Topic: Games like Magic, but less expensive (Read 11233 times)

Jorbles · « **on:** November 08, 2012, 04:35:44 pm »

Are there any video games based on CCG principles, like Magic that don't cost an arm and a leg in micropayments?

I mean games with a large card base that you can build a deck from, but that don't restrict you in what type of deck you can create either by making you play for weeks to unlock everything or spend a bunch of money beyond what you paid upfront to buy "booster packs"?

Insomniac · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2012, 04:37:25 pm »

Quote from: Jorbles on November 08, 2012, 04:35:44 pm

Are there any video games based on CCG principles, like Magic that don't cost an arm and a leg in micropayments?

I mean games with a large card base that you can build a deck from, but that don't restrict you in what type of deck you can create either by making you play for weeks to unlock everything or spend a bunch of money beyond what you paid upfront to buy "booster packs"?

Assassin's Creed Recollection
Shadow Era

They both have micropayments but you can earn stuff to get them anyways, I've played a LOT of shadow era, havent put any money into it and have had most of the tier 1 decks for a long time.

Ozle · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2012, 04:38:05 pm »

Play the old Magic the Gathering game! Play against the AI!

http://shandalar.net/introduction.html

Sid Meier+ Micropose + Magic

Rabid · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2012, 04:51:34 pm »

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965800643/solforge-digital-trading-card-game

Not out yet, but I played a demo at Essen.
Looks really good.

jsh357 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2012, 04:58:01 pm »

Seasons (which you can play for free on BGA) has a few similar elements like mana pools and drafting and such. I like it a lot, personally. Not hardcore in to Magic so I am probably making sweeping generalizations.

Jorbles · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2012, 05:58:41 pm »

@Insomniac
Awesome I will check some those out! Shadow Era looks particularly neat.

@Ozle:
The old MTG looks neat, but I have no idea how I'd get it to run. Does it work in Windows 7? I guess I could run it in Wine on my Linux box actually. Okay, maybe there's a way.

@Rabid
That looks pretty cool. I will keep an eye on that. Hopefully they don't make you buy a zillion booster packs to enjoy it.

@jsh357
Not really what I'm looking for, though I do want to try it. Thanks!

Kirian · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:05:39 pm »

http://www.kongregate.com/ccg-games

That might have what you're looking for.

Captain_Frisk · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:05:59 pm »

Theory strongly endorses Kongai

Jorbles · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:28:43 pm »

@Kirian:
Thanks, I've already looked there. They are mostly pretty grind heavy. You need to put a lot of time into those games just to get to the part where you actually get to design a deck. I just want a game where you get access to everything right at the start, and it's about exploring different strategies in deck building.

Quote from: Captain_Frisk on November 08, 2012, 06:05:59 pm

Theory strongly endorses Kongai

I actually quite like Kongai. It's got neat Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanics and some fun WIFOM moments. It's not what I want right now, but I like it.

theory · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:47:30 pm »

The heck is Kongai?

EDIT: screw you Frisk. I would rather endorse War before anything touched by Sirlin.

dondon151 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:49:30 pm »

Cannot resist the urge to recommend the classic Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color.

jsh357 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:51:36 pm »

Quote from: dondon151 on November 08, 2012, 06:49:30 pm

Cannot resist the urge to recommend the classic Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color.

The sequel has a translation patch. It's better. Sadly it's still the Pokemon Trading Card Game

Dsell · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2012, 06:53:10 pm »

Quote from: dondon151 on November 08, 2012, 06:49:30 pm

Cannot resist the urge to recommend the classic Pokemon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color.

I was thinking the same thing! A friend of mine just rediscovered that and played through the whole thing last week.

I actually didn't know there was a sequel.

Jorbles · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2012, 07:16:59 pm »

Quote from: theory on November 08, 2012, 06:47:30 pm

The heck is Kongai?

EDIT: screw you Frisk. I would rather endorse War before anything touched by Sirlin.

Why the hate? I wouldn't say Kongai is amazing, but it's well designed, and Super Puzzle Fighter is awesome.

Ozle · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2012, 07:18:32 pm »

Quote from: Jorbles on November 08, 2012, 07:16:59 pm

Quote from: theory on November 08, 2012, 06:47:30 pm
The heck is Kongai?

EDIT: screw you Frisk. I would rather endorse War before anything touched by Sirlin.

Why the hate? I wouldn't say Kongai is amazing, but it's well designed, and Super Puzzle Fighter is awesome.

Ooohh....dont open that door......

