Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 45-60 min
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: minimal

Mystic Vale is a card construction game. Each card has three sections you can add to and so you are deckbuilding on the card level.

Mystic Vale Rules Description:

Players start Mystic Vale with the same 20 card deck. It has 3 cards that get you one mana, 9 cards with spoils and 8 blank cards. There are 9 advancement cards and 6 vale cards in the market to purchase.

On your turn you flip the top card of your deck onto your deck. If you do not have three Spoil symbols showing you put the card in play next to your deck. You can keep doing this until you get three Spoil symbols showing. At this point you are pressing your luck. You may choose to put the card on top of your deck into play but then you must flip the top card of your deck. If this card has a Spoil symbol your turn is over. If the revealed card doesn’t have a Spoil symbol you can keep pressing your luck. When you spoil flip your mana token to the active side. This give you one additional mana to spend on the next turn you play and don’t spoil.

If you do not spoil you may purchase card sections and vale cards. Advancement cards cost mana and vale cards cost spirit symbols. Advancement cards are divided into three sections, the top, middle and bottom. When purchased the advancement must be placed in an empty slot in one of the cards you played. Advancement cards provide you with spirit symbols, more mana, VPs or additional special effects when they are in play. Vale cards grant you VPs or special abilities that may be one-time use or activate on your turn for the rest of the game. Vale cards are not added to your deck.

Then all cards in play are put into your discard pile. When you need to draw additional cards and your deck is empty shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your deck.

As cards that score you VPs come up you take VP token from the supply. The number in the supply varies based on the number of players. Once the supply is empty you finish out the round to that all players get an equal number of turns. You add your VPs on cards, in your supply, and from any special abilities then the player with the most VPs wins.

Quick Review of Mystic Vale:

Mystic Vale brings an interesting new mechanic to the deckbuilding genre, card construction. It seems gimmicky but is fun to create powerful combos. As you play you will figure out if it is best to improve blank cards, cards with fields, or the cards with Spoil symbols. Often this can depend on the special abilities you get on cards.

The components for this game are great. The art is good and the cards super cool too. The cards are transparent except for the section with symbols and abilities. You put them into clear the sleeved starter deck of 20 cards. You get extra sleeves, which is a nice touch. The rules are well written and easy to follow too.

You will often have at least a few different card sections you can buy. Choosing a path to victory can be important, but you’ll need to adjust. Do you want to buy card sections that get you VPs every time they are in play? These usually come with a spoil symbol. You could try to acquire a lot of spirit symbols to buy vale cards for VPs? Create cards that limit the risk of spoiling? Or play a mix of all these?

As the paragraph above shows there are several ways to victory. Which path is the best depends on the cards in the market and what your opponents do. Players that know the cards will have an advantage over new players, but after a few games new players should be on an even playing field.

If you enjoy deck building games and want to try out a different mechanic, pick up Mystic Vale. The card construction adds a fun wrinkle to the genre that create some interesting choices as you play.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 2 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6