Recently
Bounts, the latest expansion for the
Bleach TCG has hit the market, and it promised some interesting things. Other than the obvious appearance of
Bounts from the 3rd
Bleach story arc, it also promised new methods of resource management, brand new “utility” mechanics”, and much more. I recently got a chance to sit down with several packs of the new expansion to see if these promises were delivered upon.
As an avid player of the
Bleach TCG I have reviewed every set since set 1, and so far I have to say, if Score Entertainment does anything, it's listen to the fans. When the game first game out, all mechanics were very specific to character type or even character name, and they lacked a certain “generic” quality that seemed to let them work in more than one deck type. As sets went on, this started to change, with mechanics becoming more and more general and utility based (sometimes dealing with squads or other more generic types), until
Bankai hit and I was amazed at how flexible
Bleach cards have become. The one thing I was skeptical about was if these new Bount mechanics were going to be cheesy and unviable in any serious deck, but fortunately I was way wrong.
Luckily there is one card that stands for everything I like in
Bounts, and that is this one, the guardian Ryo Udagawa, one of the
Bounts themselves. He represents a fusion of intelligent design and utility in that he uses the new Bount mechanic in a way that works in any deck that includes items in it. Let's go over the good parts one by one.
First, we have the Bount's soul harvesting mechanic. Unlike other types of characters
Bounts suck souls and life force from their victims and then use them to power their abilities. The way this is represented in the
Bounts expansion is an ingenious little mechanic that allows certain cards to “collect souls”. When you collect souls you essentially remove cards from the game into a “soul pool”. Those souls can then be used as resources to fuel Bount abilities.
The most interesting thing about the soul harvesting mechanic is that no one particular card needs to become a soul. In fact any card in your deck is a candidate, as long as you have a card that says so. For example, Ban and Ho allow you to make a card in your hand into a soul as they come into play. It can be any type of card. Ryo's soul collecting ability is actually a bit more specific but gathers souls much quicker, as he allows you to collect any number of cards from your hand and graveyard as souls as long as they are items.
Soul abilities are generally pretty useful as well. As you can see above, Ryo's allows him to deal damage by discarding items from his hand. Then of course he can collect those items as souls, so that he might do so more often. This is a very good generic ability that makes the guardian one that I think might see play in some tournament viable decks.
There is one thing I dislike about the soul mechanic though, and that is that it is exclusive to
Bounts and
Bounts only. I think this is actually a bit mistake on Score's part. The mechanic works so well in flavor for Quincy, Hollows, Arrancar (SHHHH I didn't say anything about the upcoming arc), and even some Shinigami (Soul Reapers). It also adds a new level of depth to playing the game that wasn't there before, and gives players yet more options to build winning decks. I am going to be very disappointed if and when the soul harvesting mechanic is phased out when the Bount arc expansions end. Then again, as I said before Score Entertainment has a habit of listening to their fans, so with any luck they will read this review and adapt the mechanic to other character and guardian types.
As I said before, the other thing I like about the new
Bleach Bounts expansion is that Score is continuing their movement toward utility cards, however they are doing so without losing the original scope of how the game was designed. For an example, look at the card above “Warm Welcome” which basically lets you convert extra energy into life. This is a good card all around however to keep the game based in its character specific roots (regardless of my own opinion that character specific mechanics are a horrible idea) the card allows you to gain twice as much energy if you are playing as Retsu Unohana.
Not all the cards are gems though. Look at this one. This is a rare card and its mechanic is so specific that unless Ganju is in the core of your strategy the card is totally useless. Not only that, but for the card to do anything you need at LEAST 2 copies of another very specific card to make it operational. Every TCG expansion has its dud rares but… come on. Honestly, I think the thing that annoys me the most about this card and other cards like it, is that this isn't a card that is relevant to the Bount arc! Ganju's pyromania was shown in the Soul Society arc, which has already been covered in the
Soul Society,
Seireitei and
Bankai expansions! Even though he shows up in the Bount arc, he does nothing really but manage a grocery store! I would have rather had another version of Uryuu any day.
Finally, I have one last gripe about the Bount expansion, and that is that I am really starting to get jaded by
Bleach's ever changing card layout. In the beginning, it was kind of cool and dynamic, however in my experience it actually makes it extremely hard for new players to get into the game. They find themselves trying to locate the same types of info on cards with different borders and layouts, which presents an unneeded roadblock. I think that Score shouldn't stop changing the borders, but instead maybe change them every block or every year instead of every set.
Overall though I have to say I was impressed with the
Bounts expansion. It plays by itself wonderfully, since you are more apt to get cards that use the soul mechanic, and it does fit into play with other expansions well, even though it will take you a bit to wrap your head around the new types of synergy. I think if anything,
Bounts shows us that Score Entertainment is trying to think outside the box, which is exactly what a TCG development team needs.
TCGs stagnate very very easily, and honestly if Score wanted to, they could make any old TCG and slap the
Bleach name on it and thousands of
Bleach Otaku would rush out to buy it. However, I applaud Score for rising above base and mindless marketing and honestly giving it their all to make a balanced and interesting TCG.
Bounts is yet another step in the right direction for the
Bleach TCG. The TCG is still young so it still doesn't completely feel refined yet, but they have entered a time period where it has become safe to experiment with new mechanics, which is a sign that the TCG has some real staying power. As I said before, if Score continues to develop expansions like this, expect the
Bleach TCG to be around for a very long time.
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Presentation Rating = 7.0
The new card frames are starting to irk me, but the anime stills are just as beautiful as ever.
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Gameplay Rating = 7.5
The game still plays a little too “specific” for my tastes, but the push toward utility definitely makes this expansion fun to play.
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Synergy Rating = 7.4
The Bounts kind of feel like they are in a class of their own and they don't mesh readily with other card mechanics, however if you think outside of the box you start to find some massive recursive abilities in students and items so I definitely think that there are some Bount cards that mesh well with older decks.
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Innovation Rating = 8.2
I really like the new soul mechanic. I can only hope that Score will decide to keep the mechanic around in future expansions.
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