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Slay the Spire is the first card videogame I've played. Where do card game newbies go next?

OneBadMutha

OneBadMutha

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,059
I would have never tried Slay the Spire if it weren't free on Game Pass. Today I'd consider myself a bit of an addict. Top 5 most addictive game of this generation for me. That said, been gaming since Atari and have ignored this genre completely. So...what have I missed? I started looking Hearthstone and Phantom Dust? Anything else fans of this game and newbies to the genre should consider?
 
Portmanteau

Portmanteau

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,499
Dunno if you played The Witcher 3, but Thronebreaker is an excellent game that builds a campaign on top of Gwent.
 
Novel Mike

Novel Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,553
Hearthstone is very good but can be a huge money sink. It's a lot of fun and is constantly being updated with new stuff being added frequently. It also has an auto-chess like mode now which is completely free to play and you don't need to buy any cards or anything to play it which is great.
 
Bovandy

Bovandy

Member
Aug 15, 2019
91
Mythgard is one I really like. It's got a bit more story than some of these, it also has you play from multiple "povs" so you use a different deck at different times. It also has several different modes.
 
Firebrand

Firebrand

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,709
Regular ranked Hearthstone probably isn't worth playingunless you're willing to buy card packs several times a year, but the Battlegrounds mode is fun and there are some at least partially free solo adventures.
 
Starlatine

Starlatine

533.489 paid youtubers cant be wrong
Member
Oct 28, 2017
30,376
If you can stomach a match-3 game as your mana generator, Gems of War is an excellent F2P card game hybrid which is also on consoles
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,647
Brazil
Dicey Dungeons is very noob friendly


also get Snk vs Capcom for Neo Geo Pocket or the Pokemon Card games for the portables
 
Skux

Skux

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,942
I just can't recommend Hearthstone because of the monetisation model. For casual play you'll be fine but if you wander into competitive modes you won't stand a chance without putting some serious money down.
 
butzopower

butzopower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,856
London
Haven't played Slay the Spire, but I seem to remember it was based on DreamQuest on iOS. If that's the case, the mechanics are likely influenced by the deck building board game genre, so maybe look into some of the digital versions of those games. Ascension is especially good.

I love Phantom Dust, and other Japanese card games are pretty cool, like Culdcept. Think they'll be pretty different from Slay the Spire, though.
 
OP
OP
OneBadMutha

OneBadMutha

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,059
Great recommendations. Appreciate the heads up on on Hearthstone. Not into pay to win models.

I'm now checking out Thronebreaker and SWQ. Forgot how much positive press Thronebreaker got. Despite liking that universe, I ignored it at release because didn't think it was my type of genre back then.

Edit: I see a couple versions of SWQ. Which one do I start with?
 
Thewonandonly

Thewonandonly

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
4,240
Utah
If you want a physical card game you can play with friends and family then I would definitely check our dominion. super fun game that even people who don't like card games enjoy
 
Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,100
Chesire, UK
OP, you fucked up by playing the best in the genre first.

Dicey Dungeons and SteamWorld Quest are worth checking out, just understand that you started with a showstopper.
 
Forerunner

Forerunner

Resetufologist
The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
14,579
HS is fairly casual, but it definitely can be a money sink especially when first starting. MTGA is great if you don't mind a bit of a learning curve.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Yeah Slay the Spire is the best single player one by a longshot, you've peaked in that department already.

As people have mentioned, Hearthstone's been around so long that it's really tough to get in without dropping a lot of coin. If you want to play a multiplayer card game that's looking mechanically strong, is launching in a few days and has a reasonably good monetization scheme (your spending is limited to stop whales paying for everything), Legends of Runeterra is out on the 24th. You'd be in the ground floor with everyone else.

Thronebreaker is an absolute fucking mess on console and I regret paying for it. Never had a game crash so much. Gwent's business model started off super generous and then got worse and worse, it's really not nice for new players anymore. That and they EOL'd console support in a year with no refunds. CPDR really screwed up in the card game space and I can't recommend supporting them.
 
manhack

manhack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,024
OneBadMutha said:
Great recommendations. Appreciate the heads up on on Hearthstone. Not into pay to win models.

I'm now checking out Thronebreaker and SWQ. Forgot how much positive press Thronebreaker got. Despite liking that universe, I ignored it at release because didn't think it was my type of genre back then.

Edit: I see a couple versions of SWQ. Which one do I start with?
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Hearthstone is not pay to win. However it is necessary to pay some money regularly if you want to play a diverse set of decks and getting a full collection will take time and money or both.

It doesn't hurt to try it since it truly is the easiest game to get into.
 
MrMegaMill

MrMegaMill

Member
Nov 28, 2017
548
I'm a huge fan of Shadowverse. Awesome art, animations and an easy to get the hang of but hard to master battle system.
 
Liam Allen-Miller

Liam Allen-Miller

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,804
Shibuya
IceDoesntHelp said:
Lost Kingdoms is the best card game. Fight me.
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vixlar

Member
Dec 5, 2017
400
Another vote for Dicey Dungeons. You have the same cards all the battle, but you need numbers generated by dice to play them. The game is shorter and fast paced. Each run lasts 40 minutes. Really fun.
 
DSP

DSP

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,120
go play single player stuff in hearthstone. the production values are way higher than spire, you will like it and they are mostly free or can be unlocked.

