The Adventure Store ►►► Innovative meld of deckbuilding and trick taking!

0:00 Good day everybody. Today Rado runs through the adventure store. But before we get started, please turn your subtitles on to the Cllingon channel so you'll know if we make any rules goofs. And if you've done that, well, hi everybody. It's Amy and Maggie from Thinker Themur. And we're excited to introduce you to this battle arena.

0:17 Yes. Welcome to the adventure store where um this is the one-stop shop to get all of your wares if you're a local uh fighter or battler regardless of the uh the style that you tend to um to favor which could either be strength or your cunning smarts or magic even. And in the store you're going to be able to find things like the eye of the sear or the gamblers's amulet. And what's happened with the adventure store is there's a very uh clever businessman that owns this store. And uh he was like, "You know what? All these fighters are battling outside the store and that's a missed opportunity. Why not bring it in store and charge people tickets uh for for this to to essentially give tips and make money out of this?" And so that's what we're going to be doing. So we are going to be we have uh three we have set up for a three-player game here. We've got the painter, which is going to be um our sort of dummy third player. I'm going to be the pirate and Amy is going to be the rogue. And what we're going to be doing is across eight different trials, we're going to be playing a whole different set of tricks or fight. And if you win the fight, you get crowns, which is great. Which is ultimately at the end of each trial where we're going to be able to decide who's got the most renown, but also how we're going to be able to afford the different items to make ourselves more powerful along the way.

1:34 Because ultimately this game is a blending of two mechanics. It is trick taking and it is deck building. So we actually all start in the kind of introductory mode with a symmetric deck. So we all have three different suits numbered 1 to six as well as some really interesting additional cards that are called augment cards in this game that actually affect the value of a card. So, for example, if I play this four of the uh fighting suit, um I could add this augment card to it, and you're only allowed to play one per trick, and this would give it a plus one. So, now this card is actually worth five. There's also um augment cards, other augment cards in here to begin with. So, you've got three of the plus ones, and you have one special one, like this one that I played that also has an ability on it.

2:28 And later on, you'll be buying cards with more opportunity to affect the value, but also much stronger abilities as well. So, in this example, this plus one augment card also allows me to trash one card from my discard out of the game entirely. And that's that deck building mechanism where you're trying to kind of cleanse your deck so that you can build either a strong or maybe weak or maybe a mix of both um deck that you're able to battle with. Um one special card that we all have in our deck is this Eldress's Gambit. Now this card allows you to surrender in a trick. So essentially, you can play this card at any time if it's in your hand, and you will lose the trick, but you will also gain $5.

3:15 You're kind of putting your hand in the tip jar on your way out. You're going, "Ah, this is too much. You You're too strong." And as you walk away, you're like, "Yo, but otherwise, the only way you get money each round is to win a trick. If you win a trick, you take $5 and at the end of the round, we're going to look at how much money you have, and that's going to enable you to buy these cards." Because, for example, if you wanted to buy another one of these Eldress' Gambit cards later in the game, it's going to cost you $15 at the time when it becomes available. Now, we're going to get into playing so that you can see how it works, but there probably is one more thing worth explaining before we get started. Firstly, in terms of the setup, what we've set up here is the advanced set of cards, but the game box itself comes with a whole range of different cards. You can randomize these once you're familiar with the game. all of these sets,

4:05 but they also offer some um setup combinations. And so this is the advanced one for tricksters. So there's a lot of different cards that do some interesting things here to show to you today. And then also this board is split into two sections. So this is the adventurous store where you're going to be buying new cards, but you've got the lower shelf of cards and the upper shelf of cards. And when it comes to shopping, we're only going to be able to access the lower shelf of cards. And once uh one of those uh stacks is depleted, then we'll be able to move them from the upper shelf down. So, this gives you an idea of what's going to be available in the total game. And this is what is going to be immediately available at the end of this round. Now, we mentioned that we're going to be playing tricks. It is a mustfollow game. So, if the someone plays one suit, if you're able to, you must follow that suit. And we'll talk you through that as we play. But for those of you who play a lot of trick- taking games, there is another interesting element here. So, we mentioned that when you win tricks, you're getting money that's going to allow you to buy cards for future rounds. But what's really interesting is there is kind of a shoot the moon mechanic as well. So, basically, if you end the round without um collecting any money at all, including using that Eldress's Gambit card, which loses you the trick, but gives you $5, so that wouldn't count. But if you end broke,

5:28 then you are maybe able to steal first players points. But there's a second condition because in this game there's so many augment cards that get played with the um card that you're playing down, the battle card. And that means that the players are going to be running out of cards at different times. And so once you run out of battle cards to play, essentially you are going to sit back and let the others battle it out until there's only moves.

5:56 Yeah. Until there's only one person remaining and then the round will end. But in order to steal the points from the lead player, you have to be broke and present in the last trick. I you can't go out before any before that last player. Um, and so if you are able to achieve that, instead of the first player with the most money at the end of the game getting the three renown, you're going to take that for yourself. This is theatically the underdog. It's like you're the person who just stayed there till the end, didn't win anything, but you also didn't give up and the crowd is like, you know what? No, they're the real winner here. They had no business being in this battle, and yet they lasted it out just like in real life. Now, there's another little benefit as well of coming last in a round, and that is that you might have the opportunity to affect the trump, but in the first round, the trump is going to not exist. Um, you can see that it's on this marker here saying there is no trump. So, that's how we're going to play the first round. And one more thing before we get started, we have these two things here. One is an end of game objective. And so, this is saying if we have the most cards in our trash, i.e.

7:06 we've gotten rid of them out of the game. Uh, you're going to get eight victory points. Second place is going to get four victory points. And what is this token? This is the initiative token if you shed out first. Essentially, you go out of the round first. You want to take this. It gives you two renown at the end of the round. But also, it has this really cool effect that when you buy cards, you can actually put them straight into your draw pile instead of your discard pile. So, we'll talk about that when we get to it. But now, let's get into the trick taking. So, we all have a deck of cards which we have shuffled. And

7:39 I'm ready to go. I ready to go. Yeah. Waiting for you.

7:42 And what we're going to do is we're going to take the top 11 cards. So, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. So, this is going to be our draw pile for future rounds. But these cards and anything we have left over as we use them are going into our discard pile. So, let's have a look at what we have pulled out here. organize them quickly so you can see from my hand. Obviously, Maggie and I are playing open-handed, but just try not to listen, Maggie. So, the cards are in three suits. Um, and so you can see those here. I'm pretty short suited. Um, in the magic suit here, I've only got a one. And over here, you can see that I have drawn my Eldress's Gambit as well as one augment card that will allow me to plus one on a card that I'm playing. So, that's my hand here.

8:28 Um, and I've got I've been sort of showing this. So, for the for the painter, we've got this sort of array of cards. They've got an Eldress Gambit under um in there. And for my personal card, I've got again a range of fighting cards, one augment, and also another Eldest um Eldress Gambit there.

8:45 Yeah. So, before we actually play the first trick, we have an opportunity to refine our focus. So all players get the opportunity if they want to to take one card from their hand and place it down into their discard pile just to give them a bit more flexibility in case you've drawn a really high card or a really low card and you have an objective in mind. We at this stage of the game don't have a lot of strategy because we all have the same deck. Of course, I could short suit myself here by discarding this card, but there's no trump suit anyway, so it's not super useful to me at this point. But I'll do it just to show how that would happen.

9:21 I think I will probably keep all of these cards. So, I won't um get rid of any. And the painter will will probably do maybe the painter will get rid of just this uh this one. Um and then see what happens.

9:34 Yeah. And that is done in turn order. Why it matters is because I've gotten rid of a card. So, I might shed out first. I might be after this initiative token. and you know following from the lead player. Um someone else might want to do that as well to try and catch me. So let's get started. What I'm going to do is I am going to play I'm going to play the highest card in the fighting suit and I'm going to augment it um with a plus one. So now it is effectively a seven in the fighting suit. Maggie must follow.

10:04 I must follow and I can follow cuz I've actually got a six and a five of the same suit. Now this is an interesting thing that can happen. I could do the same thing. So one one element that could happen here is we can cook a combo which is essentially if the person right before us, the player right before us did a particular move with a set value. If we can match that value with again just one core fighting card and maybe plus or minus one augment card, then we combo, which I'm going to demonstrate what that is. So I'm going to go, yep, I actually can match that combo. And then it allows me to play an extra card, helping me then kind of shed sooner. But as that extra card has to be of the same suit. Yeah. So I would have to then get rid of that one which at the moment is like oh that's quite a high card that could potentially win me another game um later on another trick later on. But let's just do it for the sake of um of the demonstration.

10:55 While you have this cuz I can see your hand. Another thing that we could explain here as well is that if Maggie couldn't follow suit, she could actually do the same thing but with a different six and her augment. um if she just wanted to shed extra cards, she could she has no opportunity to win unless it was a trump suit. But if you were just playing off suit, she couldn't win the trick. But again, there is a shedding element to the game as well.

11:20 So now that's uh done. So now the value that the the painter would have to beat is a 12 because now all of this gets added together and it's now at 12. Obviously there's no way um the painter is going to be able to to do that. And so maybe they're thinking, well, this is a good opportunity for me to get rid of that um that card. They could possibly play that one since they're already going to be losing, but they can kind of keep that up their sleeve. So, they're just going to play that.

11:45 And I thought I was going to win the trick and I did not because of Maggie's combo.

11:48 So, I win that trick, which means that I get these five crown. These go to discard and this goes to discard. As the winner, now I get to lead the next trick. And now I'm sort of thinking, okay, well, I'm doing quite well in terms of winning some some money. Um, let's let's go with let's go with maybe this. Um, I know that I've got the six. Maybe I'll try and do the five and see what I could have probably done the four, but let's see what happens.

12:14 I also just want to add we do start with $10. Um, so in a more advanced game, you you can start with no money. Um, but what that means in the first game is it's um impossible to steal the lead points because you need to be broke at the end of the round. But we do start with $10 just for the first round. So, I'm going to start with that spook and let's see what the painter wants to do. So, the painter must follow. Oh, they could cook a combo. Uh, so, um, maybe they'll do that. So, they'll do a five to match that and then get rid of the four. So, now they're at nine, which means that it's going to make it very difficult or impossible for Amy to be able to win this,

12:51 especially cuz I also have got rid of my augment card too early. What am I doing? So, I could combo though if I still want to try and get that initiative. You wouldn't be able to combo though because you need to beat a nine.

13:03 I need to beat a nine now. So, it's always the player that's immediately before you, not the lead player that I'm trying to combo from. Now, I'm just not going to win this at all. So, I'm just going to play this one. Just for future reference, the only way you would be able to beat that is if you had something like that. So, like later on, if you've managed to build up your deck, then yeah, you'd be able to do that. Okay. So, the um the painter is going to win that. So, they get that. This gets discarded. This gets discarded. And they're going to lead the next trick. Okay. So, um what are they going to do? Maybe they want to short suit themselves just to see what happens. So, they're going to play their six. Uh and I can't beat that. Oh, I'm not earning much money at all. This is a disaster. I can't steal the lead. What should I do? Okay, I'll just play this two. Get rid of the low value card

13:51 and I must follow. So, I could combo. So you combo again. You combo the the player just before you. Um, so I I will combo Amy. So I'll do that and then get rid of the four as well. So actually that makes me a six. Oh, this is interesting. So that makes me a six, which would actually mean whoever played if there's the same value, whoever played it first would win. And because I actually don't want I actually want to win this one, maybe I will play my six. So the two is the one that's comboing. And then I can just as long as it's the same suit. So now this becomes an eight. And it means that I'll win it. Okay. So, I'll get my five crown. And then this goes away. This goes away. And I lead the next trick. Interestingly, let's see. I'm just going to get rid of that final um of my uh yellow suit. And the painter doesn't have any. So, they're going to maybe go, you know what? This is maybe a good time to just get my get my Eldress Gambit and get some money.

