Recap: Fluxx Strategy - An Oxymoron?

My Type II Deck

This last weekend found me at none other than a Magic: the Gathering tournament.  Many moons ago, I loved Magic.  I eagerly bought each new expansion, made weekly or bi-weekly trips to card shows for the best prices on the best cards, and even competed in a few tournaments.  I never won anything grand, but it was all fun. 

At some point, however, I realized that the people at Magic were going to keep coming out with new cards.  And if I wanted to continue to play Type II, that meant continuing to buy new cards.  As I realized how much money I had been spending on a single game, I broke ties with Magic.  As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn't justify the expense. 

Fast forward about five years (more?) to last weekend.  Two of my friends recently got back into it.  They've been trying to drag me along, but I've stuck to my Magic-is-too-expensive line.  But this last weekend was a free tournament.  And they happened to have an extra (pretty crappy) deck.  So, I decided to join them.  I didn't do too well, and I'm pretty sure my opponents got sick of me asking "what does that do" since I hadn't seen any cards in several years.  But overall, it was pretty fun. 

And that's when I saw Fluxx sitting under the glass case.  Fluxx is one of those games I've been meaning to pick up, but hadn't.  It was reasonably priced right there so I grabbed it and immediately played with my two friends, plus a new one we picked up just for Fluxx. 

In Fluxx, the rules are constantly changing.  Hand size will grow and suddenly decrease.  Sometimes you play a lot, sometimes a little.  It was great fun, even though the game is highly luck dependent.  But it has a nice challenge of keeping and monitoring the ever growing number of rules changes.  There is just the barest hint of strategy.  It's usually best to get Keepers down as quickly as possible.  And its also good to hold onto a goal (if you can) where you have one of the two requried keepers so that you can play it when you get the other keeper.  But, other than a few instances, it's mostly just hoping that the tides of fate turn your way. 

I also got in a play of Carcassonne with some nephews.  Interestingly, one nephew who is only about six, managed to win the entire game!  I played his meeples based on whether they (the meeples) wanted to be robbers or knights or farmers.  He got a good 20 point farmer in the early game that lead to his victory.