Yomi, the classic fighting card game, is back with a big new reboot.
What Is Yomi 2?
Yomi 2 is a card battle game for 1 or 2 players, ages 13 and up, and takes about 30 minutes to play. It releases tomorrow (11/18/25) and is available to order directly from Sirlin Games. There are currently two sets available: the Bashing vs. Finesse starter set for $29.99, and the Road to Morningstar 10-character set for $119.99. (Print-and-play options are also available for both sets.) Yomi 2 is a reboot of the Yomi series, so although there are a lot of similarities in gameplay, it has gotten a big overhaul.
Yomi 2 was designed by David Sirlin and published by Sirlin Games, with character artwork by Gilbert Han and graphic design by David Sirlin.
Yomi 2 Components
Both available sets have similar components, but Road to Morningstar has a lot more characters plus a few bonuses. I’ll begin with the Starter Set, which only includes two characters.
Here’s what comes in the Starter Set:
- 2 Character decks (Troq and River)
- 2 Status cards
- 2 Life tracker cards
- River Stance reference card
- 4 Health cubes
- 6 Super Meter cubes
- Knockdown/Edge token
Interestingly for a set meant to get you started, this version only includes a quick start rule sheet, with a link on the back to the full rulebook online. The full printed rulebook (in the Road to Morningstar set) is magazine-sized, which is larger than the Starter Set box, but that seems like an interesting choice. I also noticed that of these two characters, Troq is listed as a 1-star complexity and River (new to Yomi 2) is a 3-star complexity. While that does let you see more of the range of possibilities of Yomi 2, it does mean that new players who try this set will have to decide who gets to begin with the most complex tier.
Here’s what comes in the Road to Morningstar set:
- 10 Character decks
- 2 Gem sets (6 gems each)
- 11 Stat cards
- Knockdown/Edge token
- 6 Super Meter stars
- 4 Health hearts
- 8-sided die (for solo mode)
- 5 Bot sheets
- 2 Playmats
Road to Morningstar is a large, wide box—the insert is designed so that the tuckboxes lay flat, displaying the box artwork (which is different on the two sides). I’ll admit that this bothered me a little, because I know there is a second 10-character set coming in early 2026, and in order to store everything in the same box, I’ll need the third box, which looks to be about the same size as these but has an insert that stores the deck boxes vertically instead (along with a few other bonuses). For what it’s worth, I was able to fit Troq and River from the Starter Set underneath the plastic insert, so at least these two sets fit into a single box, if a little inconveniently. The insert also has an odd little slot for storing the large status cards, but the well isn’t quite deep enough, which means the cards stick up a little bit more than they should.
As you can see from this photo, the original Yomi used regular tuckboxes in part because each character’s deck was literally a poker deck so the poker-sized tuckboxes were the right size. In Yomi 2, the decks are no longer poker cards and in fact have fewer cards, but these deck boxes are larger.
The custom deck boxes are pretty nice: they’re a two-part slipcase, and the extra space is to allow for sleeved cards. Master Midori, who has two decks of cards, gets a double-sized box (and the insert has an extra-deep well for his box). I’m a bit torn between the box upgrade of Yomi 2 and the overall smaller size of Yomi, but that is partly because as a reviewer I cycle through a lot of games, so I tend to value smaller boxes and I also generally don’t sleeve my cards. For those who are more likely to play the same title much more, the ability to store sleeved cards is probably more of a priority.
The playmats are wide neoprene mats with battle illustrations: Lum vs. Argagarg and Setsuki vs. Rook. Each mat has a health tracker along one edge, as well as a 3-star super meter at the top. To go with the large playmat, the trackers in Road to Morningstar have been upgraded from the small wooden cubes to larger wooden tokens—hearts for health and stars for the super meter.
The bot sheets are large cardstock, with a large grid showing the various moves the bot will use depending on its hand size. The bot’s character name, portrait, and abilities are shown at the bottom of the sheet.
The Knockdown/Edge token is worth its own mention—it’s a sizable plastic disk that is used to mark when a player is knocked down or has the edge, with reminder text about what that means. The disk stands out because it’s so large, but it’s a good visual reminder of an important status effect.
Each character has a 30-card deck with roughly the same makeup, generally two copies of each card, though the 2 blocks are distinguished as a Low Block and a High Block. There are normal and special attacks, blocks, throws, dodges, super cards, and abilities. Some characters vary a little—for instance, Rook has extra block cards instead of dodges. Some characters also have supplemental cards: River has a set of 10 Finesse cards; Lum has a deck of item cards; Master Midori has a whole separate deck for when he turns into dragon form.
The stat cards are large tarot-sized cards—one side gives you a bit of background info about the character including some strategy tips and a somewhat amusing likes/dislikes personality section. The back of the card has summary list of all of the character’s cards, showing each action’s speed, damage, and chaining conditions. The one thing that I missed on these stat cards was the little rock-paper-scissors diagram reminding me of of the Attack > Throw > Block/Dodge relationship. As you can see from the photo above, these stat cards are a little bent, because of the way the box insert is designed.
