Couple days ago I heard about a brand new TCG called Drakerion on Youtube. The art style was at least for my taste so I’ve decided to take a bit closer look . The game is currently on Kickstarter. Before you’d say it’s just another TCG, I personally think this game has a several pieces that are unique and interesting especially if you are someone who likes competitive, strategic TCG with less luck element. If you are looking more casual TCG looking for higher variance and simple rule, the game may not be for you. Since my personal preference is the former type of TCGs like Magic, Flesh and Blood, I’ve decided to take a bit closer look on this.
What’s Drakerion TCG?
This is a brand new, physical TCG being developed by French developers, LoreMaster Game. The development team consists of a long time TCG players. The lead designer is a Game of Throne LCG vice-world and national champion. The game is designed for organized play in mind, and planning 3 times a year expansion. As a norm for kickstarter TCG project, you will receive the earliest edition of cards along with exclusive alternative art promo if you were to back this project.
With straightforward rules, a dynamic game system, and a focus on interaction, player skill is what determines who wins in Drakerion
Drakerion TCG Kickstarter
This is a troop vs. troop type game.
A goal of the game is to destroy all of opponent’s characters on the board or enough of them. The latter is defined based on the fact that certain characters on the board having “prestige” value. Destroying these characters gain you those prestige and once you gain 20 or more prestige you win.
A starter deck is estimated to be US$18 and a booster box (20 packs, 10 cards/pack) is US$100 on the kickstarter. At the time of this recording, the kickstarter has just launched and goes until 5/28. They have almost 240 backers and raised almost $90,000 in the first 72 hours.
8 Points Assessment
Now let’s take a bit closer look at game in a systematic way.
Whenever I review or look at a brand new TCG, I usually look at following 7 elements of the game first. They usually tell me if the game is something that I might like or not.
- Uniqueness/Innovation
- Art/Lore
- Price
- Resource System
- Card types
- Dynamic Interactive Play Support
- Game variance
- Balance
Let’s take a quick look at each of these pieces.
Disclaimer: At the time of this writing, I have not had a chance to play the game against anyone else. So this is not a play review.
Uniqueness/Innovation
Given so many strategy card games have existed to this point, I highly doubt anyone can make a ground breaking game system at this point. So in this category, I am looking at things that are less familiar to me than games I typically play.
For Drakerion, these are prestige mechanics, 2 lane system and simultaneous turn play.
One of a way to win this game is to wipe opponent’s characters on the board. So right off the bat, we know the game is permanent (cards that stays on the board) based games. This objective infer two opposite spectrum of strategy potential in the game. One is many, low cost characters to keep board presence. The other is few in number, but beefy characters that are harder to destroy. I believe prestige system adds a depth to this especially from designer perspective. As an alternative win condition, player can accrue 20 or more prestige points. One of the main way to get prestige is to destroy characters that has prestige value. So in general stronger character gets prestige and it is a risk factor for the controller to think of. Also, based on the way rulebook phrase prestige, we know there are other ways to get prestige. So the game basically has created alternative win condition rule as built in core design. I personally like this far better than deck out condition that we see often in other games as an alternative win condition. This simply has much more potential and thematically far fitting.
Drakerion uses two lane system. Unlike a grid based game, this does not limit number of cards you can play on the board. Instead this system provides another dimension in the game. Characters in support line are harder to be targeted by opponent’s attack. So designers can create lower health characters with ranged attack and/or supportive abilities.
Perhaps one of the most standing out feature about this game is what I call “simultaneous turn” system. The last game I played using simultaneous turn type system was Infinity Wars TCG but this game seems to have a better implementation of it. In Drakerion, both players take a turn at the same time. Each player take an action and the other player gets priority. This makes every deck interactive. I will talk about this in dynamic interactive play support section a bit more detail.
Art/Lore
The game’s world setting is a dark fantasy. There are dwarves, elves, skeletons etc. I haven’t seen dragons, but I am sure there will be dragons.
Art preference is a highly subjective. However, independent of one’s art preference, I think most would agree they look gorgeous. I personally like these computer graphics type art style over anime (sorry Grand Archive) or hand painted (sorry Sorcery TCG). In fact, this is what brought my attention to this game in first place. If it wasn’t these art, I would probably not have checked just another TCG.
Looking at currently available starter deck card list, I see there are some variance in the style and quality of arts but developers have stated arts are not final. So perhaps some of these maybe upgraded to match with others. Even if they were final, I think they are still acceptable quality to me and certainly already seem to match art quality of other major brand TCGs.
Price
Here, I am not looking at Kickstarter potential value itself as a means of investment or secondary market. Instead, I am looking at relative cost of the game if I were to continue purchasing the game whenever new expansion comes out and compared that to other TCGs on the market. This is important factor as this is a game planned to be have organized play, and receive periodic expansions.
First, the game does not mention non-rotating cards. So I think it is safe to assume if the game continues, there will be a rotation of cards. So unlike Flesh and Blood TCG, cards you purchased could lose play value but that’s a distant future for now.
