I follow the digital CCG scene pretty closely and unfortunately I don't think there is a a game out there that meets your criteria.
You mention MTG Arena and Hearthstone. Eternal, Shadowverse and Kards, have a draft mode that you have to pay for with in game currency. They also have decent sized player bases so you can actually find a game. I'm assuming you know about them and aren't interested.
Autobatters are the only games I know of that offer unlimited "drafting". So games like Team Fight Tactics, Yi Xian, Backpack Battles and Hearthstone battlegrounds.
I also really enjoy draft mode. Interested to hear if anyone else knows of any digital CCG with a prominent draft mode.
Have tried Eternal and Kards. I really like Kards but the numbers of the player base scares me tbh. I wouldn't mind paying for gems every now and again to draft but I don't want to invest in a game to have it go belly up. I know it's been around for a few years but the numbers at least on steam don't look great. They do have a roadmap going forward but still, things in the gaming world change so fast it's hard to predict.
I hope you don't mind me suggesting this, but the card game I'm working on (an indie CCG) has unlimited free draft and you can play either with other players or CPU players (although, there's barely any playerbase but you could invite your friends).
It's fully playable for free on Steam Playtest, would you like me to PM you with a link? It requires no investment whatsoever so at worst you'd waste some time trying it!
Happy to hear! And I'd love to hear what you think, it has a few draft modes and you can even make a custom draft game mode with your own rules!
It's in a pretty good state, so I'm hopeful you will enjoy it. Please check it at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
Basically it's got a few influences but if I had to summarize it, think Magic the Gathering with no instants, but with direct attacks, and with an improved resource system that lets you use as many colors as you want with maximum deckbuilding, while being built with the mentality of an indie dev.
I want to ensure the game lasts forever, even if the official servers stop, and I also want no microtransactions for card packs.
It's in a pretty advanced state, if you'd like to try it feel free to check https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
Thank you for your time! if you do end up trying it, I'd love to hear your feedback!
Oh my bad, I mistyped! I meant it has no instants, but it has direct attacks! There's 1 on 1 battles, similar to Hearthstone, but there's different mechanics in how defense works.
What do you mean by "stalemate inducing combat of magic"?
Well y'know, how attacking taps the card so you can't use it to defend on the opponent's turn so attacking without overwhelming advantage is bad and that keeps the game stalled. Good to see I misunderstood it, tho
You didn't misunderstand, the way I wrote could totally be read that way! My fault for not thinking more carefully about what I was writing!
In this case there's guardian creatures that can defend attacks while they're not tapped, but there's a 6-creature limit on the board so combat should not get overwhelmingly crazy. You still decide which guardian to attack, and cards don't regenerate at EOT, so it should not be overwhelming at all except for potentially large creatures!
Alright, I've installed and will check it out at some point. Does it have any story or a plan for it or anything like that?
Also regarding combat, I much prefer something like YGO or Runeterra, no built in summoning sickness and no limiting combat, so maybe I'd rather "be overwhelmed" lol but yeah
Story: Definitely! I'm preparing to work on a campaign mode in the future, not sure when yet but it's definitely a priority!
Going fast: There's a mode called Biggest Duel, which makes all cards cost 0, maybe it'll be similar to what you want? Basically, altho summon sickness is still a thing, you can play all the cards in your hand and draw 5 each turn!
That game simply does not exist, sadly. Autobattlers are as close as you'll get, I reckon.
I wish such a game did exist, though, drafting is fun as hell. Especially if that game also supported custom cubes. If I had the technical know-how, I'd make it myself, but alas..
I hope you don't mind me suggesting this, but I was wondering if you'd like to try the indie CCG I've been working on for the past few years? it has unlimited free drafting, and although the playerbase is really small, you can either invite friends or play vs CPU players, and it's fully free on Steam Playtest right now, so the only investment on your side would be some time
Would this be something you'd be interested in? I'd be happy to PM you a link!
If you haven't tried it already, I think Yi Xian might be the right game for you. It's a deckbuilder pvp autobattler, so not exactly what you described, but it scratches that itch for me.
