Welcome to the Official Zulu’s Board Game Cafe Newsletter!

 

Every year it seems November is crawling along and then BAM! Thanksgiving is here. With Thanksgiving being the last weekend of the month this year, the holiday season will be a power sprint compared to some years.

 

We at Zulu's wanted to remind everyone that gaming can be a great way to connect with people at gatherings. Whether you are sitting down for your annual family game of bunco, giving gifts at a white elephant party or simply enjoying a cup of cocoa with your friends over a game of Catan, playing games are a fun, relatively easy (except for those Euro gamers out there!) way to spend time together. One of the reasons Zulu's exists is to help people find the perfect game to play with people coming together. So pull a game of the shelf, old or new, board game or deck of cards and spend some time with the people that matter!

 

The store has been extremely busy with TCG releases. Last week we had TWO separate releases that had 200+ people waiting in line for opening. With Magic, Pokémon, Lorcana and more releasing in one week, it was amazing to see all of you amped for the new sets. Seeing how pumped the community is about these games brings excitement to our work.

 

We put our above advice about playing games into practice  with our newsletter this month. Phil, one of our newer employees, gives a deep dive on the "auto-battler" genre of board games and discusses his new obsession, Tag Team. Eric dives deep into some of the speical events that are happening around Magic this month; he always is brewing something special for the players. Lastly, we'll give you a quick update on our big Black Friday sale that just launched this Friday.

 

From everyone at team Zulu's we wish you a happy holidays!


 

 

 

 

Harsh Words Can't Solve Problems; Actions Will 

 

 

MTG’s AVATAR set has arrived and, so far, it has definitely been a banger. We held sold out events all prerelease weekend including a record breaking 96 players in our Saturday 2-Headed Giant event. We also had 42 players at the reinstatement of Collector’s Sealed. 

 

 

If you need more Avatar in your life there are still a huge number of ways to experience it at Zulu’s over the next couple weeks:


  • -- Wednesday night 7pm drafts are back on. Due to popular demand we have two Deluxe AVATAR drafts (26 Nov & 3 Dec), plus a couple other fun sets, leading up to the kickoff of the Winter Draft Series in January.
    -- Avatar Box Commander league is underway, easy to join and running through 11 December. 
    -- Avatar “Master the Four Elements” sealed league play started 21 Nov and runs through 9 January. This is a very casual & fun way to get in games, plus there’s a cool foil poster for players who unlock all the achievements.

       


Banlist updates save Standard! 
If you sidelined your standard play until WOTC cleaned house, now is a great time to jump back in! Goodbye Vivi, Screaming Nemesis and Proft’s Eidetic Memory. 

Players have been brewing some great decks to explore the vacuum left by these dominant decks (mono red & Izzet combo), with an emphasis on Aggro, for certain! 

 

Standard Showdown entry is just $5 and all fees are paid out as prizes to top finishers. Plus you get a promo Unlucky Cabbage Merchant for participating (while they last).

 

Two new and noteworthy MTG events and one TEASER
Zulu’s is hosting tables for the two of the newest MTG formats: commander sealed box league and Master the Four Elements sealed league. Both are targeted at casual play spanning multiple weeks. Look for the “Looking for players” signs at the designated tables. We traditionally have run multi-week sealed deck leagues with each set, but the commander box league is a new event and we’re seeing how much it interests players.
Teaser: the most common MTG question we’ve been getting lately has been “how do I get my hands on that amazing FINAL FANTASY commander box league Yuna promo?!?”  Stay tuned. We only received 24 and are trying to find a fair way to distribute them when the demand far exceeds supply. The event is scheduled for 11 December, so stay tuned for an update.

Hint: you should plan to click “Notify me” and register when the event ticket gets posted.

 


New player opportunities
Zulu’s currently has three opportunities for curious players to learn to play MTG. Each is low key, offers instruction from an experienced player or judge, and players will leave with 2 decks and everything you need to play MTG with a friend.


Whew! There’s a lot of Magic happening at Zulus, and this is just the new stuff. Bookmark our event calendar and you’ll always be able to find a game! (LINK)



 

 

 

 

A Primer on "Auto Battlers"

 

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Me – You gotta’ check out this new auto-battler board game.
Dad – Auto-whatey game?
Me – You just add cards to your deck and play the cards over again each round.
Dad – Like war?
Me – No, not like war—well, kinda… let me explain.

 

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Auto Chess and auto-battlers sprung to popularity in 2019. The concept is simple: you assemble a team of characters, units, animals—whatever the theme is. Then, you start a battle against another player. But unlike most video games, where you input commands, direct strategy and conduct maneuvers, the game plays out the combat for you. You sit back, watching to see if you brought the right units to the fight, invested in the right skills, and ultimately if you will win the battle. Once the battle is complete, there is usually a short period where you can modify your team, level up certain characters, and give items to improve their effects.


For many games, the fun lies in you doing the fighting, casting the spells, and taking your skills into real-time fights. But in auto-battlers, the fun lies in decision-making and planning. You are looking for synergies, impressive combos, the right units that will dominate your opponents’ strategies. It makes you feel like the general in charge. You watch your battle plans play out, see the results, and adjust your plan to navigate the best winning strategy.

 

 


The genre began with Auto Chess, an extremely popular mod for the DOTA video game. League of Legends launched Team Fight Tactics, known by the abbreviation TFT. Super Auto Pets is a popular one on the phone (they even have a Kickstarter going right now for a physical board game version of the app!). Video games and computers make it very easy to simulate high-level stats and combat. The best players of these video games and apps know all the crazy stat combos that can come together to make incredibly powerful teams.


