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markrosewater · 8 months

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The Rules for Mana Maze Solitaire

by Mark Rosewater (with help from Gene Rosewater)

NOTE: This is a reprint of an article from long ago, so there are outdated things in the article and stuff not referenced because it happened after this article was published.

Two people can play a traditional Magic duel, and three or more can play any number of multi-player variants, but what do you do if your only company is your Magic cards? People unable to find competitors have refused to let this stop them from playing. Creative inspiration has led to the evolution of solitaire Magic.

Most solitaire variants mimic a two-player duel, with one player playing both sides. Other versions pit the player against a pre-set, standing "phantom" opponent. These types are interesting, but the solitaire version offered here is a bit different. To mix the essence of traditional solitaire with a flavor of Magic, the "Mana Maze" solitaire variant requires a slightly different set of rules.

The object of the game is variable. As described below, you might have to destroy a particular card in play, or remove all the cards in the layout from play without running out of life points.

Mana Maze alters the following basic game concepts:

In Play: In normal Magic, a card is considered "in play" as soon as its casting is resolved. In Mana Maze, cards are stacked as in traditional solitaire, and are brought into play by being exposed. That is, if a card is in the game and is not covered by any other card, it is considered in play. Cards in play are "active" or "inactive".

Active: Active cards are all permanents that can exist independently of other cards: creatures, artifacts, land, and general enchantments (that is, any enchantment can stand alone and need not be cast on something else). An active card is considered to enter play "pre-cast" - its abilities can be used freely without paying the casting cost. Treat active cards like any cast permanent in a normal Magic game. Any activation costs must still be paid. A newly exposed Prodigal Sorcerer, for example, may immediately poke for its one point of damage, but you must tap it to do so.

Passive: Passive cards include the following: sorceries, instants, and interrupts, as well as enchantments that must be cast on creatures, artifacts, land or enchantments. A passive card comes into play uncast; you still must cast it in order to use it. However, passive cards are still in play and may be targeted by spells. For instance, this allows a Northern Paladin to destroy a passive Terror. The casting of passive cards follows all normal Magic rules, requiring appropriate mana and an available target in play. You may be a target yourself if the spell can target players. Also, for game purposes, when an enchantment is placed on another card, both cards are still considered exposed and in play. Either card may be the target of a spell.

Out of Play: The graveyard starts the game empty. All cards that leave play, as explained below, are considered to have gone to the graveyard unless otherwise specified. You may re-cast any card returned to your "hand" if you have the appropriate mana (and a target for targeted spells), but it is out of play for game purposes until re-cast. If a card is brought back into play by recasting or by another card (such as Animate Dead or Regrowth), place it on top of any exposed card, putting the newly covered card out of play.

Owner/Controller/Caster: Cards that use any of these terms refer to you, the player.

Opponent: Effects that target an "opponent" have no effect in Mana Maze.

Life Points: In Mana Maze you start with only one life point. If at any time your life point total falls to zero or below you die instantly and lose the game.

Mana Burn: The final step before the game ends is clearing the mana pool. If you have any mana remaining in your mana pool, you suffer one point of mana burn for every leftover point of mana. If mana burn reduces you to zero life points, you lose the game.

Getting Rid of Cards In Play

In Mana Maze, cards can be removed in five different ways:

Tapping A Card: Whenever a card is tapped, it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard. Any effect from tapping occurs before the card is removed from play. For instance, tapping a Mountain would add one red mana to your mana pool and would remove the Mountain from play.

Casting A Spell: If a spell is cast (with a proper target and a paid cost), it is removed from play and put into the graveyard unless otherwise specified. The effect of the spell occurs before the card leaves play. Casting a Healing Salve, for instance, would give you 3 life and remove the Healing Salve from play.

Destroying A Card: The destruction of a card removes it from play and puts it in the graveyard unless otherwise specified. For instance, casting Disenchant on an Iron Star would remove both the Disenchant and the Iron Star from play.

Killing A Creature: If a creature is destroyed by any means normally available in Magic, it is removed from play and sent to the graveyard unless otherwise specified. For instance, casting a Lightning Bolt on a Hill Giant wuold remove both the Hill Giant (having taken 3 damage) and the Lightning Bolt from play.

Sacrificing A Card: Whenever a card is sacrificed, it goes to the graveyard unless the card says otherwise. Any effect from the sacrifice occurs before the card is removed from play. For example, sacrificing Gaea's Touch would add two green mana to your mana pool and would remove the Gaea's Touch from play.

Getting Started

Now it's time to start a game. First, build a Mana Maze solitaire deck, then decide what kind of Mana Maze game to play, as follows:

Layout: As in traditional solitaire, the cards are laid out in a pattern. With sixty cards, there are several layouts to choose from.

