Canvas – K. David Ladage
My colleague, Bob Pazehoski, wrote a review of Canvas back at the start of 2023. His assessment was that the game was midline: not bad, not great, just sort of there (3 stars). My friend Steve came up over a weekend and introduced it to my wife and I. We both thought it was gorgeous, fun, and engaging. If you want a good overview of the mechanics, please read Mr. Pazehoski’s review. But check it out for yourself!
The table presence of the updated board from one of the expansions is amazing (sorry, this was Steve’s copy and I do not know which expansion did what to this game). The added depth of the Signature Style cards (also added in an expansion) is amazing, while not increasing the game’s difficulty. And the mechanics of creating the perfect painting are exquisite.
In the games we played, all of us would spend time reminding ourselves that the paint swatches at the bottom of each card were the game element, not the beautiful painting elements. I had to force myself to put in a piece of art which scored more points, but which did not meet my own aesthetics a couple of times. In the end, all of my paintings, and the paintings Steve, Jody (his wife), LeAnne (my wife), and I created were beautiful.
After I wrote this, my colleague Andrew Lynch wrote in our Slack group: “Canvas is lovely. Once.” Seeing as how I find Mr. Lynch’s opinions very well thought out and of personal value and importance, I asked “Would you be willing to elaborate?” To which he responded, “I think it’s a perfectly fine game, but there isn’t anything about the decision space that would make me want to play it more than once. If a game doesn’t have anything to discover, in one sense or another, I don’t tend to find much value in returning to it. No two games of Canvas are going to feel significantly different, it’s not the nature of the thing.”
I am still taking this in. But after a few plays, I have to say, I sorta disagree with him. Sure, perhaps as a pure gameist, one might stop feeling a sense of discovery… but even in my days of playing Magic: The Gathering, I was a Vorthos: an artistic and expressionist player. I built decks around my favorite artist (Anson Maddocks). I even built a deck where every card in it was a reference to a line in the song Zooropa (and yes, every line in the song had 1-3 cards in the deck referencing it). I guess what I am saying is that I think I will be enjoying this game for the artistic expression of it for many, many years to come… even if, mechanistically, I have figured it all out.
Ease of entry?
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from K. David Ladage.
Pirate King! – Justin Bell
I’ll always take the opportunity to play a push-your-luck game with the kids, so when the team at Gigamic offered us a copy of their SPIEL Essen 2025 release Pirate King!, I slid it in front of the family to see what they thought. Over the course of seven rounds, players use their symmetrical starting decks and a single unique card, known as their Pirate King (as the rulebook is careful to note, “or Queen!”), to simultaneously draw cards from their decks that show the most coins or swords by the time all players have passed or busted by revealing three skull icons on played cards.
When the smoke clears, the two players with the most swords will get a Monster card added to their discard pile (worth points at the end of play), while all players will get a Loot card. Loot cards are chosen from a market, with the first pick going to the person who has the most coins in their play area that round. (In a nod to the game’s family-friendly nature, everyone gets something each round even if they bust.) Both Loot and Monster cards have effects that add a light wrinkle to future rounds; while I’m not sure I would call Pirate King! a full-blown deckbuilder, there are certainly elements that allow a player to string together longer combos a couple times each game thanks to the cards they have acquired during play. (Let’s go with “baby’s first deckbuilder”, then.)
Ultimately, drafting cards worth points is the key here, and the player with the most points (referred to in-game as crowns) wins. One of my two kids (the nine-year-old) enjoyed this game more than the other (the 12-year-old), while my wife was only so-so on the first experience. We all played up the simultaneous reveal countdown before we each played our next card, but by the fifth or sixth round, only the nine-year-old was still insisting that everyone say “THREE, TWO, ONE…ARGGGGGHHHHHH!!!” The nine-year-old and I did a two-player game, and that was much less interesting than the four-player game, so if this is your jam, stick to higher player counts and sprinkle kids into your game session. Regardless, by the end of your first play, you’ve seen everything Pirate King! has to offer.
Ease of entry?
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?
★★☆☆☆ – Would play again but would rather play something else
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
dnup – Bob Pazehoski, Jr.
Cards in hand, I quickly realized dnup’s similarity to SCOUT in the layout of the dual-valued cards. Designer Kei Kajino was obviously on a roll with the whole rotating cards idea. But you know what they say, If at first you only almost win the game of the year, try, try again. Apart from seeing the logo, the only thing I knew going into the game is the web’s perennial formulaic hype that x is the y-killer. In this case, dnup is the SCOUT killer.
