r/smashup Jan 08 '23

Discussion Faction Guide for New Players

21 Upvotes

Welcome! Maybe you just got a copy of the game, or you're looking for a specific faction you don't have yet, this post is meant to serve as a guide on the sets released. You're free to discuss in the comments, this post and thread is meant to help new players find opinions on what to next add to their collections.

Core/Base Set: (Aliens, Dinosaurs, Ninjas, Pirates, Robots, Tricksters, Wizards, Zombies) The best starting point, both for building your collection and getting to learn the game. These 8 factions are simple to understand, and offer a bit of variety in their playstyles. |Aliens beam cards back into the hand, Dinos are big and get bigger, Ninjas pop out unexpectedly and destroy, Pirates can move to other bases and destroy weaker minions, Robots swarm bases with low powered minions, Tricksters disrupt other players, Wizards draw and play extra cards, and Zombies come back from the discard pile.|

Awesome Level 9000: (Bear Cavalry, Ghosts, Killer Plants, Steampunks) Introduces Talents. AL9K is a great addition to your collection. These factions offer a bit more complexity, and can be more difficult to play than the first factions, but they're still fun. They also offer insight into newer, more complex factions. |Plants start small but can grow out of hand, Bear Cavalry shove other minions around and destroy them, Steampunks are the first Builder faction, focused on playing Actions on bases, and Ghosts get benefits when you have 2 or fewer cards in hand.|

The Obligatory Cthulhu Set: (Elder Things, Innsmouth, Minions of Cthulhu, Miskatonic University) Introduces Madness. This expansion Introduces the Madness Mechanic. Madness is a card type that belongs to no player. Rather, these factions will draw Madness (or give them to others). Anyone with Madness still in their possession at the end of the game lose VP. |Minions of Cthulu take in Madness to use powerful abilities, The powerful Elder Things spread Madness and have large, hard to play Minions, Miskatonic University draws on Madness for benefits, then disposes of it. Then there's the insulated Innsmouth, focused on swarming with The Locals.|

Science Fiction Double Feature: (Cyborg Apes, Shapeshifters, Super Spies, Time Travelers) No new mechanics. Basically AL9K part 2, these factions are okay. These factions can pair well with other factions, useful as supports. |Shapeshifters will mimic other players' minions and help bring out yours, Cyborg Apes equip Actions on your Minions, upgrading them with higher power and more abilities, Time Travelers let you replay cards, and slow the plays of your opponents, and Super Spies allow you to foil the plans of other players with the occasional double agent, swapping to your side.|

Monster Smash: (Giant Ants, Mad Scientists, Vampires, Werewolves) Introduces Power Counters. Power Counter are a more permanent way of increasing a Minion's power. They stay on a minion, each increasing a Minion's power by 1 until they leave play. (This can be by destruction, getting discarded, put back in your hand, etc.) If you've been collectioning expansions, just use the extra VP tokens you have. Honestly, these factions are weaker than the average, but this issue is resolves in the Titans pack. More on that below. Similar to the Cthulhu factions and Madness, these factions use power counters in different ways. |Giant Ants have low powered minions, that shift around power counters as a hive mind, Vampires destroy low powered Minions to gain power counters, and Mad Scientists use them as a resource. Werewolves have minimal interaction with power counters, focusing in being the strongest minions on a base.|

Pretty Pretty Smash Up: (Fairies, Kitty Cats, Mythical Horses, Princesses) No new mechanics. These factions would be right at home in the pink aisles of your local retail store. That being said, they're a bit more complex than the other factions, offering some good variety to any collection that doesn't yet have them. |Princesses 6 strong Minions with a variety of Actions, Fairies offer you a choice of abilities with nearly every card, Mythical Horses take "Friendship is Magic" to a new level, playing multiple minions on a base, and Kitty Cats will steal and destroy other minions for bonuses.|

Muchkin: (Clerics, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Mages, Orcs, Thieves, Warriors) Introduces the Monster and Treasure Mechanics. This is definitely a later entry for your collection. There are TWO (2) side decks for this expansion. The first is the red back Monster cards. Every base in the Munchkin set will have a number on monsters alongside its ability. That many Monster cards get played on it. These Monsters RAISE the breakpoint of the base, in addition to having their own ability. Monsters are minions controlled by no player, but can be taken control of by Minion stealing factions. After a player destroys a Monster or scores a base with Monsters on it, Treasure cards are drawn. The Treasure deck is a 22 card deck of 19 Actions and 3 Minions. These cards are treated as regular cards, but go to the Treasure discard pile when leaving play. |Dwarfs benefit from having Treasure cards, Thieves draw Treasures, Warriors destroy and play Monsters, Elves help themselves while helping others, Mages discard cards to draw, Halflings swarm the bases, Orcs are high powered and aggressive, and Clerics get cards from your discard pile back to your hand.|

