Introducing the DTCG
We believe Synergy of Serra will disrupt the card gaming space with the creation of the deckbuilding trading card genre.
Synergy of Serra is a deckbuilding, trading card game. This blog will look at exactly what that means and what is involved in actually playing the game.
We describe the game as currently being in a pre-Alpha stage of development. We use a prototype game client internally to play-test the game, which is updated periodically to include player feedback, iron out bugs, and add new features. It is very rough and unfinished; there is a lot to change before we start the Closed Alpha testing phase and gradually invite the ~57,000 enlisted accounts to play. So please keep in mind that this blog won’t fully describe the final version of gameplay, or probably not even the version released as the Alpha.
What currently exists?
Trading card games
The most straightforward concept is collecting and trading cards and then using those cards to play against another person. Trading card games (TCGs) and collectable card games (CCGs) were pioneered in the early 1990s by Magic: The Gathering and brought to new audiences by Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the 2000s.
During this time, there have been numerous other physical TCGs released. However, those three stand out:
- Pokémon has produced over 34 billion cards so far;
- Yu-Gi-Oh! sales are estimated to be similar; and
- Magic: The Gathering can boast the Guinness World Record for the most players, at over 20 million people worldwide in 2016.
Digital card games have also become popular in recent years. A report in 2018 estimated the industry to be worth between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. In the same year, Hearthstone surpassed 100 million people to have ever played the game. These are not small numbers, both in the tabletop and digital formats.
Through the use of blockchain technology, which allows for true ownership of in-game assets, we feel Synergy of Serra embraces concepts of collectability and tradability for the digital age, blending those elements of the physical game into the digital format.
We hope the trading and collectable card element of the game will help to foster a great community. As you barter for trades and discuss your strategies to build the deck, or decks, with which you want to play, for it is deckbuilding we focus most on in Synergy of Serra.
Deckbuilding
A deckbuilding game is simply a card game or board game where the construction of a deck is a central element of gameplay. However, within this definition, we identify three significant sub-groups: constructed, roguelike, and deckbuilders.
- Constructed: decks are built outside of the actual battle and won’t change much during the fight. Examples are Hearthstone or Splinterlands.
- Roguelike: typically single-player games. They use procedurally generated scenarios and rewards, requiring the player to build out their deck on the fly as the game progresses. Examples are Sly the Spire or Arena in Hearthstone.
- Deckbuilders: similar to roguelike, you build your deck on the fly while simultaneously battling your opponent. However, rather than being procedurally generated, cards are usually bought from a small selection and then added to your deck whenever your draw pile is empty. Examples are Dominion or Ascension.
We think that deckbuilders provide the most in-depth gameplay out of these three sub-groups. By creating a feedback loop where the player can monitor, judge and react to how their deck is working in-game at every turn and even during their opponent’s turn, the deckbuilder creates multiple decision points during a game and an overriding need to be strategically and tactically flexible.
Furthermore, players share the cards they bring to the table. Therefore, no player has an upfront advantage by simply owning better cards, and everyone has the same chance of winning at face value.
A final, important consideration is replayability: we believe that deckbuilders have immense scope for this due to the plethora of card options and combinations. After a few turns, each game will be different, making it feel fresh, exciting and unpredictable each time you play.
It is these factors of game design that inspired the founders to combine the fast, fun and familiar minion battles you find in collectable and trading card games with the more involved strategic, tactical and replayable elements of deckbuilder mechanics.
Synergy of Serra gameplay
We are creating a new game genre with Synergy of Serra, a deckbuilding trading card game, or DTCG. Players will still be able to pour over cards in their own idiosyncratic ways to help them decide what to collect, what to trade and what to include in their Deck. However, due to the deckbuilder mechanic, owning specific cards will no longer dominate your chances of winning battles.
Synergy of Serra will be a game optimised for skill, and so, rather than be pay-to-win, it will be skill-to-win and, of course, free-to-play.
Suitcases and Card Pool
To facilitate the integration of these two traditionally distinct genres, the two players combine their cards at the start of the game. Both players bring a Suitcase of 100 cards they have selected; these two Suitcases are then combined to create the Card Pool, and both players share all the cards in the Card Pool during the game.
The Card Pool means that, in a match-up between a free-to-play player and a player who owns every card in the game, both players will have the exact same access to the exact same cards. This is how the playing field is levelled, and a skill-to-win environment is created.
Despite free-to-play players only having access to the Base Set cards to construct their suitcase, there will be people who will not like this format. Some will question why anyone would want to buy any cards if they can use their opponents’ cards. This is perfectly valid, we address some of this in The Compendium of Serra here, and I may revisit this question in a future blog post. However, this blog post is about playing Synergy of Serra.
Game flow
The basics
You and your opponent start the game with the same ten cards in your Draw Pile; these cards are not from the Card Pool but from the special Starter Set.
At the start of your turn, you draw cards from the Draw Pile until you have five cards in hand. When you play cards, they will be put into the Discard Pile. Next turn, you draw again until you have five cards in hand. If your Draw Pile is empty, the Discard Pile will be shuffled into the Draw Pile, and the cycle continues.
In this way, these same cards, i.e. your Deck, are played over and over again with the aim of reducing your opponent’s health to zero.
During each turn, however, actions will take place that will change the contents of your Deck. For example, one action is buying cards from The River.
Buying from The River
The River takes six semi-random cards you can afford from the Card Pool and makes them available to buy. The River currently chooses two Unit cards, one Power, one Attachment and two other cards at random to make up the six. Newly bought cards go into your Discard Pile.
Here, the two in-game resources, Credits and Energy, become involved. You use your Credits to buy cards from The River, but you can also use some of your Energy to re-roll The River selection in the hope of finding a different card you may want. This introduces a decision point between spending Energy in the hope of finding a card you wish to or spending the Energy to play cards from your hand. This trade-off is especially true in the early stages of the game when Energy production is slow.