14:46 So, they're actually just going to take that and that's done.

14:49 I'm going to win this trick. So, I will.

14:51 Okay. So, you win that one. You get your five crown.

14:54 Yes.

14:55 This is discarded. Discarded. And you leave the next.

14:58 I'll try my luck with this five.

15:00 Okay. Let's see. I can't follow suit. So maybe I'll go this is since I'm going to lose it anyways, maybe I'll use my elders gambit now. So that gives me my five crown. And the painter can follow suit. It It can actually combo. Actually, no. I think you can't you can't combo because it would have to be the player right before you. And yeah. So, because it would have to be the player right before you, it wouldn't be able to do it. But it could play the six and still win. So, gets that one there.

15:27 I am losing. You know, at this point, I'm thinking I am not going to win this round, but I might have the opportunity to have the helping hand. So, we'll talk about that when I get to it. So, maybe I don't want to necessarily come first.

15:40 All right. So, they're going to lead.

15:42 That's what I told myself anyway.

15:44 Okay. Uh I am definitely not going to win this trick. So, I'm just going to play this gambit and get myself another $5.

15:51 And I can actually win that one because I can actually Oh, I could I could actually I could combo.

15:56 So, maybe I'll do that. Uh oh, no, cuz it's again it's Eldrit. It's the last one. So, I'll just win it. Yeah.

16:02 All right. It's a bit confusing playing double-handed. There you go.

16:04 So, I'll take that. And this just go to discard. And I'm going to lead the next. And now I actually have very few cards. So, I'm probably going to be the one that sheds out first. So, I'm going to do a five. And this is going to have to do the four cuz it must follow suit.

16:19 I don't have a four, unfortunately. So, I'm just going to play this three.

16:24 Okay. So, I win that. Oh, doing really well. The pirates

16:28 pirate is pirating.

16:29 You're pirating away. All right. And this is my final card. So, I'll take play that. Uh, can't follow suit. So, maybe they'll just do the lower card.

16:38 Oh, this is exciting because I can play the two and I can play that. Oh, nice.

16:42 Which allows me to shed out. Okay. So now what would happen is um technically who won this one?

16:48 You did.

16:49 I did because um it was the lead suit. So I win that. But now because we both shed out at the same time technically it's still going to go to the player and first order that will gain the initiative. Um and it this is actually going to end the round because now it's only the painter that's left which means that I'm going to gain this which is going to give me an extra two points. These will go into the to the discard. any remaining cards because it's the end of the the trial will also go into the discard and now we're going to go into the next phase which is the Yeah.

17:19 So we're evaluating now um who got the renown point. So as you can see there is a steps ladder of points as we go up in rounds. Those points are going to become much much more powerful. At the beginning there's just a in a threeplayer game it's going to be 3 2 1 in terms of um position and point. So the first player will get three points. But we need to check this condition. Was anyone broke? And in the last trick. So we all had money in the first round. You can't do that because you start with $10. So

17:51 I should actually also take my two points cuz you get them as soon as you um Yeah.

17:55 Get your two renown.

17:56 Uh so that's two there. And these two are just here.

17:59 Yep. And so now we simply look at who has the most money overall. That's very clearly Maggie. How much did you end up with?

18:06 10 20 30 40

18:08 40. And this is 25.

18:09 And I have 20. So Maggie would get three renown.

18:13 Yeah. So 1, two, three.

18:15 Pirate is going to get two renown.

18:17 So that's the pirate. I'm the pirate. Oh, you're the pirate.

18:19 Yeah. This is the painter.

18:20 The painter

18:20 gets two. Yeah.

18:21 And me, the rogue, I'm just going to get one lowly point. Okay.

18:25 Now we move to the next part. We'll talk about this um now. So if you are also broke, anyone who's broke will gain money now equal to the richest player. So there's another benefit of, you know, trying to do this broke strategy. If you do, you're not going to be punished um by not being able to shop. So you would get money equivalent to Maggie's fortunes right now. But again, no one has done this.

18:50 Thematically, this is store credit. So the uh the store owner gets takes pity on you. It's like, you know what, I'll let you buy up to the value of the richest player here. So yeah. Um, and then the next step is the interesting one I wanted to talk about because helping hand is offered um by the store owner to the player who came last in renown which if you remember was me and underdog my lowly one point. So I have the opportunity to discard all of my money and if I do that two things will happen. Firstly I will get to gain any item from anywhere in the store. He will be like, "You can even take things from the upper shelf that are not going to be available to general shopping for the rest of the players." So, I could get rid of this 20 and even though I only get one card, I get access to these really great cards. So, that could be something that I might want to consider.

19:42 And the other thing is that if I do this at this stage and I forego my shopping then at the end of you know this process if you took the helping hand you get to draw up your next hand of cards and then you get to decide what trump is going to be.

20:00 Pretty powerful.

20:01 Yeah. So

20:02 I think I am going to I've only got $20 so I'm not going to be able to buy too many cards anyway. So I might as well take a really valuable card. So, now let's talk about some of these cards and what they do. So, I'm going to start with the upper shelf because I have access to them. This one actually doubles the value of the card you play it with. And if but also has an ability that if you then lose this trick, you will lose $5. Now, that's kind of interesting because at first read, you're like, well, if I want to win the trick, easy. Play a six, chuck a times two on it. Now, it's worth 12. Great. and I probably won't lose the trick. Um, but you might also use it to times two on a one when you're going to lose the trick, get rid of $5 and now you're back in the game for the broke broke objective.

20:52 Um, [gasps] then there's this card which is simply the, you know, the um brain or the knowledge suit. It's a the smarts. It's a 10. Um, this one is a minus two, but you may trash two cards from your discard. And now remember, we've got this garbage man objective where you want to have the most cards in your trash.

21:12 That's pretty good. Um, this one is a minus three where you can draw three cards and discard any of them. So, not trash them, but at least get them out of what you're going to draw up next.

21:22 This one is really interesting. This rune of magic allows you to change the suit of a card to a particular suit that is mentioned. So, in this case, it would change any card to the magic um suit. Then you've got the ancestral relic which allows you to draw two cards from your deck and two from your discard and decide to put them back in any position. So you might pull something back from, you know, your ancestral past in the discard and put it back into your deck. And then there's this powerful Eldress Gambit, which we've already talked about. We've got an eye of the sear giving a plus two allows you to draw two cards and trash one of them. And this one is minus five. So gamblers amulet. If you win this trick, you gain an extra $5. Pretty good, but pretty hard to do when it's minus5. [clears throat]

22:10 Um, this one is just a plus one. This one actually allows you to choose the value between one and five. So, it has a lot of flexibility built in. And this is just an eight.

22:21 So, lots. I think I want to get

22:26 kid in a candy shop.

22:27 I know the shop owner is like, "Look, consolation price. Don't cry. It's going to be okay." Take whatever you like. like you might start getting these eights. It be really handy to have a 10 here,

22:36 but then also the times two has that flexibility cuz I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do. But then this one's going to help me with the garbage man objective. Lots

22:44 of good choices.

22:45 There are lots of good choices.

22:49 I don't know what to do. Okay, I'm going to try this purging flame because it just sounds fun. So, I'm going to get rid of all my money and I'll get this card which goes to my discard pile. Okay. So, now that's your helping hand and you're out of the the shopping uh round. So, but now the shopping round continues with the pirate and the um

23:08 uh painter.

23:09 And it starts with the person with initiative who is Maggie. And because Maggie has initiative as she buys cards, she gets to decide where they go. Discard pile or top of the drawer.

23:18 Yes. So, they're going to be readily available for the next round. Okay. So, what's the first thing? I only have access to these ones at the bottom. I think I'm going to go for definitely these ones because we know that we're trying to go for that objective of having a lot of um cards in the trash and this is going to allow me to draw and uh trash. Hopefully I don't draw something that's really good, but we'll see. All right, so I'm going to spend 10 to get this one. And do I want to put that um available for my next Yeah, maybe. Oh, this is scary. I'm trying to not think. Yeah, because a lot of my really high value cards I feel like I played. So maybe these are going to be a lot of my lower value cards. So, yeah, that'll be a good one to have available. All right, so now the painter. What's the painter going to want to get? Um, maybe they're just going to want to get some just a powerful card that's very cheap. So, five for this one. Because they don't have initiative, they have to put it on their discard. Back to me. I'm I think I'm just going to stock up on that. I'm going to spend another one of those and get that one. I probably won't put it here cuz now I'm going to be discarding a lot of stuff. So maybe I'll just put this one here. Back to painter who is going to be doing maybe this one for a bit of flexibility. So they're going to get this one for 10.

24:30 Now what else do I want? Do I want to get more vitality? This is tricky. Maybe I also want to get some flexibility here. So I'll spend another 10 to get that one. And maybe I'll put this one. I'll put this one. Yeah, I don't want to get rid of it. um the most cards in my trash. So, I'll just put it here. And let's see what else. Now, with these 10, they could get maybe they want to get one of these because it's Yeah, it's a good idea for them to have. Again, we want to have some stuff in the trash. And with my final 10, maybe I'll get this. Oh, I could get the eight and one of these. Let's get both of those. So, because it's already out. So, I'll get this one, which I'll put here at the top. And I'll get the um draft of vitality which I'll put maybe here.

25:20 All right. Should also mention that at any time um a player can choose to pay $5 to trash one of the cards from here. Now, why would you do that? Stop your opponents from getting cards that you think they really want. And also because once it's cleared, the person um at the start of their turn of choosing, if there's an empty spot gets to choose which of these cards comes down into here. So in that case, Maggie could have because she was the last one buying, she could have paid to trash this one. And then she could have chosen another card like this one to come down and bought that one instead.

25:54 That's true. That would have been a smart move that I did not know.

25:58 All right. Now, because I have initiative, I'm going to be the lead of the we kind of we're moving on to the next trial. So, we're at trial uh two, which again, the the values are different. So, we draw 11 cards.

26:09 Yep. And we continue drawing from our draw deck until we're completely out of cards here. And then at that point, that's when we would shuffle our discard deck and it becomes our new draw deck.

26:18 I'm going to organize my cards. And as suspected, I ended up having a lot of my lower value cards, which I'm now thinking, ah, I should have had that one.

26:28 Um the second one that I purchased in here and let's see what the painter is going to get. One, two.

26:33 I think we actually missed a step.

26:36 I need to set the trump.

26:37 Oh yes. So I should have looked at my cards at after the shopping, looked at um these and decided what's going to be Trump.

26:45 Still can.

26:46 I still can. And actually what I'm thinking now is I've been watching what Maggie and the painter have been purchasing.

26:53 Oh, we also can do our focus. Our refined focus if we can.

26:56 Yes. after this. So, I've been watching what they've been purchasing and they seem to be going with winning a lot of tricks. So, maybe my best strategy is to lose a lot of tricks and try and steal those renown points instead of winning them. I'm feeling a bit behind the eightball at the moment um with having not purchased very many cards. So, maybe I want the trump to be something I don't have a lot of and so I think I'm going to make it this

27:22 fighting um suit here. Did you want to refine focus and get rid of any cards?

