Mystic Vale - Card Game, Card-Crafting, Protect Nature with Magic Power, Unique Clear Cards, 2 to 4 Players, 45 Minute Playtime, Ages 14 and Up, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)

This is a wonderful game with a refreshing approach to deck building, card drafting, and hand management. Instead of building your deck, you're building your cards by sliding inserts into the sleeves. There are a few types of resources you'll be trying to acquire: Mana - which is your money, Spirit - which allow you to buy special Vale cards, and VP - victory points. You could also count Regrowth as another resource, since it will cancel out Decay (the resource you don't want!). There's also a push your luck element to the game, giving you the option to try to turn over one more card and hope you don't spoil.This was a game we bought for Christmas and have played at least 10 times in less than 2 months. With as many games as we have to choose from, that's a lot! It's been enjoyed by everyone we've played it with, including light gamer parents who went out and bought their own copy! While it does have a little harder learning curve than Dominion or Ascension, once players pick it up they almost always enjoy the game. There's something unique about building up your cards (and hoping what you want is available where you need it). There are multiple strategies to win - you can pick up some powerful but dangerous cards that have decay on them, you can focus on building up spirit to buy Vale cards, or you can play it safe and just hope to get enough money to buy the tier III cards worth a lot of VP.The game is usually balanced with fairly close scores - however it is possible to have one person run away and end the game very quickly. The last time we played I managed to cancel out virtually all of my decays in one way or another (between "discard any card of your choice" and regrowth icons) and within 2 turns of being able to play almost all of my cards in one turn I swept up the VP and won. That's only happened once, and the good part is that at least when that does happen the game will end quickly rather than with a slowly and painfully.

So my group of friends play a lot of games; catan, 7wonders, dominion, magic.... and i got this one thinking it looked complicated but also really fun. It's wonderful, absolutely awesome. Whether or not you play a lot of deck building games I'd recommend it. At first glance it looks pretty complex, and there are quite a few components and the rules take a little while to look over and understand, as with most great games. It plays smoothly, turns are quick, but there is a reason it's a four player game max, and the turn order is very easy to pick up once you begin. I was honestly surprised how simple it really is without being boring or repetitive. At first I thought it might get too predictable, you start with the same thing every time but diverse cards are always laid out in each of the stages for you to chose from.Another thing I really liked was that you have to continuously develop your strategy throughout the game. For one, because you don't know what cards will be turned over in front of you (the ones you can buy with your mana) but also you don't know what combination you will play in our 'field' either.Definitely something I'd get as a gift for someone in the future and something I'd highly recommend.

We got this game for our son for Christmas. It was recommended to me by someone who said that fans of Dominion and Splendor will like this and that seems to be spot on. The "build your own card" is new to us and unlike any other games we have played. It is not hard to learn if you are familiar with either of those. You start out with base cards and basically add onto the cards instead of adding to your deck. I highly recommend watching the Dice Tower review of it, they do a great job of explaining it. After that, we just started playing and consulted the rule book as needed... Which wasn't much, it's easy to learn as you play. We get burned out on expansions usually, but this game is so different and fun, I can see us ordering one in the future. Highly recommend!

A really fun game that is interesting with the card crafting system. I loved it from the moment I saw the artwork and playing it the first time just enforced my love for the game. After the first pay I promptly bought all of the available expansions and could hardly wait for Conclave to come out which was released about a week ago.A bit of a warning though, this game is very much a solitaire game and there is very little interaction among players. The only thing you could consider player interaction is when you buy an advancement or vale card another player wanted or vice versa. If solitaire type games aren't for you, then you mind find it difficult to enjoy Mystic Vale. This is essentially four 1 player games going at once except for there being turns and there being a turn order.

If you like Dominion, this game is cut from the same cloth. You start out with the same cards as other players, but rather than deck building by getting new cars, you modify the cards you already have by inserting transparent cards into the sleeves, which are provided, of the starter cards. There are a few basic cards, which are pretty bland, that are always available, but most of the cards, and cool combos, are randomly available. Because of its close similarity with other deck builders, it may have a problem with multiple plays, because a particular strategy is just best, but I believe there is an expansion coming out for it soon, which will greatly increase the replayability and vary the cards and strategy. Overall, I find it both fun and strategic, with only a small amount of luck from the available cards and what you are able to draw on your turn.

I really like the add-a-card-to-the-card format for this game. It is unique and I have gifted it to several people with extensive board game collections who were, somehow, missing this game. It is also fairly easy to learn and has a lot of strategy without being overwhelmingly complex. There is a built in game ender that keeps the game from dragging on too long.

The game arrived on time and in perfect condition. I have played it twice and plan to keep playing for a long time. Mystic Vale is a ton of fun and not terribly complex to learn, yet technical enough to be a blast for veteran board game enthusiasts. Putting the pieces back in the box aftwards is a bit of a hassle but not enough to affect this review.

Mystic vale takes a classic deckbuilding mechanic and adds push your luck and card combining to the mix. The game looks great and is a really nice spin on deckbuilding.

Reçu dans les temps, bien emballé. Offert à quelqu'un passionné de jeux de plateau qui a beaucoup apprécié.Attention jeu en Anglais.

One of my all time favourite games. We destroyed our first copy a few years ago by leaving in the back of a hot car in Australian sun for a week, all the plastic cards melted and lost there shape so it became impossible to play. We ordered it for Christmas and I’m so excited to play again. This it a game that’s pretty easy to play, if your new to bordies and the consent of drafting find a YouTube tutorial on how to play as that will help get you started.

So, I went into this blind. My partner tried this out at Spiel 2016 without ever having heard of it, and she liked it a lot. So we ordered it.The game conceptually tries to be a deck builder (Think Dominion or Tanto Cuore) without the ever-growing-deck element, instead you add printed-on clear plastic sheets into large tarot-size card sleeves with a back card art. You "craft" your cards from a top, middle and bottom. You then use the extra resources and abilities on these upgraded cards, once you draw them again, to buy even more components to cards, or buy special always-on powers or victory points.This works *surprisingly* well, despite my initial skepticism. Didn't take long for players to start considering which of their still many empty slots on cards to use for a newly bought component because planning ahead, which other components can you still buy down the line, maybe someone already bought that Moon Wolf in top, so you may not want to buy something where you plan on adding one, but leaving only the top slot open. And so on.The artwork is beautiful, the quality is really great. It was a bit fiddly to get the protective plastic off despite, as a note in the box tells you to, first playing a few times to loosen it up. We're also worried how quickly the plastic will scuff and the sleeves will break down with constantly shoving plastic in or removing it, but they do add replacement sleeves, so +1 to Alderac.Now, why only 4/5 starts despite the glowing review? There are two small areas where the game could be better, I feel:- There is *no* interaction between players other than buying things the other party could want. Which to be fair is already good, but I wish there were some cards/effects which more directly targeted the others. So that optionally, like in Dominion et al, we could play with those to be more aggressive.- More cards! At present you use all of them and draw 3 per tier of card openly from which to buy, then refill as bought. I would prefer something more akin to other deckbuilders where there are lots of "mini decks", and we shuffle each pile from the ones we select. So we can adapt the game a bit more.Still, small complaints. The game is good, highly recommended.