Are spells mostly a dubious strategy in Quarriors?

Question

Granted we only have the basic set, it seems every time we play the games don't last long enough for spells to be useful. I can see how it would be a good idea to ramp resources, provide yourself with some threat removal and similar pursuits in games that are slower paced. Quarriors so far doesn't seem like the kind of game where you can don the Control player or the Midrange player hats. Especially in games with 3 or 4 people, the amount of glory required to win is so low, just a few creatures who score will win pretty fast. Is there a way I can come out of nowhere with these spells? I don't see it.

Answer 1

The original Quarriors rules do indeed discourage buying anything except creatures. You've put your finger on the problem: the game is too short for spells to be in the same range of usefulness as creatures.

The solution is in an optional rule in the back of the Quarmageddon rulebook: to score glory, you must cull the creature that scored. (If you want to keep the creature, you can opt to not score it.) This has three effects:

1. The game is slower.
2. An early lucky buy of a powerful creature no longer nigh-guarantees victory (though it still helps).
3. Spells are more worthwhile: buying a spell once means you can use it several times, but buying a creature once means you can only score it once.