Might and Magic: Duel of Champions (CCG)

[Sudy]

Anyone playing? I can be found online as Khronophage.

It's a FTP CCG in the vein of, as I understand it, Magic: The Gathering. I've not played MTG, but I recognize similarities to Shadow Era and Hearthstone. You have a hero, but can't equip weapons. There's some tactics (but not on the level of, say, Mojang's Scrolls), as you have eight total spaces to play unit cards, four front and four back. Unlike Scrolls, I could see this functioning as a real-world card game very easily.

It's FTP, though obviously you can vastly speed up card acquisition by investing real-world money. I hear progression becomes quite grindy, but hey, it's a PvP CCG--I figure anyone sticking around is doing so because they like the gameplay anyway. There's a campaign element, but it's unlocked in stages as you level (some of which must be done by playing PvP, probably a great proportion each level). Edit: What I'm reading suggests there are only the three campaigns (only several missions each, and the first is the tutorial), so definitely move along if PvP isn't your thing.

There are lots of achievements to be earned, most of which provide tangible bonuses (card packs, experience/gold boosters, etc). The interface looks very nice but needs improving (can't search for cards by typing the name, etc). I've read the developers are working on it, but put it on the back burner to get expansions out. There are already three expansions (almost 600 cards total), meaning there's a ton of potential deck variety.

Your hero can use units and fortune cards from his or her own faction (five total), plus the neutral faction. Then, as far as I've seen so far, each hero will have an affinity with 1-3 schools of magic (seven of these). So while decks running different heroes of the same faction will build from the same pool of units, they may utilize completely different spells.

If you want to give it a go, you can get a free "starter box" of cards in addition to your preconfigured deck while keys last at Alienware Arena. It's only valid for accounts six or less hours old. You'll need to create an Alienware Arena account if you don't have one already. The game itself uses Ubisoft's Uplay accounts.

There's a nice newbie guide here which includes codes that will grant you another couple free packs. Most of the codes are outdated though, and unfortunately I don't recall which ones. This chart will help you to know what you should be spending your gold/seals on, with some exceptions found in this Reddit thread. MMDOC.net appears to be the go-to site to check out cards and decks.

[Svend Karlson]

I'm giving it a go after trying it first at Eurogamer Expo recently.

The only CCG I've ever played before, online or offline, is Poxnora. I love Poxnora but the number of runes/cards in that game now makes it bewildering for me to get back into after months away, and I tend to play a couple a months, rest for 10.

So far in M&M: DoC I've only completed most of the SP missions and fought 3 MP matches. It feels slick to play, not too daunting to get into and appears to have significant depth & options for deck-building and developing strategies.

[Tao]

I took a look at this game last week after SudyNym mentioned it. Not too bad at all. One of my big gripes with these free(sort of) to play CCG's is it's nearly impossible to compete without spending real cash. Hearthstone seems this way as does Infinity Wars (another good TCCG that is in beta right now). I have played through the AI campaign and fought maybe 2 player matches and I am sitting on 50,000 gold and about 1200 seals on top of the several free packs you earn for completing basic achievements. The gold and seals is enough to get me a full box of 10 packs plus another 2 or 3 packs which is a great starting set of cards. SO FAR it does not seem to cumbersome to earn in game currency to get more packs.

Right now Alienware is running a special promotion, just sign in to the AlienwareArena website (alienwarearena.com) and you get a code for an ADDITIONAL full box of (10) boosters. The caveat is your DoC account has to be brand new (less than 6 hours old). I was planning to start another account anyway to check out the other factions, this is one of the downsides of DoC your starting faction is locked in at account creation although you can branch out later as you gain more cards.

AlienwareArena...FREE BOX OF CARDS ....Limited Time

Just saw SudyNym had same info in his post, was hard to read with light green text unless I highlighted it...so basically the Alienware deal is still running

[Sudy]

Lol, sorry. I was trying to draw attention to it but wasn't remembering the board has multiple colour schemes. I I'll clean it up next time I'm at my desktop.

I just got into the Hearthstone beta but will definitely be coming back to DoC. They have similarities, but are different enough to scratch different itches, IMO.

[Baroquen]

So far, entertaining. Or that could be the beer "talking". And the codes were helpful. Or at least it felt like I was getting something "extra" even if I'm not, really. I'll get back to it tomorrow, which is more than some games.