Shardbound

A CCG/tactics mix.
Shardbound is a Tactical CCG for PC that combines board-based tactical gameplay with the depth of content found in collectible card games.
Play SHARDBOUND on STEAM today!
It is still in EA. Just came out of pre-alpha, and went public ftp. Alot of placeholder art. Devs have stated a focus on gameplay/systems first. art later.


There was a kickstarter at one point. back in march it seems.


Free to play.
you have immediate access to a starter deck for all 6 "factions."
+30 free card chests. (not sure if its pure rng. I got several epics, one legendary)
more free chests can be unlocked via play. Especially in a guild/clan setting I think. AND, twitch support in game, with extra benefits, such as actually rewarding and giving away cards for streaming, and watching streams.
Progression and Monetization Overview • r/Shardbound

its on steam.

Day9 had a nice stream showing at game back at twitchcon. 6m ago.


I was pretty impressed. Base card game is very very much heartstone. warcrys, deathrattle, sheild, etc. Tactic element adds a nice element. I despise hearthstones shield and 1 lane system. loved MMDOC for its lanes/rows. the tactics does slow the game down though.

atm, I don't think the "Factions" stand out enough. really they are all the same space elf faction...
This is not nearly clear enough in game:
blue is disruption/control. unsummon, move enemy, mill.
Orange is mage nuker.
Purple is graveyard control.
red is minion buffs.
yellow is minion aggro.
Green is area/map control.

no idea. a quick google I see that is FTP as well. so, ill check. haha.


checking out Faeria now. see thats been around for a while.
The land system here is neat. very cool that they brought in old school magic land. islands, plains, etc. not a fan of the mana orbs. a bit of the othello with land control. neat.
Faeria feels mostly like a CCG. again love the land system. and it allows hybrid decks. water+forest. the hex plays like an advanced lane system. it just feels like a more complex mmdoc/heartstone.

Shardbound acts 100% like a heroes of might and magic game though. but with cards for spells, and to summon your minions. fully animated. ranged, cleaves, etc. Positioning, line of sight, etc. definitely more of a mix.

Shardbound is definitely still EA/alpha/beta though. in comparison. like, this faeria has a flushed out campaign, cash shop. foil cards. custom cardbacks, avatars, wellsprings, hero orb thing... shardbond has none of that yet.
faeria has an daily arena looks like, like heartstones brawl.

i hate you.


Also had not played duelyst. Saw that one mentioned in many of the discord/reddit/steam reviews though. alot of "quit duelyst, playing this. this is what you need to do going forward."
I see THAT is also ftp. Ill give it a shot, when I get a chance as well. And give a rundown, how they compare.

Duelyst is pretty similar. main differences are the 3d art vs the pixel art. hex vs squares. highground/low ground vs mana orbs.
Duelyst also is in a much more finished state with challenges, puzzles, etc.

Having a hard time dealing with the pixelart. not a fan of it here. The art design in this is bad.
The menu backgrounds have great high rez cinematic concept art. fancy high tech looking menus. the unit art in game is a heavily animated pixel art. Which is super blocky and nearly impossible to visualize. Then, the npc/avatars/emotes are this super amateurish flash animu cartoonish style, which does not fit the rest of the game at all.

was not very impressed with Duelyst, despite the fairly similar base game systems.
I did like Faeria quite a bit.