Cryptozoic Games has several tabletop diversions in its stable, including one based on AMC’s wildly popular The Walking Dead franchise as well as the popular The World Of Warcraft collectible card game. It was the ridiculously titled Battle Wizard Duel at Mount Ararat: Epic Spell Wars Skullzfyre that recently caught my eye.
Each player in the game assumes the role of a Battle Wizard, such as Fey Ticklebottom the Enchanter or Krazztar the Blood’o’mancer. The game is played by two to six players. I usually try to claim Princess Holiday & her Furicorn (judging from the art, that’s just short for “furious unicorn”). No particular wizard has any unique skills—I just like to pretend I’m a princess occasionally—and there is only one goal, regardless of who you choose to play: Defeat all other Battle Wizards and emerge as the Last Wizard Standing!
Here’s the breakdown of the spells you’ll need to cast if you want to defeat your rivals. Three different component types make up spells: a source, a quality component, and the delivery. However, you don’t need one of each element to cast a spell; you can also cast a spell with just a Source and Delivery. However, casting spells with more than one of each component type is not permitted. An illegal spell, for instance, is one that has two sources.
The number of cards in each player’s spell is revealed after each player has chosen the spell they will use for the current round, allowing the first player’s spell to be resolved. One-component spells cast before two-component spells, which in turn resolve before any three-component spells. In a given round, several players will frequently cast a three-card spell. In this case, the initiative is determined by a number on the Delivery card if more than one player casts three card spells. You move more quickly the higher your level of initiative.
The Battle Wizards then reveal their card(s) and declare their spell from Source to Delivery in their best wizard voice once the play order for the round has been decided. For instance, “Sir Lootzor’s (Source) Mysterious (Quality) Power Vortex (Delivery)”. The player then resolves the spell’s component parts in the following order: Source, Quality, Delivery. While some spells have advantageous side effects like healing or gaining treasure, the majority of them are focused on doing harm. Spell ingredients are available in a variety of flavors, including Dark, Primal, etc., easily marked by a glyph in the lower left corner of the card. Your spells will typically be stronger if you match these spell types. The Power Vortex card’s text can be resolved by rolling three dice to determine the effectiveness of the spells because all three of the components in the aforementioned example have Arcane magic glyphs. A new round of casting starts once all participants have finished casting their spells. When used in place of a Source, Quality, or Delivery card, Wild Magic cards add some randomness to the equation. Players can then draw cards from the deck until they find a matching component to complete the gap. When you don’t have a certain type of card in your hand, they can be quite useful.
When a wizard passes away, they cease drawing Dead Wizard cards and lose all cards in their hand as well as any treasure they have accumulated. A new round begins after a wizard is declared the Last Wizard Standing, at which point they are awarded a token. Then, each card in the Dead Wizard deck awards a blessing to begin the subsequent round with. If you pass away unexpectedly early in a round, this balances things out. The player who acquires two Last Wizard Standing tokens first in the game is declared the overall winner.
Epic Spell Wars is entertaining, but not terribly deep. While some strategy goes into crafting your spells, after a few games you’ll be able to easily identify 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 it a fun addition to any tabletop gamer’s rotation. Get it today at the Slackers in your area!