Wizards of the Grimoire Game Review
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WIZARDS OF THE GRIMOIRE GAME REVIEW
Archmage Andor is dead. Of course you had nothing to do with this. Of course. Of course you've waited years to sit in the big chair, hold the big musty tome, and cast complex spells, but murder? Fuck that idea. Even if you had anything to do with it, you planned it poorly. Obviously you're not the only heir. Archmage Andor was not familiar with the Rule of Two, and now you and your opponent will have to fight to the death.
Grimoire Wizards is a dynamic, engine-driven dueling game for two players, with an impressive amount of hyphens for such a small box. For the first six rounds, each player begins their turn by adding a new spell from the central market to their list. Spells come in three types: they deal damage, give you more mana to use with other spells, or allow you to move the mana of your spells. Starting on turn seven, taking a new spell from the market is voluntary and can only be done if there is a spell that can be replaced.
You spend the rest of each turn distributing the mana cards from your hand between spells, deciding which ones you want to pay for and in what order. So far, that's standard stuff. Magic: The Gathering lawyers are sharpening their pencils as I type. The similarities are only superficial, though. Dueling? Yes. Mana to pay for spells? Yes. But Wizards of the Grimoire is much more concerned with timing. You could argue that it's a rhythm game if you wanted to, and to some extent I want to.
ENGINE DESIGNER
Years ago I was talking to a mechanical engineer who worked in a factory. His job every morning was to get the machines to run 180º out of phase with each other so that their sound waves would cancel each other out, making the factory floor quieter. That's essentially your job here, but you're trying to make the machine as loud as possible. In Wizards, timing is key, figuring out when it's best to pay for Spell X or Spell Y to synchronize it with Spell Z.
When you pay for a spell, you do so by placing 1 to 5 mana cards on top of the spell card itself. At the start of each turn, you discard one mana from each of your spells, which cannot be reused until they are revealed. Furthermore, spells take effect at different times depending on when you cast them. Some activate the moment you discard that mana, and will do nothing more until they are purged and you pay for them again. Others are active as long as there is mana left on the card. There is a third kind, my favorite, that activates after the last mana is removed.
It's hard to get all your spells in sync. Replay is rewarded with an increasingly refined sense of what to cast when. It's satisfying to avoid casting a spell that throws your opponent off their rhythm. Wizards of the Grimoire is easy to play. It's hard to play well.
ALL HANDS ON THE DECK
Wizards of the Grimoire is sure to appeal to Magic players, and they, in turn, will likely have great success introducing it to others. Magic is imbued with a long-term purpose and a constant need to level up. Wizards of the Grimoire feels like 90s Magic, with clean combos and minimal rules. Another plus: the only way to fail is either by playing badly or by making a conscious choice.
This is a great product. These are probably the nicest playing cards I've ever seen, with a sturdy material and a linen cover. After six or seven draws you won't even feel like the cards were touched. The box has also held up to a lot of travel. You get what you pay for in terms of product and design. A colleague pointed out that the game could have been released in a box half the size by combining the mana deck into the spell deck and adding mana power to each spell, rather than having a separate set of cards. However, this is the closest I can come to a complaint.
Wizards of the Grimoire is definitely a stunning design. The artwork is textbook serious fantasy, but it's a good textbook serious fantasy. This game knows who it wants to appeal to, and it does so expertly. If the mechanics and theme appeal to you, you won't be disappointed.
