Adventure Time Card Wars: Fionna Versus Cake

The Basics:

• For ages 10 and up
• For 2 players
• Approximately 30 minutes to complete

Geek Skills:

• Active Listening & Communication
• Counting & Math
• Logical & Critical Decision Making
• Reading
• Strategy & Tactics
• Hand/Resource Management

Learning Curve:

• Child – Moderate
• Adult – Easy

Theme & Narrative:

• Battle in the Land of Ooo!

Endorsements:

• Child Geek approved!
• Parent Geek approved!
• Gamer Geek approved!

Overview

Welcome to the Land of Ooo, the home of the Adventure Time graphic novels and cartoon series. In this game, you get to share the adventures of Fionna and Cake as they battle it out to determine who is the most awesome in all the known universe. To be so, you must use your cards to beat your opponent, using your cunning and legendary tactical skills. Flip, flop, and floop your way to victory as you explore the strange inhabitants and disquieting danger that lurks around every corner. Perfect for an adventure!

Adventure Time Card Wars: Fionna Versus Cake, designed by Richelle Brady and Cory Jones and published by Cryptozoic Entertainment, is comprised of two 40 card decks (one for Fionna and one for Cake), eight oversized Landscape tiles, a goodly amount of Hit Point tokens, and two oversized Hero cards. The component quality is excellent, with thick cardboard and durable cards. The illustrations are directly from the television show, “Adventure Time,” and perfectly match the show’s humor and theme.

Setting Up the Game

Note: Card Wars is a trading card game, meaning that the cards can be interchanged with others to create new combos and deck types, matching the player’s strategy and tactics, but it does not contain all the cards available. As a result, we will not go into great detail about how each of the cards is used or their many diverse abilities. Instead, we’ll cover the basics of gameplay and leave you to explore how the cards interact, which is the most entertaining part of the game. This review covers the Fionna and Cake “collector’s pack” that gives you all the cards you need for a two-player game without buying additional cards unless you want to build your decks.

To set up the game, complete the following steps.

First, select a pre-made deck or create a deck of 40 cards containing no more than three copies of any one card. You’ll need to buy additional sets of cards to build your own decks, but if using a pre-made deck, you will use the designated Landscape tiles as part of the deck’s components for the game. Otherwise, you’ll be bringing to the table the Landscape tiles you determined will be required for your created deck, which are found in other sets.

Second, have each player place their four Landscape tiles in front of them in a row opposite to their opponent’s Landscape row. Landscape tiles directly opposite each other are called a “Lane.”

Third, set aside the Hit Point tokens and within easy reach of all the players.

Fourth, have each player shuffle their decks and set them face-down to one side of their playing area. This is the player’s draw deck for the duration of the game. If the player doesn’t like the hand they have drawn, they may shuffle the drawn cards back into their draw deck and draw a new hand of five starting cards, but only once.

That’s it for game setup. Determine who will go first and begin your adventure!

Get To  Know Your Cards

There are three different types of cards in Card Wars. These are Creatures, Buildings, and Spells.

• Creatures attack your opponent’s Creatures and your opponent if they cannot defend themselves. Creatures are played directly to an empty Landscape tile that the player owns.
• Buildings provide the player with additional bonuses and abilities. They are played directly under a Landscape tile the player owns.
• Spells can be played to cast powerful magic. Once resolved, the card is placed into the player’s discard pile.

All the cards use the same information, but only if relevant to the card itself. For example, a Creature card will show more details than a Building card because a Creature card will have an Attack and Defense value.

• Action Cost: The number of actions the player must use to bring the card into play.
• Landscape Type: The Landscape tile the card can be played to or is in control of the player. “Rainbow” Landscape types represent all types or combinations of types.
• Card Type: Identifies the card as a Creature, Building, or Spell.
• Game Text: Additional rules and explanation of how the card should be resolved.
• Attack Value: The attack strength of the card.
• Defense Value: The defense strength of the card.

Visiting the Land of Ooo

Card Wars is played in rounds and turns with no set number of rounds per game. A player’s turn is summarized here.

Step One: Ready Your Cards

As the game progresses, the cards in play will be turned sideways, indicating that they are unavailable and exhausted. At the start of the player’s turn, return all their cards to their upright position, suggesting they are ready for action!

Step Two: Draw a Card

The player draws one card from their draw deck and adds it to their hand.

Step Three: Spend Your Actions and Floop Cards

Each player has two actions to spend on their turn. Actions are paid to play Creature, Building, and Spell cards. If the player doesn’t have the needed number of Actions, they cannot play the card. Actions cannot be saved for later. If the player doesn’t use all their actions, they can spend one Action to draw one card from their draw deck. There is no hand size limit, and any drawn cards can be played as soon as the player likes and can afford.