But with regards to Shandalar, should work on every windows i would think! There is a doanload in that link i sent

papaHav · « **Reply #15 on:** November 08, 2012, 11:10:01 pm »

Dominion:
Isotropic

Qvist · « **Reply #16 on:** November 09, 2012, 04:02:17 am »

I searched wareonce for an alternative too.
The only one I liked was http://elementsthegame.com
It's very easy to learn but still offers high flexibility and depth.
The biggest differences are that there are 12 instead of 5 different factions and that mana is accumulated over turns.
I suggest you to try it out.

Has it to be a video game? I ask because there is now a new board game called Mage Wars out.
The critics often compared it to MtG and all of them loved it.
It combines elements of MtG with Tabletop, but it is without shuffling, so there's no luck what spells you draw.
http://magewars.com

Titandrake · « **Reply #17 on:** November 09, 2012, 05:03:39 am »

Funnily enough, I just tried Elements recently.

The cards are well designed, and there's actually a lot of viable decks. The problem I had with it was that it felt like I had to grind out too much to get new cards. If I remember it right, there's a trainer version that lets you test decks against the AI, so you can build whatever deck you want.

Captain_Frisk · « **Reply #18 on:** November 09, 2012, 07:35:03 am »

Quote from: Qvist on November 09, 2012, 04:02:17 am

I searched wareonce for an alternative too.
The only one I liked was http://elementsthegame.com
It's very easy to learn but still offers high flexibility and depth.
The biggest differences are that there are 12 instead of 5 different factions and that mana is accumulated over turns.
I suggest you to try it out.

Has it to be a video game? I ask because there is now a new board game called Mage Wars out.
The critics often compared it to MtG and all of them loved it.
It combines elements of MtG with Tabletop, but it is without shuffling, so there's no luck what spells you draw.
http://magewars.com

I own magewars, and I want to like it very much.

Davio · « **Reply #19 on:** November 09, 2012, 07:55:48 am »

But you don't? Why?

Captain_Frisk · « **Reply #20 on:** November 09, 2012, 07:58:16 am »

I just haven't played it enough yet.

I don't want to pre judge a game that obviously has a bunch of depth from the meta game based on a few plays with the pre constructed decks, but basically the mage wand is OP, and creates a side mini game that IMHO is not particularly fun.

Davio · « **Reply #21 on:** November 09, 2012, 09:01:18 am »

On the other hand, if it's a good game, you'll know that immediately after the first tries.
I know I felt this way about Dominion, I was like "whaaat? this is great! let's play it again and again!"

If you feel you should play a game 100 times before you can even determine whether it's good, it's probably not.

But it can also have a bit to do with expectations.
When our group first played Cosmic Encounter we thought it was highly strategical.
So we were all shocked when after playing for just half an hour someone "suddenly" won through a crazy mixture of zaps, flares and alien effects. Nowadays we know it's a party game, so we accept it for what it is and have more fun with it.

Captain_Frisk · « **Reply #22 on:** November 09, 2012, 09:31:07 am »

How can you not like a game that has an honest to goodness spellbook?

You turn the pages in it and pick out your spells!

I think this is going to be a "better in V2" game once some of the kinks are worked out.

Common complaints seem to be:

Wands with certain spells are OP
Turtling is too easy and makes games too long.

popsofctown · « **Reply #23 on:** November 10, 2012, 09:22:47 pm »

Elements is a good game. While playing Elements, though, I saw an ad for a Korean MtG style CCG called Carte, and I prefer to play it instead because it's deeper and playing games isn't as autopilot (Elements has plenty of strategy but so very much of it happens in deckbuilding rather than gameplay).

It works on the micropayment model. I have been able to enjoy the game as a pure F2P player though. What's really helpful is that they have lots of "basic" class cards that only cost 1/3rd of a twenty minute game's earnings to buy, basically free. There's a broad selection of them, and they are Lightning Bolt and Hypnotic Specter quality cards, not Hill Giants and Grey Ogres. So from the getgo you have a lot to work with to make a quality deck.

I've played several different TCGs and iTCGS and imo Carte is real quality stuff. Sometimes I wonder whether I like it better than Magic outright.

If you are interested I can teach you and you can join my crew

Kirian · « **Reply #24 on:** November 11, 2012, 06:18:12 pm »

I also quite enjoyed Elements, but it still has the grindy aspect to it, alas.

Man. Now I want to design a game of this sort, remove the grindiness, and publish it. Alas I have no time and zero Flash programming skill.

Also, can we have something that doesn't involve summoning monsters to kill each other? Every. Single. CCG.

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Author Topic: Games like Magic, but less expensive (Read 11233 times)