Card Games

Magic: The Gathering

With the passing years, computer games look more and more real. But what if power goes down? What if you would like to play with someone without a computer? Then you can choose out of many games, including RPG and TCG.

One of my favourite offline games is Magic The Gathering. Magic is a trading card game. I have started playing this game when I was in high school, sold all my cards at some point and haven’t touched it until 2011. I currently own a bunch of pre-built decks (Slivers is my favourite) and one green mono deck, which I used to play back in ’99.

The power of Magic is its multitude of available cards, their combinations and the Magic golden rule: that rules on the card always supercede rules of the game. There are three main types of cards in Magic: Lands, which give you power, Creatures, which fight for you, and Spells, that help turn tides of battle in your favor. As you play M:TG, you will learn about more card types and rules that govern them.

Magic is also one of the games that have been digitalized both for computers and consoles.

Most notable digital game is Magic: The Gathering Duel of Planeswalkers (plus 2012 and 2013 editions) It is available for PC (on Steam), PS3, XBOX 360 and just recently it has become available for iPad. The game is very carefully crafted, sporting full-HD visuals and several expansions full of new cards. You can read more about computer Magic games on Wizards of The Coast website.

Cards from the expansion: “Innistrad”

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

You can find the iPad version of Magic 2013 and Magic 2014 on Apple App Store. The basic game is free, but to continue the campaign you will have to make an in-app purchase and buy the full version. PC and XBOX 360 versions are also available on Steam and Xbox Live.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is an upcoming online CCG from Blizzard. I have written this initial review after playing the beta version of Hearthstone.

Card Games for mobile phones

MoreGames Entertainment has released a nice card game for Windows Mobile and later, subsequently, for iPhone. Orions: Legend of Wizards is similar to two games. The map mode reminds of Heroes of Might and Magic. Your hero can move around a bunch of mid-air islands called “Orions”, and conquer them. Each Orion has a city, where you can build structures and gather minerals.

Conquering Orions changes the game into duel mode, which is basically a card game, very similar to M:TG. The rules are however simpler and the cards are more powerful. Cards are powerful enough to turn the tides of battle in player’s favour (or against), so you must think how to combine your cards and carefully use them to beat the opponent. Once the cities have been developed, players can upgrade their decks with deadlier spells and even more powerful creatures. Some cards can interact with each other making it possible to play combos. A good example is Poseidon, a creature card with 3 points of power and 25 hp, and Acid Storm, a spell that damages all creatures on the field, unless their owner has fielded a Poseidon first.

Orions: Legend of Wizards has also received two major updates: Second Age and Deckmasters, each release including additional new cards.