Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate review — Everybody wants to break the world

Since I've started reviewing the LCGs that everyone's pumping out, I've been asked some variant of “is this The One, will it get a scene?” way more than I'd like. It's not that it's a bad question for people who are still brain poisoned by MTG, it's just that it's not one I'm interested in speculating on. What I'm interested in is finding that game that returns me to a time before PTQs, GPs, and the general crowd at competitive scenes sapped the fun out of card games for me. A cardboard font of youth that restores me to the 13 year old playing at friends’ houses or in tents during camping trips. Is Worldbreakers that game? Kinda sorta. But it's certainly got the solid core that means it is for a lot of people. A lot of the bones here are going to feel like a “best of” for people familiar with the genre (you're racing your opponent to score ten power through unblocked followers and certain location development effects, and definitely not deal twenty damage, that's Magic), and that provides it with a solid foundation, but  the best things about Worldbreakers are where it breaks from the norms.

Probably the biggest divergence is the lack of an automated attack phase, moving it to one of your four actions a round. As you can probably guess, that move has gigantic strategic implications. Keeping it simple and assuming you've got a guaranteed unblocked guy, this starts a mini-game of brinkmanship: do you immediately swing and get one of the ten power you need to win the game, or do you play another guy, hoping to get more efficiency off your attack, but running the risk of giving your opponent the time to set up the counterplay? Kicking the complication up a notch, blocking also exhausts followers, so sometimes sending in a couple dinky little dudes that your opponent is obligated to block can be worth it just to set up a free swing with someone with an ability that triggers when unblocked, the card game equivalent of a sacrificial bunt.

There's also deck building and economy. Decks are 30-card Singleton affairs, but there's no limits on what you can include from guilds outside your worldbreaker’s except that you can't use other Worldbreakers’ signature cards. Card usage is instead restricted by a system similar to Magic's, only that you don't play lands or pay mana, you have to meet a card’s guild influence requirement and pay mythium. Mythium is its own economy handled by cards or taken one at a time for an action, but you automatically get an influence of the guild of your worldbreaker, and can accrue more through actions. This feels like the best compromise between the eradication of card based color resources and still allowing complete freedom in deck building. It's also worth mentioning that the box has two copies of every card, meaning you're not forcing a friend to also pick up a copy to play with you.

On my way out, I'd like to call your attention to what I'm going to call “a potpourri of things I appreciate”:

1. Onboarding is exceptionally easy, and the preconstructed decks teach you the game after a play or two, along with deck lists in the rulebook if you happen to disassemble them and want to play them again for whatever reason, and most rules fit between the round tracker and reference card. 
2. There's no "counter” mechanic, so if your opponent wants to deal with something you do, they'll have to do it on their turn. It keeps the game on the table and as a result, much more readable.
3. The rounds structure to where a player will get two turns in a row every other round. Setting yourself up to capitalize on this and mitigate the impact of your opponent’s double turn is key to success.
4. Four guilds feels right. Each one is distinct, with their own strengths and weaknesses that interact with each other in fun ways that are easy to learn and adapt to.
5. Alternative history Asia is a much more interesting setting than the generic fantasy world or licensed IP everyone else is showing up with.