Mystic Vale Game Review

There’s something to be said when one of my most vivid memories from Gen Con this past year was the demo of Mystic Vale.

I remember the exhibition hall, sitting down at the first empty table we saw. Arrayed out in front of us was a grid of translucent cards, surrounded by four decks of card sleeves. These cards were longer and narrower than average, mostly see-through, and the heavy usage of green, sky blue, and brown in the artwork hinted at a natural and forest-like world. The drawings themselves looked beautiful, and somehow added to their mystique. I was intrigued.

Not long after, the booth attendant came by and started explaining the game to us. This was Mystic Vale, a deck builder with some twists.

Lightweight decisions, but with depth

Slowly but surely, as we were walked through the game, these ‘twists’ became obvious. The sleeves and translucent cards had a purpose beyond just looking sleek; they were part of a clever card crafting mechanic. You could stack your purchased cards, or choose to put them in blank sleeves. Not only that, but you could also push your luck: risk losing your turn to potentially gain more than usual.

The demo was supposed to be a short 15-20 minutes, but we were having so much fun, the attendant allowed us a full game. The 45 minutes went by very quickly, and money ended up being spent at that booth.

That money bought Mystic Vale, arguably our group’s best purchase that year.

Rules Overview

In Mystic Vale, each player represents a druidic clan attempting to heal a cursed and dying land. This restoration of nature is quantified with victory points. Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the game wins.

Each player begins the game with a deck of twenty card sleeves. This number does not change at all throughout the game, something I think is unique compared to traditional deck builders. A grid of ‘Advancement’ cards and ‘Vale’ cards is placed in the center for all players to see. These will be purchased throughout the game, getting replaced as they are picked up.

Newly obtained ‘Advancement’ cards will fill out one of the three available slots on the sleeves. These new cards present a variety of benefits when played, providing things like more Mana to purchase better cards, Spirit symbols for obtaining permanent Vale cards, and victory point tokens. They could also provide a host of different special abilities to help unleash powerful combos.

The Turn

So how does all this happen? A player’s turn consists of four phases, at which point play is passed to the next player. This continues until the victory point pile is exhausted, signalling the end of the game. Setup involves everyone going through the fourth phase first, which is Prep, just to get things moving.

Prep involves turning over the top card of the deck and leaving it in place, making it the ‘on-deck’ card. As long as the phase is not over, this on-deck card then gets moved into your field, or play area, and the process is repeated. Some cards will display a red decay symbol, and the Prep phase will end when three of these are visible. This includes both the symbols for the on-deck card as well as cards in your field.

From this point on, gameplay begins. The four phases in order are Planting, Harvest, Discard, and Prep.

Planting – Do I push my luck?

With three red decay symbols showing, a player will be confronted with a decision to Push, or Pass. Pushing is your classic push-your-luck mechanic, and the player will take the risk of placing the on-deck card into the field, and revealing the next. If the next on-deck card has a fourth red decay symbol, the player ‘spoils’, essentially losing the turn and gets forced to skip the Harvest phase to go straight to discarding. If there is no decay symbol, the player is safe and again may choose whether to Push or Pass. Passing moves the player straight to the Harvest phase.

Harvest – What should I buy?

The player uses the cards in his or her field to buy new cards. By using blue Mana symbols in the field, up to two Advancement cards can be purchased. Likewise, by using various Spirit symbols from the field, Vale cards can purchased to be laid out permanently in the play area. Any additional abilities from cards in the player’s field would also take effect now, such as taking Victory Point tokens. Once purchases are complete, harvesting is over.

Discard- Where should I place it?

During the Discard phase, any newly obtained Advancement cards are now placed in sleeves from your field (not the on-deck card) and then the entire field is discarded. Unlike most deck builders, this step is crucial. Every Advancement card takes either a top, middle, or bottom slot on a sleeve. You decide how to combine these.

Prep

Just like game setup, the player will prep again by flipping and placing the on-deck card until three decay symbols are visible. The convenience here is that this can be done while other players take their turn.

End of Game

Once all the Victory Point tokens are exhausted, players continue taking turns until everyone has had the same number of turns. Extra tokens are used if needed here. Then, all Victory points are added up from tokens, Advancement cards, and Vale cards. The highest scoring player wins.

Simple on the surface..

At first glance, Mystic Vale is very simple and easy to pick up, but very soon you realize just how big of an impact every decision makes.

Pushing your luck is the most obvious one. That Field of Flowers card currently available for purchase looks very enticing. Glancing at your next opponent, you clearly see that if you don’t buy it, he will. Even worse, he already has one. You’ve gone through about half of your deck and ask yourself, how many decays are left? Do you remember how many you’ve seen since the last shuffle?

You push your luck. Placing your Fertile Soil into the field, you flip the next card. It’s blank. Whew! Snatching up that Field of Flowers, you mull over your placement options. Do you stack it with a Fertile Soil to have one card with lots of Mana? Or do you throw it on a blank card to see Mana more often? That stacked card would feel great this early though…

Every turn presents these simple, light, and yet meaningful decisions. And, in my opinion, the most important aspect of any game is player decision making. Mystic Vale struck a great balance with this. Decisions are well defined, presented one at a time in a predictable manner, and all have a meaningful impact. They are presented often, allowing beginners to learn quickly, and they can mitigate each other.

This is why I love Mystic Vale. I think its depth, yet low difficulty, make it a great addition to anybody’s collection. Not only that, but its many expansion packs open doors for even more decision making and replayability.

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