In the last few years, board game designers have taken on the challenge of boiling the experience of that team construction, battles, and unit improving into the tactile board game experience. Since the whole genre is relatively new, there have only been a few entries. The most popular so far has been the game Challengers! from Pretzel Games. The game is exactly what you expect from an auto-battler. Everyone starts with the same exact deck of characters that do the same exact thing. The joy and fun come from the draft. Every round you have the choice to add new characters. There are three different decks increasing in power from A–C. In the middle rounds, you have the choice to draft more cards from a lower deck—say, 2 cards from deck A—to build up the synergies of cards you already have. Or you can add a single card from the more powerful deck B. Do you try to level up knowing that it may take a round or two for you to hit your stride?


After drafting a deck, you find your opponent from a pre-determined order and start to battle. You flip cards over from your deck until you outpower your opponent’s creature. Then you wait to see if they will best yours. Rounds play out in less than two minutes, and it always leads to laughs and groans. The game plays up to 8 players, and I remember that a group of me and my friends brought this to a New Year’s vacation getaway. After all the kids went down, we had a raucous 8-person showdown with everyone duking it out. The best way I can explain it is that it felt like the electricity you would get at a pre-release for a new TCG. Everyone is talking about their new cards, the bad beats that happened and the silly combos they have concocted to make their deck fun.

 

 

Challengers! was so well received that it won the Kennerspiel des Jahres, the most prestigious award for connoisseur game of the year, in 2023. There have been a few other games that have been released where the auto-battle mechanic is the focus. As mentioned, Super Auto Pets is running a Kickstarter. There was also Rumblebots, which pitted robots against each other. But Challengers! has dominated the space, including a 2024 beach-themed stand-alone expansion. That is, until now…


Right after GenCon, my friend Scott brought a fresh copy of Tag Team by Scorpion Masqué over to game night. I had not heard of it but, as it probably has become very apparent, I love auto-battlers. I immediately asked if we could skip the other game we had planned to play to give Tag Team a spin. The premise is simple: each fighter has their own unique deck and a particular play style. Through draft, random selection, rock-paper-scissors, or whatever, you pick two fighters, mix their decks together a la Smash Up (popular board game!) and begin the battle. You don’t, however, draw a hand of cards giving you infinite options; instead, you have two cards that you start with and one additional card you place into your queue.


This is where the auto-battler part of the game comes in. Every round you will play out all of the cards in your queue, adding a card to your queue each round. But you don’t shuffle your deck or mix the cards in any way. You resolve your deck of cards in the same order every time. You play card 1, then 2, and finally 3.


Sounds a bit boring? The excitement and dynamism come with the card additions. Every round you have 3 cards to choose from to add one card to your deck. You can add that card anywhere in the deck, but you cannot move it once you have selected its spot. This leads to so many interesting decisions. If you are getting pummeled round after round by the same attack at the beginning of the round, just throw a block card at the front of your line to end the barrage. Think your opponent is going to hit you with their ultimate as the last card? Put your powerful play in the middle of the queue to get to him first. But what if you think that he thinks that you will put that card there, so you play your card one turn later to surprise him? Unless…

 


The game comes with 12 unique fighters with 12 unique play styles. The learn-to-play characters pair Joan (of Arc?), a support character, with Ching Shih, who is trying to assemble her fleet, against Bodvar, the raging Viking warrior who turns into a bear, with Wong Fei Hung, the martial arts master who achieves balance to win the battle. Other characters: The Golem, a big friendly tank who will soak up all the damage for you; the Wild Bunch, who outsmart and bribe other players to win; the Fey Folk, who use their wits and forest spirits to beguile you… find a pair of fighters you think will work best out of the 12 different combatants provide in the box, shuffle up, and start lining up those cards.


The first game or two will take you a little while to figure out how the programming actually plays out, what the best cards to combo with are, and how you should actually use a fighter. But after about 3 plays, round time gets down to between 5–10 minutes per battle, and the pack moves briskly, so there is not much downtime. As you become familiar, you hang on every flip. Did you guess the right time to block? Did you set up your combo right? The small decision of placing one card makes each round interesting and unique.


Since GenCon, Tag Team has been gaining popularity. Positive online videos abound. It has been bouncing around the top 20 on the BoardGameGeek hotness. The publisher has announced they have more fighters in the works. There are a lot of hours of play already in the box. This is quickly becoming the game I want to play when I want the challenge of duking it out with someone else and to feel brainy and satisfied; I know when I win a round of Tag Team that I earned that win.
I think that auto-battlers will continue to find their way into the tabletop world. The success of Challengers!, the seemingly smooth launch of Tag Team, and Super Auto Pets being backed by over 2,000 people (1,500 of which went all-in!) show there is surely excitement for players who love the mechanic. If planning, programming and seeing your plan play out appeal to you, then check out one of these games. If you want to pick up a copy of Tag Team from us at Zulu’s, just click here.

 

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Me – See, Dad; you kicked my butt!
Dad – I did? I did! How?
Me – Well, you noticed that if you played your strike on turn 4, it would get the last damage you needed.
Dad – This auto-war thing is pretty fun!
Me – sigh auto-battler, Dad. auto-battler…

 

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Black Friday Sale is Live!

 

Black Friday starts early this year! 

 

Our online sale launched on Friday and runs thru December 6th.

Our best deals, however will be in store on Friday 11/28 thru Sunday, 12/1. Stop by in person for deals on hit games like Gwent, Slay The Spire, Turing Machine and more. 

 

 


 

 

 

Did you miss last month's Newsletter?  Check out October's here, and September's here.

 

 

Thank you again for making Zulu's Board Game Cafe a special place!