Eternal card game. Eternal: great guide to decks and cards. Review of the online game Eternal
Play Eternal
Once upon a time there was a desktop, not a virtual card Magic game the Gathering. She captured her niche audience and cut money from the sale of boosters. But at one point, Blizzard decided to make a computer card game with a slightly simplified MtG mechanics - Hearthstone.
HS gained wild popularity and opened up a hitherto unclaimed genre of computer card games for developers. In the wake of this success, many studios began to create their own versions, largely relying on Hearthstone, since its simplification of the mechanics became, in fact, one of the decisive factors in its popularity.
And today we will look at a game that decided to take ideas from Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering, called Eternal. It appeared on Steam in November 2016 and, judging by the reviews, even the players liked it. It was made by the same people who developed The Elder Scrolls Legends.
Game process
Upon entering the game, a fairly standard tutorial starts, during which we are also told the story of the world of Eternal. The game is visually similar to Hearthstone as much as possible, the developers even copied clickable interactive things on the table. However, himself game process almost a complete copy of Magic the Gathering.
Unlike Hearthstone, where you gain one unit of mana every turn, here mana is separate cards... They also fall absolutely randomly from the deck and have a few more colors, but more on that later. Each turn, you can use one mana card and replenish your general supply, and then play any creature, spell or weapon for these very points.
But mana itself comes in several colors and is called "sigil" here. Let's take an example:
 |
In front of your eyes is a card with a cost of 3 mana, with multi-colored circles indicated on top. They represent what color and how many sigils you need to play it. That is, you need to have a total mana pool of 3, and at least 1 yellow sigil and 1 blue sigil. Only with this set are you able to control this card.
With the drawing of cards sorted out. Further enters the battle game mechanics, migrated from MtG, which also needs to be chewed. The move here is not one-sided, like in Hearthstone, when you attack, and then calmly sip your tea while waiting for the enemy.
Each move is divided into 2 components - attack and defense. Your unit on the battlefield can take only one attack or one defensive action. At the same time, you cannot choose for yourself exactly where to hit, in creatures or in the face. By default, if you attack, then your card will always aim at the enemy hero.
Let's say you have selected the minions that will hit and clicked "end move". Now is the time to defend your opponent. He sees which cards are about to attack, and can redirect the attack to his creatures. That is, explaining to Xeram, each creature is here by default with a taunt, and therefore the mechanics of provocation are not provided in the game.
And so, the enemy does not want to damage his makeup, and orders his creatures to intercept your attack. He can substitute either one or as many units as you want for your batter. Thus, your minion's attack is divided into all the cards that he decided to oppose.
 |
That is, if a creature has an attack of 7, and it beats three small ones with a health of 3, then the first will fly 3, the second 3, and the third 1.
And only in this way does the exchange take place. At the same time, at the beginning of each turn, HP of all creatures is restored. And if you suddenly did not kill the card attacking you, then you will have to tinker with it again from scratch.
It is much more difficult to explain this in the review than to touch it with your own hands. But I hasten to please you, this is also a stripped-down Magic the Gathering system. There are also all sorts of land maps, supertypes, so we just considered this simplification.
Types of creatures
Do not forget about two types of creatures - flying and ground. Flying units are capable of blocking both flying and ground units, while ground units block only similar ones.
An important point. If you have already attacked with a unit, then for the duration of the defense it becomes inactive, so you often have to choose how best to act, save the minion for defense or go on the offensive.
Education
First, you will need to complete the training on two heroes who own only one type of sigils. In the future, you can finish off the rest and thus open all the available sigils.
Modes
 |
Here, as in The elder Scrolls Legends, the gameplay is divided into PvE and PvP. In the first case, you can go through both the basic campaign and purchase an additional one, or play an analogue arena with bots, but in which you need to build a deck in advance, and not choose from random.
