It’s that time again students – every three years we have the most talented students participate in the tournament of sorcerers! Will you bring honor to your class, or will your opponent get the best of you? Let’s make some magic!

What Is It?

Hand Management – Players will be drawing student cards and playing them to different arenas on their side of the board. They need students of the same color together to cast spells, so they need to balance what students to play versus keep each turn especially since there is also a spell that can force them to discard half their hand

Take-That – Throughout the game, players will be casting spells on each other which can discard or steal student and trial cards

Set Collection – In order to cast spells, players need to make sets of 3 or more students of the same color in a single arena, and will discard one each time they cast

Who Is It For?

  • 2 Players – Head-to-head battle
  • Ages 12 & Up / Light Strategy Gamers – Not too heavy rules, but it can be a little tricky to balance the card play strategy
  • Fans of hand management and set collection
  • Players who don’t mind a bit of take-that

Variants

Curriculum Mode – 7 game challenge against the same opponent. Track trial points each game and mark who won. Most wins gets 10 bonus points and then the most overall points wins. – It’s fine if you want to play a whole bunch in a row. I think it makes it a bit too long, personally.

Championship Mode – Competition with up to 8 players. Create a bracket with names and play match after match with the winner moving on until there is one final winner. – This is definitely a neat twist on the game to expand the player count. It does make it so that a lot of players are waiting around while others play, but it could be neat as part of a bigger game night.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Great art, nice graphic design
  • Components – Good quality across the board (except for the reference cards)
  • Rules – Well-written and clear
  • Turns are quick and smooth
  • Good variety of actions, and I like that you can do them in any order and do most multiple times

CONS

  • Components – I wish the reference cards were on actual cards instead of thin paper
  • Fire (red) spell removes trial cards, which is harsh itself, but instead of discarding them, it puts them back on top of the trial deck, which just prolongs the game
  • The theme is fun, but it doesn’t shine through the gameplay

Final Thoughts

There is plenty of luck of the draw in this one, which can be frustrating, but overall it generally lends itself to a decent ‘tug of war’ type of game. It has a little opportunity for strategy, but it’s definitely on the lighter side, so it can be pretty approachable for a wider audience of players. If you like a head-to-head type game, it might be worth checking out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designers -Hagen Dorgathen, Uwe Rosenberg
Artist – Xavier Gueniffey Durin
Publisher – IELLO
MSRP – $24.99
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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