When comparing HEX: Shards of Fate vs Eternal, the Slant community recommends Eternal for most people. In the question“What are the best digital Collectible Card Games on PC?” Eternal is ranked 2nd while HEX: Shards of Fate is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Eternal is:
Draft allows you to keep the cards you pick and earn some extra rewards. Unique mechanics allow signalling and signal-reading in draft while still allowing you to draft on your own time (no waiting for pod or passing).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro PvE campaign
PvE Campaign with a lot of AI encounters and RPG depth.
Pro Depth
Complex interactions between cards and several game phases add a lot of depth to this game.
Pro Cash tournaments
5000$ every two months, 1000$ every weekend.
Pro Will be familiar to Magic the gathering players
Similar to Magic the Gathering but deeper because of digital interactions that are impossible to do in MTG. So those familiar with MtG should feel pretty at home and familiar with the gameplay.
Pro Easy to learn, hard to master
The most rewarding games often share this: it takes some dedication to fully appreciate the depth of the game. There's lots of fun to be had while discovering all the layers though so in my mind it's one of the pros.
Pro True TCG
Cards can be traded with other players and have real-world value.
Pro More complex than other TCG's
Offers many things to do. See also: "Easy to learn, hard to master" in Cons below.
Pro It's basically M:TG for the 21st Century
As in, it uses the digital format really well with mechanics that cannot be reasonably (or at all) be done in a paper game.
Pro Cheap compared to any other TCG/CCG
5 dollar for 500 plat , 1 booster = 17 cards and you can buy for 200 plat, you also get a chest with which you can earn more cards and loot by opening it with a small gold fee.
Pro Solid community
Very friendly community, almost no trolls or bad manner.
Pro Beautiful art
Pro Communicative developers
The CEO posts a forum thread every week, developers give interviews on stream, and community managers are very responsive.
Pro Utilizes the digital aspect completely
For example, changing your own card and enemy cards while they are in there deck.
Pro An ingame chat to talk to other players (instead of basic emote's)
Pro Easy tournament style, you can finish your tournament over multiple days/weeks if its needed
Pro Change the way cards work by adding gems where possible
In PvE you can use equipment to change how cards work. A Johnny player's paradise.
Pro Auction house to buy and sell cards
A huge amount of cards for just a few pieces of ingame currency.
Pro Large variety of gameplay and formats
Between the cash tournaments, the ladder with rewards for both limited and constructed play, draft gauntlets, sealed and evolution gauntlet, as well as the single player campaign, playing the auction house, and the 'sandbox' Frost Ring Arena, there is a lot to engage in.
Pro The feel of your LGS from the comfort of your house
Trading, tournaments, guilds, ingame chat. But you can play whenever you feel like, with the asynchronous modes and even participate in big tournaments wearing your pyjamas.
Pro Can easily maintain 100+ creatures on the board incase its needed (like with vennen)
Pro Good tutorial
There are tutorials in the game that are pretty extensive in teaching one how to play the game. For many TCGs may seem pretty complicated, luckily HEX helps new players get accustomed to the game.
Pro Very profitable compared to other games
Thanks to player Platinum:Gold market, While grinding in HEx you will net around $1/hour whereas in Hearthstone the same time will only see a return of around 20¢/hour.
Pro Exceptional limited (draft) format
Draft allows you to keep the cards you pick and earn some extra rewards. Unique mechanics allow signalling and signal-reading in draft while still allowing you to draft on your own time (no waiting for pod or passing).
Pro Sweet spot between MtG and Hearthstone
This game is not as complex and deep as MtG, but still it requires a lot more of strategic thinking and deck-building skills than HS. At the same time, a game of Eternal can usually be finished within 10 minutes.
Pro Very friendly to free to play players
Rewards for playing vs AI help new/inexperienced players not get obliterated in constructed, and keeping cards you draft helps you build the collection you want without simply opening packs.
Pro Frequent balance changes and diverse metagame
Devs are not afraid to frequently buff or reasonably nerf cards to balance the metagame.
Pro Huge variety of deck types
You can win with weapons, spells, units, and strategies of all kinds. Brewers and casual players can explore a near-infinite variety of fun decks without tanking their win rate.
Pro Respects your time
The game's reward structure understands that players want to be competitive without spending tons of money. Rewards can even randomly upgrade to higher tiers.
