Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The Wizard King has selected you and your rivals to be his Heirs. He plans to teach you everything he knows and select the best of you to be the next king.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Set Collection
Gather related items that become more valuable when scored together.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Take That
Direct negative effects at selected opponents.
Semi-Cooperative Game
Players share some objectives while retaining individual victory conditions.
Read the full game description
The Wizard King has selected you and your rivals to be his Heirs. He plans to teach you everything he knows and select the best of you to be the next king. Your training had just begun when a Black Wizard murdered the Wizard King to fuel an evil ritual. Unguided, you must complete your training to be able to stop the Black Wizard. You must stop the ritual, and do it quickly, because not only could the ritual destroy this way of life, someone less worthy might rise and take the throne before you. In Heirs of the Wizard King, each color of Wizard uses a unique type of spell that you can choose to command or absorb. Commanding a wizard allows the player to use their spell one time. If absorbed, you can then permanently use a reduced version of that spell. This absorbed power starts small, but you can continue to invest in, and eventually master, that spell. To defeat the Black Wizard, players forge Chains of Wizards by matching any combination of color/number. This task appears simple, but with each completed Chain, the difficulty increases as each Chain requires one additional card. The first player to reach the top of the score track defeats the Black Wizard and becomes the next Wizard King. Meanwhile, the Ritual of the Black Wizard is not an idle threat. On every player's turn, the Black Wizard's Chain is dealt one card from the deck. If that weren't bad enough, whenever the Deck runs out of cards, the Black Wizard advances one spot on his score track. Unchecked, the Black Wizard would quickly overwhelm and destroy the players. Players must work together to stop the Black Wizard, but in the end only one can be crowned the next Wizard King. What type of King will you be?