There’s an anxiety to deck builders that I don’t find in a lot of other games, in the sense that I’m incredibly stressed about what cards I have to play. I feel this way about card games in real life too, for reasons I really can’t understand. It’s just a game! And yet, I can’t help but scold my stupid little brain in the moments when I make a misstep. So I really like the sound of Grail, the latest little game from small game aficionados Sokpop, where after you build your deck, the deck fights for you.
Grail, a roguelike deckbuilder, starts you off with just three cards. When you jump into your first match, it seems a little intimidating at first. You didn’t choose any of them and you don’t actually decide which cards to play, you can only watch them unfold. So you see that one card does damage, another card heals you, and another card increases the damage of your damage card. Each card requires energy to play, of which you have four points, but some cards cost multiple energy points and you get one energy point back after a card is played.
Once all your cards are played, the match does not end. Instead, they are put back into your deck, randomly shuffled, and continue to play themselves. In cases where you start to run out of energy, only one point can be attached to a card that requires two, so you have to wait until it is shuffled back into the game to use it. But remember that card that increases the damage of another card? This is also replayed, so you get stronger as the rounds unfold in front of you.
This is essentially the heart of deck building. You’re looking for cards that can synergize and build on each other, growing stronger through repeated use. However, you don’t want matches to last forever, so after 40 rounds, your health and that of your opponents decreases. And don’t worry, 40 turns doesn’t take that long either, as each reshuffle of a deck increases the speed at which cards are played.
This is all quite satisfying, as the entire strategy is set outside of the matches themselves. Now, yes, this presents a new anxiety for me: did I choose the right card for my deck? But at least it’s a new sensation! And a satisfying game to unbox and understand during subsequent runs. Plus, all that rodent-themed pixel art is just lovely. You can also try all this for yourself thanks to a demo on Steamor if you want to wait for the full version, it is currently scheduled for release on September 1st.
