Cards Cards Cards

Ever since I was a child, I have been a fan of card games. Yu-Gi-Oh was probably the biggest influence for this, but I also played with a normal deck of cards. Solitaire on the old family computer, simple games like go fish, or even popular ones among friends like ERS (Egyptian Rat Screw). I may have stopped playing Yu-Gi-Oh as I’ve grown up, but the feeling of opening a new pack and collecting cards has remained. Now let’s talk about some card games that speak to me.

Currently, my card obsession is the One Piece Card Game. I have played an online version with my friends, but the physical version is mostly for collection purposes. A deck or two may have been made, but I don’t plan to go to any actual tournaments. I am what you call, a casual gamer. Plus, I know if you want to be actually good for tournaments, you have to keep up with the meta, strategies/builds that are optimal for the current gameplay. Honestly, I just want to play with the cards I enjoy. I like finding my own strategy with cards, seeing what cards could have synergy that most people may not realize. Gimmick decks are also a fun challenge for me, i.e. different play conditions. Currently, the only deck I know that has a gimmick win condition, is Blue Nami, who lets you win if you run out of cards. Normally, if you run out of cards you lose, but when you have her as your Leader, that is actually considered a win—which changes gameplay. I want them to make more leaders who have fun win conditions like this.

A card game that I am glad, but also disappointed that I didn’t stick with, is Magic the Gathering. I tried it when I was in high school, the game was already popular and was the big card game out there. Glad, because the franchise is so big with all these collaborations, that if I was in it, that’s where all my money would be. The collector in me would try to get the new packs for collaborations I wouldn’t be into, like Doctor Who, just for the chance of getting some rare cards. Disappointed, for this exact reason. If I was in the franchise—I would be thriving. So many different cards, collaborations I would be really into, Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and so much more. Sure, maybe I could buy a pack or two just to see if I get any cards from these special collabs that I like, but if I was invested, I would already have them. If I was there from the start, maybe I would have stayed, but I don’t know. I was there for Yu-Gi-Oh, but even then I stopped playing that. The biggest thing that turns me off from Yu-Gi-Oh is the text/abilities for these cards. At the start, there were a few effect cards, most of them with abilities that weren’t too complicated. Now, when you look at a Yu-Gi-Oh card, it’s like reading a new chapter of Hunter x Hunter, a wall of text with so much information. For those into it, good for you. I did go back and play when Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel came out, but that was for like a month. I did find some themed decks I was into, but not enough to keep me in the ecosystem.

Digital card games are also my jam, like Slay the Spire and Inscryption. Slay the Spire is a roguelike deck-building game; you have a character with a base deck, fighting monsters depending on what cards you use that have different abilities. You collect and earn different cards while playing to strengthen your deck, having different strategies each run. If you die/lose during your run, you have to start over again. Inscryption, similar vibe, but you play the same character with an interesting twist of a story that enfolds once you reach the end of the run. Card games have me hooked, but add a compelling story on top of it makes you one of my favorite games. Anyone interested in Slay the Spire or other roguelike deck-building games, I highly recommend Inscryption. Even though Inscryption isn’t as replay-able as Slay the Spire, the story itself is compelling enough to experience, without spoilers, in my opinion.

Uno. A staple card game for my college friends. Whenever we hung out, it was always some kind of horror movie and Uno. Not just basic Uno—we have included our own house rules to make the game more intense. We included cutting, a move where if you have the exact same number and color card in your hand that is in play, you can cut in line and play, game continues from you. Stacking, we have multiple versions of. When you play a card, you can play multiple versions of the same card, no matter the color, as long as the bottom card is playable. Example, a green two is in play, next player can play a green five and stack their other yellow five as well, next person playing off of their yellow five on top. We also stack the special cards, but the plus two cards are the only ones that stack their abilities. Multiple skips played by one person only skips one person, not multiple. But playing three plus twos, makes it a plus six, and to avoid this, you have to play another plus two on top of it to pass it along to the next player. Or, play the wild plus four card. Once that is played, you can only stack another plus four to pass it on, or you’re stuck drawing all the cards. And if you have to draw cards because you have nothing to play, you draw until you can play. So if the person who shuffled the cards suck at shuffling, well that’s tough. The person who shuffles is the one who played the previous card before the winners final card, as in, the person who let the winner win. Sure it’s an act of shame, but maybe you should just git gud. 

My favorite board games that includes cards are, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and even Monopoly. Deck-building games are fun too, but those obviously use cards as the main focus, so not much to discuss there. These other board games, use cards as an equal component with the other tools of the game. Settlers of Catan, cards are used to keep track of your resources and can be traded with other players. They also keep track of any victory points or used to help you out, like giving you more resources or stealing from another player. Ticket to Ride is similar, where you hold cards to keep track of your colored trains, which are used to play your physical train pieces on a railroad. They are also used to keep track of your tickets/goals, as the point of the game is to connect your trains from one side of the map to another, collecting tickets that have destinations your trains touch. Monopoly mostly uses cards to keep track of property a person owns, but also used for special event spaces. Event spaces are called Chance and Community Chest, two different stacks that can either help or harm the player, depending on what the card says. Cards are an essential tool for board games and I’m all for it.

Card games are a big part of who I am. Everything discussed here was to inform you of a few games that includes cards that I have enjoyed. Yes, I didn’t really talk about the basic deck of cards that most people are familiar with, but that was the point. I wanted to talk about other card games. Hopefully you now have a higher appreciation of card games like I do, or at least a new interest.

TLDR; I like card games—a lot.