Base price: $13.
2 – 4 players.
Play time: ~15 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy on Amazon (via What’s Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 1
Full disclosure: A review copy of Super Meow was provided by Asmodee US.
There’s a certain energy that comes with starting these reviews after my self-imposed due time that really provides some urgency to the writing process. I actually was ahead of the game today, but then I fell too easily into the all-too-common trap of “I have no idea what happens between Christmas and New Year’s” and my entire day slid silently into the void. Even now, I think I have things to do Monday and Tuesday and I have no idea what they are. It’s beyond me. But, I’m at least getting this done and out, so let’s dive in and read more about Super Meow!
In Super Meow, the great cat hero has gone missing! It’s up to you to find him before the forces of evil befall your fair city, [NAME NOT PROVIDED]. He’s a bit tough to find, though, since his civilian identity is just literally some cat, so you might have to lure him out with some fish before you can convince him to don the cape and save the day. He hopefully will be so impressed with your resolve that he asks you to join him in his crimefighting, though if my experience with Batman is any indicator sidekicks really don’t do well long-term in superhero situations unless they become their own superhero. It’s worth thinking about. Do you have what it takes to rescue Super Meow?
Contents
Setup
Pretty quick setup! Take the tray out of the box, and you can use the box as the Trash:
The tray and the tile become the Market, so you can set each card type on its relevant space:
Each player also gets a set of four starting cards in their player color. Shuffle the four and place two above your player card! That’ll be your hand.
The other two are placed to the left, to be your backpack. You should be ready to start!
Gameplay
Welcome to deckbuilding with Super Meow! This is a kid-friendly deckbuilder intended to show novice players the ropes and teach some basic strategy. Think a lighter Abandon All Artichokes, with a vaguely similar win condition. Here, your goal is simple. On your turn, reveal both a Cat card and a Cape card to rescue Super Meow and win!
Each turn, you may do one of four things:
- Pass your turn. If you don’t feel like you can or want to do anything on your turn, you can pass. Your turn just ends.
- Buy a card. You can buy any single card, provided that it costs the same or less as the sum of the money on your two cards. (Or, you can buy the cat with the tuna can, if you have it. Add the card you bought to the Washing Machine pile, and then you’re done.
- Throw away a card. You may throw away any card you’d like, except for the one 2 with a “No Trash” symbol on it. When you do, just place the selected card inside of the Trash box. Then you’re done!
- Use a Rat card. If you have a Rat card, you may play it to steal one of the face-down hand cards from any player. The only cards that can’t be stolen have a “No Rat” icon on them, so, you’ll know if you reveal one and that happens. If you try to steal a card that can’t be stolen, you don’t steal it. Either way, return the Rat to the Market.
When your turn ends, discard your two hand cards to the Washing Machine and draw two new ones. If you run out of cards in your Backpack, shuffle your Washing Machine and use that as your new Backpack.
Once a player starts their turn with both the Cat and the Cape card, they take Super Meow and immediately win!
Player Count Differences
Not a ton in this one unless players start stealing from each other with the Rat. If that happens, then it’s all going to go a little hectic pretty quickly. Otherwise, it should be pretty straightforward. More players doesn’t necessarily mean more chaos in this game since it’s on the simpler end of things. You’re not going to see things like players running out of cards or the market getting stretched or randomized in the wrong way.
Strategy
- Remember to thin your deck! Don’t just keep buying cards or you’ll never get the Cat and the Cape together. You’ll, at best, draw one and then some other, useless, random card. One of the best things you can get rid of early on are your 1-money cards. Those are pretty much useless? Even drawing two 2s is better than a 1 and a 2.
- You can’t get rid of one of the cards, so it’s going to end up being a 50/50 shot at the best as to whether or not you can draw the cards you need. The second 2 cannot be trashed or stolen (otherwise you could end up in an Unplayable State through absolutely some fault of your own). Personally, I think they should have made some 1s or 2s free but whatever. Even if you get your deck down to three cards, that’s going to be one of them.
