Magicka Mayhem Wizardry Card Game

Product Description

Features

• Hilarious strategy card game where you combine elements into spell to destroy your foes
• … But watch out your spell can get mayhem-ified causing it to blow up in your face
• Magicka mayhem is great for all ages, family friendly & easy to learn, but challenging to master
• Plan ahead or play fast and furious; make friends or make enemies; be aggressive or play defensive
• Magicka mayhem was summoned into existence by nearly 1,000 super-amazing Kickstarter backers

Top Reviews

and I gladly bought it both for fun and It was mad by a 10 Yr old
by Brian (5 out of 5 stars)
September 27, 2017

This was so awsome...amazon suggested it to me, and I gladly bought it both for fun and It was mad by a 10 Yr old, and his father helped. I was so compeled to buy and it gave me motivation for my own kick starter to. This game is fun, wacky, and silly and will make you laugh, Well done kid..please keep up the work and let your dreams fly..the fact that this got to market is proof that any dream is possible for you..I can twait to get this on steam as well!!

PS, I wish I could email and tell you how fun this game is, It is great
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The cards don't burst in flame, it's safe to grab.
by Ostego (4 out of 5 stars)
July 13, 2017

A group of co-workers and I hang out every Sunday evenings, playing older video games and some board games. This was a great, chaotic edition. While not as frantic as the video game, it definitely has the same charm and sense of humor. Certainly worth the purchase due to it's high replay ability.
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Less popular view of this game
by Super2019 (3 out of 5 stars)
January 7, 2017

We own over 150 games, so we play a lot of games throughout the year. My kids are very much into Magic The Gathering (for years now!) and games that work like it; where you are casting spells/powers trying to defeat your opponent. In other words, out of six of us, we are all experienced gamers, which may mean our standards are a bit higher than non-gamers or casual gamers. Thus take the following feedback through that lens. . .
+ We really like the artwork.

Kids were commenting how it reminds them of the style used for the graphics of Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone (a computer card game), which are two of their favorite computer games. Especially the summon creature cards are a great cartoon-looking fantasy creature.
> Not a funny or hilarious game. . .a chuckle or two here or there based on the flavor text of some of the cards. But Mayhem cards rarely made us laugh. More so, the Mayhem cards made us cringe because it was a chance our spell would fail. We are too competitive to care about the humor of the cards but are more concerned with how does the card work or did my spell succeed not
+ The instructions are printed on the front/back of cards too. I like the idea of having the instructions on cards.
> Only one set of instructions per deck. So players have to keep handing the cards around as reference, until they get to know the game. I sort of expect a quick reference card for each player on the steps to be taken on their turn, but no such card exists.
-- Dominion is a great card game that explains, in the instructions manual, every card type and what it does along with clear game mechanics. That is not here. Too many questions that were not answered in the instructions for this game, such as:
1. We had a mayhem card that backfired and instead of damaging opponents, it healed them. What if the opponent was already at 20 health, could they gain more than 20 health, just like summoned creatures can have more than their base health?
2. Spells had terms like "opponent" instead of target. So could you use those same spells on summoned monsters, such as freezing them?
3. Not a question: But it is very easy to read the damage a spell does as one value (i.e. 2 damage in the bottom left corner) and the effect as additional damage (i.e. 4 damage from effect, for a total of 6 damage). We played that way for our first two games and wondered why we were killing each other so fast. But I blame the instructions being too compressed and having zero room on the instruction card to provide any examples or clarification.
4. Who goes first? Does it matter who goes first?
5. If a Mayhem card forces a spell to fail, but my second spell on the same turn has a dependency on the first spell being cast, did my second spell get the bonus from its effect since the first card was cast, but simply "fizzled"? (a lot of cards have this dependency effect)
6. Two player games we go through the deck one or two times, let alone with more players. So what do you do when you run out of cards?
> Player's health card only has room to track the health of one summoned, even though you could be lucky enough to summon multiple creatures from the deck. Also no meeple or marker provided to use the health tracker card. We ditched the tracker cards and opted for dice to use as trackers...especially when my son summoned one creature then pumped his health up from 5 to 15, the tracker card only goes to 5 for one summoned. If they want us to use the tracker cards, provide markers that fit the small spaces or provide 20-sided dice (D20's), which would have been more helpful in the pack, than the tracker cards.
+ There is some good strategy once you've played a few times and gotten familiar with the cards. One time I traded in two ray spells on the chance I could get enough elements to summon a fire elemental. I didn't get the elements I needed!

Decisions like this bring the strategy element into the game, and it works well.
> The flip side of strategy leaves us with Luck being fairly high in this game. This is where some players are going to hate the game!