Six piles (ten cards each), no hand

Seven piles (seven cards each), eleven-card hand

Eight piles (six cards each), twelve-card hand

Eight piles (half seven cards, half eight), no hand

Nine piles (five cards each), fifteen-card hand

Ten piles (six cards each), no hand

Pyramid style (with base of eight exposed cards), twenty-four card hand

When a layout includes a "hand", that simply means that you have extra cards left over to thumb through, one or three cards at a time, to break logjams. This Mana Maze "hand" is not to be confused with the Magic "hand" that a card goes to if Unsummoned.

Open Or Closed: In an open game, all cards are laid out face-up at the start. The open game is less prone to luck and therefore requires more thought. In a closed game, only the top card of each pile is visible. This takes a lot of pressure off, because you don't have to take all the extra data into account.

Goal: Many goals are possible. The following are just a few potential goals.

Destroying A Particular Card: This is the simplest goal. Put one or more cards in your deck and then find and remove them. The more targets you have, the harder the game will be. If you use multiple targets, it's fun to pick cards that fit a particular theme.

Destroy All The Cards: Simply put, win by destroying everything. This is the hardest variation, as it requires the careful matching of all your resources so as not to strand yourself with a card that you have no way to get rid of. You should play this variation open-handed, because you will need all the information you can get.

Get To A Particular Life Total: This variation requires that you pepper the deck with lots of cards that give and take life. The goal is to get to the life-givers and reach a certain life total.

Any goal is fine, as long as it requires you to work through the cards to accomplish it. You can define any objective, such as getting seven blue cards in your hand, but remember to build your deck to make such a goal possible.

One Final Word

If you're winning too easily, throw a few curves into your game: Add some big creatures to your deck, play a closed hand, or make the goal destroying all the cards. If you're getting frustrated, check your deck. It is possible to create an unwinnable game.

The fun of Mana Maze depends on you. A Mana Maze game will only be as challenging as the deck you construct, the layout you choose, and the goal you define.

Building a Mana Maze Solitaire Deck

Just as in the basic Magic game, the key to success in Mana Maze is deck construction. You want to create a deck that is challenging, yet not so much that winning becomes impossible. Because the rules work differently, several cards have altered functions (a Paralyze destroys creatures) whereas others become pointless (a Royal Assassin's power is redundant). Always keep possible card interactions in mind.

When creating a deck, here are some factors to think about:

Colors: As you begin playing Mana Maze, try using all five colors. A five-color deck is the easiest type of deck to build and the most varied in play.

Mana: The mana mix is roughly the same as in a normal game (30% to 40%). The balance for each color should be determined by how many passive cards and cards with colored activation costs you have in each color. If you find yourself always short or flush with mana, change the mix accordingly.

Creatures: Creatures are an important part of Mana Maze and will typically make up at least a quarter of your deck. Remember to add a significant number of creatures with special abilities, as they tend to make the game more fun.

Artifacts: These add some spice to the game but are not needed in quantity.

General Enchantments: These don't tap and aren't cast, so they are the hardest cards to get rid of. Use enchantments that have an impact, and keep them down to a handful.

Passive Cards: Active cards (permanents) tend to be the obstacles in the puzzle, and passive cards provide most of the house-cleaning needed. This means that your passive cards should be close in number to your active cards. Also, try to include a lot of other passive cards that destroy a lot of other types of cards, because these provide the nuts and bolts of Mana Maze.

Healing/Damaging Cards: These cards can be left out entirely, but if you do use them, try to balance the deck with an equal number of healing and damaging cards.

Other Tips: Make sure every card can be destroyed by at least two other cards in the deck. Also, throw in three or four spells that provide mana in some way, such as Llanowar Elves or Sacrifice.

When creating your first deck, here is a good checklist to follow:

Four of each type of basic land (twenty cards)

Three creatures from each color. One creature should have a toughness of 3 or greater, and the other two should have a toughness of 1 or 2. Make sure at least one of these creatures has a special ability, such as the "poke" of the Prodigal Sorcerer (fifteen cards).

Four spells of each color. Make sure at least two of each color can be used to destroy another type of card (twenty cards).

Five artifacts. Make at least two of them creatures, and throw in at least one artifact that provides mana (five cards).

#Magic The Gathering #MTG #Mana Maze Solitaire #WotCStaff

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waynekelton · 4 years

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The Best Card Games on Android & iOS

Modern digital card games combine the cerebral appeal of tactical play with the adrenaline rush of random loot and top-decking. It might seem like they’re dime-a-dozen, but the games detailed below are all absolutely worthwhile, judged on their own terms.

Some are cutthroat tests of supremacy, others bucolic come-as-you-may types, but all are thoughtful and ingenious in sundry ways. There's two flavours of card games that currently dominate the niche - highly competitive TCG/CCG multiplayer battlers derived from Hearthstone, and more cerebral or casual affairs, often translated from physical card games that already exist. We've woven the two types together into one supreme list.

