Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition is the quintessential quantum trick-taking card game for 2 - 5 cool cats, where your card’s color isn’t defined until you play it! Hypothesize how many tricks you will win, and record your bid. Place tokens on the community research board as you play your hand, and connect large groups of tokens to score even more points. Plan your tricks carefully as you cannot claim the color of a card with the same number that has already been declared. Doing so would be pawsitively catastrophic as you have just created a paradox!
New Deluxe Edition features:
Supports 2-5 players
High quality geekbits-style plastic tokens
Recessed player boards
Recessed Center Research board
Score pad
And a custom plastic insert to keep Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition tidy!
—description from the publisher
Images
- Unique and intense trick-taker
- Moldable cards
- Can declare a suit even if you could follow suit
- Can lead to catastrophic paradoxes
- Paradox
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — once you play a card into a trick you must declare its suit and claim the open space matching its number
- Set Collection — claim the open space matching its number and declare it suit
- Trick-Taking — I enjoy trick taker
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- My number 77 game is galactic Renaissance this sibling designed to inish turned out to be far more polarizing than I ever would have guessed
- The Simplicity and speed of Luna combined with the unique abstract Challenge and Perfect Production make this one of the most fresh two-player games in years
- bitewing games is launching the most epic Riner Kia Kickstarter project ever and yes currently it is a secret but not for long
References (from this video)
- Unique mechanic where cards gain suits upon playing
- Brilliant execution of an esoteric idea
- Includes a well-loved area control mini-game
- Difficult to teach to new players unfamiliar with trick-taking
- Can be stressful due to the risk of triggering a paradox
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — The little area control game on the side also is something that I really love.
- Trick-Taking — This is a very unique trick-taking game where the cards do not have a suit until you play them.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- hey everybody it's time for my top 100
- This is my list of my favorite games
- I find the challenge of solving that efficiency puzzle really satisfying.
- This is a drafting tile laying polyomino game from Frank West and published by the city of games.
- This is a deck building push your luck style game designed by Paul Denon and published by direwolf.
- This is a very unique trick-taking game where the cards do not have a suit until you play them at which point you tell everyone which suit you want that card to be.
- This game has a really clever dice manipulation Resource Management aspect to it where you are moving dice around a circle trying to gather the resources needed to help build the red Cathedral.
- On the surface it has a pretty simple action selection core mechanism but what really stands out for me in this game are all of the special actions and abilities that you unlock as you begin building out your engine.
- This game still gives us the tough decisions and combos that we love from base castles but in a much smaller and quicker game.
- The simultaneous drafting means you can play at any player count and the game does not drag on which is fantastic.
- What I love about this game though is is that you don't necessarily have to win the battle to gain the glory A Warrior's death can have its own reward as well.
- Despite this somewhat morbid mechanism the game itself is really Charming you are just a family trying to make a name for yourself.
- It's got a bit of a rondelle mechanism thing going on where you are moving around a city Square taking actions at different buildings to improve your farm.
- Storage pace is also really tight in this game and you have to make sure that you can feed and shelter your workers which causes some really great tension.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card game — Cat in the Box
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- parade because it's a cute card game that we I wanted parade and I hope it fits in the spot that I want it to fit but we'll see
- Arboretum it's another classic card game very fun a lot of enjoyment
- I think I have to Mulligan Castle party there's no way for it to fit it doesn't fit
- because Trails is fun
- I'm gonna pick Cat Cafe instead very it's a it's another um rolling right but it's also very fun so
- I'll take Town 66 it's an oink game hooray taking all the Oink games yeah because I know they'll fit
- it's where you try to draw and you spot the difference it's very fun but I'm afraid that it won't fit
- small box perfect for the cube
- this is the bust for me I think I'm gonna take that's pretty clever and if it doesn't fit in my shelf it doesn't fit
- it did not fit
- I for sure thought that space of the top would have been perfect and then I would have grabbed all filled in the cracks of everything else I thought I could pull off
- no maybe trying to take that's pretty clever when I knew it wasn't gonna fit because I could have fit like a couple smaller games in yeah way more games in but that's my own fault for being greedy
- I like my Cube so I wouldn't change anything
- which Cube do you prefer whose game night would you come to mine or Tyler's
References (from this video)
- Distinctive take on trick-taking with color-free cards
- High variability and complexity for its weight
- Rule complexity can be intimidating
- Paradox moments can be frustrating if misplayed
- color-deduction and guessing under pressure
- Trick-taking with paradox mechanics
- clever, puzzle-like
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- paradox mechanic — paradox occurs when the only playable card cannot be played
- research board and tokens — additional scoring through tokens and research
- Trick-Taking — bidding on tricks without fixed colors; color is determined during play
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Splendor duel really is a great game and I love that it's really its own entity
- it's not hard to learn to play, you don't have to know how to play Splendor to play this
- it's a fun game and we played it four times
- thematic, very thematic on how you shift your gears and that determines the number of cards you can get
- No Thanks is the top one with 15 plays
- Ticket to Ride on SNL is crazy and mainstream now