[Design Review] Mega Man Trading Card Game

What is the Maga Man Trading Card Game?

This is a trading card game based on the popular Mega Man video game franchise. First released almost a year ago, the game now has literally a few hundred unique cards in circulation, and an eager player base with a strong trading community and organized tournaments. In the interests of full disclosure, this is not an officially licensed game. It is a fan-made product designed and produced by my brother for us and a few of our friends. Nevertheless, I think it’s a pretty well polished design, and one of the best games me or my brother have made. I’m writing this as a Design Review, rather than a Design Journal, because my total input on the design of this game has been very minimal.

Basically, the game works like this: You have a team, made up of 1 or more Character cards (typically 2). You also have a deck, made up mostly of Tactics cards and Minion cards. The Character cards that make up your team start out in play, and they remain in play for the whole game. Tactics cards are usually played for a once-off effect. Minions come into play and are active until they’re defeated. There are also Area and Upgrade cards, but these are fewer in number and don’t generally have as much of an impact on the game as a whole.

An example of a Character card.

During the game, each round begins with a Production phase, where each player draws 1 card from their deck and gains 1 Resource Point. Then comes the Deployment phase. Players can put Minions, Areas and Upgrades into play by spending a number of Resource Points equal to the Cost of the card (a value printed on the card). Next, you get into the focus of the game, which is the Action phase. Each Character and Minion card has a Speed statistic. During the Action phase, each Character and Minion gets a turn in order of their Speed value. On their turn, a Character or Minion can perform 1 action. Actions can be used to do a few different things, but most importantly they can be used to attack. When a Character attacks another Character, you compare the attacking Character’s Power to the defending Character’s Armor. If the Power is higher than the Armor, the attacking player scores Victory Points equal to the difference. Minions can also attack in the same way. Minions can be attacked, but you won’t score points for doing so. Instead, when you attack a Minion you deal damage. When you’ve damaged a Minion enough times (once or twice for most Minions), it is defeated and removed from play. After each Character and Minion has acted during the Action phase, you get to the Refresh phase where you setup for the next round and compare each player’s Victory Points. If one player has more than 50 Victory Points, they’ve won the game. If both players have more than 50 Victory Points, the player with the highest Victory Point total wins.

Unique Options Produce Variety in Strategy

As you can see from my brief introduction, the game is fairly simple to learn and to play. It is not an overly complicated game. Where things get interesting, though, is with the cards themselves. There are no generic cards in this game. Every card has some kind of special rule on it. There are Characters and Minions that may have the same basic statistics, but their special abilities will make each one unique. The appeal of this game, as with many TCGs, is finding interesting ways for different cards to interact with each other. The goal is to build a team and a deck made up of cards that will compliment each other to form a cohesive whole to support your strategy.

An example of a Tactics card.

There are a lot of individual strategies you can pursue, and an endless number of possible team and deck combinations, but most fall into one of three basic principles. First, there are your offensive decks. These team/deck combinations are designed to put out as many powerful attacks in the shortest amount of time, in order to score as many Victory Points as quickly as possible. Then, you have your defensive decks. These team/deck combinations will foil your opponent’s efforts to score Victory Points. They won’t score a lot of points themselves too quickly, but they’ll get there eventually. They just need to score points a little more quickly than your opponent can. Lastly, you have gimmick decks. These team/deck combinations are not particularly aggressive, but instead focus on score Victory Points through alternate means.

Each of the three archetypical team/deck combos has certain advantages and disadvantages against other types of team/deck combos. Building a team/deck that works well, and tries to include contingencies to deal with your weak points, is one of the most rewarding aspects of this game. The fact that the basics of the game are simple and straightforward, allowing for quick playtime and meaningful decisions, adds to the fun.

Why the Blue Bomber’s TCG Doesn’t Bomb

The Mega Man Trading Card Game features many elements that make it a fun game. One that stands out to me is the three basic card types (Characters, Tactics and Minions). Because your Character cards are in play for the entire game, they really form the backbone of your strategy. You want Characters who will complement each other nicely, and you’ll probably end up building your deck around the Characters you chose to play with. Tactics cards are tied very closely to your Characters, as it is usually through your Characters that you are able to play Tactics. Most Tactics cards can be used by at least a couple of Characters, but there are also a few Tactics cards designed to reinforce the themes of each Character. Minions are a bit like wild cards, in that they can be used independent of which Characters you’re playing with. This is where you can really customize your strategy and find some very unique interactions between cards.

An example of a Minion card.

I like that there is a lot of diversity among the cards, and yet each card has a pretty straightforward function. Most of the time, when I look at a new card, I find myself thinking of one or two interesting ways I could use it, rather than wondering what in the world I’m supposed to do with it.

I also like that your deck can be as small as 10 cards. I think this gives the game a very different feel from other collectable or expandable card games, where you generally play with a deck of 30-60 cards. The smaller deck size makes building decks faster, and it makes each card more important. When using a deck of minimum size, it is not unlikely that you’ll get the chance to use every card in your deck at least once in a typical game. To be honest, when my brother and I talked about this game during the early stages of its development, I was in favor of playing with a larger deck and more duplicate cards. He chose to take the design in this direction instead, and I’m glad he did because it’s worked out very well.

I think that the Mega Man artwork and theme gives the game a rather lighthearted and fun feel to it, and it gives added appeal for those who are already fans of the video games. I think this game could be just as fun with its own setting and artwork, though.

These are my general thoughts on the Mega Man Trading Card Game. I’d love to read any observations you may have about the game and its design, or any thoughts you might have on my own observations.