27:27 Uh, yes, I do want to refine focus and get rid of a card. I will get rid of I guess I should just get rid of this one. Or I could get rid of this one and or this one. I think this is pretty dangerous uh in my hand right now. So, I might get rid of that one. So, interestingly, um I'm probably not going to refine focus even though I have a lot of these lower ones. I'm going to obviously trash some. I kind of want to have them in my hand. I want to be H. Actually, this is interest because um there's no point in me shedding out first. If you already have the initiative and you gain it again, you don't get these two points. You do still get the the advantage of going first and being able to put things on the top of your deck or on your discard. But yeah, so maybe maybe I won't. I'll just leave this um as is. And the painter is also going to leave

28:18 I already have red

28:20 I think I've made this move too soon. Let leave this as is. All right. So, because I've got initiative, I'm going to be the start player. And let's see. I'm thinking I'm thinking maybe I will uh this is I'm I'm thinking maybe I'll do Oh, maybe I'll do this. So, oh, this is risky. I now I can't remember what's in here. What if it's something really good? Because I'm going to be able to if I play my Eye of the Seer, I draw two cards, but then I have to trash one of them. Oh, let's risk it. Let's see what happens. Okay. So, I'm going to play I'm going to win this trick pretty confidently because actually maybe not. Um, so that's the eight plus two. That's a 10. That's going to be very very difficult to to beat. Um, and I draw two cards. So, that's the last two cards that I have. And I have to trash one.

29:06 Uh, I definitely don't want to trash that one. Um, I will trash this one because this is the other one that will allow me to trash card. So, I want to keep that. So, this will get trashed, which I'm just going to put um under my mat so that I don't confuse it. This now stays in my hand. Now, what's the painter going to do? Painter has must follow yellow. They only have really low value cards. They do have the ability of potentially trashing something from the discard, which they might want to do. So, maybe they'll do that. They'll play their two and they'll play um this. So, that becomes a three, which won't win, but it will allow them to trash something from their discard. and they decide to trash maybe that number one. Yeah, they'll trash this number one from the this guy. Done. Now, luckily because Maggie is sitting on a 10, I can get rid of this for safely. Now, I do have these augment cards in my hand, but it's important to note that you don't have to play those cards. Actually, if all I had left was this, I'd be considered out um of the round. So, I don't need to add that to it to get rid of them necessarily.

30:08 All right, so I win this one. So, I'm going to get my first five crown. This goes to discard. This goes over here and I will lead the next trick. Okay, so let's see. Oh my goodness. Um, I'm going to play this one with because I've got so many of the low ones. This is a good Oh, no. There's going to be trashing from the discard. Uh, yeah, because I think I've got Oh, do I have any other low ones? I must surely. So, maybe I'll play the I'll play Can I short suit myself? There's no real point. This is Trump, so maybe I'll keep that. So, I'll keep Okay, so I'll play that. So, that's just a two. Not very powerful. Um, a two, but I can trash something from the discard. What can we trash from the discard? We could trash that two. That is the lowest one that we have. So, yeah, I'll trash that that two from the discard. And now, what's the painter going to do? The painter's like, "Oh, that's pretty easy to beat." And they can really easily uh beat that with the three. And they're not sure. I don't know if they can remember that Amy played off suit last time cuz that would be a matter of kind of going, "Oh, do I want to try and make sure?" But maybe they'll just play that that three. I know you. Yeah, she played on suit. She played the four. So maybe they're like, "I don't know if she has a higher one.

31:22 So maybe I'll play that just to be safe."

31:24 And I could. Now I don't have yellow, so I can play any card in my hand. But if I play purple, that is the trump. So I don't want to do that. I could combo if I wanted to get rid of more cards out of my hand. But the other thing is I'm trying to be broke and also in the last trick. So I'm not really incentivized to shed out either. So I'm just going to play the six and get rid of it.

31:49 Okay. So in this instance then the prince the prince I don't know I call him the prince the painter.

31:54 He does look very princ and there's like the cards are like a kappa or like bribes and it's very uh yeah gentlemanly. So this has now we've gone to discard. This goes to discard and they're going to lead. So for the next trick they're going to go, hey, I want to win this one. So maybe we'll do this with that.

32:13 Oo, a powerful seven.

32:14 Okay. And I will finally get rid of my five.

32:17 Oh, that was lucky for you. And then for me,

32:21 seven. I can't beat that, but I have to follow suit. So maybe I'll just play Oh, five. No, I can't. Um, because even though I can like this is a five. This gets a lot of people confused. you can only ever play one fighting card. Um, and then augmented. So, I'll play the three. And now, I should say obviously you can play multiple fighting cards, but that's only if you're comboing, which I'm not. So, um, that's that, which means that the, uh, painter is going to win that. I'm pretty happy. He's pretty happy with that. Um, and leading the next trick.

32:50 Did he get a coin for that?

32:51 Yeah, I just gave him a a coin. I'm pretty sure. I think I did. Um, and let's see. They're going to now Oh, this is the trump. So, maybe they're going to wait to leave that later. So, I play the three.

33:03 Uh, well, I could combo now, but I don't want to. Uh, I just want to lose. And because the um person who plays first would win, I can safely play this three.

33:13 Yeah, nice. So, I'll play that cuz I have to follow suit and say um actually, I might as well play the one cuz it's the lower one. Not that I think. Um, so they win again. Okay. And they lead again. So, what are they going to lead with? Maybe they're going to lead with they're trying to maybe they'll they sort of flush out let's flush out the um trumps.

33:35 Oh yes, happily happy to.

33:38 So four four. You could combo there.

33:41 I would not like to choose not to. All right, I'm going to do I could combo. So interestingly I could combo with a three augmented which becomes a four and then allows me to then get rid of another card.

33:55 Mhm.

33:56 Okay. And so that means that now I win this trick. Yeah. So I'll get that one that goes there. This goes here. And I'm going to lead the next trick. I'll play this three. And they're like, "Ah, you beauty. I'll play that." And so that's trumping it because they couldn't follow suit. So they're going to trump it to win it.

34:16 Mhm.

34:17 If you hear a squealing in the background, that is our puppy No, that sometimes gets a little bit restless. So apologies for that. Uh, I will also play a trump, but not as strong of a trump.

34:26 Yeah. All right. So, painter. Painter is killing it this round. There you go.

34:29 Yes.

34:30 Close shape.

34:30 Thank you, painter.

34:31 There you go. Saving you. Saving you. And they're going to lead the next one, which they only really have very weak cards, so they'll just do that one.

34:38 Oh no, I'm in danger.

34:40 Oh no. Oh no. Can I follow suit? I must FOLLOW SUIT. SO OH NO. OH NO. Oh no.

34:48 That was so close. My hopes and dreams. I have one card remaining and that is very sad. So now

34:54 so you win that.

34:56 This is that that's the risk.

34:58 This is the risk.

34:59 That's the risk. See like now you don't get the uh now I have to leave. So

35:04 of the crowd no they they won one. They got they got one jab in there.

35:07 I might as well try and win this one. So I'll do four plus one which allows me to discard a card for my discard. I still think I'm going to go with this losing strategy. You know losing overall if you know what I mean. I'm just going to get rid of one of my high cards. All right, so this is the only card that I have and it's actually a trump. So it's going to be trumping that and they're following suit is the only card that they have. So I actually ended up winning that. So there you go. That there there out. Yeah, we're all out. We're all out at the same time. So this doesn't really So if everyone's out at the same time, it would have been the first player. But if actually the first thing is um if someone has the initiative and in in that scenario it would they would keep the initiative now because I'm going to keep it. You don't get these two points every single turn if you're keeping it.

35:55 So it would sort of turn over. I'll get the advantage of um when I purchase where it goes. But that's about it. Okay. And we're going into the renown phase. All right. So now what we're going to be doing is we're going to see if anyone got this stole gets to steal the first place which unfortunately Amy was so close. You need to be broke and come and and essentially um in the last trick. You were in the last trick but you were not broke. I know

36:21 you won that one trick.

36:22 One trick.

36:23 So that no

36:24 it was ambitious to try and do this in round two honestly.

36:28 Um so now broke and so because no one's broke we don't have to do the store credit. Um and now we um helping hand. So technically you can still do helping hand. You're in last place.

36:38 Yes.

36:39 So would you like to take the helping hand of the story?

36:42 I think I would actually cuz it means I get to set the trump again. And I mean sorry. No it doesn't. That's the helping hand. But I am also going to get the fewest points. We didn't do the points.

36:51 Oh yeah. Sorry we didn't do the the points. So these points will get awarded. Um who came first? Actually the painter came first. So they get four points. One two three four. I came second. So I'm going to get two points. One two. And you came third. So that's one point. Yep.

37:05 Yes, that's it. Great. Look how far behind.

37:09 I can make it back. You can make it back. Can I?

37:11 Yeah. And so now, um, yeah, we've kind of done that. So helping hand. If you want the helping hand, you'd get rid of the helping hand. Take any card that you want.

37:18 So look, I'm just going to get rid of this $5. And I'm going to get this $10 card actually. So it's good value. And it's a minus5. If you win this trick, you gain an extra $5. So it can be dangerous, but I feel like with minus5, it's pretty safe. So, I'm gonna get this card.

37:34 Should I or should I get more trash? Two cards. Oh, maybe more

37:38 because I really need to get rid of my high cards. And now that I'm about to shuffle my discard pile, there's a high chance I could Well, there's not really. There's a two in 22 chance I

37:50 That's well over my pay grade. Okay, so now we go into the shopping phase. So, I've got 15 to spend. Um I think I maybe want to do more of the trashing ones. I'll buy this last one. So, um, and I will put it at the top of my deck. So, I'll spend That was 10, wasn't it? Yeah. And the painter is going to So, now because it's the painters's turn, they get And it's at the start of the turn. This is empty. They're the ones I get to decide what comes down. And they're like, "You know what? I like the look of these ones cuz I also want to get get trashing." So, they're going to spend 10 to get one of those.

38:24 No, but they're minus two. I thought you wanted to win, painter,

38:27 but they also want to go towards that.

38:29 Don't take my

38:29 And now back to me. I only have five. So with this five, I guess I could get that kind of powerful one. So maybe I'll do that. Or I could trash any cards. Oh, I could trash that one. So no one else can get it.

38:41 Let's do that. I'll spend the five just to trash this card.

38:45 No one will get it. If I can't have it, no one else will. All right, I'll put this to the side. And now the painter side again. Yeah. So maybe they're going to be like, you know what? I've got 10. Um maybe let's bring these ones down. And then they'll buy one of them. So, which is 10. And that's it. All right. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. 10. 11. So, now because I have the helping hand, I've drawn my cards already, which is why I was trying to shuffle while Maggie was shopping. Um because I get to look at my hand first. So, don't look at my hand.

39:17 I want to look at your hand.

39:18 Yeah. You're trying to cheat.

39:18 I'm just I'm just shuffling.

39:20 Yeah. So, okay. So, what have we got?

39:23 I did just look at your hand just then.

39:24 Stop it.

39:25 That was unconscious.

39:26 Yeah. It's recording so everyone can see what you're doing. busted.

39:30 Um, so I did get my uh 2 and 22 one and 11 chance of getting that card. So that's great. Um, so I'm going to be able to trash some things from the discard. A lot of things from the discard actually. So that's interesting because when I play them at the moment, there's nothing in my discard. So it's going to really depend on the order in which I play my card. I need to think about that carefully.

39:54 Um, but right now I don't really want Trump to be fighting suit or do I?

40:01 Well, I know what the painter wants the trump to be.

