#i think i'm just gonna stop playing runeterra for a while

[dravidious]

You are certainly quite cool

After having experienced the glacial progression pace of Runeterra for so long it is THRILLING to be able to 100% an entire world in Ultrakill in a single morning. It turns out that real games don't try to drip-feed you tiny bits and pieces of progress in an attempt to take as much of your time as possible!

[drowsy-siren]

I love deck building games so I just wanted to ask which one(s) are your favorite?

I really want to get into one but I feel like there’s always an entry barrier that I have a hard time getting around. Any advice?

Thanks ❤️

Excellent question. and I'm gonna be VERBOSE in my response, best of luck dear readers:

So I'll start with TCGs / PVP deckbuilders: I've played MTG / MTG:A, Legends of Runeterra, Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, and Gwent. Of these, I've enjoyed Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, and MTG the most. I stopped playing Hearthstone because it is owned by Activision-Blizzard, but if that is okay with you, I would recommend it. I feel it is fairly simple to understand mechanically, and the largest barrier is having cards to play with (which is best fixed by doing your daily missions, if you dont have ~$70 or whatever it is now to get a ton of packs) Marvel Snap I LOVED as soon as I started playing. It's an absolute blast and a few months ago, I would have said that it was a nearly-perfect PVP deckbuilder. And to me, it's one of the best because for a while, the exact deck you were running wasn't all that important. Your "winnings" were moreso dictated by your ability to read the game and know when to double down on your wins or back out, rather than being reflective of the actual outcome of deck-vs-deck. My issue with the game recently is that I disagree with the devs decisions to make card-collection growth extremely slow later in the game (I could do a separate post about it, cuz it would be verbose, so I'll leave it at that for now). BUT, this largely does not impact newer players. In fact, I think it is easier for newer players to get cards that they like and want. I feel that Snap is a fairly easy game to learn quickly, and the skill development comes from learning when to snap (the doubling-down mechanic) and predicting what your opponent might do. I feel that you can enjoy the game as a F2P player, but if you want to be highly competitive, you'll likely want to buy the monthly battlepass for the card that comes with it.

MTG is a social game to me, and I think (unless you are intending to be competitive / go to FNM or tournaments) it should be treated as such. And what I mean by that is I believe you should find people of similar mindset to you, in terms of what level of play you want to experience at your table and how strict of rules you want to adhere to. I tend to only play Commander/EDH or variations on it (planechase), but I do enjoy one-off draft games. And I play with people who likewise enjoy these formats and are generally lax with how they play. There are a LOT of magic cards, so being an "efficient" deckbuilder in MTG is extremely inaccessible to new players, imo, simply due to the sheer volume of cards to consider. BUT, when you play with more relaxed/casual players who are there for fun, good company, and silly times, it can be very easy to get into because there are resources like Pre-Con decks or EDHREC to simplify the deck-building process and get you playing sooner/more easily. If you are looking to become more competitive at MTG, I recommend playing MTG:Arena because it's an easy way to get a bunch of games under your belt and get a feel for what kinds of cards and decks are strong at the moment.

Non-PVP Deckbuilders:

So, if you like deckbuilders but aren't as big on TCGs for money reasons or the companies that make them are shitty, there are a bunch of other deckbuilders that I absolutely love and recommend to everyone (advice about getting into them will be at the end cuz it's kind of the same for all of them):

So first and foremost, Slay the Spire. An absolute blast, deckbuilding roguelike/roguelite that was absolutely addicting to play. I cannot recommend this game enough. Across the Obelisk. Like Slay the Spire, it's a deckbuilding RPG. BUT. It's multiplayer (up to 4). It is soooooo much fun, with really interesting narrative paths. Progression looks like unlocking new characters and unlocking/upgrading things that make your runs easier. And difficulty ramps up pretty quickly without making you feel discouraged. Cannot recommend this enough Wildfrost. Another deckbuilding roguelike. It's very fun, but very different than Slay the Spire because a lot of the gameplay focuses on interactions with ally and enemy positioning, in different lanes of combat.

