Exploring Curated Card Sets within Citizens of the Spark
Populate a city with a wide range of different sorts of inhabitants with their own unique abilities in Citizens of the Spark.
Onto a new arrival! Citizens of the Spark showed up recently and I was excited to explore its gorgeous artwork. Although the characters are anthropomorphic, they’re rather different from the usual cute and cuddly theming. Gameplay is also a bit unexpected with a city that takes shape through its citizens. I tore into the card packs, eager to dive into this world!
Game Overview
Game Name: Citizens of the Spark
Publication Year: 2025
Designer: Philip duBarry
Artist: Diego Sá
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
New citizens arrive in the assembly, offering up choices to diversify or build up a certain type for more powerful action options. Tons of different setup combinations exist to create plenty of variety, all while the challenge to claim victory creates many thoughtful moments! And so much spark…
First Play
July 4, 2025
Complexity
2
Latest Play
July 4, 2025
Expansions
1
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
81
Game Area
24" x 22"
Low Score
70
Against Scyntilla
The neat part about the game is how it’s very much about building a city, but the focus is on the citizens. There are no structures to construct: Just the characters!
Solo takes place against the city of Scyntilla, which uses a separate action deck and modified sequence to interfere.
It took me a little bit of time to wrap my head around the rules, as there is a bit of a conveyor belt element to moving around Scyntilla’s stacks of citizens. But I got there!
Indeed, “getting there” didn’t mean I knew how to win right away, yet it was nice to feel like I knew what I was doing!
Filling Up a City
Choosing new citizens from the assembly presents choices, and it’s not always clear what will be the best option.
The solo game uses 7 different types of citizens from a massive selection of 30 (or 33 with the mini-expansion).
Following the solo opponent is often ideal and requires a matching citizen, but stacks offer better actions with duplicate copies. So there’s a nice tension in the choices.
I may have gone a little hard in the tyrant direction here… Ha! But with lucrative end game scoring, it was hard to not want to build up my city in this way. Yet, I still lost. Ha ha!
Neat Organization
Dividers are included to easily organize all of the different citizen types. Look at all that variety! As I mentioned, only 7 different types are shuffled together during a solo play.
Recommended sets exist, which are certainly useful for easing into play and understanding the rules. Randomizer cards are also included to really increase the variety, though!
I felt like I needed a lot more time to explore the mixed decks to get a feel for how great the game might be.
My first foray was more about figuring out how to operate Scyntilla, and making sure I learned all of the rules.
Another Final City
During my first play, I dumped all of the negative scoring citizens into Scyntilla’s area… Which was a horrible idea! None of the actions or scoring actually affect Scyntilla.
So I basically handed over high-power actions, along with a lot of victory points. Well, I wasn’t about to repeat that!
I still found myself picking up a lot of tyrants, but balanced these with other types of citizens and powerful actions.
Activated citizens are discarded after use, so that might also explain why the end game tyrants stuck around. Very neat sort of game I’ll have to explore much more in the future!
Adding Variety with a Curated Starting Deck
In most cases, my solo games that involve a lot of card variety do so with a large central deck. All of the cards are shuffled together, and then a random assortment show up during play. However, the idea of a curated deck is another way to achieve a lot of variety, often with a little more control. There is more information about the contents of a deck, yet variety persists.
The extra steps during setup and cleanup can make this method a little less desirable, although I’m starting to appreciate it! Specifically in this case, abilities get more powerful with larger stacks and follow abilities can be very valuable. Having a huge deck with every card type would be a disaster! And this has the nice benefit of promising many future plays.
I can see myself trying out different sets, possibly putting together some of the least similar citizens to create an extreme challenge. Lots of possibilities! I’ll note that I didn’t immediately get excited about playing over and over, but this was a great session to learn the rules and overall flow. This is almost like building a central deck, rather than a player deck. Cool!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Normal Difficulty Level
Outcome: 70-98, 81-75 (1 Win & 1 Loss)
I managed to pull of a victory once I had a better grasp of the rules! It was neat to see how the solo opponent offered up an in-depth challenge, and I can just imagine how many combinations of different citizens there may be. Much more to discover with everything that’s included! I wasn’t immediately grabbed by the gameplay, although I certainly don’t expect to abandon this one… Lest I become an outcast!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
6
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
8
+ Pros (Positives)
- Gameplay moves relatively quickly with some degree of planning ahead possible with mostly open information.
- There are many different ways to combine the citizen cards for all kinds of challenges and interesting synergies.
- Icons can be found very easily on the cards to make counting easier during play and final end game scoring.
- Choosing new cards from the assembly takes careful thought, and extra spark tokens may not always be worth it.
- Operating the solo opponent isn’t just about blocking or taking, but also features nuances with following or scoring.
- All of the artwork is excellent with bright colors and anthropomorphic animals with a very distinct appearance.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The sequence of play takes a little time to get used to, especially the way the solo opponent uses card stacks.
- Understanding the ways the citizen cards work requires a bit of a time investment in order to plan turns optimally.
- Maintaining a neat and organized play area isn’t always easy with the way cards overlap and move around in stacks.
- Some values need to be calculated on an ongoing basis, which can distract from the overall strategy.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about Citizens of the Spark? Are there any card sets or combinations you particularly enjoy playing with? I feel like there is a lot more to explore with the unique abilities, although I have far too many card games calling out at the moment… Definitely plan to return with a brand new set of cards to explore! And maybe even a harder difficulty level.
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