This game is surprisingly good. You first wonder how you can possibly enjoy a game without deckbuilding, then suddenly realize the beauty in trying to learn what your crazy deck can do. There's a lot to discover!
Over the decades, I've had an on-again-off-again relationship with MtG. It's expensive to keep up to date, insanely complex, and the community can be exclusive and pretentious. It sounds like Keyforged solves several of those problems while maintaining interesting gameplay. If I can find a friend to play with, I'll need to check it out. Thanks for the tip, Wheels!
This is by far my favorite card game! I’ve always followed what my friends played (Yugioh,Cardfight,Pokémon,Magic) but now Ive discovered my own game and it’s time for them to follow me into this great game! 10/10
Long time gamer here. This is the best card game Ive ever played. Hands down. Bear in mind that I have played almost every card game since the release of magic. Since the release of the 3rd set, Keyforge has developed a rich and flourishing meta of strategies and while you can't build decks you still manage to learn what to expect and how to play around it. Tournaments feel very advanced, as you review your opponent's deck before the game starts; developing a plan before the game even begins. Easy to learn, hard to master- the hallmark of a great game.
There's definitely some appeal if I can stay on top of this card game without being left in the dust from the ever-changing meta. Something to look into.
There is a sealed format, so meta don't mean much. As well as a format where you bring a awful deck and the other guy has to play it. Adaptive format has you bring a good deck, switch with your opponent after the first game, then if a third game is needed bid to play which of the two you want in the third
Surprised you didn't mention the chain handicapping system when you talked about decks randomly being too strong. That was one of the things that made me start looking at tournament play with more interest
@@marhawkman303 Chains are a mechanic in the game that limits a player's ability to refill their hand, and you slowly shed them over the turns where you draw limited cards. However, if players agree that certain decks are too powerful, they can also agree that a deck should start the game with some amount of chains on it, or decks can also gain chains as official wins are tracked, as seen in the description for one event I saw: "This event is a chainbound event. What does that mean? It means as decks win victories they will accrue chains that will carry over to future chain bound events"
@@marhawkman303 on the Keyforge Master Vault website, I think you can sort by how many chains registered decks have, but I don't remember how high I saw them go!
Sounds great the expense and time if deck building and then how fast it could become antiquated put me off games like Magic. This sounds like something I'd like to try. Thanks for the review!
Sorry to be that person, but WotC didn't own D&D until well after they made MtG. They were a tiny game company that exploded with MtG, and they bought out the venerable but failing TSR (original makers of Dungeons and Dragons).
This sounds great for someone like me who on digital deck builders uses auto build features(with mild tweaking occasionally) or default decks because I don't know what a good deck looks like but I often enjoy these types of games
Yes! I was hoping you guys would cover KeyForge. It is such a fun game and I am on board with the randomness. I tried other collecting card games such as Magic and the deck building as well as the releases really prevented me from playing a lot. With KeyForge, every deck is unique and special and as I have played with others, the playstyle of just one deck can change so much in the hands of another player. If you want to try a fun and fairly easy pick up card game, give KeyForge a go. I would really recommend that DiceBreakers does a quick video tutorial in order for others to see how it works.
It's worth noting: keyforge does have a meta. New sets do change the meta. It's also possible to objectively measure the power of cards against other cards and there's definitely a wide range of power levels between decks.
