Power Rangers Deck Building Game: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Deck Building, Team, Head to Head
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 2 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 30 - 70 Minutes
Game Designer: Dan Blanchett, Matt Hyra
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Dan Blanchett, Matt Hyra
Objective:
Power Rangers Deck Building Game allows players to participate in one of two teams; the Heroes and the Villains. The aim is simple, to reduce the other teams health from 30 to 0. This can be done by smart deck building, collecting numerous Zords/Masters, or gaining a more advantageous ability by transforming your character.
When more than two players are playing the game rules get a bit more technical with team play, so for this review I will be focusing mainly on two player mode.
Card Anatomy:
Starter Cards:
Each player will have a deck of ten cards to begin the game with. This will give shards, energy, healing and an opportunity to remove cards.
Character Cards:
There are 12 oversized character cards; 6 heroes and 6 villains. Each card has two sides, one that you begin as (heroic teenager/villainous scheming side) and one that you will transform into throughout the game (power ranger/evil empowerment). Additionally, each character has two unique skills, one on the starting side and one on the transformed side.
Hitpoint and Energy Tracker:
Each player/team will have a hit point and energy tracker.
Signature Cards:
Each character has a unique signature card that can be equipped to act as a wild type and has a unique ability for each character that helps to add a different feel.
Zord Cards and Zord Bay:
Each hero player has a zord that will be placed to the side in setup and is available for buying. Normally at a cost of 7, the zord will come freely to its ranger after their transformation if it has not been bought prior to this. The other zords will be shuffled into a stack that any hero player can buy from. When a zord is bought it will be attached to the Zord Bay tile. Any hero can exhaust a zord on their turn to do the displayed ability. To ready the zords again a hero has to pay 5 energy.
Megazord and Mega Dragonzord:
When you have 5 zords the Megazord will replace the middle area of the zord bay, this allows the heroes to activate 3 zords per turn instead of the original 1 zord. A new activated ability will also replace the original ability. When the heroes have 6 zords attached, the Mega Dragonzord will now replace the megazord with a new ability and will allow 5 zord activations on a turn.
Master Cards and Lair:
Master cards are the villain’s version of a zord card. Each player has a master card that is specific to their character. Once obtained, the player gains the opportunity to buy other masters and send them to the lair. Each time a new master enters the lair the hero team will take one damage for each master occupying the lair. Additionally, each master has a special ongoing ability that will help slay the heroes.
Stun and Blade Blaster Cards:
These are two basic cards that are readily available throughout the game. Stun is a negative card that clogs the opponent's deck until they remove it by healing. Blade blaster can be used as two shards or you can remove it at the end of a turn to do one damage or remove a card from the marketplace.
Main Deck Cards:
Maneuver and Equipment:
The main deck consists of location, maneuver, equipment and purple/yellow adversary cards. The maneuver and equipment cards can be bought by anyone but not all characters can attach these cards. All the cards in the main deck have a cost on the top left side, energy and/or shard on the left side and an ability at the bottom. The card will either be used for the resource generation shown on the left side, or for the ability after attaching to your character (according to card colour). Once attached, the ability on the card can be activated on a turn by paying the activation cost. The card will remain attached until replaced or discarded.
Adversary Cards:
These are the purple and yellow cards in the main deck. The purple cards are allies to the villains and adversaries for the heroes, and vice versa for the yellow cards and the heroes. The adversary cards cannot be purchased by the other team. If left in the marketplace at the end of turn they will inflict one damage to the opposing team. There is a way to stop this though, each adversary card has a shard cost at the bottom of the card that the opposing player can pay to battle and defeat the card. There is also a one-time immediate effect that will occur following defeat, this is listed next to the battle cost.
Location Cards:
Location cards have ongoing abilities and unlike any other card, they don't go to the discard pile when gained. Instead, they go immediately onto your play area and will remain there for the rest of the game.
Block Cards:
Some cards will have block effects, these cards can be played from the hand on an opponent’s turn to stop an attack. These cards are shown by the hand symbol in the text box and normally have an effect that will occur when a block is successful.
Set Up:
- divide the players into two teams; heroes and villains.
- choose a character to play that matches the team you are in.
- place your character in front of you, starting on the teenager or scheming side of the card.
- find your zord/master and signature card and place it available for purchase within reach. The rest of the signature cards won't be used in this game.
- place the zord tile and megazord/dragon megazord next to the hero player or in between the hero players.
- place the lair next to the villain player or in between the villain players.
- shuffle the main deck and place it towards the central play area.
- Reveal one card at a time until you have six cards in the middle of the table. If more than two cards of one type appear, re-shuffle those cards back into the main deck. This creates the grid.
- place the blade master and stun cards into two unique stacks next to the main deck. The blade master stack will be placed face down with the top card revealed.
- shuffle the unused masters and place them next to the villain players with the top master revealed face up.
- Shuffle the unused zord cards and place them next to the hero players with the top zord revealed face up.
How to Play:
The game is played in turns until one team’s health has been reduced to zero. In a turn there is the start phase, main phase and end phase.
Start Phase:
During the start phase, the active player will refill the grid to six cards. If the top card of the zord, master or blade blaster stack is face down they will also be flipped face up. Every card attached to the character will be returned to a ready position and any start of turn abilities will now activate.
Main phase:
This is the bulk of the game. Like all deck builders you will be trying to buy cards to make the most efficient and powerful deck. Cards can be played for their icons on the side to generate energy/shards which then can be used to fuel abilities or buy more cards/defeat adversaries. Energy can be stored in between turns on the health and energy tracker but the shards have to be used on the turn they are generated.
Some basic cards have abilities that will activate when played but the majority of cards have abilities that can only be activated once attached to a character. These cards are attached instead of generating the resources on the side of the card. It may only be attached to a side of the character that matches the card’s colour. Once it is attached it can be exhausted on the same turn to activate the ability as long as you pay the energy cost. During this phase, you can also activate your character’s ability and zord(s).
End Phase:
In the end phase, you can un-equip any of the cards attached to your character and use any end of turn abilities. Then take damage equal to the number of adversary cards in the grid that belong to the opposing team. After those steps, discard any leftover cards in your hand and redraw to five cards.
Final Thoughts:
Pros:
- Engaging attachment system
- Quick game-play
- Many different strategies of deck-building
- Great art
- Adversary system
Cons:
- Taking damage begins earlier than what you can build a defence against.
Power Rangers the Deck-Building Game is a great game that feels fresh, fast and tension-filled. The unique characters help to enhance the replay-ability, and the different game-play between the heroes and villains creates many strategic options. However, the real shining part of this game is the attachment system where you choose between using cards for resources or attaching to your character. Players also have to try and fill the attachment spots available so you can flip your character to a more attack focused side. The other unique part that the game is the adversary system. You take one damage for every card in the grid that belongs to the opposing teams colour and you must constantly weigh up between defeating these cards or gaining cards for your deck. Sometimes you will not want to buy adversaries that match your team because you want them to hinder your opponent(s). This is a great game that feels similar to other deck-building games but also is unique enough that it will have me returning for more. This is a good game with a fantastic property attached and has earned a Go To Golden Game Seal.
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