Title: Abandon All Artichokes
Designed By: Emma Larkins
Published By: Gamewright
Released: 2020
Player Count: 2-4
Time to Play: 20 Minutes
Come here looking for an absolutely adorable card game? Okie dokie artichokie, we've got you covered.
Peas excuse us for being corny, but if you carrot all about fun you are going to want to read this review. In it we will leek all the reasons why you shouldn't being a boring old couch potato during game night. Instead spice up the night by being a fun-onion and try to beet your friends at a game of Abandon All Artichokes.
Okay, okay, we will stop with the puns, but in all seriousness Abandon All Artichokes is a game that makes even the pickiest eaters enjoy their vegetables!
Abandon All Artichokes is a 2-4 player card-drafting game for players ages 10 and up. In Abandon All Artichokes, your goal is to be the first player to draw a hand of cards free of any artichokes. We are not sure why the folks over at Gamewright hate artichokes so much, personally, we find them delightful, but in Abandon All Artichokes, the artichokes are the enemy. When the first person draws a hand of cards and has no artichokes in hand, they win!
One of the first things we enjoyed about the design of Abandon All Artichokes comes as part of the set-up. Abandon All Artichokes comes with handy reference cards for each player to keep track of what happens during each turn. We love a good reference card, as it means less time flipping through the rule book as players are learning the game.
Once each player has a reference card, separate the artichoke cards from the rest of the deck and deal each player 10 artichokes face down. These will be the players starting personal decks. All the remaining non-artichoke cards get shuffled and form the Garden Stack. Reveal 5 cards from the Garden Stack to create the Garden Row. Have each player draw 5 cards from their personal decks and you are ready to go.
Abandon All Artichokes has a great starting player rule, whoever most recently ate a cooked green vegetable goes first. During a players turn there are 5 phases that occur. First the Garden Row gets replenished (this does not occur on the very first turn of the game). Next the player chooses one card from the Garden Row to harvest (add to their hand). The player can then play any number of cards from their hand, one at a time. To do this, play the card face up and resolve it's action. Once it has been resolved, the player adds it to the top of their personal discard pile (which gets created next to their personal deck). The player may then choose to play another card if they wish and repeat this process. Once all the cards the player wanted to use are played, the remaining unplayed cards are added to their personal discard pile. Lastly, the player draws 5 new cards from their personal deck to refill their hand. Play then passes to the next player. Should a player not have enough cards in their personal deck to draw 5 cards, their personal discard pile is shuffled and becomes their new personal deck. If at any point in the game a player draws a hand of cards that does not contain any artichokes, they immediately reveal their hand and win the game.
There are so many things to love about Abandon All Artichokes, for starters the game comes in an artichoke-shaped tin! How can you not be excited about playing a game that comes inside it's very own artichoke? All of the veggie card art is delightful as well. Each vegetable has it's own personality. The eggplant is our favorite!
Abandon All Artichokes is a great introduction to card drafting for players who are new to this mechanic. Each vegetable has it's own special ability so players will need to build their decks strategically to gain as many none-artichoke cards as possible, while also working to remove artichokes and mess up opponent's decks. While there are many different options of cards that could be drafted, the limited amount of cards in the Garden Row makes it easy for newbies to dip their toes into drafting without getting overwhelmed with choices.
Abandon All Artichokes is a great gateway game to more complex card drafting games. Quick, easy, and fun also makes Abandon All Artichokes a great filler game, perfect for any game night!
Lastly, enjoy a bonus picture of Pudgy Cat's expression when we told her that while the cards were vegetables, no she could not eat them. She still argues they would make a quality snack.
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