The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Review of Trickdraw

Howdy, partner! Welcome to Trickdraw, the board game where you can shoot your way to victory with strategy, deception, and magic flippin cowboys. In this game, you will face off against other players in a wild west showdown of cards and bullets. You will need to use your cunning and your cards to outwit and outgun your opponents, while avoiding their traps and tricks.

But watch out, because some of the cards have special powers that can change the game in an instant. Will you be the fastest gun in the west, or the last one standing?

SET UP

1. Thoroughly shuffle then place the deck of 72 cards in the centre of the table, easily accessible by all players.
2. Make sure each player has enough space in front of them to place 10 to 15 cards or so.
3. Each player draws 2 cards.

HOW TO PLAY

The player who most recently watched a Western- themed movie is the first player. Starting with the first player, players take turns as follows:

Draw 1 card from the deck to start your turn.

Then in any order, you may:

• Play 1 card from your hand to the table in front of you face down as 1 point, or face-up to activate it, AND
  Activate any number of your face up ONCE PER TURN cards once each,

OR

• Abstain from both playing your 1 card, and from using any of your ONCE PER TURN cards, to instead draw 2 more cards from the deck.

When you are finished, pass your turn. Play continues clockwise until the game end is triggered.

ACTIVATE YOUR ONCE PER TURN CARDS

Some of your face-up cards may have re-usable ONCE PER TURN abilities which you may activate once on each of your turns to either draw, play or flip a card.

You can use these abilities after you draw 1 card at the beginning of the turn, either before or after you Play 1 card as part of your turn.

HOW CARDS WORK

Cards in TRICKDRAW are simple, but…tricky. They can be played or flipped face-up or face-down, and reused in various ways to create all sorts of combinations, powerful effects, or points to help you win the game. Many cards can target any card, including your own or your rivals’` cards, giving you many possible plays

Explore these card tricks to master TRICKDRAW!

FACE-UP CARDS HAVE ABILITIES

Face-up cards have text abilities which activate in various ways while or when played or flipped face-up.

Card abilities come in 3 key types defined by the timing labels in their text box:

1. ON REVEAL cards take effect when played face-up, or flipped face-up.
2. ONCE PER TURN cards may be used once in each of your own turns while face-up.
3. ONGOING cards are always active while face-up.

FLIPPING CARDS

Several card abilities allow you to flip 1 or more of you or your rivals’ cards to their opposite sides, i.e., face-up, or face-down. This is a powerful way to control the game.

Since cards enter play before they activate their abilities, cards that flip cards can target themselves (except The Army, which specifies that it only flips other cards).

When you flip a face-up card face-down, its text becomes inactive and it is worth 1 point to its owner, the same as if it had been played face-down to begin with Face-down cards that are flipped face-up are no longer worth 1 point, but become active again as if they had just been played face- up!

Find ways to flip your rivals’ cards to limit their ability to win Or flip your own cards face-up to reactivate and chain powerful card effects, or face-down as points when you no longer need their ability.

HOW TO WIN

There are 2 ways to trigger the endgame of TRICKDRAW an Endgame Showdown, or an Instant Win

1. ENDGAME SHOWDOWN!

TRIGGERING THE END GAME SHOWDOWN

When a player reaches 10 points through any combination of face-down and face-up cards the Endgame Showdown is triggered. But first, the active player finishes their turn.

SHOWDOWN TO DETERMINE THE WINNER

Once the endgame has been triggered, and the active player has completed their turn, the game moves into a Showdown

The player who first reached 10 points does not get a final turn. However, as a special reward, they take 2 additional cards from the top of the deck and place them face-down in front of them alongside their other cards.

Then, starting with the player to the left of the player who first reached 10 points, and continuing clockwise, all other players get one final turn each. During these last showdown turns, they play the game as usual, playing cards face-up for effects or face-down for points, and triggering re-usable cards as able, all in an effort to end up with the most points at the end of the game.

The twist is that all players who tie on points at the end of the Showdown are ELIMINATED. Only players that do not tie with another player have a chance to win the Endgame Showdown!

THE SHOWDOWN WINNER

The winner is the surviving player with the most points after all players have taken their final turn. It is possible for each player to tie with another player, in which case there is no winner!

2. INSTANT WIN WITH ANY 2 OF: THE KEY, THE TREASURE, OR THE TEMPLE

There are 3 special victory cards in Trickdraw: The Key, The Treasure, and The Temple.

If you have any 2 of these 3 cards face-up in front of you, you immediately win the game, whether before or during an Endgame Showdown!

First Impression

My first impression of Trickdraw was, WOW!

As you when I entered the PAX Australia boardgame area, I was met with a 15 foot canvas of the amazing cover art. I had no idea what the game was, or what type of game it was. But I had to play it, as I loved the aesthetic.

Playthrough

As I sat there and watched Kim from Good Games Publishing take players through the game. And though everybody that played it seemed to be having an absolute ball, and, I believe, about half of them that I first saw actually purchased the game.

What surprised me was when a new game was starting, Kim seemed to be having some trouble finding players. Because when you first see the game, Trickdraw looks like a game that needs kind of like deck builder card game. Which weirdly makes people nervous.

But after Kim explained the rules, everybody seemed to understand and relax a little bit. The game was quite easy to pick up when you let the nerves dissipate. And by the second turn, we all seem to have it down quite easily. But there are some beautiful nuances to this game that make it just. I do not know how to put it, except just great. Allowing players to mess with each other’s boards while bolstering their own in such a simple way, is testament to the design of Trickdraw.

And when end game is triggered this is where this game shows its true beauty. As you do not even need to getthe highest score, to win the game. You can change other people’s board to give them more points than you & match another player’s score. Which cancels both players out and getting yourself the win from being from 3rd.

Not knowing what somebody else has, and being able to pull out the win from 3^rd or even last worth the price of admission!

What was a bit devastating is about my experience with Trickdraw. Was Kim let me know after we had played the game & everyone had disbanded. Is that the two gentlemen that I sat down with were the designers of Land Vs Sea. Another Good Games game that I am absolutely obsessed with.  (Sameless plug here: https://dezdoes.com/good-games-publishings-land-vs-sea-review/) Dammit Kim! Ha ha

Art

The Art of Trickdraw is what it originally drew me into this game. It has this beautiful anime stylings set in a Wild West, with almost a magical esque feel to it.

Yes, I’m aware that reading that, it seems a mess of nonsensical art styles that shouldn’t be able to go together; And yet this could quite possibly be my favourite art from any game. There is just something about it that just grabs me in all the right places.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Trickdraw captivated me from its eye-catching cover art to an engaging playthrough at PAX Australia. Despite initial hesitations, the game surprisingly easy to grasp, revealing strategic depth and clever design made this a real sleeper game & my favourite game of PAX Australia.

The fact that the highest scorer doesn’t win, is crazy to me & yet, but makes me so happy. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of weird & wacky win conditions.

Trickdraw has become the game I bring & open every boardgame night. As it is a thinking game that gets that grey matter working in a tactical yet is fun & excitement.

If like me, you want to add Trickdraw to your collection, buy your copy here!