It’s probably just the deck I’m playing, but I’m getting that feeling because I don’t find myself thinking about deck construction so much as how different cards and units will combo with my other units. I haven’t done anything like the cool imp combo you’re talking about that makes me think about the deck itself. So many of the cards I’ve seen so far are played once and then leave the deck and that gives it a lot less of a hand-management / deck-management feel then something like Slay the Spire has.
It’s not a complaint for me though! Finding upgrade combos with and between units is really satisfying, especially with not knowing what order they’ll come out.
I haven’t actually used that combo either, but I’ve used both of the upgrades and can see the potential. Of course, you have to he the cards into hand then find the upgrades, and there’s no guarantee that’ll happen. Or you might get an artifact early that promotes an entirely different strategy, much like it would in a game like Slay the Spire
In my current run, I started with an artifact that holds over energy. I’m trying to put together that imp combo. I have the imp with endless. I also have the nuke spell, but haven’t found a holdover rune.
This is the first time I’m playing the Awoken champion, who does damage when healed. I happened to get an artifact that does 20 damage when a spell is consumed. I got the spreading spore card that gives spikes and regen, gets consumed, then puts two copies in discard. I got a double stack rune for that, so it gives 4 regen and spikes, then I duplicated the card. I wasn’t sure it was going to work at first, but I am down to the last two fights. It’s fun, but slow to get going. I’m worried that one of these last fights could steamroll me, but will see.
Turns out I had three fights left. That run ended up as my first win. The more I play this game the more I think it’s a brilliant take on the genre. The hilarious part is that I was stacking spikes and regen on my champion, sometimes 60-70+ stacks. When I finished the run, I unlocked a spell called Bramble Lash that deals 5xSpike damage to the first enemy in the lane 😳
Just to show how wildly different builds can be, by the end, I was only using two units, my champion on the top floor and a single imp for nukes and energy. I’ve seen successful runs where the champion was used on the bottom or middle floors and with several (or even lots of) supplemental units.
Whoa, only using two units definitely upends my impression of the game! I think I’m holding out for the release to explore it more, really looking forward to it.
I picked up the Griftlands early access from Epic for $5 (post coupon). It’s hella good, ultimately possibly better than Slay, which I love more than life itself, or something.
Think slay like, except add a reasonably compelling story, good world building and characters, a much more interesting structure quest-based structure, cards with multiple possible upgrades, cards that upgrade after being played a certain number of times, two completely separate decks that are used for story based reasons, cards that get added to your deck for story based reasons, pets, more I can’t think of. Oh and two of three characters seemingly feature complete and very different playing, with very different stories.
I’ve also been playing around with mod characters for Slay, which is fun but not as much as a whole new game.
definitely give the demo for monster train a try. I don’t care much for combat in Griftlands, but I admire them for doing something distinctly different (and highly polished, as with all Klei games).
Interesting ideas here. Unlike Arcanium or Trials of Fire, where you have multiple party members with there own decks, with this one, position-switching is a big component and there’s a shared deck and the effect/effectiveness of cards changes depending on whichCharacter is in the lead.
Song of the Sojourner just came out a couple weeks ago and is part of the giant itch.io bundle going on. I had had my eye on it for awhile, because not only is it a deckbuilder, but it’s a deckbuilder about…conversation.
The basic idea is kind of like dominoes. Picture a domino with a circle on one side, and a triangle on the other. The game tells you circles are empathy and triangles are logic. So if the person you’re talking to plays a domino with a circle on the matching side, possibly they’re trying to steer the conversation in a way they would like you to be empathetic. And you can play a circle/circle to try keep it going that way, or a circle/triangle to maybe try to steer it a bit, or intentionally mismatch. Make enough matches and the conversation continues in a positive direction. Presumably, mismatch enough and the opposite, but my 10-year old I was playing with didn’t let me do that, goody two-shoes that she is :)
After every conversation you add a card and remove a card, so it’s not your typical deckbuilder in yet another way. Not sure if you have to or not.
I’m not that far in, so I can’t say if the system upholds its promise. So far the story is fine; your mom just died and you have to go on caravan instead of her to try to bring back goods and keep the store, and the town, going. It’s been enough to have a neat chat with my kid about conversations and how the game was trying to model things, anyway.
I’ve played 80% of a game of Song of the Sojourner. It’s really two games, a card-matching game (I wouldn’t call it a deck-building game), and a route-planning game. Out of the two, the route planning game is more interesting. Which towns do I need to get to to find the items I need for my store? How do I get there in time for the special events? Maybe you will discover new cities and find new roads.
The card-matching game, though, I think basically just doesn’t work. You can only have 10 cards in your deck. Pretty soon there are 5 different symbols that can come up. So, the odds you’re going to have the card you need when you need it is… low. Throw in a couple of fatigue cards, and pretty soon you are just not going to be able to “win” any conversations.
I suppose you could just specialize your deck to 2-3 symbols, and only talk to the people who use those symbols, but… I don’t think the game gives you the information you’d need to do that (unless you make notes of which symbol each character uses when you meet them for the first time), and in any case it would mean you couldn’t talk to a bunch of the characters, which means you won’t get goods for your store, you won’t unlock new cities, and so on.
So, I mean, you might want to check it out, but don’t expect too much.
The Steam Summer (edit: Game Festival) event has started and I want to bring your attention to two demos. Both look great and this is your chance to try them before they release later this year.
This one uses a party of three characters and has a bit of a lane-based feel (you can swap spaces with allies)
This is a deckbuilder created using assets from the “paper Diablo” game, Book of Demons”. This particular demo is multiplayer only, unfortunately (the full game will have SP)
Almost forgot this one, which I’m sure will be dubbed “Superhot: the Deckbuilder”
You are confusing “Summer of Pride” (a short sale of some LGBT-related games) with the Steam Summer Sale (which has not begun), I think. That or the game preview festival thing, which is more of a E3 substitute.
