The Gaming Outpost

Get ready for some screaming space battles in Mag*Blast, a card game for two to six players. In it, you’ll find yourself blasting opponents’ ships in an attempt to reach the heart of their fleet–the Flagship.

There are three types of cards in Mag*Blast: the Flagship cards, the Ship cards (they have “Shipyard” on the back), and the Action cards (they have “Mag*Blast” on the back).

The Flagship card represents one of the six interstellar empires, and each one has a special ability, like being able to draw an extra card. If the Flagship is destroyed, you’re out of the game!

All Flagships have four “Zones” (Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow)–this is where you place the ships that comprise of your fleet. The Flagship is always in the center of the Zones. The Zones are important in that enemy ships can only attack other enemy ships that are in the same zone, and if a Zone is berift of ships, it can be targeted by enemy ships who occupy the corresponding Zone. All Flagships have the same defense (called Hull Value), and can’t attack, so always keep your Zones occupied with friendly forces.

Ship cards represent the various vessels that will fight for their Flagship. They range from the massive Dreadnought to the fast moving Scout Ships.

All Ships use a particular Action card called BLASTS, which are shots from your ships to your opponents. Certain ships use certain BLAST cards, and some can use more than one BLAST, so you never know what to expect from those Ships. The three BLAST cards are the LASER, the BEAM CANNON, and the powerful MAG-CANNON BLAST.

Other action cards include the GAME cards, which represent ship maneuvers like “Direct Hit” or events like “Temporal Anomaly.” Some Action cards include a Resource Symbol, which can be used to get more ships, or “reinforcements.”

The turn sequence of Mag*Blast works like so: Discard, Draw up to 5 cards, Play Reinforcements, Movement, and Play Action Cards. You can discard as many cards as you want–even if it means getting rid of your entire hand. Drawing up to five cards is self-explanatory, so it won’t be discussed. Playing reinforcements can be done by either playing a “Reinforcements” card, or by discarding cards with the “Resource” symbol (there are three different types of Resource Symbols. You can discard three of the same symbols, or all three types of symbols). Movement consists of moving from one of your Flagship’s Zones to another (the Dreadnought is the only Ship that can’t move)–a good thing if you have a undefended Zone–and finally you play Action cards that can rangefrom blasting your opponents to space dust or hiding in an Asteroid Field to protect your Fleet from harm.

The Verdict

At $16.95, Mag*Blast had better be fun to play, right? Well, it is! Most of the night was spent pummelling the enemy ships into space dust.

But the best thing about Mag*Blast (besides it’s fun to play) is the reason it’s referred to as “Screaming Space Battles”–you actually have to make the sound effects as you blast your opponents’ ships, or the attacks fails! It was fun powering up the Mag-Cannon and unleashing hot plasma death on those poor, unsuspecting ships. KA-BLAM!

Mag*Blast is just what it advertises to be–screaming space battles!You’ll be hooked the first time you unleash a Mag-Cannon blast at your opponent. Just don’t forget to make the sound effect…