History VideoGame / SolForge

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: A popular deck called "Kitfinity" (named by the deck creator "Kit") uses an infinite draw engine (along with Crypt Conjurer, a card that does damage when you play Nekrium spells) to whittle down an opponent's health as a means to gain victory.

* GamingClan: Several (A1, Battlebranded, Team Hypershot, The B+ Players).

* {{Microtransactions}}: The planned model of the game is that all cards will be available without paying, but you'll be able to buy packs and starter decks with real money as well (at prices much lower than paper [=TCGs=]). ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has been cited as an inspiration. [[AllegedlyFreeGame Take that as you will.]]

* PlayEveryDay: The game gives rewards for players who login and play every day. There are three rewards which can be obtained by logging in, winning one game and winning three games of the day.

** Oxydon Spitter is a rather poor card unless the opponent uses armor (available only to Alloyin), in which case it can be very powerful.
** Oreian Justicar and Herald of Destruction are average cards unless your opponent runs a spam deck, in which case they can neuter those swarm.
** Chistlehearth Archer (and later Tangle) can shoot down a creature with Mobility as well as locking them in place if they survive that (no surviving Tangle). Of course, they can't do anything if your opponent doesn't play Mobility.

** Averted by Team Hypershot, who recently announced they were going to focus exclusively on creating content and coverage for SolForge, and not actively participating in tournament play/

** The alternate art Thundersaur pays tribute to Godzilla.

* TheNecrocracy: Varna, Immortal King rules over his kingdom in Tarsus, and it's full of zombies.

* SequenceBreaking: Leafkin Progenitor, Progeny of Xith and Iniog, Carrion Demon are the few very creatures who can show up as a level 2 or 3 even before you even rank up, making them harder to deal with using level-gated effects.
* SelfDuplication: Generally confined to the Uterra. Even Esperian Scarab and Esperian Sage, Alloyin creatures, can only self-duplicate if you also play Uterra.

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI can be very stupid at times. Among its worst plays: Not replacing a creature that has been debuffed to death thus letting those useless creatures clog up the board, replacing a useful creature with a token created from things like Roaming Warclaw, putting creatures at the wrong land thus unable to defend properly, and so on.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Metaminds have four arms. Several other creatures also boasts extra arms, for example Cercee who, at her strongest, sports a few dozens of arms.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, accompanied by three mini-sets released between one or two months interval in between. ''Secrets of Solis'' was released in August 2014, bringing in new mechanics. ''Imprisoned Heralds'', released in November 2014, introduced Spell cards which evolve into creatures. ''Reign of Varna'' was released in February 2015, which introduced "Ambush" and spells that had continuous effects.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In case you accidentally (or otherwise) try to use a harmful effect to your own creatures, the game will ask you if you are sure about doing it.

** A new mechanic called "consistent" was introduced in Secrets of Solis, which has cards with said keyword guaranteed to show up at some point in the next player level. This prevents some measurement of "level screw" frustration.

** Dendrify transforms a target creature into a tree.

* CannibalismSuperpower: Several Nekrium cards, mostly involving Grimgaunts or Abominations. The Shambler literally adds the attack/health of a creature adjacent to it to its own through destroying it.

* CrutchCharacter: Some creatures have above average stats at Level 1, but doesn't grow significantly in later levels. However, these cards are not without use; Seeing that some of the strongest game-ending cards can only reach their potential at level 3, these crutches can be used to end the game before your opponent gets to play any Level 3 cards. There is even a deck called "Big Dumb Animals", which relies completely on powerful Level 1 monsters that scale terribly into the late game.
* DamageOverTime: The poison status, caused by cards like Toxic Spores and Cadaverous_Thicket, deals some number of damage per turn to the afflicted creature. And this poison damage stacks; A creature that gets hit with poison status multiple times may start taking tens of damage per turn without even battling.

* Death of a Thousand Cuts: A popular deck called "Kitfinity" (named by the deck creator "Kit") uses an infinite draw engine (along with Crypt Conjurer, a card that does damage when you play spells) to whittle down an opponent's health as a means to gain victory.

* MagikarpPower: Chrogias, Scorchmane_Dragon, and Iron Maiden. All are abysmal at Level 1 and are their respective factions' strongest creatures at Level 3.

** Cards like Cultivate, which transforms your little Seedling and Saplings into monstrous Treefolks.

* MookMaker: Many Uterra creatures can bring more creatures to the field.

