This game wins hands down in the ever growing field of TCGs. It has a very deep strategy in card definitions and some very intriguing tactic aspects in the use of a board game-like battlefield in which creatures are summoned and moved. I've already seen this concept in other card games, but never in such a well designed way.
The game itself in my opinion is the perfect balance between complexity and playability, deep mechanics and user-friendliness. Games are quite long if you campare them with games like Heartstone but they're very involving and give much fun and satisfaction. So many game modes to chose between will keep you playing for hours in a single session: from daily pve trials to pve skirmishes to an infinite list of specific pve trials that keeps you playing for MONTHS, to quick pvp games or ranked games, or even the judgement mode, which is a draft mode similar to Heartstone's Arena mode but much more well designed to create actually working decks and not just random 'keep-the-best-card' decks.
You can add to all this that this game cost is just 5$, meaning that you pay 5$ to get the full game and then nothing more: you'll earn (many) gold playing and you'll use it to purchase everything in the game. The game is even cross-platform and if you purchase the full game for a platform you'll get it free for the others. I bought the game for PC when it was in beta and got the Android version for free.
Add also to all this that the gold earning/shop costs ratio is very affordable: you'll get 10 new cards with every 3 or 4 games. And there's A LOT of ways to get cards, too: from the shop with 10 random cards packs, single card puchases or preconstructed decks, from the black market, in which you can buy and sell your single cards, and from the trading channel in which you can even trade your cards for gold or other cards with other players live!
All this is surronuded by a GREAT community effort to keep the game fresh and alive: you can find TONS of guides, articles and so much useful web tools to manage decks, create new cards, analyze game mechanics and discuss about the game in general. The work done here to maintain the game open to community input is wonderful.
This is a real TCG game like only MtG could be. This is for real TCG players. It will not be easy. It will not forgive mistakes. It will take you moths to learn and to master. But if you call yourself a serious TCG player you have to try it. The demo is free to download and it consists in the full game limited to easy level pve and qick match pvp. If you're a real TCG player you'll love it.
Played scrolls for about 18 month now and still excited to play after having played several thousand games. Content unlocking is incredibly generous and you can buy the full version of the game for 5$ (there is a free demo version). The community is super friendly and helpful and the game has great potential to become even better with more people joining and tournament scene developing further. Fully recommend it.
Scrolls has a great system, with old and new rules that work perfectly combined. It needs a more intuitive deck builder and a way to attract new audience, for a game that can take a bit long to begin to enjoy.
While its an advancement on Hearthstone mechanically, if Hearthstone is the standard for the genre these days, then invariably Scrolls becomes one for CCG veterans only.
Scrolls may not be the next Minecraft for Mojang but it proves that
the studio still has got a pretty unique way of thinking. The best part
of Scrolls is the way that it combines a traditional board game with
a digital card game. Everyone that enjoyed Hearthstone should take a
closer look.
I can’t shake the feeling that Mojang lives (or, rather, lived before the Microsoft buyout) in the perpetual brainstorm mode, as if everyone on the development team shouts their suggestions, and then, instead of sifting through them and selecting the best ones, they just go ahead and cram everything in the final product. Maybe Minecraft actually benefited from this chaos, but for Scrolls, which has been stuck in a quagmire of half-baked ideas for two years, this approach brings nothing but death.
I really love this game. It combines a traditional card game with a board game mechanic, that makes this game very strategical.
You build your deck and start a game, place units, cast spells and enchanments and try to destroy the oppenents idols, while keeping your own safe.
At the beginning you start with just one Growth Starter Deck. So, what to do?
You can play Trials, which have custom rules. Beating them not only rewards you a lot of money, but alos shows you the mechanics of the game.
I'd recommend doing a couple of those, for you get new starter decks for beating other factions.
That way you can easily test all other factions and pick one to dive in.
You can spend your gold then on booster packs, or preconstructed decks, to further enhance your library.
If you feel you need a human to test your deck against, go into a quick match.
Feeling already experienced enough? Go Ranked, which is tougher, of course, but you learn a lot about other cards, factions and playstyles that way.
You can also compete in Judgement. Though, there you get a random selection of cards and try to build the best deck possible with these limited cards. Each win with this deck grants you more rewards (more gold and more cards to keep from the random deck you build).
There's also Crafting, Black market, Watch Live Games, but I won't explain everything at this point.
Pay to Win? Not a chance. You earn gold in game quite easy and there is a limitation on real-money transactions. I have never had the need to pay some real money and already got 75% of the cards at least once (playing since release).
All in all, it's an addictive game, with a deep level of strategy involved and a lot of stuff to get into.
Try the demo, it's free and offers you already a lot. 4,50 € isn't much to spend and keeps ragers and people of that sort away.
Now that I think about it, the community is really great. Never in a game have I experienced such a friendly atmosphere.
Well, again: Try the demo yourselves! :)
Scrolls is a very cheap and generous, yet extremely deep, beautiful and professionally made card and board game. Still in very active development, Scrolls has already developed and improved tremendously and offers a high amount of content and worth:
4 very different and complex factions, many different scrolls, a draft mode, daily quests, generous rewards for winning and losing, a tutorial, missions, tactical gameplay, great mechanics, comfortable interface and design, great balancing, a nice and friendly community, a real observer mode and unlimited replayability, available for both PC and Tablets.
