itshalfempty

I think Keyforge is a great card game. It’s definitely unique among games I’ve played, but in ways that I think enhance the experience as a player without sacrificing on many of the aspects that make card games fun. Keyforge might not be quite as complex as Magic, but in my opinion that’s a good thing! I’ll try to summarize a few things I think that make Keyforge interesting and worth a try.

Random Decks

This is probably the most off-putting aspect of Keyforge for veteran CCG / LCG players. In Keyforge, you don’t buy packs of cards. Instead, you buy completed decks. Each deck is globally unique, has its own unique name and card back, and is intended to be completely playable out of the box. There’s no deckbuilding at all - you just get what you get.

Personally, I love it. Being able to buy a deck and immediately play makes sure that the experience is always fresh. It’s easy to get started as a new player since you don’t have to drop hundreds on a single deck or a full catalog of cards. It also means I don’t have piles and piles of nearly worthless cardboard floating around.

Ultimately though, I think this aspect of Keyforge frees up so much creative space for the cards themselves. Cards can have a max count per deck, show up paired with specific other cards, or get modified in some way. The possibilities are really endless, especially since any concern about balance for an individual card can be mitigated somewhat by the deck construction algorithm. If particularly “broken” combinations or decks end up getting printed, as long as they are fairly rare, they won’t disrupt the meta as a whole.

Simple Rules

Keyforge has pretty simple base rules. There are no timing considerations, or distinct phases, or a stack. Just pick cards and play them. You can explain the base rules for the game to a new player in 15 minutes - and most cards explain keywords pretty clearly.

That said - simple rules doesn’t mean the game itself is simple. The challenge in Keyforge comes from the pretty complex decision-making. Do you pick the house where you can play the most cards? Do you pick the house with the most creatures? Do you reap or attack their creatures? Knowledge about the set or the cards in your opponent’s deck can make that decision-making a bit easier - but I find that there aren’t as many clearly correct plays like you’d find in other card games.

No stack

If you were to ask me what I loved about Magic when I played it, I’d probably tell you it was the stack. It’s a pretty elegant solution for handling timing events and actions taken at any point in the game. Card triggers? They go on the stack. Want to play something on your opponent’s turn? You have to put it on the stack. Items are resolved last-in-first-out, and after every state change, players can add more items to the stack. It’s the mechanic that makes combat tricks possible, and that makes control magic so effective, and that drives so much bluffing in the game. Every player has experienced at least once some ridiculous set of interactions where a bunch of effects get thrown on the stack, and those can be particularly memorable experiences.

Keyforge doesn’t have a stack. No one can play actions while some other effect is being resolved. No one can play actions on their opponent’s turn. There aren’t any mid-combat tricks. There aren’t any counterspells. That means on a player’s turn, they know exactly what’s on the table that they are dealing with and they don’t have to consider or pause for their opponent to take an action.

Not being able to take actions on your opponent’s turn is honestly a great boon for the flow of the game, and especially for players new to the card game scene. While a really well-timed set of actions (whether it’s a burn, bounce, counter, combat trick, etc.) in Magic can feel really rewarding, it can feel unintitive and frustrating for newer and casual players.

Casual Play

I think Keyforge is primed for casual players. It’s really easy to jump into, and the barrier of entry to have a reasonably competitive deck is very low. If it’s been a while and more sets have come out, all you need is to buy a single deck.

This is pretty different from literally every other card game - even if preconstructed decks exist, they are typically pretty bad and require at least some tweaking. The difference between a deck played by a casual player and a an even somewhat competitive player is generally night and day.

There’s a ton of theorycrafting about what makes a deck objectively good, and some scoring systems to decide which decks have the potential to be very good, but none of that matters for a casual player. You don’t have to be versed on deck lists or the meta to understand how to build a decent deck. You don’t need to continue to buy the latest cards to keep up. You can just show up to a game store, buy a couple of decks, and focus on the gameplay instead of how much more you need to buy.