The pitch is a team of mages defending a last city from a nemesis monster, deckbuilding to assemble your spells while the breach mechanic governs how many you can actually cast in a turn, and the whole thing clicks together tighter than almost any other co-op deckbuilder I’ve played. Cards don’t shuffle back into your deck the moment you discard them the way they do in most of the genre, they go into a discard pile you’ll eventually cycle back through in whatever order they land, which changes your planning in a way that took me a few games to fully appreciate.

Each nemesis plays genuinely differently, and the variable market means no two setups feel quite the same, so the replay value holds up far longer than I expected going in. What surprised me was how much personality each mage has beyond just their starting hand, small positional differences around the breaches that end up mattering more than they look like they should on paper. I do wish there were a touch more differentiation between mages beyond that, since a few games in you start noticing the overlap.

Solo or with a full table, it holds up either way, and I’ve caught myself thinking about a losing run days later, turning over what I should’ve cast instead. That’s rare for me. The insert that ships in the base box is not great, honestly, expect to sort your own trays or buy a third party one if you’re the type who cares, which I am.

If you’ve bounced off other co-op deckbuilders because the monster fights felt thin or the deck management felt like busywork, this is the one I’d point you toward first. It’s become one of my most-played games, full stop, and the itch to open the box again never really goes away for long.