The world’s oldest and most popular trading card game,Magic: the Gatheringis certainlythe 12-ton Eldraziin the room. However, cardboard crack has one inevitable flaw: you need to wrangle a group together to play it!
8 Best Card Games In Open World Games
Deal me in!
Sure, you can always just boot upArenaor MTGO. But let’s be honest, the “casual” queue online isanythingbut casual. So, what alternatives should MTG fans consider?
Fortunately, you’ve shifted to the right plane! Whether you’re looking for a bit of laid-back fun, a single-player challenge, or to mix your card-slinging up with a different online queue, there are plenty of games from which to pick.
10Magic: the Gathering—Battlegrounds
Real-Time MTG
Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds
Before getting to our meat-and-potato Food tokens, let’s give a shoutout to one ofMagic’svideogame spin-offs:Magic: the Gathering—Battlegrounds. (No relation to the “battlegrounds” play mode in Blizzard’sHearthstone.)
Unlike most deckbuilders,Battlegroundsis a real-time strategy gamewhere your cards determine what spells you can cast while dueling a rival planeswalker. It’sextremelydifferent from other games on this list, requiring some actual eye-hand coordination. Each duel takes place in a circumscribed arena in which you cast spells and summon creatures which can cross the center boundary.
The biggest strength ofBattlegroundsis its use of familiar cards from old-school MTG—like Llanowar Elves and Wrath of God—alongside tweaks and additions to suit an RTS. AlthoughBattlegroundsfeatures some alterations toMagic’scharacters and cards, it’s a solid option if you want to scratch thatMagicitch but aren’t in the mood for a turn-based game.
9Inscryption
Put Fear On The Stack
Inscryption
IfDuskmournis your favoriteMagicset, thenInscryptionis probably for you. This horror game uses grisly methods—like mutilation—to create new cards, andemphasizes sacrificing creaturesto play new ones.
As the game progresses, the types of resources available—and the gruesome choices you must make—expand. InInscryption,victory comes quite literally atop a pile of corpses.
It’s not only the mechanics that flavorfully evoke the horror genre. Despite using relatively simple visuals, for meInscryptionjust feels plain creepy. There’s this gloomy aura to the game, which only grows more and more oppressive as you progress further in its mysterious story.
8Card City Nights
A Tactical Position
Steam Rating
Very Positive (89%)
PC, Android, iPhone
Card City Nightsis a cute indie deckbuilder which emphasizes the positioning of your cards on a 9×9 board. By linking cards together, you build combos which remove the connected cards to heal yourself, deal damage, and so on. Deceptively simple, this mechanic forces you tothink ahead to optimize card placementand to avoid the opponent’s interference.
Further into the game, this is complicated by cards which rotate or change position at the beginning of a turn. Multiple victory conditions facilitate trying out different deck strategies—such as forcing an opponent into gridlock—which can add surprising depth to this puzzle-like game.
It probably counts as a bit of a deep cut, butCard City Nightsis a short game great for MTG fans looking for something a bit different. I find myself picking it back up every few years—a great fit for a relaxing Saturday afternoon.
10 Deckbuilders That Make Balatro Look Basic
Balatro was a critical darling, but there are plenty of other incredibly challenging deckbuilders that make it look basic.
7Dicey Dungeons
Wait, A Deck Of Dice?
Dicey Dungeons
When is a deckbuilder not a deckbuilder? When you’re using dice!
Even ifDicey Dungeonsis designed around dice, it’ssuper easy to pick upbecause it still employs the characteristic mechanics of a TCG. Your “deck” is built from various equipment cards found during each run.Instead of mana, you roll dice each turnwhich can be used to activate cards.
While it sounds likeDicey Dungeonsruns purely off RNG, abilities which manipulate dice ensure the game remains quite strategic. Sure, on occasion Lady Luck will ruin your day—but if you’ve ever drawn 0 lands on a mull to 4, you’re plenty familiar with how temperamental she can be.
Poker: NG+
Balatrois poker. Well, it’s not just poker—Balatrois poker plus tarot plus astrology plus a whole mess of additional weirdness.It’s a poker game where getting 5 of a kind is actually pretty reasonable. Each run focuses on improving your “poker” deck to discover increasingly outlandish and improbable combos to beat various Boss Blinds.
This offers you a variety ofinteresting strategies to choose from. Like most deckbuilders, multiple strategies are viable in a given run, but success or failure is to some extent contingent on if RNG blesses you with synergistic Jokers in late stages of the game.
Frankly,Balatrois one of the best games on this list. The only reason it ain’t higher is that there just isn’tthatmuch overlap conceptually or mechanically withMagic. In my opinion, MTG fans who don’t care for poker might not care forBalatro,either, but you never know!
