Review: POWER RANGERS DECKBUILDING GAME OMEGA FOREVER Takes Risks with New Mechanics and Rewards Fans of the Comics

This year, Renegade Game Studios released the Omega Forever expansion for the Power Rangers Deck-Building Game. This is the first expansion that is not a standalone and therefore requires either the base game or Zeo: Stronger Than Before to play.

Omega Forever adds 4 Rangers and 4 Villains into the mix along with new Zords, a couple of new mechanics, new Starter cards, and more. You can purchase Omega Forever and the Omega Bonus Pack #1 (holographic versions of the character cards) from Renegade for $30 and $5 respectively or your local game stores. Thank you to Renegade for sending me a copy for this review.

When the Morphin Grid was shattered, its energy empowered individuals across the galaxy. In this expansion to the Power Rangers Deck-Building Game, you can play as one of the powerful Omega Rangers or the dangerous Anointed.

For starters, I want to say that I was excited when I heard the Omega Rangers were getting an expansion for the Power Rangers Deck-Building Game. The comics from BOOM! Studios with the Omega Rangers have been a great joy in my life and I think overall, the team at Renegade did a good job with this expansion. If you do play with it, I found the instructions from the rulebook for the core game to be the clearest in how to add this with either or both of the core sets. The artwork is great and there is a consistent theme to the characters and cards: risk vs reward.

A lot of the cards and characters are designed so that you get powerful effects at the cost of your own health. Some cards are definitely better than others in the balance of risk vs reward. Depending on how you are able to build your deck though, you can really minimize the risk, sometimes to the point of completely nullifying any damage to yourself. I will say, one problem with this kind of self-damaging strategy is that if you are on the losing side, it can feel a lot harder to make a comeback because you have to take yourself to the brink of death to pull off some cards and combos that you need. It’s definitely a matter of personal taste and I think overall Omega Forever does a good job of utilizing this theme.

One area where Rangers are given a boost in this game is with the new Starter cards. You add one new card to your Starter deck so you now have 11 cards in your Starter deck. This already shakes up some of the strategy. Then, the Villains get Anointed which provides you with 2 Crystals and 1 Energy at the cost of 1 HP. Meanwhile, Rangers have Omega Morphers which give them the same currencies at the same cost of 1 HP, but they also get their Omega Coin. This is a new mechanic that lets Rangers temporarily morph for a turn. Morphed Omega Rangers also have abilities that let them do various things like damage Villains, boost Attacks, and more. If the Rangers play their cards right, they can get their Omega Coin, use it to temporarily morph, and then get it again to use the Morphed Ranger’s ability in a single turn. It’s a fun mechanic that opens up a number of possibilities for large swings.

Another new mechanic to the game is the idea of Fused Zords. When I told my wife about this, she joked about how the game was becoming like Yu-Gi-Oh!. The Omega Zords have the ability to fuse with another Zord to give additional bonuses. For example, the Yellow Omega Zord will let you draw a card and not exhaust the Zord when it’s ability is used. It’s definitely an interesting mechanic, although the jury is still out as to how useful it is.

Sadly, there are a couple of weaknesses in Omega Forever. For starters, the new Blaster card is Omega Strike which lets you heal or damage both you and an opponent. This is meant to replace the Blade Blaster which is key to the Power Rangers Deck-Building Game working smoothly for one reason: it lets you clear a clogged Grid. It’s not hard for the Grid (the place where you buy new cards for your deck) to get clogged with cards that neither player wants which results in either the game basically being decided by the cards already in play/in the decks or needless purchasing in hopes of getting better cards going. In my opinion there always needs to be a clear way to clear the Grid. The Blade Blaster in the core game is an option always available to players as a way to do this and without it, it’s a lot harder to do that.

Another downside is that destroying cards from your deck is another key part of a deck-building game. Omega Forever seems to have a lack of options to do this as well. This means you have to be a lot more careful when buying cards or your deck will become too clogged to get the cards you need when you need them.

Now, both of these complaints can be lessened when you set the game up as you can choose to use Blade Blasters instead of Omega Strike and you can choose to add cards from other sets that improve your ability to destroy cards.

One complaint that cannot be addressed during setup is the box insert. The box for Omega Forever looks great. It has fantastic art. However, it doesn’t allow for great organization of items inside. It’s just a cardboard insert with a singular cavity in the middle for you to put all the Character cards, normal-sized cards, and Omega Coins in a sloppy free-for-all. Renegade has made great inserts for other games, why does this feel so unthoughtful?

Overall, Omega Forever is a solid expansion. Because of how modular the game can be, you can mitigate the weakest points of the expansion without too much effort. The new mechanics are fun, the new characters are great additions (although I am disappointed that we don’t have a card for Yale!, the true Omega Blue Ranger), and I do appreciate the very consistent theme for the set. If you enjoy Power Rangers Deck-Building Game and you like the comics from BOOM! Studios, this is a solid addition to your gaming closet.