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Introducing Modern Art ... the Card Game!
Introducing artist Reiner Knizia
We've always known that Reiner Knizia is an artist. Maybe not a painter or illustrator type artist, but certainly an artist in terms of his achievements as a game designer. Yes, the man himself is arguably a work of art, and worthy of admiration!
Introducing Modern Art ... the board game
If you've ever done any research into the best pure auction games on BGG, you'll know that there are two that are at the top of the pile. And both of them are by our artist friend Dr Knizia: Ra and Modern Art. Modern Art (which I'll refer to in this review as Modern Art The Board Game) has gone through several different editions, featuring different artwork, but perhaps the most well familiar of them all is the splashy and funky artwork of the original German edition.
Modern Art even went on to win a Spiel des Jahres recommendation in 1993, along with several other awards. So you're in excellent company if you think it's a good game! The premise of Modern Art is that five modern artists have produced a number of paintings, which players buy and sell in auctions.
Paintings increase in value according to the number of paintings of that type that were sold, and this is an important consideration you have to work with when trying to make a profit while buying and selling. If you love pure auction games, this is regarded as one of the very best in the genre.
Introducing Modern Art ... the card game
But now in Modern Art: The Card Game, the five artists who made a splash in the original Modern Art game, make a return. Instead of a car, we now have an aeroplane bursting through the box:
Glitter, Yoko, Christin P, Krypto, and Lite Metal - yes, they're all back in Modern Art: The Card Game! Back in the '90s these five artists were still unknown, starving, and up-and-coming. But today, almost 20 years later, their masterpieces are proudly displayed in major galleries in the world! The premise of the card game is that players are art critics, collectors and gallery owners, and try to achieve success by assembling the highest valued collection of masterpieces. Those familiar with Modern Art: The Board Game, will immediately recognize the hallmarks of their art in Modern Art: The Card Game.
So what exactly is the connection? Basically it's Modern Art the Board Game without the auctions. Knizia had this to say: "The idea there was to say that not everyone likes or is familiar with auctions and the bidding process, particularly the general public sometimes gets the prices wrong and then the game is destroyed. I wanted to take a more mass-market approach and take the bidding out of it, but see if I could still make an interesting game out of it – and I believe I succeeded.”
Introducing Masters Gallery ... the card game
But wait, we're not done yet! It turns out that Modern Art: The Card game is also published as another game, called Masters Gallery.
In fact, the two games are identical, the only difference being the artwork on the cards. In Master's Gallery, instead of modern artists there are old masters like Van Gogh, Monet, and others. If we look carefully at the small print on the back of the boxes, we find this (circled in red):
What this means? Gryphon Games has put out two versions of the Modern Art card game:
1. Modern Art the Card Game: with funky psychedelic artwork familiar to Modern Art the board game players
2. Masters Gallery: with more traditional artwork
But the game play is identical.
One thing we need to make absolutely clear however: the gameplay of both these card games is quite different from Modern Art the board game. There are a couple of shared mechanics, and certainly some common premises and artwork, but they have a different feel than the more well known auction game that first appeared in 1992. In the credits on the card games, we do find this acknowledgement: "Reiner Knizia thanks Dieter Nornung for his significant contributions to the development of the Modern Art game system." Don't be fooled by the similarity of the name or the artwork - the card game is not even an auction. Clearly, Knizia seems to be tapping into the success of the board game, and using similarities of an established name, similar theme, and one or two similar mechanics, to achieve success. To judge the card game fairly, don't compare it with Modern Art the board game, but judge it independently on its own merits.
Introducing another review
In this review, I'm going to review the game by using pictures of the Modern Art: The Card Game edition. Actually I prefer the old masters to the modern art - and you're entitled to have the opposite opinion! But since Modern Art the Board Game is probably familiar to most readers of this review, it makes sense to make our starting point in this point of connection. I will make a comparison of the two editions of the game at the end of the review, so if you find that what you're reading about the gameplay sounds sufficiently intriguing, you can make your own choice about which edition you prefer.