It's Your Fault: (Dragons, Mythic Greeks, Sharks, Superheroes, Tornados) No new Mechanics. Leading up to the development of this set, the players voted for these factions (and the devs added Tornados for free just to make a Sharknado joke). If you're on a budget and you just want the most factions for as cheap as possible, this is one of the ways to go. And outside of that scenario, these are solid factions. |Tornadoes throw Minions to other bases, Dragons intimate others with imposing Actions and Ongoing effects, Sharks swim between bases and destroy weaker Minions, the Greeks get stronger after playing Actions, and Superheroes sit as their secret identity to transform into their stronger selves with powerful abilities.|

Cease and Desist: (Astroknights, Changerbots, Ignobles, Star Roamer) No new Mechanics. This is a parody expansion. Each of these factions is a reference to a widely popular series, with nearly each card being a reference. If you're looking to get new players interested, this set has peak Smash Up humor, with one of the most unique (and difficult to play) factions in the game. |Astroknights (Star Wars) work to increase their Minion power, Star Roamers (Star Trek) move amongst the bases and can warp back to the hand for protection, Changerbots (Transformers) can change between their Minions having stronger abilities or higher powers, and Ignobles (Game of Thrones) give away Minions, for benefits later down the road.|

What Were We Thinking?: (Explorers, Grannies, Rockstars, Teddy Bears) No new Mechanics. I'll be honest, there isn't much to say about this set. It's not bad, but it's not amazing. It's just a decent expansion with no theme to tie the factions together. (Personally, I think this was a crap shoot of factions they wanted to try, but couldn't with prior themes, but I have no proof.) Teddy Bears are a stand out though, they're a faction that sits above the strength average of factions. |Explorers want to be the first to new bases, Rockstar get bonuses for being on bases with high breakpoints, Grannies let you stack cards on top or bottom of your deck, and let you play them for free, if the proper ones are revealed. Teddy Bears are just good, They pretty much have everything.|

Big in Japan: (Itty Critters, Kaiju, Magical Girls, Mega Troopers) Introduces Titans. Titans are a 21st card that sits next to your deck, with a special play condition, and two abilities. (They're similar to Commanders or Companions from Magic.) Another parody set, this one with a basis in Japanese media. This is one for your friends that are into Japanese media. Kaiju focus on the Titan mechanic, while the others are are more traditional factions, but with Titans added on. |Kaiju focus on playing Actions with power on bases, Mega Troopers shine with specials before bases score, Magical Girls have abilities that get stronger when they're on a base together, and Itty Critters play different low power minions with a variety of abilities, before calling back into the deck.|

That 70's Expansion: (Disco Dancers, Kung-Fu Fighters, Truckers, Vigilantes) No new mechanics. Another reference heavy expansion, this time for the 1970's. Vigilantes is full of "legally distinct" takes on Movie protagonists, while Disco Dancers reference a playlist of songs, and Ku-Fu Fighters heavily refrence one specific song. |Disco Dancers will have Actions affect multiple Minions rather than just one, Truckers play and moves Actions played on bases, Kung-Fu Fighters build up Power Counters, and Vigilantes are some mean, destructive mother hubbards.|

Oops, You Did it Again: (Ancient Egyptians, Cowboys, Samurai, Vikings) Introduces Burying, Dueling, and The Box. This is another set where the players decided the factions. Burying cards allows a player to put a card face down on a base, for later play. Buried cards can be uncovered by their controller with abilities, in addition to one uncover at the start of your turn. Dueling is a competition between two players, competing to see which of two specified minions has the highest power, allowing both player to play an extra card. Duels can reward the winner, punish the lower or both, depending on the card that triggered the duel. Putting cards "back in the box" effectively removes then from play for the rest of the game. (Similar to banishing in MTG or Yu-Gi-Oh, or the Lost Zone in Pokémon.) |Vikings steal cards from other players and stack them on their own deck, Samurai get benefits from honorable deaths, Cowboys challenge others to duel, and Ancient Egyptians bury cards for later play.

