Rolling With Reviews: Mr. Card Game

About Mr. Card Game, from BoardGameGeek:

IntroductionIn Mr. Card Game, you are Mr. Card Game, cousin to the (internet) famous Mr. Adventurer, the hero of the Kingdom of Loathing. Mr. Card Game is a rule-breaking, cross-classing monster killer on a tabletop quest to free King Ralph XI from the Naughty Sorceress. As you and your fellow tabletop adventurers chart a course through the Kingdom of Loathing, whoever buys the right skills, acquires the best stats and can take down the Naughty Sorceress first wins the game and the right to lord it over his or her friends (friends not included with game). DescriptionMr. Card Game is the official tabletop game of the massive multiplayer online game Kingdom of Loathing. With a mixture of deck-building mechanics and tableau management, Mr. Card Game is a fantasy adventure themed character building card game for 2 to 5 players ages 13 and up which plays in less than an hour. SynopsisEach player begins with a deck of one point stats and a set of basic newbie gear. On your turn, you have the opportunity to select one of the monsters on top of the location draft piles to kill. By defeating a monster, you receive a new item (displayed on the reverse side of the monster card) to add to your tableau, a new stat card to add to your deck and meat tokens you can use on subsequent turns to draft skills. Once one or more of the players thinks they have accumulated enough power from killing monsters, upgrading stats and training skills to defeat the Naughty Sorceress, they may call a March of the Tower where all players have an opportunity to kill her together. They player with the highest power and enough to kill the Sorceress, wins. StrategyThe gameplay in Mr. Card Game is a hybrid of deck building and tableau management. Mr. Card Game is a game of drafting, not only drafting items and skills, but also the stat cards necessary to use those items and skills most effectively. You want to plot a course through the locations in the game which maximizes the synergy of the skill and item cards you draft into your tableau with the stat cards you draft into your deck. All the while managing your level of meat, the currency of the realm you acquire from killing monsters, which you need to purchase the skills which make you better. Tactically, the game relies upon your management of your tableau, when to use or sell items, and how effectively you craft the hand of cards necessary to defeat your target or perhaps even win the game.