* PlayEveryDay: The game gives you some daily rewards in the form of Silvers and a booster pack for logging in and your third victory of the day. For your first victory of the day, you get a free event ticket. You also get a small amount of silver for each online win, up to 20 wins per day.

** Oreian Justicar is an average card unless your opponent runs a spam deck, in which case it's essential.
** Chistlehearth Archer (and later Tangle) can shoot down a creature with Mobility as well as locking them in place if they survive that (no surviving Tangle). There are two problems: Some decks that move creatures around the board don't always use only Mobility (Stormcaller Shaman is an example).

* CannibalismSuperpower: Several Nekrium cards, mostly involving Grimgaunts or Abominations. The Shambler literally adds the attack/health of a creature adjacent to it to its own.

** Likewise there are cards which have very good level 2 stats but barely grow at level 3, which have similar pros and cons.
* DamageOverTime: The poison status, caused by cards like [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Toxic_Spores Toxic Spores]] and [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Cadaverous_Thicket Cadaverous Thicket]], deals some number of damage per turn to the afflicted creature. And this poison damage stacks; A creature that gets hit with poison status multiple times may start taking tens of damage per turn without even battling.
* Death of a Thousand Cuts: A popular deck called "Kitfinity" (named by the deck creator "Kit") uses an infinite draw engine (along with Crypt Conjurer, a card that does damage when you play spells) as a means to gain victory.

** Thundersaur is a powerful DinoSaur that is a staple in many decks.

* SealedBadassInACan: Some legendaries in ''Imprisoned Heralds'' start off as spells. Play them until Level 3, and they become insanely powerful creatures ready to destroy your opponent.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Arboris, Grove Dragon becomes stronger if you can bring your LifePoints to over 100, a.k.a. above your starting life total. His level 1 and 2 stats are relatively ok, but at level 3, he becomes strong enough to ''[[OneHitKill one-shot]]'' an opponent. Thing is, if you somehow still manage to have 100+ life by the time you summon a level 3 Arboris, you should be winning already...

* TouchOfDeath: Several creatures have this ability, such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Blight_Walker Blight Walker]]. Some spells such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Touch_of_Blight Touch of Blight]], also grants this ability. There's also the Nekrium Forgeborn Cercee, who at level 4 can instant-kill a player with just a scratch.

* UnstableEquilibrium: The better you do in tournaments, the better cards you win, the better you do in tournaments.

The general rules of the game go like this: At the beginning of your turn, you draw five cards. You get to play two of them (except on the first turn of the game, where you can only play one). Each card has three levels. When you play a card, its leveled-up version is placed in your discard pile. There are five lanes into which creature cards can be played, and on each turn creatures will fight with either the opposing creature in the same lane, or attack the opponent directly if there isn't one. At the end of the turn, you discard the cards you haven't played, but those ones don't level up. Every four turns your discard pile is reshuffled into your deck, giving the possibility to draw some of those levelled-up cards. The first player to reduce their opponent from 100 to 0 LifePoints wins.

The game is currently at Open Beta stage for PC, iPad, iPhone and Android, and is free-to-play. The PC version is available through Steam, while the iOS versions are available at the Mac App store and the Android version from Google Store. Players start with two starter decks, and can play daily for silvers (the in-game currency), cards, booster packs and also tournament tickets. Players can also spend real money for golds (the other in-game currency), and some items in the game can only be bought with gold.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, accompanied by three mini-sets released between one or two months interval in between. ''Secrets of Solis'' was released in August 2014, bringing in new mechanics. ''Imprisoned Heralds'', released in November 2014, introduced Spell cards which evolve into creatures. ''Reign of Varna'' was released in February 2015.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Forge Guardian Omega boasts a ridiculous stat compared to all other creatures (To give you an idea, a level 1 FG Omega can go toe-to-toe with most ''level 3 creatures''). The catch is that to summon one, you must sacrifice ''five'' Guardian Pieces on board (that usually means at least three turns of placing the Pieces), one of which must be an active Forge Guardian Gamma, which, by itself, is quite fragile and can get killed easily before its ability can go off. That, and FG Omega is just as susceptible to all sort of kill spells such as Botanimate and Dreadbolt. ''Secrets of Solis'' brings a slightly easier method to bring out FG Omega in the form of FG Delta, which puts the FG Omega into your deck for you to play normally.

** Subverted after card sharing was introduced, which allows you to send an unbound (ie; paid with real money) card to someone while keeping an unbound copy of it. Finding a partner to split on pre-constructed decks is now quite common.