40:06 I'm going to have the opportunity to um discard a card. I'm probably going to discard this one uh with my refine focus. So, I think I will actually make it this one. That's my lowest cards and the fewest of them. And then I'm going to refine my focus by putting card in my discard. And remember, when I get to get rid of one of these, I get to trash a card for my discard. So, I've got to think about what I'm putting there. This is interesting. So, now what's happened with me is, look at this. A lot of my cards ended up being augment cards, which means that it's likely going to I won't have a long time in the battles cuz as soon as you get rid of fighting cards and you only have this, you're out. which means that I'll end up getting the initiative again, which I don't necessarily want. Um, because I'm not longer getting those two points. At least no one else is getting them. So, there we go. I'm going to be the star player. Um, so what's the yellow is going to be. So, I've got quite a lot of yellows. I know who else has a lot of yellows. So, let's see. But I can do this. Draw two cards and trash one of them. Might that might be interesting.

41:12 So, maybe we'll do that. I'm feeling pretty confident that if I play really high A plus two, that's a 10. And I get to

41:19 Are you both not refining focus?

41:20 Oh, yeah. Good call. Um, do I want to refine focus? Um, maybe. Oh, actually, maybe. Maybe. Yes. So, I'm actually going to refine focus because I know that I'm going to be able to trash one from discard. So, I'm going to discard that one now. So, that when I play that later on, I'm going to be able to discard that lower one. Good. Thank you for the reminder. And then, what about painter? Are they going to be refining focus? They also have that ability. So, maybe they're going to go, "Yeah, you know what? Let's do let's do actually that could short suit them. So they're going to get rid of that one uh in the blue and I'm going to lead. So I'm going to go back to that. So that's that and then allows me to draw two cards. Oh my goodness. Please don't be super strong cards. Oh no. This is a disaster. I definitely want to keep that. So I'm going to keep this one, which is the one that allows me to trash more cards. And get rid of my very versatile psychic blade. But you know, so is law. Such is life.

42:13 Going for that garbage man.

42:15 Let's go for the garbage man. And let's see what's going to happen here. They have to follow suit and they're like, "Ha, you think you're strong with your 10?" With one single card, I could a combo. Um, and then maybe they're going to go, "Yep." And I'll play that one to So that's a Oh, and they could even do this. May trash one card from this card. So that's going to be 13. They're going to discard um, sorry, trash this one. And they're pretty confident now that Amy's not going to win that. I'm pretty happy not to win that. Yeah.

42:47 Here's my three.

42:48 There you go. So, they get the first one there. This goes uh there. This goes here. I get nothing. They lead. Ooh, they don't have anything else fun that could trash. Um that's maybe they'll just go I'm just going to short suit myself there so that then the rest is going to be trumps. So, they're just going to play a one. I will.

43:16 So if you have purple, you must follow suit.

43:18 Yes, thinking about that though because, you know, there's not much in my discard at this point for trashing.

43:26 Um, so I probably don't want to use this yet. So I'll just play a one. Okay, so you're playing a one. Now I have to follow suit. I only have this one uh five and I do want to get So draw two cards and must trash one. Let's do that. Just gonna get get trashing. Draw two cards. Oh no, these are both quite strong. So, all right, let's get rid of this four and I win that.

43:50 Okay. And now, let's see. What am I going to do? Let's play trash from this card. Actually, I'm going to play this three. And so, that becomes a five. And so, it allows me to again draw two cards. Must trash one. Yeah, that's good. I can get rid of that too. Um, and that goes there. And they would have to follow suit if they can with blue. They can't, but they're like, "Haha, I can only trump." So, I can trump with something even very light like that. Yeah. Here you go. Okay. I must follow on a five, but Trump is winning anyway, so that doesn't really matter.

44:34 Yep. Okay. So the painter wins that with that trump. Um and this goes away. So they're going to lead the next and they're like, "Ooh, maybe I'll lead with that." So I'm pretty comfortable and just to be safe, play that.

44:50 Strong. I'll play my one.

44:52 There you go. And I must follow. I don't have a one. So cuz I could have comboed then. So I'll just play I'll play the four. Play the four there. And Okay. So that's pretty easy. The um painter wins again. So that's this. This goes here. Uh that goes to your discard. They're going to lead the next trick. And they're just going to do their Oh, wait. What's this other card? Ah, there you go. Maybe they'll do they'll do a six in their trump suit. I picked Well, um let's see. Let's get rid of some high cards. And probably How many cards does the pink?

45:28 Only one.

45:29 Oh, okay.

45:29 Only got one left.

45:30 So h interesting. They're about to take initiative.

45:34 Yeah. So, I should probably try and use some of my trash cards. So, I'll I'll take the opportunity to play the four. I'll add one to it because I'm not going to win anyway. And then I may trash one from the discard. So, let's have a look. Let's get rid of this six into.

45:50 So, now it's back to me. I must follow with that. So, I would be essentially like actually I could win this. So, I could win this because even though here is a six, I could play that with this. So, now it becomes a seven and I can trash one from this card. What was in my discard? Yeah, easy. I'll trash that number that one. There you go. And then I'll win that one.

46:14 Mhm.

46:14 Okay, this goes here. This goes here. And now I know this is going to like this is the initiative is about to go there. So, maybe I'll just do the six as is. And it's like, haha, trump. And they're out. So, the initiative is going to go to them potentially.

46:32 So, now actually, because they're going out, I will be guaranteed to be in the last trick. So, now I might as well play um extra cards if they're going to be useful to me, and they probably will be. I could probably get rid of some cards in my discard. So, okay. So, the

46:48 lead suit

46:49 is being trumped at the moment.

46:50 Yeah. But you have to obviously follow if you So, I'm actually going to Or should I save it? How many cards do you have left?

46:57 I've got three cards left.

46:59 Okay, maybe for now I'll just get rid of this card.

47:03 Okay, so this wins, they're out and they get their two points. I'll give them the two points immediately. So, that's done now. Um and then because they won.

47:14 Mhm.

47:15 Um it's and they're out. It sort of moves clockwise. So, now you dangerous. It's dangerous when you're trying to lose and uh M.

47:22 Yeah. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play this two and make it a zero

47:29 and then trash two cards for my discard.

47:31 I don't know if that'll save you still.

47:34 Oh, no.

47:34 Because I can't follow suit, which means that you're still going to be stronger.

47:38 Oh, no. This is disaster.

47:40 This is a disaster. So, you get your you got your punch in. You got your Well, what? Yeah, that was a punch cuz it's using your

47:46 you know, in a run through. It's great to see how not to play.

47:50 Yeah. You won. You won. You won the variety.

47:52 So close. I always get one coin.

47:54 There we go. So, you'd win that one. This goes here.

47:58 Very sad.

47:59 This goes here. And that's the end of that. So, they've already got those two points. Broke. Are you broke? You're not broke.

48:05 I wish I was broke.

48:06 All right. Who came first? The prince did. So, they The prince I'm just going to keep calling the painter prince. So, they get five points. One, two, three, four, five.

48:16 I came second, so I get three points. One, two, three, and you came third. You get two points.

48:22 I'm hoping for like some late game.

48:25 Yeah. Yeah. Some like wins later on. All right. And so now we're going into the U. No one's broke, so no one gets the store credit.

48:32 Um, and then we go into helping hands.

48:34 I'll take it again because I can't buy anything. I was hoping, you know, then I'd be able to copy

48:39 the money, but no. So, I'm actually going to get this lovely temp.

48:44 This might be good for you because it allows you to lose if you can play off suit. It allows you to lose five if you end up.

48:51 Yeah. I just

48:52 I don't want it to sabotage you and then you be like, "Oh, that was the

48:55 that was Maggie's fault.

48:56 That was Maggie's fault."

48:57 Cuz it would have to very strategically be in the deck at the right point.

49:00 I do like this one because it's so strong with the minus five, but does come with the risk of actually winning the trick and gaining an extra five. But at that point, you're probably only winning it because someone's played Eldress's gamble or both other players. And then at that point,

49:15 you're probably going to win it anyway. So, at least you get an extra five. That's how I'm thinking about it. Or this one up here, draw three cards, and I can discard any of them, which would allow me to make sure that the rest of my deck is kind of as low as possible.

49:29 So, that one's pretty good as well.

49:32 Tricky though. Look, I think I just think this is fun being minus five. So,

49:39 no, I'm gonna do this one.

49:40 Okay.

49:41 Three. And then some like deck flexibility.

49:44 Yeah.

49:45 All right. So, because the painter has initiative, um, they get to go first, but again, they can only pick from the bottom. I think they're going to pick this really powerful 10. So, they'll spend 10 to get this. They might decide to put it at the top of the deck because of the initiative. And then it goes back to me. Now, whatever I buy is going to have to go to my discard. I've got 10 to spend. What do I want? Uh, do I want to do this? No. Maybe I'll also go for some powerful cards. So, I'll spend the five. So, I'll spend the 10 to get this one. And I have to put it in the discard. And then now they've got another 10 left. So, what are they going to do? Maybe they'll just finish that. So, that goes there. And oh, they're going to play it there. So, that is that. And now we move this up. And then we go to helping hand. So, I did take the helping hand. I get to draw my cards. And I get to set the trump. So, let's have a look at what I've drawn here. This is not looking good. Uh, for my strategy, maybe I'll change my strategy for this round. Maybe I'll try and win against all of Maggie's combos and all the strong cards that

50:52 Hard. Yeah. Now, there's really strong cards. Yeah.

50:55 No, I know.

50:56 It's a real gamble. The whole like maybe I'll try and make myself weaker to try and steal that first place.

51:02 Yeah.

51:03 Things can go wrong and double a lot of trouble. Um, okay. I could probably get rid of that card.

51:19 I might change it to I don't have much flexibility in that though.

51:25 Sorry.

51:31 I'm not liking this. Okay. Okay. I've chosen. You've chosen it is the No, I've changed my mind because I've got low cards in this and I might trash this one. No, I changed my mind again. Otherwise, I have to leave myself with the six. Okay. Okay. Oh, interesting. No augment cards or special cards. So, we'll see how they go.

51:58 Should I try and win? No.

52:01 What's the So, so that's now going to be the trump suit.

52:04 Yes. Okay, strength. So, maybe they're not going to get rid of any of those, but they'll get rid of this one. So, it's like, well, I'll just get rid of that one, that low one. I mean, they could use it to combo, but doesn't

52:15 refine my focus like that.

52:16 Okay. And will I get rid of anything? Yep, I'll discard. I don't have anything that is going to allow me to trash things, unfortunately. But yeah, maybe I'll discard as well that I will likely I may win some of those. Okay. So, the painter is going to lead.

52:36 Painter's leading.

52:37 Painter's leading. Very confidently going, "Okay, I'm going to maybe that's pretty strong."

52:44 That is very strong. I'll happily get rid of some cards with that. I also want to point out that actually round six, seven, and eight, the shop closes. So, we're only going to have opportunity to buy cards at the end of this round and the following round. And then after that, no more new cards. So, just something to bear in mind.

53:04 Yeah. So, I need to follow suit. I'm going to be losing this one. And this is not a Trump suit, so I might as well just get rid of that. And it means that the painter will win that round or that fight. You go. And they're going to lead again. And they're like, you know what? That was pretty satisfying. Maybe I'll do that again. Yeah. Keep doing that. Uh, and I'm going to again go Oh, eight + one, nine. No, that's still not. So, I'll get rid of Oh, could I combo? I can't combo. So, that's the five.

53:36 Now that I think about it, I should have made yellow the trump

53:39 because there's a lot of yellow cards that they've both been buying. True.