Sounds like a cool concept, but I'm pretty skeptical of how it will work in practice and the randomness feels like a gimmick more than a feature. If I buy a deck in Keyforge and it sucks, or even if it's good but doesn't fit my preferred playstyle, I can't just take the cards I want to keep, scrap the rest, and buy boosterpacks/buy specific cards online until I get a deck I want to use. Now I have to buy a whole new deck and the one I had bought previously is a complete waste, or I have to learn to enjoy a bad/unsuitable deck. And since I don't get to make my own deck, it won't FEEL like MY deck even if it is technically unique to me. I can't tailor it to how I want to play, or to use whatever mechanics I want to focus on, or personalize it with swaggy/weird cards that may not even be good but no one uses them so it makes my deck feel special and different. I have to adapt to the deck I'm given, not the other way around, which sounds fun for a game or two with some drinks but I feel like it would quickly lose its luster. It's like playing a fighting game where random character select is mandatory, and if you don't like the character you got you have to put another fistful of quarters in to re-roll your selection or force yourself to like Zangief. Even if all the characters are theoretically balanced, not everyone is going to want to play every character and not being able to pick a specific character or even an archetype that you want to play as (whether it be because that character is meta, or you like their gameplay, or you just think they look the coolest) feels like it's removing more from the game than it's adding. I dunno, I just feel like the concept may be cooler than the result here.
I'm betting that the decks will be anything BUT balanced, and that if you get, for example, 5 of them and play them against each other repeatedly that you will find that certain decks just work better than others. I'm guessing tournaments will hinge on that. Thing is... the IDEA is quite good in theory. I just don't think it'll make for a good meta-game. However meta-game shifts might change which of the decks in your collection are best at tournaments.
The game is heavy on strategy and each turn has a lot going on. Random decks balances the game. I cant be bothered to collect, sift, sort, and build a deck. With keyforge you spend $10 and you are ready to go. Dont like it or are bored ? its just another $10 for what feels like a completely different game. In Game skill is the most important part. And with chains, a good deck will only be so good for so long
Hey Wheels! I love magic the gathering but I'm not exactly a "serious" player. I could play competitively but I just dont have the time. In fact I was screaming at the television watching you guys play it. No offense. My question is, is this game gonna keep me occupied? If not really, could I use it to introduce my GF (not really into fantasy but is "willing to try") to more fantasy/card games?
Grimmlocked No requirement to buy the latest sets, the incentive to do so however is to discover the new cards, keep up with “power creep” in the form of new mechanics like Ward, Enrage and exult. Also, if you want to get into the competitive scene some events are new set exclusive (sealed). And to play for cash prizes you must use the most recent 3 sets, the older sets get phased out.
Theoretically, nothing and in nonprofessional settings where people are ok with it, I'm sure plenty of people will mix decks. But if an actual tournament occurred I can almost guaranty that rules will prohibit mixing decks, which would be hard to secretly do because each deck has a different back art, name, and group of factions that tournament officials would probably check if needed
@@jondw You would also have to sleeve them, because the back of the cards of your deck is randomized as well so people can tell which cards belong to which deck even on the back.
@@mitchellsink2584thus "back art" in the list of things each deck has different of, but even still do to the random nature of the system all the back really tells you are which houses are in the deck. Though I suppose there would be some strategy at higher levels of play to keep the back hidden. That all being said it would be a small thing for an organizer or referee of a tournament to go in another room or closed off booth to take them out of the sleeves to check if a deck seems off
@@jondw the archon picture is also generated, as well as the name of the deck both of which are on the back of each card, plus the archon name is on the front of each card. The put a lot of thought into identifying stuff.
@@mitchellsink2584 yes... they are also randomly generated, which is what i meant by the randomly generated "back art" and "name" that each deck has randomly generated for them
Excellent mechanics. However I stopped playing because I felt it became a collectable deck game as opposed to a collectable card game. Neither of which appealed. Great game otherwise though.
I wonder how they're going to squeeze money out of people without having them buy packs over and over or pay a lot of money to find the one card they want
Arlena Stuart you have to buy another deck to get any new content, not just optimize the one you have. And they keep adding expansions (3 editions now) and you’d get realllly bored of playing the same deck over and over and over.
@@FuncleChuck Also if you want a certain card combo you have to find a deck printed with that combo. not an easy task, thought you can presumably trade for one if you can find one.
