Draft and sealed play are some of the best ways to play a card game. They give you the ultimate freedom to be creative, spontaneous, and strategic all at the same time. The problem with popular TCGs/CCGs is that this mode of playing can often set you back $20-$30 per event due to the cost of using randomized booster packs. So what better way to play these modes than with a game that has it all in one box!
EPIC Card Game (from the creators of Star Realms) is just as its name suggests — epic! You can play draft, sealed, and even constructed decks right out of the box. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game is now available to purchase at retail with a respectable price tag. So it’s about time to bring you an in-depth look at the game that we’ve been playing obsessively since we got our Kickstarter edition!
Is EPIC Card Game as much fun as a traditional sealed or draft event? Could it even be more fun than Magic: The Gathering?! Read on to find out…
Core-and-Kickstarter-content
EPIC Card Game is a whole TCG/CCG set that lets you play draft, sealed, and tournament style formats right out of a single box.
GAMEPLAY
The best way to describe the gameplay of EPIC Card Game is that it’s Magic: The Gathering on some very high-dose steroids! The cards’ effects are borderline crazy, with many of the four factions in the game having very strong creatures, several board wipes and ways to bring your opponents to tears each turn. This game is more salt-inducing than tier 0 decks in other popular TCGs/CCGs!
EPIC Card Game is, however, not a TCG/CCG. It is an out-of-the-box card game that replicates some of our favorite games by borrowing some of their core mechanics, effects, and modes of play. EPIC does manage to make these elements feel a part of its own mechanics instead of having borrowed them from elsewhere. There is a freshness to the gameplay that has yet to be seen in other traditional TCGs/CCGs, but that’s probably due to how insanely overpowered everything is in EPIC.
In most TCGs you want to play for fun, but to do this, you have to remain somewhat competitive. This means you have to spend a fair amount of money on regular booster packs throughout the year. In EPIC, you can play traditional constructed, draft, and sealed formats hundreds of times in many different deck variations with only the core set.
Board-wipe
You’re going to welcome a board wipe or two in each deck when you consider the insane power levels of most of the Champions!
The core set of 120 unique cards allows for up to four people to play at once and eliminates the scary price tag that would normally be associated with a draft-based game. There will be expansions that add new content, but these are optional purchases that aren’t necessary for out-of-the-box play.
The gameplay itself is simple and highly entertaining. The way the balance of the game can shift from one card to another is truly amazing. There are four factions to choose from which can be mixed easily and freely without restrictions: Evil, Good, Sage, and Wild. Among these factions, the cards are split between Event and Champion card types that form your deck.
In a standard game, each player draws a starting hand that you may mulligan. Each turn then proceeds with players taking turns in playing cards from their hand that they can afford to pay for. There are only two cost tiers in EPIC: 0 (silver) and 1 (gold). You start a turn with 1 gold and you may either use this in your turn or on your opponents’, but cannot store up gold for future turns.
There is no limit to the number of cards you can play in a single turn, as long as you can pay for them. However, it is unlikely you’ll play more than one or two of the 1 cost cards in a single turn. The same can be said for those that cost 0, as there are fewer of these in your deck than cards that cost 1.
Expending-to-attack
To attack or use an ability you rotate your Champion 90º. There are more than just a few similar mechanics at work in EPIC, making this one easy game to pick up and play!
Many of the core mechanics of the gameplay will be familiar to regular TCG/CCG players. Champions suffer from summoning sickness on the turn they are “deploying” (they cannot attack or use abilities but may still block). To use a Champion’s ability you must rotate them 90° and they may not attack or block whilst in this state. Blocking Champions are flipped (turned 180°), but may still use their abilities in this state. If you’re familiar with Magic‘s combat rules, declaring attackers and blockers and so on, they’re identical here.
There are some keywords in the game that make little sense when you read them. This is because the developers have had to tread carefully in order to avoid any infringements on other games. For example, “Tribute” as a keyword does not refer to sacrificing anything, as you might guess — it actually means “when entering the battlefield”. It is best to keep the rule book close by for easy reference so you can understand what your cards do!
To defeat an enemy Champion in battle, you must “break” it. In order to do this, your Champion’s attack must exceed the defense value of the Champion it is battling. Attack and defense values are compared for both Champions during a battle and you may very well lose your own Champion in that battle too. Caution is always advised before rushing headlong into a fight, as the opponent can “chump block” with multiple Champions!
The objective of EPIC is the same as most other TCGs/CCGs — reduce the opponent’s health to zero by using your Champions to strike at them directly (but from a starting value of 30, not the usual 20). Due to the nature of the game, this is far harder than you may think because of all of the insane card effects EPIC has. Most Champions never last more than a couple of turns on the board before they’re broken or banished!
Face-the-wolf-pack
The shift of power balance can happen with a single card. Here the Wild player has gone from a single Champion to five (by creating tokens) with one card. Things get this crazy almost every turn!
DRAFTING, SEALED PLAY, AND MORE…
Many of the strengths of EPIC Card Game lay in the many different ways you can play.
The core set of EPIC Card Game will come with all you need to play the limited formats. These include sealed, pack draft, open draft, and pre-constructed formats. The most basic of these is the pre-constructed format where up to 4 players may take part. Each player takes the pre-constructed 30-card faction deck of their choosing and begins play. Nothing special to be seen here, but it does give you a flavor of the insanity that EPIC has to offer.
If you own more than one core set you can make a deck of your choosing with a minimum of 60 cards and no more than three of any one card. This is your more traditional approach to a TCG/CCG and one that hardcore fans may want to get into for a competitive environment at your local game store. There are rules you must follow when making your deck and remember, things are likely to get nuts during your match-ups!
Sealed play is a bit like the pre-constructed format except all the cards are shuffled together and then 30 cards are dealt at random to each player. This then forms your deck and you may play this mode with up to 4 players (or up to 8 if using two core sets.) You’ll find that the majority of your cards may not synergize well with one another and that winning will be a lot harder than using a deck with cards that were designed to work together.
