Digital TCG: SolForge Preview

Digital trading card games are really hit and miss. While there are many games with great features and entertaining game play, there are often features of traditional TCGS that are missing. SolForge (available on Steam, iPhones, and Android), is an up-and-coming free collectible card game that looks to be one of the foundations for modern digital TCGs.

The core of the game is based around cards that level up, a unique feature that is impossible in physical card games. Playing a card will level it up and send it back into your deck, giving you more powerful cards to dominate your opponent with. Every four turns you rank up, allowing you to play your higher level cards. Each player starts with 100 health that drops when opposing cards have no opponent in their field. The player that drops to zero health first loses. It’s easy to grasp the basic rules but takes time to master the strategy and nuance. There is a AI to test decks builds against, but are no comparison to playing humans. Deck building is easy once you get the hang of it, but at the moment lacks a tutorial to give you a run down of deck rules and guidelines.

SolForge is easy to break into with it’s unique game play and free cards to make decks without paying a cent. You can create really solid decks with the starter cards; decks that are competitive in online tournaments. Daily rewards of in-game currency and booster packs (of 8 cards) or single cards are given when you log in, win your first game, win your third game, and when you win against online players. Winning against online players gives you a tournament ticket to compete in drafts or constructed tournaments for even bigger prizes. Traditional trading card games can become expensive very quickly which makes SolForge a refreshing change of pace to competitively collect and play cards for free. It also gives options to purchase cards, decks, and tickets for those who wish to speed up the process.

The game is currently in open beta with an active community that is welcoming to new players. You can easily find deck builds and people to help you give you advice on any deck you’re building. There are always live streams happening and there is a lot of coverage on the world championship.

As with any game that is in open beta, there are a few cards that are unbalanced or certain decks that will win more often than others. While most matches are even, you might occasionally be dealt a poor hand and lose very quickly, even against the computers. Playing against other players can also take a long time and be frustrating as some players let their timers run down. StoneBlade Entertainment regularly puts out updates and collects user feedback to help balance the game and keep it fun.

Overall this is a great free online card game that syncs through all of your devices, giving you the freedom to play where you want, when you want. SolForge is looking to be one of the best digital trading card games.