Cryptozoic Games has several tabletop diversions in its stable, including one based on the popular game from AMC. the walk ofmost popular advertising franchise the world of warcraft collectible card game. It was the ridiculously titled Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre which recently caught my attention.
The game is played with two to six people, each taking on the role of a battle mage, such as Fey Ticklebottom the Enchanter or Krazztar the Blood’o’mancer. I usually try to claim Princess Holiday and her Furicorn from her (judging by the art, it’s short for “raging unicorn”). There are no special abilities applied to a particular mage (I just like to pretend I’m a princess sometimes), and regardless of who you play, there’s only one goal: eliminate all other battle mage and be the last mage standing! foot!
If you want to take out your competition, you’re going to have to cast a few spells, so here’s the breakdown. Spells are made up of three different types of components: a source, a quality component, and delivery. However, you don’t have to include one of each component to cast a spell; you could cast a spell made up of only a Source and a Delivery. However, you can’t cast spells with more than one of each component type. For example, a spell with two Sources is illegal.
Once all players have determined which spell they are casting for the round, all players announce the number of cards in their spell to determine which spell resolves first. Spells made up of one component will be cast before a two-card spell, which in turn will resolve before any three-card spell. Often more than one player will cast a three-card spell in a given round. If this is the case, and more than one player casts three-card spells, initiative is determined by a number on the Delivery card. The greater the initiative, the sooner you act.
Once the order of play for the round is determined, the Battle Wizards reveal their card(s) and announce their spell from Source to Delivery in their best wizard voice. For example, “Sir Lootzor’s (source) (delivery) mysterious power vortex (quality)”. The spell’s components are then resolved in order (Source, Quality, Delivery), with the player following the text on each card. There are beneficial effects like healing or gaining treasure, but most spells are about dealing damage. Spell components also come in different flavors, such as Dark, Primal, etc., which are easily marked with a glyph in the bottom left corner of the card. Matching these types of spells will often make your spells stronger. In the example above, all three components have arcane magic glyphs, so when resolving the text on the Power Vortex card, the player would roll three dice to determine the effectiveness of the spell. When all players have cast their spells, a new casting round begins. Wild Magic cards add a bit of randomness to the mix, allowing players to play one instead of a Source, Quality, or Delivery card, then draw from the deck until they get a matching component to complete. They are very useful when you don’t have a particular type of card in your hand.
Once a wizard dies, they immediately lose all cards in their hand, any treasure they have gathered, and start drawing Dead Wizard cards. Once a wizard is determined to be the last wizard standing, he receives a token and a new round begins. Each Dead Wizard card grants a boon to start the new round. This helps balance things out if you die particularly early in a round. The overall winner of the game is the first player to get two Last Wizard Standing tokens.
epic spell wars it’s entertaining, but not terribly deep. While there is a certain amount of strategy in the composition of your spells, after a couple of games you will be able to easily recognize your best options from the cards in your hand. While it won’t offer the complexity of some other games, the imaginative artwork and obvious humor of epic spell wars still makes for a fun addition to any table player’s rotation. Pick it up at your local Slackers today!