10 Minute Heist
While the Wizard’s away, the thieves will… steal magical artifacts with mysteriously magical powers that are presumably valuable or serve some purpose or another while sporting devilishly handsome mustachios.
That’s a bit of a mouthful. Oh well – ONWARD!
Today on the review table, we have 10 Minute Heist – another entry by Daily Magic Games. This time, DMG has put out a ridiculously fun set building card game that involves a surprising amount of strategy for a game that plays as quickly as it does. The game sets up with eight rows of five treasure cards, each row representing a floor in the Wizard’s tower. Players start at the top of the tower and work their way towards the exit, plundering as much magical booty as they can before making their escape.
Treasure cards each have a set icon and a point value associated with them. Players score points at the end of the game by collecting sets – the player with the highest total value of a given set gets that set’s corresponding point token. There are also points assigned for having the most treasures with certain values (three, four, and five), having the least treasures with curse icons, and being the first or second player to exit the tower. On the other hand, players are deducted points for having the most curses, and being the last to exit.
True to its name, 10 Minute Heist plays really, really quickly, usually taking as long to set up as it does to play. It has a surprising level of depth for such a short play time. There are tons of decision points that make moving through the tower a strategist’s dream. You can’t just go for the highest value cards, or stick to one set. As mentioned before, treasures with values three, four, and five grant points – but sets of threes give more points than sets of fives do. Among other things, you have to pay attention to what sets you want to build, what sets your opponents are trying to build, how many curses everyone has, and how close everyone is to leaving the tower. Awareness of the entire playing field is a must if you want to be the most successful treasure thief.
Some buddies and I all got together to play a bunch of games we got for review all at the same time, and we played round upon round of 10 Minute Heist. The play time and fun factor make it a perfect filler game for between other games, or when dinner is about to be ready, but you still want to squeeze in another round of something. If DMGs other games are any indication, we can hope to see some expansions or variations on the game in the future, and I can’t wait. 10 Minute Heist is definitely going to be a game night staple going forward.
Review copy provided by Daily Magic Games
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Number of Players: 2-5
Age: 14+
This is a repost of our original review of this game prior to our data loss. I no longer see 10 Minute Heist available for sale anywhere other than as a print and play directly from DMG, which is a shame because it’s really fun.