Game box
We've already seen the cover of the game box, and have some idea of what this game is about. High stakes bidding in the galleries? Dealing in fine works of art? Want to know more? We turn to our time-proven method: let's check the reverse side of the box!
"In Modern Art the Card Game, the players are art critics and gallery owners. All have their own favorite artist in this pantheon of greats - or at least they do until the game begins. As it is art galleries the world over, tastes and opinions change constantly in the world of Modern Art. Today's treasure is tomorrow's trash, and no one has more influence on the artists' values than the players in this game.
Which players will exert the most influence on the art market? Who will be the best at anticipating the quickly-changing tastes and opinions of buyers, and thus assemble the highest-valued collection of these new masters?"
That's probably enough to make any fan of art start salivating. Well, maybe not, but perhaps it's enough to make any fan of card games salivate! So how do we find out more? We turn to the next step of our time-proven method: we open the box!
Inside, we find the following:
● 100 cards: 5 Artist cards, and 95 Masterpiece cards
● 17 tokens: 12 Value tokens, and 5 Award tokens
● Rulebook and reference sheets
Rulebook
The rule book is single sheet of paper, folded in half:
The actual gameplay only takes a minute or two to explain - the trickiest part is the scoring that happens at the each of the four rounds in the game. But there are a couple of pictorial examples that illustrate scoring, so even this isn't too difficult, and you only need to see it in practice once, and you'll have mastered this quite easily.
Components
Cards
The primary components in the game are cards:
But there are different types of cards, with different colour on the back to help keep them distinct:
Black: 95x Masterpiece cards
Yellow: 5x Artist cards
White: 5x Reference cards
Tokens
Unpunched, the tokens look like this:
The black/yellow tokens are "Award" tokens, and are used to double the value of certain card types.
The white/red tokens are "Value" tokens. At the end of each of the four rounds, a 3, 2 and 1 will be assigned to certain artist.
Components: Artist cards
The Artist cards (yellow reverse) remain in a face up row on the table throughout the whole game. There's one Artist card for each of the five artists in the game, Lite Metal, Yoko, Christin P, Karl Glitter, and Krypto. Don't laugh at the names - they're the same as the five artists from Modern Art the Board Game, remember!
The numbers on the cards indicate the amount of Masterpiece cards for each artist in the game - and if ever there is a tie between two artists, the artist with the lower number is the winner of the tie.
Components: Masterpiece cards
Different artwork for each of the five artists
For each artist, there are between 17-21 different cards:
Each card features beautiful artwork of famous masterpieces. Well, maybe not quite famous. And not quite masterpieces!
But all the cards of each artist do have the same artwork. In the case of modern artist Lite Metal, the artwork features a familiar face. Look, it's Dr Knizia himself!
Different symbols on six cards for each artist
Six of the cards in each "artist" suit have symbols (one symbol occurs twice):
For our convenience, the game also comes with a reference card for each player, explaining what these symbols mean:
Game-play: Set-up
The five Artist cards are placed in a row across the table, with the Value and Award tokens nearby. The Masterpiece cards are shuffled, and each player gets 13 cards. The remaining Masterpiece cards are placed in a face-down deck, with one card placed face-up.
Here's how the set-up for a two player game would look:
Your starting hand of 13 cards might look like this:
Hmm, not many cards with symbols, that's too bad, they can be very useful!
Game-play: Round 1 Flow of Play
Overview
The game lasts four rounds, in which players take turns playing a Masterpiece card from their hand. When a total of six Masterpiece cards of one artist are displayed, the round ends and scoring happens.
Flow of Round
Beginning with the starting player, each player plays a Masterpiece card from his hand and places it face up in front of him, but building their own "tableau" of Masterpiece cards, arranged by Artist.
If the card you play has a symbol, you get to do a special action, as described below:
End of Round
A round ends as soon as the sixth Masterpiece card of any one artist is shown face up - this includes the face up card beside the deck. In a two player game, the round end is triggered with the fifth rather than sixth Masterpiece card.
Game-play: Round 1 Scoring
Awarding Value Tokens
Value tokens are awarded to the Artists with the most displayed Masterpieces. The Artist with the most Masterpiece gets a 3, second most gets a 2, third most gets a 1 (ties are broken in favour of the artist with the lowest number shown on the Artist card).