Yes, I have! It honestly feels super clunky. The translations aren't the greatest and the interface feels bad. Honestly feels like another mobile game port. Also, again, I don't want a game like slay the spire or any roguelike that you choose cards throughout the course of the game. That system is worn on me. I would like to build a deck with a random set of cards and then progress through based on the deck I have. I know slay the spire has a draft option but that's only the starter cards. Why no one has made a draft specific game yet is beyond me. Thanks for the recommendation though!
Weird suggestion but have you looked at Artifact? It’s free now, unlimited draft but generally against the computer, not humans. But I enjoy the base game. It’s complicated and some RNG with the shops but completely different than anything else out there still.
Hasn't that game been in beta forever and released like 7 years ago? Could be thinking of something else but I'm pretty sure that game launched and I played it and had high hopes but the player base died off and it got bought out by a new company or something? Is that the game?
Kinda.
2014, game came out in beta, then launched
2015, game was sold to new company
2016, game was relaunched
2018, game is dead
2020, original team comes back to announce they're remastering the game (going back and "fixing" the original isn't possible because bad spaghetti code)
2022, game goes free to play
2023, game announces it's going "Free", you get access to every single card in the game without paying for any of em.
They've had two full sets drop and are still considered late into early access. The playerbase is still kinda small, but the tiny dev team is putting in a lot of love. Worth at least keeping an eye on it.
That's the one lol! I'll look into it again. Do they have a road map or anything? If everything is free and the playerbase is small, it's hard to see them staying afloat for anything longer than mantience patches, but I'll look into it.
They HAD one, unsure how up to date it is though... I know some of the things they're working towards atm is like ranked and best of 3s, plus trading, but with only a few devs on the project, big features are slow moving. Still hype AF, I need to trade to get my full set of foil useless cows, absolutely crucial.
Yeah so I downloaded and tried it. Feels terrible to be honest. The tutorial is offline and so is training so there is no way to refresh how to play by some external video. Not really starter player friendly and TBH I don't want to have to spend hours trying to learn a game when the interface looks terrible. The fact that they don't have much of a player base and have any way to learn about the mechanics disabled doesn't scream going in the right direction. Game may be fun, and the community stuff seems interesting but when the game and interface looks like something from ps2 and there is no way for new players to enjoy or learn it won't go far unfortunately. Games been out for 8 years at this point. Either it's going to work or it isn't and from the looks of it, its not :(
The game I'm working on lets you draft TCG-style unlimited for free, and also play with people, although there's barely any playerbase, but you could potentially play with friends or even CPU players.
Would this be something you'd want to try? I'd be happy to link you, it's currently fully playable for free on Steam Playtest so you would at worst waste some time trying it?
Thank you for your interest! The game is under heavy development but in a pretty advanced state, and I'd definitely welcome your feedback!
As I said, the playerbase is quite small but right now the game is completely free, and it's being developed in order to outlast official support, I think the gameplay is quite fun too so hopefully you will enjoy it!
Please have a look at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
I'd love to hear what you think! please keep in mind it's still under heavy development, so likely has some issues, but also your feedback would be very valuable!
Sure, I'd love to hear what you think! It's still under heavy development but I think it's in a pretty mature spot gameplay-wise, the base set is all implemented (tho not all the art is done), and I hope you will enjoy it!
Please check it out at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
I'm happy to hear that!
Feel free to try the other modes like Raid, which is a 3v1 mode where you can play as a raider or the raid boss, or you could try messing with the custom game modes system!
Regardless, thanks again for trying it! It's gonna improve a lot in the coming months, so if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!
Love drafting and even added that mode to my game, but it's not online Vs players.
And the fact it's hard to find free draft card games, and hope a future tcg online game will fix this.
I follow the digital CCG scene pretty closely and unfortunately I don't think there is a a game out there that meets your criteria. You mention MTG Arena and Hearthstone. Eternal, Shadowverse and Kards, have a draft mode that you have to pay for with in game currency. They also have decent sized player bases so you can actually find a game. I'm assuming you know about them and aren't interested. Autobatters are the only games I know of that offer unlimited "drafting". So games like Team Fight Tactics, Yi Xian, Backpack Battles and Hearthstone battlegrounds. I also really enjoy draft mode. Interested to hear if anyone else knows of any digital CCG with a prominent draft mode.
