The observant Murloc botherers among you will already know that we ve got a lot of love for Hearthstone and the effect it s had. But not everyone s convinced that it s the digital CCG for them. Hearthstone still gets criticized for lacking the depth of Magic: The Gathering, for relying on RNG effects, and for the grind of ranked ladder play. When we run our weekly article about the game, someone in the comments invariably suggests we take a look at something else. Well, here we go.
I've taken a look at some of Hearthstone's key competitors. They may not have the production value of a Blizzard game, but each one provides something different in terms of style and systems which may pique your interest in a way that Hearthstone doesn t. And, if nothing else, there s no danger of encountering a Knife Juggler in any of them. Put this apple on your… NO BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.
Scrolls
Scrolls is the second full release from Minecraft-makers Mojang. First announced at the start of 2011, it spent a year in closed testing, then another in open beta, before finally launching publicly last December. Apart from the regular versus mode, the results of that protracted development cycle include daily challenge scenarios against the AI, ranked play, and an Arena-style drafting mode called Judgement.
How s it different?
Scrolls shakes up the standard CCG format by adding that classic strategy game staple: a hex board. When you play a creature card, you choose a spot on your side of the board for it to appear, forcing you to think not just about what creatures you put in your deck, but also how you ll position them when they hit the battlefield. There are a few other digital card games that focus on careful positioning, but none quite so heavily as Scrolls. It almost feels like a board game, but the card collecting and deck building aspects keep it within the CCG realm.
Deck building
Click the arrows in the top-right corner to enlarge.
Instead of a life total, you and your opponent both have five idols, one at the end of each row. Destroy three of your opponent s idols and you win, so trying to capitalize on exposed idols while blocking off your own is key. Each creature attacks after a certain number of turns, striking whatever is directly in front of it. You can t do anything on your opponent s turn, but the attack timers on creatures give you long enough to set up your defenses to disrupt their next move.
Scrolls is lovely to look at. There are a suite of different battlefields to play on, and each playstyle has creatures and card art that suit them. You can purchase different looking characters and idols with in-game or real money to add a more custom personality to your fights. It would be nearly impossible to reach the level of detail and ease of use that Hearthstone s interface has, but there's a lot more going on in Scrolls.
Another significant difference is the way Scrolls handles mana. Each turn, you re allowed to sacrifice a card to either draw two new cards, or gain a permanent increase to a specific kind of mana. Your mana regenerates at the beginning of each turn, but it doesn t automatically scale up as it does in Hearthstone. This can force you into some unpleasant discards, but it also frees up your deck building options. For those familiar with Magic: The Gathering, you don t need to fill your deck with mana cards that could possibly become dead draws. For those familiar with Hearthstone, you don t need to worry about putting card draw into your deck as much.
Why should I play it?
Scrolls is a great choice if you are looking for a CCG that has a bit more depth without a lot more complexity. While there aren t nearly as many unique or surprising card mechanics as found in Hearthstone, the hex board adds an extra layer of thinking to each turn. Additionally, collecting cards feels much less exhausting, with gold for packs coming quickly and the option to buy different specific cards each day.
Scrolls has a free trial, which can be upgraded to the full version for $5 on its official site.
Hex
Hex is a free-to-play CCG currently in open beta that tries harder than any other digital card game I ve played to emulate the business model used by physical card games. You begin by choosing a race and class, which affects the cards and abilities you start with, and has further implications in the campaign mode, which is yet to be implemented. At present the play options are a standard versus mode and a built-in tournament format
How s it different?
As far as I can tell, Hex really wants to be Magic: The Gathering, because it plays almost identically. This means it uses 60-card decks, enables you to play cards on your opponent s turn, its creatures go back to full health at the end of combat, and a lot of other stuff that will feel unfamiliar for Hearthstone players. Combat is one of the biggest points of difference, as you don t get to choose what your creatures attack. You declare which of your creatures are attacking and your opponent decides which of their creatures will block, or if they ll just allow the damage through. This means turns take much longer as every time your opponent does something, you get the option to respond.
deck building
Click the arrows in the top-right corner to enlarge.
