Tired of fantasy games full of bloodshed and mayhem? Looking for something a bit more peaceful and productive? Give AEG’s Mystic Vale a look.
Mystic Vale is a non-collectible deck-building game, like Dominion. However, it also uses transparent cards like those in Atlas Games’ Gloom games. Mystic Vale fully embraces the card-building possibilities of that sort of game, even to the point of giving you blank cards to grow into powerful game-winners.
You begin by drawing cards from your deck. The cards have little symbols on them that tell you what they do. Red Decay symbols end your turn; draw three and you can choose to stop drawing, or push your luck. You can keep drawing cards into your hand, but if you draw a fourth Decay symbol your turn ends and you don’t get to do anything else.
If you avoid that fourth Decay, you can then count up the other symbols on your cards. Most of the time, you’ll be using mana to purchase power-ups for your cards. These power-ups can do things like give you more mana, give you victory crystals when they come into play, or add additional Decay symbols to your deck. Some allow you to ignore one or more decay symbols, allowing to draw more cards from your deck.
Some give you spirit symbols. You can use these to purchase vale cards. Vale cards have special abilities that are always on, every turn.
The game ends when all the victory point crystals have been claimed. Total all the victory point crystals plus all the bonus victory points your cards earn you. The winner is the one with the most points.
Mystic Vale is a fun game for two to four players. Most games last around 45 minutes, allowing you to get in two games and still have some time left over for another game. Begin growing your own mystic vale at Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy® today.
