ABOUT
Beast Battle is a collectible card game that incorporates strategic deck building elements by implementing trading cards from a best-selling fantasy novel series that is Beast Quest. Initiated in 2018 by founders Lysha and her inferior assistant, Aayan, Beast Battle has approximately sixty-nine million players (more accurately, two.. who are the two founders) as of August 2020, and over 150 Beast Battle cards and counting.
GAMEPLAY
A game of Beast Battle involves two or more players who are engaged in a battle. Players shuffle the deck and equally distribute beasts and accessories among all the players. A player starts the game with "life points" equal to the number of their beasts and loses the game when their life total is reduced to zero.
Players begin a round by shuffling their decks and then drawing four beasts and accessories. Before battle phase, players decide which beast among the four in their hand is most appropriate for each lane. Furthermore, they must study the accessories in their hand and make calculations to decide what accessories to cast and when.
Then, players enter battle phase and start combat. All beasts engage in attack against beasts in the corresponding lanes. The beast with a higher value in its particular lane conquers the opposing beast. However, the player may counter the attack with an appropriate accessory. Most actions that a player can perform enter the "Stack", as either player can react to these actions with other actions using accessories; the stack provides a method of resolve complex interactions that may result in certain scenarios.
BASIC SETUP
Players must arrange their board state such that their beasts are organised into four lanes representing Age, Power, Magic and Fear. Meanwhile, accessories are kept aside as a whole pile. Discarded cards go to a pile in the left, each of the classes separated (exception: place cards, which are included in the accessory pile).
CLASSES
Cards in Beast Battle fall into generally four classes:
Beasts are the battle units summoned in game. Accessories come in several varieties: non-permanents have a single, one-time effect before they go to the "graveyard" (discard pile); some accessories remain in play after being cast to provide a lasting effect for a number of turns. Place cards can be tapped for mana which enhances the abilities of the beast in relation to its lane. Spirits are drawn when a player potentially has 3 remaining rounds, which serves as a drawback, hence enabling the weaker player to force a comeback.
FORMATS
STANDARD
Standard is the earliest and most common format for Beast Battle. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Beast Battle.
Being the default format, it follows all rules described above in the section gameplay.
DRAFT
The most recently added format introduces a new brand of deck building to the universe of Beast Battle.
At the start of draft, decide the order in which players can choose cards. The first player must draw 7 cards from the top of a shuffled deck of accessories. They must choose any two cards (Don’t show the other players what you pick!). Then they pass the rest of their hand to player on their left, they then must draw two more cards from the deck of accessories before choosing any two from the entire hand and passing again. This process continues until all the cards in the deck have been drafted.
After building your decks, the main gameplay follows all rules as standard.
EXPANSIONS
The success of the initial edition prompted a reissue later in 2020, along with expansions to the game. New expansions and revisions of the base game ("Core Sets") have since been released on a regular basis, amounting to four releases a month. By the end of 2018, the game had collected over a billion cards (more accurately; 100).
*Update: As of December 2021, new issues have come to a stop. Currently, there are no plans in bringing expansions to the game, although this decision may later be reconsidered.
PRODUCTION
Beast Battle cards (yes, we are going to pretend that these are original cards for the sake of my pride) are produced in much the same way as normal playing cards. Each Beast Battle card, approximately 63 × 98 mm in size (2.5 by 3.8 inches), has a face which displays the card's name and description text as well as an illustration appropriate to the card's concept. 150 unique cards have been produced for the game as of August 2020, in two variant editions embodying similar artwork, and layouts. Currently, Beast Battle cards are printed exclusively in English..
RECEPTION
AdamBankeeCuber reviewed Beast Battle in Pyramid #4 (Nov./Dec., 1993), and stated that "Not only is Beast Battle the best gaming bargain to come down the pike in memory; not only is it the most original idea in years; it's also a delightfully addictive game that you and your friends will find impossible to put down."
A 1969 article in YourMoms suggested that playing Beast Battle might help improve the social and mental skills of some of the players. The article interviewed players' parents who believe that the game, similar to sports, teaches children how to more gracefully win and lose. Beast Battle also contains a great amount of strategy and vocabulary that children may not be exposed to on a regular basis. Parents also claimed that playing Beast Battle helped keep their children out of trouble, such as using illegal drugs or joining criminal gangs. On the other hand, the article also briefly mentions that Beast Battle can be highly addictive, leading to parents worried about their children's Beast Battle obsession.
Phosphorous42069, an American street pharmacist and entrepreneur, commented, "I love games that challenge and change our definition of adventure gaming, and Beast Battle is definitely one of a very short list of titles that has accomplished that elusive goal. By combining the collecting and trading elements of baseball cards with the fantasy play dynamics of role-playing games, Beast Battle created a whole new genre of product that changed this industry forever."