Review: Eternal: Card Game (In Early Access)

Lets get down to the business of what you all want to hear about: Eternal, a new card game by Direwolf (co-developers of The Elder Scrolls: Legends). It was released on steam Early Access this past November. For this review, I'll be looking at it from the perspective of a player of Magic: The Gathering

Overview of Mechanics

So, the most important thing you need to know about this game is it is a F2P Collectible Card Game. This means there is no trading of cards and you are expected to earn cards slowly unless you wish to purchase packs. There is a crafting system similar to Elder Scrolls: Legends, and Hearthstone with the following values written as Shardstones for Breakdown/Shardstones Required:

• Commons: 1/50
• Uncommons: 10/100
• Rares: 200/800
• Promos: 100/600
• Legendary: 800/3200

This matters a lot because much like Elder Scrolls: Legends there is no limit on how many of a Legendary you can own. In exchange the game is quite generous with packs which come with 12 cards and a guaranteed Rare/Legendary and 100 Shardstones which is the equivalent of Dust in Hearthstone; an Image for Reference:

The games mechanics are much like MTG or Hex except with the speed and power level of Hearthstone. There is MTG/Hex style blocking for combat but a field limit of 12 units and a hand size maximum of 9 cards. 

There are 5 colors of Influence in this game which are obtained like Thresholds in Hex often by playing Powers which are basically Lands of one of 5 Factions:

• Fire
• Justice
• Time
• Primal
• Shadow

Players get 1 free mulligan for their 75 card deck which they draw 7 of at the start of the game making decks relatively consistent compared to other games of the same style.

Did I mention the game has Instant speed interaction? If not then that is a big reason why I feel the game has some serious depth (The caveat is that there are restrictions on the timing of Fast Spells).

Unlike MTG cards retain all permanent changes no matter where they are during gameplay.

Games are best of 1 and the game has controller support for maximum comfort and speed which signals a possible console port in the future considering it is already on Google Play Beta.

Game Modes

Like Hex and Elder Scrolls: Legends there is a campaign (Currently just a tutorial that unlocks the 5 starter decks and some packs). There is also a AI ran Gauntlet:

There is a ranking system like Elder Scrolls Legends' Solo Draft which leads to extra product (500+ Gold and a Pack) if you go 7-0. Every few wins you earn upgraded chests that contain 200+ Gold and sometimes an extra card topping out at 2 chests and 2 cards I believe. There there is the also AI ran Forge (Which is an actual draft as Gauntlet is constructed):

Forge is also ranked leading to bonus product for perfect runs. As stated in the image you Draft a 25 card deck and the game fills in the Sigil base for you  You keep all cards drafted so far I've only received commons and uncommons (maybe 1 rare I do not remember). The prizing is better than the Gauntlet but you are only allotted 1 loss instead of 2. I generally can earn 2 packs per forge run and enough gold to pay for 1/3rd of another one which you can get from Gauntlet (Thats for a perfect run) An imperfect run such as my 4 win earlier today you'll get a pack and 500 Gold which ain't bad considering you got 2 packs worth of cards already.

The most important thing about forge is that after you start your drafting the card pool narrows down into the two colors you picked so you are never out of luck when it comes to getting things in your color. Next we have PVP Formats which as of this writing include Ranked and Draft (Casual is disabled currently). 

After 3 wins it seems you'll earn 100 gold so 30 wins in ranked to buy a pack from the store like Hearthstone (I have no knowledge of a cap on gold at this time). The ranking is a form of ELO with divisions like League including placements, I do not know if there are promotional games yet as I'm solidly Bronze 3. Games are fast and like Hearthstone there is no real chat in game. 

Draft is done in the same way as MTG, in which you open a pack and pick 1 card then pass the pack to the next player until all cards are out of the pack. You do this 4 times in this game to build a 48 card draft pool. You then build a 45 card deck including Sigils and play. Currently the Draft is really quick with no wait inbetween picks, but there is some wait inbetween rounds about 1-2 minutes. Going 7-0 in Draft nets you about 6000 Gold 3 packs and 3 Premium cards (animated). Your first Draft play on the account gets you 2000 Gold and a pack as well. It takes about 7-8 Gauntlet wins to earn a Draft and Gauntlets only take about 30 minutes with a fast deck. 

