Welcome to The Era of TCG: A Review of Shadowverse, Eternal, and Gwent
This blog started out as a Yugioh Blog, the first TCG I've ever been serious at (the first TCG I've ever played is actually Digimon Card Battle in PS1). As I decided to play Magic and learn of its awesomeness, this blog shifted to exclusively write about Magic. Then when I finally can't afford to play Magic anymore (due to my study), I started write about one or two Hearthstone articles since it was the only game I could play in my free time. At this point, I realized that the web adress semangatbaru-ygo is absolutely misleading so maybe it is time to change the direction of this blog to 'A Blog for TCG-Related Contents.'
If you are a TCG-enthusiast like me, you must have realized that TCG as genre has been gaining surge of popularity lately. Most of the articles on the web believes that Hearthstone is the main culprit for this phenomenon and I tend to agree. Despite taking many inspirations from the godfather of TCG, Magic: The Gathering, Hearthstone manages to be original and highly accessible even to people who haven't played TCG.
Meanwhile Magic at this point has become somewhat distant and belongs only to the most hardcore of TCG-enthusiast. It might only be my personal experience, but I see that many players who start Magic at the same time as me usually already has experience in different TCG before, such as Yugioh and Vanguard. It's easy to see why. Magic (and most TCG before Hearthstone) not only required mastery of the complicated game rules, but also a lot of money to sustain a competitive collection.
While I hate to admit it, money is also the biggest factor for me to stop playing Magic for now. Hearthstone, on the other hand, is a digital game which has a user-friendly interface, easy-to-understand rules (since everything is automatic), and an F2P system which allows you to build a competitive collection without spending any money. Although some people might consider F2P hearthstone a joke, I would at least say that the amount of money you have to spend will be much much less compared to the amount you would spend for Magic. For comparison, a Magic expansion costs around $100 while Hearthsone adventures costs only $25. Personally, I only spend money in Hearthstone to buy adventures while for normal expansion I will simply grind the F2P system to buy new packs. Based on that reason, I can see why Hearthstone is much more popular than Magic nowadays.
However, the biggest contribution that Hearthstone ever made is not providing an alternative for Magic, but mainstreaming the TCG genre itself. Based on income alone, the success of Hearthstone can be considered phenomenal with speculators expect it to earn $1.4 billion in 2017. Many gaming companies finally realized that there is a gold mine in digital TCG and with that we managed to arrive in an era where card game dominates the gaming market. At least every year we can expect one notable digital card game to put themselves on the map. Back then I used to play Dark Souls in between Hearthstone and Magic. But now, while waiting for the Hearthstone's daily quest to pop up, I can play Shadowverse, Eternal, or Gwent. There is simply no time for me to play console anymore, my gaming life is now filled with card game and card game alone. It's fantastic for me.
Therefore, to commemorate this great era that we currently lived in, let me tell you a little about all of the notable digital TCG that I have played in the last six months:
1. Shadowverse
Also goes by the nickname 'Weebstone', Shadowverse is a Hearthstone clone with little twist. If you ignore the majority of the art (which is mostly fanservice), this game manages to fix Hearthsone's biggest weakness: namely the absolutism of mana curve. There is a reason why there is a coin in the hand of players who go second in Hearthstone. Without it, every game will be mostly won by players who go first, since they will always be able to play bigger minions than the opponent and control the board that way. Even with the coin, aggro deck in Hearthstone can always win simply by playing on curve. This is very notorious, especially in the Secret Paladin and Midrange Shaman meta.
Shadowverse fixed this mana curve absolutism by implying a mechanic called evolve which allows players who go second to gain absurd tempo in the mid game. Because of this mechanic, even players who go first and play on curve can never gain tempo advantage and board control because their board can always be wrecked by turn 4 Priest of the Cudgel and the like. This tends to make the game more intense since players can never tell whether they are ahead or not. On top of that, Shadowverse is also less reliant on RNG-matter cards which creates less salty moment and also less awesome moments. Whether it is good or bad, I'll leave it to your preference.
The major complain that I usually heard about this game is the art. Some friends that I introduced this game to usually complains that the art is too weebo for their taste which I can understand. However there are still many impressive arts in this game, especially the dragons. Dragons in Shadowverse are usually represented in a very intense tone and really looked magnificent as a wallpaper. On top of that, they also have some of the best cosmic horror art which I really love, like the art for Revelation.Personally, my major complain for this game is the lack of variety in card stats and class identity. Just like Hearthstone, Shadowverse relies on minion (followers) combat as the main mechanic. However, most of the follower's stat looks similar with 1-drop being 1/2, 2-drop being 2/2, 3-drop being 2/3, etc. This makes the game feels stale from time to time with every game looks similar. Moreover, I also found that the power level of legendary cards in Shadowverse is absolutely ridiculous compared to commons and uncommons.
In Shadowverse, you can always count for your legendary cards to carry the game for you. Some games can even be decided by who draws the legendary card first. Demonloard Eachtar is one of the major offender in this case because the card simply render all of your effort to control Shadowcraft's board meaningless. I do understand that pushed card is important to make a card game interesting, but when it's so overpowered that it can decide the game just by simply playing it, I tend to dislike. Usually, I prefer my Legendary cards to alter the state of the game in some meaningful ways, rather than simply says you win the game.
