Death Strikers: Overkillers of Epochalypse

• Designer: D. Brad Talton, Jr
• Publisher: L99 Games
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 17+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Crowdfunding link: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/level-99-games/megagame-library
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

To win each battle, you gotta throw hands! Get the coolest cards, throw out your strongest hand, and watch them try to do something about it. Will you sap their stamina with a bunch of small hands or go for the throat with a big hand? The first player to take too much damage loses the round. Win enough rounds to win the war!

Players play hands of either runs or sets, targeting the opponent to their left. That player must play also play a run or set of a higher value, so a 3-3-3 must be beaten by a 4-4-4 or higher. And a 2-3-4-5 must be beaten by at least a 3-4-5-6 or higher. If not, that player takes those cards as three damage, and whatever they did play becomes an attack to the next player.

But beware, many cards have extra effects when attacking or blocking. When a player receives 10 cards as damage, they are knocked out and the round is over. The player with the least damage, and the player who dealt the killing blow each get a winner token. The most winner tokes after a set number of rounds wins the game!

There are 161 cards in the game, split into 6 suits. Five of the suits are full of regular cards which have varying numbers from 1 to 15 (non-inclusive).  The last suit, yellow, has about 80 cards, with all sorts of numbers (0 to 99!).  You can tell these are special because they also  have card titles and special effects.

To start, shuffle all the regular cards into a deck, and then deal each player 9 cards from this deck.  Next, shuffle all the special cards, and deal one card to each player.  Each player also gets a handy player aid card.  This card tells you the valid card combinations on one side and recaps the suit colors and the range of numbers in that suit.

The game is played over 5 rounds, and in each round 2  Ws (“Win tokens”) are handed out.  At the end of the game, the player with the most Ws is the winner!

In a round, the start player plays a combination of cards from their hand – this can be a single card, a run of 2-5 cards (all consecutive numbers) or a set of 2-5 cards (all having the same number).  The card is played to the player on their left.  That player now has to choose to block it or Get Hit.  If you have special cards, the rules may change!

If they Block It, they must play a combination with the same number of cards which has at least one number higher than any card in the combination they were attacked with.  The original attack is discarded, and the newly played combination is now presented to the left hand opponent who now faces the same choices.

If they Get Hit – and they can choose not to play cards and Get Hit – takes the cards from the attacking combination and places it face up in front of them.  Most cards are each worth 1 Damage point, but some special cards have higher damage totals on them.  Check to see if you have 10 or more Damage, because if so, the round immediately ends.  If not, you can now play any valid combination as an attack on your left hand neighbor.

Some of the suits have special powers. If you play a Green card in a block, you get to draw 1 card from the deck.  If you play a Blue card in a combination, it is always worth 2 Damage instead of the base 1.  If you play a Peach trap card in a block, you can pickup one card from the combination attacking you, that is – take a card from the attack and add it to your hand.  Each yellow card has unique rules on it, and since there are like 80 of them in the box, I’ll leave it to you to read them as you come across them in the game.

Keep going around the table until someone has 10 or more damage – and then the round ends.  The player who loses takes an L token.  The player that played the “killshot”, i.e. the combo that did the damage that ends the rounds takes one of the W tokens.  The player with the least damage when the round ends also gets a W.  This could be the same player, and if so, that player gets 2 Ws.  

Take all the cards in play, add them to the rest of the draw deck, and shuffle all those up.  Thus, any special cards in play remain in play.  Deal each player 9 cards from the game deck, and then give everyone one new Special card (from the Special deck made in setup).

Play five rounds total.  At the end of the game, the player with the most Ws wins (each L cancels out a W).  There is no tiebreaker, and in fact, if there is a tie, there is no winner.  You are instructed to play another full game.

My thoughts on the game

According to the L99 promos: “Get ready for your next game night! The MegaGame Library brings you FIVE brand new games from Level 99—each packed with fast-paced fun and unforgettable moments. From wild western showdowns to magical wish-granting and adorable kitchen chaos, there’s something for every group.”

I was given an advance copy of one of these five games to try out, and I requested Death Strikers – in part because I love “big deck of card” games and also in part because I love the previous games by the designer, D. Brad Talton, Jr.  (and I am of course referring to Millenium Blades).  Both the crazy special actions on the cards, the interesting card interactions and the hilarious flavor text have made this one an all-time favorite, and as a result, I was definitely interested in seeing this new card game.

While there isn’t as much flavor text in Death Strikers as in Millenium Blades – what is in the game is exceedingly witty.  I have definitely enjoyed reading all of the blurbs on the card, as well as trying to figure out all the inside jokes on the special cards.  For example, there is a Pen card, value 1.  But as a single, it blocks any combination containing a sword.  Because, of course, the pen is mightier than the sword!

At first I thought this was just going to be a shedding game – but it really isn’t. First, you don’t have to follow the form of the previous play, you just have to make a legal combination with a higher number.  Well, that is if you even choose to block.  There may be times when you’d rather just absorb the hit (especially if it is only basic cards) so that you are free to play any combination you like.  Heck, there are even some Special cards which cannot be played until you have reached a certain threshold of damage, so you might be incentivized to take damage to allow you to play those cards.

I like the way that the game encourages you to be good at defense as well as at offense – as both are rewarded at the end of the round. If you can consistently hit your left hand opponent, you’ll be in the running for dealing the knockout blow to win the round.  If you manage to block everything played at you, well, you’ll likely win the W for least damage taken!

The game has a nice little arc to it – in that N new special cards are added to the deck each round. If you have a good memory, you’ll remember some of the older ones that you may have to deal with, and there will always be surprises as you discover what was dealt fresh from the Special deck each time. In addition, due to the combinatorics and whatnot, each game plays out a little differently based on the random Special cards thrown into the mix (and the order of their arrival).

Also, with the huge deck of special cards, it feels like I’m always discovering a new card or a new inside joke on one of the cards.  I’ve tried to give you some feel of the breadth of the cards here without giving away too many of them!

Death Strikers is a fun little filler that definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously.  The cards have a lot of humor in them, and it’s fun to just go and bash on your neighbor over and over again.  The game definitely rewards skillful play and hand management, and the special cards give everyone a chance to make fun and surprising plays.  

As this is the first game that I’ve played out of the MegaGame Library, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of them.  I very much like how much game is brought to the table in this little box!

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor

Crowdfunding link: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/level-99-games/megagame-library