* CannibalismSuperpower: Several Nekrium cards, mostly involving Grimgaunts or Abominations. The Shambler literally adds the attack/health of a creature to its own.

* CrutchCharacter: Some creatures have above average stat at level 1, but doesn't grow significantly enough that in some cases, their level 3 version can even be drawfed by some other cards' ''level 2''. However, these cards are not without use; Seeing that some of the strongest game-ending cards can only reach their potential at level 3, these crutches can be used to end the game before your opponent gets to play any level 3 cards.

* EvolvingAttack: Almost every card basically is one. Most cards cap at level 3, the sparse Forgeborns cap at level 4, and some other cards don't actually gain level.

* GradualRegeneration: The regenerate ability seen on cards like [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Cavern_Hydra Cavern Hydra]] causes it to regain some amount of health per turn (varying by level), up to its maximum health.

* LiterallyShatteredLives: [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Frozen_Solid Frozen Solid]] temporarily freezes a creature, and if that creature takes damage before it thaws out, it will die. ''[=RotF=]'' adds in a few more cards that can smash frozen creatures.
* LuckManipulationMechanic: From ''Secrets of Solis'', cards with Consistency is guaranteed to be somewhere in the top twenty cards of your deck, ensuring that you will be able to draw them within 4 turns and thus allowing you to play/level them up.
* MagikarpPower: Chrogias, Scorchmane_Dragon, and Iron Maiden. All are abysmal at level 1 and are their respective factions' strongest creatures at level 3.

* SealedBadassInACan: Some legendaries in ''Imprisoned Heralds'' start off as spells. Play them until level 3, and they become insanely powerful creatures ready to destroy your opponent.
* SelfDuplication: Generally confined to the Uterra. Even Esperian Scarab, an Alloyin creature, can only self-duplicate if you also play Uterra.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://www.forgepost.com/card/376/arboris-grove-dragon Arboris, Grove Dragon]] becomes stronger if you can bring your LifePoints to over 100, a.k.a. above your starting life total. His level 1 and 2 stats are relatively ok, but at level 3, he becomes strong enough to ''[[OneHitKill one-shot]]'' an opponent. Thing is, if you somehow still manage to have 100+ life by the time you summon a level 3 Arboris, you should be winning already...
** Forge Guardian Omega can also be one at level 3; with Aggressive, Breakthrough, 40 Armor and a whopping ''80 Attack'', it can and will easily end the game with one swing. But seeing that you probably would be seeing Forge Guardian Omega level 1 and 2 first, those cards being insanely powerful in their own rights, you shouldn't really need FG Omega level 3 to win.

** Oreian Justicar is a mediocre card unless your opponent runs a spam deck, in which case it's essential.
** Chistlehearth Archer (and later Tangle) can shoot down a creature with Mobility as well as locking them in place if they survive that (no surviving Tangle). There are two problems: Some decks that move creatures around the board don't always use only Mobility (Stormcaller Shaman is an example), and Mobility is not a really common ability anyway.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: The Uranti.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: The Legendary (and some Rare) cards are much more powerful than more common cards, and a deck full of them will be nigh-unbeatable without Legendaries of your own. Although it is possible to get Legendaries using only Silvers and thus not spend real money, it will take a lot of time, leaving you the ''[[AllegedlyFreeGame other]]'' option.

** Subverted after card sharing was introduced, which allows you to send an unbound (ie; paid with real money) card to someone while keeping an unbound copy of it. Finding a partner to split on pre-constructed decks is now quite common.

* CannibalismSuperpower: Several Nekrium cards, mostly involving Grimgaunts or Abominations.

* MagikarpPower: [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Chrogias Chrogias]], [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Scorchmane_Dragon Scorchmane Dragon]], and [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Scrapforge_Titan Scrapforge Titan]], all of which are abysmal at level 1 and are their respective factions' strongest creatures at level 3.

* MakeMyMonsterGrow: Most notably seen in Uterra faction such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Enrage Enrage]], but probably the most literal example is [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Cultivate Cultivate]], which transforms your little Seedling and Saplings into monstrous Treefolks. As for the latter, ''[=RotF=]'' introduces Nuada, who does the same thing, but potentially every single turn.

* PlayEveryDay: The game gives you some daily rewards in the form of Silvers (guaranteed), cards, booster packs or something else: One is when you log in, one when you score your first win of the day, one when you score your third win of the day, and another one when you win your first PvP match of the day where you are guaranteed to get an event ticket.