Beneath Oresa. HOLY FUCK is it cool and fun. It only fully released within the past few weeks, I played a couple months ago and am so curious what's been added. It is another deck-building roguelike, but it's 2.5D ish in that you do combat in zones (near and far). And (extra cool) your character is physically moving around a space when you fight and bounce between these zones. The artwork is stunning and I cant wait to see what they did with the narrative because the atmosphere is incredible.

I probably have a couple others, but they didn't come to mind as I was writing this, so I'm leaving them out for now. One key recommendation about the non-TCG deckbuilders, particularly the roguelike ones, is to keep your deck size small. It's easy to see a cool card and want access to it, but the more cards in your deck, the less consistent your hands are. When you get the option to remove cards from your deck, use them

[aalue]

For the WIP game

I'm gonna be here a lot because all of these sound so good 😱😱 Like just the name have me so excited

To start off Keys to the Castle sounds so interesting 🤔😱

Hi @amusingelf!

I'm so glad to hear you're excited about my WIPS. I'm a pretty slow creator and it will probably take me some time to get them all ready, but I plan on posting all of the ones I mentioned in the post. Meanwhile I love to talk about them.

So, Keys to the Castle.

I'm going to ramble for a bit here because you picked one of my favourites! The title is from the song 'Keys to the Castle' by Black Math, which I thought fitted the story pretty well.

It's a Role Reversal AU, just a tad darker than the series, in which I have Silco and Vander switch places after the betrayal: when Silco gets out of the river, he runs to the Last Drop instead of wherever he went to in canon and, once everyone sees what Vander has done to him, Vander is the one framed as a monster. It follows canon's beats pretty closely for the first act —as in Silco adopts the kids, Vander is the one in hiding, the kids break into Jayce's apartment, etc.— and then, from the cannery's explosion —in which Silco dies— things start getting interesting.

Here is when the Role Reversal stops affecting just Vander and Silco, and starts affecting everyone.

Mylo and Claggor live, as well as Powder, but Vi is the only one who stays in Zaun with Vander. Sevika, who has an important role to play in literally everything that happens, becomes the Hound's right hand... but she likes Vander as much a she does in canon, and has a promise to keep that she made to a dead man, so only she knows where she stands in all of this. Benzo and some other people —including some of the dead goons from the first act for comedic purposes— survive, and conflict arises in the Lanes.

Vander's motivations are different from Silco's, but he still distributes Shimmer, so the beginning of the second act still applies, only Vi is the one to fuck up the operation in Piltover's docks, Mek isn't the one to end up in jail, and then the plot thickens...

And, well, any and all supernatural entities of Runeterra appear at some point because I wanted them to— and because I wasn't going to let Silco stay dead.

So here's a tiny, tiny snippet from the prologue...

•

Smiling to himself, he finally takes a bite of the disgusting prison food, not caring much about the stale taste. He has a plan, he can survive in this hellhole for a while until they get him out.

Deckard knows next to nothing about how Stillwater works, what kind of social structure holds here. He's pretty sure he that befriending one of the big guys might be the best thing he can do, get himself some protection for however long he is here. He's fast in a fight, and can even do pretty well in his own. Maybe not with a show of force, but if he proves to be useful there has to be—

Someone jumps onto his fucking table and kicks his tray away before landing another blow on his chest that leaves him sprawling on the floor.

Deckard rolls to all fours just as whoever that is steps to stand beside him, a pair of boots and the tips of powder blue braids dangling besides them, almost touching the floor.

"Hi, Deckard," whoever that is says, voice jovial.

He raises his head, more than ready to tell them off, only to find a ghost staring down at him.

"You—" he starts.

"Yeah, me." the ghost grins, glancing at something behind him. "You didn't think you'd seen the last of us, right, Decks?"

Us?

Two pairs of arms take hold of him, forcing him onto his feet.

The last thought he has before having the shit beat out of him by a bunch of dead people is 'fuck'.