53:44 And if I was thinking smartly, that's what I would

53:47 kind of invested. All right. So, now he's out of those really uh high powerful yellows, but he's like, I'm going to short try and short suit myself to end up with just the Trumps. So, maybe they'll just go, oh, I'll go with a five. Maybe we'll go with a five blue.

54:00 And I will also play a five blue.

54:03 Okay. I will play the only blue I have cuz I have to follow, which is a two. And because this was first, they win it.

54:09 Mhm.

54:10 They'll lead again. And they're going to keep going. So that's a four.

54:16 And I will play a three.

54:18 And now I can actually trump that with a very easy one. Um because now Yeah, cuz I couldn't follow suit.

54:25 Yep.

54:25 Great. Brings that here. I'll leave the next one and I'll I feel like they've run out of their their yellows. So, they're like, "Yep, I'm gonna Oh, I could they can trump it with that."

54:42 And I will just play this. I was thinking about comboing, but I can't do that because I need to have two of single suit.

54:49 Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, again, the prince is killing.

54:53 Yeah.

54:53 The painter, I should say.

54:54 Painter.

54:55 Painter. Painter prince. Um, and now they're like, "Maybe I'll get rid of that." So then the rest is always going to be now the Trump suit. Blue, blue. I don't have blue. And I'm like, "Aha, I will

55:08 drop that and get myself a little thing." So now I lead the next trick.

55:14 Help me. Help me like this.

55:15 I'm going to do um maybe I'll do lose this. Lose this. And you're going to go, "Oh, well, if you're losing it, I can just do anything. I'll do that." I could have got a lot.

55:31 Oh, thank goodness. Because if you had played anything else, I would have had to try.

55:35 Oh, no. Oh, no.

55:37 So, I'm going to play this.

55:38 Oh, yeah.

55:39 And trash two. Nice.

55:40 I've just realized. Have you gone out?

55:42 No. No. No. No. No. Not yet. Not yet.

55:46 This is so sad. Now I am broke, but I've gone out too soon.

55:51 Oh, no. You're going to be in the last trick.

55:53 Don't qualify.

55:54 But if you've gone out, you get this.

55:56 Great.

55:57 You get two points.

55:58 I'll get two points. Oh my gosh. I love that I'm this player in this game right now. So, I'm going to trash um two cards from my discard pile.

56:08 I don't know if I took the five um for the Eldress Gambit. I'm going to take that there. But just check the rules, goofs, in case. Yeah. And then they win that one. Okay. And so you're out.

56:23 I am unfortunately out.

56:25 So they're going to go, okay, I'll do the five. And here I'm like, um, I'll do the six. Haha. So I win this. And these get discarded. Now I lead. And this is all I can really do. So like a seven of that, which doesn't really matter because they're like, I'll trump that. So they're going to win that. And that's okay. So,

56:47 I can't believe neither of you went out with all the augment cards that you have.

56:51 I know. That's so wild. Okay, so no one steals first place cuz unfortunately you weren't in the last trick, even though you did manage to finally be broke.

57:00 Mhm.

57:01 Ah, um, first place.

57:03 So, you got two points for you though.

57:05 I did my initiative.

57:06 Yeah. And then first place is going to be the painter for six points.

57:11 I'm gonna get three points. And you get two points. Oh, I'd actually get some points. That's great. But now because I'm broke, I gain money equal to the richest,

57:21 which is going to be 10, 20, 30.

57:24 Fabulous.

57:25 So with this 30, it means that you now have ability to and you have the initiative, which means that you're actually going to be able to go first and shop. But if you do that, um, you then don't really get to spend that full thing. You don't get your helping hand. So, do you want

57:40 Well, what you're saying is, do I want the helping hand? Because I came in last place in renown, I get that option, but I'd have to discard my $30 in order to get one card. So, it doesn't seem like a great deal right now. Plus, because I've got the initiative, I'm going to get to pick which cards come down, which means I could just pick things that are going to be helpful to me. So, I think I am

58:01 I'll lose control of the trump. And in fact, the trump will stay as is. So, that's going to be a bit tricky. But no, I'm going to I'm going to go shopping.

58:10 Okay. So then you have the initiative. So you start.

58:12 I'm going to pull down this card, which I'm fond of.

58:15 And I am going to buy one. I'm going to buy one of those.

58:20 Yeah, you got to buy that.

58:23 I've only got 20 to spend.

58:24 Oh, I've got initiative, so I can put it here.

58:26 You can put it Yeah. At the top of the deck if you want.

58:29 Um I'm thinking of going maybe do I want to go strong with yellow? The purple suit of strings is going to be the powerful one. Maybe I want to go to get more one of those. So maybe I'll just spend 10 to get this one and it'll go into my discard. And then the prince will be like um what do they want? What do they want? They're pretty happy with their powerful cards. Do they want any of these? Discard. Discard. There's no other trashing ones. Maybe they'll get this one for five. And that goes there. Yep. Uh, I'm going to buy another one of these cards, but I just want to talk through a bit of a dynamic here in deciding whether I'm going to put it into my draw card or over here into my discard. I'm guaranteed to draw in here, but in order to, you know, not go out too quickly. I don't want too many augment cards in my hand. So, I'm going to pay the 10. I'm going to put this over here

59:24 and just save it for later. And hopefully, I don't get a whole hand of them because it's just going to mess up my game. Okay, maybe I'll spend 10 to get myself um Do I want that or that? Is there anything that's going to be? Maybe I'll just spend 10 to get this for flexibility and that will go there and they're going to be like, you know what? I actually maybe they want something up there. So, they're going to maybe spend five to trash that.

59:54 My orb.

59:54 The orb is gone.

59:56 The orb is gone. Okay. By no means that Amy gets to to decide what the next thing to come down is.

1:00:01 Ah, yes, I do. Um, this one's pretty good. This augment card here. I don't really want this one because it gives me money even though it allows me to lose a trick.

1:00:13 I'll put that one there.

1:00:14 Um, but I'm going to actually buy this one because I do need some low cards in my hand. So, it's 10.

1:00:20 I'm out of money. So, I don't I can't buy anymore.

1:00:23 Choose which one.

1:00:23 They get to choose one. So, they're going to bring this one down. really good for winning tricks.

1:00:27 Yeah. So, they're going to spend 15 to buy one of them.

1:00:31 Mhm.

1:00:32 And they're going to spend they have an extra five. Maybe they'll get this one

1:00:37 because there's also nothing. Yep. So, there. All right. You've got initiative. So, now we've go This is going to be the final round where we're going to be able to do shopping after the the round

1:00:47 and um yeah, there was no helping hand. So, the trump stays like that.

1:00:51 Stays the same.

1:00:52 So, you got initiative. So, are you doing any focusing? Yeah, I've got a few problems. Um, and namely this one. This is a problem because if I use this and lose the trick, I'll gain $5. So, that one is going straight out of my hand. I'm going to [snorts] uh with my focus get rid of Oh, this is interesting. Do I want to get rid of anything? I ended up now having very few, so I'll likely go out pretty early. So, I have a lot of these augment cards. So, what's this? Dumb. Draw from the trash. Draw. Draw. Draw. I won't get rid of anything. So, won't get rid of anything there. And do they want to get rid of anything? They don't really want to get rid of anything either. So, that's easy. You have initiative, so you leave. Great. Well, actually, I was thinking I've got too many augment cards, and I'm a bit worried about going out too soon, but I now have this wonderful orb that allows me to draw three cards and discard any of them.

1:01:49 So, that's pretty helpful. So, I'm actually going to play a trump

1:01:55 and I'm going to play the orb, which is going to allow me to draw three. But essentially, I've led with trump of a value of zero.

1:02:03 Zero. Okay.

1:02:04 One, two, three. And I can discard any of these. I will discard that one. Okay. So, I'm going to um follow suit because I have to. And then I've got some of these like draw and trash. Draw in trash. So, maybe I'll do that. Draw two. must trash one. Oh, I'll draw this one and I'll shuffle these. Oh, no. Okay. And then let's see. This is my second draw. Um, I'll trash this. So, that goes there. And let's see what they're going to do. So, they have to follow suit. So, they're going to follow suit with that. Do they want to trash anything? They absolutely do. So, draw and trash two from this card. That's not really worthwhile using yet. So, they're going to play that and that. Draw two and trash one. Draw two. Trash the three.

1:02:56 That goes there. So, I win this one.

1:03:00 Mhm.

1:03:01 That goes to the discard. That goes to the discard. I'm going to lead. Okay. So, let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Um, I'm gonna What else am I going to do? I'm going to do a Maybe I'll do the 10. Now, let's do the three and do another draw. Yeah, draw two. So, that's going to be a five. Blue. Draw two. Trash one. Draw two. Trash one. I'll trash this one.

1:03:32 Okay. Blue. Blue. They're like, I need to beat a five. Actually, they could combo. Um, maybe they don't want to combo just yet. So maybe they'll do a Oh, but they could do a five and do some trashy trashy trash two cards from your discard. Yeah, maybe they'll do that five,

1:03:51 but then they'll lose.

1:03:52 So that's a three. They'll lose the trick. So maybe they'll play the six instead, actually. So let's make it that.

1:03:56 They'll still lose the trick.

1:03:58 Oh yeah, 6 - 2 is three. Yeah, you're right.

1:04:00 6 - 2 is four.

1:04:02 Oh, 6 - 2 is four. [snorts] Um, well, that's fine. Um, three. Yeah, that's fine. So, so they want to trash two from this card. Oh, but it means that Oh. Oh, yeah, that's fine. It's getting towards the end. So,

1:04:22 and you're playing.

1:04:24 Yes, I will play.

1:04:25 Are you playing anything?

1:04:26 And now the five is winning. Um, so actually I'm going to play the three and I'm going to do something a bit weird where I'm going to augment that with a plus one because I still won't win. But I actually want to put that card in here so I can get rid of it. Good call.

1:04:39 Yeah.

1:04:40 All right. So, I win that.

1:04:42 Um, and then I'll lead from here. What do I want? Trash from the discard. Um, draw and trash. Let's do this. So, I'll do the six. Um, 78.

1:05:00 Draw two and trash one. Yeah, easy. I'll trash that. The number one. And it's a purple

1:05:09 eight. So they're going to go five.

1:05:11 Yes.

1:05:12 And that's it.

1:05:13 Okay. I will just play a two and add the augment.

1:05:21 Mhm.

1:05:21 So now it's a three. So I still win that one.

1:05:25 This goes here. This goes there. And then let's see. Um so I'm out of those ones. So maybe I will play what will I do? Maybe I'll play the tin and trash from this card. So, let's see something in here that I can trash. I'll trash this three. And it's yellow. Let's follow yellow. Yellow. Yellow. Yellow. 10. Oh, they can actually combo. Do they want to do that? They'll do that. Um 10 plus one. So, they'll get to combo

1:05:58 and get rid of another one. So, they'll get rid of this one because it's the lower one.

1:06:02 There you go. and goes.

1:06:06 So, sorry. Yeah, you haven't done it.

1:06:07 Yeah, I haven't played, but I'm not going to try and win. I'm going to play a three and I'm going to play this.

1:06:11 Oh, they have to decide what number this would be. They're going to say five, I guess.

1:06:14 Yep. So, you're on a 16. So, three. I'm on a one and I'm going to trash two cards from my discard. I actually want to get rid of these two, I think. Um, or should I just get rid of one of those and a number card? Maybe I'll get one of those and a number card. Oh, I could get rid of this one.

1:06:36 It's pretty annoying.

1:06:36 Yeah, might get rid of that one and one of these.

1:06:41 Great.

1:06:43 All right, so this one. So, they win.

1:06:46 Mhm.

1:06:47 That goes there.

