About Petty Wizards

What Is Petty Wizards?

Petty Wizards is a card game about collecting magical Grimoires, burning your rivals' defenses, and surviving long enough to call yourself the greatest wizard in the room. Games are fast — usually 20 to 40 minutes — and every decision matters, from how you defend your Mana Shield to when you decide to cast that devastating spell you've been holding all game.

The game is built around five schools of magic: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Wild. Each school has a distinct personality, and collecting full Grimoire sets from those schools is your primary path to victory. Destroy your opponents before they destroy you, and try not to be too petty about it — but no promises.

The Five Schools of Magic

How the Game Plays

Each player begins with five cards in hand and a Mana Shield of five. On your turn, you draw two cards and have three actions to spend. You can use those actions to play Grimoires onto your Play Area, cast spells and action cards against your opponents, or sacrifice cards from your hand to top up your Mana Shield.

Spells don't deal direct damage — they burn Mana from your target's Mana Shield permanently. When a player's Mana hits zero, they become vulnerable: any additional Mana Burn forces them to sacrifice Grimoires from their Play Area. Lose all your Grimoires with nothing left to sacrifice, and you're eliminated. Your Grimoires return to the deck, giving the survivors access to what you collected.

The first player to complete two full Grimoire sets wins outright. Alternatively, be the last wizard standing. There are often multiple viable paths to victory in any given game, which keeps every session fresh.

Play Online

Petty Wizards is now available to play in your browser. Challenge the AI in solo mode to learn the ropes, or invite friends for local or online multiplayer. Online rooms support 2 to 6 players and optional turn timers to keep games moving.

The online version features three AI difficulty levels — Easy, Challenging, and Expert — so there's always a worthy opponent whether you're picking up the game for the first time or sharpening your strategy.

The Design Philosophy

Petty Wizards was designed around one core principle: every turn should feel meaningful, even when your hand is bad. The three-action system creates real decisions each turn — do you press your attack, shore up your defenses, or develop your Grimoire collection toward the win condition?

The Mana Shield mechanic was introduced specifically to make defense feel like a genuine choice rather than an automatic response. Sacrificing a Mana card is straightforward, but sacrificing a Grimoire — knowing it returns to the deck and not the discard — is a gut-punch that creates memorable moments.

Instants like Counterspell and Dispel Magic add a reactive layer that rewards attentive players without slowing the game to a crawl. The five-second interrupt window keeps the pace brisk while still giving opponents a chance to respond to the most impactful plays.