Eternal Card Game (II—Card Types)

What kinds of cards will you see in Eternal?


The main card types are power, unit, spell, relic, weapon, and curse. Units have subtypes and rather than display the word 'unit' on them, they display only their "creature type." Normal spells work like sorceries, and fast spells (fast is a modifier type or supertype) work like instants. The dev team apparently decided against applying fast to other card types, as "flash creatures" get a keyword—ambush—that allows them to be cast out of turn.

While we're on the subject, fast spells and units with ambush can't be played as freely as in Magic: You can ambush only before declaring blockers when attacked or at the end of your opponent's turn. You can cast a fast spell in the same two instances, or in response to an opponent targeting one of your units. I think. I'm not 100% clear on that, because the official rules aren't public, and sometimes I can respond to things and sometimes I can't.

It's disappointing that units can't just be fast because that would be so elegant. That's clearly a result of the choice not to print the word 'unit' on units. "Fast Unit—Cat" would be one thing, but "Fast Cat" is confusing because it's mixing supertypes and subtypes. That doesn't matter right now, but it likely will eventually.

Relics take up the role of global artifacts and enchantments. They are 'permanents' that don't fight. They have static effects, triggered effects, and/or activated abilities. Like all non-power cards, most have faction requirements, but some don't. Combining those two card types costs us a bit of flavor but simplifies things considerably.

Ultimate, as seen on Crown of Authority is an activated ability you can only use once while that card is in play. It's like monstrosity, but only some ultimates boost their unit's size.

Weapons work exactly like auras. The vast majority of weapons increase power and toughness. Or attack and health. Or sword and heart. I don't actually know what the term for those stats are, as they are never referenced verbally. When both are being adjusted, you see the old familiar +X/+Y and when just one or the other is being referenced, you see a sword or a heart icon.

Summon is the keyword for "When this card enters play." Eternal takes every opportunity to collapse common phrases into keywords. This is partially motivated by the need to keep text short so it fits on small screens.

Relic Weapons are different. They're weapons that you attach to yourself, allowing you to attack separately from any units you may or may not have. You might notice that the color of the number on the right is purple for relic weapons where it's red for units or non-relic weapons. That's because a relic weapon doesn't increase your life/health/hearts, it increases your shields. Shields work like hearts, but are lost first (and presumably if you found a way to have 0 hearts and 5 shields, you'd still lose). The reason shields matter is that you lose all your relic weapons when your shields are reduced to 0.

If you've got just a Miner's Musket, you'll lose it as soon as the enemy deals 1 damage to you. If something increases your shields while you have a relic weapon, though, like Shield Bash, that increases its durability. I've just learned you can only have on relic weapon at time, and that playing a new one will reset your shields; that's an example of where Eternal fails to teach its rules well.

Finally, there are curses. A curse is also an aura, but where weapons are played on your own units, curses are played on your opponents'. A cursed relic is an aura that you play on your opponent themself. I'm not entirely sure whether you can choose to play a weapon on an opposing unit or a curse on one of your own or if the game prevents that entirely. Differentiating these card types allows you to make cards that care about curses and not weapons, and vice-versa.

You'll never see it printed as a card's type, but relics, weapons and curses all fall under the umbrella of attachment, which effects mostly punish.

Tribal's not a thing, because why would your port over a hack.

Planeswalkers aren't a thing. Yet? It's impossible to know whether Dire Wolf Digital is planning on introducing the equivalent of 'walkers later, or have decided that they're not a fit for the game. Given the faithfulness of this game's reinterpretation, and the popularity of planeswalkers, I'm guessing they're just saving them for later.

There's a hint that Eternal will introduce heroes, somehow analogous to legends, but I haven't seen any yet and they don't have any mechanical significance so far.

If you'd like to browse some cards, try Eternal Warcy or Numot Gaming.

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV