Let's collect beautiful Mandalas

I’ve heard a lot lately about this clever 2-player gamem Mandala, and we finally pulled the trigger on this one😁. I have to say, during the first game I was continuosly asking what the hell am I supposed to do here? What strategy should I use? How do I win?🤯 Well, I wouldn’t claim I’m an expert now, but after a few rounds everything starts to take shape.🤗

In this abstract card game you build and destroy mandalas over and over (2 pieces at the same time to be exact), which consist of 3 parts: the mountain (the middle strip that is accessible for both players) and 2 fields on both sides of the mountain with exclusive access for you and your opponent, respectively.

The rules are quite simple: In each turn you either:
- put a single card onto the mountain and redraw 3 cards
- play any number of the same color into your field
- or discard any number of the same colors to redraw the same amount of cards.

There is only one restriction on the placement: the rule of color – if you a place a color into an area of the mandala, the same color cannot be placed into other areas – giving you an important “leverage” against your opponent.🤫

After the 6th color is placed into a mandala, it is destroyed. Whoever placed more cards in his personal field can start to collect cards from the mountain. You take all cards of a single color at once, then your opponent, and so on, until the mountain is empty. Cards from the personal space are then discarded.
You try to collect as many cards as possible with higher values – but here is an amazing twist: the value of the cards is determined by when you manage to collect it for the first time…🤯 The later you get it the higher its value is – but of course nearing the game end, chances are you cannot collect many of those last (valuable) colors anymore.🤔

Here is what we liked:
✅️ beautiful components
✅️ short play time
✅️ many layers of strategy unfolding with every play
✅️ easy to learn, hard to master
✅️ 2 players only

It definitely stays in the collection 😍