Review: Elemystic (Wise Wizard Games)

When I first saw Elemystic from Wise Wizard Games, it was so small I thought it was an expansion, not an entire game. But it proved me wrong. That little box packs a full-fledged dueling game with surprising depth, fast play, and high replayability.

Let’s get ready to duel by looking at the top five things you need to know about Elemystic.

Nine Cards? Seriously??

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Elemystic plays from a nine card deck. (We were surprised, too.) Nine deck protectors later, you’re done sleeving.

Those nine cards cover the nine “elements” that feature in the game. They include classics like air, earth, fire, and water; more exotic interpretations such as light, shadow, storm, and lightning; and the ever-popular element of chaos, which introduces a whole new level of randomness to your play.

In addition to the elements, the game box contains five “token” cards, a pair of quick references, a Draw First arrow, and a Play First arrow. You’ll also find a single page of rules and a life tracker with two dials that count down from 10 to 0.

Touring the Elements

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Each element card has five stats, the card’s special ability text and, of course, its name. Numbers in the red starbursts are strength, and numbers in the blue shields are defense. The gold diamond at the bottom is the card’s speed. Whoever has the highest speed on their front card attacks first.

In an elegant and simple bit of design, the bottom half of the card contains the special ability text, speed, and a pair of strength and defense numbers called the Invocation values. All of that only comes into play if you can see it — that is, if it’s the front card on your column. If you play a card in front of your current top card, the new card covers all of that, so you use the new card’s numbers instead.

Setting Up

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You begin by giving each player a Thunder token and a quick reference card. Randomly select the first player and point both arrow cards toward them. Set aside the Air, Light, and Shadow token cards. (We’ll talk about them later.)

Shuffle the deck, then deal three cards face-down, one to each player, and the third to a spot between both players. These are the secret elements for the round. Players can look at their own secret elements, but nobody gets to look at the third one. It remains out of play until the end of the round.

The face-down cards inject a bit of hidden resource mystery into the game, since each player can only account for seven of the nine cards when the game begins.

Drafting and Arranging

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The dealer puts the remaining six cards face-up on the table in any order. The player with the Draw First marker drafts two face-up cards, then their opponent takes two cards. The first player picks their final card, and the second player takes the remaining one.

With four cards in their hand (three face-up drafts plus their secret element), you plan your strategy for the round. Your goal is to stack three of your elements into a column that delivers the best total attack, defense, and special ability.

Players take turns putting cards face-up on the table to create their column, starting with whoever has the Play First marker.

Here’s where Elemystic’s cool card design kicks in. When adding the second and third cards to their columns, players can put the cards either in front or behind their first card.

If they put it in front, then that card’s special ability, speed, and Invocation numbers will be active during the Resolve Attacks step. If it goes behind the front card, then you only get access to the attack and defense values at the top of the card.

Make the same choice for the third card in your hand, then set aside the remaining card. Let the battle begin!

To Battle We Go

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Most of Elemystic’s player interaction happens when players resolve attacks because that’s when most special abilities kick in. (The exception is the Storm card’s ability, which forces your opponent to play their next card to the front of their stack.)

The column with the highest speed attacks first. They start by resolving the special ability text on their front card and applying any tokens the card brings into play. For example, Air’s special ability adds the air token to the back of your column as extra attack or defense, while Chaos gives you a new front card and puts your fourth card into play.

Players total their attack and defense values. Subtract the defense from the attack total. That’s how much energy the defending player loses. Repeat the process for the second player. When anyone’s energy goes to zero, the game ends immediately, even if it happens in the middle of a round.

Verdict

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Elemystic should earn the “compressed fun” award for packing so much game play into so few components. It’s the ultimate travel game if you want to pack really, really light.

The game delivers a surprising amount of strategy and replayability. The system’s attack and defense totals are very balanced, but they leave enough room to take a risk and hit hard when an opening appears.

We recommend sleeving the element cards. With such a small deck, sleeving the cards makes shuffling and play a lot easier.

If you want a fast-playing duel game you can take anywhere, Elemystic is for you. Enjoy!