by: Michael Barnes

Yomi is the best card game I have played since first encountering Magic: The Gathering back in 1993. Designed by David Sirlin, a sort of self-styled gaming theorist and balance expert that counts development on the HD “remixes” of Super Street Fighter II and Super Puzzle Fighter II among his credits, Yomi is a card game transposition of a video fighting game complete with a roster of ten characters, each with special moves and combinations keyed to a standard Poker deck.

Battles in Yomi are quick and vicious, with each player attempting to out-guess, out-bluff, and out-think their opponent in a completely enthralling above-the-table metagame that is every bit as significant as having a good hand of cards or topdecking a Joker at a crucial moment. Unsurprisingly, the game was originally designed as a licensed Street Fighter product but Capcom took another direction. Mr. Sirlin simply created his own setting called “Fantasy Strike” for his line of games.

Gameplay is ultra-simple, and ultra-slick. The rules take up about half a page with some additional FAQ material and clarifications for each character. Turns are simultaneous, lending a critical sense of real-time action. Each player plays a card face down, selecting from a hand that will include a variety of attacks and counters. Cards are revealed and a rock-paper-scissors mechanic provides a resolution. Blocks and dodges beat attacks which beat throws. Should both players reveal an attack or throw, a relative speed is provided to determine which card wins- it’s an abstraction of character speed and frame count. After the resolution, the winning player has the opportunity to play additional cards to combo and increase damage. Straights (yes, as in Poker straights) can be played as a combo as well as specific cards labeled Starters, Linkers, and Enders. Face cards are the character’s special moves and tend to do major damage or have “pumpable” damage. The aggrieved player can play a facedown card as a bluff to dissuade further cardplay- if it’s a Joker, the combo fails.

That’s the core process for playing the game, and really on paper that’s just about all there is to it. There are a few additional rules accounting for knockdowns, post-dodge counterattacks, and some special action cards, but the rules of the game are just about as minimal a set as I’ve seen in hobby games. Some who have played the game a couple of times have mistakenly concluded that it’s a simple guessing game or that there isn’t any kind of strategy or decision-making. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The depth of Yomi comes from two key sectors. The first is in its character roster that offers a wide variety of play styles, tactics, special abilities, and combinations. Much like in a video fighting game, certain matchups between characters play out differently. Each character (and there are some really fun ones here, like a noble fish man, a stone golem, and a drunken, gambling-addicted panda) has ratings that gauge their card mix as well as their maximum allowable combos. In addition to a handful of special cards, each character has a standing ability that also provides tactical options. These abilities also lend character and narrative to each battle. I’ve been really surprised at how completely I buy these guys, gals, and things as legitimate fighting game personalities.

The other sector, and the one where Yomi gets into some very innovative and higher gaming concepts is its psychological aspect. The title of the game is a Japanese term that translates into “reading”, as in reading the other player’s intentions or strategies. Similar to Go, Yomi is as much about how a particular player plays it as it is about written rules or game materials. Although each deck is like playing with a finely tuned Magic deck in terms of balance, how each player plays every card is where Yomi transcends simplicity. Watching how another player plays and anticipating what they may play is critical.