Collecting cards and organizing the perfect deck can be a long, tedious, and expensive process depending on the game. On top of that, finding someone to play with can be difficult. Thankfully, video games allow fans of deck-building tabletop titles to circumvent much of the hassle.
Virtual trading card games provide the same experience with added visual flair while maintaining all of the difficulty and strategic interest which fans have come to expect. Which ones are the best? As it happens, there are many trading card video games of different styles to choose from.
10 The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game (2019)
One of many video games set in Middle-Earth, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game is one of the newest trading card games. As a result, it was critiqued for not doing much to differentiate itself from other famous trading card games out there, especially for its $20 price.
That said, it can still provide a fun experience as it maintains the same style of gameplay a gamer would expect from this kind of game. Characters, creatures, spells, and other kinds of cards with well-animated attacks and flashy interactions combined with attention to the lore will appeal to any Tolkien fan.
9 Animation Throwdown: The Quest For Cards (2017)
Mixing Family Guy, American Dad, Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, and more into one big crossover, a card game seems like a strange basis for such a meeting. However, Animation Throwdown: The Quest For Cards manages to have fun and humorous card gameplay that still forces the player to think strategically.
Obviously, the main appeal is the crossover of the many adult animation shows. Fans will certainly appreciate the extensive amount of references and Easter Eggs from the respective shows with each character card.
8 Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (2018)
This is Gwent, straight out of The Witcher universe, and it plays identically to the actual Gwent game released by CDProjekt Red. That is both good and bad, as it provides an intriguing single-player story fans of The Witcher book series and the games can enjoy this one.
However, Thronebreaker is essentially a modded version of the Gwent game with the same lane gameplay, same animations, same cards, and even the same user interface. For the $20 price, it’s a good game, but it’s easy to see why someone would prefer the free Gwent game over this one.
7 Faeria (2016)
What sets Faeria apart from other card games is that the player has to create the board and terrain that affects the cards. As the board constantly shifts throughout battles, it keeps Faeria’s gameplay from becoming stale, as they never play out the same way.
Faeria’s board system makes it reminiscent of Risk and other strategic board games while also factoring in a tried-and-true card battle system. Faeria is currently $20, but there is a lot of DLC that can make the game cost up to almost $90 for the full experience.
6 The Elder Scrolls: Legends (2017)
Like many games, The Elder Scrolls: Legends is not the most innovative card game, but it is effective in delivering fans of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a solid alternative. If a gamer prefers the universe of Elder Scrolls and doesn’t want to replay Skyrim for the thousandth time, as a free-to-play title, it’s the perfect solution.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is not merely a clone of Hearthstone with an Elder Scrolls skin, as it adds a unique mechanic with runes that spice up the gameplay. There is also a lane system taken from Gwent which is mixed well to create a hybrid game. As a bonus, The Elder Scrolls: Legends even features a single-player campaign.
5 Eternal (2016)
Sadly, Eternal makes the mistake of being a nearly identical clone of Hearthstone, so it’s not hard to understand why newcomers might be turned off by it. At the same time, for a clone, it does manage to capture the same simplistic yet thought-provoking strategic gameplay that can be addicting.
Eternal arguably improves over Hearthstone in its generosity. After a while, Hearthstone nearly forces players to submit to microtransactions to unlock new cards due to the amount of grinding. Eternal, on the other hand, grants card packs more frequently.
4 Hearthstone (2014)
When it comes to virtual trading card games, the most recommended for beginners is Hearthstone, and for good reason. It’s colorful, it’s inviting, and it teaches the basics of card games to the most inexperienced gamers rather well while also appealing to WarCraft fans with the plethora of characters, monsters, and Easter eggs from that franchise.
As mentioned previously, the biggest drawback is its design to make grinding so long and tedious that it is clearly trying to force players into paying for card packs. While it is still fun to play, Hearthstone can show its age, but it remains a staple of the trading card game genre that anyone should try.
3 Kards (2019)
For fans of card games that are looking for a new title but are tired of the fantasy setting so many go for, there is Kards. Kards is another card game, but, rather than orcs and elves, it focuses on soldiers and officers from World War II.
The visuals match artwork, books, and magazines of the time, which help players feel like they are part of classic World War II epics. Utilizing planes, soldiers, tanks, and other real-world weapons of the time, Kards earned an 80 on Metacritic for its polished, stylized gameplay that plays it safe as another Hearthstone clone, but in the best way possible.
2 Magic The Gathering: Arena (2018)
Though Hearthstone is more famous, Magic: The Gathering completely revolutionized card games. At first, it appears to be similar to Hearthstone, but it is much more complicated due to its use of land cards and less predictable matches that can last much longer than other games.
Arena also sports flashy visuals, with the creatures depicted on the cards actually being summoned onto the board. It can be hostile to beginners, but, once they have conquered the learning curve, it’s easy for them to get lost in Magic The Gathering: Arena.
1 Gwent (2016)
If Hearthstone is too easy and family-friendly for someone but Magic: The Gathering is a bit too complicated, Gwent stands as the perfect middle ground. It relishes in its dark and gothic world established in The Witcher franchise with a plethora of familiar monsters and characters from that world.
Gwent originally was a mini-game in The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt, but it was so beloved by fans that it got a spin-off title. Utilizing different ranges via lanes, Gwent puts a bit more thought into where the player places their cards for different attacks and bonuses. All the cards match the games and novels’ style, which makes it the perfect game for fans waiting for the next season on Netflix or the next game.
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