Game Review: Millennium Blades

You guys, Millennium Blades is so meta. It’s! So! Meta!

For those who may not understand that statement, in collectible games, the “meta,” or metagame, is the game within, or about, the game. What choices in deckbuilding or creating your team from the available pool of cards, dice, or figures do you make based on what you expect other players to do? Millennium Blades is a card driven boardgame about a collectible card game (CCG) and the people who play it. And it has references for its references. It’s so meta!

I have only played one collectible game to any real extent. I’ve dabbled in others, but I went all in on one back in 2015 and it was the most important game in my life for 3 years. I’ve played it in 4 countries. I’ve won national titles in two of them. I have every version of every card printed on English that’s been officially released (alternate art, foil, promo, whatever, I have them all). That game is no longer collectible and much of the organized competitive play sponsored by the publisher that previously occurred throughout the year has totally vanished. I miss it terribly. There were moments I knew it was the best game in the world and moments I was more angry than was justified at the publisher for seemingly ignoring problems in competitive events with over-powered cards. I share all this only to describe my relationship with collectible games because, undoubtedly, that relationship shapes my opinion of and bias towards Millennium Blades, and why I think you need to play it.

Players take on the role of one of 6 professional Millennium Blades players, each with slightly different player abilities. A single game is played over 3 rounds of 2 phases. The first, the Deckbuilding Phase, is played in real-time and is a mix of resource management and set collection. Players acquire cards from the deck, buy them from a storefront or an aftermarket, trade cards with each other, and sell cards to the aftermarket in an effort to earn points from set collection and build a deck of 8 cards which is used in the Tournament Phase. Left over cards are retained for future rounds. In the Tournament Phase, players can use accessories and deck boxes to gain actions or scoring benefits and play cards in player order one at a time from their hand (deck) of 8 to a tableau of 6. This gives players a few extra options knowing that cards played by opponents may interfere with their plans. Each card has its own effect which can help earn Rank Points (which determines which player wins the tournament) or Clash with opponents or any of a number of other keyworded abilities. Yes, Millennium Blades made their own keywords for the Tournament Phase.

Millennium Blades has a pool of sets of cards. From this pool of sets, players will use the base set and a predetermined number of other sets to generate the deck of cards that will be used for the game. Each set has certain characteristics (just like each set released in CCGs). This means that combination of sets gives a slightly different experience in playing the game.

Players can win Millennium Blades without winning any tournaments in the Tournament Phase by focusing on the set collection aspect. Likewise players can win without maximizing set collection by dominating tournaments. In this way, players really must look at what one another are doing to try to keep pace in order to try to win. There are so many things going on in the Deckbuilding Phase that it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, focusing on set collection when in doubt can keep even new and overwhelmed players in the mix competitively. Just like in CCGs, making the right trades to get ahead financially (complete a set) or put together a winning deck (for the Tournament Phase) is critical.

Points are tracked on a simple score pad. Cardboard counters are used for selling cards to an aftermarket and to track adjustments made to cards in the tournament phase. The game comes with paper money. The paper money is reminiscent of some of my least favorite paper money of all time, EXCEPT… the game comes with stickers to bundle the money, 10 bills to a bundle. While that’s a chore, I like the finished bundles more than any other paper or plastic money I’ve used in any other game. When you’re throwing those bundles around to buy cards, it’s a great tactile feel with some heft. As a finished product, this is the best paper money I’ve ever played with. It’s well worth the time to bundle the money.

The game and pop culture references in Millennium Blades are seemingly endless. There are a lot of really clever references. Some are gentle nods, others are extremely direct. I have appreciated all of them! A couple that stand out are in the pictures in this article.

While the game doesn’t give me the feeling that I’m playing a full on CCG, it definitely does enough to provide something like that. I get the feeling I’m playing a boardgames about playing a CCG. For those that have never played a CCG, there is a rush associated with opening packs and finding a really rare card, the one you need to make your set complete, or the one that makes your tournament deck work perfectly. I have found myself buying cards from the store just digging for something that will help with a set or my tournament deck. It was almost just like when I’ve gone to my friendly local game store and purchased packs and packs and packs to get a lucky pull.

I’ve perfectly prepared a tournament deck only to have it completely destroyed by what an opponent put together. Millennium Blades does a remarkable job of creating an experience adjacent to playing a CCG. For me, that’s a remarkable achievement. There’s an iconography that becomes second-hand after a game or two, a pressure to perform in the Tournament Phase, a glorious unknown element related to wondering what the other players will bring to that phase, and a real-time phase that keeps the tension high. If you are a boardgamer with CCGs in your background, Millennium Blades is a game you really need to check out. If you don’t have CCGs in your background, this game may give you a taste of what the rest of us have found so addictive.

Cheers!