Don't Buy Super Auto Pets Card Battle Until You Watch This! (board game review)
Transcript
Cute pets, auto battle chaos and shiny zinc coins. Should you back super auto pets card battle or save your coins for the next shop phase? Let's bonk into it.
Oh, we're bonking today. And just so you know, we will not sugarcoat if this game is bad. This video might hurt people's feelings. Also, disclosure time. We didn't get a review copy this time. This review is based on gameplay footage and previews we watched. We didn't actually play the game.
Facts. Okay, quick overview. Super Auto Pets Card Battle is from Plaid Hat Games, designed by Nick Connley. Yeah, the Ash's Reborn lead developer, also designed Ash's Ascendancy. It's an officially licensed tabletop adaptation of Team Wood Games hit 2021 mobile auto battler.
And it's pitched as a speedy two-player card duel over six rounds where you build a team of adorable pets with unique abilities, then watch them auto battle. They're offering three standalone packs, classic, golden, and magic. Each pack plays two players. Combine two or three packs, and you can go to four or six players. Pledges real quick because people always ask. Classic pack is $20 for one standalone two-player set. All three packs is $60 and the super auto all-in is $90. That's all three packs plus three coin and trophy upgrade sets. Those are zinc alloy metal tokens. one neoprene playmat set, which is two mats, and the battlebox storage that holds everything with sleeved cards.
Oh, and the first printing of the classic pack includes the sloth mini expansion. It's deliberately weak, like literally a pet with no special ability meant as a challenge for skilled players.
Estimated delivery is March 2026.
All right, mechanics, but we're not here to do a tutorial. If you want that, check the link in the description. Let's focus on should you buy or not. The headline loop is shop prep battle. Six rounds total. Most trophies wins.
Shop phase. You get 10 coins to spend from a shared shop. Pets have power and abilities. Foods give ongoing perks or onetime boosts. That's your econ and drafting moment.
Then the prep phase. This matters a lot. You secretly arrange up to five pets in order and assign your food to specific pets. The campaign literally says maximizing order and food is a big part of the fun.
Battle phase reveal and your pets bunk left to right. They deal damage, faint, and the next one steps up. Last pet standing earns a trophy. After six rounds, whoever has the most trophies wins. Simple frame, lots of timing tricks.
Pack specific spice. Classic pack is your baseline zoo of powers and foods. Golden pack introduces trumpets. If you run out of pets, you summon a golden retriever with power equal to your remaining trumpets.
Hold on. So, you're telling me in golden, if I miss sequence and lose my board early, I can still pop a retriever based on how many trumpets I banked? That's a real comeback lever.
Yep. And the magic pack adds mana to fuel spectacular abilities in battle. So, you're juggling an extra resource to power effects.
Uh, but remember, once you reveal it, auto resolves. You don't make decisions midfight. If you're the type who wants to interrupt, pivot, or react during combat, this might feel hands off.
Totally. From the previews, you can see how the drama is in planning, the order, the food assignments, and anticipating your opponent's lineup. If that puzzle clicks for you, it'll be spicy. If not, it could feel like you're just watching your choices play out without agency in the moment.
All right, what works well? First, the price. 20 bucks for a complete two-player game that's portable and plays in about 30 minutes. That's compelling. It's a lowrisk try.
And the modular packs, you can start with classic, then add bolden or magic later, or combine all three to handle more players. I love that the design respects both budget conscious people and collectors.
Designer pedigree helps. Nick Connley's Ash's Reborn track record suggests he can manage a card system with synergy and balance. Plaid Hat's been around for 14 plus years. Dead of Winter, Summoner Wars, so they know production pipelines.
Plus, the license isn't random. The Super Auto Pets app is a legit hit. Launched in 2021 with 4.1 stars and over a million downloads on Google Play. People like the core idea. Translating that to tabletop makes sense.
And it's quick but brainy. Secret ordering plus ability synergies can be mean. like engineering a front liner that pops, then a second pet that benefits from the faint, backed by a food that buffs, all tuned to beat the lineup you think your opponent bought.