Comparing price amongst TCG is a bit challenging as there are many variables exist such as promo cards, foil, pull rate, set release frequency, set rotation and perhaps most importantly availability of single card market. So one of easier price metrics I personally like to use is to compare the price of completing basic (non-foil, alternate art) playset for each set/expansion assuming you open booster packs. This is usually a max cost for someone wants to make any deck using any cards from the set. For Drakerion, this can be calculated as a sum of all five starter decks and cost of 100 booster packs.
You need all 5 starter decks because you can only pull a foil version of starter deck cards and there is only 1 foil per booster pack. You need 100 booster packs because the highest rarity card in booster pack, which is “rare” in this game has 25 different cards in the first set. You can only get one rare per booster pack. Since the playset is 4, you need to open 100 booster packs. Each pack costs about US$5.
So the total estimated price is $5 x 100 + $75 = $575. In fact, I think US$556 Ruby tier get you the number needed.
In reality, if there is single card market you should be able to get the playset for cheaper. I like the fact they did not create ultra-rare cards such as mythic rare, legendary, fabled where you can pull on average in every dozens packs or higher. This often results in tons of wasted lower rarity card copies.
To put the number in perspective, Magic the Gathering complete basic playset usually costs $600-800 using MTGO redemption program. Flesh and Blood TCG complete playset costs similar range based on my personal experience.
In fact, Drakerion developer states
It would be more accessible than the current card games on the market if you would like to get a full playset of the game, excluding the promotional and exclusive cards.
*All prices exclude shipping.
Developer has stated the first set has more cards than usual. So future set price could be cheaper. Thus overall, I think Drakerion TCG should be cheaper to complete a playset than other popular TCG games.
Resource System
Now let’s talk about actual game mechanics. I really like to think/look card game’s design. Amongst which, resource system in a strategy card game tells us so much about the game. I personally classify resource systems into four main categories: non-resource, automatic, sacrifice and dedicated card based resource systems. Usually, this is the order of game’s overall design’s increasing flexibility and complexity.
Since I like more complex = more future design space potential TCG, my personal preference is dedicated card based resource system (CRS). Magic the Gathering is the most famous TCG using this. The main drawback for CRS is mana/resource-screw where luck factor prevents from a player from playing anything for multiple turns in raw. This isn’t a fun for neither player as we are not really playing game at this point.
Thus, it is a requirement for any new TCG that uses CRS to have some type of solution for resource-screw. In case of Drakerion who uses CRS, their solution is to use a separate deck for resource cards. This is one of most commonly accepted solution we’ve seen in other games.
Having said that, Drakerion’s CRS seems to have some interesting elements.
- Player can choose which resource card to use from the resource card pile.
- Resource card have built in # of card draws
- Resource points carry-over
One of the main benefit of CRS over other resource system is that resource can have their own abilities and game mechanics so they are design space for developers. It is not uncommon to see games starts with basic resource cards for the first few sets and later release an expansion focusing on resource system mechanics. However, all Drakerion’s resource cards, called maneuvers, have real abilities and they seem to have a real tactical impact.
The elegance of Drakerion’s resource system is depicted by cards that have resource disruption abilities.
Given resources are fundamental of playing cards/taking any action during own turn in TCGs, normally disrupting opponent resource is thought a too strong, reducing fun factor of the game; thus, it is often seen as risky game design.
However, Drakerion’s maneuver cards change each turn and it is under player’s control which one to play along with several other game design factors such as multiple cards draw per turn potential, gold (resource point carry over), the resource disruption in this game looks to be a part of skill based tactics rather than irrefutable mechanics.
Besides the maneuver cards, Drakerion has interesting separate resource system.
There are cards that require tapping a banner or city cards. These cards start in play from the beginning of the game. So one can look these cards as own once per turn resource system.
Basically, Drakerion has builtin multiple resource systems including # of card draw, cumulative gold, once per turn city and banner resources. I can see this could be one of the best resource system implementation.
Card types
In general, more card types the game has more complex the game becomes. I consider this is like a modular system of computers, gadgets, or perhaps gaming table etc. More parts that can be swapped, more customization one can do. In case of TCG, more design space developer have, and more unique feel player can get as game grows.
Drakerion has 6 + 1 card types
- Character
- Event
- Attachment
- Banner
- City
- Maneuver
- *Sound of the retreat
Drakerion is a game of destroying opponent’s characters. So this is the main card type. Characters have permanent board presence with health points, attack values so they are analogous to creatures or allies in other games. The interesting element is some could have ranged attack to utilize the two lane system Also, prestige stat adds another layer of card cost beyond standard summoning cost.
Events are one-time play cards like sorcery in magic or action in FAB. Attachments buffs/debufs characters so they are like equipment and aura in other games.
Maneuver is resource card in this game.
Banner card starts in play and defines the deck’s faction/color. This determines what cards can be included in your deck. Additionally, banner specifies sets of characters that starts the game in play.
City card also starts in play and has its own effect/abilities. As mentioned previously, banner and city cards can act like as own resource system.
