Mindbug: First Contact

Marvin Hegen, Richard Garfield · Nerdlab Games · 2021

A two-player card dueling game with one devastating twist: when your opponent plays a creature, you can steal it. Each player has two mindbugs (steal tokens) per game, creating agonizing decisions about when to deploy your best creatures and when to hijack your opponent's.

Players

Time

25 min

Ages

Difficulty

Light

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Why you'll like it

Richard Garfield's elegant design genius
The steal mechanic creates incredible mind games
Rules take 3 minutes to teach
15-25 minute games encourage rematches
Every card play is a psychological gambit

How it plays

Mindbug is a quick two-player card battle game, co-designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering. Each player has a hand of creatures with keywords and abilities, and you take turns playing a creature or attacking.

The twist is the Mindbug: each player has two, and whenever your opponent plays a creature, you can spend a Mindbug to take control of it, but then they take another turn. You win by reducing your opponent's life from 3 to 0. Games take about 15 to 20 minutes.