Spellweaver

Spellweaver is an extremely solid game. I'm a new player but a CCG veteran. For anyone looking for skill and decision based gameplay this is the game for you. The RNG is minimal, if not non-existent. The biggest thumbs up goes to the resource system. Its "land" based resources, but the core mechanics are beautifully designed and the dreaded "screw/flood" issue rarely ever affects the outcome of a game. I've only been playing for about a month, since the release of the mobile client and have really enjoyed the entire new player experience. The starting package is decent and the game has starter quests and achievements to stack up your gold quickly. If you read up on how to spend you initial gold and crystals you can have a competitive Tier 1 deck almost out of the gate. I'm not completely F2P, I don't mind spending money on a game I enjoy to advance a little faster. But with minimal purchases of about $10.00 along with completing all my quests and dedicated rare drafting, In a month's time I now have three Tier 1 decks: 1 aggro, 1 midrange and 1 control. The fastest route to a competitive deck is the Holy Child campaign. Spend your starting crystals on that, it's great value. If you're a control player, the Duke's Zombies DLC is a worthwhile purchase to give you a few of the key rares for Corruption control variants. Other praise for the game: - The game's mechanics, card interactions and overall design are excellent. The game borrows a lot from MTG, but has found very elegant ways to evolve the stack, land mana bases, and triggers. It's a complicated game, but much more streamlined than MTG. - Balancing will always be tricky, but in general I haven't experienced anything super out of whack yet. There's a very rock-paper-scissors feel to the meta, and I've never felt like a complete underdog in any game. There are definitely bad matchups, but every game is worth playing out. - The spectrum of competitive decks is wide open. Budget builds can often go toe-to-toe with expensive builds. Games I've played have been decided more by my knowledge of the cards and game and less about being blown out by something OP. - Most of the meta decks probably need in the neighborhood of 8-12 rares. And key rares go in multiple archetypes, so it's really great for deck building and variety. Epic and heroic cards see play, but they're not essential to many decks nor do they dominate the meta. - There’s a crafting system as well. Dusting cards isn’t super efficient, but as your collection grows it can help you fill in the last few missing rare/epic slots in your decks. - The wait times are not bad at all. At peak times I can get a rank game in less than 30 seconds. Non-peak, maybe about 90 seconds. - Games are usually between 5-20 minutes. Each player has a personal 15 minute timer, so the game will cap at 30 minutes. - I personally love that there are NO EMOTES. - I've never seen a tournament not fire. I've noticed a lot of familiar names, but whenever I've registered for a tournament it has always gone off. - I haven't explored the tournament scene thoroughly yet, but it looks pretty good. Everything is in client. There are drafts, swiss, conquest and monthly championships (with a cash prize). There are even new player/low level only events, which you get 3 free tickets to try out when you make an account. - The F2P model isn't stingy but not the most generous I've seen either. If you grind 100% F2P, it'll probably take 1-2 months to build a competitive aggro deck. - The card pool is about 340~ish cards atm (I think), and they've just announced monthly small batches of new cards. So, it feels like a pretty good time to jump in and fill out your collection. - For lore fans, there’s definitely a lot of it. I’m not a lore person myself, but the Holy Child campaign was very well thought out and the gameplay and lore tied in well together. Some things I'm not thrilled about: - There's definitely a steep learning curve. If you're brand new to CCGs and have no MTG experience, this game might be a bit unkind to you. You have to be well versed in timing, bluffing, hand reading, card counting, sequencing, knowing the cards, knowing the meta, key interactions and so on to really do well in this game. The losses will be many in the beginning for novice players. - The community seems relatively small, but it’s not really a big issue. Everyone is really friendly and helpful. There are a few content creators pumping out stuff which I really appreciate, but it would be nice to have more analysis and high level gameplay footage. - There's only one card that looks to be a bit OP and that's Jorail's Silencer. I've lost every game where that cards been played against me and I haven't found an effective counter yet. It's the only true "counterspell" in the game and it's a permanent. It essentially locks you out of the game once your control opponent stabilizes. All in all, Spellweaver is a hidden gem. I can’t comment on the game when it launched (there seems to be some negativity about its initial release) however, the game I’ve experienced since mobile launch has been very satisfying. Well designed, skill-based, variety and F2P friendly. I strongly encourage any CCG fan to give it a try.