Mindbug Review

If you're like me, you think Magic: The Gathering is a cool concept... but something you'd never play because it's too complex, with too many layers to navigate, with too much history behind it. Wouldn't it be great if there was a game that captured the same feel but didn't have all the baggage?

Many have tried to be that game, but Mindbug stands out because it was created by the very creator of M:TG. Yes, Richard Garfield himself! No one else understands the secret sauce of M:TG better than he does. So if there's one person who can successfully boil M:TG down to its essence, it's him... and he knocked it out of the park, with the help of three other co-designers.

Mindbug is M:TG for people who don't want to get into M:TG, but it's also a fantastic game for people who don't even know what M:TG is. Here's everything you need to know about Mindbug, how to play it, where it excels and falls short, and how my experiences with it have gone.

This review is based on a review copy of Mindbug provided by Nerdlab Games, but my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Overview

Mindbug is a miniature M:TG-like dueling card game for two players, with none of the baggage of M:TG. That means no deck construction, no drafting, no booster packs, no rare-and-overpowered cards. It's a standalone package that delivers the same core, yet simplified, experience.

In Mindbug, you have a hand of Creature cards, which you play to an area in front of you. Once a Creature is played, you can attack with it. When you attack, your opponent can block the attack with one of their own Creatures—and if they do, then the weaker Creature dies. (In the case of a tie, both Creatures die.) Otherwise, if your attack isn't blocked, then the opponent takes 1 damage. Once a player drops to 0 health, they lose and the game ends.

Every Creature has a Power value at the top-left of its card, which is used to resolve combat (i.e., determine which Creature dies in a blocked attack). Every Creature card also has a section at the bottom that can have an Ability, Keywords, or both. An Ability is a unique effect that can come into play at certain times (e.g., when you attack, when the Creature is defeated, when the Creature is first played). A Keyword is a shorthand for a non-unique effect. You can think of it as a Creature's "type" or "class."

While Mindbug comes with 48 Creature cards, only 20 of them are used in any given game. At the start, each player is dealt 10 random Creature cards to form their own deck, with 5 of those cards drawn to form their initial hand. From then on, any time your hand falls below 5 cards, you immediately draw back up to 5.

The game flow is simple. You take turns with your opponent, going back and forth and doing one of the following actions on each turn:

• Play a card from your hand. This means moving a Creature from your hand to your play area. The Creature doesn't attack. Think of it as preparing the Creature for battle, or deploying it out on the battlefield.
• Attack with a Creature. This means choosing one of your Creatures in your play area to attack with. Your opponent then chooses which of their Creatures to block your attack with.

For reference, here are the three trigger types for Abilities, which determine when an Ability comes into effect. (The actual Abilities are unique to each Creature and explained by its card text.)

• Play: This Ability effect triggers when you play the Creature from your hand to your play area.
• Attack: This Ability effect triggers when you choose the Creature from your play area to attack with, before your opponent chooses a Creature with which to block your attack.
• Defeated: This Ability effect triggers when the Creature is moved from your play area to your discard pile.

And here are the five Keywords that can apply to Creatures. A Creature could have zero, one, or multiple Keywords.

• Frenzy: When this Creature attacks, if it's still alive after attacking, then it can attack a second time.
• Hunter: When this Creature attacks, you get to choose which of your opponent's Creatures blocks the attack.
• Poisonous: After this Creature resolves combat with an opponent's Creature, the opponent's Creature is always defeated, even if this Creature was defeated by it.
• Sneaky: When this Creature attacks, the opponent can only block it with a Creature that has the Sneaky keyword.
• Tough: The first time this Creature is defeated, it becomes exhausted instead; the next time it's defeated, it's truly defeated.

Okay, so, all of the above is pretty straightforward, right? It doesn't feel very different from other two-player dueling card games yet. But here's the big twist that makes Mindbug so special: each player starts with 2 Mindbug cards, and these Mindbug cards are the heart of this game.

Whenever your opponent plays a Creature, you can spend a Mindbug to take control of it. That means the Creature comes to your play area instead, and if it has a Play effect, then it triggers for you. The Mindbug works on any Creature without restriction (unless it's been Mindbugged already). And finally, when you have a Creature stolen from you by a Mindbug, you get to take another turn.

