If you own a mobile device and enjoy CCGs, you've probably played Hearthstone at some point. I quickly grew frustrated with it after a few hours due to many, many cards choosing not only random targets but sometimes random damage and random effects. Thankfully Cygames came along and improved on Blizzard's design decisions with Shadowverse. Although it isn't perfect, this is currently myIf you own a mobile device and enjoy CCGs, you've probably played Hearthstone at some point. I quickly grew frustrated with it after a few hours due to many, many cards choosing not only random targets but sometimes random damage and random effects. Thankfully Cygames came along and improved on Blizzard's design decisions with Shadowverse. Although it isn't perfect, this is currently my CCG of choice because of the smooth cross-platform play, simple yet engaging game design choices, and the generous free-to-play elements.
I've stuck with Shadowverse for so long compared to Hearthstone because of how much they've improved on the formula by simply cutting back on RNG and narrowing the power levels of cards. At first I was a bit shocked to see that you can only have five cards total in play at any time; however, as I played more classes I realized that many cards are actually balanced around this. You will almost never see a card in another CCG that says "Summon X of Y until the battlefield is full". The majority of cards let you choose targets, provide exact numbers, and have clearly defined interactions while still managing to fit in voice acting and flavor text for both the normal & evolved versions of each cards. This is the first mobile CCG I've played that is actually engaging & robust enough to feel like an actual card game.
Being a collectible card game, you'd expect some heavy-handed "P2W" elements. Coming from Magic: The Gathering, where non-rotating decks can easily cost over $500, I was pleasantly surprised to see how cheap individual boosters are, how easily you can craft the cards you need to make a cohesive deck, and how many freebees the devs hand out. You have dailies which reward in-game currency for simple tasks like winning matches, a daily login reward system which doesn't penalize "missing" days (and refreshes instantly after cycling instead of cycling once a month like most mobile games), and free booster handouts for major events like tournaments and new expansions. If you do choose to spend money on boosters, you are incentivized to log in daily to purchase a booster for 50 crystals (which comes to $0.99 if purchased on impulse).
I also have many more hours on Shadowverse than shown on Steam because of how smooth the cross-platform play is. All devices are linked through your Cygames account and share the same clean UI which, although slightly clunky because of no scaling on PC, makes the game very easy to pick up and play on my PC, phone, and tablet. This is probably the first CCG I've played where having a match run away from me hadn't made me rage because I was too comfortable lying on my couch swiping animated cards on my tablet.
Of course, nothing is perfect and Shadowverse has its share of problems created by new design decisions that I'm afraid will never be addressed. At the start of each match, there is a "coin toss" to decide who goes first without a chance to pass. Of course, if there were an option to pass, almost everyone would given the huge advantage the second player has. From a MTG perspective, going first is advantageous for aggressive decks because (although you don't draw) you can play and attack first. In Shadowverse though the person going first still draws but the person going second draws twice and gets an extra evolution point. What's an evolution point? One of the new gameplay mechanics Cygames added is the ability to "evolve" your cards: each follower can be transformed with additional stats and occasionally new triggers. In my opinion these two bonuses give a huge advantage to the second player which is unwarranted considering how bad 1-drops are.
Being a Japanese game, there are also huge card balancing issues: like most CCGs, there are individual cards that are powerful enough to shift the meta and create a miserable conveyor belt of netdecks ready to steamroll you. Typically cards like these will get banned or balanced but so far there has been no action taken against obvious offenders. In fact, the devs have gone so far to say they don't think these cards are causing problems despite what you hear from high ranking players in both the Steam & official forums. Even without the meta-warping cards, all classes have a few cards which define their archetypes's build paths, creating a barrier for entry when trying to play a different class than the one you've spent all your vials on.
For now, I am cautiously optimistic for Shadowverse's future. Hopefully Cygames wakes up and acknowledges some of the issues and either creates a ban list for ranked or a Standard format to cycle out cancerous cards. In my opinion, this is currently the best mobile and best digital CCG available and I would recommend it for newcomers to the genre and veterans alike.… Expand
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