Ultra Pro Shards of Infinity

I've played a lot of deck builders. And some of them are kind of terrible. A lot of them are slow, have a lot of setup, a lot of fuss to put away, bland artwork, etc, etc. This one is different.It's kind of long...but more like a slug-fest brawl than a slow tedious death by inches. In this game all players are either trying to quickly whittle away the other player's health or else deal them a knockout blow.I've hesitated many years to try this game because it's supposedly the same game as Star Realms. Well...no it's not. It's similar. But it's better.The problem with a lot of Big Market games is that they have you setting up stack after stack of cards, and then if you have health you either have all these tokens or cards to manage to keep track of it, and all that slows the game down and makes it fiddly. Not here.Here you have a health dial, a power dial, and a big market of six cards that all come from one random deck (woohoo!!!!). You buy cards, and use them to attack, defend, power up, and heal. You have a bunch of different types that can combo but the choice of which to buy and use is always yours. So basically yeah it's a race to the top of the power meter where you instant KO your opponents...or to KO them before they can get there. And it is AWESOME.What can I say? Great art. Great theme. Fast play. Enough time to strategize. Minimal sludge (no stupid cards that you use to get actions here!!!!). Cards that upgrade based on power level. And oh yeah...Everything you need to play is in the box. You don't need to buy two sets (or three!!!!). You don't need to build a deck before you play. There's no cards to sort except your starting deck, and they are all the same.If you want more depth or options you can buy the expansions and they are cheap(ish) and add more ways to play. But you don't HAVE to in order to play. Nope, nope, nope! Out of the (Cheap!) box you have a game ready to play.I like my games with a sci-fi theme and you've got that here which is another plus. If you like combat (and who doesn't?) I suggest you acquire Combo Fighter, Dice Throne, and THIS GAME immediately. Well? What are you waiting for???? Let the games begin!!!!

This takes the solid basis of Star Realms, infuses it with that distinctive Ascension flavor, and adds several new mechanics that really help add to the deck building game mechanics. The Mastery mechanic adds multiple paths to victory. The Mercenary mechanic allows mercenaries to be played directly from the board (instead of acquiring the card) which solves the classic problem in deck builders when you have purchase power but don't want to add any of the current cards to your deck. These two new mechanics really help keep the game engaging in late game when other deck building games can get a bit less interesting. I think this is one of the best games in the deck building genre today and will have no problem sitting next to the great ones like Star Realms.The game comes with four gigantic counters that let you track both health and mastery. They are a really nice touch, though the numbers would have been easier to read if they had been printed in dark ink. The yellow numbers especially can be hard to read from across the table. Another nice thing is that they didn't ship the game in an large, oversized box to make it look bigger than it is (I'm looking at you, Nightfall, shipping in huge box that's 90% empty). But that's the end of the good things I can say about the construction. The cards are thin and flimsy and I'm worried how they will hold up over time. If you're used to holding Magic cards, these feel fragile and crappy. Given that there's only 128 cards total, I would have much rather spend a dollar or two more on this and received cards printed on decent card stock. I might be cynical but it has to be pointed out that UltraPro is in the business of selling card sleeves. People who don't normally sleeve their games will probably consider buying them for this game out of fear and there's a very good chance those sleeves will come from UltraPro. When you buy a product, you shouldn't need to immediately buy another product to protect it because it was poorly constructed. That's just not how it should be done.If you weren't a fan of Ascension, you might still give this a try. While I like Ascension, it's not a very compelling game. I think overall the cards are less interesting and the board tends to get stale late game which leads to succession of very boring turns where no one can do much of anything. That is not an issue in Shards, due to the new game mechanics and the opponent-focused combat.TLDR; If you're a fan of Star Realms, then you are pretty much guaranteed to love this game.Game design: 5 starsFun factor: 5 starsProduction Quality: 2 stars

Deck building.Gioco molto simile a Magic the gathering.. o a Duel Masters.Con meccaniche di combo e wincon molto varie.Bello variare così tanto i mazzi.Gioco Eterno.

This is a great game which finely balances all elements of game play; health, mastery etc. Really great fun to play and has become a firm favourite in our home.

If you love a good deck building game but hate the fact that most (like Magic the gathering for example) force you to buy and build your own decks causing it to become a VERY expensive game, this game is for you! Everyone starts out with the same base and throughout the game you add onto your deck using cards that are in play. This game is super easy to learn, and is super fun! I liked the fact that I didn't need to assemble my whole friend group in order to play a game and the fact that it allowed to two player gameplay was a HUGE selling point.The art on the cards reminds me of classic deck building games, and the game as a whole is well designed and beautiful. I cannot wait to buy the expansion.I like the fact that this game fits into such a small box. I can grab this game and go, there isn't the hassle of a large box that I have to find space for if I choose to bring it to games night.

Comencé a jugarlo en la App y lo quería en físico, el juego es excelente, rápido, adictivo y con buenos combos. Muy recomendable, principalmente a 2 jugadores, aunque podrían fácilmente jugar 4 en modo versus 1vs1.

un deck building moyen qui n'apporte pas grand chos avec peu de cartes différentes et surtout mal équilibrématériel pas top...