When comparing Shadow Era vs Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, the Slant community recommends Gwent: The Witcher Card Game for most people. In the question“What are the best digital Collectible Card Games on PC?” Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is ranked 1st while Shadow Era is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is:
A good deck synergy and perfect decisions are needed for success in this game.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Very strategic
A good deck synergy and perfect decisions are needed for success in this game.
Pro Unique concept
The mechanics of Gwent are different from other CCGs in which you need to destroy your opponent. Instead, you carefully build your army, while trying to prevent your opponent from doing the same.
Pro People who enjoyed the Witcher games will probably enjoy this one as well
The game was originally built-in Witcher 3 as a minigame. All the cards reference Witcher characters and events.
Pro Easy to build up a collection
Game allows you to get a good 2-3 packs a day, easily get a legendary in 2-3 days of playtime.
Pro Great for Free to Play
The game gives you a lot for free. It's easy to be competitive and it's free to play (F2P).
Pro Limited RNG
Unlike in many other CCGs, luck doesn't play too noticeable of a role in Gwent.
The cards you play and decisions you make create a lasting impact on the outcome of a match. When you lose, you know where you went wrong, and you learn. Matches feel rewarding and fair, knowing you won or lost because of your own decisions.
Pro Beautiful card art
This is the only CCG that can compete with MtG in terms of art.
Pro Players are able to choose the last card of every keg (card pack)
Every keg gives 4 random cards, and a choice from 3 cards. This makes the card pack process significantly less RNG-based, allowing you to more easily get the cards you need without having to craft them.
Pro Feel of making progress
You get new cards every day, get rewards for doing challenges, for leveling, and for ranking up.
Pro Two guaranteed kegs (packs of cards) per day
You can be sure to get 3 kegs (pack of cards) if you play a few minutes every day.
Pro Addictive, has this "one more game" feeling
"Oh, few more games and I'll level up and get a reward. Oh, a new rank is close, I should keep playing. Oh, the daily tier is almost done". You get the idea.
Pro Nice community
The community is usually not toxic and nice to everyone. There is also a lot of discussion about game and strategic aspects from pros, streamers and gamers.
Pro You get to play all your cards, any time
Say goodbye to your opponent defeating you before you could pull off that sweet combo.
Pro Great starting decks
Unlike many other CCG's, the starter decks actually feel very competitive with 4 legendaries each, one from the faction and three neutrals.
Pro Good developer support
The developers of the game are always in contact with the fans and updating the game constantly.
Pro You need to think before you play
Especially when you get to higher rankings, you can't just slap your cards on the table. You have to think before every move.
Pro A single-player story coming soon
While not present in the Open Beta, the game will feature a single-player story after official release.
Pro Generous and skillful developers
The devs are incredibly generous with the rewards for playing daily and achieving ranks in ranked play. Also the ingame skill and the deckbuilding is decisive for success, and not RNG (there is some, but not that oppressive usually).
Pro Great in-game music and atmosphere
The dark atmosphere and the folk music are outstanding!
Pro Gwent is the whole package
For a game that’s still in beta and the first to introduce a new core mechanic, different than every other CCG out there (i.e no previous reference but itself), Gwent has proved to be a skill-rewarding game (both deck building & gameplay). It has RNG limited to a minimum, a very generous free-to-play reward system and still more to come for the official release: from UI improvements to new game modes, to single-player campaigns, all backed up by a dev. team that’s fast on its feet to act and please its community.
Pro Building your own Decks is real fun
Cons
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.
Con The coin flip
At the start of each match, a coin is flipped to determine who plays first. Currently, going first is usually a huge disadvantage.
Con Unreliable UI
An obviously console-optimized UI makes some aspects of the game annoying on PC. For example, at the beginning of every round you can mulligan cards; the UI shows 3 of your cards with a barely-noticeable scroll bar to see the rest, confusing many new players into thinking you can only mulligan those 3 cards.
Con If your internet connection is slightly unstable you will have trouble finishing a match
Con Bad "friend" system
Currently, there are no rewards for matches with friends and you cannot spectate your friend's games.
Con Hard for new players to get involved
Initial impressions of this game might be negative due to the way it presents itself at first — it might feel like it's just counting points like in solitaire, when in reality the fun begins once the gameplay becomes more complex.
Con In beta
This game is currently in open beta. This means you may encounter some bugs while playing.
Con Not available on mobile
For players who are used to playing other CCGs on mobile devices, not being able to play a few quick rounds of Gwent while you're out and about may be limiting.
Con Uninteresting cards
Con Feels like two players playing solitaire
Con Greedy pricing model
Con Feels like doing your math homework instead of a game
Con Developers listen to the community too much
The Developers are addressing the feedback received by the community, but they are not filtering it and they are introducing some bad ideas from time to time.