I am personally done with multiplayer hearthstone, just bored of it but they have made it pretty accessible, there are tons of free shit which will help you build something decent. If you are new to it you will probably like it.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
manhack said:
Hearthstone is not pay to win. However it is necessary to pay some money regularly if you want to play a diverse set of decks and getting a full collection will take time and money or both.

It doesn't hurt to try it since it truly is the easiest game to get into.
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I mean it depends on your definition of pay to win. Once you have a solid enough card base (which can be months), you can probably sustain from F2P, I manged to have tier one decks for three years having only bought adventures but the reality is you're probably going to have to drop money if you want to win in the short term. It's a frustrating cycle of crafting one or two decks per expansion and then just saving your gold until the next.

DSP said:
go play single player stuff in hearthstone. the production values are way higher than spire, you will like it and they are mostly free or can be unlocked.
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yeah the but the balance and mechanics are absolute garbage compared to STS lol, it's not remotely comparable
 
Alastor3

Alastor3

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
8,297
Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origin if you have a gamecube or wii.

Origin can be played even if you didn't play or don't like the first game, the second game is quite different
 
Dezzy

Dezzy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,432
USA
I'd love more stuff like Slay the Spire too, but not PvP games. I want good single player games that are similar to Slay the Spire in that it's a mix of luck, skill and strategy with some randomness that adds variety. I've had my eye on Armello for a while, but it's more multiplayer focused by the looks of it. There's another game called Shadowhand that looks interesting too.
 
Mollymauk

Mollymauk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,316
Thronebreaker is fantastic. I loved it despite not really playing much gwent in Witcher 3.

My favorite card based game is Culdcept Revolt for 3ds. It's deck building battle Monopoly. Instead of purchasing properties, you summon creatures onto spaces. You can try to take them over with your own creatures, spells and items.

It's a series that dates back to the Saturn.

 
Oreoleo

Oreoleo

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,947
Ohio
The MtG Duels of the Planeswalkers games that came out around 2009-2012 might scratch a similar itch for you OP.

It's basically single player MtG without all the deck-building micromanagement.
 
NHarmonic.

NHarmonic.

â–˛ Legend â–˛
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,293
The pokemon TCGO it's quite good. I became addicted a couple of months ago, started going to tournaments with a real deck and stuff.
 
BLASTEROID

BLASTEROID

Member
Oct 25, 2017
232
Tygre said:
OP, you fucked up by playing the best in the genre first.

Dicey Dungeons and SteamWorld Quest are worth checking out, just understand that you started with a showstopper.
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Agree we with this. Slay the Spire is an almost perfect game!

SWQ is great fun, a cool aesthetic, and has pretty good replay value for being mostly campaign based.
 
SpottieO

SpottieO

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,609
Mollymauk said:
Thronebreaker is fantastic. I loved it despite not really playing much gwent in Witcher 3.

My favorite card based game is Culdcept Revolt for 3ds. It's deck building battle Monopoly. Instead of purchasing properties, you summon creatures onto spaces. You can try to take them over with your own creatures, spells and items.

It's a series that dates back to the Saturn.

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I've always wanted to play those games but don't own a 3DS :(
 
Exentryk

Exentryk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,234
Slay the Spire is fantastic. I'm currently playing the new character.

The only issue I have with this game is the randomness. I'd love for a more curated and fixed approach. Something like an RPG game where your deck and relics are fixed based on what you decide to start with and explore. Thronebreaker is something more along those lines, so I recommend trying that.

If you like turn-based combat and not necessarily cards, then you have a lot more games to explore.
 
exodus

exodus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,944
If you're into board games check out Dominion. Slay The Spire's transient deck building mechanic is straight from that.
 
Mandos

Mandos

Member
Nov 27, 2017
30,891
Mollymauk said:
Thronebreaker is fantastic. I loved it despite not really playing much gwent in Witcher 3.

My favorite card based game is Culdcept Revolt for 3ds. It's deck building battle Monopoly. Instead of purchasing properties, you summon creatures onto spaces. You can try to take them over with your own creatures, spells and items.

It's a series that dates back to the Saturn.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I am very tempted to breakout my 2ds and order a copy...
 
Numberfox

Numberfox

Member
Aug 5, 2018
5,969
MrMegaMill said:
I'm a huge fan of Shadowverse. Awesome art, animations and an easy to get the hang of but hard to master battle system.
Click to expand...
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Also has quite the lengthy single-player campaign, which lets you use pre-made decks when you don't have a collection. Pick 2 and Open 6 are pretty good Limited formats that don't require a card collection to play in.
 
sandboxgod

sandboxgod

Attempting to circumvent a ban with an alt
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,919
Austin, Texas
Good lord so many awful pay-to-win CCGs have been mentioned when the poster just said they finished Slay The Spire, a card game you can purchase (not p2w, loot box junk).

We should be recommending actual good games that's not designed to steal their wallet like SteamWorld Quest (bless those of you that mentioned it already). There's some others like Destiny or Fate but haven't played that one.

This one looks promising too:


People already mentioned ThroneBreaker. Didnt play that one yet. I also like Sentinels of the universe but its completely different from Slay The spire genre

[edit] Oh I see the OP actually mentioned having an interest in p2w CCGs
 
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