On a bit of a whim, I picked up an Avatar: TLA Beginner's Box from my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic. That's likely a bit unethical of me, since I'm not the intended audience, but I was really excited that it had exactly the right number of Jumpstart decks (not exactly packs) for a five-player game of Ravnica Clue.
That parenthetical may need a bit of explanation. The Beginner's Box comes with ten 20-card Jumpstart-style "decks" of 20 cards:
- I don't want to say "packs" because they aren't individually wrapped. They are all packaged together with divider cards between them.
- There are two for each color.
- All ten are different from the decks that can be found in the Jumpstart boosters for the set!
- Two are designed for a scripted game and are meant to be played one against the other to teach two people how to play the game. (One is Red (Zuko), one is White (Aang).)
- The remaining eight decks function like individual Jumpstart packs.
I put each of the ten decks in a perfectly-sized paper envelope and kept them with my Ravnica Clue box waiting for the right time.
This week I got lucky enough to get a group to try it out. I sat down with three other people to play. Since there were four of us, not five, we decided to leave the two scripted packs out and used the other eight. I think it would have been okay for those to be part of it, though.
We decided to try playing at 20 life. (A higher number might have been better.) We rolled to determine who was going first and I was second. Player 1 (P1) had the Earthbending and Allies decks. I had Firebending and Attacking. P3 had Waterbending and Counters. P4 had Big Creatures and Spells. For Clue cards, I was dealt the Lead Pipe, the Billiard Room, the Dining Room, and the Secret Passage. Revealed to everyone were the Hall and the Library.
My opening hand had good land but not enough small creatures to participate in the first few turns. In the first round the most interesting thing that happened is that P3 dropped a Gilacorn, which they hit me with on the second turn. They guessed White, Candlestick, and the Ballroom, which I passed to.
In the third round of turns, P1 hit me with their Kyoshi Warrior Guard (slightly better than Squire). They guessed better with Mustard, Knife, and Billiard Room. I showed them the Billiard Room. With that treasure, I was able to cast Fire Nation Archers on my turn. That was enough to turn away attackers for a bit. P3 hit P4 and guessed White, Candlestick, and Ballroom. P4 showed them a card.
In round four, P1 hit P4, guessing Green, Pipe, and Conservatory. P4 showed them a card. P4 later hit P3, guessing Mustard, Pipe, and Conservatory. P3 had to show them a card. (At the time I was not sharp enough to notice that this meant P4 probably had Emissary Green.)
In round five, P1 hit P3 and P4. They guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Dining Room. P3 immediately showed them a card. I figured I needed to get in on the attacking so I swung into P1. I guessed Plum, Wrench, and Kitchen; they showed me the Kitchen. P3 also hit P1 back and guessed Plum, Candlestick, and Kitchen. They obviously showed P3 a card. P4 attacked me with their Turtle-Seals. I had Roku's Mastery, but only five lands, so I took the damage. They guessed Mustard, Pipe, and Secret Passage. I showed them the Secret Passage and gained a treasure token.
At this point, battlefields had started to get pretty wide, but people were mostly attacking with one or two creatures just to make suggestions.
P1 started the sixth round off by attacking me with their Glider Kids that had a +1/+1 counter. With the newfound treasure, I was able to kill them with Roku's Mastery, saving myself from having to reveal any new information. On my turn, I played one of my favorites: Mongoose Lizard. I took out P1's Haru, Hidden Talent with the ETB. I didn't attack with the archers just because I was wary of more creatures coming on me. P3 played Fire Nation Sentinels, but P1 immediately Rocky Rebuked it. Undeterred, P3 attacked P4, guessing Green, Candlestick, and Ballroom. P4 showed them a card. P4 made the big play, however, bouncing my two creatures with Water Whip. They hit me for six damage and guessed Peacock, Pipe, and Billiard Room. I showed them the room and put my life counter to nine.
The seventh round started with P1 finishing me off. Oof! I revealed my Clue cards to everyone and they seemed pretty confident that the game would end soon. (This does bring up an important rules question that I'm not sure about. If a player dies to combat damage, does the person who hit them have to make a suggestion? The only reason this matters is because it means they couldn't do that and make a Collect-Evidence-6-based suggestion at the end of the turn.) P1 didn't have enough information to win, however, and passed. P3 took their turn and refused to attack. They Collected Evidence 6 to guess Mustard, Knife, and Ballroom. P4 passed, but P1 showed a card. P3 then made their accusation: Mustard, Knife, and Study. It was correct; they won!
This game was great! I did die very suddenly, but that seems to have been a tactical misplay by P4 and P1, as it led to P3's immediate win. So, there's an open question of whether 20 life was too small. Here are some arguments for more life:
- It's good when life totals get small right before someone's about to solve the murder, but no one was close to that until my cards got revealed.
- 30 life is the amount for the Ravnica Clue Jumpstart-style packs that come with the set. These "packs" seem similarly aggressive.
On the other side, however:
- Killing me did not help either of those players to win.
- Do these packs actually have as much evasion as the Ravnica Clue packs to aid in getting damage through? Maybe not!
I would love to know what you think? How much life should we have started with? More importantly, though, have you played Clue with some other Beginner's Box or Jumpstart packs? I want to play this format over and over again! I have already put my other Jumpstart packs together to hopefully use in the future.
No matter how you're playing, Clue or not, Happy Magicking!
