Review: Splendor Duel

Introduction & Overview

Confront your rival guild in a race for victory! Take gem and pearl tokens from the common board, then buy cards, gain bonuses, royal favors, and prestige!

This is the premise of Splendor Duel, designed by Marc André (responsible for the original Splendor and Barony) and Bruno Cathala (Yamataï, Five Tribes). First published in 2022 by Space Cowboys in an English version. The artwork is done by Davide Tosello (Victorian Masterminds, Orbis, Fairy Tale Inn).

It is published in Spanish by Asmodee Ibérica (the game is completely language independent). It allows 2-player games, with a minimum suggested age of 10 and an approximate duration of 30 minutes. The MSRP is €24.95. For this review, a review copy of the Spanish version by Asmodee Ibérica was used.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 17.8×12.9×4 cm (a small rectangular box similar in size to Honshu or Fungi), we find the following components:

Victory Tile (cardboard)
71 Cards (44×67mm):
- 67 Gem Cards
- 4 Royal Cards
Bag (cloth)
3 Privilege Scrolls (plastic)
Board (cardboard)
25 Gem Tokens (plastic)
Rulebook

How to Play

Splendor Duel is, in essence, nearly the same as the original design, with core mechanics of open drafting and set collection that present a race to be the first player to achieve one of three possible win conditions: 20 total points, 10 points on a single card color, or 10 crowns (these points and crowns appear on certain cards). To play cards, you must pay a set of gem tokens, with the catch that played cards apply discounts to these costs. On each turn, a player chooses between taking up to three gem tokens from a grid-shaped board—forming a continuous line of three consecutive tokens (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally without gaps)—playing a card (paying its cost), or reserving a card (taking a gold token from the board and adding the card to their hand, with a limit of three reserved cards). Before this action, the player may use privileges (which allow them to take single gem tokens) and/or replenish the board (giving a privilege to the opponent). Some cards have abilities that trigger immediately when played.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Cards. At the top, there is a band in one of six possible colors (grey, black, white, red, blue, and yellow). On this band, you may find a prestige point value, one or more gem symbols of a specific color, and optionally, crowns. Below the points (if any), a banner with a special ability may appear that triggers when the card is played. In the bottom left corner, you will find the card’s gem cost, and the rest of the card features an illustration. These cards are structured into three levels, identified by their card backs.

To play these cards, players must collect Gem Tokens. There are five basic types of gem tokens (black, white, red, yellow, and blue) plus two special types: pearls (pink, with only two available) and gold (yellow). Players can claim these tokens from a main board, with a personal supply limit of no more than ten tokens.

These tokens are placed on a Board featuring a 5×5 grid of spaces, with the central space acting as the starting point of a spiral used when placing tokens, both during setup and when replenishing the board during the game. On one side of the board, special icons highlight abilities that trigger under specific conditions.

These icons refer to Privileges, represented by scroll-shaped tokens. Each privilege allows a player to take a gem token directly from the board before resolving their main action, with the sole restriction that they cannot be used to take gold tokens. If a player should gain a privilege and none remain in the pool, they take one from their opponent (if the opponent has any).

Finally, we have the Royal Cards. These are special cards obtained when a player accumulates a specific number of crowns on cards in their play area. These cards provide a certain number of prestige points and, on three of the four cards, a special ability that triggers immediately upon claiming the card.

That is enough to get started.

Place the board in the center of the table.
Put all gem tokens into the bag. Mix them and draw them to place them on the board, starting from the central space and following the direction of the spiral.
Place the Victory Tile off to one side.
Place the 3 privilege scrolls on the other side.
Lay out the four Royal Cards in a row.
Shuffle the three card decks separately and set up a pyramid display with 5 cards from Level I, 4 cards from Level II, and 3 cards from Level III.
Randomly choose the starting player, and give the opponent one privilege as compensation.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Splendor Duel takes place over an indefinite number of alternating turns, starting with the first player.

