Preview: Unmatched, a deck-battling game where Bruce Lee can fight King Arthur

AUSTIN, Texas—It should have been obvious. But when I approached the Mondo Games rep at Fantastic Fest about playing a round of Unmatched—the recently released spin on deck battle board games—I quickly stood paralyzed by choice. Should I use the Jurassic Park raptors? What about Alice of Wonderland fame? Or maybe Robin Hood?

“You should definitely play Bruce Lee,” the rep suggested, directing me to a different board. And with that, our battle commenced: the greatest martial arts fighter of all time against… the mythical King Arthur? Huh?

When “deck battling” gets mentioned, most minds probably go to the classic collectible trading card games: Magic The Gathering, Pokémon, The Star Wars Customizable Card Game, The Star Trek Customizable Card Game, etc. These games developed cult followings for their combinations of complex strategy, varying play styles, and multi-faceted gameplay. But they also alienated other gamers because the process of acquiring cards could get expensive—and building a successful deck required significant thought and time.

Unmatched, a game created in partnership with Restoration Games, kinda-sorta tries to find a middle ground. Its deck battling, but the decks have been premade. Players can still use varying play styles, but those styles have been attached to specific characters. (Bruce Lee aint here to dink and dunk you with range attacks; its melee time, folks.) Because of this, the setup and learning curve are greatly simplified (though options for expansive customization are, too).

Based on our Lee versus Arthur play through, however, this is one time where a half-measure might work. Unmatched delivers plenty of strategy despite being accessible enough for a moderate gamer to pick up in a single play. And more importantly, beating down another legendary brawler is pretty engaging… especially when youre doing it with Bruce Lee.

We'll have a full review of the game once we've done some more playtesting, but our preview here should give you a taste of the game's style—and its crazy matchups.

Un-complicated

Unmatched uses the oldest competitive premise in the book: beat your opponent in a fight. Each character has a number associated with its health, and the object is to reduce your opponent's health to zero by using your deck of cards.

A sidebar on sidekicks

As another way to distinguish fighters and vary gameplay, some Unmatched characters boast sidekicks. Everyone in the base set fits this description: Arthur has Merlin, Alice has The Jabberwock, Sinbad has The Porter, and Medusa has a trio of Harpies. Sidekicks can attack your opponent, sometimes in a different way than your main character (the Harpies thrive in melee combat while Medusa prefers range, for instance).

The only health meters that matter for ultimate Unmatched victory belong to the central characters, so sidekicks are perhaps extraneous when determining which enemy to target with attacks. But functionally, sidekicks do have their own health meter, and having a sidekick take an action (attacking, for instance) uses up one of a player's two actions per turn. Sidekicks do get to move whenever the central character moves, however, so leveraging your sidekick well might ensure an opponent can't slither far when injured.

Every individual turn encompasses two actions from the following three options: you can move and/or draw a card, you can play a “scheme” card, or you can play an attack card. Those actions can be divvied up however a player would like (moving twice; attacking and then fleeing; etc.), while both the cards and a characters special ability will often modify what a turn can encompass. Bruce Lee, for instance, has a deck where many attack cards come with a “Gain +1 action” modifier, mimicking Lees own ability to get a fury of fists in before an opponent reacts. And Lees special ability centers on movement; he gets the option of taking an extra space at the conclusion of a turn.

Speaking of cards and abilities, each character comes with a pre-built, character-specific deck. These decks all contain the same basic components—defense cards, attack cards, hybrid cards (you can attack or defend!), and scheme cards—tweaked slightly for each characters style. Scheme cards typically impact the game without starting a battle: +1 to attacks for a given turn, the ability to sift through your discard for a type of card, direct damage dealt to an opponent, etc. Players start with five cards in hand and can carry up to seven before needing to discard. In the event that a game drags on, decks become something of a fuse—after youve used your entire deck once, every new card draw costs two health points. (So, technically, you can win by running from your opponent. Check out the full ruleset [PDF] if interested.)

When a player attacks, they simply choose a card to lay face down on the board. Their opponent gets a chance to defend by doing the same, then each player flips. The top left portion of these cards has a number denoting power, and the numeric difference between attack and defense gets applied to the targets health count. (Ties go to the defender.)

Unlike most deck games, these battles take place on a traditional board. Boards vary depending on which Unmatched set you start with (for instance, the Jurassic Park one contains a raptor cage with only one road in and out), but the basics remain the same. For most characters to attack, you need to be in the space next to your opponent. But if a character—or a characters sidekick—has range attack abilities, they simply need to be in the same colored zone in order to deliver damage.