When comparing Elder Scrolls: Legends vs Shadow Era, the Slant community recommends Elder Scrolls: Legends for most people. In the question“What are the best digital Collectible Card Games on PC?” Elder Scrolls: Legends is ranked 8th while Shadow Era is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Elder Scrolls: Legends is:
Strictly Better Rewards than Hearthstone, and packs cost the same amount.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rewarding
Strictly Better Rewards than Hearthstone, and packs cost the same amount.
Pro Accessible
Game is F2P friendly due to generous leveling system, starting campaign
Pro Single player friendly
For those who don't want to play ladder, ESL offers both a story mode, and a solo arena.
Pro Has Elder Scrolls lore
Even for people that never played card games, if you loved elder scrolls lore you will love this.
Pro Mature art style
Art on cards looks great, and isn't overly cartoony.
Pro Strategic depth
Rune System, the shadow lane, decrease of ping compared to other ccgs leads to a game that requires tougher decision making.
Pro Little RNG
Most RNG is related to card draw/deck variance, with a couple exceptions mostly on unique legendaries.
Pro Interactive with opponents
Unlike in Hearthstone, there is a lot of interaction and choices with the cards and your opponent. Pirate Warriors, face hunter, solitaire/miracle rogue, to name a few.
Pro Good deck balance
Many TCGs often have unbalanced decks where one specific deck can trump most others, with devs being slow to correct this. Shadow Era does not have this issue as the devs spend a great amount of time making sure all the deck combinations have good balance and even have a player run team for testing before new releases.
Pro Unique Sacrifice Mana system
Shadow era tests its players by having them decide which cards to sacrifice in order to gain resources (mana) one time at the start of each turn. No easy buildup of resources (mana) here. You want to make plays, you have to plan it out strategically.
Pro Over 600 cards (approx 250 legal per hero)
The card pool has grown to a very decent size, spread across Neutral, two factions (Human/Shadow) and seven classes (Warrior, Mage, Hunter, Priest, Rogue, Wulven and Elemental). Each of the 32 heroes belongs to a faction/class combination, where they can use Neutral cards and cards from the faction or class. This gives each hero access to approximately 250 cards, which allows for great variety of decks.
Pro Free-to-play done well
The game is free to play but all cards in the game can be earned with free play, there is no need to purchase cards if one does not want to. Though it can speed up being able to build a better desk.
Pro Amazing artwork
The card artwork is of a very high standard and all cards are available in a full-art foil version too.
Pro One account usable across Android/iOS/PC/Mac
Whatever platform you register on, you can grow and access your collection and decks on any of the platforms, so you can use whichever you prefer at the time.
Pro Truly free to play if you want
The in-game currency rewards for playing are very generous and card prices in that currency are low.
Pro No rotation of sets (all cards still legal)
In all modes, all your cards are legal. No cards are rotated out of Standard play and the developer has said they have no intention to bring in rotation ever.
Pro Very limited RNG
Aside from a handful of cards from the original set that had "at random" on them, the developers have gone out of their way to bring more control into the hands of players. Effects will specify they damage "the ally with the lowest health", for example, and on a tie there is a Standard Resolution Order (the ally closer to the hero takes priority), so always know which one will be affected. Sometimes on other games you might think the RNG is skewed/faked, but that can't happen in Shadow Era. This means the main element of randomness and luck is the shuffle of the deck, which is how a card game should be.
Pro New free Single-player Campaign mode being updated regularly
There are already 120 missions to play through with dialogue, telling the story from the very beginning, for 10 Human heroes and 2 Shadow heroes (at the time of writing). Over time, more dialogue is being added to other missions for the remaining 6 Human heroes and 14 Shadow heroes, and then more maps with more missions will be added in future. The campaign mode is completely free and gives generous rewards for playing.
Pro Vibrant Tournament scene with prizes
A variety of player and developer organized tournaments, with prizes rewarded by devs, in both competitive and casual formats provides opportunities for players of all skill levels. It all culminates in the annual World Championship, a brilliant display of skill and deck building.
Pro Devs listen and interact with community
Main developer, Gondorian, is often commenting on questions in the Official forums as well as interacting with our player community on the Telegram messenger app.
Cons
Con Bland card design
Con Bad UI
The UI feels like that of a game released in the 1990s in a bad way.
Con Bland board
Only one playmat to play on, and it doesn't "pop" like other games playmats do.
Con Region-locked on Steam
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Con The two lines can have a snowball effect
The two lines separation can have a snowball effect that will lead to an imminent loss.
Con Poor design
The graphics often seem like they are a less priority over other aspects of the game, the UI often falls into this problem too, which can make for a frustrating experience in that it can be difficult to know how to do certain tasks due to a poor layout and graphics.