Example: In the two player game below, the end of the round was triggered when the fifth yellow Masterpiece card (Lite Metal) was played. Lite Metal gets the 3 Value Token because he has 5 Masterpiece cards in play. Both Yoko and Christin P have 4 Masterpiece cards in play, but the tie is resolved in favour of Yoko, since it has the lower number (18) than Christin P (19), so the 2 Value Token is given to Yoko, and the 1 Value Token is given to Christin P.
These indicate how much the masterpiece cards played are going to be worth this round. Only the top three Artists will score, and in this case, each Lite Metal masterpiece card will be worth 3 points, each Yoko card will be worth 2 points, and each Christin P card will be worth 1 point.
Adding cards
Each player now counts how many different Artists he has played cards for - in the example pictured above, both players have played cards for three different artists. You then can play this many extra cards (3) to score extra points. In the above illustration, it would likely make sense to play Lite Metal cards (3 points each) and Yoko cards (1 point), but it would be senseless to play Karl Glitter or Krypto cards since they wouldn't score anything this round.
End of Round Scoring
Each player now scores his points, according to the values determined by the Value Tokens.
Example #1: In the example pictured above, since the yellow cards (Lite Metal) are worth 3 each, green (Yoko) are worth 2 each, and orange (Christin P) is worth 1 each, the player on the left would have 3 + 6 + 2 = 11 points, and the player on the right would have 12 + 2 + 1 = 15 points.
Note that an Award token would give cards of that artist an extra 2 points each!
Example #2: Here's an example of another two player game, where each of the Lite Metal masterpiece cards would be worth 4 points each!
Game-play: Rounds 2, 3 & 4
Start of future rounds
The three Value tokens awarded at the end of the previous round are now placed onto the Artist cards - they will increase the value of these cards accordingly in the next round (although if these Artists are not in the top 3 in the next round, they will score nothing). All displayed Masterpiece cards are discarded. Each player is then given some extra cards from the deck in addition to what they still have in their hand, as follows:
Once again an "extra" Masterpiece card is turned face up, and players begin a new round by playing Masterpiece cards in turns, until the sixth of a particular artist is played, thus triggering the end of that round.
Scoring in future rounds
In subsequent rounds, the Value and Award tokens on the Artist cards from previous rounds count towards the value of each displayed card, but only if the artist is one of the "top three" of that particular round. The two artists with the fewest displayed masterpieces in a round score nothing that round, even if they have Award/Value tokens from previous rounds on them.
Example: Here's an illustration of how scoring might work at the end of a second round:
Game-play: Scoring example
The game ends at the end of the fourth round, and players add up the scores from all four rounds together. Here's an actual example from a real two player game, at the end of the fourth round. Here it was the fifth card from the artist Yoko that triggered the end of the round:
At this point, the Value tokens were awarded as follows:
3 - Yoko (green)
2 - Christin P (orange)
1 - Lite Metal (yellow)
(Note: the picture above shows the game situation after extra cards are played as described below, but at the moment when Value tokens were awarded, there were not yet 6 orange cards in play).
The player on the left had cards from five different artists, and so was allowed to play up to five extra cards! She had a large number of masterpieces from Christin P in hand, and proceeded to play those (hence the large number of orange cards in play).
So how many points would both players score? Karl Glitter (purple) and Krypto (brown) masterpiece cards would be worth nothing this round, since they weren't in the top three. Yoko cards would be worth 9 points each, Christin P cards would be worth 4 points each, and Lite Metal cards would be worth 4 points each.
The score for the player on the right would be calculated as follows:
Yoko: 4 x 9 = 36
Christin P: 2 x 4 = 8
Lite Metal: 1 x 4 = 4
Total: 48 points!
Not bad for one round! The score for the player on the left would be calculated as follows:
Yoko: 1 x 9 = 9
Christin P: 4 x 4 = 16
Lite Metal: 2 x 4 = 8
Karl Glitter: 2 x 0 = 0
Krypto: 2 x 0 = 0
Total: 33 points!
