Monsters and the Things That Destroy Them: The Dead (2022)

The third cycle of the "Monsters" series features the cinematic 'slashers' of 1981-1990. All monsters and tactical cards (neutralizers) have unique powers from the other cycles. This third set adds a neutral area called the Dead Zone, which represents a parallel dimension, dream realm, or comatose hallucination. The Dreamstalker can trigger a card in the dead zone, the chainsaw-wielding Butcher or the machete-wielding Slasher can send monsters there, and Reanimation Serum can bring back a monster. Each monster has an ability such as triggering the top card of your discard pile. You don't play cards from your hand; you take cards from a 4-card pool and trigger the card as you take it. At the end of the game players discard down to their best 2 cards. Then, tactical cards (neutralizers) destroy their corresponding monsters, and the player with the best surviving combination of cards wins. Draw a card from the Pool, say its name and number aloud, and trigger/resolve its primary ability. (If another card gets triggered, reveal it and resolve it.) Fill the Pool back to 4 from the face-down deck. At the end of your turn, if you exceed your hand limit (3 cards), discard excess cards face-down to your discard pile. When the draw deck is empty, continue taking turns until everyone has had an equal number. Then Resolution begins. RESOLUTION (combine / score your 2 cards) All players discard down to just 2 cards. In turn order, each player dramatically reveals their highest-number card. Then they reveal their other card. Resolve all Neutralizers. The player with the highest total score wins the game. If there is a tie, the tied player with the highest-value surviving Monster is the winner. At the end the game have the highest combined point total between your final 2 cards to win. —description from the publisher