Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn is an expandable card game designed by Isaac Vega; art by Fernanda Suarez, David Richards, and Thander Lin; and published by Plaid Hat Games. It is most commonly a two-player competitive card game, with player count variants up to four, and a separate solo/coop expansion series that pits players against a boss.
Ashes Reborn encourages the creativity of collectible card games, including deck construction, but its business model is similar to living card games like Marvel Champions. The Master Set includes six Phoenixborn with preconstructed decks, 40 custom dice for those heroes, and all other components needed for the game. Players can mix-and-match cards to build their own decks, and expansions grow the total number of available Phoenixborn to 28 and cards to about one bazillion.
Setting, Theme, and Gameplay
Players take on the role of Phoenixborn, demigods who have saved humanity in the world of Argaia and now face off against each other to claim ultimate godhood. The setting and theme shine during play, as Phoenixborn summon conjurations, cast spells, and bring allies to the battle.
Ashes Reborn adheres to well-known mechanisms of head-to-head battlers, like spending resources to cast spells and reducing your opponent’s health to zero. It also introduces some innovations:
- First Five. Instead of drawing random cards for the first turn, each player chooses their hand to begin the game, introducing another level of strategy, and reducing the “feel bad” of a weak starting hand.
- Dice as Resources. Instead of using cards as resources, Ashes Reborn’s dice are the magic used to power spells and other action. The dice themselves have powers separate from the cards, adding more options each turn.
- Quick Turns. Dice rolls start each round, which then plays out in a series of very quick turns (typically one or two actions per player). This helps me stay engaged for a full game.
- Quick Games. Decks are exactly 30 cards (not counting Conjurations), and there is no re-shuffle. Players take damage once their deck runs out for each card they should-but-cannot draw.
I find the gameplay of Ashes Reborn both familiar and refreshing, and the theme is embedded throughout each game. Bringing conjurations and allies to the fight is satisfying, and the Phoenixborn’s powers feel powerful.
Accessibility
It’s clear to me that the designer, graphic artists, and publisher considered visual accessibility when designing Ashes Reborn. In most cases I was able to play game right out of the box (with one minor exception described below). Overall, the game provides solid accommodations for low-vision and colorblind players.
DICE
The dice are fantastic—beautiful, easy to use, and accessible.
- Aesthetics. These are great components with pleasing colors with simple line art on each face.
- Size. Some other games are moving toward big, chunky dice (I’m not a fan), so I appreciate the standard size, especially when rolling 10 in a dice tray.
- Corner Rounding. In other games, dice corners can be too “sharp” and not roll well; other times the corners are so round that I accidentally bump them to other sides. Ashes Reborn balances this well: the dice roll when I want them to and stay put when needed.
- Accessibility. The combination of a distinguishable color palette and separate icons for each magic type results in triple-coding. It’s perfect for me.
Four dice types (40 total) are included in the master set, with the other three (30 dice) provided in deluxe expansions. Note that the seven different color combinations are double-coded, even before the Class symbols and Power symbols differentiate them further. The original four magic types, shown top-to-bottom in the image above, are Ceremonial (red on black), Charm (yellow on orange), Natural (green on medium blue), and Illusion (light blue on dark blue).
The three additional magic types (seen both above in the full set, and below by themselves) are Divine (gold on white), Sympathy (gold on teal), and Time (white on red). These dice follow the same excellent graphic design and color choices of the master set.
(Photo Credit: Plaid Hat Games)
Color Matching. For colorblind players to identify colors between different components, it’s important for those colors to match as close as possible. As shown below, the Natural Magic reference card on the left is not a great color match to the physical dice—the card art looks yellow to me, while the dice themselves look like green art. The Charm Magic reference card matches its real-word counterpart better.
I’ve also learned that there are some non-matching colors between the original Ashes game (2015 release) and Ashes Reborn (2021). One example is the Charm magic dice, which appear pink in the older version and orange in the current box. Any other differences, at least for me, are quite minor. Below is an image of the original dice.
(Photo Credit: Vincent Vignola)
Double Coding. In the end, double-coding comes to the rescue again! The Power (frog) and Class (leaf) symbols are obvious matches between the card and dice, making the color-matching less relevant. Similarly, regardless of whether Charm dice look more pink or more orange, the symbols are the most important element to distinguish dice types from one another.
CARDS
First of all, these cards are gorgeous. I sometimes stop and look at the art during the middle of games. I’m a fan of the full/borderless art on each card.
Graphic design and contrast is generally good, but some cards are better than others. For example, Seaside Raven’s text is written on top of faded art rather than an opaque background. This could be difficult for some low-vision players to see easily. As a counter-example, Abundance keeps the art in the top half of the card, so the text contrast is higher.
Like many card games, some fonts get a little small (Abundance is a good example), especially if reading it upside-down across a table. But I didn’t find this a hindrance to play. Overall, the cards are great!
STATUS TOKENS
The only components that didn’t work for me were the wound and status tokens, but not due to lack of effort. As shows below, the red and green tokens have a subtle double-coding element around the outside of each token to denote the difference, along with the two colors.
Unfortunately, because the colors looked so close, the subtle double-coding wasn’t enough to easily identify them. This is especially problematic looking all the way across a table, with both wound and status tokens on an opponent’s card. Any of the following options would’ve provided a better experience for me:
- Color choice. Using a combination other than red and green, the two most likely colors to be confused.
- Color tones. Using dark red and light green or vice versa, instead of the same brightness level.
- Text colors. Making the status token numbers and outline art black-on-green, keeping the wound tokens white-on-red.
- Different shapes. Choosing two different shapes for the tokens. For example, Marvel Champions uses squares, triangles, and circles for its three primary tokens (see below).
Accessibility Modification: To address this red/green issue, I swapped out the green status tokens with my own glass beads. Since the original status tokens were 1s and 3s, I noticed that I sometimes needed a secondary replacement for high-token cards like Silver Snake. To address this, I grabbed a green die I had lying around to help with larger status numbers: 8 in this example.
Conclusion
I’ve enjoyed my plays Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn so far, and I look forward to continued plays. Accessibility is quite good in general, with the one exception of red/green tokens that required a modification. Start your Ashes Reborn journey with the Master Set, available on the Plaid Hat Games website.
Disclaimers and Photo Credits
- Disclaimer: Colorblind Games received a complimentary copy of the game for this review.
- Photo Credits are as described in captions – special thanks to Tyler and Vincent! Box cover art and bottom image by Plaid Hat Games. All others by Brian Chandler.
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