These scores would be added to the scores from the previous three rounds, to determine the winner.
The Masters Gallery edition
So how does Modern Art The Card Game compare with the Masters Gallery edition? Both are published by Gryphon Games, but with Masters Gallery, our adventure in art begins with a box cover that features Vincent van Gogh's famous "The Starry Night":
Masters Gallery is part of the Gryphon Bookshelf line, and has the same size box. But there's no modern art to be seen, because we're strictly dealing with the old masters here!
"The cards in this game feature 30 of the most beautiful pieces of art ever created by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Degas and Vermeer. Over the course of four rounds, players use these cards to establish the relative value of each artist's body of work. Unique mechanics and ingenious design make the gameplay unpredictable and even more fun every time you play.
Revel in the beauty of Old Masters art, while enjoying the intriguing game of Masters Gallery."
That's probably enough to make any gamer who enjoys classic art start drooling! Aside from a larger sized box and different sized rule book, however, the components are virtually identical.
The cards are the same size and quality, but just have different artwork on the reverse side, to reflect the different game titles:
The biggest change is the artists - the five artists of Masters Gallery are Jan Vermeer, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent Van Gogh:
Each card features beautiful artwork of real masterpieces, like these two classics by Van Gogh:
Unlike in Modern Art the Card game, the paintings are not identical, because there are six different paintings for each artist:
Art lovers will be pleased to know that the game comes with a reference, explaining the names and dates of each painting:
Here's the works from the other three artists featured in the game:
Granted, you don't need this information to play the game by any means, but I always appreciate it when a game comes with historical or other notes about the theme, so I really like the inclusion of this! I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to art, so getting to play with famous paintings and learning their names gives me a slight sense of being cultured, even if it's just a self-delusion!
So which edition is best? Well that's up to you, and really it depends on which artwork you prefer! Do you prefer cards with paintings of the old masters in Masters Gallery (top) or the works of Modern Art (bottom)?
I know which I prefer, but you can make up your own mind!
Rather than complain, we can be grateful that there is a choice of editions available! Color blind gamers will especially welcome having two editions available, because the cards in the Masters Gallery edition can be harder to distinguish. Since the artwork on all the Masterpiece cards is the same for each artist in the Modern Art the Card Game edition, this will be the best choice for those who have issues with being colour blind.
What do I think?
Is it like Modern Art the Board Game? I love auction games. But this isn't an auction game. So if you're a big fan of Modern Art because of the auctions, don't come to the card game with high expectations. Certainly there are some definite parallels with Modern Art The Board Game, and in some respects this is like Modern Art but without the auctions. But to be fair, Modern Art The Card Game should be judged on its own merits, and evaluated more as a filler game in its own right. (Note: see here for an attempt to provide rules that enable playing Modern Art the Board game with the Card Game components).
Does it work? I think it does - absolutely! The Gryphon Bookshelf line has been a bit hit and miss - there are some gems like For Sale, Roll Through the Ages, Incan Gold, and others. There's also a few more forgettable Knizia entires in the series, like Gem Dealer. But Modern Art the Card Game is definitely a Knizia game worth remembering. And unlike some of the other entries in the series, it's not a reprint of an older game, but is a genuinely new product. Overall, Modern Art the Card Game was a pleasant surprise!
Why do I like it? There's a lot to like about this game, starting with the components. The quality of the cardstock is excellent. I like the fact that I can go for a "modern art" look or for a "classic masters" look, depending on my personal taste. I find that with 5 players the rounds can end a little too quickly, without giving players a chance to lay down many cards, but with 2 or 3 player games it can become a very strategic game. I like the fact that although there's still some luck of the draw, there's lots of strategic and tense tactical decisions to make. Should you go for points this round? Or should you hold back cards and try to score even more points with them in later rounds? Because of the potential to accumulate points via the Award and Value tokens on the artist cards, scores tend to increase each round, meaning that players who fall behind have an opportunity to catch up - in fact, you can deliberately try to save good cards for scoring in later rounds! On the other hand, one never knows how quickly other players will be able to trigger the end of the round, so you must be careful not to get stuck with good cards in your hand without having the opportunity to play them for points! The game also plays quite quickly, is easy to teach, and once you've got the knack of it, you'll find yourself wanting to play it again and again.