Aside from the character decks, there are also gem cards. Each gem consists of five cards. The Starter Set includes two gems (orange and diamond), and Road to Morningstar includes six gems (red, green, blue, black, white, purple). There are two copies of each gem, so players can use the same one simultaneously. Road to Morningstar has separate tuckboxes for the gem cards, and in the Starter Set they are just stored in the character deck boxes.
The cards in Yomi 2 are a bit more streamlined. Above is an example of two of Setsuki’s cards, a normal attack and a normal throw. Yomi 1 included dual-purpose cards, where you had to choose an orientation for the card: the 2 of Diamonds could be an attack or a dodge. The new cards are a bit cleaner: since they aren’t played upside-down and they don’t have the poker suits and values, they’re less busy. The artwork on the normal moves is generally very similar to the original, though I have seen all-new artwork on some of the special attacks and super moves, which have full-color backgrounds.
Overall, the components in Yomi 2 do feel a bit more similar to modern games, which can be both good and bad: there’s a bit of deluxification here in things like the deck boxes and the health trackers that feels like it’s keeping up with fancy Kickstarter stretch goals. The removal of the poker suits and values makes Yomi 2 feel more like its own game rather than using terms like “suits” and “face cards.” It’s not like I ever used my Yomi decks to play regular card games! (Though I did have one friend who said he missed the poker card look.)
How to Play Yomi 2
You can download the various rulebooks here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to knock out your opponent by bringing them to zero health.
Setup
Each player chooses a character and a gem. You set your character card, stat card, and your Gem Storm card face-up in the playing area, and set your starting health as shown on your character card. Set three super meter trackers nearby. Set aside one copy of each of your super cards as the start of your discard pile.
Set aside these cards for your starting hand: Low Block, High Block, normal Throw, Gem Burst. Then shuffle the remaining gem cards together with your character cards, and then draw four more cards at random and add them to your starting hand.
Choose a starting player at random.
Gameplay
On your turn, you do the following: Draw Phase, Main Phase, Combat.
Draw Phase: Draw 2 cards from your deck (only 1 on the very first turn of the game).
Main Phase: Do any of the following in any order, only once each per turn:
- Exchange a normal card in your hand with a normal card in your discard pile (these are marked at the bottom with an “exchange” icon).
- Play an ability card from your hand.
- Power Up: discard a matching pair of cards from your hand, and then choose one:
- Get +1 super meter and take a super card from your discard pile
- Get +2 super meter
- Activate your Gem Storm (once per game)
Combat Phase: This is where the fight happens!
Choose a card to play face-down from your hand: this is your “opener.” Your opponent then plays an opener from their hand, and then you reveal your card.
Attacks beat throws; throws beat blocks and dodges; blocks and dodges beat attacks. If both players play attacks or both players play throws, then the higher speed wins and does damage. (Ties go to the active player.) One thing that’s new is that some attacks are marked as “high” or “low,” and can only be blocked by the corresponding block.
Some attacks are projectiles, indicated by the fireball icon, and ties with those are resolved by the projectile level instead of speed, but that’s only if both players play projectiles.
If you land a hit, you may be able to combo to do more damage. The icons below the card title indicate whether the card can combo, and what types of cards it can chain into. For the normal cards, chaining into the next alphabet letter will also charge up your super meter, which is required to play your super cards. Each character also has a combo limit—you can only play cards up to your combo meter, and more powerful attacks often use up more of that meter. Some special attacks and supers also allow you to “pump up” the damage by discarding additional cards, and there are also some attacks that will do a little bit of damage even if the opponent blocks—but then the combat ends and you don’t get to combo.
Blocks and dodges help you avoid damage when the other player attacks. The difference is that blocks usually allow you to return the block itself to your hand and draw a card if the opponent attacked. If you dodge an attack, you get to hit back with one attack or throw in your hand (but you can’t combo after that). So successful blocks typically let you replenish your hand, but successful dodges expend cards more quickly.
Certain moves will either knock down your opponent or give you the edge when successful. Getting knocked down means that you can’t dodge for a turn, and your opponent’s attacks and throws all have a minimum speed of 10, so watch out! If you gain the edge, it gives a +3 to the speed of all your moves (up to a maximum of 10).
At the end of your turn, it is your opponent’s turn to play a Draw Phase, Main Phase, and Combat.
The first time you run out of cards in your deck, you reshuffle, but these cards remain in your discard pile: Low Block, High Block, and one copy of each super card.
Game End
If you run out of cards a second time, the game ends immediately and the player with the higher health wins.
Otherwise, the game ends when a player’s health is reduced to zero, and the other player wins.
