Ben ‘The Funk Lightning’ Franklin once claimed –
“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and that I will totally forget how to play Mage Knight inbetween plays. F*ck that rulebook is dense.”
Now, obviously that nerd was long dead before Vlaada published his magnum opus, complete with a rulebook loaded with block paragraphs in size 6 font, but you understand what I’m saying. You don’t have to have played Mage Knight to know it is that very famously complicated deck-builder found on many top solo game lists.
But what is NOT well known is that thematically you play a psychopathic killer, roaming the countryside murdering homeowners and retired wizards in the name of adventuring. It’s pretty baller, honestly. It’s just that no one warns you about that last part. Or that you can burn down churches. The goal of the game is to locate the cities that have been overrun with monsters and defeat them, but you get there by ruining as many lives as you can and conscripting the survivors. You know, high-end business type sh*t.
Though solo mode is the most famous way to play this game, I don’t allow it in my house. That sh*ts for losers. Okay, so I’m being facetious, but those who play Mage Knight solo ONLY are sleeping on the cutthroat two player fully co-op mode that forces you to poke at the bonds of friendship with a serrated stick. The good news is that this mode does not have the quarterback issue of other co-op games, since you are practically trampling each other on your way to decapitating and defenestrating the innocent who inhabit these plains since they got so much yummy yummy treasures!
But whether you play solo or co-op, you are in for a true, three to four hour heavy thinker. Each of the three emotional phases are distinctly different. The beginning will make your buns tighten as every decision and path open to you is threatening in that fun masochist kinda way. The second phase is the feeling of glory, as you attempt to conquer the first city and push on through to the others. And the final phase offers that ‘last boss’ feel as the remaining city contains the most monsters and will be the hardest puzzle to solve.
GAMEPLAY
Mage Knight is an adventure style deck-builder that takes place over 6 rounds (3 days, and 3 nights). Each round ends when you have played through your entire deck once – shuffling ONLY happens once a round ends. You gain powers and action cards by leveling up, and gain spell cards and artifact cards as rewards for conquering locations that appear on a randomly generated map. Purchased cards go to the top of your deck, causing a handful of power spike moments. Wounds received from combat are useless cards that fill up your deck. Soldiers/allies can be recruited and are placed in front of you, ready to be activated instead of being shuffled into your deck. Combat is very complicated but can be summed up like this
- Monsters have a single attack number and a hit point total. You play all cards you want to play at the combat’s beginning BEFORE any card is triggered.
- Battle plays out with your ranged damage first, then the monster swings (You could have played defense cards earlier to stop it), then you resolve the damage against you, and then the rest of your attacks trigger, hopefully killing the monsters.
- When playing cards at the beginning of the combat, all cards can be played in the following way. Play a card for it’s basic effect (an attack that does 2 damage for example), play a card and spend the mana resource for it’s enhanced effect (It might up that attack to 5 damage), play any card sideways and ignore its text to add 1 to attack, defense, move, or influence.
The most notable aspect of Mage Knight is the intense, puzzley combat. Because every card can be played for its weak text, its strong text, or discarded as a wild, combat becomes its own mini-game that can leave you feeling very satisfied. The ultimate goal is to find the cities hidden in the stack of tiles and defeat them all before the end of 6 rounds.
1ST CLAW - Rush to Level 3
The rewards of reaching level 2 are proportionally insane when compared to the dumpster fire deck you were handed during set-up. Your first level up allows you to choose a single action card that is laughably stronger than anything else in your deck and gain a power that feels as broken as shattered glass. Of course, getting to level 2 is the trick. The beginning of Mage Knight ain’t a walk in the park. In fact, it’s a beach surrounded by rejected house-elves that’ll steal those socks they lust for if your character walks one space too close.
Though EVERY starting deck in EVERY deck-builder is a bona fide pile of sh*t, Mage Knight’s character-based asymmetrical starter decks are particularly frustrating since you NEED to move in some situations and NEED to fight in others. You don’t want a handful of movement after you’ve kicked down a giant’s door. And so thus begins the puzzle as I described in the gameplay section – which cards do you discard for a wild effect, which do you save until needed, and which do you tear up when no one is looking. I mean cull legally.