As you cast spells, you need to see if you pull a Mayhem card or not. Instead of flipping a coin (it is funny how people are less practiced with flipping coins), so we rolled a dice (easy for any age) and use the bottom 50% of the numbers to say that a Mayhem card triggered.

Mayhem cards could help you or in most cases hurt your or at least make your spell fail. It's the luck of the draw.
-- The Luck part may frustrate some players because they spent all this time and effort planning a spell combo only to have it fail or backfire and hurt themselves instead. Makes for some immersion into the game and makes it feel like we are all novice wizards who cannot always get our spells right. But some players are going to create house rules where Mayham cards are excluded from play so the Mayhem cards don't mess with the strategy of the game. . .even though the Mayhem cards are in essence what makes this card game different than others.
> I cannot find how much this game cost anywhere, as it is not available here on Amazon, nor BoardGamePrice site has it listed. I see the kickstarter had it going for $25. Ouch! For a deck of 91 actual playing cards (not counting the instructions and health trackers) seems steep.
+ The cards are very nice! High quality and very vibrant colors.
-- The cards come in a paper box, that is inside a cardboard box. Uh. . .why?

I just threw the paperbox away as it's of no use and I store the cards in the cardboard box. The high-gloss, paperbox is wasted expense. Give me some D20's instead or cardboard health trackers instead.

OVERALL: It is an okay game. It looks great as a gift to give (though a bit small. . .see photo of me holding the box).

Other than the nice aesthetics, my third born said, "Nothing was awesome about this. It was good, but not awesome."

Definitely not awesome enough that I'd purchase two sets at $25 each, in order to have enough cards for 4-players to play comfortably with, let alone the suggested 7-players with two decks. If that turns out to be the price, then $50 total for less than 200 playable cards is crazy to me, when I can spend $30 to get games that provide so many more components and awesome fun, such as Lords of Waterdeep, 7 Wonders or even Marvel Legendary which provides over 500 cards for $50.
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Fun and fast-paced; some of the rules are vague and some cards contradict themselves.
by Karissa Eckert (4 out of 5 stars)
January 5, 2017

I got this through the Amazon Vine program to review. My family is a huge fan of board games and card games especially fantasy themed ones. This is a fun card game. Most of what you need is in the box. In addition to what you get you will need a coin and something to keep track of hit points with (they give you a card for this but you need a piece of paper or something to put on the card to mark your current HP).

The game itself is pretty simple. To start out everyone gets 5 element cards and two spell cards. Each turn goes like this: draw two more element cards and one spell card, exchange cards if you want, cast your spell, do a mayhem check, have your opponent (and/or you) take damage. Rinse and repeat.

My nine year old son loves this game. My husband and I enjoyed it but were a little frustrated by some of the contradictions on the cards and the vagueness in the rules. I would guess that as long as your kid can read well, they will be able to play this. The cards are very humorous and entertaining to read.

The games take 30 to 45 minutes for us to play. The cards are nice quality and they came double boxed. I do wish there was a place for a dice and some markers in the box.

Below is a list of some things that could be improved:
- Rules never really state if your elemental can attack every round and you can do a spell too....or if you can just choose one action. We adopted a house rule that says if you have elementals out they can attack and you can still do a spell.
- There was an instance where I got a mayhem card that said spells with X element are doubled and spells with Y element are canceled. Unfortunately my spell had both elements in it. This was for the winning blow and everyone was pissed off because there was no way to determine if my spell blew everyone away or failed. This led to another house rule that said if the Mayhem card doesn't make sense you have to draw another one.
- Flipping the coin when you cast a spell to determine whether or not you get a Mayhem card got old really fast. My 9 year old cannot flip a coin to save his life. We ended up using a d6 die instead. Rolling an even number meant your spell went off without a hitch, rolling odd meant that you had to take a mayhem card.

Overall this is a fun game but it probably should have been play-tested a bit better. The rules could definitely use some clarification and some of the cards contradict themselves.

As long as you are willing to play through a couple times to clarify things (and don't mind making some house rules to make the game consistent) then I would definitely recommend. It's a fun and fast-paced card game that can be played a few different ways. It's a game that both kids and adults will enjoy. If you get really upset by vague and contradictory rules I would skip this one.

We have actually played it quite a bit and it's very portable. So I see us taking this game on trips a lot and we'll definitely keep playing it. It does have some good strategy and the element of surprise (with the mayhem cards) give it some crazy fun.
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light random game but it suffers from fiddly-ness
by Charlyn Gee (3 out of 5 stars)
January 22, 2017

I played the "Spellmageddon" rules with two players. It was moderately fun, and quick - we were able to finish the game in half an hour or so. I think it would be more fun with four players, because there would be more options and more action happening.