What-would-you-draft
Drafting is one of the most fun and creative ways to play EPIC. Though the developers encourage you to come up with more modes of play and share them with the community. Some tough draft choices need to be made with this pack!
Pack Draft is where the real fun of EPIC Card Game begins. Shuffle all of the cards and then deal three 10-card packs to each player. If you’re playing with more than four people you’ll need another core set to accommodate the numbers. Each player then sets aside two of their packs and begins the traditional pick-and-pass of drafting with their first pack. You pass the cards to your left on the first pack, right on the second, and then left again on the third. You’ll have 30 cards at the end of the draft to call your deck. Shuffle them and start playing!
Open Draft (a mode for two players) gives you a little more information to work with as you can see your opponent’s strategy unfold in front of you. Four cards are shown from the top of the deck and then the starting player picks one card, the second player picks two, and the final is given to the first player. You do this over and over again with 60 random cards from the core set until each player has 30 cards.
Epic Cube drafting is even more inspired! You will need three core sets in order to play this mode and a total of 8 players, but the effort is worth the experience. There are special symbols on some of the cards and you’ll be eliminating two of the three copies of these cards. Once you’ve done that you draft packs of 12 until each player has 36 cards at the end of the draft. Once again you need a minimum of 30 cards for a deck and then you can begin the insanity!
Multiplayer games (games with more than two players) have a special rule that allows each player to gain 1 gold to use after their turn has ended (but not 2 if they didn’t use the 1 gold on their turn first). This ensures you can play extra Event or Champion cards with Ambush in order to protect yourself should someone single you out for multiple attacks. The timing of when and if you use this extra gold will be crucial to your survival and, ultimately, your victory.
There are many more ways to play, with each one outlined in the very small and easy to assimilate rule book (and a suggestion of extra modes to be found on the website). The developers even encourage you to make up your own ways of playing and ask you to share these with the community at the official website. How could you not want to invent an ingenious way of playing an epic card game! (…See what I did there?)
Staring down a Zombie army is never a fun prospect. Token-spawning is a specialty of the Evil deck and one you’ll want to exploit!
FINAL THOUGHTS
EPIC Card Game is a TCG/CCG player’s dream come true. Sure, it’s about as nuts as it gets when we’re talking card effects, but we’ve all wanted to play a game of our favorite TCG/CCG using some of the most broken and overpowered cards ever created!
Imagine playing a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! where no card is forbidden or limited. Or even Magic: The Gathering using any card that was ever created (I’m aware this already exists, but it isn’t for the poor!) These modes are often the most chaotic, but the most fun anyone can have in this genre.
EPIC Card Game brings that chaos to an organized play style that is sheer unadulterated fun. The balance of power shifts with each card played and you’ll have to adapt your strategies just as quickly or face inevitable defeat. I’ve never had as much fun playing a pseudo-TCG as I’ve had playing EPIC Card Game! My group actually burst out in laughter so often when playing this game, because each turn felt like hitting each other with several atomic bombs at once.
EPIC Card Game is the insanely overpowered game the collective TCG/CCG world has been waiting for, and it’s all contained in a single box – utter genius! Possibly the best physical card game release of 2015. Do not walk — run and pick up this game at your earliest convenience
Thứ Năm, 23 tháng 6, 2016
Battle For Sularia, An In-Depth Review
Battle For Sularia is a turn-based card game for two or more players. It is set within the story of Sularia, depicting how the megacorps of that world continue to battle for the remnants of a once-proud jewel of a planet. The game was Kickstarted back in July 2015 after raising just under $19,000 for a $15,000 campaign. It shipped in late January and is now available for general purchase via the creator’s web store.
In the far future, corporations will one day have more power and influence than governments, fighting it out for supremacy over resources and people, with the victors obtaining world domination and a power we could only ever dream of.
Battle For Sularia takes us beyond the megacities created by the megacorps and instead shows us the ramifications of such battles — how the fight for ultimate profit and gain fractures a planet so badly that it becomes a shadow of its former glory, limping in the solar system as a barren and gray planet almost incapable of sustaining life.
Is there a market for Battle For Sularia outside of Kickstarter? Read on to find out…
Box-art
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Battle for Sularia was finally shipped in January of 2016. It has many new design concepts that set it apart from any other card gaming system.
GAMEPLAY
One of the core reasons I personally backed Battle For Sularia is because of the theme and the artwork. I’m a huge sucker for sci-fi and the many ways designers invent the future and other worlds in this genre. There are no limits as to where your mind can take you when you create new worlds. Battle For Sularia was created with a rich backstory that sounds like it could be a mirror of our Earth in a few hundred years.
The gameplay also grabbed my interest when I read through the Kickstarter campaign. It borrows a few mechanics and ideas from other games, yet lays them out in a fashion that is all its own. The game feels unique in this respect and playing it feels like nothing else I’ve played before.
The box comes with the first two factions from the story of Sularia: Jotune and Synthien. The Jotune are a more militia-style that excels in flight and teamwork. The Synthien are a more control-based deck that utilizes the shadows to hide their strength and true numbers. Both factions come with 90 cards each in the box, but a deck will contain 60 cards total. This gives room for further deckbuilding outside of the starter decks that the rule book suggests you use for your first few times playing the game.
After-some-time
After a number of turns, each player’s set-up will look roughly the same. It always seems daunting to make the first attack as there is so much at stake if you lose!
There are a number of zones on the board designated for specific card types. Each zone plays a specific role in your overall strategy and gameplay, with every card being meaningful to the overall outcome of the game. There are two primary resources you’ll need to manage in each of your turns. Influence is used to play Sites, which are like locations, and Sularium, which is used to pay for Combatants (your units). A third resource cost, Threshold, is used through your Influence and is a cost that must be met when playing Tactics and Condition cards.