You can only Mindbug at the moment a Creature is played from hand to table. Once a Creature is deployed, it can't be Mindbugged at a later time.

And that's it. You and your opponent both start with 3 health, going back and forth, playing and attacking and stealing with Mindbugs, until someone's health drops to 0. The game immediately ends and the surviving player wins!

Setup and Table Footprint

Mindbug sets up faster than every other game in my collection. Each player takes their two Mindbug cards and a health tracker. Then, all you do is shuffle up the 48-card deck of Creature cards and deal 10 per player. That's the entire setup. It only takes a minute, maybe two. I love that.

Mindbug also doesn't take up much table space. You just play your cards to an area in front of you, and they die off throughout the game into a discard pile so the play area never grows very large. I could see myself playing this on an airplane (as long as we're sitting next to each other, with one airplane tray down for each player). Or on a couch. Or on a tiny side table. It works.

Learning Curve

Mindbug is the kind of game that has a front-loaded learning curve, but everything is intuitive and easy to remember once you've grasped it. I'd happily introduce this to anyone who has an interest in board games regardless of their experience level, with the caveat that it might take a game or two for it to click.

While the game flow and underlying principles are simple, Mindbug has a handful of keywords you need to know to be able to interpret the text on cards. Things like "Frenzy" and "Sneaky" as well as "Play" and "Attack"—none of these are complex on their own, but it can be a lot all together. Fortunately, the back of the rulebook has a handy reference for every keyword.

In fact, there are 32 unique Creature cards in Mindbug, so new players will find themselves reading cards a lot during their first several plays as they get familiar with what Creatures can do and what to expect. (16 of the Creatures only have one copy in the deck while another 16 Creatures have two copies each in the deck, for a total of 48 Creature cards.)

All in all, Mindbug is easy to play but hard to win. You have to be exposed to the whole deck before you can truly start understanding the values of cards, knowing what's possible, and being able to suss out your opponent's intent behind every action. Almost anyone can play Mindbug and have a good time, but it takes many repeat plays to experience the full depth of it.

Game Experience

Decision Space

Mindbug has a decently wide decision space for what basically boils down to a 10-cards-versus-10-cards duel. You get 10 random cards and you must figure out how to play them to get past your opponent's defenses faster than they can get past yours. For that, you have three big choices every turn.

Am I going to play a Creature or attack with a Creature? Not a tough decision, but one you have to make. If you have no one on the field yet, or if you have no cards remaining in hand, then it's a no-brainer. Otherwise, you have to consider your situation and your opponent's situation, then weigh your best "play" move against your best "attack" move and go with whichever is better.

When playing Creatures, what order am I going to play them? In Mindbug, you have a finite number of Creatures and they're all going to get played by the end of the game (probably). The key, then, is the order in which they're played.

Before playing that fragile Goblin Werewolf (only 2 Power), you probably want a stronger card on the field to absorb any potential attacks. Or you might hold off on playing the Giraffodile (draw your entire discard pile) until you have more discards. Why play the Axolotl Healer (gain 2 HP) if you haven't been hurt yet? Might as well hold onto it until you are.

You also have to look ahead and mitigate threats from your opponent. If they have a powerful Gorillion (10 Power) on the field, how are you going to defend against it? Maybe you play your Axolotl Healer for its Poisonous trait, wasting its healing ability but allowing you to counter-kill the Gorillion if it attacks. Or suppose your opponent has a Plated Scorpion (2 Power, Poisonous) on the field and you want to attack without being counter-killed yourself. Maybe you try to get around it by playing Bee Bear (8 Power, can't be blocked by Creatures with 6 Power or less). Figuring out what to play and when is a puzzle.

When attacking, which Creature will I use? Mindbug is so clever in its battle design. While the actual resolution of combat is lightning fast, the decision to fight can be tricky. You get to decide who to attack with (the attacker), but your opponent decides which Creature gets attacked (the defender). This brings with it a kind of mind game that ratchets up the tension further.

With every Creature on your field, you have to predict how your opponent would react if you attacked with it. Then, between all those possible interactions, you have to decide which outcome would be best for you. Even so, it doesn't always play out as you expected, and reading your opponent is always harder than you think. This layer of uncertainty deepens the puzzle, forcing to figure out how to deal damage to your opponent with all those Creatures in the way.

