Recent reviews by kmfdm

Choose your cliched reason:

1. Sick of Hearthstone RNG? HS meta got you down? Bored of pirate warrior?
2. Waifu Shadowverse meta too stale?
3. Vaguely remember playing Magic the Gathering when you were younger but don't have any friends or time to head down to a local gaming store?

This game is great. Can't recommend it enough. I even recommend it to friends who don't normally play card games. Simple enough where you don't feel incredibly overwhelmed. Generous enough where you don't need to feel compelled to break out the wallet. Complex enough to keep you engaged and coming back day after day.

Although the game is currently in beta, the game feels very polished and ready for release. The current base set of cards (Set 1) gives each faction a nice thematic feel and a variety of depth. Also this is a perfect time to jump in - plenty of time to build your collection but not too long to wait until new content (Set 2 is expected June~).

Pros:
* Generous rewards system.
* AI / PvE gameplay for those who struggle with ladder anxiety or just enjoy "comp stomp'in".
* Draft gameplay is great. Interactive. You get to keep the cards. Really good rewards if you do well in draft.
* Diverse meta. I won't lie aggro is still around but there are ways to beat it. Realistically though, most nights when I play, I'll see 6 different decks out of 10 games. Variety of midrange, control, aggro etc.
* Interactive gameplay. Combat tricks, fast spells, removal. Lots of opportunity to outplay your opponent.
* Even with a single set of cards available, nearly endless options for deck building.
* "Mana" aka "Power" resource system. I list this as a pro because I think adding this facet back into the game adds a needed dimension.
* Mulligan system is well tuned to prevent "Power screw" and "Power flood". This means getting too many of your "Mana" or "Power" cards.
* Awesome community. Lots of friendly people on Discord.

Cons.
* Deckbuilding is difficult. If you're coming from Hearthstone and you can barely make a consistent 30 card deck, you'll probably struggle to make a 75 card Eternal deck. I still don't feel comfortable making a deck without consulting online resources. There is a fair amount of math that goes into getting the correct amount of "Power" for a deck.
* The intro campaign is a bit long. More of a matter of opinion. Like all card games though, there is a ramp up period to get into the game. Once you get through the campaign, you'll want to play the "Gauntlet" to get some cards and gold to get rolling. Gauntlet is awesome as I mentioned AI / PvE content in the Pros. The part that I'm listing as a con here is if you just want to jump into ranked play asap it's going to take you an hour or two of PvE content before you can even start up a ranked game.
* "Power Screw" and "Power Flood" do happen. A lot of players that come from Hearthstone might not have experience with a card based resource system. Try not to get discourged. It happens to everyone. You my have to do some deckbuilding research if you feel the "power flood" or "power screw" is happening too much.
* Not directly game related but... not enough game advertising. They don't have a referral program yet for players to get perks for inviting friends. The game is great but the population is fairly small for how awesome the game is... hopefully if you are reading this, you can help change that...

Download the game! Try it! Come back after a few weeks and write a review of your own.