Magic Dragons (2022)

Overview

Make bids to capture the correct amount of dragon clans and outwit your opponents in Magic Dragons. In this trick-taking adjacent game, you will be working on as many as 5 or more “tricks” at a time, using your hand of 7 cards with the goal of winning 0 to 4 tricks each round. Each trick consists of a stack containing one clan (color) of dragon. Control of each clan stack (trick) is determined by who played the highest dragon card on that clan stack. But your opponents may have spell cards in their hand that they can use to freeze, destroy, or suddenly change the color of any dragon clan stack.

Play continues in multiple rounds until at least one player attains a cumulative total of at least 40. Points are gained for controlled clan stack cards and matching your bid prediction for the number of controlled stacks. Points are lost for cards remaining in hand at the end of the round. Each round is a full refresh: the whole deck is reshuffled, hands dealt, and new bids made.

In each round, players place cards one at a time, in turn order. Unlike traditional trick-taking card games where all players play for one trick at the same time, in Magic Dragons each player in turn may play on any active stack (trick) or may be able to create a new stack. Control of all stacks is determined at the end of the round when all players have placed all the cards that they can from their hand for this round. Points are then scored at the end of the round.