Master Sinseh card game by Eu Yan Sang

Living in Singapore, we all probably have some degree of familiarity with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). You’ve probably heard mom tell you to stay away from fried chicken because they’re heaty and might cause sore throats. Or being prescribed po chai pills to treat stomach aches and pure cordyceps capsules for boosts of energy.

We’re used to blindly ingesting said products, without appreciating the health benefits of these TCM formulations. But now you can delve into the health benefits of TCM herbs with a new card game – Master Sinseh by Eu Yan Sang. While it can’t quite cure your nibbling heatiness, here’s what the game entails, and some tips on how to be the best “physician” at the table.

What is the Master Sinseh card game?

For starters, Master Sinseh is a card game where up to 5 players take up the role of a Sinseh, the colloquial name for a TCM physician. The game is played over 5 rounds, each represented as a “day”. Each “day”, ailing patients will visit you, seeking the best possible treatment.

Here’s where your Singaporean kiasuness may be of good use: your goal is to cure as many patients as possible and collect the most points, to be crowned the master Sinseh.

For those who’re looking to brush up on their cai fan ordering skills, you can challenge your buds to play this game with you in Mandarin, as there are Chinese translations of the rulebook and cards.

You don’t have to worry about understanding fancy Chinese words either; this card game is mostly in English. You’ll get to learn about the healing properties of commonly-used TCM herbs as you win over patients from your peers. As they say, all is fair in love and war, but at least the patients go home cured, right?

How to set up Master Sinseh?

What a 4-player game of Master Sinseh looks like.

• To start a game of Master Sinseh, begin by forming the various decks you’ll need. These include the Patient deck, Book deck and each player’s Personal deck of herbs.
• Place the burgundy-coloured Patient Display Area in the middle of your play area.
• Each player then picks a Personal deck of their choosing. Don’t worry, they’re all identical apart from their differently-coloured borders.
• They also get a corresponding Player Display card.

The 4 Liquorice cards go back into your hand after each day, a nod to its real-world counterpart that is so common and readily available.

• Each player then picks out the 4 Liquorice cards from their Personal deck, and then sets their deck face-down to draw 6 more cards to make a starting hand of 10 cards.

How to play Master Sinseh?

In order to claim the title of the best master Sinseh, you’ll want to accumulate the most amount of Heart points amongst your fellow Sinsehs. This means curing as many patients as you can over the course of the 5 rounds, using your arsenal of herbs in the most efficient way possible.

• Each round will start with 3 Patient cards drawn from the Patient deck and presented onto the Patient Display Area.
• Each player will also draw 3 cards from their Personal deck to add to their hand. Skip this step in the first round.
• Each player will have to prescribe exactly 2 Herb cards from their hand to each patient.
• Herb cards will be played face down onto the Player Display Area.
• In order to treat a patient, players will have to play Herb cards that contain the same elements as the ones on the Patient cards.

Do note that other elements not used to cure the patients will not be counted towards your total heal value. In this case, the value of the “Clear Heat” (yin-yang with fire) element is ignored.

• Calculate your Heal value by adding up the numbers above the elements used to treat said patient.
• The player with the highest Heal value keeps the Patient card for scoring at the end of the game.
• Repeat for all 3 patients for each round.
• During the calculation of Heal values for each patient, players with Heal values 1-2 points below the highest scorer draws a card from the top of the Book deck.
• Book cards contain a mix of Heart points and Gratitude symbols.
• You’ll need 3 identical Gratitude symbols to gain 3 Heart points, any less and you don’t earn any bonus Heart points.
• Do note that you’ll also earn Gratitude symbols by curing select patients.

In the above example, this Sinseh has amassed a total of 12 Heart points; 8 from Patient cards and 4 from Book cards and Gratitude symbols. 

• After 5 rounds, the players will total up the Heart points denoted by the numbers in the top right of their Patient cards, as well as those gained from Book cards and Gratitude symbols.
• The player with the most Heart points will win the game.

Tips on how to be the best Master Sinseh

1. Ration your Herb cards wisely

As with every card game, there are some nuanced strategies you can employ to gain the upper hand. Master Sinseh rewards those who can ration their resources wisely, so don’t squander your good Herb cards like the all-curing Codonopsis and Cinnamon on day 1.

This rings doubly true when you know you can’t beat your opponent’s strong combination of Herb cards. Just think of it like folding when you don’t have a good hand in Poker; perhaps it might be wise to use your Liquorice cards for that “unwinnable” patient, as those will return to your hand at the end of the day.

2. Keep an eye out for what Herb cards your opponents have played

Each player’s Herb deck is identical, which means you can pretty much keep track of which Herb cards your opponents have played to predict which ones they could be holding on to. Much like keeping an eye out for 2s in Big Two, tracking your opponent’s cards can make it easier to decide whether or not to go all in for a particular patient.

Some big Herb cards to look out for include ones that have a multiplicative element value which can result in huge Heal values, like Chinese Peony, Barley, and Poria.

3. Don’t forget about the Book cards

Playing around the Book cards can be a valid strategy as well. The 3 Heart points gained from matching 3 of the same Gratitude symbols can be a game changer. So, it might be smart to target specific patients, as some of them come tagged with a bonus Gratitude symbol to go along with your Book cards.

Conversely, if you’re feeling a lil’ devious, you can also try to deny your opponents those sweet 3 points, by going for patients that they need to complete their set of 3 Gratitude symbols.

Bonus: Play with the special cards featuring Eu Yan Sang products

Master Sinseh might be a little tricky to get a hang of in the beginning, but as you play through the first days you’ll be curing patients left and right in no time. Once you’ve got a couple of games under your belt and want to spice things up a bit, you can throw the special Eu Yan Sang cards into the mix.

Some of these special cards even feature illustrations of actual Eu Yan Sang products, like the Luk Mey Pills and the Pure Cordyceps.

To implement these purple-bordered cards into your games, deal 2 of them to each player at random, so each player starts the game with 12 cards in hand rather than 10. The special cards are played as your regular Herb cards, and they come with game-changing effects. These include sabo-ing your opponents’ Heal values and drawing extra Book cards.

Have fun brushing up on your TCM knowledge with Master Sinseh

Essentially, Master Sinseh is designed for players of most ages to enjoy, including TCM noobs. The game is packed with nuggets of information about common TCM herbs and remedies  on their cards. Take their Herb cards for instance; they tell you what benefits each herb confers, ranging from reinforcing yang to replenishing blood and qi.

You’ll be able to pick up a copy of Master Sinseh at Eu Yan Sang Stores islandwide and online for $29.90. However, you can snag yours at a special, purchase-with-purchase price of $19.90 when you spend over $38 at Eu Yan Sang from now till 3rd April 2024.

If your usual gatherings are looking a tad lacklustre after cycling though the same old playing card games for far too long, you can give this quirky number a try. Just like how Goji Berries can replenish vital essence, Master Sinseh could breathe new life into your game nights. Just remember to get your IRL afflictions looked at by an actual Sinseh.

Learn more about the Master Sinseh card game

This post was brought to you by Eu Yan Sang.
Photography by Shawn Low.