Building a deck of deckbuilders

Games
#311

I think I just played the saddest deckbuilder I’ve ever played, Iris and the Giant. The story is told in a very simple manner, but manages to make an emotional impact. It also plays a little differently than many card games, in that you also need to manage the geometry of new enemies entering the area where they can attack, and possibly be attacked. It may be beneficial to not kill one enemy to prevent another from getting into position.

One other difference is that cards are used up when played, and it’s game over if you run out of cards, so deciding when to take cards vs abilities during ‘level up’ becomes an important choice, along with whether you want to burn a card to get some loot along the way. I know this may turn some people off - it did me at first, but I didn’t find it too unpleasant.

It also has persistent unlocks between attempts to ‘win’ a campaign, and the ability to equip special abilities and allies between runs. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as Slay the Spire or Monster Train, recommend trying it. I’m pretty sure I got this in a Humble Choice or something, so many people may already have it. I didn’t expect too much going in but was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t enjoy the art style but liked the game enough to continue.

#312

Didn’t see this one on here and found it while stuck in a hospital with family. It’s on mobile and Steam. Might even be my favorite new deckbuilder. I’ll be streaming it from my phone with the jankiest setup at some point today.

#313

Do you know anything about Dawncaster, by any chance?

#314

A steam review said the mobile (in preview it look like, so seemingly free for now) version is “slower” than the PC version. Do you know what they mean by that?

#315

yep, played both. on mobile you can buy the currency that unlocks stuff which allows you to jump start/skip the unlocking of new classes etc. To balance this, the default speed you earn the currency is slower. The bundles that show up in the shop add permanent progression bonuses and in the end if you buy 3 of the bundles you end up with somewhere nearish the steam progression speed at about the same amount spent. I just wish it had cross progression though it does look like you can copy the save file from steam to android.

#316

had to look it up because it’s been a hot minute since I played it but I remember really liking Dawncaster. Might redownload and try it again if you wanted more info. I played it a fair amount I think.

#317

I haven’t been playing on iPad lately, but noticed it in the shop and had a hard time finding a video for it I could stand to watch for long. No big deal, was just curious.

#318

Is there any backstory to this Breach Wanderers game? Why are we wandering the breach? Am I correct in seeing that the only things on the absolutely stolen from Slay the Spire map are enemies and “?” encounters? I assume big enemies are elites, but then what does the skull mean?

#319

you could always go play Slay the Spire ;P Isn’t everything in these games taken from another game anymore?

#320

Am I not allowed to ask questions? The game doesn’t explain any of the things I asked.

#321

The roadmap tab on the main menu has storyline stuff coming next major patch. There’s the ? events, normal enemy, silver skull somewhat harder, and the golden much harder enemies. Harder offer more rewards. I don’t know if they plan on adding anything else.

#322

I see, so there are not just elite but also elite+. I don’t need, like, a plot, just wondering if there was anything I was missing as far as fluff. I guess not! Although surely they have something in mind.

#323

my comment certainly wasn’t about the questions themselves, most of them made perfect since. It was what I perceived as intentionally overly negative comment about the map. Bit sensitive due to some real life stuff, but I see no reason to make a comment like that unless you are trying to make the game look bad or just stir something up. Dozens of games have ‘stolen’ that look for a map, and that comment has nothing at all to do with whether you could get an answer to your question or now.

#324

So I have learned that in Breach Wanderers when you hit level 2 with a character you get the ability to edit your starting deck. Then at level 3 you get the ability to tune the pool of cards you choose from after each fight. It’s interesting to see that level of customization in a game like this, curious how this affects the challenge though.

#325

Typically, I don’t like being able to edit decks, especially if it’s something you really need to do for specific fights to be effective. Pretty sure that’s why I haven’t picked that one up. Otoh, it hasn’t bugged me in the early going with Gordian Quest. Really it’s one of my favorite things about deckbuilder games versus ccgs is that there’s usually much less deck micromanagement.

#326

Well I’m not, so rest easy. I probably don’t play as many games as you do but I have not seen any other game where it looks so very, very close, but I don’t really care, just raising one eyebrow slightly. Enjoying it so far. Glad for the mobile support.

#327

I right beside you on this. I tried to play System Crash and Cardpocalypse with realizing that they’re single player Hearthstone. The constant deck switching and tweaking drove me nuts.

#328

I haven’t minded it much so far, because you can’t change decks during a run, you just set one up for the run and then earn cards normally. The game is also more stringent with not letting you skip a reward so it’s harder to avoid deck bloat which seems to help counter the advantage of customizing starting deck.

#329

Ah ok, that’s much better (for me, personally) than allowing deck editing between battles. Hard to tell stuff like that from store page info.

#330

would probably feel way too fiddly if you could tweak on the run. You basically are forced to add a card after each battle and can occasionally remove a card (often the one you were just forced to add for me)