Battles with players are displayed here in a separate tab called "Versus Battle". Everything here is pretty typical - rating and simple battles, as well as the arena. The latter completely repeats Hearthstone with one exception - you draw cards not from 3 possible ones, but from a whole booster. But the truth is, the contents of this booster are shuffled after each choice. In this way, you collect a stock of 48 cards, and then what you choose, you make a deck of 45, in which 18 is allocated for sigil cards. Well, you play up to 3 losses, increasing your reward with each victory.
And I personally think this is the most balanced mode here, because now we are smoothly moving on to the main disadvantage of Eternal - the size of the decks.
Decks and other features
 |
You have to make a deck for rating or PvE from as many as 75 cards, which should contain both creatures and spells, as well as mana cards. Because of this, during the battle, sometimes a wild top deck random starts. When, for example, you have a bunch of units up your sleeve, but there is no mana for casting them, or vice versa.
Up to 12 creatures are placed on the table itself, and 12 cards each fall from the local boosters. In terms of donation, everything is about the same as elsewhere. Boosters, campaigns, arena entry. The stump is clear that all this can be bought for gold (and by the way, it seems to be a good idea to give it out at first).
Unfortunately, I won't tell you about the local meta and imba decks, so you have to spend a lot of time studying. But seemingly flying creatures are sometimes good such game.
conclusions
And so, the conclusions. Looks like Hearthstone, plays almost like Magic the Gathering. Therefore, if you ever wanted to move to the original source, then Eternal can be a good intermediate link. I played English all this time original version, but the game is going to be published in Russia. The registration for the beta test has already started, so feel free to apply.
Eternal is a high-profile release in the world of collectible card games developed by Dire Wolf, which already has a similar TES: Legends on its account. To find out which one is better, you need to sign up for the beta, while receiving gifts.
Description
In TCG Eternal, the entire collection can be assembled for free and in a short time, which is rare. The ease of obtaining cards and modes, including the traditional ones, are pleasantly surprising:
- PVE (against the computer): Campaign, Challenge, Forge of Worlds;
- PVP (against a human-controlled hero): Regular game, Rating, Fight.
The card game Eternal looks pretty clear, you can almost completely play without delving into it. For a quick start, there are paid sets - "Discoverer's Set" and "Overlord's Set", which differ in content and price.
Eternal contains 5 types of resources, indicated by colors: red, purple, yellow, green and blue. All cards have classic parameters - attack and defense, type and rarity:
- ordinary - white;
- unusual - green;
- rare - blue;
- legendary - yellow.
There is a very convenient search in the menu. In addition to creature cards, there are also resource cards (power), weapons (weapons) - various items to put on a creature. There are spells and fast spells, and premiums are beautifully animated. Relics can only be played on a hero.
The Eternal card game is not without crafting - cards can be created and destroyed. From regular to premium, each distribution type has a different crafting and disenchanting cost. The prices are not very high, so International is considered quite generous in this regard.
The deck consists of at least 75 units, copies of each of them can be no more than 4. Building a cool deck quickly isn't easy, but building just a deck is pretty easy.
Download the game Eternal will be available after the release
Peculiarities
In the Eternal, you cannot attack an enemy hero until you have destroyed his creatures. Maps and properties are color-coded differently from their classic counterparts. Red does not mean goblins, blue means magic spells, etc. There are some overlaps, but in general, everything is different. On the one hand, it refreshes the gameplay, on the other hand, it is difficult to distinguish colors and will take some getting used to.
The game contains small interesting surprises: when opened, a chest with prizes can become one rank higher and give out more impressive gifts; comfortable deck builder; import of a deck; an abundance of modes; TOP-100 rating; a list of the player's achievements and much more.
Play the game International - you will not regret 100%!
Gameplay
We follow the development Eternal games since the time when information about the project only appeared, and no one had time to play yet. Then there was a closed beta test and even then it became clear that the game would at least be interesting in terms of storyline and battles in different modes. But, of course, we were able to fully appreciate the game already when it came out in open beta- there were more users, it was possible to quickly find a battle to test your skills as a card commander, and in general, somehow there was already a feeling of a full-fledged project that you can play for a long time and constantly.