However, Hex isn t simply digital Magic—which of course already exists, but not in a state that makes it worth mentioning here. In contrast, Hex makes a virtue of the fact that it s a whole new game designed from the ground up for computer screens rather than tabletops. It introduces a number of complex cards that wouldn t be realistic in a paper-based CCG—socketed cards that you can customize with different abilities, for example—as well as character powers that function similarly to Hearthstone s hero powers. It s an interesting mix of the two games and will definitely please people who think Hearthstone dumbed the formula down too much.
Even with everything that s going on, Hex has made the battle screen easy to understand. Unique symbols represent each phase of a turn and an icon on the left tells you who currently has priority to make decisions. It can get a little bit confusing when there are a lot of cards on the board, but considering how much is happening at those times it could be a lot worse. The card art has a great style, but the lack of any substantial battle animations makes combat feel flat, especially compared to Hearthstone s satisfying crunch followed by the roar of the crowd on hard hits.
Probably the most divisive change is how you grow your card collection in Hex. After a few tutorial missions you re left with some gold and a single booster pack. From there you only have two ways to get new cards: purchase booster packs with real money or bid for specific cards in the auction house with gold. This is no different than how any real world card game works, with the auction house being Hex s version of a card shop or trading with your friends. If you aren t planning on spending money on Hex, creating a workable collection will be incredibly slow going.
Why should I play it?
Hex is much more similar to playing a paper card game, meaning it will appeal to the same people who don t mind buying card packs with actual money in real life. The ability to play cards on your opponent s turn gives Hex a lot of the extra strategy that people complain is missing from Hearthstone, but the game moves much more slowly as a result. There s a huge amount of depth to discover here, but the process of collecting enough cards and learning the systems might be too exhausting for those looking to just relax.
Hex is free-to-play and can be downloaded from its official site.
SolForge
SolForge is a free-to-play CCG currently on Steam Early Access, but has already gathered a small competitive following. This isn t surprising, as it features multiple tournament modes built-in to accompany the standard versus mode. SolForge has been developed by the designers of Ascension and Magic: The Gathering, including the father of CCGs himself, Richard Garfield. It will eventually also feature a campaign mode.
How s it different?
This is another card game that plays with the idea of positioning. SolForge breaks away from a lot of the tropes that Magic popularized. You each have five slots for creatures, most of which can t move once they ve been played. Each turn, every creature that can attack does so, trading damage with the creature directly opposite it. If there isn t a creature to take the hit, they deal damage to the opponent s health, which starts at 100. There are many creatures and cards that take advantage of being adjacent to other creatures or in a specific spot on the playing field.
deck building
Click the arrows in the top-right corner to enlarge.
The positioning is an interesting change, but damage is still dealt similarly to Hearthstone. The biggest change by far is how you draw and play cards in SolForge. Each turn, you draw five cards from your deck and have the option to play two of them, with no mana costs or restrictions, while the rest are discarded. As in scrolls, this makes mana and draw mechanics a non-issue when you are building decks, and instead forces you into making trade-offs. If you draw three cards you want to play, you need to decide which is the least valuable in your current situation and which might be more valuable to you later.
A card s long-term value matters even more because of SolForge s last major change. Every card in your deck has three levels of strength and all start at level one. When you choose to play a card, a leveled up version of it is put back into your deck for you to draw later. Because there s no mana, your late-game cards are simply leveled up versions of the cards you ve already played. There will never be a situation in SolForge when you draw all of your eight mana cards by turn three and can t play anything—the game is designed to always scale into the late-game.
Being in Early Access still, SolForge s graphics leave a lot to be desired. The card art itself is fantastic—each card changes as it levels up and it feels great to see your creatures look stronger as they gain power—but battle animations are a simple nudge forward into the opposing creature. Additionally, the UI needs a lot of work, as SolForge doesn t quite have a clear visual language yet. If your opponent takes their turn quickly, it can be very easy for new players to miss what happened, and the game log is hidden in a menu. SolForge becomes easier to understand visually the more you play, but the UI and deckbuilding screens will be a bit frustrating until the game is finished.
Why should I play it?
SolForge is for people who are bored with what they know. It disrupts the CCG formula, and is being developed by the people who invented and refined that formula. Fair warning, though: it's definitely still in Early Access. The UI is unintuitive and the tutorial does a good job at teaching you the basics, but not much in the way of helping you understand why particular moves make sense. There is a complex CCG at SolForge s core, but you might have to work a bit to get to grips with it.
SolForge is free-to-play and can be downloaded on Steam or its official site.
