by grison
As one of the lunchtime crowd that plays this variant, I feel compelled to chime in with my $0.02.To me, this variant isn't superior to the regular rules. But it does make for an interesting change of pace, and it works far better than I expected it would. I also like how it completely scrambles the relative card values, so some previously "overpowered" cards become nearly useless, and vice versa. It is subject to wild swings of fortune, but so is vanilla. Overall, I enjoy it, but I'd be happy to play for points some of the time as well.
(Oh, and with regard to using numbers to boost energy in this variant, it injected way too much energy into the economy. The claw and heart boosts are dramatic, but at least they cancel each other.)