After getting my second covid vax shot yesterday I was assuming that I'd be laid out in bed, in misery and pain, for at least half a day or something. Everybody made such a big deal of it.
Well, maybe I'm lucky, but I feel mostly fine.
Perhaps it's the juxtaposition between my expected day (in bed, very sick) versus my real day (standing here, mildly sick and in a decent mood), that has me feeling such goodwill towards Gods Unchained.
Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and realize it isn't so special.
I doubt it though -- right now, Gods Unchained feels like the trading card game I always wanted.
loading screen for a match in GU
Things I Like About Gods Unchained
The simplest way to put it is this: Gods Unchained feels like playing hearthstone in the old days, but not because it mimics the game design.
It's because the game is really well designed and the base set feels like it has that same magic as the first year of Pokemon TCG or Hearthstone. It's one of those moments where the game feels like it has a perfect amount of content for a beginner who is jumping in.
Another thing I like: Tons of free packs! To be clear, these packs give away virtual items not blockchain items, but the virtuals can be combined with a blockchain token/fuel called "Flux" to create NFT cards down the line.
I very very much like the fact that the virtual cards and NFT cards are the SAME CARDS. The NFT aspect for most cards is more along the lines of holographic rarity, as opposed to in-game strength.
With that said they still play with fun NFT concepts like 1-of-1 cards that can only be held by a single player at a time. These do not have virtual versions as far as I know.
Let's Open Some Packs!
Turns out that I have three free booster packs from a previous weekend ranked event. Let's crack 'em.
PACK ONE:
and here we go..............
........................
..................
BBOOOOMMMM!!
An average pack lol. I wouldn't know if any of these cards are amazing, but I doubt it.
Pack two:
BABOOM BABANG
Aaaand one more. This one is an epic pack I think, so we're guaranteed an epic card.
YOW!!! BOOM!!! ALAKAZAM!!!
I got a bonus rare in both the last two packs, that seems pretty good. Alright, on to today's game.
Playing a Match of Gods Unchained
Most of my decks are still just the starter builds that the game offers when you begin. Honestly these decks are terrible, I don't know why every trading card game has dogshit starter decks.
All the way to the right is my adjusted aggro nature build. I'm not a gaming savant and I have a very small F2P collection, YET, this deck significantly and easily outperforms the normal starter nature deck. Again, I do not know why every TCG offers shitty starter decks.
OK let's get into it.
I like how the game offers multiple hero powers to choose from:
Between this and the "sanctum," an evolving shop of cards both players share and get cards from throughout the match, there's more complexity and less potential for a stagnant meta resulting from too strong of a single power + card combo.
Right off the bat, turn one is looking good! Lots of cheap cards in my hand, I have a strong set of plays for the first two turns.
After turn two, the board is filling up.
You can see that the game follows the basic hearthstone formula. At this point, should we even say it is similar to hearthstone, or should we just consider that to be the typical formula for digital TCGs?
Like, every platformer doesn't have to acknowledge Mario, so why should we have the hearthstone conversation every time a new TCG comes out? Anyway, it has similarities.
A few turns later and I am pulling ahead in both tempo and life total.
A few more turns in, my opponent abruptly disconnects and resigns. The match was won for me long before.
Well, that was easy! Sometimes the nature aggro deck can just steamroll an opponent without too much effort. It's one of the benefits of playing fast aggro in almost any strategy game.
Here's my rewards for one win:
Keep in mind I haven't played in a month, which I think is why I get a free booster pack for one win. I played two more games after this (one win, one loss), and did not get any more booster packs.
Conclusion
Gods Unchained rules!! I would recommend this for anybody who loves TCGs. It may be the highest quality NFT game, at least it's the one I am most likely to recommend to someone if I don't want to mention NFTs or blockchain. This game is enjoyable and exciting even on the gameplay alone.
Do you play GU? What do you think of it?
