Resource systems form the core of games and are one of the most commonly used elements in the game. When choosing a game to play or design, they are one of the most crucial factors. In this article, I’ll discuss resource systems in card games, their types, and the pros and cons of each.
Disclaimer
- I’m not a card game designer. These are purely my personal analysis after having been playing card games close to couple decades.
- More than half of the games listed as example are something I haven’t played but rather just looked at official rulebook. So if you believe if I mis-categorized one, please help me out with comment.
Introduction
The resource system is one of the most fundamental design elements in a card game. It’s one of the first things I consider when deciding whether to try a new card game. In my experience, the resource system reflects the overall philosophy of the game.
Games that employ a straightforward and simplified resource system tend to have a more streamlined overall design. The rules are easy to grasp, even for those who are new to card games. These games are typically faster-paced.
In contrast, games with more intricate resource systems tend to have more complex rules in other aspects of the game as well. These games are generally more challenging to learn the rules, especially at the competitive level. Knowing the subtle intricacies of the rules could potentially determine the outcome of the game. The primary advantage of this game design is that it provides a greater depth of exploration in various components of the game, with the resource system being one such example.
Personally, I categorize card game resource systems into three main types based on their complexity, from simplest to most complex: fixed, multi-modal, and dedicated card resource systems.
Fixed Resource system
Absolute fixed system has or add the same amount of resource points every turn or round throughout the entire game.
Example: Eye of Judgment
In the game called Eye of Judgement, each player gained two resources on their respective turns.
Example: Yu Gi Oh
In Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s no direct resource cost associated with playing a card. As long as you meet the card’s requirements, you can play any card as many times as you want. One way to categorize this is as “no resource.” Alternatively, you could view it as each player gaining an infinite number of resource points each turn. Therefore, I’m placing it under the fixed resource category.
https://www.yugioh-card.com/en
Example: Keyforge
In Keyforge, at the beginning of their turns, player choose a house (=color). During that turn, the player can play any number of cards from the chosen house.
Ramp resource system automatically increases available resource as the game progress, usually based on the turn/round.
Example: Hearthstone
In Hearthstone, the maximum available resource points increase by one point every turn until the maximum limit is reached. At the beginning of each player’s turn, their resources are replenished to that maximum number.
https://hearthstone.blizzard.com
Pros
The primary advantage of the fixed resource system is its simplicity. It’s an excellent choice for streamlining resource management in games. In such games, players only need to focus on utilizing the available resource points each turn for playing their cards or activating abilities, without having to consider resource generation during deck building strategies or during the game itself.
Cons
The downside is that the resource isn’t truly part of the game’s design space, and players won’t be able to play a “resource building game.
Dedicated card resource system
The dedicated card resource system is the most complex extreme of the resource system. This system offers players to fully manage their resource including building their resource before and during the games.
Pros
Since actual cards represent the resource, it grants the developer complete design freedom, similar to other game elements. Many games using this resource type of system offer various resource types, often represented by colors or equivalent categorizations. These resources can be thematic, allowing for more flexible deck building without the restriction of a rigid card pool.
Cons
One potential downside of this system is that it would require players to meticulously balance resource and non-resource cards for optimal deck performance, which can be a challenging task. While some players may find this challenge enjoyable and part of the fun of deck building, others may find it an extra burden.
Example: Magic the Gathering
Magic: The Gathering, a classic game, employs a resource system where players’ decks consist of both resource cards, known as lands, and other non-resource cards.
On their turn, players can play a maximum of one land card per turn. There are five colors of mana, and to play a specific card, players must pay the mana cost with the specific color.
Beyond basic lands, there are lands that can be used as more than one color, one that can generate tokens, and one that can become creatures, amongst other abilities.
Mana screw
Mana screw, a term used to describe a situation where a player is unable to play any card on consecutive turns due to bad luck, is one of the most commonly discussed aspects of the Magic the Gathering land system’s shortcomings. While the situation still occurs in Magic the Gathering, many newer games that utilize dedicated card systems have core design solution to reduce/eliminate mana screw.
Example: HEX TCG
HEX TCG, the most Kickstarter-funded TCG during its campaign, drew significant design inspiration from Magic: The Gathering. It acknowledged the mana screw issue and attempted to address it by implementing a threshold color system along with charge mechanics.
In Magic, each color’s mana cost was consumed, but in HEX, the color itself served as a threshold requirement. Consequently, if you had two cards with a single red mana requirement, in Magic, you would need two red mana lands. However, in HEX, you only need one red mana threshold and two mana costs themselves. This has alleviated “color screw”.
Charge is akin to a points/counter that you accumulate on your hero. Once you have sufficient charge, you can unleash their special ability. This design was meant to provide value on extra resources even in the late game or mana flood situation. However, considering the relatively weak power setting of charge power, I believe this didn’t make a significant difference in gameplay.
The game still suffered mana drought/flood situation as intrinsically you could still end up drawing too many or too little mana cards in this game just like in Magic.
Of note, this game is no longer in service.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game
Specifically, several games employ a split resource deck system, where they use their own deck for resource cards, distinct from the non-resource cards. This system effectively mitigates various types of mana screw scenarios. For instance, Sorcery TCG, Eikonics, Riftbound, and One Piece TCG utilize this system.
Example: Sorcery TCG
In Sorcery, resource cards have their own deck. At the start of a player’s turn, they have the option to draw from the resource pile or the non-resource card pile.
Furthermore, Sorcery’s color system employs a threshold system, which helps reduce the occurrence of color screw.