Still, only 7 points you ask?
Which brings us to the big downside of the game: Unpredictable gameplay!
There are too many cards, which are able to change the board situation drastically, and which can turn the tide within one single round. You could dominate the whole game and still lose, because a single card or combination has taken your whole army apart.
That means, that no matter how perfect your skill, deck and strategy might be: You will always have to hope that the opponent doesnt have this or that card(s) in his deck and hand, or you might lose.
For newcomers, it just feels like the outcome is decided by draws, not skill, which of course isnt completely true, but still much closer to the truth than it should.
And thats the point where i stopped playing. After a game, where i outplayed and dominated my opponent from the start, just to have my army destroyed by a ridiculous combination of cards that improve speed and grant mass destruction.
For me, good play and thinking is just not rewarding in this game...
Therefore, sadly not recommended.
Do not trust the 10's (Fanboys are blind). The game is decent, but it actually doesn't feel polished enough and has some minor flaws. I actually enjoy this game very much (I bought my 2nd account recently). So the strong points of the game:
+ CCG in a grid with creature attack timers feel a realy unique and fun aspect of the game.
+ Even though when you buy the game you still need to collect all the cards, the pacing of progression seems balanced and there are no game breaking legendaries that hearthstone has. (Rarest card: Rare). You can buy rarest card for in game gold. Even the most expensive ones can be gathered after about 1 hour of playtime if not less.
+ Fun game mechanics.
+ Interesting "Trials" (Daily and non-daily challenges).
+ Fun PvAI (Player vs AI - Computer is very balanced).
+ The potential of this game is real. If they would tweak all the negatives mentioned below, I would give this game a solid 9/10.
- Hard to get into (Reason: Starter decks which you get at the start are only capable of beating computer players, you have to grind for cards for at least a week to get going in PvP).
- The UI could be better.
- About 10% of scrolls in the game are useless (Totally Underpowered).
- The draw/sacrifice mechanic is way too cheesy, most of the games are decided by draws if you are smart, because with a good deck spotting good plays is not too difficult and hands get out of fuel very early in the game for both sides.
- Matches can drag on for a while (Longest one I played: 1hour 20minutes, however the average is about 15-20minutes).
Conclusion:
"This game has a lot of potential and even though it has some downsides I still consider Scrolls to be one of the best CCGs ever released on PC. My picks - Scrolls and Hearthstone for PC CCG world. If you have the time and love card games, then the game is definitely for you. And... If you are new to the genre then still... Feel free to try it out, the demo version is free and if you decide that you like it you can then upgrade to full version and keep all the cards you got in demo"
Scrolls is a waste of time and money. Only positive about this game is its fair pay model.
The game is infested with elitist community members, boring stall decks and the devs lack any sort of incentive to change this. Game last between 20-30 minutes. The game is filled with imbalances, poor design, poor animations and questionable patches. To make things worse, the game usually only has 100-200 people online (on peak hours!) and despite being a 'beta', the devs have a seperate test server which only certain people can access. Please, do not support this game. If you are looking for a fun, balanced and exciting TCG/CCG, look up Hearthstone, Infinity Wars, Duels of the Planeswalkers or just play some paper Magic.
Wow. Just... wow. I have been playing this failed attempt of an online TCG for several hours now because i couldn't believe the negative votes this game has gotten. I couldn't believe that a developer would be so dumb to put the most basic, fundamental features behind a paywall.
Just let me count off the things you cannot do in the "demo"/"free" version:
- upgrade/craft scrolls/cards.
- buy anything else than the most basic, randomized cards/booster packs in the in-game store
- edit&save your in-game avatar that you also have to pay for with in-game currency as well.
- sell&buy scrolls to&from other players.
- play ranked matches.
- choose your own starter deck/faction. (I got Growth even though i've read on the internet several times that it's one of the weakest factions of the game. The starter deck is horrible, and even after buying several scrolls and packs from the store plus having read the strategy hints at the "scrolls academy" the AI still curbstomped me in the skirmish mode on easy because the AI gets the better cards and also when it needs them at the right time.
- play against other players in ranked matches.
I cannot understand why someone would prefer this over Hearthstone, for several reasons.
True, Hearthstone may be simpler at first glance, but with Hearthstone you don't have to grind and/or pay to get promised features.
Hearthstone has free ranked matches, you can buy booster packs with ingame currency and you can use the crafting system without having to pay to unlock the feaure.
Additionally, the number of players online is a good indicator as well... the most recent number being around 2000 players. No, not in an hour or so, but... yesterday. Whole day. Hearthstone comparatively has a player base of around 30 million in total. Not because the game is made by Blizzard Entertainment, but because Hearthstone can be fun to play, offers a fair and square pay model and because it doesn't put up a pay wall for basic features.
Don't waste your time with Scrolls. Go play a fun game, even if it's not Hearthstone.
SummaryScrolls is Mojang's next game and offers a new and unique game play where you fight to outmaneuver your opponent on the battlefield using the destructive powers in your collection of magical scrolls. Tear your opponent limb from limb with the might of your summoned armies, lay waste to the defenses with the obliterating power of your sie...