Sure, I could see delivering the final blow to a wounded unit to prevent your rival from claiming their magic. I remember my inner self recoiling when I first read about that on the Plaid Hat forums. The whole “killing your own units” thing was foremost among them. In retrospect, this had some strange side effects. Too fast and you decked, at the mercy of a more cautious opponent. The pace of your burnt hand and deck became a negotiated rhythm between opposing sides. This generated its own tempo: the slow positional early game, the chaos as formations broke apart and units were hastily summoned to fill the gaps, the lean conclusion with empty decks and lingering troops.
It was a decision between deploying Benjamin Franklin and George Washington to the battlefield or spending their bills.
Every unit you deployed and spell you cast and wall you built was spent economic potential. That champion wasn’t merely a champion she was also potential currency. Everything you killed also became magic, a tidy incentive to go chasing after minor units, but what you threw into your magic pile was the decision Summoner Wars hinged on. At the end of every turn, you could look at the cards you hadn’t used and decide whether to transform them into magic. It’s just that they tended to be baked into the system rather than built over the top. This isn’t to say there weren’t subtleties and advanced strategies and everything else that keeps players involved. The magic system was one of the immediate highlights. A deck thick enough to provide options, but not so thick you wouldn’t have a handle on their abilities within a single play. The basic sets provided each faction with thirty-five cards in total, maybe more if they had something special going on. Reinforcement packs and second summoners and blended alliance factions would later let you tinker with your army composition according to a few rules I can still recite from memory. These factions were vastly different - more on that later - but far more importantly they were complete. Later, the master set provided six factions and a board. When you bought a starter pack, you had two factions and a creased paper mat.
The entire thing was just so damnably easy to get into. Summoner Wars benefited from a hook that cut even deeper than its simplicity, more sharply than its straightforward goal. You could talk all day about how the Vanguard and the Mountain Vargath were great buddies as soon as their leaders were on the field, it was throwdown time.Īnd what a throwdown it was. But those were fluff, off-table, in the background. Oh, there were ostensibly wizards that got along. Could ever two wizards share territory? No, of course not, not any more naturally than competing boarboon alphas. I’d snark that it’s a concept as old as planeswalkers, but in truth it’s even older. You want to kill the other summoner while protecting your summoner. The premise is pristine in its simplicity.
Ten years later, with even its would-be successor dead and gone, I want to talk about Summoner Wars one last time.Īh yes, Purple Gray vs. And three, you can kill your own units for magic. Two, keep in mind that units also cost the magic you aren’t gaining by discarding them. One, you should try to block the spaces around my walls. Which is why, after introducing the phases, the way units move and attack, and the clever magic system, I always share three pieces of advice - because, as this game’s advocate, there’s nothing I’d want less than to stomp a newcomer. Maybe that’s because there aren’t many games I’ve felt such a need to talk about. Whether through my match reports, faction discussions, or that one rudimentary strategy guide, whenever somebody mentions they began reading Space-Biff! through Summoner Wars, it warms my heart. Over the past decade, I’ve taught Plaid Hat’s inaugural game to perhaps forty people.
That’s something I always tell people when I teach them how to play Summoner Wars.