Deck-Builder Meets TCG
What do you get if you combine a deck-builder and a TCG? 🤔 Something along the lines of 🐸Command of Nature! Looking at the game you can probably immediately notice the awesome signature art of @weareunstablegames . A real highlight in each of their games. 😍 Players take control of a Sage, commanding an elemental clan - either the 🪨Pebble, 💧Droplet, 🪈Twig or 🍃Leaf faction. The goal is simple: defeat the opponent’s Sage. ⚔️
You can either play a 1v1 duel, or a 2v2 team game. Depending on the player count you will set up your starting tableau - 👉Elemental cards are placed in a pyramid shape in front of the enemy cards. The 3 levels of the pyramid are the 3 rows of elemental fighters, which will be important for targeting rules.
Gameplay is relatively simple: 🧐 on your turn you get action points you can use to play Elementals or swap 2 of them in your pyramid tableau; play Command cards to attack or do other effects; or draw cards. There are also faction specific abilities, and as you defeat enemy Elementals you also get experience that unlocks new cards and abilities for you. 😉
At the end of your turns you can sell cards or use your gold to buy new ones for your deck. You can add both Elementals and Commands, but Elementals will be removed as you play them - and if they are defeated they are removed from the game.
☝️The most important rule is that whenever an Elemental is defeated in the front rows, other cards have to take its space. So as cards are removed, the enemy Sage might have to move forward and get into the range of attacks. 😱
💬Ultimately we found the gameplay a bit grindy. As it is not easy to directly target the opponent’s Sage, and people can keep playing new warriors to man the frontlines, it can take a while for somebody to win. Another issue I have is how cards all have loads of text on them, even if they are quite simple effects. Using icons instead would do wonders!
Otherwise it’s a cool concept and I like the differently flavoured factions of the game. And the art… It’s just so good. 🤩
