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Yet another digital CCG*. For PC right now, and iOS and Android eventually.

https://playruneterra.com/en-us/

Currently in limited Preview release right now. Closed beta Q1 2020, and releasing later in 2020.

Overview trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9flYbYY5mSA

Overview by Kripp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6HH1QxGJbo

IGN overview including how to acquire cards: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/16/legends-of-runeterra-40-things-you-need-to-know-about-riots-new-game

Twitch game channels: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Legends%20of%20Runeterra


*  Riot calls it a "strategy card game" downplaying the collection aspects, of course

I would vastly prefer a TCG to a CCG, but at least it sounds like there are Instants and some form of play when it's not your turn. I went ahead and preregistered to give it a shot.

CCG? Not even looking at it. Fuck that shit.

haha holy shit this article is great

I do not think they understand why dedicated CCG players play CCG's.

This is out, free to play. It's good. It's NOT Hearthstone at all. There are irritating thiings about the theme, art and cards, but the gameplay is interesting, with some odd choices that might prove good (or terrible in the long run).

The business model is also worth looking into. I am sure it will change but so far there are NO packs. You do not buy random cards ever. You can only buy specific cards or crafting materials, so you always know what you are spending your money on. Also, you can only spend $15 a week, maximum. Whales are gonna be unhappy. Other than that, you obviously get cards by playing/grinding.

Schild has much more valid opinions about it as this is his field so listen to him, but for the pleb I am when it comes to card games, this is fun and deep enough, while Hearthstone was random garbage I couldn't stand.

my opinion, having played 5 AI games and the tutorial is that this is a weird bundle of design decisions

but it's NOT bad

Pro-tip: starting a tutorial and going into settings and then surrendering the battle right away grants the XP and cards you would get by completing it anyway.

It’s not just whales that will be unhappy. It means that there’s no point to actually play the game competitively in the constructed format if you don’t start RIGHT NOW* cause everybody else will have better decks than you and you will never be able to catch up to them.

* unless they have a teeny tiny card pool which seems unlikely

Edit: video with some info on how to acquire / craft cards : https://youtu.be/Z_xeAB2gepo

Good point... but it's also a matter of lesser evil isn't it? In a traditional environment I can catch up with players who have started before me and have spent a ton of cash by investing a ton of cash myself, which ends up making lots of players feel bad about the economy. In this game, you can't catch up at all (kind of) but the distance between you and those who started before you grows much slower than usual and can be overcorrected by buying aimed cards (as many as the system allows you to) once a week.

We'll see how it goes.

I’m cool with people being able to build up collections for free over time. If I’m a competitive CCG player, though, why would I ever play this game “late” unless the meta for the game each “season” or whatever is so small that the number of decks / cards I would need to grind for can be done in tens of hours rather than hundreds or thousands?

This game is VERY weird. The wording on level up abilities is just some kind of strange moon language. The I Go You Go phasing of turns is strange, as is the attacking every other round bit. This will take some getting used to.

Not that impressed with it. It feels generic and lacking. If you asked me why, I couldn't tell you yet but it's no Mythguard or Gwent or Eternal.

I just get a feel of going through the motions with it. I'll be interested to see what, if any, catch up mechanic looks like as most CCG players are already invested in older games.

Yeah I've been watching EG.swim / swimstrim streaming today (the video I linked above is from him as well) and while it's better than Hearthstone that's not saying much.

Shadowverse and Eternal are both already leagues better than HS.

HS fucking sucks.

I enjoyed this a bit in the 2-3 days of beta I got before but it felt like it had about 25% of the card pool or at least hero pool it needed to be a real game at that time.

I don't think this game should be in any conversation with or about Hearthstone. It's extremely easy to be better than Hearthstone, and this game is by a mile better than Hearthstone. Let's move on.

Now that I've logged about 30 games or so I can say this is the closest game to magic besides magic arena and Hex.

Have you played Eternal? That seems a lot closer to Magic than Runeterra.

I expect that the card buying limit isn't that restrictive of joining a constructed format. You only need what, a deck, in order to compete and so while you won't have lots of cards you should be able to fairly easily get the meta deck

A single deck is not enough is not enough to be a top player, however. You need access to most/all of the meta decks to playtest with.

Poor swimstrim is already frustrated he can't deckbuild to his heart's content.

Card Game, sure, but no more Collectible Card Games for me.