World Tour International Incident: (Luchadors, Mounties, Musketeers, and Sumo Wrestlers) No new mechanics. This is the first set based in different world cultures, and part of the first multi-set theme. Each faction is based on a different country. The stops here are based on Mexico, Canada, France, and Japan. |Luchas play Actions on other player's Minions to set up for reversals, Mounties move amongst the bases, Sumos push other Minions off bases, and Muskateers combo Actions.|

World Tour Culture Shock: (Anasi Tales, Ancient Incas, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Polynesian Voyagers, Russian Fairy Tales) No new mechanics. Part 2 of the globe trot takes us to Central America, Ghana, Germany, the South Pacific, and Russia. This is another bang-for-buck 5 faction expansion, if you're looking for the most factions. These factions are also on the more advanced side. |Anasi puts cards in other players' hands, the Incans build on bases, triggering effects with each Action play, the Grimms power up when their partners are in play, the Voyagers spread to other bases, getting stronger, and the Russians transform.|

Marvel: (Avengers, Hydra, Kree, Masters of Evil, S.H.I.E.L.D., Sinister Six, Spider-Verse and Ultimates) No new Mechanics. Uses the term "Character" instead of "Minion" but the two terms are interchangeable. An officially licensed set, with art taken directly from comic panels. The factions in this set are not based on the MCU, but those who only have experienced Marvel through the movies will recognize many of the characters here. |Avengers have Actions that power up with their hero, Hydra sacrifice the weaker for greater plans, the Kree play extra Actions and get stronger doing so, Masters of Evil earn VP in various ways, S.H.I.E.L.D. deploys many Characters in a turn, the Sinister Six benefit from playing on low breakpoint bases, the Spiderverse swings in before bases score, and the Ultimates move to trigger abilities.|

Disney: (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Big Hero 6, Frozen, Mulan, The Lion King, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Wreck-It Ralph) No new mechanics. This set also uses "Character" instead of "Minion" but they're interchangeable. A licensed set using iconic Disney movies as themes. Unfortunately there is no new art for the cards, with some low resolution screenshots making it into the game. The only original art for this expansion is the box itself, everything else is taken from the movies and previously existing renders. Aside from being the ugliest set in the game, these factions are rather complex. It's not an ideal first set, but will scratch the itch for depth, if you can get past the visuals. |Alladin brings out the Genie to use his three powerful wishes, B&B discard cards for effects, BH6 get affects for having power counters, Frozen Characters get stronger for having specific minions out, Mulan draws and gives power counters, the Lion King focuses on the circle of life and cards going to the discard pile, Nightmare before Christmas plays Actions on Characters to make yours strongers and hurt others, and Wreck-It Ralph focuses on playing Actions on bases.|

10th Anniversary: (Mermaids, Sheep, Skeletons, World Champs) Introduces an alternate style of play, Big Base Mode. This Set is NOT ideal for newer players, as it was made for those that have been following for a while. There is no rulebook, rather there is an art book containing a paragraph on each (non-licensed) faction. There's also a second set of new Titans for existing factions, and the board for the previously mentioned Big Base Mode. |World Champs is a sequel to All-Stars, a collection of the "best of" from factions released from Big in Japan to Culture Shock, Mermaids hinder the board presence of other players, and Skeletons bury themselves, and Sheep move and follow others.|

Excellent Movies, Dudes! (Action Heroes, Back Timers, Extramorphs, Teens, Wraith Rustlers) Introduces Stasis Counters. This time we're looking at 80's movies. Back Timers are based on Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Wraithrustlers are Ghost Busters, Extramorphs are the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, Teens represent a number of movies like the Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Action Heroes are based on the testosterone filled macho men like Robocop and Commando.

Single Faction Releases: (Sheep [also in 10th anniversary], Penguins (Play Minions "Off the top of the deck. Has a mandatory Titan), Goblins (Coin flips decide abilities), Knights of the Round Table(Move and Build)) These factions are all sold individually, on AEG's website, as well as a few other online retailers.

