Designers:  Robert Dougherty (Ascension: Return of the Fallen, Ascension: Storm of Souls, Hero Realms, Star Realms, Star Realms: Colony Wars, Star Realms: Frontiers), Darwin Kastle (Hero Realms, Star Realms, Star Realms: Colony Wars, Star Realms: Frontiers)

Artists:  Randy Delven (Hero Realms), Vito Gesualdi (Hero Realms, Star Realms, Star Realms: Colony Wars), Adam Lachman

Publisher:  White Wizard Games (Hero Realms, Star Realms, Star Realms: Colony Wars, Star Realms: Frontiers)

Genre/Mechanisms:  card game; deck building

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Star Realms Deluxe Nova Collection is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal, with 7 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  “Star Realms is a fast-paced game of space battles that combines the fun of a deckbuilding game with the interactivity of Trading Card Game-style combat. The Nova Collection features foil versions of every card from Promo Pack 1, the Gambit Set, Crisis: Bases and Battleships, Crisis: Events, Crisis: Heroes, Crisis: Fleets and Fortresses, the Cosmic Gambit Set and the Star Realms Base set with 6 starting decks and extra Explorers. The set also includes 6 big scoredials, a game board, and a box that holds this collection with or without sleeves.”

How It Works: Star Realms has several rules variants, include 3+ player Free-for-Alls; 3+ Hunter Mode; team games between 4 or 6 players called Hydra; a 3 vs. 3 variant called Emperor; Raid, for 3-6 players with one of them playing as a Boss; and a solo mode. For now, I’ll simply describe the original 2-player version of the game.

As with pretty much any deck builder, players start with the same deck of cards, in this case 8 Scout Cards and 2 Viper Cards. The first player starts with 3 cards in their hand, the second player with 5. 10 Explorer Cards are laid face out on the table, and the top 5 cards from the Trade Deck are laid face-up, creating a Trade Market. Each player also starts the game with 50 Authority Points, and their remaining cards placed in a face-down Draw Pile in front of them. Once a player’s Authority Points are reduced to 0, they’ve lost the game.

Players alternate turns, with each turn made up of a Main Phase, a Discard Phase, and a Draw Phase. During the Main Phase, players play cards from their hand. Ship Cards are generally played for their abilities, and go into the player’s discard pile at the end of their turn. In general, Ship Cards have Combat values that can be used to attack other players Bases, and/or Trade values that can be used to buy more powerful Ships and Bases from the Trade Row.

Base Cards, on the other hand, remain in play in front of the player until they are either destroyed or scrapped. Each Base Card has a defense number that must be matched during a single turn by an enemy to be destroyed. Once destroyed, it goes into the owner’s discard pile. An opponent can also be attacked directly, removing the number of that opponent’s Authority Points equaling the played Combat value.

After playing their cards and taking their actions during the Main Phase of their turn, players then Discard any Ship Cards played, as well as any unplayed cards still in their hand, into their Discard Pile.

Finally, at the end of their turn, players Draw 5 new cards from their Draw Pile into their hand for their next turn. If their Draw Pile is ever empty, players shuffle their Discard Pile, create a new face-down Draw Pile, and continue drawing cards until they have a hand of 5.

Once a player has reduced their opponent’s Authority Points to 0, they’ve won the game.

Comparisons:  The granddaddy of the deck-building genre is Dominion, which is still a solid game despite relatively lackluster art and generic theming. From there, comparative deck builders include Ascension, Thunderstone Quest, Aeon’s End, Dragonfire, and any of the Legendary games, including Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. There are also games like Great Western Trail, Eschaton, Tyrants of the Underdark, and Clank! that combine deck-building with other mechanics. Perhaps the easiest comparison though is Hero Realms, also published by White Wizard Games, designed by Robert Dougherty & Darwin Kastle, with art by Randy Delven, but featuring a fantasy theme instead of space.

What Should I Pledge?:
$99 Deluxe Nova Collection: includes foil versions of every card from Promo Pack 1, the Gambit Set, all 4 Crisis Packs, the Cosmic Gambit set, and the Star Realms base set, with 6 starting base decks and extra Explorers (over 250 foil cards). Also included: 6 Large Score Dials, a 14″ x 24″ Game Board, Full Color Rulebook, 9 Card Dividers, Nemesis Beast & Pirates of the Dark Star Challenge Board (for solo or cooperative play), and a Deluxe 15″ x 13″ x 4″ Game Box.

Add-Ons:
$20 Pack of 300 Sleeves
$12 High Alert First Strike Pack (not foil)
$20 Frontiers Promo Pack (not foil)
$5 Stellar Allies Pack (not foil)
$7 Lost Fleet Pack (not foil)
$20 Hero Realms 1st Kickstarter Promo Pack
$20 Hero Realms Journeys Promo Pack
$20 Epic Card Game 1st Kickstarter Promo Pack
$7 Epic Card Game Jungle Promo Pack
$10 Sorcerer Children of Alyisia Lineage Pack
$6 Sorcerer Jaleesa Character Pack
$5 Sorcerer Lunatic Asylum Domain Pack
$6 Sorcerer Raganhar Character Pack
$5 Sorcerer Royal Palace Domain Pack
$6 Sorcerer Thenoch Character Pack
$6 Sorcerer Wachiwi Character Pack
$6 Sorcerer Witch Mountain Domain Pack

KS Exclusives:
The entire set, including the foil edition of every card and the new Star Realms Deluxe Nova Collection, are Kickstarter-exclusives.

All-In Total: Let’s forget about the card packs for Hero Realms, Epic Card Game, and Sorcerer, and while we’re at it, let’s also forget the Star Realms add-on Packs because they’re not foil and won’t match the cards in the Deluxe Nova Collection. In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $99 for the Deluxe Nova Collection pledge, $20 for the pack of 300 sleeves (more than you’ll need) and $19 in shipping for a total of $138.

Star Realms Deluxe Nova Collection completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, January 30th and tentatively ships in November 2020.