Magic The Gathering: Arena - How To Use Your Wildcards Effectively
Wondering how to use those Wildcards on your free-to-play account? Let us break down how to get ‘em and their best uses.
5Across The Obelisk
Co-Op Card-Slinging
Across the Obelisk
If your EDH group is looking for a game to playwithoutleaving the house,Across the Obeliskis the onlydeckbuilder out there with co-opmultiplayer (Well, as far as I’m aware!). Your party always consists of four characters, but whether you or a friend controls them is up to you.
Across the Obeliskis also one of the most expansively replayable deckbuilders out there. Sure, it has oodles of cards and items to discover. What helpsAcross the Obeliskstand out is how its campaign mode and obelisk (basically draft) modes offer variant play experiences.
Combine this with your friends intentionally loading in with some ridiculous garbage “just to see how it plays,” andAcross the Obeliskcomes surprisingly close to catching the vibe of an EDH game.
4Card-en-Ciel
Card-Collecting Dungeon Crawls
OpenCritic Rating
PC, Switch, PS5, PS 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One
AlthoughFinal Fantasymay have joinedMagic’sUniverses Beyond,if you want an actual mash-up of a JRPG and card games, check outCard-en-Ciel. The two merge into a smooth gameplay loop: explore dungeons, get cards, tweak your deck, rinse and repeat.
Like most intriguing deckbuilders,Card-en-Cieldifferentiates itself from the herd with twists on the formula. Most obviously, the game is played on a tactical grid similar toMega ManBattle Network.
For me, though, it’s more interesting that you mustdiscard a card to move during battles.This gives every card additional tactical value and incentivizes interesting decision-making. After all, who wants to discard a powered-up Connecting Charge just to dodge an attack?
3Hearthstone
MTG Minus Mana-Screw
Hearthstone
If you’re looking for a game similar toMagic,it’s hard to find a copycat more similar thanHearthstone.Blizzard’sWarcraft-inspired CCG might no longer be king of the digital card game hill—and its cards may have expanded beyondWarcraft—but it’s still a strong contender with a cutthroat competitive ladder.
Without interaction on an opponent’s turn,Hearthstoneis somewhat simpler thanMagic. However, the most significant difference is thatgaining mana isn’t randomized.Gaining 1 mana crystal each turn,Hearthstoneoffers a more predictable experience (even if many cards nowadays feature RNG abilities).
Although manyMagicskills do transfer toHearthstone,this game does have a different barrier to entry. Like most digital TCGs,Hearthstone’sfree-to-play experience can be a bit … mixed. Getting enough resources to craft interesting and competitive decks requires frequent play.
6 Best Deck-Building Roguelikes, Ranked
Deck-building Roguelikes make up a fairly small gaming niche, but within this genre are some stellar titles that you just can’t miss.
2Stacklands
It Takes A Village
Stacklands
Stacklandsasks a peculiar question: “What if my deck was a town?” Beginning simply with collecting berries to feed villager cards,Stacklandsslowly grows more complex as your population grows.
Although the game’s aesthetic is quite chill, that doesn’t necessarily hold true for the gameplay. InStacklands,your opponent is survival.Playing in real time, you must harvest enough berries to feed your population each moon. Failure to do so results in deaths from starvation, potentially triggering a failure spiral as your labor pool diminishes.
At the same time, the resources which keep villagers alive arealsothe resources you need to sell for cash to buy upgrades. This creates an interesting balancing act as the village teeters between thriving and collapsing. If the phrase “real-time survival Solitaire” intrigues you,Stacklandsis worth trying out.
1Slay The Spire
Roguelike Deckbuilding Classic
Slay the Spire
InSlay the Spire,you ascend a series of floors while battling monsters and improving your deck for the inevitable—and often brutal—boss fights. While devising strategies from new card options, you also gain powerful artifacts which can change an entire run’s playstyle.
Coming from MTG,Slay the Spireoffers a subtle yet impactful mechanical twist:when your deck runs out of cards, the discard is shuffled to make a new deck.Consequently, it’s often optimal torejectnew cards so that you’ll draw your best cards more frequently.
This mechanic makesSlay the Spiregreat for anyMagicfan who loves combo decks. Noteverywinning run is a combo deck—butSlay the Spireexcels at them. Whether building obscene amounts of armor for a one-shot Body Slam or infinitely cycling the Defect’s orbs thanks to fusion mana, every character and every run has the potential to go off.
10 Underrated Deckbuilders You Need to Play
Deckbuilders can be a hard genre to get into, but this list of underrated deckbuilders you need to play should help a little.