While color screw can still occur in this game, it’s usually due to deck construction and player’s draw timing decisions. Personally, I haven’t encountered real mana screw in this game yet. Considering how well the resource cards integrate into the game’s grid system and each having unique effects, this is one of my favorite resource systems.
https://sorcerytcg.com
Multimodal card resource system
Multimodal card resource systems enable regular playable cards to be utilized as resources. In this system, players typically place regular playable cards into resource piles or zones instead of playing them.
Pros
This is one proven answer to the infamous [[Mana screw]] issue as you can use any card in hand as a resource. This system also provides resource building experience during the game play.
In its simplest form, this resource system is intuitive and streamlined because you don’t have to consider the playable card balance of resources during deck construction.
Cons
In the simplest and most common form, multimodal cards are often placed face down in the resource pile. This placement limits their design space, such as resource color and specific card effects. Several game use this system are Altered TCG, Echoes of Astra, Locana and Shadow Era.
Example: Altered TCG
In Altered TCG, at the beginning of your turn, you draw two cards. You then have the option to place any one of those cards into the mana zone.
The card placed in the mana zone will be face down. You will gain the number of resources equal to the number of the faced-down card in the mana zone. Unlike other games, this game doesn’t have a color element in its resource system. Instead, the card pool for your deck is determined based on your hero’s color.
This type of multimodal resource system is simple, and well stream-lined. It almost resembles a fixed ramp resource system, but it allows players to make a tactical decision by choosing whether to increase mana or not, but, beyond this basic dichotomy, it lacks any other resource-related player’s choice in the game. However, this isn’t an inherent limitation of a multimodal card resource system; it’s more of a common designer’s choice.
Example: Flesh and Blood
In Flesh and Blood, almost all cards can be utilized as resources. Resources are generated by placing a card from your hand into the pitch zone instead of playing it. The number of resources each card generates ranges from 1 to 3, as indicated by the left upper corner as well as the color of the card. So at this point, Flesh and Blood already offering three different types of resources.
Furthermore, later sets have introduced a new special type of resource, demonstrating even greater design potential this system offer.
In fact, I personally believe Flesh and Blood boasts one of the most skill-driven resource system designs in TCGs I’ve ever played. The cards you pitch are returned to the bottom of your deck at the end of each turn. This means that from the very first turn to the end of the game, you’re always making decisions about which cards to pitch and which to play. Moreover, in longer games, the cards you pitch will eventually return to your hand. So, the order in which you pitch and the specific cards you choose become crucial components of your strategy.
Hybrid
Several games use hybrid or combination of the 3 fundamental resource systems.
Multimodal + Dedicated card
Example: Flesh and Blood
While the primary resource system in Flesh and Blood is multimodal by pitching normally playable cards, the game also has dedicated card type that can only be used as resources i.e. Gems.
Therefore, the game also fully supports dedicated resource card system. Though these cards are extremely rare in occurrence in this game; hence, the game still remains primarily multimodal resource system.
Fixed + Dedicated card
Example: Eikonic TCG
Eikonics TCG employs a split resource system with dedicated resource cards, each featuring a distinct color option. During each player’s turn, flipping a card from the resource pile into the resource zone automatically increases the resource point by one. Consequently, if you were playing a mono-color deck with basic resource cards, the system would simplify to a fixed ramp resource system. However, since each resource is represented by a separate card, the game retains the full potential of a dedicated card system.
https://www.eikonictcg.com
Fixed Ramp + Multimodal
Example: Battle spirit
In Battle spirits, the game starts at 4 resource points, called cores, and ramp 1 per turn i.e. fixed ramp system.
Despite the cores are colorless, cards placed on field have color element defined in right lower corner, which can be counted as play cost reduction when playing other cards if the color matches.
Basically, this game adds multimodal resource component when cards are on field i.e. play effect, and color resource point.
https://www.battlespirits.com/rule/official-rule-manual/page07.html
Fixed Ramp + Dedicated card
Example: Eikonic TCG
Eikonics TCG employs a split resource system with dedicated resource cards, each featuring a distinct color option. During each player’s turn, flipping a card from the resource pile into the resource zone automatically increases the resource point by one. Consequently, if you were playing a mono-color deck with basic resource cards, the system would simplify to a fixed ramp resource system. However, since each resource is represented by a separate card, the game retains the full potential of a dedicated card system.
https://www.eikonictcg.com
Summary
- The choice of resource system significantly influences the overall gameplay experience.
- The simplest and most streamlined resource system is the fixed resource system.
- It has limited design space.
- A dedicated card system, like the one in Magic: The Gathering, offers the most versatile resource system and design space.
- To avoid the mana screw, proper design is crucial. For instance, you can separate the deck for the dedicated resource card system or use a multimodal resource card system.
- A multimodal card system can also have design depth, as seen in Flesh and Blood.
- Several games utilize hybrid of different resource systems.
kanban
column1[Fixed]
Battle Spirit
Eye of Judgment
Hearthstone
Keyforge
Legend of Rune Terra
Shadow Verse
Yu Gi Oh
column2[Multimodal]
Altered TCG
Duel Masters
Echos of Astra
Flesh and Blood
Grand Archive
Locana
Shadow Era
column3[Dedicated card]
Ashes ECG
Eikonic
Force of Will
Magic the Gathering
One Piece
Pokemon TCG
Riftbound
Sorcery
Great write up! Though I am a bit disappointed to not see Eikonic’s dual resource system mentioned here 😉
Thank you for the comment. I’ve just added Eikonic TCG. 😉