Neon (2020)

Neon is a 2-player game about speed and memory. Can you put the cards of the same number together to gain the bonus under time pressure?

Shuffle and split the deck of 54 cards between the players. Each player lays down a 3x3 grid with the center card faceup. Both players act simultaneously to reveal one card from their deck at a time and use it to replace any one card in their grid. Keep replacing cards (and of course memorizing their numbers) until their deck runs out.

Victory points are rewarded in 3 ways:

1. Be the first to run out of their deck.
2. Have a lower sum of their 9 cards in the grid.*
3. Win more "battles" against the opponent in the 3 columns.

The fun part of Neon is, if you can place cards of the same number next to each other (the more the merrier), you will gain a bonus that reduces your sum!
Play multiple rounds until someone earns 5 VP and wins!