Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
If you’ve read any of my reviews, you’ll know that I love light card games. They’re light on rules, quick to play, and I can almost always convince my family to play them. And 2 Win from designer Florian Racky and publisher Blue Orange Games, definitely meets that criteria: the game takes about 60 seconds to teach and less than 10 minutes to play. I even had it on my list of most anticipated games of Essen SPIEL 2025.
In 2 Win players start with a hand of cards, which run from 1 to 9 in three different colors (pink, blue, and green), with cards featuring 0, 1, or 2 stars. Simultaneously, each player takes two cards and flips them face up in front of them. The card on the left is the “tens” while the card on the right is the “ones”. Thus, if you lay down a 1 and a 2, you have twelve. From the second round onwards, you’re stacking the next two cards atop the previous set, such that you can always see the previous number. The only rule is that the new 2-digit number you place must be higher than the last.
You might say to yourself, “Self, that doesn’t sound like much of a game”. To which I’d say “Patience.”.
The goal of the game is to be the last person to have cards in their hand. After each round, players determine whether they draw new cards or not, thusly:
- The player who played the highest number draws one card. Ties are friendly.
- The player whose topmost cards have the most stars draws a card. Ties are friendly.
- If you play a number with two identical numbers (11, 22, etc.) you draw a card.
- If you have 3 sequential cards of the same color you draw a card. The 4th card of the same color begins a new run.
It’s possible that one player will draw 4 cards in a single turn, while other players may draw none. And if you can do simple math, you’ll see that you need to make hard choices. In 2 Win you’re constantly balancing the need for more cards, with your lack of perfect cards and working out how to make do. Sometimes you have to jump ahead by 20 or 30 numbers, which is sad, and other times you draw just the right cards to let you go up by a single number.
One extra twist is that before placing your two cards, each player has to pass a single card to the player on their left. That means you’re always getting at least one “new to you” card, which just might make the difference between going out and lasting another turn.
While 2 Win probably isn’t going to win any awards, there’s definitely fun to be had in this tiny, magnetically clasped box. The graphic design is vibrant and colorful, the cards feel great in your hands, and it offers just enough tense moments to keep you on your toes.
2 Win details
- Designer: Florian Racky
- Artists: Jens Wiese
- Publishers: Albi, Blue Orange (EU), Blue Orange Games, Pegasus Spiele
- Release Date: 2025
- Player count : 2 - 6
- Age range : 7+
- Time range : 15 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Player Elimination
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.86256 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about 2 Win.
