minions.

That evening I cornered an unsuspecting play tester for a single play-through which ended up giving me enough to go off of in the "why isn't this fun?" category. I worked those notes into the game the next morning and had a solid version by lunchtime.

Other than changing the Aces from 1 point to 11 the below rules are for the game I brought over for the evenings festivities.

Here is my 48 hour game:

If you have any questions about the rules please feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to help.

Info:

Players - 2 to 4 per regular Poker deck

Game Time - 10 to 35 mins

Style - Light strategy, take-that

Ages - 8 and up

Components: 1 Regular Poker deck for every 4 players

How to play video link (youtube): Wizards With Clubs

JOKERS:

I haven't played much with them yet but so far I've tried:

Red Joker = Discard all Resources in play.

Black Joker = Discard all Minions (Golems) in play.

Or they are both Wild Minions worth 11 that can pair with any number and either suit (like wild Aces).

Abilities like:

If this Minion dies with this side up: Draw 3 cards

Add 2 damage if this side is attacking against Minions of the same color.

Do 10 damage to a Minion with the same face up color.

Discard this card to destroy any Mine card in play with a higher value.

etc…