- I also can’t really decide if it’s worth having a set of two Cats and Capes. Is it better to have two sets of options, even if it risks the frustrating and useless Cat + Cat or Cape + Cape draw? There’s some probability available that I’m wholly unwilling to do this late in the evening, so I’m going to say … probably not. It’s a lot of extra work to get that extra Cat and someone can just steal it.
- There’s a certain point where you need to stop getting money. Again, a massive deck is not the goal. I don’t even think you really need more than one 3 money card. Don’t just keep grabbing money. You might get lucky and win, but that’s more luck than strategy if you have a big deck full of cash.
- Cans are absolutely useless once you have a Cat or two. They’re useless before that, too, but you need one of them to get a Cat card. Once you’ve done that, you can get rid of it or keep it in case someone steals your Cat, I suppose.
- Stealing is … okay. If you mostly just buy Rat cards, you can thoroughly disrupt your opponents’ plans, but that’s largely prevent defense at that point. You’re not trying to win; you’re just being a jerk. Without that, your odds of getting a single useless card (2 money) are still pretty decent.
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- The art is very cute! It’s bright and colorful and friendly, as things should be.
- It’s not a bad introductory deckbuilder, though I think Abandon All Artichokes does it a bit better by not having a money market. Introducing money in an early deckbuilder adds a surprisingly high amount of complexity to things. It just adds math where you don’t necessarily need math; I think you could have done something similar with just symbols or glyphs. Otherwise, I think it’s good that all the cards are from a limited pool and they never really have their own effects beyond “steal” or “use to buy”. Keeps things low-complexity.
- I appreciate that the entire box is used in a game like this. It makes the whole thing more engaging as a product and lets some players have fun with setup and such.
- The end condition is very simple. Reveal the right two cards and you win!
Mehs
- At a certain point you can end up with, say, a two-card deck to shuffle. It’s kind of weird since shuffling two cards is … difficult to track. Just odd.
- Don’t love how much an unstealable / untrashable card can trip up the deck. It’s a strange edge case. I understand why that card is like that (it would be bad if you lost the ability to buy anything).
Cons
- Adding a stealing element to the game spices it up, yes, but it adds a bunch of negative interaction that I don’t care for. My general issue with it is that you can steal some pretty useful late-game cards and completely goof things up for your opponents, which while useful is also pretty … mean? It feels aggressive for a younger player-focused game.
Overall: 6.75 / 10
Overall, I think Super Meow is fun! My main point of comparison for this would be other simpler, introductory deckbuilders like Abandon All Artichokes, and while I think Super Meow has its simplicities, I do think that Abandon All Artichokes in particular manages to bridge the gap between approachable and strategic a little better. This is partially due to the silly theme, yes, but I think going for a no-money deckbuilder as your first deckbuilder and just letting players take any card they want makes the game’s flow easier to ascertain without having to deal with the little math that takes place every turn. Yes, there’s still stealing as well in AAA, but they mask that somewhat by letting you have unwanted cards in your hand that can be stolen as well. With a hand limit of literally two in Super Meow, both cards are usually something that you want to play or keep (even if you do get to draw a replacement). Imagine stealing someone’s Cat card! They had to save up to buy a tuna can and then draw and spend that to get a Cat, which can be frustrating. This isn’t to say the game is without its appeal: as I mentioned, I think the general presentation is strong (ruefully remembering AAA’s Weird Tin instead of an actual box) and Super Meow, too, prioritizes a simple win condition that’s easy to hit and teaches the value of deck thinning to get rid of cards you don’t want. All good things! Plus I enjoy the theme. Keeping the market generally pretty limited is smart, too; you don’t want to have a ton of options that support their own strategies. It really comes down to “do you buy a lot of cats and capes” or “do you try to get to one cat and one cape and draw the perfect hand” and watching players figure out the tension between those two is fun. If you’re looking to teach deckbuilding to newer players, you enjoy light family games, or you’re just a fan of a cat in a cape, Super Meow might be just what you’re looking for!
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