KeyForge: Call of the Archons - The World’s First Unique Deck Game coming soon

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If this works, building a competitive deck via algorithm, it's going to be brilliant.

Personally, I don't think it's going to work. There's too much room for error here. Even on the most fundamental level, how can you guarantee that two different random decks are going to be roughly equally matched, even if they're playable?

MattDP wrote: If this works, building a competitive deck via algorithm, it's going to be brilliant.

Maybe I misread it, but it seems to me that it is basically just a game where the decks are pre-built, something like Neuroshima Hex. The "Houses" mentioned seem to be akin to suits in poker. You have a mix of them in your deck in this game, but you can only use one per turn. The Houses may be similar across Archon decks in some ways, but the mix of Houses and the cards from that House will be different.

I think it will be similar to taking decklists from some Vintage MtG tournament and boxing them into one game. Each deck plays very differently, but they use the 5 mana colors and artifacts (in different combinations).

Whoshim wrote: Maybe I misread it, but it seems to me that it is basically just a game where the decks are pre-built, something like Neuroshima Hex.

Detail is admittedly light, but I don't think so. Consider:

"KeyForge offers easy to learn, fast-paced gameplay with completely unique decks, each deck unlike any other KeyForge deck in existence."

And from the press email I got:

"Every Archon Deck in existence is unique, with its own distinct mix of cards. Every Archon Deck features a full play experience, with its own unique name and Archon and a complete set of creatures, artifacts, and actions that cannot be changed."

My reading of this is that every single deck is literally unique.

Sounds like a single starter deck for each faction to me. Summoner Wars-ish.

It would be cool if it was otherwise, but then you'd just buy two of the same starter deck and deck-build. (Still could either way I suppose.)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read the entire article and came away confused about what exactly the game is & how its played. I still don't know what "every deck is unique" actually means.

A difference of one card in a deck makes each deck unique. This may as well be a clickbait headline.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/...call-of-the-archons/

They state 104,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different decks.

so yeah, it looks like each deck is individual, even with individual backs for each deck. "The One that Totally Prefers Aliens". Could be good, as it eliminates net-decks. or it could end up with really swingy power levels. or boring decks that all do similar things.

I love card games, and the amount of fluff they can bring in, their portability and the head to head nature of many of them. I hate pre-match deck building.

So...basically you are buying what amounts to a randomly collated starter deck...and if you want that “fun” of opening a randomly collared starter deck more than once you have to keep buying more decks? And is there no “constructed” play where you make decks from cards you got from other decks? How is it that these decks “can not be changed”, do they explode if I take cards from one and put them in another? How are these balanced for play? What if you buy a deck that sucks or doesn’t suit your play style? You just buy new decks instead of boosters? Huh?

This is doomed. It’s a confusing product, the concept isn’t clear and it seems like marketing fluff covering up the same old CCG model that’s been around since MTG.

So what's the up side? Kind of a lottery ticket approach to purchasing if people don't mix and match cards, which would seem like the thing to do. Sleeve your cards and play a customized set. Tournaments wouldn't allow it, but . . . tournament play with a dumb luck deck? Seems strange.

Could be a fun game though, and if a deck is $9.99 it could be an impulse buy. Add it to your CSI order to clear free shipping.

I'll be curious of the art on the back. If this thing takes hold, there will be a quarter million pieces of art generated by machine presumably.

The traditional assumption of the CCG is that deckbuilding is the most important part of the game. If you build your deck properly, it will effectively play itself and win. But I disliked deckbuildng and focused on the tactical play of CCGs, which made me a moderately competitive player in certain games. For example, I was never a good L5R player, because that game allowed for tight, focused decks that absolutely rewarded strong deckbuilding. But I was a very good Shadowfist player, as there was a standard and easy formula for deckbuilding but the games were generally won by superior tactical play.

From the sounds of it, Keyforge will offer fixed, prebuilt decks of roughly equivalent power, with just enough variation in each deck to ensure that they are technically unique. And the backs of the cards will be unique for each deck, though in practice that will mean a fixed number of pictures on the card backs with random names assigned to each deck to make them just barely different. It sounds like a weak gimmick, and players will be strongly tempted to disregard the unique angle and use opaque card sleeves to allow deckbuilding.

However, Keyforge is a creation of Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic, Jyhad, and Netrunner, three of the all-time great CCGs. Many CCG players would readily put those three games in a top five CCG list, and even a top three list. We're all picturing Keyforge as basically Magic plus the unique deck idea, but maybe that's wrong. Jyhad and especially Netrunner required stronger tactical play and bluffing skills. If Keyforge is more similar to either Jyhad or Netrunner, there will be less focus on which cards are in your deck and lot more focus on how you play the game.

The other crucial element for Keyforge to succeed is that there needs to be meaningful differences between the cards. They can't just be different colors of the same thing. It sounds like there are the equivalent of seven colors/discipines in this game, and very likely more that will be introduced in expansions. Jyhad eventually had 28 different disciplines, each supporting different styles of play.

At this point, I am curious but not especially interested. The visual style and theme of Keyforge don't appeal to me. The gimmick doesn't have me hooked. I would need to see people raving about the depth of play before I would be willing to give it a shot.

Michael Barnes wrote: How is it that these decks “can not be changed”, do they explode if I take cards from one and put them in another?

You won't be able to mix cards from two different decks, because the card backs will be different. The card backs will be different because they're unique, apparently procedurally generated and printed exactly once, on demand. Which implies that the deck contents are procedurally generated as well.



The game might be crappy, nobody knows yet, but in terms of technological innovation this is enormous.

Will the cards explode if you put them in opaque card sleeves then?

Card players tend to follow tournament deck construction rules, even when playing casually. You are free to do anything, of course, but anecdotally I don't know anyone who breaks the "max 4 copies" rule no matter how casual they are.