Sound of the retreat feels a bit mysterious card type to me. Currently, there is only one and it is simply a means to acquire first player priority following turn. It is interesting why they made this into an actual card and occupy board space rather than just a basic rule or perhaps token.
So I am not sure if this can be counted as a real card type, but perhaps designers have some plan in the future to expand this as a design space.
You may wonder what about instant type card, which you can use to counter opponent player’s action. In Drakerion, there is no specific instant card type because the game’s core design already supports interactiveness.
Dynamic Interactive Play Support
Another important element of TCG to me is whether we can play during opponent’s turn or not. I call this dynamic interactive play (DIP) support.
In game like Magic the Gathering or Flesh and Blood TCG, this is represented by “instant” card/ability. These special cards/abilities are only ones, a player can play during opponent’s turn. The benefit for DIP supporting game is you can or can be surprised. You won’t just be looking at opponent’s taking their turn. The downside of this system is it makes the game much more complex. One of the main aspect of the game new Magic player get confused. So there are TCGs intentionally not support DIP to keep the system more simple. In fact, some may even see this as a source of playing with a rule rather than playing with a card.
Drakerion game’s supports dynamic interactive play by fundamental game design, and I think this maybe the most unique feature of the game.
In this game, each player alternate a play during a shared turn. So independent of what deck type one plays, every player will feel interactive nature of the game in Drakerion.
When a combat is taking a place between characters, you can play cards or abilities with combat keyword.
These cards acts like reaction cards in Flesh and Blood or combat tricks in other games.
Game Variance
Variance in TCG has two primary components.
- Variance in playstyle i.e. aggro deck vs. control deck
- Variance during a game due to luck factor i.e. even playing the same deck results in different game
Playstyle variance is one of main reason why players enjoy TCG genre. If there is a potential area of concern I have with this game, it is this aspect. Drakerion is faction based game. This means there is a card pool restriction when making a deck.
While restricting card pool allows the designers to push the limit of each card design and worry less about unintentional degenerative combo that breaks a game balance, I’ve seen many games restricting card pool ended up failing to expand each card pool enough. As a result, choice of faction became choice of play style and took away playstyle variance.
I hope developers will show some of playstyle variance in the game as Kickstarter campaign updates and perhaps touch on their future plans.
On the contrary, as the TCG gets more competitively oriented, players starts to favor games with less luck factor based play variance.
Another example is city card’s default ability. You can commit (tap) it to cycle a card in your card to fix a bad hand.
Drakerion is designed to be played competitively and developers has explicitly stated they value skill over the luck. This is indeed demonstrated in the game at various levels.
For example, in many game whoever goes first (or second) gets significant advantage. Yet, this is often decided based on the dice roll i.e. purely based on the luck. Drakerion approaches this issue quite interestingly. A banner card that start with a game in play has initiative value. This value is compared against opponents’ and this determines who goes first during the first turn. Subsequently, one will use Sound of Retreat mechanics to gain first play during the next turn. So the play order in this game can be strategically and tactfully controlled.
Drakerion shows decreasing luck element even at mulligan level. In Drakerion, you get to choose which card to replace, but not only that you are guaranteed to not redraw the exact copy of replacing cards.
Choosing which maneuver(=resource) card to play each turn rather than drawing one at random is another way of eliminating a luck element.
Another example is the way Drakerion dealing with unusable card. In Drakerion, there are special characters, called named characters. You are not allowed to play more than one instance of the same named character. This makes a sense thematically. However, if this were the only rule, then drawing multiple copies of the same named character in a given hand at once will be a bad hand.
Drakerion developers recognize this and created a special rule so you can discard the card and use it to buff the specific named character.
These are just some examples I saw developers implemented to reduce luck factors in this game. Each pieces may be relative small but combining all together, I am sure you feel the game is much less luck driven than many other TCGs.
Balance
One of the hardest part of TCG design must be the balancing cards/decks. I consider balancing in a TCG have two levels. One is at the level of individual cards and the other it at the level of decks.
The king of TCG, Magic the Gathering still gets errata and card ban. This simply tells me it is just not possible to erradicate unbalanced card introduction as the game’s card pool expands.
However, players seem to have less tolerance when game is imbalanced at deck level, especially when the game is designed to be played competitively. This means one or two types of specific deck dominates entire competitive meta environment.
New TCG, when claimed to be designed for organized play in mind, are always assessed by potential players for the game’s balance. No matter how innovative or interesting the game design or mechanics are, if the game is unbalanced and just having one card or one deck guarantees a win, the game will fail beyond the kitchen table. So this is extremely important but also the hardest component of TCG to assess. This is only to be seen.
Conclusion
Although current kickstarter numbers may not be too shabby for non-US based, Indie company’s first project, some may see it as a underwhelming. I believe this is not reflection of the product quality but rather luck of advertisement by the developers.
Overall, my first impression about the game is that I would not be surprised if this becomes the next Flesh and Blood TCG. Having said that, developer needs to put a bit more effort in the advertisement if their plan is to have the game grow to wider audience.
As a potential player, be sure to go check out the Kickstarter page, play some games on table top simulator or using print and play starter kit.
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