Best free (but not p2w) Card Games for PC/Browser?

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

Shadow Era is a great card game, games generally last 5-12 minutes so perfect if you want to play a game or two at work. It also has a good ios app (cross-platform game) which is great for bathroom breaks.

 

[spectre]

I managed to take out some enjoyment out of Magic Duels, even though I am not a big fan of Magic the Gathering.
It's completely free to play, though you can buy in game gold with jewros.
The interface is a bit shitty (as in, I have actually lost games because I clicked the wrong thing or didn't click a thing when I was supposed to)
but I've kinda gotten used to its quirks after a time.

Biggest problem so far is that the developers are struggling to make improvements, bugfixes and upgrades, as though they were underpaid and understaffed.
Apparently Wizards of the Coast got caught with their pants down by Blizzard and are making an half assed effort to compete.
It's quite playable though, I havent' really encountered anything major apart from an occassional crash.

The cardpool is ok, you can make a variety of decks with a bunch of themes, depending on which expansions you unlocked,
I observed a slight degeneracy in that Planeswalkers are slightly overpowered with few hard counters.

The grind seems paced pretty well, you get decent gold and a starting pool of cards from completing the tutorials.
There are also daily and weekly quests offering decent rewards, I can usually afford 2-3 booster packs by just playing for 1,5-2h a day.
You can't really grind it to oblivion, as there is a daily cap of earnings.

You can play vs. AI and other players, the latter gives you better cash and isn't unenjoyable, there's no chat
so you don't have to deal with anybody's PMS, and if someone disconnects, the AI takes over, so no harm done.
The AI isn't great but gets the job done (I'd say it's a notch and a half above good old Shandalar).

The only departure from standard MTG rules is that you are limited to 1x of each Mythic Rare, 2x of each Rare and 3x of each Uncommon (Commons are at the standard 4x).
This might piss off a competitive MTG player, but I am finding that it rounds the game off nicely. The game is no longer about shelling dosh for chase rares (though it's always nice to have a better card pool)
like the usual constructed, and instead feels closer to draft play, especially at lower ranks of the ladder or when playing with the AI.

If you want high powered, competitive MTG play I'd say look elsewhere, but I think it works okay if you just want to see some random cardboard go whoosh or fzzzak.

 

[Galdred]

It might seem stupid, but if you have kids who are into Pokemon, you can redeem the QR codes to play online whenever they get a starter deck or a booster. The game is simpler than Hearthstone, but not trivial by any mean.
The card pool is way too large, though, and the €/booster is insanely high so grinding is much better, as they are quite generous with boosters.
A cool thing is that you get better rewards by playing starter decks.

 

[Snorkack]

So, recently I felt the CCG itch itching again and I reinstalled Hearthstone (never played it too much in the first place). While it is correct that you can theoretically grind all the stuff you need, I found it to be an incredible chore to play. The first thing I noticed is that half of my cards are rendered useless now since they aren't considered standard anymore. Second thing is once I hit rank 20, my win rate took a huge hit, because I started facing an endless wave of mages playing legendary after legendary, many of them locked behind a paywall. So I got beaten over and over with retarded plays but a way superior deck. Catching up without investing money seems like a horrible and unfun grind.
I signed up for the Elder Scrolls Legends and I gotta say, this is way more fun. It's basically the same game with a few differences:
-The class system is like the bastard child of MtG and HS
-The rng element is reduced compared to HS. Yes, you got this retarded prophecy system, but apart from that, not many cards with random effects.
-The different lanes and lane effects are a nice strategic addition.
-It lacks the cartoonish WoW artstyle. Thank goodness!

And here's why it could be interesting for OP:
-The player base you face has weaker cards. If you lose, it's mostly because bad plays, bad luck or bad deck building, not the general lack of op cards.
-You get more bang for your buck. Packs cost 100 G, same as in HS. But you get gold quicker and each pack contains 6 cards instead of 5. On the other hand, you can have 3 of each card, so this might be pretty balanced after all.

Anyways, I'm enjoying myself with TESL quite a bit. You should check it out!

 

[Gregz]

...Anyways, I'm enjoying myself with TESL quite a bit. You should check it out!