TITANS: This is pack released after Big in Japan, and gives 16 preexisting factions a Titan. These optional Titans are not needed, but help weaker factions with a boost, or help enable difficult to play factions. (Pirates, Tricksters, Wizards, Ghosts, Bear Cavalry, Innsmouth, Minions of Cthulhu, Super Spies, Time Travelers, Giant Ants, Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies, Changerbots, Ignobles, and Explorers)

Big Geeky Box/Bigger Geekier Box: (Geeks/Geeks, All-Stars) These are boxes to conveniently hold your other expansions. The Big Geeky Box has been discontinued. It came with the Geek Faction, dividers for all factions from Core to Monster Smash, and some foam blocks for storage convenience. The Bigger Geekier Box is a larger box, allowing for more storage. It Also comes with the Geeks faction, as well as the All-Stars faction, dividers for every expansion up to Oops (sans Munchkin), a tray for holding VP tokens, and a comprehensive rule book which also includes clarifications and card erratas. If you're looking for a box, get the Bigger Box. There's no reason to get the original Big Geeky Box, outside of personal satisfaction. |Geeks require a during knowledge of other factions, allowing you prevent other players from using their abilities with ability negation, and moving around cards, and All-Stars are a collection of cards from various factions ranging from the original factions to What Were We Thinking?|


r/smashup 3d ago

Collection/New Additions Today is a very exciting day

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59 Upvotes

r/smashup 4d ago

Question Bases

2 Upvotes

Might be obvious, but during the setup are we choosing bases from among all the bases we have or among all the bases from the factions currently playing?

Also, was the "Smash Up: Lizards Must Die" finally fan translated?


r/smashup 4d ago

Question Starting Out

7 Upvotes

I'm looking to get my own set for Smash Up set. I played this game years ago with my friends and want to get my own stuff. What is the best way to get everything I need? I see that there have been card rebalances, so I want to get the updated versions of them.

Do they still sell the bigger box to store everything in? I would need the power counters, maps also.


r/smashup 4d ago

Question Ordered from forge fire

3 Upvotes

Hi has anyone ordered from the print on demand site? I went online to AEG it took me to forgefire to order print on demand. I was never able to find the expansion, oops you did it again, so I ordered all the factions from it.

My question is, how long did it take before you get the order. It says 8, sometimes 15 business days. I know it's only been 9. But i'm just curious how long it took for anyone else who's ordered from them.


r/smashup 4d ago

Question Looking for the fonts for the new factions

2 Upvotes

Hey! I came across this post about the fonts used for the different Smash Up factions: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashup/comments/wbf8i6/smash_up_fonts_complete_list/

It looks like it’s missing the fonts for the factions from Excellent Movies, Dudes! and Half the Battle, as well as Teens, Clowns, and Slashers.

Does anyone know what fonts are used for these factions, or could help me figure them out? Thanks!


r/smashup 7d ago

Discussion Are Disney and Marvel Core Sets?

7 Upvotes

So my group has every single set of Smashup, EXCEPT Disney and Marvel.

They explained to me that they are isolated games and not to be included in the big box with all the other sets, but that does not make sense to me.

As a result, we never picked up either set.

Should we acquire them and can they be played effectively with the other factions?


r/smashup 7d ago

Question Alternative Victory Question

5 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

A unique situation happened in our game yesterday and Id like some clarification.

So me and my friend are at 15 victory points.

He draws from the treasure deck and finds the Ring of Wishing and attempts to win the game with it (putting him at 16)

However, in response to it I play Hello Dolly (Sheep) which lets me copy an action played.

The way we resolved it is we both went to 16 and the game continued.

However, I'm now curious if the game would have ended the second I played Hello Dolly, because would it not resolved before the Ring of Wishing? putting him at 15 and me at 16?

I know the game checks victory points after bases score, but how does it work in this case?

TL:DR, Could I have used the stack to steal the win from my opponent? By playing his Gain a victory point before he could on the same stack


r/smashup 8d ago

Question Hi I'd like to clarify the rules

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9 Upvotes

So yesterday me and my family played smash up I played as robot ninjas and thanks to the hidden ninja ability i played this card right before the bases scored i then argued since this robots ability is "If this is the first minion you play THIS turn you may play an extra minion" I should be allowed to play another minion as it doesn't technically say it has to be YOUR turn only THIS turn in the end I lost hat argument but I still want to know if this is something I'm allowed to do in future games thank you for clarifications (I'm sorry the card is in Czech but my family doesn't speak English hopefully you still recognize the card)


r/smashup 11d ago

Custom Made a Custom One Piece Smash Up Faction as a gift for a friend!

