Over the weekend I had the chance to test out PK Cards for a local card shop that I do a lot of work with. I was given 4 starter decks, about 20 boosters, and told to grab 3 friends and take over a table to play. At first we were all a little unsure about what was going on, spending at least 30 minutes reading over rules and things. It has a hint of Magic: the Gathering to it, where there are five elements. Unlike Magic, though, these are based on the Chinese element circle of Fire, Wood, Metal, Water, and Earth. The rules can seem a bit confusing at first, but like most things, this is best to just play.

The gist of it is you have an Avatar that represents you. There are 7 rounds of combat, called sorties, to a match. There is a near unlimited number of matches because the game win-condition is to reach a certain number of prestige points. You have 4 different types of troops with various ranks. Henchmen, Allies, Champions, and Legends all must be supported or suffer penalties. A Henchmen is considered to be supported naturally, but an Ally must have a Henchmen, a Champion must have both, and a Legend must be supported by all three. Each creature has a type, species, and a ranking. Type comes into play if you have to use trumping. Species matters because some cards either help or hinder cards of a specific species. There is also an Offense and Defense score.

Aside from creatures, there are power cards that remain on the field for the entire round and influence cards that provide a one-sortie effect, usually a pump or a karma boost. Karma allows you to rally, which is discarding two cards to draw two to replace them. You can only do this before the round starts, unless your Avatar allows you to do otherwise.

There are a lot of rules and technicalities, so it’s best if you’re interested in playing to buy a core deck. The newest four are for Red (fire), Yellow (earth), Gray (metal), and Blue (water). Sorry wood, no love for you this time, but don’t fret! Creatures of all elements are featured in every deck. Now, the core decks are fun, but like any card player could tell you, the real fun comes in constructing your own deck and going at it. We played a couple matches, only playing the first set of 7 sorties so we’d get the hang of the game. The joys of the core decks is that they come with two Avatars, both designed to work with the deck, so two players can use the same one.

Now, when it comes to deck construction, you can either pick your favorite elements like I did (metal and fire) and make a balanced deck between the four ranks, influences, and powers, or do like others have and pick a species that they’re fond of (like constructs, undead, and fey) and work with that. The joys of running one or two elements is when it comes to following suit (playing the same element as the lead player) is if you don’t have a creature of that element, you can play what you wish, and since a lot of cards come with an ability called opportunism (this does not need to follow suit), it makes it a lot more fun. A species-specific deck is fun in that you can find the perfect powers and influences to pump them and hinder others.

An added bonus to the game is the online play. Now, I haven’t gotten into it that much, but the Gold Key codes on the sides of some cards are a very nice temptation. Each core set and booster pack contain a card that has a code on the side that can be redeemed on the PK Cards site. Once enough points have been redeemed, you can get some truly awesome prizes. That and this game is a lot of fun. I highly recommend this game to any avid card players, especially when you want a change from Magic: the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! or any other game you seem to be playing a lot of. There’s nothing like getting looks at a tournament by playing a completely different game.

For more information on cards, products, and the like, check out www.pkcards.com