Maze of the Mind Preview

October 8th, 2011 at 10:03 am

You might recall we showed you the mini-card version of the Maze of the Mind in a dev diary a few weeks ago. It was part of the suite of cards you get when you equip the Puppeteer’s Band. This week we’ll show you the full version of that card and explain how it works. Here it is:

So, the expanded text on that card should be pretty self-explanatory. This is one annoying card. There are you, plotting the perfect maneuver to get your Elf Warrior behind the enemy, you play your sneaky move card and BAM – Maze of the Mind! Now your opponent gets to control the move and I’m pretty sure he’s not going to put your Elf in position to stab anyone. Instead he’ll probably be facing a wall with his back to the enemy who’s about to unleash a barrage of unfair attacks on him.

Yeah, this is one nasty card. It usually does something annoying. Of course, as with most of these kinds of cards, you can play around it if you know it’s there by using your worst move card first and moving a character who has another move in hand.

So, Maze of the Mind is another  example of how we use the reaction system to come up with some interestingly different kinds of cards (well, we think so, anyway), not just blocks and armor.

A couple of technicalities to point out about this card. Firstly, the little boot icon in the lower left means this is triggered by play of Move cards. That means, yes, there are other cards that are triggered by movement too. The sharp eyed of you with keen memories will remember that this icon was a star on the mini card we showed before. That’s because we keep juggling this iconography. It was a star and now it’s a boot. By the time we ship it could be something else entirely. Let’s hope not though.

Finally, there’s no way to play this card, unlike Bash that we previewed last week. It will just sit in your hand until it gets triggered.

Secondly, note that there is no card symbol in the lower right. This means that you don’t get to put this card back in your hand after it triggers. It will only control one enemy move and then it gets discarded. It usually pays its dues though.

I love this card, mainly because it usually annoys the hell out of my opponent. I hope you like it too. Just don’t put it in your deck when playing me please.

7 Responses to “Maze of the Mind Preview”

  1. That’s my kind of card, magically sneaky!

    You really think you guys will find something better than a boot to express “reacts to movement” between now and . . . um, remind me when the release date is again?

  2. If I remember correctly, the white on black text box signifies that it is a reaction, the boot is only specifying move cards (it doesn’t need to incorporate the ‘reaction’ aspect). Also the card text is sufficient without any symbols.

  3. @devoninja: you are correct. The boot icon is useful on the “mini-card” that you see in your hand though – it tells you that the card will trigger from movement without having to zoom in on it to see the actual rules.

  4. I enjoy the boot! I think you’re still doing a wonderful job. Keep it up!

  5. Found out about this game yesterday and i’m a fan!

    I did some googling and came to the conclusion that it might be possible to have more than one of each class in your party. Let’s say i use three “magicians”

    If in one turn two or more of my “magicians” has “Maze of the Mind” in their hand and find themselves within range of an enemy attempting to make a move.

    What will happen?

    Nearest character plays the card?

    But If all characters share the same distance to target then what? autochoose: based on initiative, from left to right in your party?

    If you get to choose wich character plays the card, the pause in gameplay could be an indicator to your opponent. (don’t want that to happen)

    Also a bit sad if both “Maze of the Mind” are used (or all three) to counter one persons move. Or perhaps that’s just the drawback of having two-three of the same class in your party.

    Perhaps the drawback could be that the cards you had to choose from got revealed in the process.

    Before my brain explodes i will stop here and hope for an answer :)

    (Even if you can’t play more than one of the same class, the question still remains. I guess “reaction cards” at some point will share attributes. Bringing this question to the surface once more)

  6. Wow, that’s a complicated scenario. The game checks triggered reactions from left to right in your hand, so the first character to react would be the one whose portrait was on the left hand side of the screen. You can arrange which order your characters are when you put together your party.

  7. Thank you for the reply, and thank you for uncomplicating my “buttonmashing of a question” :)

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