In reviewing this deck, I am assuming that the reader is familiar with the basics of how Blue Moon is played. I will attempt to give an idea of what it is like to play with this deck, its strengths and weaknesses, and what makes it different than other decks.


Artwork:

Much has been said about the artwork of this deck: the women depicted in it are scantily clad or nude, with elbows, loincloths, or body paint covering the naughty bits. If that bothers you, you won't like this deck. The artwork also prompts the question of how, or why, would women fight in the nude? I have no answer to that one either; although I suspect it is for much the same reason that the 9 and 10 year old kids of Blue Moon, and the marine life, also fight. Welcome to the world of fantasy.

As for the quality of the artwork, it is very high, nearing the precision of the Hoax deck, with colours being mainly rich deep greens, and a few brighter oranges and purples.

Play:

The most obvious feature of the Mimix deck is the Pair icon, meaning that two cards with this icon, and the same first name, may be played as a single character card. This allows you to get quite a high score, especially with playing support, booster, or free character cards with a pair. You also get to do a fair amount of rummaging through your draw deck and the discard pile with Shaman cards. The Mimix deck has realitvely weak Booster and Support cards.

There is a similarity with the Mimix and the Khind in that there is strength in numbers, but there is not the slow build-up that you sometimes have with the Khind.

When we first played the Mimix, they seemed a rather weak deck. After a few plays though, we have found them to be one of the most powerful. While not having all the pesky rules of other Khind or the Hoax, or the raw clout of the Terrah, the Mimix, when they exploit their ability to co-operate, are a formidable deck.

What follows is a more detailed description of the cards in this deck:

Paired Character Cards: Unlike the Flit, in which anything with the pair icon can be paired, in the Mimix deck there are six pairs, and one single with the icon, but no partner. The combined scores of the pairs range from 5-8 of either element. The pairs are complimentary: for example Virgin of Pure Earth is 1/6, and Virgin of Pure Fire is 6/1. Being able to make and play pairs of cards is essential to playing the Mimix deck well. None of these cards have special power text.

Free Character Cards: There are three of them, with values, 1/2, 1/1, 2/1. Although the values are small, and these cards have no special power text, they are useful for bolstering a single when you cannot find a pair, or for pushing the values up on a pair.

Shaman Character Cards: These four cards all have the same values, 2/2, but have special power text, allowing you to draw extra cards from your draw deck, and your discard. These cards are essential to pair building, and are excellent to play near the beginning of a fight to help give you direction.

Non-Mimix Character Cards: There are two of them: a Khind with values 2/2, and a Pillar, also 2/2, which allows you to discard a card from your opponent.

Boosters: There are only two of them, with values 1/2 and 2/1 and no special power text.

Support: there are three of them, a retrievable Hoax card at 2/1, and Mimix at 2/2. The only support card with special power text prevents your opponent from playing booster cards--a quite powerful special text for this deck.

Leadership: The leadership cards are quite good: one allows you to retrieve any one card from your combat area, which is an excellent way to play part of a pair and retrieve it, or build a pair based on what you pick up during a fight. The other allows you to sort through your discard pile and take a card--an excellent way to get just the pair you need to win the fight.

Mutant: The mutant card is quite playable, with values of 5/5 and requiring your opponent to have three active cards, character, booster or support.

Strategy/Tactics:

Getting pairs is the key, so to that end you need to take advantage of every possible opportunity to get more cards into your hand, so you have a better chance of getting a pair.

Having said that, you shouldn't be overly hesitant to play single cards. You do get some cards back from your discards; moreover, building up the fight with a few singles, then capping it with a pair and a support/booster/free card can bring you up to six cards and get you two dragons very quickly.

Finally, some of the cards are better played as singles if they have a high score in one element and a low score in the other. You might be better off combining them with booster/support/free cards in their respective elements and get more out of them that way.

Also, there is a memory element in this game, and it definitely helps to remember what is still coming in the draw pile and what is gone.

Conclusion:

The Mimix are a subtle deck, artwork aside. There are no magic solutions which suddenly make all your opponent's bad cards go away. Their strength is found in marshalling their resources well and playing offensively.

While this is not the most interesting deck, it does require some thought to play, and is surprisingly powerful. I give this deck a 7.