Hey, I love you guys and I love keyforge, but... Is this video sponsored by ffg? Like, you don't say anything about it's problems and really encourage people to play, saying it's one of your favourites while commiting the mistake of the seven aember. It's awesome if you've gotten sponsored, and you have my like anyway, but I guess you should make us aware of that if that's the case (maybe you really love it but have to learn and play like 8 games a day and it's difficult to know every nook and cranny of every game, idk) Keep the awesome content, you guys are great!
The whole collectible genre is gambling trash. Online stores are already selling some opened Keyforge decks for $150+ while others go for $10. Metas have been identified. After a decade wasting my time and money on MTG the only card games I'm willing to play now are games where every card needed to keep playing forever is in the box, like Race for the Galaxy. This whole video is nothing but "I swear guys this time the gambling rated for children isn't as bad" and it's gross.
Hi everyone, minor correction: It's 6 aember to forge a key not 7! Thanks to all who pointed it out
Nice catch, was making me think I was playing the game wrong for a second lol. Great vid guys, spreading the awareness
This game is surprisingly good. You first wonder how you can possibly enjoy a game without deckbuilding, then suddenly realize the beauty in trying to learn what your crazy deck can do. There's a lot to discover!
Over the decades, I've had an on-again-off-again relationship with MtG. It's expensive to keep up to date, insanely complex, and the community can be exclusive and pretentious.
It sounds like Keyforged solves several of those problems while maintaining interesting gameplay. If I can find a friend to play with, I'll need to check it out.
Thanks for the tip, Wheels!
The problem is knowing how to keep any community from becoming exclusive and pretentious. Gatekeeping is the new profession.
@@commandercaptain4664 Not the new profession, but perhaps the new past-time.
This is by far my favorite card game! I’ve always followed what my friends played (Yugioh,Cardfight,Pokémon,Magic) but now Ive discovered my own game and it’s time for them to follow me into this great game! 10/10
Long time gamer here. This is the best card game Ive ever played. Hands down. Bear in mind that I have played almost every card game since the release of magic. Since the release of the 3rd set, Keyforge has developed a rich and flourishing meta of strategies and while you can't build decks you still manage to learn what to expect and how to play around it. Tournaments feel very advanced, as you review your opponent's deck before the game starts; developing a plan before the game even begins. Easy to learn, hard to master- the hallmark of a great game.
There's definitely some appeal if I can stay on top of this card game without being left in the dust from the ever-changing meta. Something to look into.
There is a sealed format, so meta don't mean much. As well as a format where you bring a awful deck and the other guy has to play it. Adaptive format has you bring a good deck, switch with your opponent after the first game, then if a third game is needed bid to play which of the two you want in the third
Entropy is inevitable. Chaos is a ladder. Embrace the randomness.
Eat Snacky Smores.
Surprised you didn't mention the chain handicapping system when you talked about decks randomly being too strong. That was one of the things that made me start looking at tournament play with more interest
Elaborate please, this sounds interesting. :)
@@marhawkman303 Chains are a mechanic in the game that limits a player's ability to refill their hand, and you slowly shed them over the turns where you draw limited cards. However, if players agree that certain decks are too powerful, they can also agree that a deck should start the game with some amount of chains on it, or decks can also gain chains as official wins are tracked, as seen in the description for one event I saw: "This event is a chainbound event. What does that mean? It means as decks win victories they will accrue chains that will carry over to future chain bound events"
@@delacreaux that is a very interesting idea. :) I wonder how long a chain people will get up to?
@@marhawkman303 on the Keyforge Master Vault website, I think you can sort by how many chains registered decks have, but I don't remember how high I saw them go!
@@delacreaux I wonder how common it will be for players to bring a new deck to each chainbound event just to avoid it?
Sounds great the expense and time if deck building and then how fast it could become antiquated put me off games like Magic. This sounds like something I'd like to try. Thanks for the review!