* DeathofaThousandCuts: A popular deck called "Kitfinity" (named by the deck creator "Kit") uses an infinite draw engine (along with Crypt Conjurer, a card that does damage when you play spells) as a means to gain victory.

* DifficultbutAwesome: Several archtypes are quite effective, but are very skill intensive.

** The Forge Guardians were suspected to be an obvious homage to Voltron by many. This was confirmed when lone-term player "Outrageous" leveraged used several Voltron references leading up to his spoiler article being published.

The general rules of the game go like this: At the beginning of your turn, you draw five cards. You get to play two of them (except on the first turn of the game, where you can only play one). Each card has three levels. When you play a card, its levelled-up version is placed in your discard pile. There are five lanes into which creature cards can be played, and on each turn creatures will fight with either the opposing creature in the same lane, or attack the opponent directly if there isn't one. At the end of the turn, you discard the cards you haven't played, but those ones don't level up. Every four turns your discard pile is reshuffled into your deck, giving the possibility to draw some of those levelled-up cards. The first player to reduce their opponent from 100 to 0 LifePoints wins.

* BalefulPolymorph: Uterra spell Botanimate transforms an opposing creature into a little tree.

* CannibalismSuperpower: Several Nekrium cards, mostly involving Grimgaunts.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, accompanied by three mini-sets released between one or two months interval in between. ''Secrets of Solis'' was released in August 2014, bringing in new mechanics. ''Imprisoned Heralds'', released in November 2014, introduced Spell cards which evolve into creatures.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Some card effects are classified as either harmful or beneficial. The game will alert you in case you accidentally (or otherwise) try to use a beneficial effect such as healing on your opponent's creature, or use a harmful effect such as damage on your own creatures.
** Because you can have a maximum of three copies of a card in a deck, the game disallows you to sell cards for silver if you only have three or fewer copies of that card in your collection. This is in addition to the game asking the usual "Are you sure" question before you convert cards into silvers.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, accompanied by three mini-sets released between one or two months interval in between. ''Secrets of Solis'' was released in August 2014, bringing in new mechanics.

* EvolvingAttack: Every card basically is one. Almost all cards caps out at level 3, while ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' expansion introduces the Forgeborn creatures that go up to level 4.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Metaminds, especially the more powerful ones, have four arms. Several other creatures also boasts extra arms, for example Cercee who, at her strongest, sports a few dozens of arms.

** Forge Guardian Omega is also one at level 3; with Aggressive, Breakthrough, 40 Armor and a whopping ''80 Attack'', it can and will easily end the game with one swing. But seeing that you probably would be seeing Forge Guardian Omega level 1 and 2 first, those cards being insanely powerful in their own rights, you shouldn't really need FG Omega level 3 to win.

The game is currently at Open Beta stage for PC, iPad and iPhone, and is free-to-play, with Android version recently released in Canada. The PC version is available through Steam, while the iOS versions are available at the Mac App store. Players start with two starter decks, and can play daily for silvers (the in-game currency), cards, booster packs and also tournament tickets. Players can also spend real money for golds (the other in-game currency), and some items in the game can only be bought with gold.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, accompanied by three mini-sets released between one or two months interval in between. ''Secrets of Solis'' has just been announced as the third major set (release date TBA), bringing new mechanics.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Forge Guardian Omega boasts a ridiculous stat compared to all other creatures (to the point that barely any creature can so much as ''scratch'' a level 3 FG Omega, much less take it down). The catch is that to summon one, you must sacrifice ''five'' Guardian Pieces on board (that usually means at least three turns of placing the Pieces), one of which must be an active Forge Guardian Gamma, which, by itself, is quite fragile and can get killed easily before its ability can go off. That, and FG Omega is just as susceptible to all sort of kill spells such as Botanimate and Dreadbolt. ''Secrets of Solis'' is about to bring a slightly easier method to bring out FG Omega in the form of FG Delta, which puts the FG Omega into your deck for you to play normally.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Metaminds, especially the more powerful ones, have four arms.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[http://www.forgepost.com/card/376/arboris-grove-dragon Arboris, Grove Dragon]] becomes stronger if you can bring your LifePoints to over 100, a.k.a. above your starting life total. His level 1 and 2 stats are pretty decent, but at level 3, he becomes strong enough to ''[[OneHitKill one-shot]]'' an opponent. Thing is, if you somehow still manage to have 100+ life by the time you summon a level 3 Arboris, you should be winning already...

