ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Munchkin Review: The Original Munchkin

Updated on January 17, 2015

Brief Synopsis

The fantasy themed deck itself is the most well-rounded. After all, shouldn't be? It's the very first of its kind, made before expansions might have even been thought of. As time has past, small changes and re-balancing of the game has helped cement its strength. Really, this is the staple of the series and should likely be the first to be played.

Source

The Monsters and Curses

It’s not unforgiving, as most monsters level 16-20 will not pursue low level players, meaning if you draw a monster on your first turn that would absolutely slaughter you, you can opt not to fight it and essentially end your turn.

However, two monsters, the Wight Brothers and King Tut are hardly forgiving. Both are level 16 but force the player running away from them to lose 2 levels even if they manage to get away (normally rolling at least a 5 or 6 on a 6 sided die). However, if they catch you, one forced you to go to Level 1 (possibly the worst Bad Stuff I’ve seen in Munchkin) and the other causes you to lose all items and cards in your hand, imitating Death in the game but not allowing you to respawn (which allows you to re-draw cards to compensate for your loss).

Yet, there are worse things to actually try to fight. Level 8 Ghoulfiends, while not a threat at first glance, have an effect where your items don’t work, meaning you either have to have a friend help you kill them, or you must be Level 9. However, Level 9 is one level short of winning, so every other player is going to do their best to screw you over, possibly with the obnoxiously powerful Mate card, which just copies one Monster card in play which would create 2 Ghoulfiends. However, if another player plays a Wandering Monster card (allowing them to play another monster on a player’s combat) and plays the Level 14 Insurance Salesman, you can’t win. The Insurance Salesman negates your Level for combat, meaning the two of them together doesn’t allow the player to have a combat level to fight with, forcing them to try to Run Away immediately.

Not all monsters are bad though; the Potted Plant grants an extra Treasure card for Elves who beat it. Level 6 Pukachu and Level 2 Large Angry Chicken also grant 2 levels with the right setup, allowing a player at Level 8 a chance to win while fighting a low level Monster. Plus, if you use the Mate card, you can get double the bonuses (but be careful, it’ll be easier for other players to screw you over)!

Curses aren’t terrible, except for one that mimics the Ghoulfiends’ effect and another Curse that drops you 2 levels easily. Another Curse puts a Chicken on Your Head, subtracting 1 from every die roll, forcing you to roll a 6 in order to get away and making a Thief’s life difficult (to steal you have to roll a 4, 5, or 6 or you’ll lose a level instead).

Character Modifiers

When you start the game, you’re a Human with no Class, but with Class and Race cards, you can change that. Playing as a Halfling is good if you’re looking to sell stuff to go up levels and are helping in running away while a Dwarf can have 6 cards in their hand instead of the normal 5. However, an Elf is both the most powerful Race as well as the worst one. You get a +1 to Run Away (meaning you need to roll a 4 or higher) but you also get an extra level for every monster to help another player kill, meaning you can actually win the game with this ability. That’s great, right? Not if everyone else hates an Elf. You’re very likely to be ostracized and disliked by everyone else if you’re an Elf for that reason.

For classes, there are Warriors, Clerics, Thieves, and Wizards. A Warrior is really good for early play, granting easy bonuses when you’re losing against a monster by a little. A Thief is meant for a good griefing player, stealing other people’s stuff and stabbing them in the back. A Wizard is the best Class if you’re looking to get away easily and by giving up your entire hand, you can discard the monster, forfeit the levels, but you gain all of its Treasures! Fighting a Level 20 too tough? Discard your hand of 3 cards and draw 5 new Treasures! Also, the Wizard is able to use the Staff of Napalm, a +5 1 Hand item, which by numbers alone is the strongest equipment card in the deck. The Cleric can be really powerful against Undead Monsters (such as King Tut) but its real usefulness is taking cards back from the discard pile with its Resurrection ability.

Munchkin Original Deck

Treasure Cards

A very versatile Treasure is the Transferral Potion. If you’re in a bind, you want to stop someone from winning, or a monster just popped up that you want someone else to fight, this card cures your need. The Tuba of Charm has the same gameplay as the Wizard class, giving you a whopping +3 to Run Away (normally, only if you roll a 1 do you fail to Run Away) and it gives you a Treasure card for getting away successfully. However, the most overpowered Treasure card in this deck are the Kneepads of Allure, which the Cleric cannot use. This card basically allows you to force another player to help you in combat, adding their strength to you. They can’t ask for a reward, you don’t have to give one, and they’re stuck trying to escape on their own if you both fail. Aside from the limitations (the person has to have a Level higher than you, and you can’t use this ability to win), this card is unrivaled in ability in this deck, and very few Curses or Bad Stuff effects can force a player to remove it. A Thief can steal it though.

Have you already played the deck?

Do you like this deck?

See results

More Munchkin

And that’s about all I have for the central deck of the fantasy themed Munchkin deck. Next time, I’ll cover Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe, an expansion that gives a handful of new cards, including a powerful Race, the Orc.

I've got plenty more Munchkin Custom Card Ideas! You can see a list of them here.

Also, as I've spent far too money on numerous Munchkin decks and expansions, I can tell you which ones are worth it, which aren't, and why. The directory is found here.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)