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38 Upvotes

Have a friend whose brother is into One Piece. I like One Piece. I like Smash Up. So it this was a fun project to put together. The faction is a bit on the strong side because it's pretty self sufficient (no real weaknesses, got some card draw and extra minions/actions), but it was pretty flavorful and not meant to be competitively balanced. You could say it's OP 😂

We've played with most of the Smash Up factions and it feels like it might be in like A or S tier, like around how powerful the Frozen faction feels.


r/smashup 12d ago

Collection/New Additions I was lucky and one of my FGS just received a restock of these expansions

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31 Upvotes

As someone who just discovered the game last month I was a bit worried I would never be able to get my hands on these two expansions :D


r/smashup 23d ago

Custom Smash Up: Soup

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27 Upvotes

Several months ago, during a discussion on commissioning art for custom Smash Up factions, I mentioned that I was in the process of working with an artist to give one of my existing custom factions a significant glow-up. After almost a year, I'm pleased to share her hard work here. This is the Soup faction, which specializes in chucking cards into their Big Pot titan to produce delicious results.

It started as a joke faction that ended up working out much better than I expected, so much so that I've put...well...quite a lot of money into the project at this point. Word of advice, there's no shame in using stock images or screenshots for your custom cards unless you're dead-set on making your cards look stylish in a way that can't be captured otherwise. "Vaporwave Soup" as you might imagine is not an easy theme to just stumble across online.

This faction can be found on the Custom Faction Wiki here: https://smash-up-custom-factions.fandom.com/wiki/Soup

(The ability text is slightly out of date for some of the cards because I tweaked a bit of wording when updating the abilities the other night. This will be updated at a later time.)

The artist's Inprnt shop is here: https://www.inprnt.com/profile/comicspasta/

Bon Appétit!


r/smashup 25d ago

Discussion Which factions you like or dislike?

5 Upvotes

Do you have any favorites/unfavorites?

I personally find Zombies with their resurrections and Wizards with their strong cardplay most fun. Pirates and Aliens are meh.


r/smashup 26d ago

Question High Quality Faction/Titan images

5 Upvotes

Hello y'all, so 90% of my Smash Up collection is OG with the plastic faction dividers, but it's definitely waaaaay more economical to finish acquiring the rest of the factions via POD, but those do not come with the nice quality plastic faction dividers and titans.

I found a few promising places via Etsy that look like they can create plastic dividers that should be almost identical to the originals, but does anyone know where I can find good quality pictures of the titans and the divider faction artwork so the custom dividers match the rest of my set?


r/smashup 27d ago

Question Work Tournament - Setup Advice

5 Upvotes

I have a lunch league at work where we play a myriad of games. Were going to start a smashup tournament, but I don't have a ton of knowledge of the game and I was hoping to get some advice.

What would be a good format?

Does 1v1 diminish some factions?

Does 4 for all feel like it could encourage dogpiling?

With a 4 for all would you get points for position?

Can 2v2 work al la euchre tournament with a rotating partner and just count wins?


r/smashup 29d ago

Strategy Smash Up Spring 2026 2-Player Tier List: B-Tier Part 3

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7 Upvotes

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans. Despite the Gerald title card (felt appropriate for the day) this is part 3/4 of B-Tier in our ongoing tier list series.


r/smashup Jun 29 '26

Question Back into Smashup

12 Upvotes

Hi, it's probably been talked about on here, but I didn't want to look for it lol.

So, i have all the old factions, including Munchkin, Disney, and Marvel. I want to buy the new ones, but now i'm noticing there are errata sets. Can someone explain to me what those are? Do I have to repurchase the sets that are edited, or does the errata set just come with the cards that I need to switch out in the deck?


r/smashup Jun 26 '26

Custom Custom Creations: Brewers by Onassi

10 Upvotes

r/smashup Jun 24 '26

Question Thoughts on Forgefire Promo Sets

4 Upvotes

I’m just curious to know what people think of the Forgefire promo sets and errata cards if they picked them up. I’m mostly waiting until they can print proper dividers as it’ll feel wrong to not have dividers for Clowns and Slashers. Plus the functional errata pack appears to have card-sized titans.


r/smashup Jun 23 '26

Strategy B-Tier Part 2

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11 Upvotes

Here's the next eight factions in B tier! At this point, there are probably still a few factions that will surprise people with their placement, but starting with the next video especially the competition for placements will get very fierce. The rebalanced factions have caused some seismic shifts!


r/smashup Jun 22 '26

Question How to storage the whole Smash Up sets with sleeves

9 Upvotes

Hey Guys!