1:06:49 Got their money.

1:06:49 Yep. I just gave them money.

1:06:50 Is that their first trick though?

1:06:52 That is the first one that they won.

1:06:53 Oh, they almost could have gone broke.

1:06:55 Yeah. Um, so what am I going to do? I'm going to play Um the eight and then plus one. I want to win that nine. They're going to go, "Oh, fine. I will lose that."

1:07:15 Okay. And gain a coin.

1:07:16 They'll get the coin.

1:07:17 And I will play this. I'll set it as a one. And I'll go down to minus one.

1:07:22 Trash two cards. I get rid of this.

1:07:25 And I'll get rid of this one. And I lead again. Lead again. So I'm going to do maybe I'll just say that I'm gonna lose this one.

1:07:39 And then they're going to go Oh, I'll go with this six.

1:07:43 Ah, you still have so many cards left. I'm going to play this one.

1:07:46 Okay. So lose, lose, lose, lose. So I Oh, did I already take my five?

1:07:52 I don't know.

1:07:52 I don't think I did. Okay, take that. But then they win this and then they're going to lead.

1:07:59 Got problems.

1:08:00 Lead with a five.

1:08:02 Oh no.

1:08:03 Oh no. Oh no. No.

1:08:06 This [snorts] is very bad.

1:08:07 This is very bad.

1:08:08 You're going to win the trick.

1:08:09 You're going to win that. Yeah.

1:08:10 Yes. Because it's the trumpet.

1:08:12 It's a trump. Oh no man.

1:08:14 Say so. Yeah. You won that one. And then are you out?

1:08:17 I am also out.

1:08:18 Oh. So you're not even in the last trick.

1:08:20 No.

1:08:20 Oh no.

1:08:21 I'm not broke and I'm not out.

1:08:23 So it moves to me. Um,

1:08:24 I mean, I am out.

1:08:25 I'll do that. Um, it didn't really matter which one I led with because then they're going to do that. I will win that. And this doesn't matter. So, that goes there. So, that's it. So,

1:08:36 don't get to steal first place.

1:08:39 I wish.

1:08:39 Oh. Um, but who has the most? I gave it first.

1:08:43 Yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

1:08:46 You kept the initiative, but because you already had it, you don't get the extra points.

1:08:49 The

1:08:50 They get four.

1:08:51 One, two, three, four. Painting.

1:08:52 You get three. One, two, three.

1:08:54 Okay. And now, um, broke. No one's broke.

1:08:58 No helping hand. I think you're probably going to wonder.

1:09:02 I think I would like the helping hand. Yes. So, I'm going to get rid of all my money. My all my $5. And should I get the minus five or should I get the minus one? You know, I am having some problems with just having enough number cards. So, I could try and get this four, but that seems super risky. Like, what happens if yellow becomes the Trump? I mean, I've got control of you control of what becomes Trump.

1:09:29 Yeah. And I could just put it in here. Guarantee that it doesn't become Trump. But also,

1:09:33 there's another hole there. So, we need to move another.

1:09:35 We do. But right now, it's not the shopping. It's just my gain a free item.

1:09:39 That's true.

1:09:39 Uh, so this is draw two cards from my deck and from my discard. Return to the top of each pile in any order. Oh, I don't know if that's that useful to me now. Do this times two that insurance for if I do get money, but I tend to do it right at the end.

1:09:56 So, that's not as helpful. Maybe I'll just get this one to change the suit. I could change the suit of a Trump if that happened to me again.

1:10:10 But you'll get to set the suit. So,

1:10:12 I will.

1:10:13 So, that's going to change it to the blue. It's going to change it to yes, magic.

1:10:18 Um, yeah, I I'll get a rune of magic.

1:10:21 Okay. So, you can put it either at the top of your deck or

1:10:24 I think I'll put it here because I think a lot of my augment cards were in that last hand.

1:10:27 Okay. So, technically I'm going to be first um I'm going to choose to move the

1:10:34 Yes, that's right.

1:10:35 Yeah, cuz that's done. So, let's move the Eldrit um gambit.

1:10:39 Mhm.

1:10:39 And I think I'll buy one of them. Why not? One, two, three. I'll put it in my discard.

1:10:46 You have to.

1:10:47 Oh, yeah. I do have to. H They're 15. Do they want an Elder Gambit? Maybe they want to actually buy that one, the times two, which is quite powerful there. And then I have another 15. I I won one of those as well, these ones.

1:11:03 Mhm.

1:11:03 Okay. And there. All right. So, now we move on to No More Shopping. Shop is closed. Three is closed.

1:11:11 Six. Seven. eight. Okay, so I'll do my helping hand by setting the trump. Hopefully I've got some more battle cards. Or have I just ruined everything in this game?

1:11:24 Big broke.

1:11:25 Broke your game.

1:11:27 You know what? I think I'm going to keep the trump as is.

1:11:30 Oh, interesting. I did not expect that considering we all have so many yellows often.

1:11:40 Full of surprises. You are full of surprises. So, you're going to pivot.

1:11:44 She's going to do a pivot.

1:11:45 Yeah, I'm just going to win from now on.

1:11:47 Going to win everything.

1:11:48 This round's worth 10 points.

1:11:50 Going to just do a pivot and leave us in the dust. Going to

1:11:53 try.

1:11:53 Okay. Um, focus. Do I want to do a focus? What's this? I don't want to get rid of those cuz they're trump. Um, would I be able to go lose potentially and try and steal the win? Okay, an extra on the wrong side. Maybe I will get rid of No, I'll just get rid of this. Yeah, the way I've got something in the discard. Oh, I don't have anything that will trash from the discard. If you win a streak, gain extra. Okay, so that's that. And then one, two, three. They want to get rid of anything. Maybe they'll get rid of this. Oops. Oh, I don't know why I'm doing that. I'm going to hold on to all my cards.

1:12:33 Okay. Mhm.

1:12:33 So, you lead.

1:12:36 I lead. Oh my goodness. What will I lead with?

1:12:41 I will lead with a one of magic suit.

1:12:49 So, one blue.

1:12:50 So, now it's a zero of

1:12:52 a zero blue.

1:12:53 Blue.

1:12:54 So, I'll play my two blue. Uh, two. Maybe make that a three. Even though I don't think I'm there's no way I'm not gonna be beat here. Oh, yeah. There's a three. So, they can combo. Oh, they can't combo because they don't have another card that they could play.

1:13:11 So, um they could do a three and then plus one. So, four. They will win that.

1:13:17 But wait. So, they get to move

1:13:20 um trash one card from the discard. So, let's see what they want to trash from here.

1:13:25 H they'll trash this too. Okay.

1:13:27 Okay.

1:13:28 Yep. And they win that. They win that. They take their five is there. I'll lead the next trick. Let's see. Just going to go with a confident 10.

1:13:40 Um I'm going to play a five and a minus three, which allows me to draw three cards and discard any of them. I will Should I keep these? I might risk this and keep I'll keep all of them.

1:14:03 That was risky.

1:14:04 All right, I'm going to then uh combo. So, I'll turn that into a Oh, no. So, it turned into a two so it matches.

1:14:11 And then throw in an extra card,

1:14:13 but I still lose overall cuz they're still the highest. So, they still win that one.

1:14:20 And then they're going to lead with an eight.

1:14:25 An eight. yellow. I think I'm going to play a four and minus three so that I can draw three more cards. Okay, I'll play I can win this. Um, and I'm like, ooh,

1:14:40 I'll keep all of this.

1:14:41 But could I try and go for the stealing the first? I have too many high cards, so and I've got some high trumps, so I don't think it'll happen. So, I might as well just win this. So, I'll win that.

1:14:51 Mhm.

1:14:53 And lead. Let's keep it going. Gain an extra five. I might try and leave that. So, I'll play that five yellow and then they're going to go they'll play a six yellow. Oh, they can play a five yellow and combo. Do they want to combo? Yeah, maybe they'll combo and then throw that out there. So, now it's a seven

1:15:21 two and a minus two. So that zero

1:15:25 two cards for my discard. I will try and win that. I'm worried here because I could trash more of my number cards, but I'm really running low on number cards.

1:15:47 Um, this is just a minus one. I really want to be able to pull these every time because they're really helpful

1:15:53 to get the low number cards that I need.

1:15:56 Um, so maybe I'll just I'm going to get rid of my rune of magic. Controversial, but I'm going to do it.

1:16:02 Okay. So now they get to lead. So I'm going to do a four plus one.

1:16:07 I cannot follow and I don't want to trump it. So, I'm going to do a three. Okay. So, they're at a five. Um, this is a six, which means we'll win it.

1:16:28 Mhm.

1:16:28 There. And then I'm going to lead here. Uh, I'll lead with a six of the trumpsuit. and they're going to be like combo six and four is a 10 now and they're out. So, I'm going to steal the initiative.

1:16:47 Yay, I survived. Uh, I'm going to play three and draw three. One, two, because I really need to dilute my hand with these trumps. Oh, no. That is the one card I did not.

1:17:07 So, they won. They won. Yeah. So, they get the they get two points

1:17:12 because now they've got their initiative. Okay. Move the over there. Two points. They get a coin

1:17:18 for that. And now they're out.

1:17:19 And this is the problem I had last time cuz now the lead gets to me.

1:17:23 But I think not many trumps have been played. So, I'm actually going to lead Trump and I'm going to uh should I add should I minus to that so that it's a zero just in case Maggie happens to have her one trump? Should probably do that. So, I'll play that. So, now it says minus one.

1:17:48 That saved you because Yeah. Look at what I had. These are my last two cards.

1:17:53 Are you Are you trashing this card? So, you you can trash. Not not trashing.

1:17:58 So, okay. So, look at what I had. So, I had that, but that would have made it a zero. So, lucky that you went into minus lucky.

1:18:06 So, this is if I win this trick, which I did, I get an extra five. So, I get one for winning and then an extra five.

1:18:13 All right.

1:18:13 All right. That was lucky. So, wow. Finally did it.

1:18:16 Oh, well done.

1:18:18 Oh my goodness.

1:18:18 All right. So, you're broke and you participated in the last trick.

1:18:21 And I was on the last trick.

1:18:23 The crowd is like, give it to the underdog. Look at her. She's like all just bruised up and

1:18:28 took me to round six to do it. I tried every other

1:18:31 10.

1:18:32 One, two, 21. Okay.

1:18:34 Okay. So then who came second? So I've got 20 and the 20, but they've got the initiative. So technically they come in second. So they have seven.

1:18:42 Mhm. Do they also get 20? Oh, okay. You're the same.

1:18:45 Yeah.

1:18:45 Um, so here 1 2 3 4 5 six seven.

1:18:49 Yep. So you get four.

1:18:51 One, two, three, four. Look, I'm close to you now.

1:18:54 You're catching up. ing you.

1:18:55 That was a good stealing. Okay, so now um this broke again equal. Well, now we don't really have to worry about this.

1:19:02 Oh, yeah. So, I would get points, but now we're not shopping anymore, but we do still do helping hand.

1:19:08 That's me.

1:19:08 That's you. Would you like to do the helping hand?

1:19:11 So, helping hand,

1:19:12 you will no longer get any item. The shop is closed,

1:19:14 but I get to determine the the trump, which I actually would like to do. So, I will take the helping hand. We get rid of these coins because they're only really helpful for us um working out that, you know, first, second, and third place.

1:19:25 Y

1:19:26 um and let's have a look. We go into the second to last round.

1:19:30 Penultimate rounds.

1:19:33 Okay. Let's see. What will I want this drum to be? Oh, look at this. Interesting.