Energy and Credits
All cards have an Energy cost and a Credit cost. Your Energy and Credits both start low, increasing incrementally each turn. This process unlocks cards for you to buy from The River and allows you to play higher Energy cards more easily as the game progresses.
It is worth noting that Energy and Credits are not necessarily correlated; a cheap card to buy from The River may be expensive to play and vice versa.
Again, a decision point is introduced through this dynamic. You could buy a card early on but not play it due to its Energy cost. The trade-off here is that you are safe in the knowledge that you have the card you want. However, it is taking up space in your Deck that a more easily playable card could more efficiently utilise. You could, of course, simply spend all your Energy to play this one card.
Faction Points
Another consideration when buying your cards from The River is Faction Points and Faction Level. You will gain Faction Points for having Units, Powers and Attachments from the same Faction in play during the game.
Meeting the thresholds of five and ten Faction Points for a Faction will level your cards from Level * to Level ** and Level *** respectively for that Faction. Units currently gain the most Faction Points followed by Powers and Attachments. Units are also the only card type affected by the Faction Levels currently.
The difference between a Level * and a Level *** Unit can be increased attack and defence or added abilities; in many cases, it is both.
For example, a particular Mech Unit at Faction Level * has an attack of 200, a defence of 300 and possesses no abilities. However, at Faction Level ***, it has an attack of 500, a defence of 600 and possesses the abilities D Shield and Taunt. I will explore the relationships between Faction Levels, Points, Units and abilities in more depth, using real examples, in a future blog.
Faction Points and Faction Levels also influence the actions you make on each turn. For example, this could be the order you might play cards, but also the order in which you might attack your opponent’s cards.
It can be possible, for example, to reduce your opponent’s Faction Level from *** to * in a couple of attacks. A Unit with multiple Attachments could represent many Faction Points on its own. Destroy that card, and you will reduce your opponent’s Faction Points and, therefore, the Level of any opponent Unit of the same Faction still on the battlefield.
Used and destroyed cards
Units are played directly onto the battlefield, and most will not be able to attack until the following turn. Destroyed Units go to your Discard Pile and wait to be shuffled into your Draw Pile once it is empty. When played, Power cards play out their described effect and then go to the Discard Pile, again, to wait to return to your Draw Pile.
Attachments behave slightly differently. Units currently have between one and four slots for Attachments to be played into. Once you play an Attachment on a card, the Attachment will remain attached. It will augment that card with its described effect until you replace it, should you decide to replace it.
Bagni is an excellent example of the potential of Attachments. With four slots for Attachments this Unit can be augmented quite considerably.
For example, Viral Knife will add 100 attack and 100 defence while Railgun, once charged, will add 500 attack to the Unit. Give Bagni two of each of these Common Attachments, and they could potentially augment him to an attack of 1,300 and a defence of 500. Furthermore, if Bagni dies, the next time you play him, you will not have to spend any Energy on the Attachments as they stay attached; you will only need to spend the Energy cost on his card face.
For added depth, some cards have On Attach effects or On Detach effects, leading to additional tactical and strategic decision points. There will be a future post dedicated to Attachments that will use real examples to explain this mechanic in more detail.
Trashing
A final consideration that is integral to your tactics and strategy is Trashing. Striking a balance between having a flexible deck and having a bloated deck is essential. Knowing when to move your Deck’s focus from early game to later game cards and deciding when a card has run its course of usefulness for you in the game are all reliant on Trashing. Trashing costs Credits, so even without these considerations, there is always a trade-off between spending Credits on The River or spending Credits on Trashing.
Pre-Alpha
As stated at the start of the blog, everything described here is subject to change. Experimentation without public scrutiny is essential, especially at this stage of development.
We have a small trusted circle of testers that regularly play, give feedback and run mini-tournaments. They report bugs with the prototype game client, discuss the feel of the game, propose things to try and build sample decks. The prototype client is basic from a user interface perspective. However, how the game plays and freedom to experiment is more important to us at this stage.
For example, the prototype game client has an Options menu. This allows the Pre-Alpha testers to tinker with the settings of a variety of core mechanics. By playing with, sometimes extreme, settings, the Pre-Alpha feedback can consider various game balancing scenarios or potential future game modes.
The future of card games
We believe Synergy of Serra will offer many elements of classic card gameplay that you have all come to love: strategically building your own decks to compete with them against other people’s creations; hours of sifting through your card collection, comparing one against another; searching for the next incredible, game-changing synergy and trying to fit these cards into one deck that will beat all other decks; buying, selling, trading, bartering for new cards that are key to your deck or to complete your collection; the thrill of opening packs; the buzz of finding a shiny in your packs; and more.
We also believe Synergy of Serra will combine those classic elements with cutting edge additions you will love: a move from pay-to-win to skill-to-win; competing to earn rewards that you can easily trade for real-world value; true game item ownership, and with it straightforward buying, selling and trading; potential for making real-world profit through accessible arbitrage opportunities; empowering players through the Minting Device Keys and crafting components; earning your cards experience points to exchange for cosmetic upgrades; and other future opportunities that blockchain technology will offer us.
Join us on our vision and journey to unleash gamers' potential and truly disrupt gaming, starting with card gaming.
Who are we?
Our vision at Calystral is to unleash the potential of gamers. We are focusing on building games where the time and effort put in is rewarded with real value. Enhancing the players’ experience and empowering gamers to achieve more. In the process, we strive to overcome the technical limitations of Blockchain Technology and use its benefits to lift games to the next level. We would love to share these solutions with the community and other developers. Towards a better future of Gaming!
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