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Fast Paced compared to Hex and Magic: the Gathering
• Currently cheap to expand your collection while playing absolutely no PvP.
• Pack pricing is fair for digital product and buying the equivalent of a box guarantees 3 Legendary cards and is about 30 Dollars per box.
• Promo's are often on offer it seems and are earned by winning a ranked game a day until you get a playset.
• AI Play is rewarding and quick even with a late game Ramp list.
• Ranked play is painless and queues are currently firing very fast no more than 20 seconds wait at Bronze 3.
• There is a easy to understand Filter system in your card collection.
• Currently the game looks quite balanced across the colors and playstyles with a developed Meta at higher tiers
• Packs have extra value in that they give 100 Shardstones meaning any two commons of your choice.
• The interface is quite fluid most of the time and just makes sense. 
• The cards are interesting in their own right with good art in my humble opinion.
• Steam Achievements are enabled, I don't know if the game links to Mobile yet but if it does that'd be a huge Pro.
• Top Decks are generally under 35k Shardstones each which is quite affordable with a week or so of play.
• Currently it seems the Devs are actively working on the game to make it better.

Cons:

• 75 card deck is still too large for consistency on par with MTG.
• Sigils which you have to draw in order to play invites the possibility of unplayable hands.
• Tutorial takes longer than I'd like due to the sheer inconsistency of the starter decks.
• Shardstone costs are quite high 4 Legendaries to get any other Legendary or 50 commons to 1 common. 32 packs though guarantees a Legendary by giving you 100 Shardstones a pack.
• You only get 1 Mulligan but that mulligan does guarantee 2 Sigil hands.
• Much like MTG and Hex the resource system causes serious feel bad moments in an otherwise fine game.
• The game fails to differentiate itself from MTG and Hex and is IMO better than MTGO but not as fun as Hex.
• The magic of opening packs wears off really quickly currently as you can put together a Gold tier worthy deck with your first 2000 Dust or so and if you aren't competitively minded there is literally nothing to really do which is a serious pitfall.
• Too many chaff Legendaries that could be Rares and no one would notice the difference. Very few Legendaries are even used in the top decks.
• Once you hit Master Tier in the Gauntlet it won't reset until the next set release meaning your payout slows down making the grind longer than it was when you started and its very possible to max out your Gauntlet before you finish a set of all the commons in the game. 

WRAP:UP!

With all of that said, I had a lot of fun with this game considering I spent about a week playing it basically non-stop. I spent 0-Dollars and Drafted a grand total of 2 times and was able to play at a reasonable level. 

The major issues I had mostly stemmed from the game feeling too much like other Western Card Games such as MTG and Hex,while not truly differentiating itself like Hex and its PVE environment (Albeit unfinished). To me the worst part about most Western TCGs is the resource system being inflexible and used mostly to cut down on consistency by injecting your deck with cards that are only there to allow you to play what you actually wanted to.

Good things though, include the speed, power level, and fun when you don't miss your Sigils. I would recommend this game over Hex or MTG to a new card game player due to its simplicity but caution them against the overly long tutorial where they stop teaching you after the first deck and allow you to lose and waste time. 

So I've decided against giving games a numerical score based on my own opinions which may be biased and unfair. This game is not a Hearthstone clone by any stretch of the imagination but it is clearly a MTG clone and quite a good one at that and until MTGO looks as pretty and runs as well this just beats that out hardcore. Not to mention this game can be quite competitive even without official events. 

You can find Eternal Card Game on Steam for free and the Fansite I used for information is located at: RNGeternal.com They have stock lists for the top decks and host tournaments for the game along with Draft Tier lists and tons of in depth strategy articles stemming from the Closed Beta till now for prospective competitors. 

I will most likely not be doing more posts on Eternal Card Game, but next up will be a post on the things I like and don't like in card games to offer some insight into why I review things as I do. As always leave comments about anything relating to this post or card games you'd wish for me to play. If its physical I can film play demos along with review it. I will look into any card game where the deck isn't fixed by virtue of the rules and there is a clear winner when it is over.