I tried TESL but the poor UI and art turned me off, dumb reason to quit but that's why I did...so now I'm frustrating myself playing Hearthstone in the exact ways you described. I think I'm just too behind to ever catch up without dropping $200, which I'm not going to do.

 

[v1rus]

So I got beaten over and over with retarded plays but a way superior deck.

Which retarded plays?

Just keep grinding, really. Zoolock is incredibly cheap to make, and it has been tier 1 deck for ages now. For the optimal version, you need like 6 rares, couple of commons, and first wing of LoE (which i would actually advise you not to get, since its going to rotate in couple of months)

 

[Snorkack]

Just bad decision-making by the enemy, like missing lethal or playing things in the wrong order.
Anyways, I'm quite happy with TESL for now, beginner's progress feels infinitely quicker and more rewarding. Weak presentation and ui aside, I think it's superior to HS in every aspect.

 

[Galdred]

...Anyways, I'm enjoying myself with TESL quite a bit. You should check it out!

I tried TESL but the poor UI and art turned me off, dumb reason to quit but that's why I did...so now I'm frustrating myself playing Hearthstone in the exact ways you described. I think I'm just too behind to ever catch up without dropping $200, which I'm not going to do.

TESL would have a more level playing field.
Duelyst is not too bad when it comes to grinding, and the positioning element makes skills a bit more relevant.

 

[v1rus]

Well, I've been playing Magic: Duels, and while i feel its not half-bad (that UI tho...) i lose most of my games, which is getting incredibly annoying. Then again, i dont have a single viable deck, and I dont know jack shit about the game :D

It was the same with Hearthstone when I started, I guess. TCGs require you to bite the bullet till you achieve an able collection. That's kinda ok tho, even if i had a decent MTG:D collection, i wouldnt know how to use it, since I really dont know how to play it all well.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Btw, among the three Duels seemed to be less jewy to me. You even got gold for winning against the AI, while Legends only gives you dust and Hearthstone gives you jackshit. Also you couldn't get more of the same card than the maximum accepted in a deck. Probably because they were too lazy to code a crafting system, but in the end that seems better to me.
I wonder if the game got any improvements in the last year. Maybe I should step on my pride and install Steam again. Shit, I installed Dethesda's client for Legends might as well install all spyware.

Edit: Or maybe not, the recent reviews on Steam are not very encouraging.

 

[v1rus]

Well, I don't know much, but it doesn't seem THAT bad

 

[Gregz]

HS Arena is very hard because you need to know every class, and the cards, in great depth. And even if you do, RNG can really screw you with the card pool. I've tried it twice, and each time it's been 1W 3L. I'm not aspie enough to git gud either...



So now I'm back to buying standard decks and drawing crap cards

 

[Hoodoo]

used to play Cardhunter awhile back - is on steam and congregate

tactical? ccg where you play as a team of 3 character (elf-human-dwarf, faster and fragile to slower and stronger with diff racials and then class as warrior-mage-cleric and the items you eqip determine your cardstack

p fun
lots of diff playstyles and sorts of satisfying/maddening combos

if anyone plays lemme know and il start playing again

just don't do a root who I whooped and now refuses to play with me even though I see him at odd hours practicing on steam (you can turn your steam to appear offline yno)

 

[Gregz]

used to play Cardhunter awhile back - is on steam and congregate

tactical? ccg where you play as a team of 3 character (elf-human-dwarf, faster and fragile to slower and stronger with diff racials and then class as warrior-mage-cleric and the items you eqip determine your cardstack

p fun
lots of diff playstyles and sorts of satisfying/maddening combos

if anyone plays lemme know and il start playing again

just don't do a root who I whooped and now refuses to play with me even though I see him at odd hours practicing on steam (you can turn your steam to appear offline yno)

Game is good, too bad you can't resize fonts tho, but still enjoying it thx

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, I don't know much, but it doesn't seem THAT bad

I can't, man. The deck editor and manager are giving me brain tumors. The whole UI actually feels like it's been designed to be used with a controller.