Pro Generous on rewards
The game is very generous on rewards and plays very fast once you're used to it. It's not a money sink like many of the CCGs you encounter nowadays.
Pro The dev team is motivated to make this a great game
Many professional MtG players on the dev team have ensured an eye for overall balance and metagame health throughout beta testing.
Pro Rewards thoughtful gamers
Many lines of decision making and careful deck management require you to always be on point.
Pro Very fast dev response to bugs and issues
Devs are active in discord channel and official forums.
Pro Beautiful and user friendly UI
The PC UI is incredibly smooth, and although the mobile/tablet UI is a little sluggish, it is still better than some other games.
Pro Community is mostly kind
Eternal's subreddit and discord server tend to be mature and respectful. People you friend in game are more likely to talk about how cool your deck is than to give you salt.
Pro Regular updates and content
Updates and promos once a month every month since open beta.
Pro Pack system is generous
Instead of trading cards with other players, there is a recycling/crafting system for handling duplicate cards and obtaining cards you want. Every pack gives you "shiftstone" on top of whatever cards you open, making it easier to craft expensive cards than in other games.
Pro Explores unexplored design space
Complex and interesting card design that makes the most of its medium.
Pro Card art is attractive and inclusive
Art is simpler than Magic's, but leans toward realism over cartoons. Women are represented in a respectful and diverse way.
Cons
Con Most people will need to spend money if you want to have a robust collection
With new PVP sets planned to hit every 4-5 months, plus new PVE cards throughout the year, it may be hard to keep up as a "Free to Play" player.
Con You'll probably never own everything
Each card has real value. Rare items are EXTREMELY rare. And there have already been one-of sleeves that won't be returning. If one wants to own every card and item that exist in the game and can be traded, they must pay a hefty price.
Con Clunky deckbuilding interface.
While they are updating the deck builder frequently, search mechanics and sorting could be better. Such as the ability to make new decks in campaign, instead of just clicking a button and starting from scratch, you must manually remove all the cards in the deck and then remember to save as a new deck.
Con Animations are lacking
The game board often feels like it is not active enough with animations and movement, this makes for a very static feeling while playing the game.
Con Questionable long-term viability
At this point, hard to see the game ever really taking off. Balancing and card development is increasingly questionable, especially in limited formats (such as the current set emphasizing RNG in the Conscript mechanic as a game decider). The game developers have essentially conceded they can't deliver much of what was promised on the PvE side while also struggling to translate efforts there into income.
The client interface (e.g. chat, auction house, etc.) remains atrocious. Multiple featured tournaments have been compromised by bugs. This seems like a classic case of reach exceeding grasp, and investing heavy resources into the game is probably not the safest play.
Con Boring
It's hard to get excited about any of it.
Con Very long matches
Con It's too MTG-like
The mechanics, type of card, curve of resources.. everything can be related to MTG.
Con Easy to learn, very very hard to master
No instant gratification, which some specific type(s) of players seek in their games. You have to go deep to reach a point where every play will feel like a personal win.
Con Paths on the campaign are hard
Con It is a MTG clone minus any skill requirements
It has almost no way to out maneuver your opponent. Your draws decide the game. The screw/flood seen in MTG is made worse with the horrible design choice to use 75 card decks.
Con Mana screw happens
There are elements in the design to help prevent it, but you will still randomly lose games to drawing little or too much mana.
Con Power Creep
This game was very enjoyable from its release right through its first 3 expansions. Afterwards the balance was thrown off by developers releasing powerful and more powerful cards with each set or adventure.
Con Hearthstone clone
Con Visually lacks in flair and drama that might be appealing to players of other games
Voice-overs for many cards were recently added in a patch, but only one game board and no interactions between particular entities (calling out relationships or rivals) can make the game feel "stale" or "bland" compared to the level of polish of, say, Hearthstone.
Con Card art may be unappealing to some
While some of the art is appealing, the design of the card eliminates completely the attractiveness that the art could have.
Con Playing constructed is expensive
It takes a huge time or money commitment to have the most powerful cards for constructed. Many of the best decks require 10+ of the highest rarity card.
Con Requires waiting for a full board
Most of the time you have to wait to fill your board with the correct units before attacking. This makes the game quite slow and clumsy.
Con Toxic community
Con Not a mobile-friendly game
Best played on a PC or a tablet. Playing on a phone can be difficult as it's a direct port from PC so text and images can be tiny. Not a problem if you're familiar with the game, but new players it will be frustrating.