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When it's your opponent's turn, you aren't just twiddling your thumbs and waiting for them to wrap up. On defense, you have two important choices to consider.

If they play a Creature, am I going to Mindbug it? You can only Mindbug twice, so you have to make them count. The tricky part is knowing when. You obviously want to save them for your opponent's best Creatures, but there's no way to tell when their best Creatures are played. If you jump the gun too early, they'll smack you with their strong ones later; if you wait too long, their strong cards might slip right past you and leave you with only weak ones to turn.

But it's also about assessing how well that Creature would work as part of your team. Maybe it isn't the strongest card, but perhaps it's Sneaky and they don't have any other Sneaky cards in play. If you Mindbug it to your side, you'll be able to bypass your opponent's Creatures when attacking with it. Maybe that tactical advantage—even if for just one or two turns—is worth it.

If they attack me with a Creature, who will I defend with? You might have a clear answer that's obviously in your favor, but that's rarely the case. Usually the attack puts you in an awkward position that forces you to sacrifice a Creature, with the decision ultimately being which one to sacrifice.

In Mindbug, your ultimate goal is to come out ahead of your opponent in every combat. But if they're good, they won't make it easy for you.

Luck Factor

There's actually a good amount of luck in Mindbug, but that isn't unusual for dueling card games. You get 10 random cards dealt to you as your personal deck, and the draw order of those cards ultimately determines what you can do. Is it possible for your opponent to get a set of cards that are strictly better than yours? Yep, it is! But Mindbug isn't a lucky game. You have enough tools in your belt to overcome disparities and sway luck to your benefit.

The most important feature is that each player gets 2 Mindbugs that can steal an opponent's Creature when played. This is cleverly self-balancing, as your Mindbugs are more valuable when your opponent has better Creatures and less valuable when their Creatures are weaker. If luck deals in favor of your opponent, you can mitigate that with smart Mindbug play—and it actually feels good to make those steals. Sometimes I even find myself hoping that my opponent has a powerful Creature up their sleeve for me to take!

That being said, the Creatures in Mindbug are pretty well-balanced. Some are stronger than others, of course, but the weaker ones often have special abilities that make them valuable in ways beyond sheer power. Or another way to put it, every Creature is worth playing for one reason or another, so it's not like you can be dealt a hand of crap while your opponent gets all the good ones.

It's up to you to figure out how to make your cards work for you and how to best overcome your opponent's cards and when to use your Mindbugs for maximum impact. Your cards might have more or less synergy than your opponent's cards, but the winner usually comes down to whoever plays better. To that end, I don't consider Mindbug to be a lucky game.

Fun Factor

Mindbug really does take the fun of collectible card games and boil it down to its very essence, minus all the pre-game deck construction elements. The gameplay is puzzly enough to work your brain, yet simple enough not to bog you down with too many keywords and concepts, with just enough unpredictability to keep you on your toes between sudden shifts in the tide of battle. The fun of Mindbug is in riding those waves and figuring out the key moments to play your key cards to swing the duel in your favor.

Pacing

Mindbug is quick and snappy, especially once you've been exposed to all the Creatures and no longer have to read the text on every drawn card. You only have one real decision to make—play a Creature or attack a Creature—and there's only so much info to process when making that decision. Analysis paralysis isn't a huge problem and turns usually take 30 seconds or less. For me, most games of Mindbug end within 15 to 20 minutes.

Yet despite being so short, the overall game arc is pleasant. You spend the first few turns establishing your Creatures and figuring out a strategy for your hand, then the mid-game turns into an ebb-and-flow of tension as Creatures die, with the occasional plot twist when a Mindbug strikes. The winner isn't clear until the last few turns, and I've seen big reversals even when all seemed lost. That possibility keeps every duel interesting to the very end.

Player Interaction

Mindbug is a head-to-head duel between two players, so expect a lot of direct attacks back and forth. A Creature dies pretty much any time someone acts, Creatures can be stolen using Mindbugs, and the whole point of the game is to bring your opponent's health down to zero. Mind games are important, too, as you try to predict their actions and outmaneuver them.

It's certainly competitive. But does it feel mean or bad or frustrating? Surprisingly, no. It's not like you spend several turns building up something big only for it to be torn down. There's no cost to deploying a Creature, so it doesn't "hurt" when it gets killed. You shrug and move on. I usually don't like head-to-head battlers because losing units is stressful, but I don't mind it in Mindbug between the no-cost deployments, puzzly decisions, and short game time.

