by W. Eric Martin

In February 2025, U.S. publisher CMYK is launching a vibrant card game line with a look that will be impossible to miss on retail shelves, a line called Magenta.


The line debuts with four titles, two of which have previously been available on the U.S. market and two of which haven't. Here's an overview of each game, along with some details of its past:

▪️ Fives is a new edition of Taiki Shinzawa's The Green Fivura, which the Japanese publishing circle Kentaiki debuted in 2022. Details:

I played The Green Fivura five(!) times at a trick-taking event in 2023 and loved the design as I found every hand intriguing from start to finish. You're always on the hot seat because you're trying to push your winning total as far as possible, then bail...or you're trying to push others over that 25-point cliff so that you can stand alone in the safe area...or you're trying not to be pushed over yourself. For more thoughts on The Green Fivura, head to my con report.

• Duos is a new edition of Johannes Schmidauer-König's Team Play, which Schmidt Spiele debuted in 2015 and which WizKids briefly had on the U.S. market in 2018.

Unlike previous editions, Duos is marketed specifically for four or six players, which seems more in keeping with the gameplay. Players compete in teams of twos to score points. On a turn, a player can draw two cards, pass 1-2 cards face down to their teammate, and complete one or more goals in whatever order they wish.

Cards come numbered 1-8 in magenta and blue with multiple copies of each card. Each player has a personal, face-up goal, with one public goal being available for all players, with goals being something like have four blue cards in sequence, have three of the same even number, or have two magenta cards that add to a third magenta card.


As soon as you have the right cards in hand, you can discard them to complete your personal goal or the public one, after which a new goal is revealed, with the achieving player being able to reject the first one revealed. When a team has completed eight goals, each player has one final turn, then whichever team has scored more points for its goals wins.

I've played Team Play a handful of times and always enjoyed the quiet teammate interaction. You can't say which cards you need for which goal, but if your teammate is paying attention to what you draft and vice versa, then you can pool your efforts to make progress. You try to ensure that your goals don't overlap so that you can make almost all card draws work, and it feels nice to partner with someone to help them (and you) win.

• Figment is a new edition of Wolfgang Warsch's Illusion, which NSV debuted in 2018 and which Pandasaurus Games released the same year in the U.S. Figment keeps roughly the same gameplay as Illusion, but now the game is co-operative.

The game lasts five rounds, and at the start of each round you reveal an arrow in one of four colors, then place the top card of the deck in front of the arrow. Let's say the arrow shows magenta. All players then discuss where the top card of the deck should be placed in a row compared to the card already in play so that the percentage of magenta on the cards increases from low to high according to the arrow. The active player for the turn gets final say, then you repeat this three more times so that you have five cards in the row.


Players then debate how many of the five cards they think are correctly placed, then place a "bet" with one of five tokens numbered 1-5. They then reveal cards one by one from either end of the row, stopping when they reveal a card out of order or all five cards; they collect all of the correctly placed cards in a score pile, scoring the token as well if all five cards were in the right order.

After five rounds, count the number of scored cards and add the value of the tokens to determine your final score.

• Fruit Fight is a new edition of Reiner Knizia's HIT!, which French publisher Pixie Games released in 2021, which Mandoo Games released in English outside of the U.S. in 2022 as No Mercy, and which KOSMOS released in German in January 2025 as Abgestaubt.

Fruit Fight is a press-your-luck game in which you draw cards to get points — but you don't want to draw too often because then you might lose all your gains!

In more detail, the 90-card deck contains eleven cards each numbered 1-5 and seven cards each numbered 6-10. On a turn, you flip over a card from the deck and place it in front of you, stealing (if you wish) all the cards of the same number that are in front of other players. You can stop after each draw, or you can draw another card. If you draw a number that you already have lying in front of you — and you have at least three cards in front of you — then you discard all cards in front of you from the game.


At the start of your turn, if you have cards in front of you, place them face down in a personal score pile, then start your turn. When the draw pile is exhausted, all players place all the cards they have in front of themselves in their score piles, then they tally the numbers on all their scored cards. Whoever has the highest sum wins.

For my thoughts on this design, head to my 2022 preview that was based on a few plays of the Mandoo Games edition. Knizia has released multiple games along these lines, and he does them remarkably well, with players having the freedom to gamble or not as they wish and with the game having a wildly different feel based on the number of players at the table as well as their personal nature.

CMYK has opened pre-orders for these titles on its website, with the games being scheduled to launch on February 26, 2025 and to hit retail outlets in mid-2025 through Asmodee North America.

In a press release, the Magenta line curator James Nathan writes: "I love card games – the familiarity of holding a hand of cards, the nostalgia of afternoons spent playing them with friends, and the memories of holidays where family members enjoyed each other’s company over a game of cards. I'm beyond excited that Magenta will share that experience using so many of the games I adore from around the world." CMYK plans to add new titles to the Magenta line annually.