Some cards can “floop.” This allows the player to exhaust the card (tilt it sideways) to trigger the card’s game text. Flooping a card can be done before, during, or after spending Actions.

Step Four: Fight (Regardless of How You Feel About It)!

The player must now attack using any Creature cards they have in play and are Ready (not exhausted). The player can choose the order in which their Creatures enter combat. Creatures combat other Creatures, but only if they are in the same Lane. If the player’s opponent has a Creature in the same lane, both Creatures are exhausted and deal damage to each other. The amount of damage inflicted is equal to the attacking Creature’s Attack value. Keep track of how much damage the Creature takes by using the Hit Point tokens. Once the Creature takes a number of Hit Points equal to their Defense value, they are defeated and discarded.

However, if the opponent does not have a Creature in the same lane, damage is dealt directly to the Opponent! They take a number of Hit Point tokens as needed and equal to the Attack value they could not block.

The player’s turn is over, and the next player takes their turn, starting with Step One.

Winning the Game

The game continues until one player has 25 or more Hit Points of damage at the end of the turn. This player has been defeated, and their opponent is victorious!

Game Variant

The “collector’s pack” includes two Hero cards representing Fionna and Cake. The players can use these cards if they like, giving each player a unique ability during the game. They are very optional, however, and may be ignored without upsetting the gameplay.

To learn more about Adventure Time Card Wars,  visit the game’s web page.

Final Word

The Child Geeks, all fans of the Adventure Time show, enjoyed the card game, finding it easy to learn and fun to play. Despite being described in the rule book as “super complicated,” the rules are anything but. Rounds and turns are easy to track and the Child Geeks never got lost. They had questions on how some of the cards worked, but they could figure it out with their opponent without issue. According to one Child Geek, “I really liked the game. It reminded me a lot of the cartoon, and I remembered all my favorite moments. My friend and I watched the show right after we played that game and then came back to the game!” Another Child Geek said, “I liked the game and how the decks were already ready for me to play with. I want to get more cards so I can build my own.” When the last adventure was over, the Child Geeks took a vote, and all agreed that it was a great time.

The Parent Geeks found the game easy to learn and play and had a good time. They enjoyed the card illustrations, and most had at least heard of the show, but not one of our Parent Geeks understood the game’s background. It turns out that isn’t important. Knowing about the show certainly adds depth and pleasure but has zero impact on the gameplay and the enjoyment of the game itself. As one Parent Geek put it, “I have no real idea who these people and places are as depicted on the cards, but I don’t think it mattered much. Each card was easy to understand and resolve. I had much fun playing it with my husband and kids.” Another Parent Geek said, “A good game verging on greatness, I think. It’s much better than other collectible and trading card games I’ve seen, mostly because of how tight the game felt. There were limitations, but nothing that felt like it was holding me back. It just made me focus more. Good stuff.” When the last monster was slain and the treasure won, the Parent Geeks took a vote, and all agreed that Aventure Time Card Wars was weird and wonderful.

The Gamer Geeks jumped in, out, and back again with reckless abandon. They enjoyed and praised the game, but not without a few negative comments. According to one Gamer Geek, “The game is solid, limiting in its execution without limiting possibilities, and puts the gameplay on a simple track that still gives players a lot of room to maneuver. The cards included in this game are unbalanced a bit, in my opinion, and there are not enough to build my own deck. Given this, I cannot say if the entire game series itself is pure perfection, but I can tell this is a game I want to learn more about.” Another Gamer Geek said, “A light collectible card game that still bites you without breaking the skin. I found it to be smartly designed and very well executed. The card art is right out of the show, and the gameplay was fun. I’d play this game and look forward to seeing what I can do with more cards, as the ones in this game feel like a starter deck, teasing at the potential but never delivering its full potential.” When the day was done, the Gamer Geeks took a vote, and all agreed that this game was magical.

Adventure Time Card Wars was a lot of fun for me to teach and play. Its elegant execution made each turn feel effortless, but without removing any of the needed thoughtfulness required to play the game well. What I thought at first would be limiting (fighting cards only in your lane felt like it would be a bit of a bore, for example) turned out to be challenging rules put in place that made me think more profoundly than I initially thought would be required. It turned out there was a lot of game here. And, yes, the initial decks feel a bit unbalanced, but this could also be due to how the cards were randomly drawn and the players’ skills. Either way, all of our groups very much enjoyed themselves.

Do take a look at the Adventure Time Card Wars series. Fun rules and fun cards make for an excellent game for two. Take the adventure and see if it leads to glory!

This game was given to Father Geek as a review copy. Father Geek was not paid, bribed, wined, dined, or threatened in vain hopes of influencing this review. Such is the statuesque and legendary integrity of Father Geek.