Would I recommend it? There are the typical kinds of genius elements in a game that our artist-among-game-designers Knizia is known for, and they're certainly evident in this game. It's not really fair to compare it to its older brother the board game, but as a fun and satisfying filler type game, it's easily better than most! It's probably not going to be the first choice to play with Uncle Bob, who's played a lifetime of Scrabble and UNO, nor is it going to become the main course on a game night for serious gamers. But I would not be surprised to see this game become quite a hit as an intriguing filler for gamers! Kudos to designer wizard Knizia!
What do others think?
Modern Art the Card Game is still so modern, that there's not a lot of user reactions to go by just yet - because it's only just making its way onto the market for the first time as I'm writing this. But here are a few initial positive reactions to the game:
"Excellent card game version of Modern Art." - Bryan Johnson
"A spot on description for this game is Modern Art without the auctions." - Chad Krizan
"A quick & fun hand management game ... and so nice to finally have good art in this family of games." - Shannon Appelcline
"Really like Modern Art and this game keeps the feel of the game without all the auctions. I really like auctions, so that part missing would seem to take away the essence of the game, but it doesn't. While this game is different from Modern Art, it holds up as a fun, quick game in it's own right." - Todd Sweet
" Each time I played it I liked it more and more. It takes the auctions out of Modern Art and leaves everything else behind, which still totals up to a great little game. It plays quick and still holds onto what I think is the brilliance of Modern Art, that nothing has value until you give it value, but it's all in a more approachable format." - Joe Casadonte
"Modern Art: The Card Game version. Bidding is gone as a game mechanic. What is left is a quick and enjoyable game." - Travis Reynolds
"Despite the similarities to Modern Art, Masters Gallery is a very different game and a very good one. In fact, it's one of the best fillers Knizia has put out lately." - Larry Levy
"It was Modern Art without the auctions, and I think it worked surprisingly well. Fits right in the upper end of fillers for my tastes." - Justin (astroglide)
"I didn't really care for the auction part of Modern Art, so to me this is the preferred version if I were to play it. A nice retooled edition." - Jason Cheng
The final word
Is Modern Art the Card Game for you? As always, that's going to be a matter of personal taste. It will primarily appeal to those looking for a smart filler that plays quickly and yet offers interesting tactical and strategic decisions, with a clever and satisfying Knizia scoring system. Definitely one of the better fillers with Knizia's name on the box!
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The complete list of Ender's pictorial reviews: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/37596
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S. Sauer
United States
Bloomington
Illinois
'Nuff said.
Pretty kewl, hun?
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Awesome review. I wish most review looked, smelled and tasted like this one. ^_^
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Mark Slater
United Kingdom
Newport
Newport, South Wales
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I would get the Masters Gallery version.
For 2 reasons, I prefer the artwork of the old Masters, and I already think of Modern Art as a Card game, so it would be too confusing.
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Chris Ferejohn
United States
San Francisco
California
Pitying fools as hard as I can...
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Nitpick: Ra isn't a "pure auction game". I don't really even think of it as primarily an auction game. It's a set collection game with an auction mechanic.
-picky me
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Gary Sonnenberg
United States
Waukesha
Wisconsin
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I love how you Knizified the pics!
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Rob Herman
United States
Cleveland
Ohio
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cferejohn wrote: Nitpick: Ra isn't a "pure auction game". I don't really even think of it as primarily an auction game. It's a set collection game with an auction mechanic.
-picky me
I strongly disagree, sir!
The auctions are the heart of Ra, the part that makes it interesting. When to call them and what to bid. Set collection is just the framework that makes the auctions possible.
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W M Shubert
United States
Portland
Oregon
KGS is the #1 web site for playing go over the internet. Visit now!
Yes, I really am that awesome.
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This looks more like Trendy/Horse Fair than like Modern art.
