After tabletop RPGs, video video games, and board video games, Cyberpunk 2077 is hacking into the TCG area with Cyberpunk TCG, a brand new card recreation that is getting nearer and nearer to the launch of its Kickstarter marketing campaign on March 17. Revealed again in December proper right here on IGN, we have now had a while to shuffle by means of some playing cards and find out how this newest adaptation of CD Projekt RED’s and Mike Pondsmith’s creation performs, courtesy of an alpha set that the parents at WeirdCo despatched our approach.
Having performed some matches with the 2 included trial decks, let’s check out how precisely Cyberpunk TCG hopes to win some avenue cred and declare some territory within the already crowded card recreation market, alongside taking a primary take a look at a number of new playing cards within the thrilling TCG.
This “Merc Triptych” that includes Jackie Welles, V (Company Exile), and Viktor Vektor seems phenomenal. I like how a lot it leans right into a gritty, watercolor aesthetic that particularly nails the Cyberpunk vibe. I’m additionally significantly enamored by V’s corp look. You may even discover her sporting a selected silver hand, which is a superb additional contact. Not solely are these playing cards enjoyable to have a look at, but it surely’s additionally a fantastic take a look at the sport’s core mechanics and deckbuilding construction.
Whereas Cyberpunk options many acquainted elements to different TCGs – utilizing sources to pay for playing cards you play, attacking and blocking with summoned creatures, common gameplay kinds tied to a coloration, and so on – I’ve been shocked how a lot it additionally manages to really feel fairly in contrast to some other I’ve performed so far, not simply from V, Jackie, and Vik, but in addition with taking part in round with the aforementioned alpha deck. A lot of this I owe to how WeirdCo and the sport’s designers have managed to infuse the supply supplies’ RPG-DNA into the TCG area, incorporating cube into the move of the sport, however in a approach that, whenever you first hear about it, you might not have anticipated.
Every participant has a pool of six cube, known as “Gigs,” put aside in the beginning of the sport, and on every flip, you’ll choose one among your cube, roll it, and set it in entrance of you. These values act as your avenue cred, whose complete worth (from all of your out there cube) will unlock further perks for some playing cards, with some results even letting you regulate the cube. Different results, similar to “Jackie Welles – Pour One Out For Me,” assist you to manipulate the values of cube, too, triggering further goodies and methods so that you can make the most of. In Jackie’s case, you’ll be able to regulate one among your cube’s values by 2, and whether it is as excessive as it is going to go, it allows you to draw a card. Managing your avenue cred cube holds a much more necessary issue to your recreation of Cyberpunk The TCG – these math rocks function your life, too.
To win a recreation of Cyberpunk, in contrast to many different TCGs, you are not making an attempt to take an opponent’s life to zero; as a substitute, you are taking the W everytime you begin your flip in possession of six complete cube. Everytime you assault your opponent and the assault lands, you’ll be able to choose and steal one among their cube, and add its avenue cred to your personal. You’ll be able to even steal a number of cube, relying on how massive an assault your card’s assault has, letting you steal even two or three at a time, turning every recreation of Cyberpunk into an intense recreation of tug-of-war that I discovered myself moderately enamoured by. Having develop into a bit burnt out on the usual lifepoint or prize/defend direct of a overwhelming majority of its friends.
Being a buying and selling card recreation, ripping packs, establishing decks, and turning cardboard rectangles sideways are nonetheless entrance and heart right here. Cyberpunk options its personal coloration system for its playing cards, just like Magic’s coloration pie or Riftbound’s rune dominas, and closely impressed by the ability bushes featured in CD Projekt Crimson’s Cyberpunk 2077. Along with the 4 colours featured, Crimson, Blue, Yellow, and Inexperienced, playing cards additionally are available 4 varieties. Legends (the leaders of your deck who you construct your deck round, not too dissimilar to a deck’s Commander in Magic), Items (your grunts on the bottom, doing the combating), Applications (Cyberpunk’s equal to spells, one-time results), and Gear (tools you connect to enhance your models).
Beginning with the Legends, every deck consists of three playing cards which can be positioned, face down, in a particular space. These legends, with the preliminary choices together with the likes of V, Goro Takemura, and Yorinobu Arasaka, function a coloured RAM worth that can dictate the power and colours of playing cards you’ll be able to embody in your deck, with the full values and colours of your whole Legends collectively providing you with your limits. Decks themselves should fall inside 40 and 50 playing cards (not together with Legends) with not more than 3 copies of the identical card (no duplicate Legends although).
Astute TCG fans could have picked up on the truth that I didn’t point out any sort of useful resource card, like mana, in my checklist of card varieties, and that’s as a result of one of many Cyberpunk’s attention-grabbing elements is that as a substitute of taking part in a Unit or Gear card, you’ll be able to as a substitute “promote” or place them face down and use them as a useful resource used to spend (i.e. tapping) to solid different playing cards, together with your Legends.
Alongside the inclusion of the cube side, the factor I’ve discovered most attention-grabbing about taking part in Cyberpunk has to do with the Legends, extra particularly, the way you carry them onto the board. As talked about earlier, these leaders begin the sport face down in a devoted Chief space. As soon as per participant’s flip, you’ll be able to spend sources to flip them face up and, in essence, summon them, unlocking their card talents. Crucially, that timing just isn’t restricted to your personal flip, that means you may also reveal a Legend throughout an opponent’s flip, similar to in response to an assault.
The factor is, nonetheless, except a card allows you to take a look at them, you haven’t any approach of understanding which of your Legends you’re bringing out till you flip the cardboard. Granted, you solely have three Legends to select from, however this kind of blindly casting a card as a significant mechanic is one thing I can’t recall seeing in some other TCG I’ve performed, and I’m nonetheless not fairly offered on it. I’m all for the occasional infusion of chaos in my card video games; heck, I play “Chance Storm” and “Chaos Warp” in one among my Magic decks only for the hilarity, however having it’s a continuing think about each recreation, I haven’t landed on fairly how I really feel about it but. I don’t know if I like the thought of together with playing cards amongst my moderately restricted 50 deck slots for the aim of taking part in the reminiscence recreation of seeing the place that Legend I wish to carry out could possibly be.
I’m no stranger to TCGs, having been a Magic participant for almost 30 years at this level (gosh I’m previous), and have performed all kinds of others from the Remaining Fantasy TCG, fashionable Digimon, dabbled in Pokemon, Yugioh, and even performed a pair video games of the previous My Little Pony one, and the upcoming Cyberpunk TCG is already pulling off some surprises which have me excited.
I’ve discovered myself particularly intrigued by the tug-of-war nature of the gig cube, with video games feeling extra tense, frequently, than a lot of the others. Moreover, whereas there are playing cards in each of the decks that cope with altering the cube and triggers out of your Road Cred worth, I’m excited to see full spoilers for the set and people past to see how this mechanic is admittedly utilized and in what artistic results it is going to make the most of.
Whereas we don’t have lengthy to attend for Cyberpunk TCG’s marketing campaign to start on March 17, if you wish to give the foundations a deeper dive, WeirdCo has the alpha ruleset out there on the firm’s web site.
Followers of each Cyberpunk and buying and selling card video games ought to have this one on their radars, particularly if in case you have felt that every one the cardboard video games popping out recently really feel a bit samey. For myself, I can’t wait to get my fingers on extra of those playing cards and actually take these techniques for a experience and see what they’ll do.
Scott White is a contract contributor to IGN, aiding with tabletop video games and information protection. Comply with him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
This text additionally options contributions from Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor for IGN.
