Keyforge is Not your Father's Magic the Gathering

Today I am gonna talk about the elephant in the room.

Not THIS elephant, although those anthropomorphic crows are SUPER racist.

No, the elephant in the room is Magic: the Gathering. Introduced in the 1990s, it has reigned supreme as the game that introduced most of the world to the novel concept of the Collectible Card Game, or CCG. Its success spawned a number of immediate copycats, including a few titles from companies that should have known better (yeah, I'm looking at you, Illuminati: NWO.)

I was a fan of the Illuminati BEFORE Beyonce made them cool.

The introduction of any new CCG (and sometimes even a non-collectible Card Game) invariably invites comparisons to Magic. The comparison is encouraged in no small part because Magic patented the concept of "tapping" and that really is the best mechanic to indicate whether a resource represented by a card has been used yet in a turn, making the process of tapping cards ubiquitous in the CCG arena.

So when I was first introduced to Keyforge, the guy running the demo started by letting me know that this game is like Magic. He may have thought that this would help convince me to play the game, but I feel the comparison is not the best way of explaining the game to new players. Yes, Keyforge is also designed by Richard Garfield. Yes, both Magic and Keyforge involve "tapping" your cards to use them. Yes, you are acting directly in opposition to another player to achieve a victory condition. Yes, you command an army of diverse creatures in order to advance your position. But there are significant differences:

You don't SPEND Aember playing this card. You GAIN one Aember.

• There is no "cost" normally associated with playing a card. (Some cards impose "chains" or require you to discard a card, but in general there is no "mana" cost or any similar requirement. Even the Aember symbol in the corner of some cards is a benefit of playing that card, not a cost.)
• Additionally, every card type is played during the main phase of your turn. There are no "land" or resource cards that are required to pay for another card..
• Drawing a card comes at the end of the turn. (This action is a definitive indication that you have completed your turn.) Untapping your cards occurs at the end of your turn as well, just before you draw cards.
• You and your opponent have no "life points" or any similar attribute. You never attack your opponent directly with your creatures and you can never force your opponent out of the game by inflicting damage on them.
• There are no "instants" or "interrupts" to play on your opponent's turn. As a matter of fact, you perform no actions and make no decisions on your opponent's turn.
• When fighting, an attacking creature targets one other creature and that specific fight resolves before any other combat occurs. You do not declare attackers and blockers in a single phase and send over a wave of monsters. You can initiate a fight, take an action, initiate a second fight, and so on, as long as you have cards or ready creatures that allow you to attack.
• Speaking of combat, damage does NOT heal between turns. You track damage and once the accumulated damage exceeds a creature's power, it dies.
• Creatures do not have a separate Strength AND Toughness attribute. The red Power value represents BOTH the damage inflicted by that creature during a fight AND the amount of damage that creature can endure. Additionally, taking the damage does NOT lower the damage that a creature inflicts during a fight.

In addition to the differences listed above, there are a few other rules to emphasize or observations I want to make:

• The major limitation on your actions for your turn is the decision of your Active House early during your turn. The Active House determines which ready creatures can attack, which artifacts your can activate, and what cards you can either play or discard. You don't have to play EVERY card from the Active House from your hand during your turn, but there is no limit to how many cards you can play.
• You need a large table to place your creatures and artifacts. Keeping track of the two ends of the "battle line" and which creatures are adjacent is important to the game.
• A "fight" occurs as long as one creature targets another, regardless of the damage inflicted. However, an attacking creature must survive an encounter with an opposing creature in order to activate a FIGHT ability.
• The protection granted by Armor resets at the beginning of every turn.

Of course, if you are committed to treating Keyforge as a Magic the Gathering clone, here's a handy table to keep the Houses clear:

See you at the next Vault.

Steev