I found the game a little "fiddly" - there are a lot of statuses and effects to keep track of (just like in the Magicka video game) but this board game doesn't have many tracking tools or markers to help players. For a game that feels pretty light and random, we were spending a lot of time keeping track of details. Higher production value player aids would help.

The instructions are printed on cards - it takes a dozen double-sided cards to hold all the instructions, so it would be better if they were on a sheet because it would be easier to refer to a sheet. It was easy to learn to play.

The cards themselves look nice and feel thick, shiny, and high quality.
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Not for us
by Brent Butler (2 out of 5 stars)
November 5, 2017

I hated to give this game two stars, as there are distinct positives to it. However, the shortcomings outweighed them for our group.

Let's start with the positives:
1. The art is beautiful
2. The cards are well done. They are actually coated stock, where a lot of games with cards use cheaper uncoated stock. Coated stock will hold up much better with repeated use, and not get dirty.
3. There is a decent amount of variety in the game.
4. Some of the game mechanics are indeed interesting.

Now for the drawbacks:
1. Having the rules on a set of cards is a disaster. They're hard to keep organized, and EXTREMELY annoying to try to find and refer to a rule as you try to learn the game. Plus the text is small and very crowded. This alone is enough for me to pass on the entire game. Hint to designers: There are lots of other games, with rules in better formats, and easier to use. Your competition has this over you in spades.
2. There are three variants of the rules. Many of the actions on the cards seem to apply specifically to one variant, but that isn't clear on the cards themselves. Ambiguity in rules and/or play is something else I detest in a game.
3. The cards you use to keep track of health, etc. are entirely insufficient. You'll do better with pencil and paper. They are also difficult to read and interpret in places, as the health numbers virtually disappear into some of the graphics.
4. Certain game mechanics seem to rely on memory (Am I wet? Am I done being hit with a spell for multiple turns?) With four players and a lot of stuff going on, that got to be tricky to keep track of without making notes.
5. There was no organic motive in the strategy. Who you choose to attack is often entirely arbitrary, rather than an outgrowth of the game situation, especially near the start of the game. In many games you're going to be in conflict with a neighbor, or a player who controls a resource you need. None of that is present here.
6. The game designers thought they were a LOT more amusing than they actually are. We found most of the jokes to be rather trite.
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A fun concept that needs improvement
by Jmaynard (3 out of 5 stars)
January 26, 2017

My family loves card games, especially cooperative play ones like Legendary. I got this game through vine because it sounded like a simple competitive game along the lines of Love Letters, or Masquerade, but with a fantasy twist.

The game reminded me a lot of Yu-gi-oh. Players start with a hand of cards, draw new element and spell cards each turn, "attack" and/or take damage. Simple enough, but unfortunately, the game did not have enough play testing done before release. Some cards are contradictory, and the rules are not specific enough, nor cover every situation. There are some cards in Legendary which aren't clear, but I can accept that in a game with literally thousands of cards. Here, it's just poor quality control. Adopting "house" rules can help alleviate this, but shouldn't have been necessary.

The game itself is very high quality. I love the look and feel of the cards, and the packaging is very appealing. Since this is vine, I'm hopeful that the game makers will make improvements before this gets a wide release. It's a fun game that pre-teens can also enjoy. It just needs some improvement.
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A game with a humorous feel, but we found the rules to be a bit difficult.
by Joshua Senecal (4 out of 5 stars)
June 10, 2017

A good game always makes for a fun evening with family and friends. I looked forward to trying out this new game with my family. We still need to spend some more time with it, but I think it'll give us a lot of enjoyment.

Honestly, the main attraction for me was the story of how the game came to be: invented by a kid based on a favorite computer game, pitched, refined, funded, and published. I was looking forward to trying it out.

The overall feel of the game is one of relaxation and a lack of seriousness--you're meant to have fun. The rules, and many of the cards, have a humorous touch to them, reflecting the sense of humor of the young inventor. I find this appealing, as I'm not a fan of getting seriously and emotionally involved in games. If you have a wacky sense of humor chances are you'll like this.

Here's how it went for us the first time around. My wife and boys and I sat down, went over the rules, and played a round. We enjoyed it, but It was rough going. The rules, while probably straightforward, are not in fact simple, nor are they completely clear. The authors of the game indicate it doesn't take long to learn, but I'm guessing it's because they wrote the game, and their testers were likely people who are very familiar with gaming and pick up on a new game very quickly. I agree that after playing the game a few times (over a few days) you'll probably pick up the rules, but we frankly found the first game to be very difficult.

