Shadowverse is a f2p online collectible card game for android IOS and now steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/453480/]
It shares lots of superficial similarities with Hearthstone. But if you play it a bit you will see that in depth the gameplay is quite different.
short gameplay trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PyNSe1in0
The gameplay basics are the same as Hearthstone. The goal is to reduce the opponent to 0 life from the starting 20. You start with a hand of 3 cards which can be individually mulliganed and the second player gets 2 draws. There are 7 classes each with unique mechanics. You get an increasing amount of mana every turn to play followers (minions), spells, and a new class of cards called amulets which are similar to MTG enchantments.
One highly unique mechanic is card evolution which I'll go into detail about later but it encourages fighting for the board and greatly increases the tactical depth of the midgame.
There is a constructed ladder and an arena/draft mode.
The art style is anime/manga with the class avatars and most cards have voice effects when they come into play, attack, and die. The interface and animations are a bit over the to with particle effects but you get used to it really fast and can turn off the excessive animations.
The game still has voice emotes like hearthstone (less trolly imo) but there is an autosquelch setting so you never have to hear them
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Evolution
At turn 4 for player 2 and turn 5 for player 1 you can activate card evolutions. An evolution typically gives a card +2/+2 and allows it to attack the turn it is summoned, but not attack face unless it was previously summoned or has storm (charge). Using an evolution costs no mana but each player gets a limited number, 2 for the first player and 3 for the second player.
Some cards have unique effects that fire when they are evolved, usually at the cost the increased stats. For example a lizardman clones himself when he evolves but he gets no stat bonus. This increases the complexity of deckbuilding because you need to take into consideration evolve effects that you may not get to fire during the game.
Evolves are one of those things that sound weird when you try to describe them but if you watch a few matches it will make total sense.
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Differences between Shadowverse and Hearthstone
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Arena
After playing Shadowverse arena it is very difficult for me to go back to hearthstone because the setup is so much better.
Called Take Two because instead of picking one out of three cards you have two choices of two cards. This makes the choices both more interesting and helps maintain deck balance.
Also the arenas are strictly 5 matches win or lose. That means you aren't "rewarded" for doing well in arena by having the run take an hour longer than losing early.
You can only go "infinite" at 5 wins but at around a 3 win avg you will earn enough gold between rewards and daily quests to be able to play many arenas a day if you are so inclined.
I didn't see an arena stat tracker so I'm manually keeping track of my on-stream stats in a spreadsheet [https://goo.gl/gCnisB]
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My friend code is 386 187 505 feel free to add me
I'll attempt to follow this thread and answer any questions
It shares lots of superficial similarities with Hearthstone. But if you play it a bit you will see that in depth the gameplay is quite different.
short gameplay trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PyNSe1in0
The gameplay basics are the same as Hearthstone. The goal is to reduce the opponent to 0 life from the starting 20. You start with a hand of 3 cards which can be individually mulliganed and the second player gets 2 draws. There are 7 classes each with unique mechanics. You get an increasing amount of mana every turn to play followers (minions), spells, and a new class of cards called amulets which are similar to MTG enchantments.
One highly unique mechanic is card evolution which I'll go into detail about later but it encourages fighting for the board and greatly increases the tactical depth of the midgame.
There is a constructed ladder and an arena/draft mode.
The art style is anime/manga with the class avatars and most cards have voice effects when they come into play, attack, and die. The interface and animations are a bit over the to with particle effects but you get used to it really fast and can turn off the excessive animations.
The game still has voice emotes like hearthstone (less trolly imo) but there is an autosquelch setting so you never have to hear them
-----
Evolution
At turn 4 for player 2 and turn 5 for player 1 you can activate card evolutions. An evolution typically gives a card +2/+2 and allows it to attack the turn it is summoned, but not attack face unless it was previously summoned or has storm (charge). Using an evolution costs no mana but each player gets a limited number, 2 for the first player and 3 for the second player.
Some cards have unique effects that fire when they are evolved, usually at the cost the increased stats. For example a lizardman clones himself when he evolves but he gets no stat bonus. This increases the complexity of deckbuilding because you need to take into consideration evolve effects that you may not get to fire during the game.
Evolves are one of those things that sound weird when you try to describe them but if you watch a few matches it will make total sense.
-----
Differences between Shadowverse and Hearthstone
- no coin, second player gets 2 draws on first turn and 3 evolves compared to 2 and can evolve first (major arena advantage, about even in constructed)
- almost no RNG (a couple of random target spells/effects but less than 1% of cards)
- no secrets
- lots of follower removal, almost no burn/direct face damage
- 5 follower slots instead of 7 on the field so board space is a serious consideration
- no fatigue, any failed draws automatically lose the game
- powerful finishers mean games tend to end before or right around 10 mana
- neutral spells
- can't craft animated cards
- 40 card decks, up to 3 of each card (including legendaries)
-----
Arena
After playing Shadowverse arena it is very difficult for me to go back to hearthstone because the setup is so much better.
Called Take Two because instead of picking one out of three cards you have two choices of two cards. This makes the choices both more interesting and helps maintain deck balance.
Also the arenas are strictly 5 matches win or lose. That means you aren't "rewarded" for doing well in arena by having the run take an hour longer than losing early.
You can only go "infinite" at 5 wins but at around a 3 win avg you will earn enough gold between rewards and daily quests to be able to play many arenas a day if you are so inclined.
I didn't see an arena stat tracker so I'm manually keeping track of my on-stream stats in a spreadsheet [https://goo.gl/gCnisB]
-----
My friend code is 386 187 505 feel free to add me
I'll attempt to follow this thread and answer any questions