On each turn, the active player performs the following steps:

Privileges (optional). If the player has at least one privilege, they may spend it now. For each returned privilege, the player takes one non-gold token directly from the board.
Replenish (optional). If the player chooses to, they may replenish the board (provided there is at least one token in the bag). To do this, draw tokens from the bag one by one and place them on empty board spaces, starting from the center and following the arrows. The opponent gains a privilege scroll. If none remain in the pool and the active player has at least one, the opponent takes one from the active player.
Action. Now the player must choose one of these options:
- Take Tokens. The player takes one to three non-gold tokens that form an uninterrupted straight line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). If all three tokens are the same color or two of them are pink pearls, the opponent gains a privilege scroll (if none remain in the pool and the active player has at least one, the active player must hand one over to the opponent).
- Reserve a Card. If there is at least one gold token on the board, the player may reserve one of the available cards from the display (or draw blindly from a deck) and take a gold token. A player can have a maximum of three reserved cards, so if they already have three, they cannot choose this option.
- Play a Card. The player chooses an available card from the display or a previously reserved card to place in their play area, paying its cost in gem tokens (accounting for discounts provided by previously played cards). If the card shows an ability, it triggers immediately. Spent tokens go back into the bag. Possible abilities are:
  - Take another turn. The player immediately takes a second consecutive turn, following all standard steps.
  - Take a Token. The player takes a gem token from the board matching the color of the played card.
  - Steal a Token. The player steals one non-gold token from their opponent.
  - Wildcard Color. The player places the card overlapping a color column where they already have at least one card in play.
  - Gain a Privilege. The player takes a privilege scroll. If none remain in the pool, they steal one from the opponent.
Check Limit. If the player has more than 10 tokens in their personal supply, they must return the excess to the bag.

If, by playing a card, a player reaches 3 or 6 crowns, they choose one of the available Royal Cards and resolve its effect.

After this, the turn passes to the opponent.

Game End

The game end triggers immediately when a player meets one of the three victory conditions at the end of their turn, claiming victory on the spot. The conditions are:

Accumulating 20 prestige points across all played cards.
Accumulating 10 prestige points in a single color column (including wildcards).
Accumulating 10 crowns across all played cards.

Personal Opinion

Yet another cash-grab trying to milk the goose that lays the golden eggs? Just another one… But is it actually good? We’ll have to see. Hello, dear readers! Today we are talking about Splendor Duel, a two-player adaptation of a game that, while not a masterclass in complexity, has managed to position itself as a benchmark title in the hobby. The original Splendor (here is its tocho-review) carries that Jaipur-like vibe (here is its tocho-review) where, even if you end up running on autopilot, it remains deeply satisfying. A guilty pleasure.

The franchise expanded with an expansion (which didn’t quite catch fire) and a re-theme tailored to the Marvel universe (here is its tocho-review), bringing a couple of twists that made it more engaging than the original (alongside a more popular theme). Now we return to the classic theme with this 2-player iteration. Was it necessary when the base game already played fine at two? You are about to find out where I stand.

Let’s start with a brief overview of how the system works for those who have never played Splendor. The core idea is to achieve a specific victory condition before your opponent by drafting and building up cards in your play area. These cards, beyond pushing you toward win thresholds under various criteria, provide engine-building discounts on future purchases, creating a classic snowball effect.

Cards have a cost in gem tokens, which are drafted from a central supply. Players gather these tokens to spend them on cards from the market display. As a rule, each played card acts as a permanent virtual gem, lowering costs for future cards. As your tableau grows, higher-tier cards become significantly easier to acquire.

All of this remains intact in Splendor Duel, but naturally, the designers needed to add enough meat to the bones to justify buying it over the original game, which, as mentioned, already worked fine at two. And to be frank, they added quite a bit considering the weight of the game.

I’ll start with what might seem like a minor tweak on paper: the inclusion of a new gem type, pink pearls. Something so simple yet so remarkably effective—unlike standard gem types, which have four tokens each, there are only two pearls. The twist? A vast percentage of high-tier cards require pearls to be built. And there are no pearl-type cards to grant persistent discounts for them. Consequently, the fight over these two pearls is absolute cutthroat.

This dynamic creates a crucial tactical ripple effect: gold tokens, serving as universal wildcards, become the primary workaround for pearls. As a result, the “reserve a card” action gains massive tactical leverage—not necessarily for the card you hold, but for securing a precious gold token to hoard for key moments, effectively treating it as a substitute pearl rather than a mundane gem.

The next major shift is how players draft gem tokens. In the original game, gems were simply organized by color stacks; you took 3 different colors or 2 of the same color if 4 or more remained. Now, drafting takes place on a grid board that forces you to pick continuous lines of up to 3 tokens without gaps. You can no longer freely cherry-pick individual colors based on available cards; you must adapt to the spatial arrangements offered by the board layout.

To spice things up, players themselves decide when to refill this board, though doing so grants a free perk to the opponent. Refilling is an optional action taken before your main action (a trade-off for giving the active player access to a fresh spread of tokens). That said, refilling the grid token by token can feel a bit fiddly, especially when the bag is full.

