For first time in centuries...
The Eternal Throne sits empty...
Developer & Publisher: Dire Wolf Digital
Early Access Release Date: Nov 19th 2016
Full Release Date: Nov 15th 2018
Price: Free-to-Play
Expansions:
- Jekk's Bounty (campaign Feb 16th '17)
- Omens of the Past (set 2 July 14th '17)
- The Tale of Horus Traver (campaign Nov 3rd '17)
- The Dusk Road (set 3 Dec 17th '17)
- Dead Reckoning (campaign Mar 7th '18)
- The Fall of Argenport (set 4 Jun 28th '18)
- Into Shadow (campaign Oct 3rd '18)
- Defiance (set 5 Dec 13th '18)
- Homecoming (campaign Mar 28th '19)
- Dark Frontier (set 6 May 9th '19)
- Trials of Grodov (mini-expansion July 24th '19)
- The Flame of Xulta (set 7 Oct 7th '19)
- Promises by Firelight (campaign Dec 19th '19)
- Echoes of Eternity (Set 8 Feb 11th '20)
- Whispers of the Throne (mini-expansion March 30th '20)
- Shadow of the Spire (mini-expansion May 4th '20)
Available: Steam(Windows/Mac), Google Play, App Store, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Eternal is a strongly Magic the Gathering inspired collectible card game, set in a sort of Weird West type fantasy setting. It was created by various MtG vets like Luis Scott-Vargas and Patrick Chapin. A lot of tweaks have been made to old paper game oriented rules to make the experience more suitable for digital format, while not losing too much of the depth.
It has the best draft mode in digital CCGs and one of the best F2P models.
Solo modes:
Campaigns contain both the 5 basic tutorial campaigns that you do at the beginning of the game, and the paid campaign expansions that have been released so far. All fights reward specific cards upon completion.
Puzzles teach various corner case mechanic interactions and are an excellent learning tool at the beginning of the game. They reward a bit of gold when you first complete them.
Gauntlet is where you can fight against AI with your constructed deck and get gold rewards. 7 fights against different decks, and the final battle is against a gimmick boss if you beat 6 without losing. It is infinitely grindable, although the rewards are slightly rear loaded, so for maximum value you need to get to the end consistently. Good, stress-free source of gold for beginners, as the first 5 full clears give massive rewards for going up "Gauntlet divisions". The divisions, and thus the rank-up rewards, are reset every new set.
Forge is a draft mode against AI, with Hearthstone-ish "pick 1 card of 3" until you have a full deck. You fight until you beat 7 AI opponents or lose twice, better rewards the longer you survive. Price of 2500 gold or 250 gems ($2.50) might initially feel a bit steep, but gaining gold is fast in this game, and you keep all your draft picks, letting you go even with a record of 3-2 already. Another good source of initial cards and gold for newcomers when Gauntlet gets stale.
Versus modes (including friendly challenges, which you can play through friendlist):
Event is a seldom available special mode for deck brewers that opens up once in a while. You pay an entry fee, and register a deck that follows the mode's various, sometimes silly deck rules, and fight other players' decks for rewards until specific win or loss limit. Run length increases rewards, and so do your first 20ish matches for leaderboard, which also reward packs for success. It never hurts to try once, you get enough packs back with first try.
Expedition is a fairly new rotating constructed mode, started about Set 6. Eternal has already accumulated a fairly large number of cards, some of them have been played for 3 years, and Expedition is Eternal's currently experimental rotating format. As of now, Expedition format contains the latest full set, and a big chunk of older cards that synergize with it on some level, with exception of some of the most played (and complained about) old meta cards. It is not based on sets, the older inclusions are fully curated and you can turn on a filter on the deckbuilder to only show Expedition-legal cards. All draft cards are legal in Expedition.
Casual is somewhere to play your decks against other players without much risk, it has its own MMR. You can complete any daily versus quests here, and it does give small gold amounts for wins.
Ranked is simply ranked ladder. The "main constructed mode" with better win rewards than Casual.
Draft is the real deal. For entry fee of 5000 gold or 500 gems ($5), you open four 12-card packs (two packs of newest set, and 2 "curated" packs of various suitable older cards) and pick a card of your choice from them, and pass the packs on. This is proper Magic the Gathering style draft, as you keep the cards you pick. However, drafts are asynchronous, so packs do not cycle back. You draft in queues rather than pods/groups, so reading signals is less useful, however not pointless. Queue A will give you packs 1 and 4, while queue B will give you packs 2 & 3. If you don't raredraft (just picking all expensive cards for constructed/crafting) you still get even at draft record 2-3. The rewards for better runs are massive, you play up to 7 wins, so this is where you should spend your gold on, rather than packs, 99% of the time.
(Sealed) League is basically a month-long Event, and it's currently how Eternal does the "Sealed" format familiar from MtG. You get 2x the packs you get in Draft, and try to make a deck out of it. Then, on weeks 2, 3 and 4 of monthly League, you get additional packs to upgrade your deck. Your rewards are decided by your Leaderboard rank, and your first 10 matches each week contribute to it (can be stacked on later weeks). It is not a particularly gold-efficient game mode when compared to Draft, but it has higher floor of expected value for beginners, and unlimited matches in a Limited format. Might wanna spend time and gold there if Draft feels intimidating but you want to play against others with low power decks.
Official Reddit
Official Discord
My personal invite link for account creation if you want to start with 3 extra packs and a deck
Eternal Warcry for card database, decks, tournaments, and other features.
Articles:
Eternal World Championship 2020 info
Twitch extension for streamers
Last edited: