Sonic X Trading Card Game

Original Platform: Board Game
Original Release: 2005
Available to buy: No

I’ve bought a copy of this in the past, but I’ve never played it – it was a secret santa gift for someone else. Unfortunately, I can’t find a reasonably priced copy of this anywhere now. I have, however, recreated it in Tabletop Simulator.

Players can build decks (from the starter pack or by bundles you can buy) and put them against each other with the goal of being the first to collect three chaos emeralds. Once you’ve selected a deck of 30 cards, it will form your deck for the game. You then draw 7 cards and place 5 of them in your “Chaos Row”, with the other player doing the same. They get placed face down (although you can look at your own to remind yourself).

You then take turns flipping over a card in the chaos row. You can’t flip over a card in the same column as what the opposing player has just flipped. If there’s an action on the card (which can involve forcing the other player to discard cards, or allowing you to alter the placement of your or your opponent’s card), you do it as it gets flipped.

Once all this is done, you will count up how many “Rings” you have earned. These are the large number printed on the cards, and some abilities will add more rings to your count. The player with the most wins gets a chaos emerald.

The current cards will then become the “Spare Row”, which will count for your ring score and interact with the new chaos cards. These will be discarded and replaced with the chaos cards each turn. Play carries on until someone gets three chaos emeralds.

It has some interesting mechanics, and you can build some very powerful decks. I’d have to play a lot to fully comment on the balance, though, although if you have higher scoring cards, there’s not much point using the blank low scoring cards. I think the point of these were to fill up the blister packs with useless cards.