And even though it doesn't have those silly fancy animations like Hearthstone it feels like playing a card is 10 times slower. The cards just move super slow for some retarded reason.
Cards should play instantly for this to be acceptable. FFS, I never had this issue when playing Magic with Forge or xMage, so at least for me the problem is not that Magic is a slower game by design, Duels just sucks at providing an enjoyable experience.

 

[v1rus]

So now I'm back to buying standard decks and drawing crap cards

Slowly bro, slowly! It's gonna hurt for some time, and one morning you are gonna awake and realize "Holy shit, I've got a decent collection!". Did you do the hidden gold quests?

Also, this Blizzard Humble Bundle is crazy value. I know most of you dont wanna open your wallets, but 5$ for 10 classic packs and a class specific classic legendary (those are the best in the game) is just crazy.

I can't, man. The deck editor and manager are giving me brain tumors. The whole UI actually feels like it's been designed to be used with a controller.

And even though it doesn't have those silly fancy animations like Hearthstone it feels like playing a card is 10 times slower. The cards just move super slow for some retarded reason.
Cards should play instantly for this to be acceptable. FFS, I never had this issue when playing Magic with Forge or xMage, so at least for me the problem is not that Magic is a slower game by design, Duels just sucks at providing an enjoyable experience.

Well I have no problems with the deck editor, since i dont really know how to make a deck :D J/k, its freaking disgusting, even i can tell. And yeah, it most probably was developed for controllers (multi-platform title yall!).

Dont know. It's not good, that's for sure, but it seems like best possible option atm.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, if you really want to play Magic for free there are those two clients I mentioned (and others, but those are supposed to be better). They're missing the collecting part, though, since you have all cards available.

 

[v1rus]

Well, if you really want to play Magic for free there are those two clients I mentioned (and others, but those are supposed to be better). They're missing the collecting part, though, since you have all cards available.

Well, I was thinking trying one of those sooner or later, so it as well might be sooner.

Ayn recommendations?

 

[sser]

Gwent is supposedly gonna be F2P -- the only payable stuff being little cosmetic things like animated cards. Possibly paid-for singleplayer campaigns as well. If you want a real grind, jump on the Texas Hold 'Em gravy train and play out hundreds of hands each day

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, if you really want to play Magic for free there are those two clients I mentioned (and others, but those are supposed to be better). They're missing the collecting part, though, since you have all cards available.

Well, I was thinking trying one of those sooner or later, so it as well might be sooner.

Ayn recommendations?

Overall I found Forge better for me, it had more game modes, better AI and in general was easier to use. As a big minus, it didn't have multiplayer. It was planned, but don't know if it's been added yet. Also it was pretty slow in adding new card sets and the art for them.

So, if you're looking for multiplayer specifically xMage is probably the better choice.

In conclusion, try both of them and decide for yourself.

 

[Galdred]

btw, if someone wants to try duelyst, the current jumbobundle offers 20 packs +a few cosmetic items for 0€ (you just need to provide your email). This is more or less one month of grinding(or 25€ in the shop). Sadly, it only works for accounts created after september 15th

 

[da_rays]

btw, if someone wants to try duelyst, the current jumbobundle offers 20 packs +a few cosmetic items for 0€ (you just need to provide your email). This is more or less one month of grinding(or 25€ in the shop). Sadly, it only works for accounts created after september 15th

You might wanna check out Eternal Card game. There Is a thread about it on the codex. Its a Good mix between MTG and heartstone. For now its pretty much not P2W. You can Still fork over some cash to speed things up but its very doable without paying à dime~

Envoyé de mon SM-G930W8 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Mangoose]

I've been interesting in a video CCG but I'm lazy so I very skimmingly went through them (even more skimmingly if lots of cutscenes).

So, since I didn't play enough to see tactical/strategic depth, I'm just gonna add very impressions.

So far I've decided that Warbands: Bushido is pretty awesome. It's not F2P, sorry, but I felt like it was worth $5. I guess I like card games with a weird layer, like the half-squad-tactical Bushido, or being able to put down cards face down in Yugioh.

Or however L5R plays... I've only been able to glance over at people playing L5R while I was playing Infinity.

 

[hivemind]

play Gwent

 

[Excidium II]

Gwent is p2w