New Mobile Card Games

We get told of new games to consider quite regularly, so until we evaluate them properly we'll keep track of new releases here as an 'FYI':

Mythgard (Beta)

Maze Machina

What are the best iOS & Android Card Games?

Gwent

Age of Rivals

Shards of Infinity

Miracle Merchant

Meteorfall: Journey

Reigns: Game of Thrones

Hearthstone

Exploding Kittens

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Frost

Card City Nights

Star Realms

GWENT

Developer: CD Projekt S.A. Platforms: iOS Price: Free-to-Play (IAPs)

It took its sweet time, but the official spin-off of the The Witcher 3 card game has finally made the jump from PC to iOS. It's quite different from what it was like at launch and it's gone through several updates and revisions, meaning that us mobile jockeys get a game that's tight and quite unique compared to some of its contemporaries. It's a power-struggle between two people, but it's less about pounding each other's cards into dust or attacking life-points - it's simply a best-out-of-three bout to have a bigger number than your opponent at the end of the round.

This simple concept can inspire a surprising about of cunning and card combos, with card advantage being a very important concept. As a free-to-play game there are IAPS and micro-transactions, but it's pretty tame for the most part and you can still get access to a lot of cards through gameplay. One potential draw-back is that the meta can shift quite a lot, so knowing which cards to purchase out-right may be problematic. Still, this is a pretty great card game and a wonderful breath of fresh air for the mobile CCG market. Check out our GWENT tips guide if you want to help with getting started.

Age of Rivals

Developer: Roboto Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $1.99

How we forgot about this one for so long is anybody's guess, but we've fixed it now. Released in 2017, this strategy card game takes a lot of inspiration from physical design but is very much a digital game. It's more drafting than deck-building, with five phases repeated across four rounds and a game can last as little as ten minutes.

It's minimalist, but with a touch of flair as you try and draft along specific themes and build your board up as the game progresses. While it was in a bit a state when it first launched, the years since release has seen this one mature into an excellent game worth checking out if you want a break from deck-building, but still like that creativity that comes from making the best of what you draw. Check out our Age of Rivals review for more.

Shards of Infinity

Developer: Temple Gates Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $7.99

Ascension is a house name in deck-building card games, especially on mobile. While Playdek were responsible to bring that light into our world, Temple Gates Games have the honour of bringing the spiritual successor to Ascension to mobile - and it's one of the best card games we've played to date. The game itself is slick, well designed, and has some very interesting twists on the deck-building formula. This isn't Ascension with a new skin, but a new game in its own right.

As for the app, Temple Gates have done a brilliant job. The game is colourful and brought to life with very few technically concerns. Everything is cross-platform and multiplayer is competently designed. If you're looking for a new card game to occupy you in 2019, look no further, and our Shards of Infinity review can tell you why.

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TinyTouchTales have done plenty of great card games, from Card Thief and Card Crawl, to Potion Explosion.

Meteorfall: Journey

Developer: Slothwerks Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Challenging and Stimulating: In the happier sessions, Meteorfall ends with a successful final showdown against the aptly-named Uberlich. Working backwards from that ultimate battle to the four starting characters is much more challenging than the squidy art and breezy interface might suggest.

This is a game that's been wonderfully supported post-release, with several major content expansions at the time of writing. What's better, it's all been given away for free! There's a reason this won our Reader's Choice Game of the Year 2018 award, and our Meteorfall review can tell you why.

Reigns: Game of Thrones

Developer: Devolver Digital Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99

The Pinnacle: The meme/phrase "living your best life" is not often one you hear applied to a videogame, but we can think of no title that's more applicable than Nerial's licensed Game of Thrones version of their hit card/monarch simulator Reigns. As Brittany mentions in her review, this is hands-down the best version of the Reigns formula, and it helps that it involves and engaging and popular IP.

The typical Tinder-style swiping mechanics coupled with the usual medieval hilarity and tough choices is coupled with some subtle new twists, where players get to try and rule the Seven Kingdoms as one of nine iconic characters from the show (which are unlocked over time). All this is enabled through the guise of Melisandre - you're essentially playing out her visions of how these characters might get on sitting atop the Iron Throne. Licensed games often get a bad rap, but they can now look to this game to wash away all their sins. This is how you do it, folks. Read our Reigns: Game of Thrones review for more.

Hearthstone

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Platforms: iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

The Gold Standard: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a rogue, a priest and a warrior walk into the bar. Players struggle to reduce the opponent life to zero as players get more mana (read: energy) to fuel stronger minions and more devastating spells. The power curve and rarity drop rate are a little punishing, but later expansions and patches have remedied this somewhat. Hearthstone’s card battles unfold on a tavern table, in the middle of the hub-bub and merriment of a chaotic Warcraft scene, usually narrated in a dwarven brogue.