** Chistlehearth Archer can shoot down a creature with Mobility as well as locking them in place if they survive that. There are two problems: Some decks that move creatures around the board don't always use only Mobility (Stormcaller Shaman is an example), and Mobility is not a really common ability anyway.

The game's Open Beta was released in August 2013, with a small expansion being released some months after. ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' was released some time in March 2014, and several mini expansions to accompany it have been released (with the third mini-expansion having been online as the time of this writing).

* BroughtDownToNormal: Alloyin's Metasculpt spell removes all abilities from a creature.

* CrutchCharacter: Some creatures have above average stat at level 1, but doesn't grow significantly enough that in some cases, their level 3 version may look pathetic to some other cards' ''level 2''. However, these cards are not without use; Seeing that some of the strongest game-ending cards can only reach their potential at level 3, these crutches can be used to end the game before your opponent gets to play any level 3 cards.

* ExcusePlot: If you're the sort of person who needs a good reason why the dinosaurs are fighting the zombies, this probably isn't the game for you. The lack of flavor texts in-game doesn't help either.

* {{Homage}}: The comedic alternate art ''Super Chrogias'' is an homage to the old {{Superhero}} trope where the superhero goes into a phone booth to change costume.

* SelfDuplication: Ether Hounds, Echowisps and Esperian Scarab (if you play Alloyin-Uterra deck) exhibit this; when you summon them, they'll bring out a copy of themselves. Mimicleaf does the same but turn by turn, while Leafkin Progenitor is a mix of this, MakeMyMonsterGrow and MookMaker.

** Oxydon Spitter is a rather poor card unless the opponent uses armor, in which case it can be very powerful.

The game's chronological release is roughly as follows:
* August 2013: Open Beta was launched.
* November 2013: A mini-expansion for the base set was launched, adding 24 cards as well as Constructed and Draft tournaments.
* March 2014: The first large expansion, ''Rise of the Forgeborn'', was released, adding 100 new cards as well as forging mechanic similar to ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft''.
* May 2014 and June 2014: Two separate mini-expansions for ''[=RotF=]'', each adding 20 new cards.

* OneHitKill: Several creatures have this ability, such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Blight_Walker Blight Walker]]. Some spells such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Touch_of_Blight Touch of Blight]], also grants this ability.
** Nekrium Forgeborn Cercee can also one-shot a player once she hits level 4.

* {{Necromancer}}: Some creatures are necromancers [[PiratesWhoDontDoAnything in name only]], but some really do raise the dead.

The game is currently at Open Beta stage for PC, iPad and iPhone, and is free-to-play. The PC version is available through Steam, while the iOS versions are available at the Mac App store. Players start with two starter decks, and can play daily for silvers (the in-game currency), cards, booster packs and also tournament tickets. Players can also spend real money for golds (the other in-game currency), and some items in the game can only be bought with gold.

* May 2014: A mini-expansion for [=RotF=] was launched, adding 20 new cards.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: The Uranti.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: The Legendary (and some Rare) cards are much more powerful than more common cards, and a deck full of them will be nigh-unbeatable without Legendaries of your own. [[AllegedlyFreeGame Guess how you get those.]]

* {{Homage}}: The comedic alternate art ''Super Chrogias'' is an homage to the old {{Superheero}} trope where the superhero goes into a phone booth to change costume.

The game's first mini-expansion was released in November 2013, adding 24 new cards. A large expansion called ''Rise of the Forgeborn'' is released in March 2014, adding about 100 new cards as well as card-forging mechanic similar to HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft.

* CrutchCharacter: Some creatures are powerful at level 1 but miserable at level 3. The egregious example is [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Deepbranch_Prowler Deepbranch Prowler]], which far above average at level 1, but far below average at level 3.

* ExcusePlot: If you're the sort of person who needs a good reason why the dinosaurs are fighting the zombies, this probably isn't the game for you.

* LiterallyShatteredLives: [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Frozen_Solid Frozen Solid]] temporarily freezes a creature, and if that creature takes damage before it thaws out, it will die.

* MakeMyMonsterGrow: Most notably seen in Uterra faction such as [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Enrage Enrage]], but probably the most literal example is [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Cultivate Cultivate]], which transforms your little Seedling and Saplings into monstrous Treefolks.

* MookMaker: [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Wildwood_Sower Wildwood Sower]] summons sapient plants every time you use a spell, and cards like [[http://solforgewiki.forgewatch.com/wiki/Grove_Matriarch Grove Matriarch]] will summon other creatures when they die.