1:19:39 Cards left.

1:19:41 Oh, wow. Oh, wowy. Wow. Look at this. Okay. So, I'm going to be able to be in some, but there's a lot of stuff that I'll be able to discard and trash. Trash trash, trash, trash. Okay. Okay. So, that's interesting. I think I'm going to make the trumpsuit. Oh, wow. Look at this. I only have

1:20:05 I literally only have two cards of So, I'll make I'll make the trumpsuit the uh I know that the painter has very strong yellow. So, maybe I'll make the trumpsuit the blue.

1:20:16 Okay. Magic suit.

1:20:17 Magic suit.

1:20:18 Mhm.

1:20:19 Okay. And

1:20:20 different to the birthday suit.

1:20:22 Yes, indeed. Three, six. And then they need to shuffle this. They're going to leave because they've got initiative. Oh, look at those tasty 12 points for first place.

1:20:35 I'm coming for them.

1:20:36 Okay. Are they going to do any focus? Any focus? Maybe they'll get rid of they'll short suit. Do they want to short suit? Maybe they'll just get rid of that. So, there's something in the discard as well. And do I want to do any?

1:20:53 I'm a bit too scared to. I'm worried I won't have enough numbers.

1:20:57 Number cards.

1:20:58 Draw. Oh, I get to draw a lot. Maybe I'll get rid of I'll get rid of this. That's going to give me money. But the money's not Well, money's helpful. Okay, maybe I won't get rid of anything. Okay, so they're going to start and they're going to start by going again their best thing. If you lose, you gain. So, so they'll do the 10 and they're like, I want to make sure No, they'll do 11. may trash one card from discard, which is that one. Perfect. So, it's sitting at 11.

1:21:33 I'm still play four.

1:21:36 Four. Oh, I could combo that.

1:21:42 Yeah, let's do that. I'll combo. So, four and that.

1:21:46 Oh, wow.

1:21:47 And allow you to win. So, allow me to win. So, I take that win

1:21:51 there. And this goes here. I'll leave. Oh, no. I'll leave the next one. Oh, I really want to Okay, I want to play that because But I Interestingly, I can only really play it with fighting cards. So, maybe I'll play this like I'll play the six seven

1:22:09 six of six, seven, eight. And I can draw two cards. So, I'll draw one card and I can Oh, no. And I can trash one of them. I need to shuffle this to continue my draw. Um, I mean, it doesn't really matter. I'll trash that. I'll trash that. Okay. Okay. And this was Let's have a look. So, it's blue. So, they're going to be like, you know what? Maybe 3 * 2 six. Oh, that still wouldn't win it. So, they'll just going to do a three. So, this is an eight versus a three. Okay. Well, I guess I can play any of my trumps. But, do I want to discard some cards? So, I only have one card in my discard, and I do want it for garbage man objective, but I don't know. I'm too scared for the last round. If I get rid of my number cards, it's not going to be it's not going to be a good scene.

1:23:08 Um, maybe I'll try and get rid of this card again. I'm not sure. Should I trash one for my discard? Yeah, let's do it. I'll just trash this card. Okay. What was it? Yeah. All right. So, I win that. I win this. This goes here. That goes there. So, look. Uh Oh, wow. And draw. So, we'll do this one. Draw five. And that six, seven. Draw two. Trash one. I'll trash this. Okay. And it's blue. They can't follow. Oh, and they can't. They can even. So, they'll just play. And it's already the trump suit. So, I'll just play that.

1:23:56 Um, and I will just play this, too.

1:24:01 Yep.

1:24:01 So, I win this.

1:24:03 Mhm.

1:24:04 Yep.

1:24:04 And then, okay. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Um, I'm going to lose this. This is my trash. me trash. Okay. So, I'll lose that one. So, I have to play it

1:24:22 and then they're going to be like, "Sweet. I want to win that." So, I'll do that.

1:24:26 Oh, thank goodness. And I will do this one.

1:24:31 Okay. So, they're going to win that. And I get five.

1:24:37 Mhm.

1:24:40 And now they're like, "Okay, I'm going to set the tone there." They probably are like, "I don't necessarily." I'll just make that a 16 just to be sure.

1:24:49 A 16. Crazy.

1:24:51 Crazy. Unnecessary.

1:24:53 I will do that.

1:24:54 Actually, it did save them.

1:24:56 This two.

1:24:58 Mhm.

1:24:58 Starting to worry about the cards that I have in my hand. So, I might top them up.

1:25:05 One, two, three.

1:25:09 Okay.

1:25:09 Okay.

1:25:10 And I'm going to do the 10. So, lucky that they did go so high, otherwise they would have

1:25:16 lost it. So they win that and I Yes. So then they lead they'll lead with the eight. Um I will play a one and do I want to minus from that? Maybe trash two cards for my discard. Get rid of this. Don't want that plus one anymore.

1:25:50 And do you think I have to trash two? Says may trash two. Can I trash one?

1:26:00 Yeah.

1:26:01 All right. Okay. And the last legal card that I have that I can play is this one. And I can't add any of the augments. So, I'm going to lose this trick, but get those five. And I'm out. So, I take the initiative.

1:26:14 So, two points for the pirate, please.

1:26:18 And they win this. So, that's there. And now it's just You're going to be in the last

1:26:23 I'm in the last trick.

1:26:24 So, they're going to lead with a five.

1:26:28 Okay. I will make this a one.

1:26:33 Okay. And so, they win.

1:26:36 And then their final one is a three.

1:26:39 And luckily, I don't have to drop that. So, I will play this, too.

1:26:43 All right. So, they win that.

1:26:44 Mhm.

1:26:45 Oh, you managed to steal it again.

1:26:47 I did.

1:26:48 Well done.

1:26:49 All right. So, now you stole it cuz you're broke and you were in the last race. You get 12 points. Ah, look at you coming from behind.

1:26:56 Come on.

1:26:57 So, what's this? 10 25. And I've got 10 25. So, we're tied, but I've got the initiative. So, um, had I already taken the two points?

1:27:06 Eight.

1:27:07 I'm not sure. Oh, yes, I did.

1:27:09 Yeah. Okay. So, now it's eight points for me.

1:27:11 Mhm. And five points for the painter.

1:27:13 Oh, one, two, three, four, five. It's much closer now.

1:27:16 Oh, see that's interesting. And now we can go rid of this because there's no shopping. Last round. Final round.

1:27:22 But the helping hand does get offered to the person who came in last,

1:27:25 which was um the painter. So, let's see what. Three, six,

1:27:31 are they taking it?

1:27:32 Well, um are they taking it?

1:27:34 I think they have to decide first.

1:27:35 Uh they might as might as well take it. Why wouldn't they take it?

1:27:38 Yeah.

1:27:38 Yeah.

1:27:39 And then you get to draw and set Trump. That's true. Why wouldn't you?

1:27:41 Why wouldn't you take it?

1:27:42 Why wouldn't you? Cuz there's no shopping.

1:27:43 Exactly. So, it's not like you're missing out on anything then.

1:27:47 There. Let's see. What do they want the trump to be then? Oh, they didn't actually pull any of their strong cards. They're going to say their trump will be yellow.

1:27:59 Okay.

1:28:00 Make it yellow. And are they going to get rid of any of this? No. Okay. And

1:28:10 okay.

1:28:11 Okay.

1:28:11 Who's got initiative?

1:28:12 I've got the initiative. So, it's going to be me.

1:28:14 We can put a card face down.

1:28:16 Yeah,

1:28:17 if we want to. I'm not going to to do that.

1:28:21 Are we good? Are we good? Maybe I'll get rid of this one to short suit myself.

1:28:26 Mhm.

1:28:26 So, cuz this is Trump's. Um, okay. And I'm going to lead. So, let's go. Let's lead with the eight. Eight.

1:28:39 Eight yellow. Actually, before I just leave that, I don't want to lose like No, there's nothing fun else that like Yeah, there fun things that I can play. So, what are they going to do? Six. They're probably going to want to win that. So, they'll go six * two 12.

1:28:59 Yeah, that's the only thing they can do. What are you doing for your yellows?

1:29:03 Well, I'm not going to win it, am I? I am just going to play the three. play the three. So, they're going to win that lead. They're going to be like, you know what? You know what? What do they not want? That's the trump. Maybe they'll be like, I want to see what happens. Oh, no. They want to trash two cards from their discard cuz I actually genuinely don't know who. So, four minus two. There are two and they can trash two from here. or I'll play this two.

1:29:37 It doesn't really matter now what they trash cuz it's the last round. So, they're not going to really get to cycle much more.

1:29:43 That's true.

1:29:44 So, you're at a two. This is at a two. This is winning.

1:29:48 I don't have

1:29:51 Maybe I'll play I can play this and win it.

1:29:55 I'll play that and win it.

1:30:00 Okay. And then what am I going to lead with? Lead with the Let's make this a seven yellow. They have to follow seven. They can't really do much. They'll just do But they're like, I don't want to get rid of those. You have to. You can play this at any point, though. So, maybe they'll just do that and like lose the trick.

1:30:26 Well, I'm glad you're winning it. H.

1:30:28 Um, I'll play this one and I'll play trash. Two cards in the discard. Doesn't matter what they are.

1:30:35 So, they're going to get the five because of their Eldrich Gambit and I'm going to get my five because I won that. Win this. Um, let's see what else can we do here. Maybe we'll do this five.

1:30:55 Maybe I'll I'll lose the initiative for now. Let's see. I'll just do that, which will give me five. What are they going to do?

1:31:01 A lot of those.

1:31:02 Yeah, they're going to be like, you know what? Let's just do trump. They don't want to be trumped. So, they're going to go six.

1:31:08 Okay, I'll go a one.

1:31:10 Okay, easy. So, oh, I think I already did I already give my five? I think I did. So, I'll just do that there. There. They're going to lead the next.

1:31:18 Mhm.

1:31:18 They'll do this five.

1:31:22 I will do a one. do one and I'm like, haha, I can actually trump that with that. Um, okay. So, I will get that. Okay. And that's it. I'll lead this six. Okay.

1:31:47 They're going to do a six. Ooh, combo. So, they have

1:31:52 Yes, I'll do a six in that. So, combo.

1:31:54 Oh, combo. Uh, well, I'm going to play a lowly three with the minus two and trash two cards.

1:32:02 Okay. So, they're winning that.

1:32:06 Mhm.

1:32:06 And they're going to lead and they're going to go out. So, they're going to get initiative.

1:32:09 Excellent.

1:32:10 So, that uh two points for them for gaining the initiative.

1:32:14 Okay. And it's yellow. Ah, I'm going to play a two.

1:32:22 Play a two. Yellow's the trump. I have to follow suit. So, I'll play that as a five. So, I'll win it.

1:32:28 Oh, no. Danger. Danger. I'm going to get the lead again.

1:32:31 All they have is this. A minus two.

1:32:34 Minus two. A still lucky cuz I can only do a zero.

1:32:39 Oh my gosh.

1:32:40 Um, which I win. So, at a zero I would win. So, I get an extra five. So at least I get, you know, two things there.

1:32:47 Great.

1:32:48 Ah, but you still got to

1:32:49 I still did it.

1:32:50 Still steal the steal. So you were broke and in last.

1:32:53 I was.

1:32:54 So you steal again. You get the crowds.

1:32:56 2 3 4 5 48.

1:32:59 Oh, come on. Um I get 10.

1:33:01 Uh

1:33:02 cuz am I second?

1:33:03 Are you second?

1:33:04 Yeah, cuz I only got that.

1:33:05 So you get 10. You 44.

1:33:07 Yeah. And they get seven.