This is a turn-based game, with players taking their own turns going through the game’s phases to perform specific actions. Your first objective is to obtain enough Influence to begin playing Sites. To gain Influence you play one card from your hand face-down in the Influence zone each turn. You may use any card to fulfill this role, but the most beneficial ones to use are the Tactics and Condition cards as you can still trigger them from the Influence zone at a later time. I love this “resource card becomes a trap card” mechanic — it’s one of my favorite things about the game.
Your Sites provide most of your Sularium generation and also act as barriers between your enemy and a direct attack against you. Each turn you can play as many Sites and Combatants as your resources allow. However, you have to be careful with the amount of Influence you spend in a turn as it isn’t replenished until your following turn. The reason for this is that in order to play your Tactics and Condition cards you will also be using your Influence pool.
Using-Influence-to-activate-Tactics
Using your face-down Tactic cards will use your Influence pool, reducing the resources available for the opponent’s turn. Balancing your resources and activating cards makes this game far more strategic than it first appears.
The game takes a while to build up. It takes some time to build up your rows of Sites and to be able to have enough Combatants to really start putting the hurt on your opponent. The pacing can often feel slow and the thinking times about moves can drag on due to the amount of number crunching you’ll have to do each turn to remember just how much of each resource you have at any given time (if you’re not using trackers of some kind). It’s a very “mathy” game, so be aware of that if you struggle with lots of numbers.
I touched on the artwork earlier and it is truly something to behold, though much of that is wasted due to the small space given to the actual art. The template takes up far too much room, as does much of the effect and flavor text. Even vanilla cards with no effect and only flavor text have the same template as those with longer effects.
Sure, the uniformity is great, but I would have loved to see more of the fantastic artwork on the cards. I might be spoiled by games like Cardfight!! Vanguard which showcases the art in full, as now I find myself squinting at these tiny art boxes in games like this one (and Magic: The Gathering ) and wish they’d really open up the templates more to show off the amazing art.
Basic-Jotune-deck
When you build a custom deck from the 90 cards that are available in the box, you will need to pay attention to the construction points value on each card. You cannot go above 90 points when building your deck of at least 60 cards.
EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE…
Battle For Sularia comes with just two factions in the standard retail box. These factions tell a small part of Sularia’s story and it is through the decks that you enact this story. The basic 60-card decks will get you familiarized with the game’s rules and gameplay fairly quickly. The remaining 30 cards from each faction can then be used for deckbuilding purposes once you’re comfortable with the gameplay.
There are only two rules you must obey when deckbuilding. Your deck must contain no less than 60 cards and you cannot exceed more than 90 points in construction value when building the deck. Construction points are printed on each card between the attack and defense values. Most cards cost one or two points, but there are a few stronger cards that cost more.
There are other rules to obey when playing the game that can be easily missed or forgotten about when in the midst of gameplay. One of these is the Type attribute that restricts the number of how many of a single card you can have in play at any one time. If a card has Type 4, for example, it means that you can have up to four copies of that card in play. Type 1 cards are powerful and having the limitation of one in play makes them feel more unique than anything else you’ll have in play at that time.
Most of your strategies will form as you play. It is hard to begin an early assault as you’ll want to save your Combatants for defense against your opponent’s cards. Using your face-down Tactics and Condition cards will reduce the amount of Influence you have to build more Sites. You should only use these in extreme circumstances or when they can net you a significant advantage. Balancing out all of your resources will be tough at first, but you’ll eventually get used to it.
45-degrees-for-engagement
To use effects and attack, you need to Activate and Engage, respectively. This angles the card at its appropriate angle and allows you to see what cards are engaged or have been activated. These refresh at the start of each of your turns.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Battle For Sularia was an impressive Kickstarter campaign that drew a fair amount of attention. The amount of strategic depth on offer has many layers that will have you engrossed in the gameplay many plays after your first. The basic rule book gives you all you need to get going straight away, though you may find yourself referencing the full rules sooner or later when complex card interactions occur.
The game is touted as a quick game that usually only lasts about 20 minutes. I found this to only be true once you’d played a few times. Initial games will take a lot longer than this as you learn about the different card combinations and strategic moves that your factions can perform. The amount of thinking time dedicated to these strategies takes away some of the player interaction this game boasts about. However, once you’re more accustomed to the game you should be playing at a pace that feels much more interactive.
The delightful artwork is squandered by the overly-spacious card template. I do wish more love was given to the artwork as I have to squint to be able to make out the finer details of a piece. They are easily recognizable when on the board and each piece looks well separated. You’ll know which Combatant and Site is which from just a quick glance over your board, which showcases just how diverse the artwork is.
Jotune-versus-Synthien
The artwork is some of the finest seen in a card game in this genre. Sadly, the card template takes up much of the room and lessens the impact the artwork could have had at selling more units of the game.
The overall presentation is superb and if you’re into the story behind the game then I suggest you check that out on their website. There is plenty to read and a lot more beautiful artwork pieces to discover. If you get into the game you may want to think about picking up one of the glorious playmats that really does some of the artwork more justice than the cards could ever hope to do.
There are plans to expand the game beyond the starting factions and to grow the story of Sularia. More factions mean more decks and the possibility of even more game modes that would easily lengthen the replay value of the game. There is so much untapped potential with Battle For Sularia and if it can keep up the momentum from the successful Kickstarter campaign, there is no reason why this cannot be as successful as other much-loved expandable card games!
In the far future, corporations will one day have more power and influence than governments, fighting it out for supremacy over resources and people, with the victors obtaining world domination and a power we could only ever dream of.
Battle For Sularia takes us beyond the megacities created by the megacorps and instead shows us the ramifications of such battles — how the fight for ultimate profit and gain fractures a planet so badly that it becomes a shadow of its former glory, limping in the solar system as a barren and gray planet almost incapable of sustaining life.
