Reviewed by Herb Levy
LIZARD WIZARD (Forbidden Games, 1 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, 90 minutes; $49.99)
Welcome to Astoria, a land of magic! But all is not serene! Arch-Mages across the land seek the loyalty of wizards in the quest for ultimate power! By casting spells, creating mystical towers, conjuring familiars to aid them in their quest, players will assume the mantle of these Arch-Mages and seek to rise above the rest in this new Glenn Drover design: Lizard Wizard.
To make magic, you need the right ingredients and there are seven reagents in the game (mandrake, sulphur, toadstools, horns, nightshade, foxglove and eye of newt) that will be used to cast spells and each player randomly chooses two different reagents to start. (Unless modifiers are in effect, there is a limit of 10 reagents that may be held by a player.) One of each reagent is placed on the bottom of their mana track where each reagent’s current value is charted. All players receive 20 “mana” (one of the currencies of the game). Four, out of the 20, “Achievement” tiles are randomly chosen and placed on the board. These tiles specify goals (a certain number of reagents etc.) that the first player meeting that goal may claim. They are worth 10 points at the end of the game.) Wizard, Tower, Familiar and Spell cards decks are placed on the board. The Reagent card deck is shuffled and all dealt a starting hand of 3 cards. On a turn, a player may do ONE action from a menu of six possibilities:
- Gather Reagents – The top of each reagent card shows at least 3 reagents, Players may collect up to 3 of those pictured. The bottom of the card shows reagents too and the value of THOSE reagents rises 1 level up their mana tracks accordingly.
- Convert Reagents to Mana – You can sell ONE type of reagent at its current market price. For each unit sold, the value of that reagent drops 1 level.
- Recruit a Wizard – Two Wizards from the Wizard deck are face up and available. There are 7 schools of magic and Wizards will display icons indicating which school they are aligned with. A player may choose 1 Wizard and conduct an auction for it. Bids are made in mana. High bidder receives that Wizard card. If the player who initiated the auction LOSES the auction, that player goes again. (That action may be repeated or, if preferred, another action be done in its stead.)
- Research a Spell – Spells indicate a school of magic and there are always 4 spells available. You may buy one for mana and then, if you can, spend the specified reagents to put that spell into effect. (If you do not have the necessary ingredients or do not wish to cast the spell then, the spell is placed face down until such time as you DO put the spell into effect.) ALL spells are beneficial with some having immediate effects and some impacting end of the game scoring.
- Create a Tower -As with Wizards, Towers are also aligned with one of the 7 schools of magic and display the icon to which it is aligned. Buy the available tower for Gold OR by paying the specified number of reagents. (Each purchased tower increases the reagent hand limit by 1.)
- Summon a Familiar – Familiars, too, display one of the 7 schools of magic icon. Two Familiar cards are on display and one may be purchased using mana. Buying a Familiar allows you to immediately do ONE of four possible actions:
Score – Receive 1 Gold for EACH card (Wizard, Tower, Spell and Familiar) that matches the school of magic icon found on the Familiar.
Gather Reagents and Cast Spells – Collect the reagents shown on the card AND cast ANY spells you may have that you have not cast as of yet (provided you have the reagents necessary).
New Research – Clear the Spells on the board, replace them with four new ones from the deck and take ONE of them for FREE!
Enter the Dungeon – There is a Dungeon card deck filled with treasure cards, gold cards and monsters! This is a “push your luck” part to the game. Reveal one card at a time, keeping any treasure or gold you find. You can keep on going or stop. If a monster appears, you suffer a “hit”. If a second monster appears and a second “hit” received, you LOSE everything you have collected! 
Game play continues until all of the cards in either the Wizard, Tower, Spell or Familiar card deck have been claimed. That round is completed and then we score.
Victory Points are earned in several ways – and that’s where the icons on cards are so important! Every Wizard card + Tower pair is worth 5 points. If the Wizard + Tower pair has MATCHING icons, each pair is worth 10 points! Every Spell card (that has been cast) from the same magic school as a matching a Wizard + Tower pair is worth 5 points! Any excess Wizard or Tower is worth 1 point. To these totals, each Gold coin is worth 1 VP, VPs from Spells that have endgame scoring conditions are added, the player with the most treasure from his/her dungeon excursions gains 10 VPs (with second most scoring 5 VPs) and each Achievement tile claimed adds 10 VPs to a player’s score. The player with the highest combined total is the Arch-Mage of Astoria and controls the land!
Card quality of the game is fine as are the tokens used for reagents. Extra points should be awarded for the included inserts (with snap on lids) to hold all of those tokens neatly too. Gold coins are all the same size – with values of 1, 5 and 10 printed on the reverse – so you can hide Gold VPs totals. The mana, although coming in different sizes in the standard edition of the game, would have worked better with different COLORS so that their different values can be more easily discerned.
Players familiar with Glenn Drover’s previous release Racoon Tycoon (featured in the Fall 2019 Gamers Alliance Report and found in the “Flashback” this issue) will notice more than a few similarities here from the “stock market” mechanism (now with 7 goods rather than 6) to the auction mechanism to the similar style of artwork to the animal rhyming titles. But Lizard Wizard adds a few new wrinkles to that substantial engine. The push you luck Dungeon card deck is new for example, as are the Spells, all of which provide useful benefits or boosts to endgame scoring. But with these additions, game play time is lengthened. Particularly at the beginning, turns tend to be time consuming as you begin to formulate your strategic approach. As the game progresses, turns tend to accelerate but still time marches on. So in effort to alleviate or at least modify this problem we suggest this:
With so many Spell cards available, you will rarely use up the Spell deck. It is much more likely that one of the other decks will trigger the game’s ending. Tower and Familiar decks are divided into sections based on cost (reagents and mana respectively). We suggest randomly removing ONE card from each section. Wizards are aligned with the seven schools of magic. Randomly remove four (or more depending on your preference). This performs two functions. First, as the game ends when one of these decks runs out, fewer cards in the decks will shorten game time. Second, card counters among us will never be certain that a matching card needed is even in the deck! This intensifies competition for cards that DO appear!
Building upon the success of Racoon Tycoon, Lizard Wizard adds a few magical touches to give a sense of freshness to a very solid base of game design earning this one a companion space on your gaming shelf. – – – – Herb Levy
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