1:33:10 And they get seven.

1:33:11 And we had already given them their two.

1:33:12 Five, six, seven.

1:33:13 Oh my goodness. got last.

1:33:15 Hold on. There's still the garbage man.

1:33:18 True. The garbage. Let's have a look.

1:33:19 Garbage man.

1:33:20 So, whoever has the most will get eight points. Second most will get four.

1:33:24 Now, I will say that this is just a prototype of course. And they actually have now in mark in in-game objectives as well. Um, we don't have those cards. So, we only have um the end game objective. So, uh this all comes down to this really. So, going to count them. Okay.

1:33:50 Nine. It had nine. I had 12.

1:33:53 I have 18.

1:33:55 Oh, come on. So, you get eight points. I get four points.

1:33:59 Yes.

1:33:59 Well, at least I don't come.

1:34:00 Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four.

1:34:05 Oh, come on.

1:34:06 Ah, now that

1:34:08 the B that I facilitated.

1:34:09 Yeah. Look, and Maggie was playing double-handed, so that is always trickier. But, you know, I had a strategy that really didn't pay off to um until the end.

1:34:18 Pretty risky.

1:34:19 It was pretty risky. And if Maggie had not been concentrating on playing two hands, probably she would have tried to make me win some tricks um towards the end because if both players had played the gambit card, for example, I would be forced to win the trick. And so you can see that kind of push and pull of trying to watch what everybody else is doing.

1:34:41 That does happen in a bad multiplayer game. You end up having that kind of ganging up and going, "Wait a second. Hey, we can all kind of make this person like win that."

1:34:48 Yeah. So anyway, we hope you enjoyed this run through. Um, but now we're going to get into our final thoughts. Okay, so let's go into our final thoughts. Now remember, this is a sponsored preview, so take anything that we say with a grain of salt. And also remember that all the components, this is a prototype, so everything could be subject to change. Um, but with that out of the way.

1:35:06 Yeah. Well, this is a really interesting game because it is, you know, we play between 50 and 100 tricktaking games every year because we go to Tokyo Game Market a lot and we're constantly playing trick- taking games, but this is the first time really where I've seen such strong integration between two mechanics that we're very fond of, uh, deck building and trick taking. and Taylor has done a fantastic job of combining the two into a game that feels it like it has so much substance. That's the first thing that I'll say is that usually a trick taking game is a small card a card game that you'll pull out and you'll play, you know, and it's kind of done quickly. It's a pallet cleanser between you or Yeah. This is the main course. This is like the game that you would play on a game night. This is going to be the main thing.

1:35:54 It is absolutely. So it has that feel of being substantial which is you know really important because it is a much longer experience as well. And the deck building component has that really nice element that you get from deck building games where it starts off and everyone's kind of starting with a similar deck and then towards the end of the game, you get to reap the benefits of the crafting that you've done and the cleansing that you've done to your deck to make it so powerful in certain ways and then completely vulnerable in others. And that's what other people are going to try to exploit. But I think that tempo of the building of the deck building, sorry, the building of the deck,

1:36:36 um, you know, to bring it together and to make it feel unique is really cool. And also the element where when you're winning tricks, you're actually getting currency. And that is the currency that you're going to be using to um, buy these cards. That creates a really fun dynamic where it's like, the more I win, the more I'm going to have to spend. But then the twists on this game are so thoughtfully done. And the fact that when you are completely broke, i.e. you didn't win any tricks or you manage to use powers to get rid of your money, so you've got no money, instead of not being able to shop for more cards. In fact, you inherit the um person who has the most money, you get the same amount of money as them.

1:37:18 You get a line of credit. you don't get the the points that they might get from, you know, coming first, but

1:37:23 you might steal them. And if you watch the run through, that's one of the most interesting dynamics in this game. So, um, if you didn't watch it, in this game, you can essentially shoot the moon, but it's slightly more complex than that because you need to finish the round with no money. Um, and so that can be done through winning new uh no tricks or using powers that will get rid of your money as well. Shoot the moon is when you're trying win no tricks just in case someone's watching that's not like you know trick taking jargon or lingo.

1:37:52 Um so you end the round being broke but then you also need to end the round having played the last trick and that is really interesting in this game as well because um in order to be in the last trick you have to have not shed out your card. So, I mentioned early on that there's this shedding element to this game and it's it plays out so perfectly because a lot of the augment cards that you're buying, um what they do is they also kind of muddy up your hand because you end up with fewer battle cards and more augment cards, which means that in any given hand, uh any given round

1:38:31 sort of cards,

1:38:32 yeah, you are running out of cards faster than other people. And if you want to be broke, you've also got to stay in as many tricks, which means that you have more chance of winning one. So,

1:38:42 or someone sabotaging you at the end. Oh, no. It's just the two of us. I'm going to play, you know, one of these like I, you know, white flag, I lose and making you win. Yeah.

1:38:51 Yeah. So, there's this beautiful dynamic. Also, that card that Maggie was just referring to, this Eldress's Gambit, that is a really powerful card to mitigate against that strategy. um which Maggie probably should have done um in the run through. But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this game does a really good job of not only focusing you down on like how how do I want to craft my own deck, but also paying a lot of attention to what kind of powerful cards are you putting into your deck and how am I going to mitigate against that at the end and the points ramp up from round to round as well. So, you are gearing towards those bigger battles. thing I would say is like we we actually went through a a phase of Pokemon card like the the trading card game the actual playing it like going to like some of the local tournaments and this actually reminded me a lot of that concept of you know when you're putting your deck together which you do before you play the game in you know something like you know Pokemon you are sort of picking one strategy what's the main thing that this deck is going to try and achieve and I think so cleverly like this has been captured in that sense of like going I just want this to be strong and I just want to be like, you know, overpowering and taking a lot of those um winning a lot of those tricks, getting a lot of that money, and then hopefully that's going to be the winning strategy. Or you might be like, you know what, no, I want to be able to win more cheeky. I want to make sure that like I stay in it long enough, not win anything or essentially have cards that allow me to get rid of money, which we did have one that is like you lose.

1:40:20 So it's like if I happen to win some money, I might be able to use this to like get rid of that. And so, but at the same time, you can't just pick one and go with it. So just like in something like a TCG like Pokemon where you're like you can't just be aggressive and not have any sort of mitigation for what the other player might come in and try and like counter you with that is in here with that element of the shedding that can happen and then you get that initiative versus the no you want to stay in it longer. Um and and I think even just those elements of like oh if you get that initiative yeah technically I didn't stay in the longest but then it means that you now actually have the power of any cards that you get you get to decide to put them straight into your draw deck. So, you're essentially getting to craft your next trial or round. There's just so many little elements that interestingly make it probably not the most accessible game if you have a brand new um gamer to to trick taking. This is probably something for someone who's a little bit more versed.

1:41:15 Yeah. And let's talk about ways in which you can scale the accessibility of this game. If you if we think about because um again we talked about this in the run through but if you didn't see that there is because it's a deck building game there are multiple um power cards that come in the box and then you can randomize those but they also have um ideal combinations that you can use straight from the rule book. Um so you could use the starter set of those which is the randomizer of all the possible sets of cards that you can get.

1:41:43 So um you could use the starter set which is going to make that simpler. Um, one thing that we didn't mention as well in the run through is we were using the symmetric side of the characters, but they are all going to have the asymmetric kind of ability that you're going to be able to use throughout the game. Um, that might dictate um what you're going to do, but obviously using the symmetric side is a bit simpler. Um, but at the end of the day, this game is a game for people who are pretty familiar with trick taking games. And actually what we found with our friends that we were playing with is when you have four people who are very good at trick taking games, this is so entertaining because you are trying to at some points you're kind of cooperating with other people to make sure everybody wins $5 and nobody is take stealing that lead. So, it's a really interesting dynamic that goes on and there's a lot of different things that you can do through the card powers that allow you to, you know, discard cards out of your trash them from the game. There's a ton here. Draw more cards. It's very very interesting.

1:42:47 One other thing on that is the this element of adding a a goal. So, an endgame goal, which is like the shopkeepers sort of um goal, and there's quite a number of them. And as Amy said, there's going to be some that are also kind of in-game. It really helps to also add another layer of shaping the overall strategy or the thing because it's like, you know, sometimes those those eight points are, you know, they're not insignificant at the end of the game. And so so yeah, that I I really enjoy that as another element of having that variability from game to game on top of that almost do the minion style of mix and match the the options that you'll have or the items that you'll be able to purchase which again will dictate a different kind of experience.

1:43:25 Yeah. And so we really have enjoyed our time with this game. There are a couple of little things that I, you know, this is just a prototype and in playing it what would have made it easier especially for teaching it is to have um a little reference kind of player reference um just with some of the terminology to explain what that means uh more fully. U because this game actually does have the steps written on the board but because they're trying to you know get away from some of the trick- taking terminology I think for two reasons. one to make it a bit more accessible to non-trick taking players and to fit with the theme of course um but two because broke doesn't necessarily mean shoot the moon and so they need to have a different term that kind of encapsulates um what you're trying to do um but it does make it a little bit harder to get into so I think having a player reference would um do wonders um for that and the other thing that I would mention is like even if you're following these steps it's really great but six seven eight the rounds are a little bit different you can no longer shop here. And so just color coding maybe um which of these steps are relevant for those stages would be u more helpful u because if you're going to put it on the board it might as well be complete.

1:44:36 Yeah. There's another side of the board that is kind of cleaner. So it doesn't have these um those steps. So I guess more information.

1:44:42 Yeah. If anything like we want more information. So that's a sort of like if you know once you kind of know it and you just want to clean our board you can use that side but it's like if anything we're like no no it's really good to have the reminder so at the as you're kind of going through the stages you can kind of go okay did we tick all the boxes? we remember everything. Yeah. For me, another quick thing that I would say is it did feel like it was a little bit too long. So, potentially it's like if this had shaved off one round or one of those trials, it still I feel like I still would have had the full experience of it and felt just as satisfied and then it not felt like it started to kind of drag a little bit longer.

1:45:13 Yeah. Maybe if the points escalated a bit quicker. Because what we don't want is the actual battle to or the sorry the rounds to be shorter because you already want to do but maybe if they just took off one round but I'm sure they've tested that but it does feel yeah a little bit long. But probably the biggest thing that I would say about this game is I much preferred it at three to four players. So, the game does stretch from two to four, but we initially played it at two, and I think you just miss a lot of the great dynamics that Taylor has built into this game. So, I wouldn't mind seeing either a two-player variant that changes it so that we can get some of those dynamics back in an interesting way, or I would say maybe get this game if you're thinking about playing it from three to four players. Um, but overall, this is just really innovative. I think a lot of people who have played uh deck building games, trick taking games are going to love this blend of mechanics. And also, if you've played shedding games, there's enough of that in there that makes it really interesting, too, that doesn't it kind of stops you from going too hard in any one area. It's really really interesting the way it all comes together. So, I have really I'm really impressed by this design.

1:46:30 This is a very very clever design. There's so much in it that is like interesting. it does create these sort of like strands of strategy that you can't really entirely exploit without consequences. So, that is really good.

1:46:42 I would say if you've played Taylor's games before, he's had some fantastic um trick taking games, shedding games in the past, but I think this is kind of the best of all of his games that I've ever played. This is kind of like the pinnacle of all of his great ideas in one and really, really

1:46:58 interesting. So, yeah, we love the game.

1:47:00 Um, we hope you enjoyed this run through. If you did, um, hit like, subscribe to Rad's channel if you haven't already, and we'll be back with more board game content soon. But otherwise, bye for now. Bye.