Is there a market for Battle For Sularia outside of Kickstarter? Read on to find out…
Box-art
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Battle for Sularia was finally shipped in January of 2016. It has many new design concepts that set it apart from any other card gaming system.
GAMEPLAY
One of the core reasons I personally backed Battle For Sularia is because of the theme and the artwork. I’m a huge sucker for sci-fi and the many ways designers invent the future and other worlds in this genre. There are no limits as to where your mind can take you when you create new worlds. Battle For Sularia was created with a rich backstory that sounds like it could be a mirror of our Earth in a few hundred years.
The gameplay also grabbed my interest when I read through the Kickstarter campaign. It borrows a few mechanics and ideas from other games, yet lays them out in a fashion that is all its own. The game feels unique in this respect and playing it feels like nothing else I’ve played before.
The box comes with the first two factions from the story of Sularia: Jotune and Synthien. The Jotune are a more militia-style that excels in flight and teamwork. The Synthien are a more control-based deck that utilizes the shadows to hide their strength and true numbers. Both factions come with 90 cards each in the box, but a deck will contain 60 cards total. This gives room for further deckbuilding outside of the starter decks that the rule book suggests you use for your first few times playing the game.
After-some-time
After a number of turns, each player’s set-up will look roughly the same. It always seems daunting to make the first attack as there is so much at stake if you lose!
There are a number of zones on the board designated for specific card types. Each zone plays a specific role in your overall strategy and gameplay, with every card being meaningful to the overall outcome of the game. There are two primary resources you’ll need to manage in each of your turns. Influence is used to play Sites, which are like locations, and Sularium, which is used to pay for Combatants (your units). A third resource cost, Threshold, is used through your Influence and is a cost that must be met when playing Tactics and Condition cards.
This is a turn-based game, with players taking their own turns going through the game’s phases to perform specific actions. Your first objective is to obtain enough Influence to begin playing Sites. To gain Influence you play one card from your hand face-down in the Influence zone each turn. You may use any card to fulfill this role, but the most beneficial ones to use are the Tactics and Condition cards as you can still trigger them from the Influence zone at a later time. I love this “resource card becomes a trap card” mechanic — it’s one of my favorite things about the game.
Your Sites provide most of your Sularium generation and also act as barriers between your enemy and a direct attack against you. Each turn you can play as many Sites and Combatants as your resources allow. However, you have to be careful with the amount of Influence you spend in a turn as it isn’t replenished until your following turn. The reason for this is that in order to play your Tactics and Condition cards you will also be using your Influence pool.
Using-Influence-to-activate-Tactics
Using your face-down Tactic cards will use your Influence pool, reducing the resources available for the opponent’s turn. Balancing your resources and activating cards makes this game far more strategic than it first appears.
The game takes a while to build up. It takes some time to build up your rows of Sites and to be able to have enough Combatants to really start putting the hurt on your opponent. The pacing can often feel slow and the thinking times about moves can drag on due to the amount of number crunching you’ll have to do each turn to remember just how much of each resource you have at any given time (if you’re not using trackers of some kind). It’s a very “mathy” game, so be aware of that if you struggle with lots of numbers.
I touched on the artwork earlier and it is truly something to behold, though much of that is wasted due to the small space given to the actual art. The template takes up far too much room, as does much of the effect and flavor text. Even vanilla cards with no effect and only flavor text have the same template as those with longer effects.
Sure, the uniformity is great, but I would have loved to see more of the fantastic artwork on the cards. I might be spoiled by games like Cardfight!! Vanguard which showcases the art in full, as now I find myself squinting at these tiny art boxes in games like this one (and Magic: The Gathering ) and wish they’d really open up the templates more to show off the amazing art.
Basic-Jotune-deck
When you build a custom deck from the 90 cards that are available in the box, you will need to pay attention to the construction points value on each card. You cannot go above 90 points when building your deck of at least 60 cards.
EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE…
Battle For Sularia comes with just two factions in the standard retail box. These factions tell a small part of Sularia’s story and it is through the decks that you enact this story. The basic 60-card decks will get you familiarized with the game’s rules and gameplay fairly quickly. The remaining 30 cards from each faction can then be used for deckbuilding purposes once you’re comfortable with the gameplay.
There are only two rules you must obey when deckbuilding. Your deck must contain no less than 60 cards and you cannot exceed more than 90 points in construction value when building the deck. Construction points are printed on each card between the attack and defense values. Most cards cost one or two points, but there are a few stronger cards that cost more.
There are other rules to obey when playing the game that can be easily missed or forgotten about when in the midst of gameplay. One of these is the Type attribute that restricts the number of how many of a single card you can have in play at any one time. If a card has Type 4, for example, it means that you can have up to four copies of that card in play. Type 1 cards are powerful and having the limitation of one in play makes them feel more unique than anything else you’ll have in play at that time.
Most of your strategies will form as you play. It is hard to begin an early assault as you’ll want to save your Combatants for defense against your opponent’s cards. Using your face-down Tactics and Condition cards will reduce the amount of Influence you have to build more Sites. You should only use these in extreme circumstances or when they can net you a significant advantage. Balancing out all of your resources will be tough at first, but you’ll eventually get used to it.
45-degrees-for-engagement
To use effects and attack, you need to Activate and Engage, respectively. This angles the card at its appropriate angle and allows you to see what cards are engaged or have been activated. These refresh at the start of each of your turns.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Battle For Sularia was an impressive Kickstarter campaign that drew a fair amount of attention. The amount of strategic depth on offer has many layers that will have you engrossed in the gameplay many plays after your first. The basic rule book gives you all you need to get going straight away, though you may find yourself referencing the full rules sooner or later when complex card interactions occur.
The game is touted as a quick game that usually only lasts about 20 minutes. I found this to only be true once you’d played a few times. Initial games will take a lot longer than this as you learn about the different card combinations and strategic moves that your factions can perform. The amount of thinking time dedicated to these strategies takes away some of the player interaction this game boasts about. However, once you’re more accustomed to the game you should be playing at a pace that feels much more interactive.