The gotcha reveal moment is the fun high for sure.
Now, what doesn't work, and remember, we said we will not sugarcoat. This might hurt feelings. The component transparency is rough. The campaign gives almost no hard specs. No card counts per pack, no finish details, no dimensions for something they say is ready for production. That's concerning.
Also, as of the campaign page review, there are no stretch goals listed, even though it hit about $504% funding, $100,81 of a $20,000 goal. That implies what's listed is what you get. No sweeteners unlocked.
The rules presentation on the page leans on a how to play video. There is a downloadable rule book, but you're doing homework to get the full picture. Not a dealbreaker, just friction.
And the elephant in the room or the sloth, the auto battle structure might feel low agency to some. Once you reveal, you're a spectator to your own plan. If you want heavy tactical decisions inside combat, this may not satisfy.
We should also call out risk. This is Nick Conley's first published design outside the Ashes system. Translating a digital auto battle to cardboard is tough without third-party reviews or deep play testing write-ups available on the page. Quality is unverified.
Retail is unclear, too. The campaign doesn't confirm if these packs hit stores post campaign or at what price. The battle box is campaign exclusive. That's clear. But broader availability, unknown.
Components and quality. From what we can see, art looks bright and charming. Very onbrand SAP animals. Each pack comes in a small box and keeps a small table footprint. Base components are pet and food cards, plus cardboard coin and trophy counters.
Upgrades. $20 gets you the coin and trophy upgrade set, zinc alloy metal pieces for extra flash. $30 for the neoprene playmat set, two mats with zoned areas, and the all-in tier includes three metal sets, the mats, and the battle box that holds all three packs with sleeved cards. But, and it's a big butt, we can't fully assess final quality from prototype renders. The page says everything's ready for production, yet there's little detail on materials. That mismatch triggers my
Spidey sense.
Your Spidey sense or your sleeving obsession.
Both. Look, if you're promising sleeved capacity in the battle box, that's awesome. Just give us the rest of the specs.
Replay-ability and player count. officially two players per pack or four with two packs, six with three. The campaign frames that as fundamentally a card duel, so two is the sweet spot. Yeah, I'd keep this at two for best pacing. The higher counts sound like parallel variants rather than the core design. Replayability seems strong. Different pet pools per pack, Golden's trumpets, magic's mana, and random shop draws each round.
Mixing packs should create some wild interactions. campaign literally promises zany combinations, but long-term replay-ability is hard to judge without card counts and a full list of abilities. So, cautious optimism.
All right, verdict time. For us, this is a buy at the $20 classic pack. It's a low-risk way to see if the planning puzzle and autoresolution vibe work for you.
I'm with you. It's not an all-in for us right now. The $90 Super Auto All-In looks like solid value if you already know you want all three packs plus premium bits and that exclusive battle box, but with missing component specs and no stretch goals, we'd skip allin unless you're already sold or you love the SAP app.
Also, props for including the sloth mini expansion in the first printing of classic. I love a cheeky challenge card that's intentionally bad. Rating-wise, we landed about a 7 out of 10 based on what's presented. Clever modular structure, proven IP, experienced publisher, held back by info gaps, and the potential agency issue inherent to Auto Battle.
If you want alternatives in the same space, Star Realms is around $15 MSRP. Fast two-player deck builder, super competitive, tons of expansions, long proven system.
Radlands runs about $20 to 40 depending on addition. It's a tight two-player battler with direct tactical decisions and camp destruction. More mid-combat agency than SAP's autoresolution.
And Mindbug, roughly $15 MSRP. Compact creature combat from Magic Designers with that wicked steal your opponent's creature twist. Super portable, quick, and tabletop native.
All right, that's our take on Super Auto Pets Card Battle. Back the $20 classic if you're curious. Hold off on All-In unless you're already in love with the concept or the app.
Hit like, drop your questions, and tell us which pack you'd try first, classic, Golden, or Magic. Thanks for hanging out. Bye and see you in the next