Dead Man’s Draw First Impressions

Dead Man’s Draw! Release the Kraken! As long as you only get one.

Push your pirate-y luck.

Dead Man’s Draw is a simple and strategic card game of risk and reward for 2 to 4 players. Players take turns drawing cards and combining their special abilities to plunder the most loot without busting their entire hands.

Easy game this one…

You flip over a card and perform the action on it… Then you keep going until you bust (draw 2 of the same type) or stop and bank what you have.

The actions are pretty cool.

Anchor – You can keep everything you got before this Anchor, even if you bust. Like a save point.

Cannon – Destroy one card an opponent has previously banked. Mwah ha ha!

Key – Let’s you use a chest

Chest – If you have a key, bank the number of cards from the discard pile equal to the number of cards you banked this turn.

Hook – Play one of your previously banked cards into your play area. Remember not to bust yourself!

Kraken – Draw and play 2 cards!

Map – Draw three cards from the discard pile and play one. My favourite card to get.

Mermaid – They don’t have an ability but they are worth more points than the other cards.

Oracle – You can look at the next card to see if you want to play it.

Sword – Steal a card from an opponent’s banked area and play it.

When the deck runs out you score. You score points equal to the highest ranked card you have for each type. Most points win.

Dead Man’s Draw Summary

It’s more fun than it sounds, trust me.

The abilities on EVERY card make EVERY turn exciting without being so complicated they slow the game down too much.

Unlike Incan Gold, there is more of a game for me to enjoy but it’s simpler than Port Royal for a push-your-luck style game.

It comes in a small box and is very cheap too. Sadly those awesome mats are a Kickstarter thing but not needed.

There is also an alternate endgame condition cards which are very cool but again, I think these (or at least some of these) are Kickstarter only.

There are role cards too that give each player an ability which adds a lot to the game and while some were from the Kickstarter, there are still a lot in the retail version.

All in all, it’s a fun game that I will play again because I bought it.

Jesta ThaRogue