John Leach Do it! But warning its hard to just buy one deck 🤣
Lazarithe I agree 115 decks later
Rick Durie I’ve got you beat 😭
I actually got to play this and it was a lot of fun
Sorry to be that person, but WotC didn't own D&D until well after they made MtG. They were a tiny game company that exploded with MtG, and they bought out the venerable but failing TSR (original makers of Dungeons and Dragons).
Yeah, TSR wasn't acquired by WotC until 1997, and WotC kept the TSR branding on D&D stuff until they released 3rd edition in 2000.
Thank you. Bad way to start a video with such a bold inaccuracy.
@@agamerspov No worries, the actual review part was great! :D
This sounds great for someone like me who on digital deck builders uses auto build features(with mild tweaking occasionally) or default decks because I don't know what a good deck looks like but I often enjoy these types of games
Yes! I was hoping you guys would cover KeyForge. It is such a fun game and I am on board with the randomness. I tried other collecting card games such as Magic and the deck building as well as the releases really prevented me from playing a lot. With KeyForge, every deck is unique and special and as I have played with others, the playstyle of just one deck can change so much in the hands of another player. If you want to try a fun and fairly easy pick up card game, give KeyForge a go. I would really recommend that DiceBreakers does a quick video tutorial in order for others to see how it works.
introduced to this at egx, i absolutely loved it
I would love to see you guys play heroscape. It was one of my favorite games as a kid and had pretty cool miniatures.
It's worth noting: keyforge does have a meta. New sets do change the meta. It's also possible to objectively measure the power of cards against other cards and there's definitely a wide range of power levels between decks.
Cheeky edit with the cardboard fart
By default, six Aember forge a key, not seven.
Yes, that was a mistake!
5:20 "Chris Matthews" expansion set.
No mention of chains which can help balance gameplay
Sounds like a cool concept, but I'm pretty skeptical of how it will work in practice and the randomness feels like a gimmick more than a feature. If I buy a deck in Keyforge and it sucks, or even if it's good but doesn't fit my preferred playstyle, I can't just take the cards I want to keep, scrap the rest, and buy boosterpacks/buy specific cards online until I get a deck I want to use. Now I have to buy a whole new deck and the one I had bought previously is a complete waste, or I have to learn to enjoy a bad/unsuitable deck. And since I don't get to make my own deck, it won't FEEL like MY deck even if it is technically unique to me. I can't tailor it to how I want to play, or to use whatever mechanics I want to focus on, or personalize it with swaggy/weird cards that may not even be good but no one uses them so it makes my deck feel special and different. I have to adapt to the deck I'm given, not the other way around, which sounds fun for a game or two with some drinks but I feel like it would quickly lose its luster. It's like playing a fighting game where random character select is mandatory, and if you don't like the character you got you have to put another fistful of quarters in to re-roll your selection or force yourself to like Zangief. Even if all the characters are theoretically balanced, not everyone is going to want to play every character and not being able to pick a specific character or even an archetype that you want to play as (whether it be because that character is meta, or you like their gameplay, or you just think they look the coolest) feels like it's removing more from the game than it's adding.
I dunno, I just feel like the concept may be cooler than the result here.
I'm betting that the decks will be anything BUT balanced, and that if you get, for example, 5 of them and play them against each other repeatedly that you will find that certain decks just work better than others. I'm guessing tournaments will hinge on that.
Thing is... the IDEA is quite good in theory. I just don't think it'll make for a good meta-game. However meta-game shifts might change which of the decks in your collection are best at tournaments.
The game is heavy on strategy and each turn has a lot going on. Random decks balances the game. I cant be bothered to collect, sift, sort, and build a deck.
With keyforge you spend $10 and you are ready to go. Dont like it or are bored ? its just another $10 for what feels like a completely different game. In Game skill is the most important part.
And with chains, a good deck will only be so good for so long
I keep hearing about it, but I’ve never seen it for sale (outside of at GenCon) - so, why would I bother?
Amazon.
great video love it!