Everything is on cards. It means the rules and explanations are spread over a significant number of cards. None of this is likely to be an issue once you've played the game for a while and everything becomes second nature, but until then you have to keep the rule cards organized and are constantly referring back to them. It's a pain trying to locate the card that explains the rule you have questions about. I'd prefer a folded paper insert.
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Messy Rule 'Book' Requires Future Updates or House Rules
by James Skemp (3 out of 5 stars)
January 16, 2017

First, while a friend and I started playing the Magicka PC game, we didn't get far before quitting. So I have only a minor understanding of the video game that Magicka Mayhem is based upon. However, this game requires no knowledge of the source material.

Next, I have to talk about the most unfortunate part of this game, which is the rules. Instead of using a rulebook there are 13 double-sided cards which contain information about the game. Unfortunately, most of the cards aren't numbered, and there are many things that aren't covered by the rules, or were all over the place, requiring a good deal of jumping back and forth between the cards.

There's also not much information (from what I can see) on whether wizards/creatures can have more health/shields than the card allots, nor whether you can have multiple creatures summoned at once.

The shield/health/creature health tracking cards also leave much to be desired in that while it says a coin or token could be used, however the circles are far too small, even for the small colored clear gems that I once used for tracking health decades ago when playing Magic: The Gathering. We ended up using paper and pen to track this instead.

To play Magicka each player is a wizard that can use one or more element cards to cast spells or summon creatures. Unlike some games, any extra elements used to cast spells are lost, but you're able to cast as many spells as you can per turn. However, there's a chance (depending upon the rules you play, requiring a coin or six-sided die) that mayhem might ensue when spells are cost, changing the initial effect of the card.

There are also beam spells, which cause damage for three turns (unless defended/cancelled with a shield), and summoned creatures which stick around and can (seemingly) attack other wizards after the turn they're brought into play.

For a four player game we seemed to take a little more than an hour, due to not being able to plan too far in advance. Not being able to stockpile elements also requires a bit of work balancing which cards are played when, and therefore most players end up with some cards in their hands and some set aside in one or more piles to play later or keep.

For the most part people seemed fine with the game, but the mess of a rule 'book' resulted in some people kiddingly joking that I was making rules up as I went, as I tried to find where it actually had the rule on the cards.

Ultimately, there's plenty of other games I'd rather be playing. The mayhem aspect of the game is quite interesting, but the elements aspect somehow plays oddly. The rules should have also been a book, or they should have been better laid out, with important aspects, like how the card exchange works, put in the same place as it is originally introduced.

For these reasons I give Magicka Mayhem three of five stars. Once you understand the rules the rule cards won't hold you back as much as they do during the start. But as I mentioned before there's other games I'd rather play.
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Wizard duel with a lot of luck
by Garbarino Family (3 out of 5 stars)
January 23, 2017

Magicka Mayhem is another take on the dueling wizards card-game genre pioneered by Magic: the Gathering.

In this game everyone draws from three common decks. There are spell cards for casting spells, element cards that fuel the spell cards, and mayhem cards that cause the spells to go awry. You begin your turn by drawing spell and element cards. If you cast a spell, there's a 50/50 chance that you'll have to draw a mayhem card. The mayhem card might double the damage or it might turn the damage back on the caster or any number of unexpected things. The mayhem cards add a significant amount of luck to the game.

This is a solid card game for 2 to 4 players. It's very portable and usually doesn't take too long to play, so it's a good filler game. My kids really enjoyed it. They liked it much more than I did. Experienced game players might not find much to hold their attention, but it's a fun enough game for players of different strategic ability. The mayhem cards level the playing field quite a bit.

Though we enjoyed playing Magicka Mayhem, the game could be improved.
1) The instructions are a bit vague on certain points. It seems like the creators didn't do enough play testing with other people. Some of the game elements are ambiguous and could have been clarified with one sentence in the instructions. My kids weren't too bothered by the vagueness because they like to make up rules on the spot. If you want to play it the "right" way, however, you might find yourself getting frustrated.
2) And this is a minor complaint, the rules are printed on a dozen cards that are the same size and shape as the decks used. I found this to be a confusing presentation. I had to sift through cards, flipping them over, looking for the clarification that might or might not be there. It just struck me as awkward.
3) You need counter tokens to keep track of your life, but the game doesn't come with any. This was the thing that my kids were disappointed by. I understand that people who play Magic: the Gathering or other card games like this will have plenty of counter tokens laying around. However, this game doesn't seem geared to that crowd. The game seems more suitable for folks who just want to give a wizard duel a quick try without a big investment. Those people don't have a pouch of tokens laying around.

The game's not perfect, but it's fun. The artwork is pretty nice, but the text font seems a bit cheap. I'm picky about fonts. Oh, and one last thing. The game bills itself as being so funny that you might "pee your pants with laughter." Really though, the creators aren't near as funny as they think they are. In instructions have some jokes inserted. The cards have some attempts at humor. But the most I'd expect is a low chuckle. Maybe.

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