About a year ago, there was a sale for the Überstax Universal Game Piece Holders and I bought a set of ten. They looked neat and to be completely honest, it was an impulse purchase.
What is Überstax? Überstax is an accessory that makes card holding and display easier. The box claims it’s a universal game piece holder but besides cards and possible cardboard tiles, I don’t know what other item is fitting on the holder. It’s made of a plastic that basically acts as a Lego. You can make any design you see fit as long as the prongs fit into the holes of another piece. Each bag comes with six pieces and they come in an assortment of colors. Since all pieces are uniform, you can easily mix and match colors if you please.
For assembly, they are easily snapped together and pulled apart. I typically don’t even snap them all the way as once 2/3rds of the hole is filled, the contraption isn’t coming apart unless you really want it to. Pushing it 100% in will cause some hardships pulling them apart.
For games with a small hand size, say ten or less, the base set of Überstax will serve the player well as the six plastic pieces can easily form a design that will accommodate all cards. If playing something with a little more meat on the bone, you might have to combine two sets if you want to view all your cards at once.
It’s important to note that while your design might seem sturdy, the base is the most important part of the structure. Placing items higher up could cause the structure to tilt as it’s top heavy.
One of the reasons I jumped on this originally was the idea that this would be an ideal way to help my dad play games with us, as he has been battling Parkinson’s for quite some time. In that regard, they do work. You don’t have to worry about holding the cards and picking them up while they’re standing is much easier than grabbing one laying down on the table. However, it also sort of hones in on the illness and makes it a focal point which sucks as you realize you were robbed of something you once took for granted.
If you have no other way to hold and organize your cards, this is a great way to combat that issue but you may run into the mental issue that I described above.
The only problem I’ve had with them is that they solved a problem I didn’t have. I don’t play enough games that necessitate items be displayed at all times. The only game I typically use them for is Terraforming Mars so I can easily see my hand of unused cards. Even games like Clank! or Ticket to Ride or Cockroach Poker involve enough hand movement that setting them all up isn’t really a viable strategy as you continue to add/remove cards from your hand. There are games that don’t have this constant stress of action but unfortunately, I don’t own them.
