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In today’s episode, we cover Abandon All Artichokes by Gamewright, a card game for all those Deck Builder fans who want to introduce their kids to this popular game mechanic. We consider Abandon All Artichokes a perfect place to start when introducing Deck Builders to kids.
🎂 Age 8+
👨👩👦 2-4 Players
⌛ 20 min
📐 Skills: hand management, strategy, light reading, decision prioritization
In this game players start with a deck of 10 artichoke cards. The goal is to jettison enough of these cards to draw an artichoke-free hand of five cards and win the game! Each turn players draw five cards from their personal deck. They then choose one card from the garden row of 5 veggies (none of which are artichokes). Each veggie card allows for an ability. One card may allow you to get rid of an artichoke, but cause you to lose the card as well. Another might allow you to draw another veggie card. Once a player has chosen their card from the garden row, they place it into their hand and play as many action cards as they’re able. At the end of their turn they place these cards in their personal discard pile and draw a fresh 5 cards from their deck. The discard will recycle into the deck as necessary so that players are building a deck with increasingly more veggie cards and less artichokes. As soon as you draw a hand without artichokes, you win!
Abandon All Artichokes is a nice twist on the deck builder style as players are simultaneously building and depleting their deck strategically. It’s also a great introduction to this popular mechanic and perfect for kids. It involves light strategy and logic in determining the right sequence of cards to play as oftentimes it matters what order cards are played in to maximize each turn’s effectiveness. Beyond gameplay though, we have to talk about the anthropomorphized vegetables. They’re so darn cute! We love the styling of this game and the various expressions on the faces of the artichokes. The game also comes in a cute (and protective) tin as many of Gamewright’s products do. While some people hate tins because they’re less easy to stack with other games, as parents we love them! Please more tins! The durability of game containers is a big deal in a house with young kids. It also makes this game great to throw in a backpack and take to the park which is a bonus.
Overall, we loved Abandon All Artichokes and plan to use it in our homeschool to work with our kids on forethought, logic, and strategy. It’s a terrific beginner deck builder that we’re sure your family will love as well!
Touring The World Resource Guides
Check out our country resource guides to help you with your around the world journey: https://gumroad.com/homeschooltogether
Show Notes
Abandon All Artichokes – https://amzn.to/3hJvf06
Dominion – https://amzn.to/3yAuKfT
Star Realms – https://amzn.to/3jNWgCn
Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle – https://amzn.to/3ysCJeK
Bohnanza – https://amzn.to/3AxHXYt
Sushi Go – https://amzn.to/3yt6IDb
Dice Tower – https://www.dicetower.com/
