Deckstorm launches as DeNA’s latest stab at the $1.2 billion card game market

DeNA has long had card games. But these have been simplistic affairs more like the game of War, where the biggest number wins. But the market has changed, and since Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft juggernaut hit in 2014 and the segment has grown to become valued at more than $1.2 billion, your card game needs more — it needs multiple modes, complexity, and a way to engage players who like solo play and taking on all challengers.

Enter Deckstorm: Duel of the Guardians, which the mobile game publisher released on the Apple App Store and Google Play today. Senior producer Roger Royce calls it a customizable collectible card game, one where you can level up your cards (and other components), play in solo campaigns and against others, and even uses your cards to solve puzzles to earn rewards.

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Royce said that his team designed matches to last around 5 minutes. Your deck has 15 cards, made up of three elements (fire, water, and earth) and neutrals, which can block element affinities. Instead of taking down a player’s health, you’re taking out their deck — each card has health, and you battle in waves. Sometimes, you find yourself removing cards you’ve played from the board and back into your hand — and progress is persistent, so if a card is injured, it comes out with less health should you play it again. You even get to see the A.I.’s cards in the solo campaigns, but even knowing this, you don’t know what order these cards come out in. So you may build your deck to take on the foe and still lose for other factors — speed, attack, and other values play a role, and just because you have the stronger cards, you could still lose because they’re slower than your foe, as speed plays a role in initiative.

Cards are customizable, and each can level up and evolve to a stronger form. They also can take Runes (items that you equip on a card) and Essences (which boost stats).

Deckstorm also has daily, weekly, and monthly stages.