In the Old West, the wily snake oil salesman had a special talent, getting the most skeptical customers to buy the most dubious products. Now it's your turn! Invent your own zany two-word products – Rumor Mirror! Burp Balloon! – and sell them to all types of wacky customers. If the round's customer buys your product, you win!
To set up Snake Oil: Elixir, each player takes six purple word cards. The customer for the round draws a customer card and announces it. Inventors quickly combine two purple word cards from their hand to form a crazy new product to sell to that customer. When ready, each inventor quickly pitches his or her product directly to the customer. The customer can end any pitch that goes longer than thirty seconds. The customer decides which product to buy and gives the inventor of that product the round's customer card as the prize. Inventors discard all used word cards and take two new word cards each. The player to the left of the customer becomes the next round's customer. Play repeats until each player has been the customer once.
Whoever collects the most customer cards wins.
Integrates with:
Snake Oil
Snake Oil: Party Potion
Snake Oil | Shelfside Review
- Standalone expansion adds variety without changing the core feel
- Deck variant provides new flavor while keeping familiar gameplay
- Not the base game; may confuse players who only know Snake Oil
- Fewer cards can alter pacing slightly
- Array
- Present-day product-pitch world (standalone expansion to Snake Oil)
- Improv-based pitches in a slightly streamlined deck
- Snake Oil
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Standalone expansion that preserves the core drafting-pitching flow while changing card counts.
- Hand Management — Expansion maintains a hand management loop similar to the base game.
- Improv/Pitching — Pitching format mirrors the base game, with 30-second pitches to the judge.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Snake Oil is by far one of the best party games out there when you have witty, creative people who dive into their roles.
- Very short, very cheap and very simple.
- This game is accessible to everyone but probably not the best for everyone.
- Downtime between pitches can be a factor in slower groups, but with the right energy it sings.
- Two-sided customer cards are a great idea and the artwork is strong.