A Land of Magic with Trickerion and the City of Magoria
Become a master of illusion in the city of Magoria by learning and performing exciting magic acts in Trickerion.
After a fun experience playing Trickerion: Collector’s Edition with a few friends, I decided to dive back into the solo mode. This one has often stumped me with its many moving parts, but I was excited to give it another whirl! It was nice to return to this beautifully organized edition, too. Off to Magoria for my chance to become the greatest magician!
Game Overview
Game Name: Trickerion: Collector’s Edition
Publication Year: 2019
Designers: Richard Amann, Viktor Peter, and Dávid Turczi
Artists: Villő Farkas and László Fejes
Publisher: Mindclash Games
Solo Mode: Included in Trickerion: Dahlgaard’s Academy
As a magician, tricks must be learned and prepared with the right materials. Regular performances offer prestige and money during weeks of competition against the solo opponent. Each decision is important to making a name in Magoria, where everything isn’t always as it seems.
First Play
June 15, 2020
Complexity
5
Latest Play
August 9, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
7
Play Time
1 Hour & 30 Minutes
High Score
156
Game Area
52" x 34"
Low Score
45
City Lights at Night
For the first time, I flipped over the board to play with the alternative artwork. Set in a nighttime scene, Magoria looks even more magical! Same gameplay, though.
There is a lot to see here, and I captured what it looks like further along. The solo mode features random blocking tokens at each location to limit placements.
It’s a very complex system of visiting different places at the right times and planning out every turn ahead of time.
This might look like I won… But actually, the solo opponent nearly lapped me by 100 victory points. Yikes!
Specialist Assistance
One of the biggest decisions during setup is the choice of a starting specialist. Each has a special ability that can be crucial to winning when used correctly.
Having access to an extra trick and adding another marker during preparation seemed like the right choice here!
More specialists also allow for more actions to be taken each round, which is ideal for getting more done.
However, it can sometimes feel like there is an ideal starting specialist and order to acquire them. Not the end of the world… And this is coming from a non-expert. Ha!
A Difficult Heir
The solo opponent is Dahlgaard’s heir, and various character cards provide a lot of variety. This time, I was against Yoruba Spiritmaster, expert in illusion tricks.
His ability to perform first no matter what was really hard to work around. Setting up my own tricks backfired a few times when he chose the performance I wanted. Come on!
Granted, I was absolutely horrible at seeing the big picture during this first play. It differed a lot from multiplayer.
My biggest problem was getting materials… I could set up the market row, but then failed to buy soon enough.
Excellent Storage
This edition features a huge box, but it’s one I don’t mind thanks to all of the fantastic trays inside to store all of the components. These also help during play!
Materials are kept easily organized. I ended up flipping around the large tray at the top to keep the trick decks much closer than placed off the top of the board.
I appreciate these sorts of solutions that help not only with organization, but also quicker setup and cleanup.
Sadly, there wasn’t any magic leftover to give me an edge against the solo opponent. That was asking for too much!
Separating the Fun from the Plan: Is it Possible?
It’s nearly impossible to exactly define what makes each game fun for me. Usually, I can describe the elements and overall experience, which is something! In this case, I noticed that I had to form a pretty clear plan of what to do each round if I had any chance to succeed. But I thought it would be more about reacting and adjusting to the solo opponent.
Planning ahead is important in a lot of solo games, although my experience usually puts them in the more complex realm. I’m not spending much time working on some major plan with lighter games that take under 20 minutes to finish. But that doesn’t mean I’m against planning: It’s a very important element of a lot of my games.
I think it just didn’t work for me here because it’s so dependent on being an expert in the connected elements. Being able to create a plan from the start and evaluate it based on the current situation was a little too mechanical for me. There is a wonderful game here, though, and I don’t want to take that away from it! It’s just not one that I’ll enjoy solo.
Is This Rabbit Amazing?
Things weren’t actually going too poorly for at least half of this play. I had some dark alley cards flow in that helped with preparing and performing some tricks.
Alas, my rabbit and top hat trick just didn’t cut it after some time. Maybe I needed to replace it with a living Calico Critter or something. Tough crowd. Ha ha!
I tried to work on one of the top level tricks, but those materials thwarted me every which way.
The extra victory points weren’t collected since I didn’t have the cloak and mirror by the end. Hence, the loss.
Making an Early Plan
I went back to the drawing board to try to figure things out. This time, I planned all of my tricks before play even began. I noted the victory point conditions, too.
In this way, I picked up materials at the right time and quickly advanced into more lucrative tricks early on.
However, I was very aware that I needed to have a solid plan for a lot of elements. It wasn’t really about adjusting to the solo opponent, but simply executing my plans.
Perhaps I can trace this loss to a single round when I should have done a single thing differently… Frustrating.
Hiring Everyone
At least I had the opportunity to hire specialists! They were vital in getting ahead with performances and using their special abilities. I just didn’t learn a fourth trick.
There were glimmers of exciting moments as I moved ahead of the solo opponent or almost guided Yoruba Spiritmaster into choosing sub-par actions.
Although I improved, I lost again and didn’t necessarily feel like the time to play gave me a big return with fun.
Don’t get me wrong: Losing isn’t a reason not to like a game! I just think I prefer to play this one multiplayer.
Shiny Shards
There was also the very annoying element of the random trick the solo opponent chose. Each level usually has an option that requires a lot of materials to prepare.
Those tricks also come with boosted rewards, often in the form of shards. Guess what types of tricks this solo opponent picked up? Yeah… So many collected shards!
Worth 1 victory point each, I simply couldn’t pull ahead when I was already working hard to stay above water.
Maybe that’s a lie… I didn’t have any water-related tricks. Ha! Still, I couldn’t collect more than 5-10 shards per play.
Session Overview
Play Number: 6 and 7
Solo Mode: Included in Trickerion: Dahlgaard’s Academy
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level with the Base Game
Outcome: 87-180, 115-132 (2 Losses)
My plans might have been a little better, so at least my second play didn’t result in an embarrassing loss! I can see the beauty in working out a step-by-step plan and making it happen, yet for me, it feels like a little too much. I didn’t feel as engaged as I thought I would be, and even the theme sort of disappeared as I fought to focus on prestige. This one shall be reserved as a great multiplayer game!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
8
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Performing magic tricks is a wonderful theme that focuses on the illusions and gaining recognition in the city.
- In this edition specifically, the storage system is amazing and is functional for organization and during play.
- All of the components are high quality and add a lot to the atmosphere of the setting with a unique appearance.
- Multiple expansions exist to add other elements and ways to play, while the difficulty level can be customized.
- Gameplay moves pretty quickly with a clear sequence and the idea that a plan should already be in action.
- An extremely helpful booklet provides reference information about the tricks, prophecies, and sequence of play.
– Cons (Negatives)
- A fair amount of table space is required and even rearranging a bit for the solo mode leads to plenty of stretching.
- To do well, tricks must be planned before beginning play and every round needs to have an extensive plan in place.
- The solo opponent takes some effort to run, so the game can lose a bit of its theme to the gameplay sequence.
- Although there are a lot of different tricks and magicians, they often boil down to victory points, coins, and shards.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about Trickerion: Collector’s Edition? Do you have some awesome trick combinations you’ve pulled off in your solo plays? I can absolutely see the awesome experience from this design, but the extensive planning just doesn’t quite work for me in the solo mode. This one won’t be magically disappearing from my collection, though!
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