News: Adventure Time Card Wars 10th Anniversary Teased

Well, floop me and call me a pig; Adventure Time: Card Wars is BACK in a brand new Kickstarter from Cryptozoic Entertainment to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the game, launching next month.

Details are scant so far, but after a cryptic tease back in mid-October, the company’s post on X (formerly Twitter) which links to the crowdfunding campaign page promises the “ultimate collection & new content”. It’s unclear whether the artwork or rules will be updated from the original starter sets and expansions, or if it will be a simple reprint, but this could signify a complete boxed set of every card available, along with some never seen before. If I had to guess, possible add-ons could include stickers or pin badges, and I’m hoping for entirely new expansions as stretch goals. Fingers crossed for a deck featuring the Lich!

The original Card Wars tabletop game and app were based on Season 4, Episode 14 of the show itself, where Jake and Finn play the eponymous game ‘for the glory!’, as its tagline goes. It features creatures, spells and locations, which should all be familiar to most tabletop gamers. However, despite many similarities to other TCGs (most notably Magic: The Gathering) and a childlike aesthetic in the show’s signature art style, it’s a surprisingly complex affair and does offer some unique aspects. These include static oversized land tiles (rather than cards shuffled into your deck) which you choose before deckbuilding to determine which elements you can draw cards from, and a limited number of action points each turn rather than an increasing pool of mana.

While it’s certainly a surprise that the game is seeing a resurgence - after the app being shelved in 2019 and the original game falling out of print around the same time - it’s likely to be a welcome one amongst the hardcore fanbase, and Adventure Time fans in general; it will be interesting to see if demand from a wider audience grows once the campaign launches in November.