Challengers! Review – The Ultimate “Sit Back and Watch” Game

There are two reasons you won’t like Challengers! The first is that you’re bitter about it winning the Spiel des Jahres Connoisseur-gamer Game of the Year. Second, you think that Auto Battler games like DotA Underlords, and Teamfight Tactics are random, strategicless messes. In which case, you’d be wrong.

Well, at least partially.

Challengers! is built upon the backs of these video game titles, where you and everyone else start with the same deck of six cards. Over the course of a tournament, in which you play seven 1-on-1 matches, you’ll augment your deck by adding and removing cards. Then, after all the matches are played, the two strongest players face off to see who wins the game.

Before your first match, and every match afterwards, you’re dealt 5 cards in which you can add one or two to your deck – discarding the rest. Once you’ve chosen your cards, you’re directed to a playing field where you’ll battle in a simplified version of Capture the Flag. Players take turns attacking and defending the flag carrier using the cards from their deck.

If you’re attacking, you draw the top card from your deck until the total strength of all your drawn cards is equal to or greater than the defending card. Meanwhile, if you’re defending, you tuck all of your previously attacking cards under the last drawn card – that will be your defending card.

Once your defender is beaten, it and all the other cards underneath it go directly to your bench. Up to five cards can sit on your bench, any more and you lose immediately. Thankfully though, multiple of the same card sit on top of each other like teenage couples grossing out everyone with their over-the-top PDA.

If no one’s bench is full though, you continue to swap possession of the flag back and forth until one player runs out of cards. Then, the last player holding the flag wins the match and is rewarded with a number of fans.

After a couple of matches, you’ll get the chance to add more powerful cards to your deck. Then once seven rounds are complete, the two players with the most fans have one final match to determine the winner of the game.

A board game between board games

One of the reasons I love deck-building games like Dominion, and to a much lesser extent After Us, is that you go into each game single-minded on the type of deck you’re going to build. It’s then between games that you think about how the deck handled and the changes you want to make for next time.

Challengers! taps into this part of deck-building as no other board game has before, and it is awesome. After each match, you get to tinker with your deck and make changes, before immediately sending it back into action and seeing if your changes made a difference.

Now adding and removing cards to your deck is a two-step thought process. First of all, your deck must be strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the other decks in the tournament. However, at the same time though, you must ensure you’re not going to bust from a full bench – which is incredibly common.

Meaning throughout the tournament you’re going to have to make some hard decisions on what to keep, or what to cut. Cards that helped you win early matches, may not be able to compete with the other players’ more powerful cards.

Making these choices tougher is the random selection you choose from each time you add new cards. In a perfect world, you want to pick up multiples of the same card (so they stack on the bench) or cards with abilities to clear your bench. However, it’s not a perfect world, but with one mulligan each round, you’ll always end up with something workable.

Like an out-of-body experience

Now I love the deck-building aspect of Challengers! But it is going to infuriate anyone who comes in thinking it’s anything but. Especially, those expecting a deck dueler, or something with direct player interaction.

In Challengers! almost everything happens at an influential level rather than turn-by-turn like we’re used to. You add cards to your deck in the hopes that they’ll work like you expect, rather than being certain of the outcome.

That said, Challengers! is filled to the brim with synergies and counters. So you’ll always be able to put a competent deck together over the course of the seven rounds. To really craft an excellent deck though, you need to play a few times and learn the cards.

But even if you built the Sistine Chapel of decks, you’re still not guaranteed an outcome. You’re not in control, as such Challengers! feels a lot like Beyblade. Where as soon as you let it rip, you’re relegated to being a cheerleader for your deck rather than its pilot.

As such, you’re always vulnerable to cards being drawn at the wrong times, or the opponent getting lucky. This keeps the matches from becoming boring. And since they’re only one to two minutes long, even if things go awry, you’ll soon have an opportunity to make adjustments.

In preparation for the sequel

Now where Challengers! can improve in its already-announced sequel Challengers! Beach Cup is by adding more interesting abilities to the cards. It’s clear designers Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawischeck didn’t want to rock the boat too much and make this first game too complex. But in doing so they left a lot of dull and underpowered cards within the game.

Outside of that though, just give me more!

We played Challengers! around the 4-player count and everyone was so engaged we ended up only running one match at a time. The variety and creativity of everyone’s deck, along with the random chance, meant these matches were exciting to watch unfold – even when my deck wasn’t taking part.

While I didn’t get the chance to play an 8-player game before this review, I can only imagine the additional energy such a large player count would bring. Four matches running at once, all leading up to a gripping climax of the best two decks. Sounds like board game heaven.