The delightful artwork is squandered by the overly-spacious card template. I do wish more love was given to the artwork as I have to squint to be able to make out the finer details of a piece. They are easily recognizable when on the board and each piece looks well separated. You’ll know which Combatant and Site is which from just a quick glance over your board, which showcases just how diverse the artwork is.
Jotune-versus-Synthien
The artwork is some of the finest seen in a card game in this genre. Sadly, the card template takes up much of the room and lessens the impact the artwork could have had at selling more units of the game.
The overall presentation is superb and if you’re into the story behind the game then I suggest you check that out on their website. There is plenty to read and a lot more beautiful artwork pieces to discover. If you get into the game you may want to think about picking up one of the glorious playmats that really does some of the artwork more justice than the cards could ever hope to do.
There are plans to expand the game beyond the starting factions and to grow the story of Sularia. More factions mean more decks and the possibility of even more game modes that would easily lengthen the replay value of the game. There is so much untapped potential with Battle For Sularia and if it can keep up the momentum from the successful Kickstarter campaign, there is no reason why this cannot be as successful as other much-loved expandable card games!
Fruitcraft, An In-Depth Review
A distinctive theme will often help to give a game a louder voice in an overcrowded genre. We’ve already reviewed quite a few games that would have otherwise gone unnoticed had it not been for their theme – this is particularly the case for games that sit in the casual card battle genre.
Fruitcraft is one such casual card battle game that employs a unique theme to get your attention. Getting your attention is one thing, but maintaining it is another. There also needs to be some excellent gameplay beneath the thematic exterior for players to continue playing.
Is there substance to this cute, fruit-inspired casual card battler? Read on to find out…
GAMEPLAY
In Fruitcraft, you assume the role of a new General who has been recruited to stop the evil Dracula, also a fruit. That’s the basic story of the game, and the game doesn’t build upon it other than the fact that you need to battle your way through some grueling quests with a final boss at the end. It’s a shame that the game fails to build a decent story, but given the light theme, it is not surprising.
Gameplay is very simple and after a short tutorial that shows you the ropes, you can dive right in. Fruitcraft uses the standard casual card battle formula that sees your cards face off against the opponent’s, attacking automatically until all cards on one team are squashed into a fruit puree.
The cards contain pictures of cutely drawn fruits and vegetables that may hold a weapon or two… Not so cute after all! There are only two statistics to work with, which keeps the game simple enough for younger players. Power represents both the attack value and health of the card. The attack value of an opposing card is subtracted from your card when it attacks an opponent’s card. The damage is shared between your cards when you have more than one in the line-up.
The second statistic is a wait timer. When your cards attack, they must wait an allotted time before they can battle again. Low rarity cards have short timers, whereas your higher rarity, more powerful cards have longer timers extending into minutes. Fruitcraft prides itself on lacking the frustrating energy system that many casual card battlers have, but the timer pretty much replaces it — so it’s not entirely free of waiting times.
Fruitcraft is one of the most simplistic card games you are likely to come across, and because of this, it makes it somewhat addictive. You will find yourself playing battle after battle in the Quest and Battle modes just to earn the necessary experience required to level up and unlock new features
The game features an excellent user interface with everything you need at the tap of a finger. The graphics aren’t amazing, but are consistent throughout and stick to the overall theme of the game. The music and sound effects aren’t bad either. In fact, when you battle, you are treated to realistic squishing sounds with every attack that makes it delightfully fun.
MODES AND FEATURES
Fruitcraft is relatively rich in features that extend the play time. A decent number of these are unlocked as you level up, which provides the incentive needed to continue playing beyond the initial quests.
The Quest mode is full of battles that you can take part in to earn Gold and experience points at a slow rate. These battles are quite easy, and you can breeze through most of these in no time at all. However, due to the sheer number of battles in each Quest, it will take you a while to get to the final boss. You’ll probably spend as little time as possible playing the Quest mode simply because it offers little in the way of player rewards.
If you want to earn Gold and experience at an accelerated rate, you will need to take part in player battles via the Battle mode. In this mode, you play against another player’s strongest four cards, which can be enhanced if they’re in a Tribe. There is no A.I. to worry about as the game pre-selects the best cards from the opponent’s collection and you then just sit back and watch the fruits go at it.
The way in which Fruitcraft’s PvP works is rather non-interactive. Being part of a Tribe gives you access to buffing up your attack and defense cards and not much more. If you are a part of a tribe or have started your own, each win you earn against fellow players will also contribute to enhancing your Tribe’s rank in addition to your own. Live player battles are on offer, but these are few and far between.
In addition to enhancing your attack and defense through a Tribe, you can also improve the power of your fruit warriors through other means. The first method, which opens up relatively quickly, is the Enhance option. Using this, you sacrifice other cards to improve the target card, and this adds to the card’s overall power while not increasing the wait time. The second is to Evolve a card, which works by combining two of the same card at the same level to increase its power, level, and wait time.
I would recommend you do more of the former and less of the latter if you want to be able to play fast and take part in many battles without waiting. Increasing the wait time can be detrimental when you need more fruits to attack a stronger opponent. However, if you have a vast collection of fruit, you will want to use the latter option as it will give you a much more powerful fruit force.
Unwanted fruits can be put to work in the mines to earn you additional Gold per hour (What is this, fruit slavery?! Hilariously bizarre). Gold is the only currency in the game and is given as a reward in all of the game’s modes. The more you have, the more Evolutions, Enhancements, and fruit card packs you can buy from the store. You can also purchase Gold as an in-app purchase, and the prices aren’t too bad.
Fruitcraft features another way for you to earn cards. There is an auction system where other players put up their unwanted fruit cards for auction and players can bid on them. Many of the cards on offer will be of a high level and very expensive, but if you’ve got the Gold, it might be an excellent way to snag a powerful card to buff up your attack or defense stats.
DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY
There is no need to build a deck in Fruitcraft. Before each battle, you can choose up to four available fruit from your entire collection to take part. If a card is waiting, you can pay Gold to have it ready immediately for that battle. In the early stages of the game, you can afford this in almost every fight. Later on, as your cards increase in power, this will become far more expensive.
As I have suggested already, you should focus on Enhancing as many of your early-game fruits as you can. Enhancing your cards gives you a significant advantage in the Quest mode. In the Battle mode, you can Scout an enemy player’s camp to see what their power level is. Most of the time, you will be able to guess how powerful they are from the structures that they have and how much wealth is on display.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Fruitcraft is a well-designed, fun and addictive casual card battler. What it lacks in strategic depth it makes up for in personality thanks to its fun, fruity theme. The theme will help it stand out in the crowd, as most casual card games tend to focus on anime style characters and over-the-top visual effects. In doing so, they all look the same, and it can be hard to tell them apart.
That said, there really isn’t much here in terms of interesting card mechanics. The gameplay is overly simplistic, and this is likely to disappoint many if not most strategy card gamers.
That said, the simplistic gameplay mechanics have ensured that Fruitcraft is open to any and all audiences of any age and experience level. It should keep kids entertained for hours at a time and for those of us who are more seasoned card gamers, it might be a light-hearted diversion from the intense battles in our usual TCGs/CCGs.
Thứ Tư, 15 tháng 6, 2016
EPIC Card Game, An In-Depth Review
Draft and sealed play are some of the best ways to play a card game. They give you the ultimate freedom to be creative, spontaneous, and strategic all at the same time. The problem with popular TCGs/CCGs is that this mode of playing can often set you back $20-$30 per event due to the cost of using randomized booster packs. So what better way to play these modes than with a game that has it all in one box!
EPIC Card Game (from the creators of Star Realms) is just as its name suggests — epic! You can play draft, sealed, and even constructed decks right out of the box. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game is now available to purchase at retail with a respectable price tag. So it’s about time to bring you an in-depth look at the game that we’ve been playing obsessively since we got our Kickstarter edition!
Is EPIC Card Game as much fun as a traditional sealed or draft event? Could it even be more fun than Magic: The Gathering?! Read on to find out…
Core-and-Kickstarter-content
EPIC Card Game is a whole TCG/CCG set that lets you play draft, sealed, and tournament style formats right out of a single box.
GAMEPLAY
The best way to describe the gameplay of EPIC Card Game is that it’s Magic: The Gatheringon some very high-dose steroids! The cards’ effects are borderline crazy, with many of the four factions in the game having very strong creatures, several board wipes and ways to bring your opponents to tears each turn. This game is more salt-inducing than tier 0 decks in other popular TCGs/CCGs!
EPIC Card Game is, however, not a TCG/CCG. It is an out-of-the-box card game that replicates some of our favorite games by borrowing some of their core mechanics, effects, and modes of play. EPIC does manage to make these elements feel a part of its own mechanics instead of having borrowed them from elsewhere. There is a freshness to the gameplay that has yet to be seen in other traditional TCGs/CCGs, but that’s probably due to how insanely overpowered everything is in EPIC.
In most TCGs you want to play for fun, but to do this, you have to remain somewhat competitive. This means you have to spend a fair amount of money on regular booster packs throughout the year. In EPIC, you can play traditional constructed, draft, and sealed formats hundreds of times in many different deck variations with only the core set.
Board-wipe
You’re going to welcome a board wipe or two in each deck when you consider the insane power levels of most of the Champions!
The core set of 120 unique cards allows for up to four people to play at once and eliminates the scary price tag that would normally be associated with a draft-based game. There will be expansions that add new content, but these are optional purchases that aren’t necessary for out-of-the-box play.
The gameplay itself is simple and highly entertaining. The way the balance of the game can shift from one card to another is truly amazing. There are four factions to choose from which can be mixed easily and freely without restrictions: Evil, Good, Sage, and Wild. Among these factions, the cards are split between Event and Champion card types that form your deck.
In a standard game, each player draws a starting hand that you may mulligan. Each turn then proceeds with players taking turns in playing cards from their hand that they can afford to pay for. There are only two cost tiers in EPIC: 0 (silver) and 1 (gold). You start a turn with 1 gold and you may either use this in your turn or on your opponents’, but cannot store up gold for future turns.
There is no limit to the number of cards you can play in a single turn, as long as you can pay for them. However, it is unlikely you’ll play more than one or two of the 1 cost cards in a single turn. The same can be said for those that cost 0, as there are fewer of these in your deck than cards that cost 1.
Expending-to-attack
To attack or use an ability you rotate your Champion 90º. There are more than just a few similar mechanics at work in EPIC, making this one easy game to pick up and play!
Many of the core mechanics of the gameplay will be familiar to regular TCG/CCG players. Champions suffer from summoning sickness on the turn they are “deploying” (they cannot attack or use abilities but may still block). To use a Champion’s ability you must rotate them 90° and they may not attack or block whilst in this state. Blocking Champions are flipped (turned 180°), but may still use their abilities in this state. If you’re familiar with Magic‘s combat rules, declaring attackers and blockers and so on, they’re identical here.
There are some keywords in the game that make little sense when you read them. This is because the developers have had to tread carefully in order to avoid any infringements on other games. For example, “Tribute” as a keyword does not refer to sacrificing anything, as you might guess — it actually means “when entering the battlefield”. It is best to keep the rule book close by for easy reference so you can understand what your cards do!
To defeat an enemy Champion in battle, you must “break” it. In order to do this, your Champion’s attack must exceed the defense value of the Champion it is battling. Attack and defense values are compared for both Champions during a battle and you may very well lose your own Champion in that battle too. Caution is always advised before rushing headlong into a fight, as the opponent can “chump block” with multiple Champions!
