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Mindbug: First Contact box art
2022 Ranked #431

Mindbug: First Contact

Tactical dueling card game where players summon hybrid creatures and attack until their opponent's life is gone. Each player can seize control of two opposing summons, so playing a powerful card at the wrong moment can backfire.

Family Games Card Game Fantasy Betting and Bluffing Take That

Players

2

Play time

15-25 min

Age

8+

Complexity

1.95/5

Rating

7.74

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

In Mindbug, you summon hybrid creatures and send them to battle against your opponent — but when you summon a creature, the opponent may use one of their Mindbugs to take control of it.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

In Mindbug, you summon hybrid creatures and send them to battle against your opponent — but when you summon a creature, the opponent may use one of their Mindbugs to take control of it. Outwit your opponent in a fascinating tactical duel in which having the best cards and playing them at the wrong time can be deadly for yourself. Cards in Mindbug represent weird creatures that all come with unique and powerful abilities such as a Compost Dragon, a Snail Hydra, or a Kangasaurus Rex. Each player starts the game with ten creature cards (five in hand and five in a draw pile) and tries to use them to reduce the opponent's life total to zero. In addition, every player receives two Mindbug cards that can be used to mind control an opposing creature when it is played. This innovative Mindbug mechanism is the core of the game and leads to a unique decision-making process that makes Mindbug feel utterly different from any other card game. Playing a card doesn't require any resources in Mindbug. As a result, the game has no ramp-up phase (such as gathering resources) and doesn't require weak cards. Since there is also no deck-building, you can start playing right away from a single deck. There is also no unfair advantage as players draw cards from the same deck and always get the chance to mind control the strongest opposing cards. In the end, it all comes down to your own decisions, making the game extremely fair and competitive at the same time. —description from the publisher

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2
Best with
2
Play time
15–25 min
Age
8+
Complexity
2.0/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

4
Skaff Elias Richard Garfield Marvin Hegen Christian Kudahl

Artists

1
Denis Martynets

Publishers

1
Nerdlab Games

Linked items

No published linked games yet.