2. Eternal
Just like Shadowverse, Eternal is a clone of previous card game, except that it is a clone of the godfather of card game itself. However, I prefer to call it a tribute to Magic: The Gathering instead of shameless clone. If you ever played Magic Online, I'd say you would agree that the game is so terrible and simply can't represent how awesome Magic is. It's terrible to play, terrible to watch, and the only reason people still playing it is because there are no other alternative (Magic Duels doesn't count).
Eternal fixed all of the issue that makes Magic Online terrible and turned it into modern digital card game that can stand toe to toe with Hearthstone. The fact that this game is made by many notable Magic Pros, such as Chapin and LSV, makes me interpret this game as a message to Wizards of the Coast that Magic Online can be so much more than just a bad rendition of 90s Flash Games. If Magic Online can improve their interface and adopt the modern standard set by Hearthstone.
But enough ranting, what makes this game special in comparison to Magic is that it implies many mechanics that can't be reproduced in real-life paper card game. One of the biggest twist that Eternal provided is that cards retain their buff no matter where they are. If a creature (unit) got their stats buffed on the board, then they will retain it even if they were sent to graveyard or returned to hand. This creates many interesting strategy where you can buff a single card numerous times and return it from graveyard over and over again.
The other thing that makes this game special is that it is the only mobile TCG that allows you to interact with your opponent during their turn. One of the major complain from Hearthstone is that you are mostly powerless to whatever combo your opponent played in their turn. Eternal, on the other hand, adopted the instant-speed spell from Magic which allows you to intercept whatever play your opponent make. This alone gives the game more strategic depth in the way that Magic does.
My first major complain for this game is that sometimes I'd rather play Magic instead but it is a stupid complain. My first complain is actually the art. For me, the art in Eternal is not too inspiring that it feels like the artist can't decide whether to adopt Hearthstone's quirky art or Magic's edgy art.
My biggest complain, however, is the mulligan system. I appreciate that the developer implies a fixed mulligan where you will always get at least 2 lands (power) in your opening hand. However, you are only allowed to mulligan once. This creates some situation where you don't have the right combination of color (influence) in your opening hand. Sometimes you are also given a flooded hand (5 lands + 2 spells) and you can't mulligan it. It feels terrible, in my opinion if you want to imply Magic's land system, you should allow players to mulligan for their preferred hand.
The other thing that ticks me off is that there is a minimum requirement for the number of land you have to put in your deck (exactly 25). For me, this limits the freedom of deckbuilding and you can never make a true aggro deck in eternal. For example, I used to play R/W Humans in Standard with only 17 lands and will usually draw only 3-4 lands per game. In eternal, however, aggro deck must play the same number of land as midrange deck and can draw 6-7 lands per game. I'd say that's ridiculous, the main advantage of aggro deck in Magic is not only they have lower curve but they will draw more action than midrange decks. Getting flooded while playing aggro deck is just stupid for me.
3. Gwent
The comparison with Yugioh is that this game has no resource-system. You can play your strongest card on your first turn but you can only play one card per turn with some special cards allow you to play two or more (obviously this refers to Yugioh in Goat Control era). Meanwhile, the comparison with Poker is that the goal of this game is to have more stats in card then your opponent. The deckbuilding is also very reminiscent of Poker because you can only play 4 Gold card (usually statted between 11-13), 6 Silver card (usually statted between 9-10), and any number of Bronze card (usually statted between 6-8). Just by looking at that stat distribution, you can say that Gold and Silvers are Royal Cards and Bronze are the Number Cards.
Now I have said that the goal of this game is to have more stats than your opponent but it's not the whole truth. If this was the only rule of the game, then every game in Gwent will be won by players who put all of the strongest card in their deck. Gwent manages to escape from that kind of gameplay by introducing a round-system. Every game in Gwent is a best-of-three and the winner of the game is decided by who can win two of them. This is where the poker skill can come in handy. Like for example, you can bluff your opponent to waste all of their strongest card in game one, so you can beat them in game two and three. The win in Gwent is then decided by knowing when to fold and when to push your luck. The game might seem simple at first glance, but trust me it's not.
The art in Gwent is also gorgeous, especially the premium cards. The drawing is very detailed and truly representing the middle-age fantasy nature of The Witcher 3. However, the same can't be said to the game board which is just a wooden board with three separate tiles. In comparison with Hearthstone, the game board looks ugly and can sometimes get cluttered with so many cards that makes viewing it unpleasent. Then again, it's still a minor complain since I don't really have any complain about the game design. This game is not only very original but also fun and challenging and I like it.
If I have to nitpick, I hate the fact that this game obliges you to grind casual match until you reach Level 10 before you can compete in the ladder. Although I can understand that the developers want to make sure you truly understand how to play this game before you start competing. In my first playthrough I even got seven consecutive losses before finally getting a win. But in a sense, this can also mean a weakness for this game since it means that new players have to deal with frustration first before they can find the joy of this game. The game is also not yet available in mobile devices, which is annoying, but I'm pretty sure that they will make this game mobile eventually.
So there you go, those are the three of my favorite digital TCG that I have played in the last six months. I also played Clash Royale from time to time but I'm pretty sure that it is more of an RTS Tower Defense rather than card game. For me, the first rule of card game is that it must be turn-based and requires logical thinking rather than the speed of your finger. In that regards, I'd say that just because a game used cards to represent action, It doesn't mean that it is always a card game.
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