Today I decided to tell you all the details about the product that personally seem to me the most important, so that you understand what is the peculiarity of Eternal, for some reason the game is worth trying it and why, in my opinion, it has a great future. So sit back and grab some tea, because spring is already and you can, and let's plunge into the world of the highest class card games.
Story line
When I say "storyline" in a card game, the little skeptic inside triumphs. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to understand that in card games the storyline is rather a small addition and it would be foolish to evaluate the product according to the plot, here the emphasis is on completely different things. But, the game has a storyline and I really liked it - everything is done in an interesting way, the characters have motivation and opponents are not at all faceless, that is, the desire to break their heads is present and special thanks for that.
The storyline is represented by several chapters - you choose a story, go through a chapter there, or several chapters, and the story closes - you went through it. For passing such a part of the storyline, they give either a ready-made deck, or some interesting cards. And, of course, you can replay the stories for fun. Here, the characters are voiced very succulently, and there are descriptions, in general I liked it and I think it will suit you too.
Battle
After a couple of battles in the game, I noticed that this is a much more complex product than I expected. You know, when you play some simple and little-known card game on a smartphone (and I played a lot of these in my time), you understand that there are not so many cards, that the strategy is based solely on bringing more characters onto the field and win by quantity. Here everything works so differently that it would take me many, many hours to describe the combat system, but do you need it?Of course, as in any card game we have main character, which for the most part does nothing and sometimes can only throw skills, plus a deck that lies in the pile on the right, plus a deck in his hands and a pile of cards that flew into the Abyss. This is exactly how everything is organized by the enemy. At the beginning of the round you are given a set of cards, random, but if you see that everything is bad there, then you can refuse and you will be given another set, but you cannot refuse it, be careful. To win, you need to inflict so much damage on the main character of the enemy so that there are zero lives or minus left.
It is worth noting one important feature of the game, which forces you to build your strategies in a completely different way than in competing games. Here you cannot attack cards on the battlefield. That is, you can throw five attacking cards onto the field, but you can only attack enemy cards lying on the battlefield with them if you have the Hunt skill or destruction cards in your hands, otherwise you can’t. And, even if you have a dozen cards on the field, and the enemy has only two and he walks, then he may well attack you past the army, if you decide to take a hit on yourself, canceling the defense.
There are a lot of such moments in the game - sometimes it is better to take a hit on yourself and take a little damage than to defend yourself and lose a valuable character. Sometimes you need to defend yourself with all your might, so that the main character does not lose his life. There are a lot of options, only the most experienced and skillful player will be able to think through and implement all this, which is what you should strive for.
And, of course, the system with mana and elements of power is very interestingly implemented here. The game features elements of power - darkness, time, and so on. If you want to throw a card of darkness on the battlefield, for example, then you need to throw at least one card of this element on the battlefield. And, any card gives you one mana charge. That is, mana is not automatically accrued. Again, this will fundamentally change your attitude to combat and to deckbuilding too.
Deck
There are a lot of cards, I was even surprised at first how many of them were invented and how different they are. Each card has its own element and each element has its own characteristics. For example, time cards have more opportunities to heal a hero, and darkness cards have more opportunities to steal enemy lives and transfer them to themselves. Due to the variety of cards, it is easy to lose your understanding of the game. That is, I go into a deck of cards, look and get lost - there are too many of them, how to cope with all this.
I will give one advice from myself, although I am far from being a master and it is not necessary to listen to my advice. Look through all the cards and write down the most interesting ones on a piece of paper separately. That is, those that seem to you to be the most dangerous for the enemy or useful. And, based on this, build your strategy - collect auxiliary means around these cards. For example, for me, the cards of darkness are taken as a basis, which steal the lives of the enemy. They just go gorgeous and allow you to attack and replenish lives. And, of course, the enemy quickly kills such cards with his skills, so I also put cards in the deck that were getting my already killed characters from the Abyss in order to throw them back onto the battlefield. If the enemy has already used all his skills and he does not have hunting skills, then I calmly win in any case.