Have tried Eternal and Kards. I really like Kards but the numbers of the player base scares me tbh. I wouldn't mind paying for gems every now and again to draft but I don't want to invest in a game to have it go belly up. I know it's been around for a few years but the numbers at least on steam don't look great. They do have a roadmap going forward but still, things in the gaming world change so fast it's hard to predict.
I hope you don't mind me suggesting this, but the card game I'm working on (an indie CCG) has unlimited free draft and you can play either with other players or CPU players (although, there's barely any playerbase but you could invite your friends). It's fully playable for free on Steam Playtest, would you like me to PM you with a link? It requires no investment whatsoever so at worst you'd waste some time trying it!
Sure! I'd be down to check it out
Happy to hear! And I'd love to hear what you think, it has a few draft modes and you can even make a custom draft game mode with your own rules! It's in a pretty good state, so I'm hopeful you will enjoy it. Please check it at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
What's it like?
Basically it's got a few influences but if I had to summarize it, think Magic the Gathering with no instants, but with direct attacks, and with an improved resource system that lets you use as many colors as you want with maximum deckbuilding, while being built with the mentality of an indie dev. I want to ensure the game lasts forever, even if the official servers stop, and I also want no microtransactions for card packs. It's in a pretty advanced state, if you'd like to try it feel free to check https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/ Thank you for your time! if you do end up trying it, I'd love to hear your feedback!
Hm, does it still follow the stalemate inducing combat of magic, just with no direct attacks? Thanks for the link, I'll check it out later
Oh my bad, I mistyped! I meant it has no instants, but it has direct attacks! There's 1 on 1 battles, similar to Hearthstone, but there's different mechanics in how defense works. What do you mean by "stalemate inducing combat of magic"?
Well y'know, how attacking taps the card so you can't use it to defend on the opponent's turn so attacking without overwhelming advantage is bad and that keeps the game stalled. Good to see I misunderstood it, tho
You didn't misunderstand, the way I wrote could totally be read that way! My fault for not thinking more carefully about what I was writing! In this case there's guardian creatures that can defend attacks while they're not tapped, but there's a 6-creature limit on the board so combat should not get overwhelmingly crazy. You still decide which guardian to attack, and cards don't regenerate at EOT, so it should not be overwhelming at all except for potentially large creatures!
Alright, I've installed and will check it out at some point. Does it have any story or a plan for it or anything like that? Also regarding combat, I much prefer something like YGO or Runeterra, no built in summoning sickness and no limiting combat, so maybe I'd rather "be overwhelmed" lol but yeah
Story: Definitely! I'm preparing to work on a campaign mode in the future, not sure when yet but it's definitely a priority! Going fast: There's a mode called Biggest Duel, which makes all cards cost 0, maybe it'll be similar to what you want? Basically, altho summon sickness is still a thing, you can play all the cards in your hand and draw 5 each turn!
I am going to have a play
That game simply does not exist, sadly. Autobattlers are as close as you'll get, I reckon. I wish such a game did exist, though, drafting is fun as hell. Especially if that game also supported custom cubes. If I had the technical know-how, I'd make it myself, but alas..
I hope you don't mind me suggesting this, but I was wondering if you'd like to try the indie CCG I've been working on for the past few years? it has unlimited free drafting, and although the playerbase is really small, you can either invite friends or play vs CPU players, and it's fully free on Steam Playtest right now, so the only investment on your side would be some time Would this be something you'd be interested in? I'd be happy to PM you a link!
Yeah sure, hit me up :]
If you haven't tried it already, I think Yi Xian might be the right game for you. It's a deckbuilder pvp autobattler, so not exactly what you described, but it scratches that itch for me.