The objective of EPIC is the same as most other TCGs/CCGs — reduce the opponent’s health to zero by using your Champions to strike at them directly (but from a starting value of 30, not the usual 20). Due to the nature of the game, this is far harder than you may think because of all of the insane card effects EPIC has. Most Champions never last more than a couple of turns on the board before they’re broken or banished!
Face-the-wolf-pack
The shift of power balance can happen with a single card. Here the Wild player has gone from a single Champion to five (by creating tokens) with one card. Things get this crazy almost every turn!
DRAFTING, SEALED PLAY, AND MORE…
Many of the strengths of EPIC Card Game lay in the many different ways you can play.
The core set of EPIC Card Game will come with all you need to play the limited formats. These include sealed, pack draft, open draft, and pre-constructed formats. The most basic of these is the pre-constructed format where up to 4 players may take part. Each player takes the pre-constructed 30-card faction deck of their choosing and begins play. Nothing special to be seen here, but it does give you a flavor of the insanity that EPIC has to offer.
If you own more than one core set you can make a deck of your choosing with a minimum of 60 cards and no more than three of any one card. This is your more traditional approach to a TCG/CCG and one that hardcore fans may want to get into for a competitive environment at your local game store. There are rules you must follow when making your deck and remember, things are likely to get nuts during your match-ups!
Sealed play is a bit like the pre-constructed format except all the cards are shuffled together and then 30 cards are dealt at random to each player. This then forms your deck and you may play this mode with up to 4 players (or up to 8 if using two core sets.) You’ll find that the majority of your cards may not synergize well with one another and that winning will be a lot harder than using a deck with cards that were designed to work together.
What-would-you-draft
Drafting is one of the most fun and creative ways to play EPIC. Though the developers encourage you to come up with more modes of play and share them with the community. Some tough draft choices need to be made with this pack!
Pack Draft is where the real fun of EPIC Card Game begins. Shuffle all of the cards and then deal three 10-card packs to each player. If you’re playing with more than four people you’ll need another core set to accommodate the numbers. Each player then sets aside two of their packs and begins the traditional pick-and-pass of drafting with their first pack. You pass the cards to your left on the first pack, right on the second, and then left again on the third. You’ll have 30 cards at the end of the draft to call your deck. Shuffle them and start playing!
Open Draft (a mode for two players) gives you a little more information to work with as you can see your opponent’s strategy unfold in front of you. Four cards are shown from the top of the deck and then the starting player picks one card, the second player picks two, and the final is given to the first player. You do this over and over again with 60 random cards from the core set until each player has 30 cards.
Epic Cube drafting is even more inspired! You will need three core sets in order to play this mode and a total of 8 players, but the effort is worth the experience. There are special symbols on some of the cards and you’ll be eliminating two of the three copies of these cards. Once you’ve done that you draft packs of 12 until each player has 36 cards at the end of the draft. Once again you need a minimum of 30 cards for a deck and then you can begin the insanity!
Multiplayer games (games with more than two players) have a special rule that allows each player to gain 1 gold to use after their turn has ended (but not 2 if they didn’t use the 1 gold on their turn first). This ensures you can play extra Event or Champion cards with Ambush in order to protect yourself should someone single you out for multiple attacks. The timing of when and if you use this extra gold will be crucial to your survival and, ultimately, your victory.
There are many more ways to play, with each one outlined in the very small and easy to assimilate rule book (and a suggestion of extra modes to be found on the website). The developers even encourage you to make up your own ways of playing and ask you to share these with the community at the official website. How could you not want to invent an ingenious way of playing an epic card game! (…See what I did there?)
Zombie-army
Staring down a Zombie army is never a fun prospect. Token-spawning is a specialty of the Evil deck and one you’ll want to exploit!
FINAL THOUGHTS
EPIC Card Game is a TCG/CCG player’s dream come true. Sure, it’s about as nuts as it gets when we’re talking card effects, but we’ve all wanted to play a game of our favorite TCG/CCG using some of the most broken and overpowered cards ever created!
Imagine playing a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! where no card is forbidden or limited. Or even Magic: The Gathering using any card that was ever created (I’m aware this already exists, but it isn’t for the poor!) These modes are often the most chaotic, but the most fun anyone can have in this genre.
EPIC Card Game brings that chaos to an organized play style that is sheer unadulterated fun. The balance of power shifts with each card played and you’ll have to adapt your strategies just as quickly or face inevitable defeat. I’ve never had as much fun playing a pseudo-TCG as I’ve had playing EPIC Card Game! My group actually burst out in laughter so often when playing this game, because each turn felt like hitting each other with several atomic bombs at once.
EPIC Card Game is the insanely overpowered game the collective TCG/CCG world has been waiting for, and it’s all contained in a single box – utter genius! Possibly the best physical card game release of 2015. Do not walk — run and pick up this game at your earliest convenience
Thứ Năm, 9 tháng 6, 2016
Breaking Down the World’s Most Popular Poker Variants
Poker is one of the world’s favorite games. The basic rules of the game make it both easy to learn and infinitely customizable. Poker involves a lot of player skill – it’s gambling without relying as much on luck as you do with other casino games.
Poker is now considered a sport, accepted by mainstream audiences to the point that media coverage had to change to reflect renewed interest in the game. Broadcasters like ESPN and The Travel Channel started giving prime air space to poker tournaments and events in the early 2000s.
If you’re new to the game and confused about all the different variants, I have good news for you. It won’t take you long to get acquainted with the different games and rule variations.
To understand the major variants of poker, start by learning the names of the three basic categories of poker variants:
In stud games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to form the best possible hand out of those you’re dealt.
In draw games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to trade some for new cards in order to build a better hand than the one you’re dealt.
In community games, each player gets “hole cards” dealt exclusively to them face down and the goal is to build the best hand they can from a select number of community cards common to all players.
