HEX: Shards of Fate (or "I Can't Believe It's Not M:TG!")

(X-post from the Tabletop Games forum)

Recently the HEX: Shards of Fate Kick Starter was a resounding success. The devs are behind the World Of Warcraft TCG and they appear determined to make a good TCG PC experience. I backed the project at the Dungeon Crawler level.

...but here's the thing. Even though I backed it, I recognize that this game is pretty much Magic The Gathering. In fact, it looks almost like a Mockbuster version of Mt G in places. If you look at the card database, you can see cards copied wholesale from Mt G cards sometimes down to their resource requirements. Most of the card's keywords have direct Magic equivalents (Steadfast = Vigilance, Speed = Haste, Crush = Trample, etc).

Now personally, I don't think this is a bad thing. As fun as Duels of the Planeswalkers is, I think this game could provide a better virtual TCG experience. And I think what really makes this game have a ton of potential is when they take full advantage of the fact that it's a purely virtual card game. Here you can do stuff like plant bombs in your opponent's deck, shutdown his cards without his knowledge, etc. The PvE game looks pretty interesting too. So I backed it over the fact that I basically want an Mt G PC game better than Dof P but I wanted to hear other people's opinions on whether this is a "ripoff" or not.

edited 10th Jun '13 1:21:06 PM by Psyclone

Magic The Gathering is the 500 pound gorilla that everything else is basically biting on the heels of.

In a lot of ways people don't know a game can work off a template other than Magic's.

Considering Magic Online's ridiculous pricing structure, though, I'm happy to see something online that's a reasonably priced facsimile.

I kickstarted the game because it's purely virtual Magic.

I love stuff like the artifact that generates a random artifact and the card that plants bombs in your opponent's deck. I love stuff like the permanence of aura-type effects. I just think they've got a lot of cool stuff that regular magic can't.

Plus, being purely virtual, I don't have to worry about managing my card collection and finding places to put the ridiculous amount of cards I'll end up collecting.