Maybe I missed a resurgence in popularity of the Disney film The Sword In the Stone, but suddenly we're seeing a bunch of mages-kicking-each-others'-butts games: Summoner Wars, Mage Wars, Seasons, and now...Tash-Kalar: Arena Of Legends from designer Vlaada Chvatil.

According to Czech Games Edition, "The game includes three different factions, each with a unique deck of beings to summon and one deck of legendary creatures. Players take turns placing their common pieces on the board, and if they succeed in creating patterns depicted on one of the cards in hand, they may play it. When played, the card summons a particular being and allows the player to perform an effect described on the card: a giant destroys neighboring pieces, a knight moves through enemy pieces, a warlord orders previously placed pieces to move and fight, an enchantress converts enemy pieces to player's own color, etc. After that, the player discards the card and the summoned being turns into a motionless piece which may be used in patterns for summoning other beings – or even be awakened and moved into combat by the effects of other cards."

The game says it's for 2-4 players, but I'm not sure how 4 players will play with only three factions.

It looks very abstract, actually—not at all the heavily thematic games we've seen in Mage Knight The Board Game and Dungeon Lords.

Vlaada is hit-and-miss for me, so I'm not sure how likely I am to try this one. How about you?