USA vs Canada: A Full VARZ TCG Testplay Session

VARZ TCG is designed around decisions that cannot be understood from card strength alone.

Where a Hero stands, which route remains open, how many defenders can reach a Portal, and whether a player should pressure Life or change targets entirely can all reshape a match.

This full online testplay brought together Gensai Games from the USA and The A/V Club from Canada for a Green-versus-Purple battle in Tabletop Simulator. The result was a long tactical exchange that showed exactly why positioning is at the heart of VARZ.

Match at a Glance

Green: Saya — Gensai Games, USA
Purple: Tamaki — The A/V Club, Canada
Format: Online testplay in Tabletop Simulator
Match length: Approximately 37 minutes
Main themes: Positioning, Portal defense, removal, route control, and switching between victory conditions

Two Colors with Very Different Plans

The matchup demonstrated two distinct approaches to controlling the same battlefield.

Green: Develop the Board and Create Routes

Saya’s Green strategy aims to build a stable formation, support allied Spils, and turn controlled hexes into future attack routes.

Green often looks strongest when it can:

Establish multiple Spils before the opponent closes the center
Keep useful units within supporting distance of one another
Move from a defensive formation into Portal pressure
Preserve enough board presence to recover after a trade

In this match, Green repeatedly tried to expand its position and create a route through the central hexes. The important question was not simply whether a Spil could win a battle. It was whether that Spil would still occupy the correct hex after the battle ended.

Purple: Disrupt the Formation

Tamaki’s Purple strategy attacks the structure behind the opponent’s plan.

Rather than relying only on direct combat, Purple can use #Curse, Drop effects, and other disruptive abilities to change which units remain available and which routes stay protected.

Purple’s pressure comes from forcing difficult decisions:

Keep a Spil beside the Hero and risk an adjacency-based effect
Move forward and leave a Portal route exposed
Protect the current land and lose influence elsewhere
Commit resources to one threat while another part of the board develops

The match showed how Purple can slow an opponent without completely stopping every action. A single removed support unit or blocked hex can be enough to make the opponent’s original sequence impossible.

The Battlefield Is a Resource

In many card games, resources are represented mainly by cards, energy, or mana.

VARZ adds another resource: space.

A powerful card can still be ineffective when:

The required destination is occupied
The target is outside its range
A blocker controls the only useful route
Moving the Hero would expose a Portal
An attack leaves the unit in the wrong position for the next turn

This was visible throughout the testplay. Both sides had to think beyond the current action and consider the board that would remain afterward.

A move that appeared defensive could prepare an attack several turns later. An aggressive shift could gain immediate pressure but reduce the player’s ability to defend the opposite land.

Why the Two Victory Conditions Matter

A VARZ player can win by:

Reducing the opponent’s Life to 0.
Destroying every Portal on one of the opponent’s lands.

Because both threats exist at the same time, a player cannot judge the match from Life totals alone.

During the closing sequence of this recording, Gensai Games had been pushed down to 1 Life, while The A/V Club remained at 4 Life. However, the Portal lines and positions on the battlefield still created separate threats that had to be respected.

That is one of the most important strategic features of VARZ. A player who appears ahead in the Life race may still need to abandon an attack and defend a land. A player under heavy Life pressure may still have a path to victory by concentrating attacks on the final Portals.

This forces both players to keep asking:

Which victory condition is the opponent actually pursuing?
Can they switch targets next turn?
Which land needs immediate protection?
Is the Hero defending the right part of the battlefield?

Small Trades Create Large Positional Changes

Several exchanges in the match appeared simple when viewed as card-for-card trades. On the hex battlefield, however, every removed Spil also changes the map.

Dropping one unit may:

Open an attack line
Remove a blocker from a Portal
Break an adjacency effect
Allow a Hero to move safely
Give an enemy Spil access to a previously protected hex

This is why reviewing the complete board after every effect is essential. The most important consequence of an ability may not be the damage or card advantage. It may be the empty hex left behind.

What This Testplay Helps Us Improve

International test sessions are valuable not only because they produce exciting matches, but because they show how players understand the game without relying on explanations from the development team.

Sessions like this help us evaluate:

Whether card text communicates its timing clearly
Whether movement and targeting are easy to follow
Which interactions need better visual support
Whether the digital play flow feels smooth
Which parts of the match are hardest for spectators to understand

VARZ is still being refined through continued playtesting. Feedback from players with different TCG backgrounds helps us improve the rules, cards, tutorials, and online tools before release.

A Cross-Border VARZ Community

This match connected players in the United States and Canada on a shared digital battlefield.

That is an important part of the future we are building for VARZ: players should be able to discover the game, build a deck, find an opponent, play online, and review the match regardless of where they live.

The official website now brings those steps together through the Deck Builder, Challenges, match records, and replay tools.

Video

Start Playing VARZ

Ready to explore the battlefield yourself?

Learn how to play VARZ TCG
Build and save a deck online
Find opponents and view recent matches
Visit the VARZ TCG official website

Every testplay teaches us something new, and every new player brings a different way to see the battlefield.

Which strategy would you choose: Green’s board development or Purple’s disruption?