It's pretty much Trendy/Horse Fair with Modern Art scoring. Weird.
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Christopher Onstad
United States
Donald
Oregon
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Thank you so very much for your review & the pictures. I was dismayed when I heard that Masters Gallery was not going to be the same as Modern Art (the board game). But, after reading your review, I have a renewed appreciation for this game. The cool thing is this newer version plays with just two people, and is set collection enough I think it will be great to play with my wife.
I do have one question, which perhaps you answered, I was in too much of a hurry to thank you for your review to check the rest of the thread. In showing gameplay you pointed out that a card is flipped over at the start of every round. Does this serve a purpose? Does the flipped card count towards the totals? Or is it just a way to burn cards to affect the values?
Fantastic job thank you again.
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xofour wrote: I do have one question, which perhaps you answered, I was in too much of a hurry to thank you for your review to check the rest of the thread. In showing gameplay you pointed out that a card is flipped over at the start of every round. Does this serve a purpose? Does the flipped card count towards the totals? Or is it just a way to burn cards to affect the values?
The single flipped "Extra Card" remains face up the entire round, and cannot be changed. It counts towards:
a) determining when the end of the round is triggered (i.e. as one of the six masterpiece cards of a single artist)
b) determining which artists receive which Award tokens (i.e. as one of the masterpiece cards of that artist)
The scoring examples in the review above should help illustrate this for you.
It's also worth noting that the rules of the Masters Gallery edition have slightly different scoring examples than the Modern Art the Card Game edition. So if you need help trying to figure out the scoring, there are two sets of examples to look at.
Example set #1: (Modern Art the Card Game artwork)
Example set #2: (Masters Gallery artwork)
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Chris Darden
United States
Lake Saint Louis
Missouri
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This was a good filler, but there were problems with the slanted "=" ability that lets you lay down a secret card. It's the same as the double auctions in Modern Art, if these aren't dealt out evenly, it can skew the game in someone's favor, regardless of actions.
In Modern Art, you can value these bundles appropriately, but this problem is much more evident and harder to overcome in Masters Gallery.
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Albert Gao
China
Nanjing
Jiangsu
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Ender,Your review has totally changed my preconception to a game once again.There are still so much games for you to save.
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Jeff Binning
United States
Rollinsville
Colorado
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Quote: Color blind gamers will especially welcome having two editions available, because the cards in the Masters Gallery edition can be harder to distinguish. Since the artwork on all the Masterpiece cards is the same for each artist in the Modern Art the Card Game edition, this will be the best choice for those who have issues with being colour blind.
Being colorblind, this comment got my attention. Looking at the picture of the cards you provided, the Van Gogh and Monet cards are the colors that seem similar for me, but since each card has the name of the artist on it, that won't be a worry.
I don't know about others, but I don't usually even notice the color, but look for differences in patterns on cards to keep track of them. The artist's names will make it easy for me.
Excellent review.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Subsribee to the Dominion Addiction Clinic
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Thank you for including my attempt to combine this and Modern Art. The file link is actually out of date now, though. The proper link is at:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/53338/modern-art-upgrade-v...
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Curt Carpenter
United States
Washington
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I love what changing the primary name of games can do with sentences that use links. This is classic:
Quote: But wait, we're not done yet! It turns out that Modern Art: The Card game is also published as another game, called Modern Art: The Card Game.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Subsribee to the Dominion Addiction Clinic
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Well, that's true. I saw them both on the shelf next to each other at one game store!
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Curt Carpenter
United States
Washington
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ousgg wrote: Well, that's true. I saw them both on the shelf next to each other at one game store!
I'm not sure what you're saying, unless you misread my post. I'm saying that in the review, it (now) says that there are two games with the EXACT same name. That wasn't originally the case. The link used to say Masters Gallery.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Subsribee to the Dominion Addiction Clinic
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And I was being silly, saying I saw two copies of MA:tCG next to each other.
Humour: a cruel mistress.
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Curt Carpenter
United States
Washington
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Gotcha. Sorry. Yeah, my humor detector must be busted.
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Posted Wed May 6, 2009 5:03 pm