Modes
The game features many interesting modes which I advise everyone to try. For example, there is a mode with puzzles - there are very cool situations and they not only allow you to somehow get used to creating a battle strategy, but you can just take a break from the usual battles on the battlefield and try yourself in this role. There is a Skirmish mode where you get random cards, make a deck out of them and fight with other players. The cards remain with you and for victories you are given different kinds prizes. In general, there is something to see here, and if you want to play in different modes, and not just fight in the ranking, then calmly go in and try your hand.
Outcome
I liked the game and this is perhaps the most important thing you should know. If you are a big fan of card games, like to spend a lot of time choosing cards for a deck, trying it, looking for more optimal builds, fighting in ranked games and getting a lot of positive prizes for this, then this game is for you. There is just a huge selection of cards, I'm even afraid to imagine how many there are, and you can collect all this, build your victory strategy, adapt to the enemy, and so on. And there are also many minor modes, they are interesting and there is also something to think about. So yes, I advise the game, try it and maybe even meet on the battlefield!
P.S. And here you can watch our three-hour stream of the game:
The minimum number of cards in one deck is 75, and the maximum is 150 game cards plus power cards. There can be as many runes and other power cards that give the necessary power points for playing in the deck, but the minimum value should be one third of the total number of cards. This ratio - 25 cards of power to 75 in the deck - is enough for a fairly “grassroots” deck, that is, with an emphasis on inexpensive creatures and spells. In decks with plenty expensive cards where it is important to gain a lot of power points as quickly as possible, the number of runes can be half, but such "decks" are more suitable for experienced players.
Start with the strongest cards
At the end of the campaign (and I highly recommend doing this before sending to PvP), you should already have an understanding of what "colors", that is, world forces, you want to play. Do not experiment too much: one deck should contain no more than two types, in extreme cases - three. In addition, the game allows you to get hold of a couple of boosters for completing tasks, from which a couple of strong cards can drop out, around which you can build a deck.
The maximum number of copies of one card in a deck is four. But this does not mean that you have to have four of each creature, spell or item. Most of the basic cards are really better to have in abundance, but many only require one or two copies.
Use "filters" for efficient map selection
When you get to the screen for creating a new deck, take your time - there are many different functions that are not striking. Even if you have already decided on your favorite world power, you should not flip through the entire collection by hand, it can be useful only as part of getting to know it. To quickly compose an optimal deck and for a more convenient search for the necessary cards, use the "Additional parameters" button: it is located to the right of the icons with the types of runes.
There you can filter your cards by the following parameters:
- by cost: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6+;
- by quality: Common (gray marker), Uncommon (green marker), Rare (blue marker), Promo cards (purple marker) and Legendary (gold marker);
- Campaign: "Empty Throne", "Bounty Hunt", "Ancient Signs";
- by type: Power (runes and other power cards), Creatures, Items (weapons, relics and other artifacts) and Spells;
- by belonging to forces: five basic, "multi-force" and neutral.
You can also switch between the cards that are already in your collection, and all the rest, in order to understand what kind of potential a particular deck has. By the way, in this mode of displaying the cards that are missing, you can even add to the decks - you get a kind of draft decks for the future.
Keep a close eye on your deck statistics
In addition to the "filters", there is another convenient tool that will help you track its balance already in the process of creating a deck - the statistics screen. You can get to it by the button located in the upper right corner under the "New Deck" button: it still displays the number of cards at cost in the form of seven columns in real time.
It shows quite clearly how many cards of which type you have already collected, how the percentage is distributed according to their belonging to world powers, and also full list cards with an indication of their number, sorted by cost from cheapest to most expensive (power cards that have no value are at the end).
In this mode, by the way, it is quite possible to complete the deck, having a visual idea of which cards are missing and which are too many. To add the same card to the deck, just click on the number indicating the number, and to remove the extra one, click on the name in its entirety.
