They’ve Put a Spell on Game Night: Hocus Pocus

Not usually the month Hocus Pocus gets brought up in conversation. It might even seem like I’m mudding the Christmas time waters bring Halloween back. It’s 2020; if we’ve learned anything, it’s that the calendar has no meaning.

Isn’t Christmas a time for board games anyway? Well, for the sake of argument, we’re going to say it is. The boardgame bug has certainly bitten in this house. So now, let me put a spell on you…

The Sanderson Sisters are back at it, trying to brew the potion to suck the lives out of all the children in Salem, and it’s up to us to stop them. I hate to break it to the colonial ladies, but they’re going to need a bigger cauldron. To do that, we need to spoil their potion by putting in the right (or wrong depending on your point of view) ingredients.

Players will have four ingredient cards in their hands to use in our efforts. This is a collaborative game, but there’s a twist. You and your friends will only get to ask one question at the start of your turn. This question can give you an insight into other players’ hands or a vague way of trying to steer the strategy.

Binx can lend an assist in this department once cards start to be added to the cauldron. Certain cards have a Binx icon printed in the corner. If you lay down such an ingredient, put the Binx token in front of you and play with your hand laid out for everyone to see. Your cards remain that way till someone else lays down a Binx icon.

To advance the sun token, you and your friends will need to stun one of the sisters. Each has their own set of qualifications. This might surprise you, but Winnifred is the hardest to stun. She needs to have all five ingredients in the cauldron match with all five colors represented. Sarah and Mary are easier to bowl over, also not surprising, but it’s not a cakewalk either.

In addition to ingredients that can call Binx to your aid, some ingredients spur one of the sisters to cast a spell to change the gameplay. If the sister named on the card is stunned, the spell can’t be cast, and you carry on. If she’s in play, though, there’s not a lot you can do. Although you do have some other allies but use them wisely since they can only be used once.

When you stun one of the sisters, the round ends, and you start a new cauldron. Any ingredient card that does not have a spell or Binx icon on it gets discarded permanently. The icon cards get reshuffled into the ingredient deck, and play continues. The game ends when one of two things happens: the sun rises, and the Sanderson Sisters are reduced to dust, or you and your compatriots run out of ingredient cards. Obviously, you don’t want to run out of cards, so you’ll have to work together to outwit the old broads.

You expect difficulty from a game with a giant board, many objectives, and ten or more minutes of set up. Hocus Pocus is a small setup game. There’s a board, two decks of cards, Binx, and a couple of tokens. What it lacks in paraphernalia, it makes up for in frustration. The good kind that makes you come back for more.

Adam and I failed the children of Salem several times. Those Sanderson Sisters were far too clever for us. But we kept coming back to light the black flame candle until we got the hang of it in terms of strategy. That’s not saying the game became a walk in the graveyard. It doesn’t. But we at least have a chance at defeating them.

If this wasn’t COVID times, I could speak to how this plays with a maximum of six players. Sadly, this review is for the minimum of two. So maybe an extra person or two would change the difficulty level for the better. More people at the table definitely added to Death on the Cards. I’ll have to wait and find out.

That said, I’m thrilled this game is adjustable down to two players. Those games are becoming more prevalent, but we could still use some more. A good portion of our game shelf is anxiously waiting for a vaccine so they can be brought out again.

I know I said Hocus Pocus was frustrating, but that’s part of what makes this such a good game. That keeps bringing us back to the cauldron to give it another go.