Texas holdem was responsible for the explosion of interest in poker in the late 90s and early 2000s. It is still the game of choice for the World Series of Poker and most professional tournaments. Texas holdem is also the standard-bearer for poker in the online world, by far the most popular variant at the world’s biggest Web-based rooms.
This is a community game in which each player is dealt two hole cards and bid as each of five community cards is revealed.
The game involves four betting rounds: one after the hole cards are dealt, again after the first three community cards are revealed (this is called “the flop”), once more after the fourth community card is revealed, and finally after the fifth community card is shown. You can use any five-card combination of your hole cards plus the five community cards as your best-possible hand.
Omaha was once a gambling mecca, similar to a frontier-era Las Vegas. Because of the town’s association with vice and gambling, it has been used in the names of a variety of different games of chance and skill over the years. Omaha holdem
This is another community game (like Texas holdem) in which the goal is to build the best five-card hand from two hole cards and three of the game’s community cards. The main differences between Omaha and Texas holdem is the fact that Omaha players are dealt four hole cards instead of two (and are forced to use exactly two of them). The five community cards are also revealed immediately, which leads to some major differences in strategy.
Stud poker has an interesting history in the United States. Apparently, the five-card versions was incredibly popular among soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. All modern stud games, including the popular seven-card variant, can trace their roots back to these simple pastimes among bored soldiers.
This is a stud game in which layers are dealt a total of seven cards but use only their best five to determine the winner. A big difference between this game and the community games above is that it’s usually played with a strict betting limit structure. That means players can only bet in strict increments.
I have an old copy of Hoyle’s Rules (the title page says it was printed in 1968) which says that seven card stud is “the most popular poker game in the world,” thanks to its use as the base game of thousands of home-rules games at that time. Though Texas holdem has overtaken seven-card stud even in home games, the variant is still played in casinos and tournaments to this day.
Lots of people consider this the most traditional poker variant. It takes seconds to learn but still involves a good deal of strategy. This is also the first poker game many people learn as a kid, and it forms the basis for a ton of other popular poker variants, including all video poker titles.
This is a draw game in which each player is dealt five cards and has one opportunity to improve their hand by discarding and replacing up to three cards.
The game usually starts with an ante round. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player says how many cards they want to draw and makes the discard. Play moves clockwise. Another betting round occurs. Once all bets are settled, the last player to place a bet shows his hand. The best five-card hand wins the pot.
The most popular variant based on simple five-card draw is also the standard game used on video poker terminals – Jacks or Better. The only difference between Jacks or Better and five-card draw is that in Jacks or Better, only pairs better than a pair of tens (hence the name) can open betting.
Poker is now considered a sport, accepted by mainstream audiences to the point that media coverage had to change to reflect renewed interest in the game. Broadcasters like ESPN and The Travel Channel started giving prime air space to poker tournaments and events in the early 2000s.
If you’re new to the game and confused about all the different variants, I have good news for you. It won’t take you long to get acquainted with the different games and rule variations.
A Note on Names
To understand the major variants of poker, start by learning the names of the three basic categories of poker variants:
In stud games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to form the best possible hand out of those you’re dealt.
In draw games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to trade some for new cards in order to build a better hand than the one you’re dealt.
In community games, each player gets “hole cards” dealt exclusively to them face down and the goal is to build the best hand they can from a select number of community cards common to all players.
Texas Holdem
Texas holdem was responsible for the explosion of interest in poker in the late 90s and early 2000s. It is still the game of choice for the World Series of Poker and most professional tournaments. Texas holdem is also the standard-bearer for poker in the online world, by far the most popular variant at the world’s biggest Web-based rooms.
This is a community game in which each player is dealt two hole cards and bid as each of five community cards is revealed.
The game involves four betting rounds: one after the hole cards are dealt, again after the first three community cards are revealed (this is called “the flop”), once more after the fourth community card is revealed, and finally after the fifth community card is shown. You can use any five-card combination of your hole cards plus the five community cards as your best-possible hand.
Omaha
Omaha was once a gambling mecca, similar to a frontier-era Las Vegas. Because of the town’s association with vice and gambling, it has been used in the names of a variety of different games of chance and skill over the years. Omaha holdem
This is another community game (like Texas holdem) in which the goal is to build the best five-card hand from two hole cards and three of the game’s community cards. The main differences between Omaha and Texas holdem is the fact that Omaha players are dealt four hole cards instead of two (and are forced to use exactly two of them). The five community cards are also revealed immediately, which leads to some major differences in strategy.
7 Card Stud
Stud poker has an interesting history in the United States. Apparently, the five-card versions was incredibly popular among soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. All modern stud games, including the popular seven-card variant, can trace their roots back to these simple pastimes among bored soldiers.
This is a stud game in which layers are dealt a total of seven cards but use only their best five to determine the winner. A big difference between this game and the community games above is that it’s usually played with a strict betting limit structure. That means players can only bet in strict increments.
I have an old copy of Hoyle’s Rules (the title page says it was printed in 1968) which says that seven card stud is “the most popular poker game in the world,” thanks to its use as the base game of thousands of home-rules games at that time. Though Texas holdem has overtaken seven-card stud even in home games, the variant is still played in casinos and tournaments to this day.
5 Card Draw
Lots of people consider this the most traditional poker variant. It takes seconds to learn but still involves a good deal of strategy. This is also the first poker game many people learn as a kid, and it forms the basis for a ton of other popular poker variants, including all video poker titles.
This is a draw game in which each player is dealt five cards and has one opportunity to improve their hand by discarding and replacing up to three cards.
The game usually starts with an ante round. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player says how many cards they want to draw and makes the discard. Play moves clockwise. Another betting round occurs. Once all bets are settled, the last player to place a bet shows his hand. The best five-card hand wins the pot.
The most popular variant based on simple five-card draw is also the standard game used on video poker terminals – Jacks or Better. The only difference between Jacks or Better and five-card draw is that in Jacks or Better, only pairs better than a pair of tens (hence the name) can open betting.
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