Fiddliness

I love that Mindbug doesn't have much fiddliness to it. You play a card and draw a replacement, or you use one of the cards you've already played. You spin your health dial when you take damage, and you occasionally exhaust Tough cards to show that they've absorbed damage. That's it! Manual manipulation of game pieces is nearly zero in Mindbug—the opposite of cumbersome.

Replayability

For how tiny it is, Mindbug is surprisingly replayable. The base game only consists of 48 cards—less than a regular pack of playing cards!—but that small package stays compelling across repeat plays for three main reasons.

First, you get a randomized deck of 10 cards and you don't know what your deck contains. That alone makes every game different. But even if you were to be dealt the exact same 10 cards in two games, the order in which those cards come out will be different, and that's enough to drastically change up the puzzle. Every game is its own, new challenge to be solved.

Second, the Creature designs are varied with lots of cleverly designed abilities that twist the gameplay. Your discard pile might be important in one game but useless in another. One game might force you to consider tight synergies between cards while another might be more straightforward. The Creatures are thoughtfully made and fully explore the possible design space.

Third, it's short but punchy. Mindbug packs a swingy experience into just a few minutes, and that makes it addictive. It's so easy to say "One more time!" because all you have to do is shuffle up and deal, and you'll want to play again because the game arc is both approachable and satisfying. Meanwhile, the game evolves with you and deepens with multiple plays. Once you and your opponent know every card by heart, that's when it really opens up.

All that said, Mindbug isn't the kind of game I play on constant repeat. I'm satisfied after about three games and ready to move onto something else. But some days later, I feel the urge to break it out again. It's best in short bursts every once in a while.

The base game of Mindbug is plenty replayable and I don't feel the need to expand it. But if you want to go further, you can always dip into the standalone expansions Beyond Evolution, Beyond Eternity, Battlefruit Kingdom, and Battlefruit Galaxy, with more to come I'm sure.

Production Quality

While Mindbug comes in a small and tight package, it's a well-made one. The restrained but high-quality production of Nerdlab's other game I reviewed—Agent Avenue—is something I really appreciated, and that's also the case here. Mindbug feels great to play without being excessive.

The artwork is stylish, unique, and creative. This ain't generic fantasy or sci-fi—every creature is a weird mish-mash of ideas, and that gives Mindbug its own personality. The artwork is both silly and serious, and it successfully brings the whole thing to life in a way that's both endearing and inviting.

The graphic design is clean and intuitive. Every card is clearly legible (thanks to a clean font choice) and easy to parse (thanks to a smart layout and display decisions). My opponent can play cards and I can read them upside-down, which is what I expect from a game like this. It keeps the game moving and prevents unnecessary interruptions to the overall flow.

The card quality is pretty good, but no linen finish. Even though the card stock is thick and doesn't feel cheap, the cards are mainly held in hand and go through a lot of shuffling. I worry how well they'll hold up if you play this a whole lot, again and again. It's probably worth sleeving this one.

The health spinners are icing on top of an already great cake. As far as I'm aware, past printings of Mindbug didn't come with these spinners, suggesting instead to track health using dice or unused cards. But I'm really glad they added these spinners. It just makes the whole game feel more complete, and it's less annoying than dealing with dice or cards.

The rulebook is straightforward and easy to understand. To be fair, it's a simple game without any complex edge cases or complicated steps, so it'd be hard to get it wrong here. But the rulebook is laid out well and stuffed with plenty of example illustrations. The player aid on the back is appreciated, too!

The game box could've been smaller, but doesn't feel unnecessarily large. It seems like Nerdlab is using this as their standardized box size for smaller card games, and I don't mind it. Ideally it'd be tightened down with less wasted air, but neither is it egregious. It's portable enough.

The Bottom Line

Mindbug is an excellent dueling showdown that blends puzzly strategy with some mind games. It's a fast, light, streamlined take on card games like Magic: The Gathering that has all of the good bits with none of the pay-to-win aspects. It's great as a game night opener, a filler between bigger games, or a bite-sized duel to kill a bit of time. Solid for any two-player collection.

Buy it from:
Amazon • Miniature Market • Noble Knight Games

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