Yes, the card game itself is solid and as stripped-down as it can be without being simplistic, but Hearthstone flashes of creative genius and setting go well beyond the card base. The animations and sound design have been polished to a mirror sheen, and the gameplay, love it or hate it, is the standard because of its sterling quality and undeniable fun factor. Just don’t sweat the meta or top-tier competition, because then the grind will eat up your life.

Exploding Kittens

Developer: Exploding Kittens Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $1.99

Outrageous fun: A game of hot potato with a nitroglycerine-infused feline escalates until every player save one has met their maker. Fiery kitty death and simple humor belie a take-that game which puts everyone immediately at each other’s throats. Hostility and sabotage are the name of the game, because each player has only one life to live, and one defuse card to keep that hairball from becoming a fireball.

The game is a childish, cartoonish pastiche of obvious joke made too hard too often, but despite the unapologetic unrefined everything, it remains one of the best guilty mindless pleasures around. If you ever need a reason to froth at the mouth and fling spittle at your fellow humans over fictionally threatening cats, look no further: Exploding Kittens is simply an excuse to have a good time, a cheeky pretext. Irksome, shameless and perfect it its base way.

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Developer: Electronic Arts Platforms: iOS, Android Price: Free (IAPs)

Food for thought: This franchise has reinvented itself several times since the original’s premier success. The sequel to the tower defense titan dallied with free-to-play energy timers and premium unlocks, then the series experimented with the FPS arena shooter, releasing Garden Warfare. Along the way, some of the magic and charm was lost. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is an inspired and refreshing late entry into the game series, translating the original tower defense themes to a CCG with some nifty changes. Perhaps the coolest single defining feature of PvZ: Heroes is the asymmetry: one player represents the zombies shuffling forward for a quick bite while the other coordinated the plants fighting to repel the undead.

The power dynamic between the two sides is unusual and distinct, recalling Netrunner more than Magic or Hearthstone. The flow of new cards into eager players hot little hands, the balance between card strengths and their relative availability as well as the overall strategic robustness of the game are all top-notch. This core gameplay shines along with the visual polish and jazzy flair the series has come to be known for. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a fun late entry that deserves more love.

Frost

Developer: Jerome Bodin Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99, $4.49

An evergreen choice: This one stands out from the other members of this list on two fronts. Firstly, for its palette, which is as frigid as monochrome as you’d expect. Secondly, because its gameplay is survival-based, not just thematically but actually. Gathering supplies, fending off nasties and keeping the elements at bay take every possible trick the cards will give you. Better performance will net you better tools, but unlike other games, Frost’s best rewards are a sense of security and temporary respite.

In other words, the game won’t see you chasing exhilarating high score or excitement, but rather staving off the undesirable. Loss aversion, the fear of breaking a fragile equilibrium, the game daring you to take only appropriate risks when the phrase is a hollow oxymoron. The game rewards you with the chance to keep playing, keep exploring its stark dangers and bag of tricks. Read our Frost review for more.

Card City Nights

Developer: Ludosity Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99

Solo-play stalwart: The characters are idiosyncratic, the game-within-a-game conceit a little cheeky but still refreshing, the consistent tone humor-ish, deadpan. Beating certain keystone characters unlocks their signature, ultra-powerful cards whose effects even jive with that character’s personality. In other words, there is a correspondence between writing, characterization and deck archetypes between. Never quite a rollicking good time or agonizing head-scratcher, the deckbuilding and collecting (yes, there are boosters, no nothing is truly ultra-rare) of Card City Nights makes for an easily enjoyed and easily binged experience.

Star Realms

Developer: White Wizard Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: Free, with content parcelled out as IAP ($4.99 for the full set)

Interstellar Deck-Building: This game marries the level of expansion and customization of a TCG with the bite-sized crunchy decision-making of a deckbuilder. Its combat elements and faction-specific combos make for a serious nostalgia trip for those looking to revisit memory lane without first collecting, collating and crafting a custom deck just for the occasion. Star Realms’ many expansions, rapid-fire gameplay and clear iconography make it a compelling addition to the game enthusiast’s roster and an easy must-have.

We have a Star Realms review if you want to know more.

Other iOS & Android Card Game Recommendations

We're keeping the list pretty tight at the moment, but there's way more than twelve card games to celebrate, with more on the way all the time. Every now and then we'll rotate games out for other games, but we don't want those past greats to be forgotten:

Knights of the Card Table

Race for the Galaxy

Calculords

Card Thief

Ascension

Lost Portal CCG

Pathfinder Adventures

Solitairica

Flipflop Solitaire

Guild of Dungeoneering

Lost Cities

Eternal Card Game

Pokemon TCG

Reigns: Her Majesty

Shadowverse CCG

What would your list of the best card games look like? Let us know in the comments!

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