Star Realms: Deluxe Nova Collection

I always saw Star Realms as an honest, fast filler with plenty of fun and excellent value for money. I had never bought it myself, but I played other people’s copies, so when I saw the Kickstarter for the Nova Collection years ago, I said the familiar “ah, screw it” and hit the button. The multi-year delay was genuinely unjustifiable for a company with experience and for a pure card game that does not seem to require any production miracle. At least we eventually got it.

At its core, it remains the quick deck-building card game I remembered: each turn improves your personal deck a little, with cards providing the resources and attacks to develop your position. The flow is immediate and light, exactly enough for it to work as a filler without making you dust off rules and exceptions.

Interaction comes through trying to pressure your opponent and getting to the cards that fit your plan before they do. What I liked here is that the card mix creates pleasant choices and good banter without turning into nastiness, or into the anything-goes feeling left behind by the countless expansions.

And as a collector’s package, the Nova Collection is top-notch. The quality is very good and makes the game feel like a proper object on the table, even if the all-foil celebration gets tiring when the lighting is not direct and there is diffusion. In short: the wait was slow and irritating, but in the end this is a very good way to own Star Realms in one handsome package.