To reach level two, you have to kill SOMETHING. But the randomly revealed starting tiles and the many paths they offer all lead to what appears to be certified ass beatings. However, the trade off is that you only have to kill 1 or 2 to get that level up. This is the first claw of Mage Knight. Determining which direction to head while dealing with a garbage hand. All you have to do is take a wound or two in order to smash a couple heads. Once you do that, you rise from being a piece of sh*t to f*ck*ng Conan.
2ND CLAW - The First City
Your first level up feels so good it can make you as high as a kite – a kite enemy wizards will gladly blast out of the sky. As you march on after level two, attaining level three and higher, you are on the lookout for the first overrun city. Every tile flip offers something delicious – a city to save, a tower to burn, or a town to rest in. Many of these places offer additional cards, mana resources to power cards, and soldiers to enlist.
This is the second claw – Searching for, and saving, the first city. Flipping over new tiles as you expand the map brings endless joy, keeping you focused during this three hour epic. Every fight presents a card play puzzle you can solve. Every victory gives items you can use. Every award is incredible – spells that are overpowered, mana needed to power your biggest cards, new action cards that are insane, and HEALING! Once you start gaining wound cards you will do anything to get rid of them … you might even let a church survive if they help. And the armies you build! Man does this part of the game feel invigorating! And then you reveal the first city.
When a city is found, you don’t need to attack it right at that moment. But holy f*ck are you tempted. You can see the stats of the two, or three, or four monsters waiting inside. The end of this claw brings those thoughts of “If I visit one or two more areas, I’ll be prepared.” But that will waste time, won’t it? And you can always look at your hand and do the math. Can you kill every monster RIGHT NOW and take a few wounds? Can you avoid wounds altogether if you come back next turn? Is the math so hard that you just decide to jump in and play cards?
This scenario is what causes players to both love AND hate Mage Knight. Standing outside of a city, calculating how to mathematically kill the monsters inside, is like downing an energy drink of analysis paralysis and I personally f*ck*ng love it. If you are of the camp that AP improves a game (as your choices matter so much), then Mage Knight’s second claw is what you want.
THE BITE - Final City Showdown
Newer games often concern themselves with concepts that were not considered years ago – attractive miniatures, beautiful art, boxes that can house a 4-person family. One of those growing concerns is game length. It seems adult gamers want to spend time with their families. Chumps, all of them. Instead of completing a campaign, they’d rather complete that 40 hour work week. It also seems reviewers are becoming weighed down by dozens of new games a week. Chumps, all of them! There is now a desire to keep games short.
Well Mage Knight properly says f*ck you and your time constraint. When you sit down for this homewrecker, you won’t be seeing your spouse anytime soon. Or even the light of day. It’s a long game with a long set-up and will be longer when taught. If a game is going to be my entire evening, its third act better bring the hits, kicks, and suplexes. Good news, cause it’s all there.
The final city houses more monsters than the previous two or three. The bite begins when the city appears, and causes your brain to do some NASA level mathematics. You know what’s in your deck – you’ve spent the last 3 hours cycling through it and creating combos. You know how your deck works; you’ve seen it take down giants. But the final city is a test you could only have guessed at. Well now it’s staring you in the face.
The goal becomes to build your hand. The previous cities needed to be destroyed ASAP because you needed to find the final one. Well now it’s here – the final boss. And you know how much time you have (The end of the 6th round). You can actually afford to wander around a bit, visiting helpful locations and taking out surviving monsters – until you have drawn the perfect hand.
The final bite of Mage Knight is a lot of talking while taking stock. As you and your teammates play cards and draw new ones, the goal is to get everyone next to the city with a hand of cards that DEFINE the deck you’ve built. And then you strike. And this, right here, is why we play Mage Knight. Those three to four hours were spent making a deck that will hopefully pair perfectly with your allies to strike down a hoard of monsters while never being sure if you can. So when the win comes, it feels very satisfying.
On a Personal Note ...
Obviously these Claw Claw Bite reviews are written based on my own personal experience and not on some survey of experienced gamers. But this review is an honest attempt to get you to play this game. The very first time I finished a solo game of Mage Knight, I stood up and wandered around my apartment, trying to calm down. I could not sit still and was, as I had described earlier, high as a kite from the finale. No other game had made my heart pound so hard, or had gotten me actually scared of a loss. It was so unexpected, and I honestly hope everyone gets that moment at the end of their first game.