Solo and Co-op Mode
To play against the bot, you set the bot’s character sheet nearby. Track the bot’s health using the second playmat (or any other method), and use a super meter tracker to set its current “hand size” to 9.
In the solo game, it is always your “turn” so you go through the regular steps of Draw Phase, Main Phase, and Combat. However, instead of choosing a card to play, the bot’s response is based on rolling the 8-sided die. Consult the number rolled with the current hand size, and that indicates what the bot is doing, and then you resolve combat. The actions taken by the bot may increase or decrease its hand size.
Each bot has its own ongoing abilities and effects, as well as a unique action chart.
For co-op mode, you simply double the bot’s health, and both players take their turns simultaneously, and then the bot’s rolled value is its response to both players simultaneously. The players win collectively as long as one player is still alive when the bot’s health is reduced to zero.
Why You Should Play Yomi 2
It had actually been a while since I’ve played Yomi, though it still has a reserved spot on my favorites shelf because I’ve always really liked the way the game works, and I’ve also enjoyed all of the games in the Fantasy Strike universe (Flash Duel and Puzzle Strike). Even with the original Yomi, David Sirlin had continued to tweak it and rebalance it based on experience from tournament plays, eventually Kickstarting the second edition described in my review.
Much of what I said about original Yomi still stands here: it’s a game that really feels like a card game version of Street Fighter, the videogame that inspired the Fantasy Strike world (and one that Sirlin had actually worked on previously). Despite having similar deck make-ups, the little differences in speed and power and ongoing abilities make each character play in a unique way. Every match-up between two characters requires a different approach in learning what your opponent is capable of and figuring out ways to outmaneuver them.
Card draws remain precious: now, you only draw cards on your own turn, and there are plenty of ways to spend more than one card per turn. However, there are also ways to swap basic cards from your discard pile, so that helps you build up the combos you need or ensure that you still have a block in your hand.
The fact that players take turns doing the “main phase” adds a new twist: the other player can see what you’re trading out, which means that you might be telegraphing your next move. If you discard a throw in order to pick up your “B” normal attack, then maybe you’re hoping to do an A-B-C combo; maybe it’s wise for your opponent to block, since you won’t be able to throw them. Of course, this also allows for bluffing: maybe you discarded your throw because you have another one in reserve.
The shift to a smaller deck is interesting: it does mean you go through your deck more quickly than before, but now you go through twice before the fight times out, which means you actually draw more total cards before the game ends, but it changes up the odds a little for those extreme cases where the card you need is at the bottom of your draw pile.
The addition of gems is perhaps the biggest tweak to Yomi 2. Each gem adds only a handful of cards to your deck, but they give your character a different flavor. The red gem tends to do extra damage; the purple gem makes it easier to combo (by giving you a bigger combo meter and having cards that let you get more cards from your discard pile). Grave with a white gem will play differently than Grave with an orange gem. The Storm card is a powerful once-per-game effect that will last for two combats, but the other cards that get mixed into your deck are also strong moves … when used at the right time. For instance, the Gem Burst is always a very fast attack that only does 1 damage, but has that color’s specific special effect. The problem is, it’s “unsafe on block,” which means that if your opponent blocks it, not only do you lose out on its effect, but they get to hit you back—something that usually isn’t the case when somebody blocks.
Ultimately, with all the powers and combos and abilities, the game still boils down to its title: “yomi” means “reading” in Japanese, particularly the ability to read your opponent’s intentions. The rock-paper-scissors cycle is at the game’s heart, and figuring out your opponent’s next move is the key to victory. Because each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, the rock and paper and scissors don’t have equal weight—but figuring out how your opponent values each action is the trick! Playing Yomi 2 reminded me again of how much I enjoy trying to out-think my opponent, sometimes as I spin my wheels like Vizzini in The Princess Bride, only managing to outwit myself.
With the changes and upgraded components, it’s a little iffy to say exactly who this version is ideal for. Players who are new to Yomi can try the Starter Set, but as I said before, River is a high-complexity character so it may feel a little intimidating; but somebody just trying it out is also less likely to splurge on the $119 big box. Overall this is a more streamlined, easier-to-read version than the original, so other than my comment about River I think it does feel like this could be a good way to introduce new players to this series. I’m guessing longtime fans of Yomi will probably be the primary audience for this reboot, so then the question is whether they feel this is enough of a change that they’ll want to replace their old set (or add to it?)—and that’s a trickier question. Yomi 2 is certainly more than just a rebalancing (as was done in Second Edition) or a tweak—it really is a reboot with new mechanics, even if it retains its core. But for now, I’ll probably also still hang onto my Yomi 1 set because I’m the nostalgic sort, and kick the decision about replacing down the road a bit. (I still have both Puzzle Strike and Puzzle Strike 2, because they’re also different enough games that it didn’t feel redundant.)
For more about Yomi 2, visit the Sirlin Games website.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received copies of this game for review purposes.
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