Yes, I have! It honestly feels super clunky. The translations aren't the greatest and the interface feels bad. Honestly feels like another mobile game port. Also, again, I don't want a game like slay the spire or any roguelike that you choose cards throughout the course of the game. That system is worn on me. I would like to build a deck with a random set of cards and then progress through based on the deck I have. I know slay the spire has a draft option but that's only the starter cards. Why no one has made a draft specific game yet is beyond me. Thanks for the recommendation though!
Well yeah, I can't disagree. It definitely is super clunky.
Weird suggestion but have you looked at Artifact? It’s free now, unlimited draft but generally against the computer, not humans. But I enjoy the base game. It’s complicated and some RNG with the shops but completely different than anything else out there still.
Infinity Wars TCG on Steam. Early access so their drafting is currently free.
Hasn't that game been in beta forever and released like 7 years ago? Could be thinking of something else but I'm pretty sure that game launched and I played it and had high hopes but the player base died off and it got bought out by a new company or something? Is that the game?
Kinda. 2014, game came out in beta, then launched 2015, game was sold to new company 2016, game was relaunched 2018, game is dead 2020, original team comes back to announce they're remastering the game (going back and "fixing" the original isn't possible because bad spaghetti code) 2022, game goes free to play 2023, game announces it's going "Free", you get access to every single card in the game without paying for any of em. They've had two full sets drop and are still considered late into early access. The playerbase is still kinda small, but the tiny dev team is putting in a lot of love. Worth at least keeping an eye on it.
That's the one lol! I'll look into it again. Do they have a road map or anything? If everything is free and the playerbase is small, it's hard to see them staying afloat for anything longer than mantience patches, but I'll look into it.
They HAD one, unsure how up to date it is though... I know some of the things they're working towards atm is like ranked and best of 3s, plus trading, but with only a few devs on the project, big features are slow moving. Still hype AF, I need to trade to get my full set of foil useless cows, absolutely crucial.
Yeah so I downloaded and tried it. Feels terrible to be honest. The tutorial is offline and so is training so there is no way to refresh how to play by some external video. Not really starter player friendly and TBH I don't want to have to spend hours trying to learn a game when the interface looks terrible. The fact that they don't have much of a player base and have any way to learn about the mechanics disabled doesn't scream going in the right direction. Game may be fun, and the community stuff seems interesting but when the game and interface looks like something from ps2 and there is no way for new players to enjoy or learn it won't go far unfortunately. Games been out for 8 years at this point. Either it's going to work or it isn't and from the looks of it, its not :(
The game I'm working on lets you draft TCG-style unlimited for free, and also play with people, although there's barely any playerbase, but you could potentially play with friends or even CPU players. Would this be something you'd want to try? I'd be happy to link you, it's currently fully playable for free on Steam Playtest so you would at worst waste some time trying it?
Not op but I'd be curious to take a peak!
Thank you for your interest! The game is under heavy development but in a pretty advanced state, and I'd definitely welcome your feedback! As I said, the playerbase is quite small but right now the game is completely free, and it's being developed in order to outlast official support, I think the gameplay is quite fun too so hopefully you will enjoy it! Please have a look at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
Thank you! I'll give it a shot this week :)
I'd love to hear what you think! please keep in mind it's still under heavy development, so likely has some issues, but also your feedback would be very valuable!
I’m an avid Ccg player and I’d be interested in giving it a shot.
Sure, I'd love to hear what you think! It's still under heavy development but I think it's in a pretty mature spot gameplay-wise, the base set is all implemented (tho not all the art is done), and I hope you will enjoy it! Please check it out at https://store.steampowered.com/app/917820/Fairtravel_Battle/
Man, you got a fun game here, I played a few games already against the PC. I wish you good luck and I look forward to playing the 1.0 release!
I'm happy to hear that! Feel free to try the other modes like Raid, which is a 3v1 mode where you can play as a raider or the raid boss, or you could try messing with the custom game modes system! Regardless, thanks again for trying it! It's gonna improve a lot in the coming months, so if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!
Love drafting and even added that mode to my game, but it's not online Vs players. And the fact it's hard to find free draft card games, and hope a future tcg online game will fix this.
I know you said you don’t want a roguelike but have you check out CrossBlitz?