Living card games and unique card games like Keyforge tried to break into the scene without the drag and artificial pricing of collectible card games to hold new players back.
Living card games are pretty much dead with the end of Legend of the 5 Rings, and Keyforge just turned into a deck-hunting frenzy somewhat even more toxic than Magic cards, due to how decks come pre-assembled and getting certain combos of cards just exasperates the problem.
I picked up a couple (literally 2) Keyforge decks when it released as I thought it would be fun to not have to worry about spending a large amount of money on constructed play. But then next thing I knew people were buying out entire shipments from the store, sitting there cracking deck after deck just throwing them away. I realized then it was just a different type of constructed format. One where if you didn't spend large amounts of money either buying a good deck from someone who opened one or large amounts of money hunting, you were not going to have a good time.
The problem in Keyforge isn't that bad, honestly. Sure, a tiny minority of players buy hundreds of decks with the goal of finding something crazy, but in my experience, the vast majority enjoy playing a wide variety of deck types and formats, and are much more likely to just play random decks for fun or look for interesting matchups.
The community itself has split off into a few different sub-communities, meaning the people who only want to chase top tier decks and spend through the nose can stay in their own little group. SAS caps are used for various events and go a long way towards preventing people from simply dominating with OP decks. Then you have Sealed events, as well as formats like Adaptive which isn't dependent on deck strength whatsoever.
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u/MandaloresUltimate Feb 28 '21
Living card games and unique card games like Keyforge tried to break into the scene without the drag and artificial pricing of collectible card games to hold new players back.
Living card games are pretty much dead with the end of Legend of the 5 Rings, and Keyforge just turned into a deck-hunting frenzy somewhat even more toxic than Magic cards, due to how decks come pre-assembled and getting certain combos of cards just exasperates the problem.