Morty Sorty: when tidying jars turns into a little wizard's puzzle

With Schmidt Spiele, I've picked up a habit: not trusting my own eyes. The publisher regularly hands us boxes with artwork that's questionable to our French tastes, yet often hides seriously well-built games behind that cover. The Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Taverns of Tiefenthal, the list of titles you'd be wrong to judge by their box art is a long one. So when Morty Sorty: Magic Shop shows up, the latest release from the house, a family game of drafting, placement and tableau building, and on top of that a nominee for the Spiel des Jahres 2026 (no less than the most prestigious prize in the hobby), I fully expected to be won over one more time. My verdict after a few games: it runs well, it's solid, it's efficient, it has everything it needs to please very different tables. And yet, within Schmidt's own line-up, I'd reach for several others first.

As an apprentice in the most famous shop in the wizarding world, your job is nothing glorious: sort jars of ingredients on your shelves to score as many stars as possible. That's the whole program, and let me say it straight away, it's a clean, efficient optimisation game that never quite knocked me off my chair.

Duration: 30 min · Age: 8+ · Players: 2-4 · Publisher: Schmidt Spiele (ref. 49468) · Distributor: Pixie Games · Designer: Markus Slawitscheck (Challengers!, Magic Keys) · Illustrator: David Cochard · Release: 6 March 2026 · Price: around €27

A wizard's shop... seen through a rather dull window

The pitch is as cute as can be: Morty Sorty is the legendary store of witches, wizards and charlatans, and you start out as the apprentice in charge of the tidying. On paper, the setting has plenty of appeal, you picture shelves overflowing with dubious vials and magical cats.

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On the table, that's where it stumbles, and it's my first gripe: the game's graphic design does nothing for me. The cover screams "old-school German game", David Cochard's illustrations don't catch the eye, and the jars turn flashy without ever delivering the magical charm the theme promised. I'm not the only one to notice: several reviewers concede that the cover doesn't sell the game, while finding the components a little more successful once everything's set up (the individual animal-headed player boards have their small charm, the wooden cats are pleasant to handle). Honestly, it isn't enough to reconcile me with the whole. For a game that promises a wizard's shop full of mysteries, the presentation is a missed opportunity.

How it plays: ascending order, and more ascending order

The principle fits in one hand. Each turn, the active player draws five jars from the bag, and one after another everyone picks one to place on their own shelf unit (three rows). Just three constraints: the lid colour dictates the shelf (black stays at the bottom, silver climbs one level, gold goes anywhere), the values in a given row must stay in strictly ascending order, and once placed, a jar never moves again. All the tension lives there: placing without boxing yourself in for the turns to come.

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The real spice is the chains. Complete a column of three different ingredients and you unlock a magic jar (star lid) that you place wherever you like, which can complete a new column, trigger another bonus, and so on (the kind of combo that feels great when it snowballs). Add cat tokens as jokers (place a matching value side by side, or flip a jar to change its ingredient), badges for shared objectives, and scoring scrolls that change from one game to the next. At scoring, you rake in stars through colours, completed rows, objectives, labels and your leftover cats.

If you know Harmonies, you'll find that same family-friendly satisfaction of the well-placed tile under constraint, only more stripped-back and without a shred of nastiness towards your opponents. It's a group solitaire, everyone optimising in their own corner. Worth noting: the double-sided scrolls and variable badges deliver real replay value, and that's where the game is at its cleverest.

The real match-up: Morty Sorty versus Ex Libris

For me it's impossible to talk about Morty Sorty without thinking of Ex Libris, so much do the two games share the same obsession, tidying shelves in a magical setting. And that's precisely the comparison that hurts Morty Sorty.

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In Ex Libris, you're a librarian building the finest library in town. Where Morty Sorty settles for ascending order and a lid colour, Ex Libris stacks the criteria: an inspector comes to check alphabetical order, the stability of your shelves (mind the ones that lean), variety, popular works, a hidden objective, and penalises you for your banned books. Add genuine worker placement and stunning components with hundreds of unique titles printed on the spines, and you get a game that's far richer, meatier and more charming.

Morty Sorty plays in a lighter, more family-friendly, faster category, that's true, and its fluidity deserves credit. But when it comes to choosing in this "clever tidying" niche, I take Ex Libris without hesitation: more depth, more character, more reason to come back. Morty Sorty does the job, Ex Libris gives me a reason to stay.

What lands, what grates

To be fair, the game has real qualities and its reception confirms them. The rules take two minutes to explain, games fly by in half an hour, the 8+ accessibility is real, and the bonus chains offer those little gratifying optimisation moments that make placement games charming. Reviewers who've played it in the family or among seasoned gamers often come away won over, and its replay value is honest. Its Spiel des Jahres 2026 nomination isn't undeserved on the execution front, and its designer, Markus Slawitscheck, would be eyeing a historic treble here after Challengers! and Magic Keys.

The thing is, Morty Sorty doesn't surprise me, and that's my real complaint: I expected more. The ascending-sort mechanic has been seen many times over, a single combo route really structures the turns, and once you've grasped the principle, each game looks a lot like the last. Add artwork I don't like, and the game lacks that spark that would make me pull it off the shelf on my own. It's good, it's well made, but it revolutionises nothing. Where others see a lovely surprise, I mostly see one more very decent family game.

Verdict

Morty Sorty is a solid, fluid family game with no major flaw, one that will happily fill an end-of-evening slot with casual players or with kids discovering placement and optimisation. Critics broadly like it, and I understand why. But personally, I expected better: it leaves no lasting mark and its presentation puts me off. If you're after your fix of tidying in a magical setting and depth doesn't scare you, turn to Ex Libris, which stays above it for me. If you want something light, quick and well-oiled to play with anyone, Morty Sorty will do the job, just without any passion on my part.