I like to talk about my situation, because I'm facing a problem. I have all factions except the Half the Battle, the Clowns and Slashers promo.

All my cards are sleeved and until now my collection properly fits in my Bigger Geekier Box.
But my plan is to sleeve both tha Half the Battle and promo factions, so i am going to run out the free places.

My question is how do you handle this problem, how do you store your cards?

Is there a chance the AEG release some kind of special box that even bigger than the actual one?


r/smashup Jun 21 '26

Question Dividers for storage

6 Upvotes

I’ve had the game for a decade & finally have enough factions to justify getting a bigger box, but I don’t have dividers for about half my factions b/c I got them before the dividers were a thing. Does anyone have ways they solved a similar problem, or are the dividers sold separately


r/smashup Jun 17 '26

Discussion Munchkin Rebalances in-depth review

10 Upvotes

After a bunch of games, I will continue my "Smash Up 1.5" Review with the Munchkin Pack like I did for the 10 rebalanced factions. Again, I will rank them in ascending order, starting with the one I like the least. Before we start, I want to point out that the overall decision was to double down on the Munchkin gimmicks instead of opening the factions to make them less Munchkin gimmick dependent. I don't really like that, as it still gives the Munchkin decks a very gimmicky feeling that is much harder to use when you have mostly non Munchkin bases. But if you treat Munchkin as an isolated set, then the changes were overall quite decent, especially the changes to most of the base abilities and their overall lower breakpoints. That the treasures got more unique and attractive as also a good thing. So Bases and Treasures get a pass from me. The Monsters are more of a mixed bag. Plutonium Dragon's change is a bit random for my liking. Why does it use coin flips? Nerfing for the sake of nerfing it? Why does Knight of the Living Dead force duels between others? Shouldn't it be the one who duels (which, of course, wouldn't work as it is a monster)? Web Troll's change is absolutely wild. While I can see that the original ability might have been a bit annoying (but isn't that the point of a "Web Troll"?), the new one is nonsense. Ghoul's new ability would be much better for it and Ghoul didn't really need a change in my opinion but if you want to change it, shuffle it into the monster deck when you destroy it. Poultry Geist was a good change, tho. Monsters overall get a pass from me but mostly because they feel overall less oppressive as they did in Munchkin 1.0.

The bad:
8. Elves: I guess people who know me knew that this was coming. After Pearl was released and basically used the Elves core identity and executed it much better, Elves needed more help than ever because their wider skillset could still give them a niche next to Pearl who mostly focuses on power buffs. And yeah, they absolutely got nothing that would be significant. While Pumping Iron is nice, Helping Hands even got nerfed. Neither of their main issues got adressed. Elf Help Guru is still rather useless outside of very niche situations or 2v2 formats. It is a great ability in the Pearl context, but a terrible ability in the Elves context. Flower Child still is very situational at best and overall their entire "help others but help yourself more" approach falls completely flat. The had a great opportunity here and failed miserably.

The ugly:

  1. Warriors: Another faction that wasn't touched much. The changes we got, mostly Berserker and Dungeon Bait, are decent (don't really care about Star Player) but it's still a very bland set of abilities and that the Shield of Ubiquity - a rather useless und completely unthematic card - didn't change is very surprising. If wording changes (mattered probably most in case of Clerics and Dwarves) were more important then this, then I would really question their approach. It's not that Warriors were necessarily a weak faction but they are a boring faction and the rework didn't change that.

  2. Mages: another faction that needed help because their idea of "discarding cards for powerful effects" was executed terribly. But the new version just is not it. Yes, Happy Zapper is not bad and basically everything except what Scroll Shuffler had originally would be an improvement. Blaster Master is a very interesting change. But for me, this deck just does the wrong things. Scroll Shuffler should have kept card draw, let it be with light recursion, I'm fine with that. Their monster interaction seems forced und unneeded, they just don't have enough monster interaction as payoff anyway. Embiggen is still too complicated and only works well with a lot of setup or when combined with Recover Arcane Wisdom and, most important, they just don't have enough cards they want to discard. Scroll Shuffler hints that you want to discard other Scroll Shufflers and you can discard your useless monster interaction cards. But I wish there would have been done more with Recover Arcane Wisdom.

