Our 10-year-old has been playing Mindbug since she was nine, and by now she has her own strategy. So I asked her to lay her favorite cards out on the sofa and explain why. And the ones she can’t stand, while she was at it.
What came out is a pretty clear strategy. Almost all her favorites are small and sneaky, so they’re hard to block. And almost every card she hates either sweeps exactly those small creatures off the table or costs her own life points. The explanations below are hers; I just wrote them down.
We play the German edition, so the card names are German. I’ve added a translation where it helps. A quick word on the keywords if you’re new to Mindbug: Sneaky creatures can only be blocked by other sneaky creatures. Poisonous defeats any creature it fights. Hunter picks who has to block. Tough survives the first hit. More on the boxes in our Mindbug comparison.
Her favorites
Frettchenbomber, the ferret bomber (power 2)
Number one, and only half of that is about the game. Ferrets are her favorite animal. When you play it, your opponent has to discard two cards, and it’s sneaky. At the end she even named it a second time, just to be sure.
Eulenspinne, the owl spider (power 3)
Sneaky and poisonous. She loves sneaky creatures, she says, and the poison is her insurance: whoever defeats the owl spider takes it down with them.
Tigerhörnchen, the tiger squirrel (power 3)
When you play it, it defeats an enemy creature with power 7 or more. It’s sneaky too. And it’s half tiger, half squirrel, which in her words is “very cute.”
Hamster Nimmersatz, the greedy hamster (power 2)
Sneaky, and when you play it your opponent has to give you a card from their hand, which you can play right away or keep. Great ability, she says. And she finds the picture very cute.
Killerbiene, the killer bee (power 5)
Hunter, and when you play it your opponent loses a life point. Her thinking: if your opponent steals the killer bee with a Mindbug, they’ve already lost a point anyway. And if you have several cards that cost life points, “it gets hard for your opponent.”
Berserkäfer, the berserker beetle (power 3)
Tough, and as long as you have exactly one life point it gets +8 power. That makes 11. To her, it’s a safety net for the moment things get tight. “That’s pretty wild.”
The cards she can’t stand
Kängusaurus Rex (power 7)
When you play it, it defeats every enemy creature with power 4 or less. Look at her favorites above: almost all of them have power 4 or less. One card and her whole side of the table is empty. Her verdict is accordingly blunt: “really dumb.”
King Kondor (power 6)
Frenzy, hunter and tough. Lots of people love it, she says, but when you play it you lose a life point yourself, and that can kill you. Her comment: “Nope, nope.”
Graf Aderlass, Count Bloodletting (power 7)
When it attacks, you lose a life point and defeat a creature. Not bad in an emergency, she thinks. But if it’s your only card, you have to attack and you’re down to one life point, you defeat yourself.
Manischer Minnesänger, the manic minstrel (power 1)
Hunter, and it gets +2 power for every other allied creature. She admits it can get pretty strong. But she rarely has enough creatures on the table for that to pay off, so she finds it boring.
Schildwanzen, the shield bugs (power 4)
Tough, and all your other allied creatures get +1 power. That’s it. Verdict: just boring.
Titanoskorp (power 2)
Tough and poisonous, nothing else. She doesn’t like the picture, and she finds the card boring.
What we learned
Kids play Mindbug differently from grown-ups. Our daughter looks at whether a card can sneak through, whether it hurts her opponent, and whether the animal on it is cute. And she thinks surprisingly carefully about what happens when her opponent steals a card with a Mindbug.
If you play with kids, ask them about their favorite cards. You’ll learn more about their strategy than in ten games. Our take on the base box is in our Mindbug: First Contact review.
What’s the favorite Mindbug card in your house, and which one gets tossed right away?
FAQ
Which Mindbug cards does our daughter like best?
The Frettchenbomber (ferret bomber), by a mile. Plus Eulenspinne, Tigerhörnchen, Hamster Nimmersatz, Killerbiene and Berserkäfer. Almost all her favorites are weak but sneaky.
Which cards does she not like at all?
Kängusaurus Rex, King Kondor and Graf Aderlass, because they wipe out her favorites or cost her own life points. Manischer Minnesänger, Schildwanzen and Titanoskorp she simply finds boring.
What age is Mindbug for?
The box says 8+. Our daughter started at nine and plays her own strategies at ten.
Why are the card names in German?
We play the German edition. Cards numbered x/32 come from the base box First Contact, cards numbered x/12 from the expansion New Servants. The English cards may have different names.
