Foxboy and I have watched Adventure Time together since he was about 3 years old. We acquired a few Card Wars decks a few years back, but this has been his first chance to play. He had to wait until his reading skills were good enough to comprehend the card instructions
For those unaware, Card Wars is a game played in Adventure Time (an animated series). They don't explain much about the game on the show, so we just see some of the main characters laying cards down. That left plenty of room for creativity when bringing Card Wars to market!
These "vs" packs come with two premade theme decks, life/hit counters, instructions, and 8 lands. Lands are important as they make up the lanes and one must control a matching land to play creatures of a given land type. The creatures don't have to play onto the matching land, but there must be a matching land in the player's control. Lane-based attack helps distinguish the game a bit, as well as simplify combat - pretty handy for playing a CCG with a 7-year-old
Resource management is simplified all around, which makes for a good contrast against Starship Catan (my favorite 2 player game). Each player starts with 25 HP and creatures have their HP printed on the card. Aside from HP and land, the only resource to manage is "actions" - each player gets 2 actions per turn. Most cards cost one action, some cards cost 2 actions
There are no designated blockers, creatures attack the creature in the lane opposite them. If there is no creature, then the damage applies to the players HP. Ye olde tap mechanic is in place for both actions (called "flooping") and exhaustion from combat
Strategy isn't very deep, and since we only have these pre-made theme decks, there isn't anything for construction or design to worry about.
Foxboy had a great time attacking his papa! Of the three games we played, he won one of them - and no, I don't go easy on him, he just enjoys games 😁
Fun, light strategy, turn-based play, other classic CCG elements, and familiar characters - we will definitely be playing more soon
Y'all have good
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