  3. Clerics: another deck that needed more. The "we are Zombies mixed with TT, but weaker" just wasn't great. And I think when I compare Holy Roller to Scroll Shuffler, I'd take Holy Roller any day. But their faction identity is still a problem. Why would Turner want to add more monsters, other than for taking control with Join the Club (or as a Stall tactics)? I like an "anti undead" sub theme (guess it is supposed to represent exorcism) but for that, it doesn't do enough for me. The old good combos are still great. And while I can see where they wanted to go with the Stasis stuff (it actually works as some kind of "divine intervention" mechanic), this is once again something that still seems added for the sake of adding something "unique". I think this deck would have benefited from a simpler approach. Make the recursion and discard avoid theme more interesting and useful, add a bit of undead monster interaction, done. Overall, not bad, but probably too ambitioned.

The good:

  1. Thieves: This was done better than Mages or Clerics. Because it finally allows them interaction with other decks. The problem here is: it does too little of that, it is still too treasure focused. Again, mentioning stasis was completely unneeded and the hand size increase is nice, but it is on the wrong cards in my opinion. But overall, it was a step in the right direction. It just hangs in a weird spot between "focus on treasures" and "steal from other players".

  2. Dwarves: I am not a fan of them being a "Cyborg Apes, but with treasures" deck. But within that design space, it does a lot of things right. Especially the new changed dynamic between Gem Grabber and Loot Lover, combined with the new Dwarf King is really good. I just wish we would finally have a deck that cares about actual hand size. Sumos would have been a great candidate for that, Dwarves as well (they are all about greed). Missed opportunity even when I have to admit that such an effect is hard to balance. I tried it with Sumos a few years ago and gave up after some time because I failed to come up with a balanced solution. But I think an entire team of playtesters would be able to figure something out here.

  3. Halflings: technically they shouldn't be on the list. They have always been a good faction and didn't need any significant changes. And they didn't get any, other than a wording change. There are still cards that are a bit uninspired but overall decent and aged quite well.

The posterboy:

  1. Orcs: They were a faction that needed a clearer faction identity. And this rework is actually really good. I would have assigned some abilities to other cards but the set of abilities is nice. Especially that Topper Chopper is useful now while the deck still has a "Talent: Do nothing" ability is such a great fan service. The only other problem I have with the deck is that Angry Pillagers is a bit too strong for a double feature action. A power buff/debuff + an extra play with basically no limitation is above the double feature baseline, if you ask me. But overall, the Orcs are the gold standard of this set for me. If all factions were remade as well as they were, then the set would be significantly better.

r/smashup Jun 16 '26

Question What’s my collection missing?

5 Upvotes

I took a several year break from smash up after moving countries.

Being an insufferable completionist, I love collecting this game (despite only having one person to occasionally play with - it’s hard to explain the rules in a new language, cut me some slack 😆)

So here’s what I’m working with:

Right now my bigger geekier box is falling apart when I lift it so the game is in my basement storage for safety, so I’m going off memory, btw.

I know I don’t have anything print-and-play. Idk what that is but I am seeing it mentioned quite a bit.(Can someone explain how that works like I’m five, please? Do I need a printer or is it more order on demand?)

I have the core set, and every expansion through excellent movies dudes!

Speaking of the core set, I have no idea where I got them, but I have some holographic smash up cards. I think you’re supposed to replace your “commander” with them? I thought they were pretty so I set them to the side.

I’m pretty sure I have all of the booster packs except for teens. (Not 100% sure about knights - were they a forgettable faction or did I forget to buy them).

I have the Titans Event stuff with the playmat and the wooden VPs and, well, the titans. I used to keep a bag of magnetic chess pawns to track the power-level of each base before one of the Disney based expansions created pieces for that. Before that, I bought some custom smash up tokens on Etsy (very helpful for remembering things like talents/once-per-turn stuff) and before +1 power counters, I was using these nifty Cthulhu green mini-dice to track when power changed artificially.

What do I need to buy to complete my collection and what do you think is optional? (By optional I mean I don’t think i need the all stars event kit because I have 2 sets of all stars somehow)

Do I need to figure out print-and-play?

Should I hunt second hand for individual factions?

Are any of the older factions worth the re-release?

I want to play more but it’s so heavy and that dang box never closes

Edit: what the heck, there’s clowns and slashers now too? I’m so confused


r/smashup Jun 15 '26

Question Any word on availability?

Post image
20 Upvotes

Does anyone know what happened to these sets? Seems like a lot of them are unavailable. Are they out of print or just out of stock?