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Make bids to capture the correct amount of dragon clans and outwit your opponents in Magic Dragons. In this trick-taking adjacent game, you will be working on as many as 5 or more “tricks” at a time, using your hand of 7 cards with the goal of winning 0 to 4 tricks each round. Each trick consists of a stack containing one clan (color) of dragon. Control of each clan stack (trick) is determined by who played the highest dragon card on that clan stack. But your opponents may have spell cards in their hand that they can use to freeze, destroy, or suddenly change the color of any dragon clan stack.
Play continues in multiple rounds until at least one player attains a cumulative total of at least 40. Points are gained for controlled clan stack cards and matching your bid prediction for the number of controlled stacks. Points are lost for cards remaining in hand at the end of the round. Each round is a full refresh: the whole deck is reshuffled, hands dealt, and new bids made.
In each round, players place cards one at a time, in turn order. Unlike traditional trick-taking card games where all players play for one trick at the same time, in Magic Dragons each player in turn may play on any active stack (trick) or may be able to create a new stack. Control of all stacks is determined at the end of the round when all players have placed all the cards that they can from their hand for this round. Points are then scored at the end of the round.
- Very quick to play even at 40 points
- Appeals to fans of trick-taking games
- Engaging bidding and spell-interaction elements
- Can be too light or chaotic for some players seeking heavier strategy
- Trick-taking with spell interventions and multi-pile play
- Fantasy world with magical dragons
- Fast-paced, humorous, rapid rounds
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bidding on piles — At the start of each round, players bid how many piles they think they can take to score bonus points.
- short, quick rounds — Typically up to 40 points; each round comprises roughly a handful of plays.
- spell cards altering piles — Spell cards can change pile colors, freeze a pile, or destroy a pile.
- Trick-Taking — Play on five piles at once; highest card wins a pile.
- trick-taking on multiple piles — Play on five piles at once; highest card wins a pile.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the quality and Artistry of these games is so topnotch
- Cat Ladies of Maple Street is an excellent introductory game if you have young kids
- this is probably my favorite of the three
- it's very very quick to play
- the victory cards in this game are cats
- along with all of the cards that you can purchase there's also mystery cards which are face down and many of them are different