When you want to think smartly and engage opponents in a battle of skills, online trading card games are the way to go. They have the right mix of strategy, lore, and mechanics that you’ll need to master before you can use each aspect of the game efficiently. They give you a thrilling experience that is worth all the practice you put in.
But which are the best online trading card games? Well, we have prepared this list so that you do not have to go to any other corner of the internet to get your information. These games are titans of the genre with their own worlds, lore, and rules that need to be followed, which is what makes them fun!
Best online trading card games
Starting off strong, we have Hearthstone, arguably the best trading card game out there. The game’s style is largely based on the Warcraft series, which features many of Warcraft’s most prominent characters as well as a variety of creatures and spells. Players choose a hero who has a certain playing style. For example, if you choose Hunter, you’ll lay out trap cards and call upon animals to aid you in battle, while a sorcerer will use spells and sorcery enchantments to increase their power. As you play and beat opponents, you can collect myriad cards ranging from rare to legendary. Adding the best cards you have to your deck will help you improve games and give you an edge over your opponent. This is a very immersive game with a lot to uncover, which makes it an icon in the world of video games.
GWENT: The Witcher Card Game
The game is the product of players obsessed entirely with mini-games based in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Players could easily spend hundreds of hours looking for bad sods to challenge a match of Gwent, so CD Projekt Red decided to make it their thing and give players all the charm of Gwent without requiring them to play The Witcher 3. allowed to enjoy In Gwent, you have a deck of cards with different classes of units and spells. The goal is to move your units in such a way that you can save the most power points. Each unit is assigned a power value, and adding units to the board will give you more power points, while removing units will do the opposite. Players can either play all their cards or pass to the next round, and after 2 out of 3 rounds the player with the most power points will be declared the winner. To be good at Gwent you need to be smart and tactical, which is what attracts most people a lot.
Legends of Runeterra
In 2020, Riot Games decided to split its industry into more diverse games, with an auto battler, a tactical shooter, an adventure game, and a collectible card game. Each of these games follows the same tropes as the classic games, but with a little bit of League of Legends features added to them. In Legends of Runterra, you fight another player in a classic card arena. Each round you are given 1 mana point which you can use to summon units and cast spells. As the game progresses, each player will get up to ten more mana points. When you place a unit on the board, it will automatically defend your Nexus, and any other units attacking the Nexus must go through that card first. Because of this, you’ll have to think ahead with your opponent to deal cards in a way that gives you a free shot on the Nexus. This is a very exciting game with a steep learning curve, but it pays off.
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales:
The game is essentially just Gwent, but with a drastic change in the main focus of the gameplay, which is an entirely new story that takes place before the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In this game, you play as the queen of Mew, Lyria and Rivia, and their quest to attack the northern regions to take them back. There are a lot of decisions to be made in this game and your decisions can change the course of the story as well as the cards in your deck. For example, you can meet a petty lord and win his friendship. This interaction will add him as well as his units to your deck so that you can use them in battle. The campaign is 30 hours long and quite well written, so if you’re a fan of Gwent and want more, take a look at this game!
Slay the Spire
The game that launched a whole line of deck-building games, Slay the Spire is a very well designed game with an excellent premise and style of gameplay. The gameplay is reminiscent of a roguelike game, where players have to climb a summit and defeat any enemies they encounter. To do this, you must start at the bottom of the summit where you are given a small deck of cards, some health, a relic, as well as some gold. From here, you continue to the next level, facing enemies. Defeating these enemies will give you additional cards to add to your deck as you progress. Enemies will become stronger and more difficult to defeat, forcing you to be more careful and think strategically. The gameplay is very satisfying as it doesn’t have too many nuances. All you have to do is drop your assault units and strengthen them so that they can defeat the enemies of the level. After a few tries, you will see that the game is very addictive and it is fun to play again and again.
Magic: The Gathering Arena:
One of the most popular card games of all time, Magic: The Gathering has gathered millions of fans around the world, who love to go to conventions and compete against other players to see who is better. Players have mixed unit cards as well as land cards. Land cards allow you to determine what type of terrain your units can use to move, as well as the color of your mana pool. There are a variety of units, spells, and special abilities you can use to reduce your opponent’s health pool to zero, and there are endless possibilities of realization that would make Magic: The Gathering a must-have for anyone who loves card games. Makes it so attractive.
Faeria
Faeria has a very interesting gameplay concept that, in theory, is difficult to execute, but it does it very well. Instead of the classic battle board approach, the game features the concept of a “living board” made of empty hex tiles that you can fill with land to summon units. Each round you are awarded three mana points that you can use to perform actions, and these points can be increased by gaining control over the mana wells on the board. Using your mana points, you can summon various units and cast spells, but a large part of the game involves adding land tiles to your area. A specific type of land will allow you to summon special units that can only be summoned on that land type. The concept of the Power Wheel is also introduced, in which you can spin it to determine what action you can take during your turn. Whoever reduces their opponent’s health to zero is the winner.