These privilege scrolls represent another fresh addition to this 2-player tweak. Essentially, holding a privilege allows you to pick a non-gold token directly off the board before taking your main action. They synergize brilliantly with the board’s spatial constraints: often you’ll be short a single gem to afford a card, but taking a standard draft action feels inefficient—either because the token is isolated and can’t be drafted in a line of three, or because you’re sitting near the 10-token hand limit and don’t want to waste resources. Privileges also create tense mind games, making players think twice about refilling the board just to avoid handing their opponent a free privilege scroll.

Another fundamental additions are immediate card abilities. Beyond prestige points and engine discounts, many cards now trigger instant special powers when played. These range from taking an immediate extra turn (a devastating tempo swing in a tight race) to taking matching tokens, snatching privileges, acting as color wildcards, or my personal favorite: stealing a gem token directly from your rival. Since it is fairly easy to read your opponent’s telegraphing, stealing a key gem right before they pay for a card is wonderfully mean (and bound to trigger some table banter), particularly when the stolen gem happens to be a pearl (double the pain).

Tied to this tempo shift are the Royal Cards, which replace the old noble tiles. These act as milestone bonuses granting points and abilities when you accumulate specific crown thresholds (found printed on various cards), directly feeding into one of the victory paths.

Which brings us to the win conditions. Instead of a single endgame target, players now juggle three distinct paths to victory. The standard path mirrors the original game—accumulate a set amount of overall prestige points across your tableau—but two alternative victory conditions open up dynamic counterplay.

While these alternate conditions still boil down to set collection (10 points in a single color column or 10 total crowns), they introduce impressive strategic versatility. Even if you fall behind on overall points, you can pivot hard toward a secondary objective your opponent might be ignoring. It carries a similar tactical tension to the instant victory triggers in 7 Wonders Duel (here is its tocho-review), forcing both players to stay hyper-aware of the board state and market shifts.

As you can see, these aren’t superficial cosmetic tweaks like those in Splendor Marvel. We are looking at core mechanical changes that dramatically reshape decision-making and game flow. Splendor Duel is a noticeably deeper design than its predecessor; autopilot is simply not an option here. You must constantly reassess the board state turn by turn, knowing a single tactical blunder can lose you the game. Yet, it retains the core charm of the original—that addictive engine-building momentum packed into a tight 30-minute playtime that leaves you thoroughly satisfied.

It does still suffer from the underlying flaw that luck of the draw can impact the outcome. A newly revealed card might disproportionately benefit one player over another, either because their existing engine discounts make it virtually free or because it hands them an easy path to a victory condition. For instance, if a player already holds 5 or 6 points in black cards and a Level III black card worth 3 points pops up, the opponent is practically forced to hate-draft or reserve it immediately to prevent a game-ending swing—even if that card sits dead in their hand for the rest of the match. Fortunately, the bottleneck introduced by pearls mitigates this flaw to an extent.

When comparing this new 2-player version against its predecessors, the winner here is clear. Unless playing at 3 or 4 players is an absolute dealbreaker for your group—in which case I’d recommend Marvel Splendor over the base game—this is the definitive edition.

Expanding to three victory conditions also elevates replayability, encouraging different tactical setups depending on which high-level cards show up during setup. The original design often devolved into a rush for nobles where the optimal path was visible from turn one. Here, winning paths are dynamic, ensuring fresh tactical puzzles every match.

Production-wise, the game maintains the high standard of the original, though the token chips have been scaled down slightly for portability (while retaining a nice, heavy hand-feel). Unlike the oversized base game box, this insert has virtually zero wasted space, especially if you sleeve your cards. The cards feature heavy stock, a linen finish, and good spring (sleeving is recommended given the frequent handling, even if shuffling only happens during setup). The plastic privilege scrolls are nicely detailed upgrades over flat cardboard tokens, and the rulebook is clean and concise.

Visually, the art direction feels a bit brighter and more vibrant than the original, leaning into a polished, slightly manga-inspired character style that looks great on the table. The box cover is striking, even if it bears a suspicious resemblance to the cover of Game of Thrones: Westeros Intrigue with its contested crown motif. Typography and color schemes remain consistent with the original branding. Overall, a solid production package.

And let’s wrap this up. Splendor Duel is a textbook example of how to adapt an established design, keeping its original heart while introducing changes that genuinely elevate the experience. Here, what seemed like minor tweaks on paper deliver massive tactical depth, forcing players to constantly re-evaluate their options without ever slipping into brainless execution. It is fast, highly engaging, and practically begs for back-to-back revenge matches. Luck still plays a role, but far less so than in the original. Highly recommended, whether you own the original game or are completely new to the franchise. If you exclusively play at two players, this is undeniably the best of the bunch. For all these reasons, I give it a…