Spectromancer

Despite its age, Magic: The Gathering is still very popular around the world and there are many people who have spent the last few years collecting cards and building the perfect deck. Now, from the creator of the aforementioned masterpiece comes a new title, which aims to change the mechanics a bit and introduce a few new gimmicks into the genre.

Spectromancer is a trading card game that reuses some of the old concepts made popular by Magic: The Gathering, but also tries to improve on them, in some aspects. However, the game also tries to appeal to the general public more, since the designers also removed a lot of interesting aspects from the game, only to be replaced with simplified versions, or nothing at all.

As far as the background story and the lore is concerned, you can play as one of the six wizards that are available at the start of the campaign, each one of with have slightly different strengths and weaknesses. There are also eight classes that can be learned and mastered throughout the career mode and countless spells to witness as you gain more and more experience in certain classes.

As you would expect from a trading card game of this caliber, the main purpose should be the creation of a powerful deck, one that encompasses the right combination of spells to get you out of any situation. In Spectromancer, on the other hand, you cannot really do so, because you are automatically given a random set of twenty cards before each duel begins, as in one from every element.

Moreover, these cards are not lost of spent after they are used in battle, since they return into the deck and they can be used again, as long as you have enough mana to do so. While this is indeed much simpler than the original concept, the simplification might prove to be a bit discouraging for more experience players, who won't find any kind of challenge in the new rules.

Lastly, Spectromancer is definitely a good game, especially since it has the masterminds from Magic: The Gathering behind it as well. Even with the simplifications, you can still have a lot of fun and enjoy the fact that you do not have to keep an eye on your deck at all times.