Make sure that the most expensive cards are not, otherwise it will be extremely difficult in the early stages of the match. Try to distribute the cards evenly in value so that you can build the game as flexibly as possible. Of course, an absolutely flat schedule will not work, but such a task is rarely posed: in aggressive decks there will be more inexpensive cards to increase variability in the early stages of the battle, but in the middle deck, most are usually given to cards worth 3-5 strength, since there is the greatest concentration based on the utility-value principle.
Try to match the number of spells and items to the number of units, otherwise you risk being left with an empty table. Creatures are the basis of any CCG, moreover, items without those to whom they can be applied are simply useless. Spells are also able to help defeat the enemy only if there is combat strength, otherwise they will only allow you to fight back for the time being.
Save Power Cards for Last
After you've collected the bulk of your deck of creatures, items, and spells, it's time to add required maps authorities. Yes, it is better to do this at the end, when it is clear how much will be discussed.
Power cards are automatically added to generated decks by default. To disable this function and fully control the process with your own hands, go to Settings-> Gameplay and put the first checkbox there (" Manual setting decks ").
In the game, at the starting distribution, you can get one power card, but if you choose to retake, you get at least two, which is quite enough for aggressive decks, but very little for balanced and "late" ones. I advise you to make sure that you have at least 25 power cards in your deck (at the standard size of 75 cards). If the deck is "two-color", each type should be 8-10, plus "two-color" and other power cards, which are especially relevant in this case.
In case you don't want to rely on one luck, especially for the same double decks, a neutral card is important Search for power, which for the cost of one power point will allow you to pull the rune of your choice straight from the deck.
In addition to Seeking strength there are units and spells that allow you to pull a rune from the deck when you play them. For example, there are spells Help who have the ability to give you a certain rune from the deck and perform a certain action in addition to this.
There are also power cards Monuments, Thrones and Standards... Monuments give an empty rune and some kind of effect, and the rest are useful only with "two-color" decks, since they give two runes at once. True, these runes may turn out to be "empty", that is, they will not add strength to you if certain conditions are not met.
Maybe there is something ready-made?
If you are still afraid to experiment with self-assembly decks, below you will find a few simple “decks” that will make you feel more or less confident.
Let's start with five basic decks, which correspond to the five world powers:
- Flame Deck- emphasis on fast damage, both from spells and from weapons. Many powerful creatures, creatures with dash, suppression and additional damage. Almost all creatures have an attack higher than health.
- Time Deck- desert-oriental aesthetics. Relying on control, manipulation with runes, mutual reinforcement and "hunting". With creatures, the story is reversed: almost all of them have less damage than hit points.
- Deck of Order- a deck consisting of knights and their fighting friends. A significant number of flying creatures and flying objects, as well as imbue armor.
- Elemental Deck- air and snow-water creatures, some fly and beat, while others freeze, shackle and turn into a frog.
- Shadow Deck- horns, vampires and other tricksters, unexpected spells, black magic, manipulation of the abyss.
When do you decide these basic options diversify, keep in mind that this occupation costs a special currency - Animatrina, and the ratio of the rate for creation / dispersion is worse than in exchangers in the 90s: ordinary cards cost 50 Animatrina, but give only 1; Uncommon costs 100, and gives 10; rare ones cost 800, give 200; promo cards cost 600, give 100; legendary ones cost 3200, give 800. There are also animated versions of cards: they are much less common and cost accordingly. In general, earning cards in battles and getting them out of boosters is much more profitable than spraying them. And of those cards that we come across in base decks, collecting something incredible, of course, is impossible, otherwise the whole point of the game and pumping your skill would be lost.
So, here are some examples of inexpensive decks that you can build after a few weeks of playing. To quickly find required cards in a collection - just start typing their name in the search bar. Do not be afraid to make your own changes to them: the main thing is that there are basic cards on which the meta decks are built.