As much as I would prefer to cast off all longing and become immune to nostalgia, I will confess a squishy soft spot for The Witcher. No joke, my adventures with Geralt of Rivia helped me come to terms with becoming a father to a tiny screamy baby. And while parenthood hasn’t contained quite as much monster-slaying as promised, I still sometimes find myself asking how the White Wolf would handle daily indignities like PTA meetings and where this grocery store has hidden the chicken stock. (It’s a fetch quest, I tell myself. Just a fetch quest.)

Which is why, even though I had determined to pass on any additional sets until the next Unmatched Adventures showed up, I discovered that I was still helpless in the face of this tie-in. Please note that these two sets, Steel & Silver and Realms Fall, are not parenting guides.

Eredin force-chokes Philippa.

By now I’ve written enough about Unmatched that there isn’t any point in belaboring the specifics. This is the most enduring and cash-cropping of the titles offered by Restoration Games. It’s also more of a reinvention than a proper restoration of its source material — Star Wars: Epic Duels, what a throwback — but hey, it’s hard to deny that these aren’t labors of love for all involved.

As in previous volumes, Steel & Silver and Realms Fall are all about theoretical death matches between their heroes. (And beyond, in case you’re one of those kids who grew up on Celebrity Deathmatch and desperately needs to see how Bruce Lee would fare against the Invisible Man from The Invisible Man.) I don’t tend to mix and match my sets — again, apart from tossing the heroes into the wringer in Unmatched Adventures — but sure, I get the appeal.

But what makes these games worthwhile isn’t whether they adhere to their origin’s play format. It’s the way their design and art teams have worked to capture the spirit of these characters. Even though the baseline rules of Unmatched don’t seem like they would have much flex, every hero, villain, and monster bears its own signature imprint.

Flock form!

I’ll give an example. In my most recent match, I was playing as Eredin, the King of the Wild Hunt. His attacks are largely straightforward, marking him as a bruiser who deals lots of damage. He’s accompanied by four Red Riders, one-hit peons who clutter up the board and prevent Eredin’s prey from putting too much distance between themselves and him.

This time, though, I was facing Philippa Eilhart, the scheming sorceress. Her power is as simple as they come. Whenever she ends the turn with fewer than four cards, she can draw back up. In Unmatched, it’s common to find your hand growing thin, turning Philippa’s ability into a tremendous boon. Instead of spending precious actions repositioning on the board, she can continue attacking and defending as long as she pleases.

One of Philippa’s attacks is also the death knell for a minion-heavy character like Eredin. With chain lightning, she can deal a single point of damage to every enemy in her zone. Just like that, she zapped three of my Red Riders. I guess the Aen Elle invasion was a storm in a teacup.

Except Eredin, as a brutal elf-king, is all about absorbing losses. When his army is depleted, he goes full grump, swinging harder and receiving card-specific bonuses. By breaking free of my Red Riders, Philippa had also played into my character’s hand. Now she started running not because she needed more cards, but because her flimsy life points were withering under Eredin’s renewed assault.

This is Unmatched in a nutshell. The stakes are always on the rise, cards and powers sparking off one another. Even in this case, Philippa eventually came out on top, using her owl form to stay out of reach and hammer Eredin from a distance with spells. My kid was cackling when she landed the final blow.

As ever, the art is superb.

Philippa and Eredin are two of the three playable champions in Realms Fall. The other is a tag-team between Yennefer of Vengerburg and Triss Merigold, sorceresses who are only slightly less schemey than Philippa. Sadly, they always deploy together, with one functioning as the main hero while the other plays sidekick. Although you can freely pick which sorceress takes point, there’s no such thing as pitting them against each other. Guess we won’t get to see them settle their frenemyship once and for all.

As much as I appreciate Realms Fall, the other set, Steel & Silver, is the more interesting of the pair. This one includes Geralt himself, his adoptive daughter Ciri, and a big tree monster. Each option is formidable. Like any good witcher, Geralt is all about that prep work, filling his deck with the proper swords and potions to overcome today’s foe. Ciri, on the other hand, is a slow burn. She begins underpowered but gradually gains steam as she dumps special Source icons into her discard pile. By the end of the match, she can pretty much blood-boil anything in her general vicinity.

My favorite inclusion, though, is actually the aforementioned tree monster. The Ancient Leshen is a mass of bark and bone that can reposition freely by transforming into a murder of crows. This physically removes its miniature from the board until the next turn, which is especially potent in a deathmatch with more than two players. So much for ganging up on the Leshen. Guess we’ll have to battle each other for a few minutes.

I’ve been having a great time with these sets, but I must admit to some disappointment. Unmatched Adventures was such a sea change for the series that I’m reluctant to go back. It’s easy, if greedy, to imagine a more ambitious version of this game, one that let our heroes team up against the Wild Hunt or the Ancient Leshen. Or the Ladies of the Wood! Or Gaunter O’Dimm! Or that weird mutant cult from the first game! Even sets as generous as these feel like they’re only scratching the surface.

Big ole deathmatch.

Like I said, it’s greedy to expect so much from two Unmatched boxes. Fine. I’m greedy. So be it.

To be clear, though, it’s a testament to the game’s creators that I want them to bring more of these characters, with this art and these design sensibilities, to my table. Let me bring down the Flaming Fist with Letho. Let me slay a vampire coven by guzzling a black blood potion. Let me slug Vilgefortz in the schnoz.

Oh gosh, I sound like the biggest nerd of all time. Let’s end this now before I start ranting about unicorns.

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A complimentary copy of both Unmatched: The Witcher sets were provided by the publisher.