In sticking with my magical creature theme, here's a fantastically fun card game that is sure to bring the family together, before ripping it apart! haha
Theme: You are attempting to ally yourself with, and collect, a stable full of unicorns before your opponents.
Specs: 2-8 Players. 30-45 minutes play time. This is relatively accurate.
Recommended for ages 14+, however, a 6-7 year old with good reading proficiency and game comprehension can play, with some help. 8 and up can play without help. Younger players will make the game a bit longer typically, while they're learning. This is an upper-beginner weight game.
Mechanics: Hand management, set collection, and a lot of take that!
Designed by Ramy Badie
Art by Ramy Badie
Published by Unstable Games
Ok, so, let me break it down for you. Set up is wicked easy. There is a deck of playing cards, a deck of baby unicorn cards, and reference cards. Each player gets a reference card which spells out game play relatively thoroughly, so you don't have to constantly go back and look at the rules. Each player picks a baby unicorn to start out in their stable. They're all exactly the same ability wise, but each one is uniquely cute. The remainder of the baby unicorns are set face up in the middle of the table as the nursery.
The stack of playing cards is shuffled and each player is dealt a number of cards in accordance with the number of players. The remainder are set face down in the middle of the table as the draw pile. This deck consists of Unicorn cards (some with additional powers, some just with cute little quotes on them), Instant cards that can be played any time any other player plays a card (unless otherwise stated), Upgrade cards that give positive effects to the stable they're added to, Downgrade cards which give negative effects to the stable they're added to, and Magic cards that have one time effects.
Once everyone has their starting hand, starting with the first player, each player goes around in turn order activating any "start of turn" powers in their stable, drawing a card, and using three actions points per turn to take their choice of the action options. While start of turn powers can stack up and add a minute or two to the turn, each turn goes relatively quickly. Play continues until a player reaches the required number of unicorns in their stable (7 unicorns for 2-5 players and 6 unicorns for 6-8 players). You can also download rules to make this a one player game if you want!
And that's the gist of it! There are expansions called Adventures, Dragons, NSFW, Nightmares, Rainbow Apocalypse, and Unicorns of Legend. Obviously you DO NOT want to used the Not Safe For Work (NSFW) when playing with children, but the rest are kid friendly, as long as the kids don't mind annihilating unicorns! Some of the art might also be a little dark for those younger players, so maybe have a look through the cards and make sure your 6 year old won't be upset by any of the zombies or the unicorn shark, or things like that. I believe this is the reason for the 14+ age recommendation, thought I couldn't say for certain.
In addition to this game being a fun way to terrorize your family members, I absolutely LOVE the art. I mean, it's badass rainbow glitter, zombie, narwhal unicorns, some of which drink coffee. What isn't there to love?! It's also a great introductory game to pave the way to more complex games like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. If you want to work your kids/family/friends down that path, the next step I'd recommend would be another great game by Unstable Games called Here to Slay. But that's a game for a different day!
What is your favorite card game to play with the family? What do you love about?
Thank you as always for reading. Go rock your day!!
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