Got something a little different today for you all. There's a new card game trying to break into the market, and it goes by the name Sorcery: Contested Realm. There's a Kickstarter campaign going on until the 5th of April, and it's already gained almost 9 times the amount of money it asked for. Let's take a look and see what it has to offer!

Behind the Scenes

The company behind Sorcery: Contested Realm is Erik's Curiosa Limited, situated in Auckland, New Zealand. The designers responsible for the game are Erik Olofsson (Creative Director at Grinding Gear Games, the studio behind Path of Exile) and Nickolas Reynolds. The project started in 2017, with the first batch of art commissioned in 2018.

The art for the game was created on various traditional mediums such as acrylic, oil, pen and pencil, and water color. There are 35 artists, with experience in RPGs, card games, and metal album covers, and they retain the copyright for their work. You can find a full list of artists on the game's page.

The first wave comes with over 400 unique cards.

Quick Overview of the Game

This is an abridged version of the game's rules. If you want to go into more detail, you can check out their official rulebook (keep in mind that it's still a work in progress).

Cards

Each player starts the game with an Avatar in play and two decks, which we'll get into in a minute. The purpose of the game is to kill the opponent's Avatar by reducing their life total (which usually starts at 20) to 0.


Three Avatar cards from the game.

The game is played on a 5x4 grid, known as The Realm. Each square on the field represents a location where players place a variety of permanent cards that they draw from their decks. An unoccupied spot is known as the Void. Each player also has a discard pile where cards are sent to when destroyed.


The Realm of Sorcery.

The first deck is known as the Atlas. It contains a special type of card known as a Site, which are the only cards in the game printed in landscape. Each Avatar has the ability to tap (rotate 90 degrees) themselves to either draw a Site or play one in the Void. Sites can only be placed directly under your Avatar if it is in the Void or in an unoccupied location adjacent to another Site you control.


Breakdown of a Site card.

The other deck is called the Spellbook. It contains all the other types of cards that are in the game, collectively known as Spells:

  • Auras are special spells that remain in play after they are activated. Most Auras must be activated at the intersection between two or four locations.
  • Magic cards are spells that have an immediate effect after they're played. After the effect resolves, they are sent to the discard pile.
  • Minions are spells that are summoned on a site under the player's control. During a player's turn, Minions can move to another site, attack, or block, but they cannot do the first two the same turn they are summoned. If a Site is destroyed, so is the occupying Minion.
  • Relics are special spells that are equipped to Minions or your Avatar. You can play them on any Site you control or directly on a Minion or your Avatar, even if they are currently on an enemy site. Relics that are not equipped are abandoned, and only abandoned non-Minion Relics can be picked up and equipped by other Minions or Avatars. If a Minion dies, equipped Relics are dropped and they become abandoned. If the Site containing the Relic is destroyed, so is the Relic.


Breakdown of a Minion card. The other Spells are similar.

There are 4 card rarities in the game, and each rarity dictates the number of copies you can have in your deck:

  • Ordinary - 4 copies
  • Exceptional - 3 copies
  • Elite - 2 copies
  • Unique - 1 copy

How to Play

As mentioned, each player starts with their Avatar in play and their two decks by their side. Position-wise, the Avatars are on opposite sides of the grid, in the middle location of a 5-column row. Each players starts with 6 cards in hand, 3 from each deck, and they may perform a Mulligan if the hand is not satisfactory. 

At the start of the turn, each player must choose to draw a card from either the Atlas or the Spellbook. If you need to draw from one of them and can't, you lose. The player who goes first doesn't get to draw on their turn. 

Players can cast any number of Spells during their turn, assuming they have the resources. Each Spell has a Mana Cost and an Elemental Threshold that must be met. The amount of Mana each player has available each turn is equal to the number of Sites they control. Players can play Sites from their hand by tapping their Avatar.

The Elemental Threshold has to do with the the Four Elements present in the game: Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind. Each Site will offer you one or more of these Elements, and can play a spell if you have more Elements among all your Sites than the Elemental Threshold of the card. Relics and some abilities don't have a Threshold.

Combat is determined by the Power. Both Minions and Avatars have power, but Avatars are the only ones who have a life total. When two Minions fight, the one with lower Power is destroyed, while the other one has its Power reduced by the amount of the destroyed one until the end of the turn. If an Avatar fights, it's life total is reduced instead of its Power, and the damage persists throughout the game.

If you reduce your opponent's life total to 0, you DON'T instantly win the game. Instead, the Avatar is considered at Death's Door. At this point, they cannot take damage for the rest of the turn, but they can also no longer gain life back. To win, a player must attack or damage the opponent's Avatar one more time to deal a final Death Blow and win the game.

Kickstarter + Get a Taste of the Game


What the Sorcery Booster Boxes and playmats look like.

As mentioned before, the Kickstarter is underway and already funded. Several YouTubers have tried the game out, such as Team Covenant and Tabletop Royal. And if you want to give it a go yourself and have access to Tabletop Simulator, there's a Steam Workshop Mod for the game.

As with other projects on Kickstarter, there's a few tiers that you can pledge that reward you with something relating to the game:

  • For 50 USD, you get 4 Starter Decks, one for each Element. The number of cards in each pack is unclear, but, judging by the Tabletop Simulator Mod, there will be 37 cards per deck.
  • For 130 USD, you get a Booster Box. 1 Booster Box contains 36 packs, and each pack contains 15 cards. That's a total of 540 cards.
  • For 750 USD, you get a Booster Case, which contains 6 Boxes. That's 3240 cards.

There's also a 2750 USD bundle, but it's exclusive to game stores.

What do you think of the game? Does it have what it takes to become a mainstay in the market? Let us know in the comments below!