Faust vs Mephisto
- Board's Eye View
- 4 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Faust vs Mephisto is a two-player tricktaking card game from Geonil and publishers Mandoo. Art - unique to every card - is by Javier Inkgolem. The game is played over a maximum of two rounds using a shuffled microdeck of 22 cards (10 cards dealt to each plus two taken out of play sight unseen).
The cards in the deck are divided into four different colour suits: there are four red cards, five blue cards, six yellow cards and seven green cards, and there are some special rules governing each suit; for example, you can’t lead with a red card until red is already in play. In this tricksy card game the two players have asymmetric objectives: Mephisto wants to have all the cards in a suit won either by themselves or by the Faust player; Faust wants to have the cards in a suit shared.
Players have to follow suit if they can but if they have no cards in the suit that’s been led they can play any card. Initially the suits have no ranking order but the first time a suit is played in a round its token is immediately placed in the lowest available position on the board. In most cases that will mean the suit that doesn’t match the one that’s led will outrank it and so win the trick.
This might sound a little complicated but it’s quickly grokked and feels intuitive once play is underway. It means players will be feeling each other out at least until the hierarchy of suits is established. And of course when your opponent doesn’t follow suit it enables you to deduce one or both of the cards that are out of play…
There’s more. Both players have two chunky metal coins that they can spend to require their opponent to play a card on their behalf (ie: a second card from the lead player’s hand rather than from yours). It’s this mechanic that really elevates the game to one of strategy rather than mere luck of the hand of cards that players have been dealt.
Geonil is the designer behind The Yellow House (Mandoo), Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard (Mandoo), Phantom of the Opera (Korea Boardgames) and Orbita (Korea Boardgames) - all tricksy two-player tricktakers. If you liked any of those games you'll certainly want to check out Faust vs Mephisto.
