May 7, 2020

Charming Adventures with Crazier Eights One Thousand and One Nights & Shahrzad Cards

Updated: May 26, 2020

Now, I will admit that I have yet to read all the tales in One Thousand and One Nights, and it’ll likely be ages before I do, but playing Crazier Eights card game has sparked the desire to explore more.

Crazier Eight One Thousand and One nights and Shahrzad are standalone versions of Crazier Eights card game with Arabian Nights theme. Every card has a unique ability, and the first player with zero cards in hand wins. The rules are straightforward yet the game is brimming with depth and strategy. The cards display a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales depicted to quintessential art. The cards are stunning.

Gameplay

Shuffle the cards and pull the top card to start a discard pile. Deal seven to each player and decide who goes first. We roll a D20 dice to see who goes first at Nerdz Garage.

Once the cards have been dealt, there will be the time required to read the abilities of the cards. EACH card has its own distinctive capability and resourcefulness. A few of the cards have heavier powers and can make you a target, much like in the Magic Card game. Pretty clever to add these additions to the game of Crazy Eights. Multiple players make for a strong dynamic and strategy. We did find that controlling more than five assets can get confusing if you speed through your turn. Take your time and read all your Assets.

Each turn has four phases:

Beginning phase, if you have an Asset card that prompts an ability before your turn, play the Asset. These are my favorite cards. Some give the ability to look through the deck and play an Event or Asset immediately.

Draw a card.

Main Phase: Play one of your cards and discard a card. You may discard first.

There are two types of cards to play face up in front of you: Assets and Events.

Assets played in front of you give you control of that card and its ability continues to take effect until someone gets rid of that card or takes over control of it. If they take control of an Asset, it moves in front of that player face up. When you play an Event card, the ability takes place right away and then discarded on the bottom of the discard pile. Its capacity is over.

Discard a Card. You May discard if it is the same color or symbol or number as the top card. An eight can be played, and you name the color that has to be discarded next. You do have to discard.

End Phase: If the asset card you control prompts an ability at the end of the turn, it is executed now.

The player with zero cards wins.

Shahrzad rather than wild eights, Shahrzad has multicolored cards and split cards. Split cards, shown above, are treated like multicolored cards when they are discarded, but you have to choose one side when you play it for the ability.

Our Thoughts

We blended the two sets together after a few independent plays. Having two sets provided a fuller game when we played with three to four players. Crazier Eights is a combat story-driven game. There are endless combinations to build a good engine; however, one card can topple your engine. You are constantly defending your Assets while collecting stronger cards to put opponents at a disadvantage. It’s a quick but complex game.

Crazier Eights is a rare mixture that we found had the perfect balance between depth, style and substance, and fun and challenge.