A true duel of wits

⚔️ Duel for Cardia is an incredibly clever game. As the name implies it's a 2-player duel, where every turn is exciting and full of mindgames and anticipation. The core idea is very simple: 👉Each turn you both play a card simultaneously and reveal them. While the higher card wins a Signet 💍, the lower one gets to activate its ability. The first to collect 5 Signets wins the game. 🏆 That's it, you can basically start playing. And while that may sound overly simple, it gets deep quickly! 😉

You see, the cards themselves are ingeniously designed! There are so many cool abilities that I would gladly list them all here. 😄 Both players get a deck of 16 cards which have a strength going from 1 to 16, and all have different abilities (both players have the same cards). To push the replayability and fun even more, there is an alternate deck of 16 all new cards! 😮

To give you a good example of a card, the 16-strength card has an instant win ability, but of course it only activates if you lose with it. How do you lose if it's the biggest number? 🤔 There are ways, maybe by weakening it through another effect.

Even though you need to win 5 times to get the 5 Signets, you are also happy when you lose an encounter and get to activate a card ability. So losing or winning can both help your current strategy - 🧐 but of course it can get tight when your enemy has 3 or 4 Signets already. Ties often happen as well, which means no one gets anything. But here’s the twist: some effects can change previous outcomes, flip ties, or even reverse victories retrospectively, so those Signets aren’t necessarily secure.

There are also location cards that act as mutators, changing the rules for the entire game. They're a great way for even more variability. 👍

💬 The game really keeps you on your toes and it's super engaging and exciting from the first card played to the last. Even if you feel like you are losing (or winning) the tables can turn anytime, instantly. While the idea isn’t unique (think Time Division or Converge), this game really streamlines the experience and packs a punch with its tiny box for only 15 bucks. Amazing! 😁