Plantopia: The Card Game Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Plantopia, a set collection and hand management game published by Origame. In Plantopia, players are playing plats to their tableau in the hopes of creating the best combos.

You’ve seen my review history, and by now noticed that I either love extremely cute games or games with an intriguing IP. Judging by the art of this game you’ll immediately know that this falls into the cute games category and it also takes up just the cutest amount of space on your shelf. Don’t let looks deceive you though, this game about gardening does pack a punch!

Plantopia is a card game for 2 to 5 players that takes about thirty minutes to play. The best experience is with five players for maximum chaos and access to resources.

Plantopia comes with Plant Cards, Weather Cards, Planter Cards, Bonus Weather Cards, and Character Power cards. Each player is dealt six Plant Cards for their starting hand and five Planter Cards for their playing area, known as the Garden. Character Power cards may come with special effects that change the setup for a player and are detailed accordingly on the cards.

The gameplay alternates between the Planting Phase and the Weather Phase until one player has 4 Treevolved Plants. Treevolved Plants require a Baby Plant to be paid from one’s Garden of a specific type and minimum level, in which case the Baby Plant is discarded and then replaced by the Treevolved Plant.

During the Planting Phase, all players first draw 1 card and then choose 1 of 3 options, all carried out simultaneously amongst players: 1) Plant, 2) Grow, or 3) Draw 5 cards and discard 3. Costs to plant a card are shown in the top left of the card a player wishes to plant. Growing plants also costs that same amount, and you are limited to