Hey Wheels! I love magic the gathering but I'm not exactly a "serious" player. I could play competitively but I just dont have the time. In fact I was screaming at the television watching you guys play it. No offense. My question is, is this game gonna keep me occupied? If not really, could I use it to introduce my GF (not really into fantasy but is "willing to try") to more fantasy/card games?
so my friends and i have like 30 decks from set one. what is the incentive for me to buy from the new set? like i understood in magic but here idk.
Grimmlocked No requirement to buy the latest sets, the incentive to do so however is to discover the new cards, keep up with “power creep” in the form of new mechanics like Ward, Enrage and exult. Also, if you want to get into the competitive scene some events are new set exclusive (sealed). And to play for cash prizes you must use the most recent 3 sets, the older sets get phased out.
I really like the game. But ironically, I feel like FFG itself doesn't like it as much as I do.
That sounds about right. Replayability is one thing, but reBUYability is their forte.
So the antithesis to MtG?
So what prevents people from mixing and matching their own decks? :P
Theoretically, nothing and in nonprofessional settings where people are ok with it, I'm sure plenty of people will mix decks. But if an actual tournament occurred I can almost guaranty that rules will prohibit mixing decks, which would be hard to secretly do because each deck has a different back art, name, and group of factions that tournament officials would probably check if needed
@@jondw You would also have to sleeve them, because the back of the cards of your deck is randomized as well so people can tell which cards belong to which deck even on the back.
@@mitchellsink2584thus "back art" in the list of things each deck has different of, but even still do to the random nature of the system all the back really tells you are which houses are in the deck. Though I suppose there would be some strategy at higher levels of play to keep the back hidden. That all being said it would be a small thing for an organizer or referee of a tournament to go in another room or closed off booth to take them out of the sleeves to check if a deck seems off
@@jondw the archon picture is also generated, as well as the name of the deck both of which are on the back of each card, plus the archon name is on the front of each card. The put a lot of thought into identifying stuff.
@@mitchellsink2584 yes... they are also randomly generated, which is what i meant by the randomly generated "back art" and "name" that each deck has randomly generated for them
The only tcg where you don't have to build the deck
Praise be RNGesus, praise be
6 aember to forge not 7
Excellent mechanics. However I stopped playing because I felt it became a collectable deck game as opposed to a collectable card game. Neither of which appealed. Great game otherwise though.
yeah it feels like the issue will be that you have to look for good decks and that most of the decks won't be viable for tournament play at all.
These days I would rather play this casually than MTG.
I wonder how they're going to squeeze money out of people without having them buy packs over and over or pay a lot of money to find the one card they want
Arlena Stuart you have to buy another deck to get any new content, not just optimize the one you have. And they keep adding expansions (3 editions now) and you’d get realllly bored of playing the same deck over and over and over.
@@FuncleChuck Also if you want a certain card combo you have to find a deck printed with that combo. not an easy task, thought you can presumably trade for one if you can find one.
@@FuncleChuck yeah that's fair
hate deck building
Hey, I love you guys and I love keyforge, but... Is this video sponsored by ffg? Like, you don't say anything about it's problems and really encourage people to play, saying it's one of your favourites while commiting the mistake of the seven aember. It's awesome if you've gotten sponsored, and you have my like anyway, but I guess you should make us aware of that if that's the case (maybe you really love it but have to learn and play like 8 games a day and it's difficult to know every nook and cranny of every game, idk)
Keep the awesome content, you guys are great!
*fart*
You are not the boss of me!
The whole collectible genre is gambling trash. Online stores are already selling some opened Keyforge decks for $150+ while others go for $10. Metas have been identified. After a decade wasting my time and money on MTG the only card games I'm willing to play now are games where every card needed to keep playing forever is in the box, like Race for the Galaxy. This whole video is nothing but "I swear guys this time the gambling rated for children isn't as bad" and it's gross.
So this game takes out all deck building and strategy of TCGs ... hard pass.