161: Autobattlers, card crafting, Mystic Lands (guests: John D Clair, John Zinser)

The OG card-crafting game Mystic Vale is getting a major makeover. Or is it a sequel? Whatever you want to call it, Mystic Lands is taking Vale's original concept of layering clear cards to create powerful combinations and streamling gameplay while beautifying the art. The result is a much better game (from our one play), and now we have to suffer the wait for the November Kickstarter campaign to run and fulfill.

Designer John D Clair and CEO of publisher Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) John Zinser stopped by our home to play a full game of Mystic Lands with us (Shoe would rather we don't discuss the final scores). Before we would let them out of the house, however, we made both sit down to record this podcast. Clair is working on some autobattler game designs, so that was his topic for us this week.

Timeline

• 1:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Fight 5.
• 3:05 - John D Clair's game pick: Living Forest.
• 5:13 - John Zinser's game pick: Love Letter.
• 7:37 - Mystic Lands and card-crafting.
• 21:38 - John D Clair's topic: The new trend of autobattler board and card games.