Vampires vs. Unicorns: A Card Tossing Duel

The vampire and unicorns are going to war! Which side will you take: the stampeding unicorns or the blood sucking vampires?

A two player card-tossing game, Vampires vs. Unicorns is a dexterity game with a very original look. But setting the art aside, what is the gameplay actually like?

Gameplay

Each player takes their team’s seven tiles and places them on the floor, with four in the front row, two in the middle, and the base (castle) tile in the back. The two sides are placed a distance of four tiles away from each other. Both sides also take their team’s deck of cards and the game begins.

Standing behind their base tiles, players take turns drawing a card from their deck, announcing any abilities it has, and then throwing it. The goal of the game is to eliminate your opponent’s tiles by landing a card on them. The four tiles in front only need to have a card land partially on them to be eliminated. The two cards in the middle have two points of health. If a card lands at least partially on one of them it gets flipped, when a card lands partially on one after it has been flipped, it’s eliminated. A card can eliminate multiple tiles at once if it lands across multiple tiles.

The tile in the back, the base tile, is protected by all the tiles in front of it. As long as a player has other tiles in play, the only way to eliminate the base tile is to have an entire card land on it. If only a portion overlaps the base, it will not be eliminated. However, once a player has lost all their other tiles, the base tile is flipped over and it can be eliminated by having only a portion of a card land on it.

Both teams have different cards in the deck, and cards have different abilities. The unicorns have abilities that will have them tossing extra cards at the same time, while the vampire’s abilities tend to focus on taking extra turns if you eliminate a tile or tossing unicorn cards that have been tossed over to the vampire’s play area.

You win by eliminating all your opponent’s tiles or having the most tiles left once one player runs out of cards in their deck.

Review

Vampires vs. Unicorns is a light dexterity game that’s easy to teach and play. But while the rules take no more than a couple of minutes to teach, learning to toss those cards is both challenging and satisfying.

Card tossing, especially doing it accurately, is not as easy as you might think, so there’s plenty of humor and lots of excitement as you toss the cards and try to take out your opponent’s tiles. There are plenty of moments when you groan at your misses or cheer when you manage to hit multiple tiles at once. The game time is fairly short, which works well in its favor, and it’s quick to set up for another round.

Having each team be unique is a nice touch, with both decks of cards playing slightly differently. The unicorns are more likely to run through their deck quickly, but they do have a couple of ways to drain the vampire’s deck. There is also a bit more randomness when, as the unicorns, you are tossing multiple cards at the same time, while the vampires go slower and are more about precision.

There is no denying that the artwork is truly unique, detailed, and expertly drawn. It’s an original blend of dark and quirky, with both teams’ differences being stressed by the fact that their artwork is done by two different, highly talented artists. However, given the highly original and creative approach to the art, it’s just not going to be for everyone and since the artwork is so front and center, if you don’t like it, you might not be able to enjoy the game.

All the components are excellent quality. From the cards you toss to the large and sturdy tiles. Abilities are clearly written on the cards themselves, so that you almost never have to refer to the rulebook after your initial read (though the rulebook is written in a very amusing style that makes it pretty fun to go through).

Vampires vs. Unicorns is fast and addictive: you want to keep playing. While technically a two player game, families could easily play with four players, and have two people on each team alternating card tossing. It’s accessible, sometimes messy, easy to start playing, and quite enjoyable.

Pros: Truly unique artwork, two unique teams, fast gameplay, most rules are written on the cards and tiles

Cons: The artwork won’t be for everyone

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.