Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards II, a review!

The best part about winter cold? Playing a lot more games inside!

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards II: Rumble at Castle Tentakill

A  …..ago I bought the card game Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mount Skullzfyre. You can read the review of it here Epic Spell Wars 1 review

Now here comes Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards II: Rumble at Castle Tentakill. It is both a standalone and an expansion to the original game.

My go to wizard of choice?
A flying flaming skull with a mouth full of blood and body bits!

It is an expansion?

This version follows the rules of the original. You pick one of several wizards to play. These wizards are just  placeholders for hit point tracking with fantastic names.

You build spells using cards using a version of a Source, Quality and Delivery cards in various combinations. You play these cards to damage and destroy your opponents and help ensure you are the last wizard standing. Do this twice and win the game.

The spell cards are insane named, violent, silly and at times wildly inappropriate. We love it!

(Yes we play with children, but you can pull the wildly inappropriate cards to stem any issues, because you know….parenting and fragile minds.)

It is the same game mechanic and the 120 new spell component cards can be used along with the Mount Skullzfyre set to make all manner of craziness.

It is a new standalone game?

Well it is a new version of the original game. The spell cards are all different. You don’t need the original to play it. Oh yeah, there are new game mechanics to use as well.

There are four new game mechanics to this set, making its own game and not an expansion.

First, is the addition of “Creature” cards. There is a chance to keep your final spell card (or the Delivery as it is called in game) as a sort of familiar for future turns. They can be used to bolster future spell damage or to act as a meat shield to soak incoming damage. A fun and useful addition indeed!

Second, is that there are now a few spells that have the “Reaction” ability. This ability lets some aspect of your spell function even if you are killed prior to your turn. It might be a final bit of damage to everyone or it could let you cheat death for another turn, or some various other effects. Still a very useful ability as nothing is worse than getting killed off before getting  a chance to dazzle/destroy with an  awesome spell like........

Third, there is a “Blood” mechanic now too. When you off an opponent you gain a certain amount of their blood. This can be used to fuel spells or magical items. This  new bit might be wildly important or completely useless. It depends on the cards you have how useful the collected and tallied Blood of your foes really is.

Finally, there is the Castle Tentakill cardboard standee. Where the original Mount Skullzfyre standee is just included for fun. The Castle Tentakill standee can be controlled by players to cause more spell damage or be used to cause damage to the owner of the cardboard tower.

So this is both a new game and an expansion to the original game. The cards are interchangeable. The four new game mechanics are all useful, but are not necessary to play. The card names and combinations are awesome! The artwork is: crude, very Superjail!  and (even though I hate that show) I love the look of it in this game!

We have yet to mash all the spell cards together, mostly because having a pile of 240 cards to play with is a bit of logistical nightmare.

If you are a fan of the original game then you probably have this already. If you are looking for an irreverent card game, that isn’t Against Humanity, then go grab this game for your little gaming group. It will not disappoint…….well unless you hate juvenile humor and wizards.