Wizards Cup Review – 18 Cards, Six Wizards, and Zero Room for Error

Disclaimer: Wizards Cup was provided for free by Pandasaurus Games, although the writing and opinions of this article are my own.

Ever since Challengers, I’ve been itching for another designer to tackle the auto-battler genre. Enter Wizards Cup by Seiji Kanai. The mastermind behind the legendary Love Letter and underrated Cheaty Mages and Lost Legacy. Needless to say, I was curious to see how his unique design style would combine with a game genre I’m ready to fall in love with.

How to play

You have been invited to compete in the Wizards Cup, a magical head-to-head tournament where teams of six wizards face off in a best-of-three showdown. From a roster of 18, you will draft your team, then send them into battle against your opponent’s squad. Win two out of three duels and the trophy is yours.

Each wizard comes with their own element, strength, and sometimes a special ability. These abilities fall into three types:

• Immediate: Triggers when the wizard enters the arena
• Permanent: Always active while the wizard is in play
• Dormant: Activates when the wizard is at the top of your discard pile

Once teams are drafted, each player sets one wizard aside in a waiting area and arranges the remaining five into a deck. Then it is time to battle.

Both players reveal the top wizard from their deck and resolve the duel by following these steps:

• Check for any immediate abilities that automatically win the battle
• Apply any relevant permanent abilities
• Compare elements. Fire beats grass, grass beats water, and water beats fire
• If there is still no winner, the wizard with the higher strength wins
• If it is still tied, both wizards are eliminated

The losing wizard heads to the discard pile, robe firmly between their legs. The winner stays in the arena, ready for the next challenger.

Players continue sending wizards into battle until one player runs out. That player loses the duel.

After each duel, you can make a few adjustments. Swap one wizard from your deck with one from your unused pool of 12, then reorder your deck to set up your next play.

Once both players are ready, the next battle begins.

Win two duels and you are crowned champion of the Wizards Cup.

Awesome for some, but not for all

Wizards Cup captures the thrill of duelling card games, evoking nostalgia for classics like Magic: The Gathering. It’s that back-and-forth excitement: “Oh, you played that? Well, how about this!” Drafting wizard combos and watching them interact is equal parts strategic and fun.

Especially between rounds, when you’re modifying your deck. You’re thinking about what worked, what didn’t, and which one card to swap in for the next duel. Then there’s the mind game: guessing what your opponent might change and reordering your own deck accordingly.

I love this kind of strategic tinkering, and Wizards Cup nails it. After my initial plays, I couldn’t stop thinking about new deck structures, powerful cards, and how to weave their abilities into clever combos. It’s a blast experimenting with the different special abilities and how best to combine them.

That said, this type of gameplay isn’t for everyone. While I adored the challenge of finding synergies, half of my gaming group wasn’t as enchanted. Some bounced off immediately, and I get it. If you don’t love the puzzle of deck-building, Wizards Cup can feel like a chore.

It’s not just the mechanics. It’s the learning curve. Before you can strategise, you need to grasp the basics: which elements beat which, what each card’s ability does, and how 18 unique options interact. It’s a lot to take in upfront, and for some, it’s overwhelming.

But stick with it, and the game reveals its brilliance. Once you’ve played a few rounds and start to see the interplay between the cards, Wizards Cup takes off. For those who enjoy building a deck and love a challenge, it’s a clever, rewarding experience.

Not enough flexibility to course-correct?

Even though I thoroughly enjoyed Wizards Cup, it’s not without its faults. For starters, the game doesn’t do enough to encourage creativity when building your deck. It’s all too easy to find a favourite set of magical misfits, stick with them, and replay the same strategies over and over.

To its credit, the game tries to shake things up by letting your opponent pick one of your six cards, forcing you to adapt. But in practice? This mechanic falls a bit flat. It’s just too easy to sideline that card in the waiting zone or ignore it altogether, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Another hiccup is how quickly some battles end. With only five cards in a deck, there’s limited back-and-forth, and a single well-chosen wizard can sometimes steamroll an opponent’s lineup. Being on the receiving end of this isn’t just frustrating, it feels a little unfair. Worse still, in these situations the limited deck adjustments between rounds doesn’t offer enough flexibility to course-correct.

And then there’s the roster. While the 18 wizards kept me entertained for now, I can see things getting repetitive after another 10–20 games. Without an expansion to add fresh content, strategies could start feeling stale. Fingers crossed they’ve got one in the works!

That said, Wizards Cup is still a clever, compact card-dueling game. This quick 10–15 minute game is perfect for filling spare time with a partner. For those who love tinkering with strategies and building decks, it’s a rewarding challenge despite a few minor flaws.