Far from a killer, I would say dnup is a simpler and more flexible sibling. Choose a rotation of the hand to begin, but you can rearrange the cards within that chosen rotation. Don’t bother with runs, focus on sets. A card-shedding game, for sure, but not one that involves the escalation of out-shedding your neighbor. dnup says play any set you like, so long as it has a different quantity of cards than the other visible sets—you only have to beat an existing set if you employ the same number of cards. dnup allows for adding to another player’s set to free up options on the table and increase the certainty of getting rid of a single card. There are only a handful of rules, really. The game is easier to teach, easier to play, and easier to win than SCOUT.
As usual, though, the killer language is all for clicks. dnup is good. In fact, it’s very good. But I would choose SCOUT in a heartbeat with four thoughtful players. dnup doesn’t have half the tension, nor does it tax the brain with the same vigor. Truth be told, the silly circus performers on the SCOUT cards land it ahead on the charm factor. dnup does, however, immediately joins Jungo in the conversation of an easy but worthy family-friendly card-shedding game. Breezy and light, it’s absolutely worth checking out if you have a chance.
Ease of entry?
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from Bob Pazehoski, Jr..
Tea Witches – Justin Bell
My wife and I recently had the chance to take Tea Witches for a spin, a 2025 release from The Op designed by Manny Vega and illustrated by Sandara Tang. Vega and Tang collaborated on the popular title Flamecraft from a few years ago, and one look at the Tea Witches box made other players who saw the box think that Tea Witches looked a whole heck of a lot like a Flamecraft sequel.
Not exactly. In Tea Witches, players run a tea shop, in a world that has 30 too many tea references that got a shade too far, from serving Celebri-Tea guests to moving Teapups to take worker placement-style actions to competing during the Teaquinox Faire to hitting Bootiques to take actions. (Bootiques was one of the few references to not spell out tea…which felt strangely off-brand!) The game broadcasts itself as a push-your-luck game, and on its harder difficulty, that is somewhat true…but, for the standard edition of the game, players reveal cards from their personal deck to gain bonuses and then hope they don’t deal themselves any matching witches from their supply, because that may cost them a couple bucks or a small set of toppings, depending on their draw.
Tea Witches is a tricky game to describe, which also made it a tricky game to evaluate. “It wasn’t bad,” my wife said after our first play. “But I don’t think I saw enough to want to play it again.” There are tiles to be placed and customers to be satisfied, in a physical production that certainly feels over the top thanks to the work of Tang, a deluxe tea ingredient bowl in the center of the play area, and a rulebook that is one of the most luxurious manuals I have handled this year. But as a game, Tea Witches executes a somewhat standard recipe fulfillment playbook: move Teapups around to gather the stuff you need to fulfill customer orders as well as to-go orders that becomes a matching exercise with cards from hand. Tea Witches is never bad, but it also failed to deliver a true knock-out punch.
Ease of entry?
★★★☆☆ – There were a few questions
Would I play it again?
★★★☆☆ – Wouldn’t suggest it, but would happily play it
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Flock! – Andy Matthews
Rose Gauntlet Games, founded by Isaac Vega and Lindsey Rode back in 2020, aims to publish inclusive games for everyone. Last year I backed the Kickstarter for their card game Flock! because it looked right up my alley. By now you might know my love of the medium: rules light, fast play time, and casual—allowing you to chat with friends and family while you wait for your turn.
In Flock!, players attempt to earn the most points by playing card sets of the same number to their “sky” (the space in front of their player mat), and then by playing runs of the same suit to their “island” (the space below their player mat). At the end of the round you’ll score points for cards in your island (which are safe from other players) as well as cards in your sky (which can be stolen). After stumbling over a few rules, we got moving and really enjoyed ourselves. Flock! features some enjoyable player interaction, thanks to the rule about stealing cards from other players sky to form your own sets.
The artwork is fantastic, with vibrant colors, and custom artwork from Alyssa Menold. It’s like holding a handful of skittles! The gameplay is exactly what I was hoping for, something that can hit the table, occupy my time for 30-45 minutes, and then go back in the box for next time. Sure this is a crowded space, but Flock! is certainly worth a look.
Ease of entry?
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
