Card Trickery and Collectibility in Millennium Blades
Find a bit of humor with the countless card combinations in a world of collectible card games with Millennium Blades.
In the market for cards, cards, and more cards? Millennium Blades is a unique sort of game that makes fun of itself in a way and provides layers of humor with all sorts of flavor text. There are card “packs” of all kinds to mix and match! It’s all a bit chaotic, and I wanted to jump back into this very wild world of collecting cards and playing in tournaments!
Game Overview
Game Name: Millennium Blades
Publication Year: 2016
Designer: D. Brad Talton, Jr.
Artist: Fábio Fontes
Publisher: Level 99 Games
Solo Mode: Included in Millennium Blades: Set Rotation
Oh, the possibilities! Over the course of several timed rounds, new cards may be purchased or traded as a small deck takes shape. This collection of tournament cards is used in a final showdown against a very tricky solo opponent whose own deck is only partially known!
First Play
March 27, 2020
Complexity
4
Latest Play
November 7, 2021
Expansions
7
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
12
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
204
Game Area
32″ x 26″
Low Score
76
Cooking with Cards
In the solo game, each unique character boasts special abilities during the deckbuilding and tournament phases. This time, Greline Alcartone was the right choice!
I gathered up my starting money, lovingly wrapped and assembled when I first opened the game. That’s right… Paper money wrapped in stickers. Old-school and cool!
Every starting deck is fairly basic, yet some cards can be great. That’s the beauty of the game: All of the options.
Prepared to craft a fantastic tournament deck, I set my timer and braced myself for a flurry of cards!
Symbol Synergies
The stack of cards used in a single play is staggering, and less than half of them are seen. Card abilities are vital, but the different symbols can be absolutely necessary.
Bonuses for element and type symbols appear throughout play, so getting the right card can be the secret to victory.
Adjacent cards might gain special powers if they share the same symbol. There is a lot to pay attention to, yet the symbols sometimes get lost in the shuffle of planning.
Truth be told, one of my weaknesses is evaluating card abilities, then artwork, then flavor text… Oops. Ha ha!
A Very Evil Opponent
Since it was a long time since I last played, I went with the first boss I could find… EEG. Or the Eldritch Entertainment Group. Absolutely no parallel to anything real at all! Ha!
Most of the focus of the solo mode is on crafting a deck of just a handful of cards to use in the final tournament.
The solo opponent has its own deck, some of which is revealed during deckbuilding to provide hints as to what strategies might be more useful. But it’s not a sure thing!
It’s actually best to understand the small set of possible cards since each solo opponent has its own strategy.
The Power of Evil
Need I go into detail about how my first outing went? I didn’t plan ahead. My criteria for adding cards to my deck seemed to be purely based on aesthetics. So wrong!
I didn’t take enough time to study the EEG deck, either. This isn’t cheating, by the way: There are only 4 bosses, so understanding the general abilities is very helpful.
For instance, EEG is highly dependent on flipping cards. I didn’t focus enough on preventing this… Easily defeated!
The accessories were also quite nasty. Don’t attempt the flip that table, because it’s designed to flip YOU!
Fun Flavor Text
Not every card features its own bit of flavor, yet there are plenty of jokes to discover! Maybe Ghasticus has one of my favorite stories. Perfectly to the point and funny!
Had I used Dark Sentinel Helbane in a productive way, I might have been a little closer. As it happened, he was really only useful to pair with Ghasticus. Not so good.
So blinded was I by the man who tried to kill the wind itself, that I lost sight of the idea of earning victory points.
I will say that the timer mechanism didn’t make me feel rushed, though. This blunder was entirely my own doing!
An Attempt at a Win
The next play flew by in a blur. I definitely didn’t utilize the deckbuilding phase enough, even skipping the last timed segment since I had nothing else to do. Not good!
I managed to create an interesting deck, yet it backfired again when I didn’t have a lot of synergies to use.
That might be the biggest drawback: With that huge stack of available cards, it’s very easy to end up with few cards that mesh well together. It’s more luck than a challenge.
Solo can feel far too random and I might look at using a smaller pool of cards next time. But first, the conclusion…
Session Overview
Main Expansion: Millennium Blades: Set Rotation
Other Expansions: Mini-Expansions #1-6
Solo Mode: Included in Millennium Blades: Set Rotation
Play Details: Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 76-275 and 148-235 (2 Losses)
I just couldn’t get past all the adorable evil hanging around the EEG deck! This is a game I likely need to play more often to get the experience to understand more of the card combinations. A smaller pool might also help and would cut down on setup and cleanup. The agonizing work of sorting all those cards! Definitely EEG’s idea. Ha ha!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- Little bits of humor add a lot to the fun on many of the cards, which are wonderfully illustrated in a unique style.
- There are many different ways to earn victory points that aren’t always obvious from the start of deckbuilding.
- Although rounds are timed, solo is relatively quick and rarely introduces tension based on rushing to decide.
- Each solo opponent plays very differently but only uses part of its deck, adding a lot of variability.
- The player board provides clear reminders that mostly apply to solo, along with a listing of almost all symbols.
- When a deck comes together with cards that synergize and can compete, the excitement is pretty awesome.
– Cons (Negatives)
- All of the cards used during play feel excessive since less than half are used, and cleanup takes a long time.
- Luck can feel a little overpowering since it can be difficult to find card combinations that work well together.
- Some of the components feel a bit flimsy and the paper money is endearing, but must be used carefully.
- A custom storage solution is needed to keep the different sets neatly organized in the boxes and easy to find.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Boss
- Overall Goal Progress 63%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against They Game from Space.
Win at least 1 game as Deques Applenti.
Win at least 1 game as Fulton Suitcase.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game against EEG.
Win at least 1 game as Greline Alcartone.
Win at least 1 game as Shur Wen Na.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Millennium Blades? Do you have a favorite character, card, or set? There are times when luck can outpace the strategy, yet that’s part of the charm behind the chaos! If I can cut down on setup and cleanup time, I hope to get this back to my table more regularly. So flavor text still yet to laugh at… Can’t wait to find my next favorite card!
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