from five ‘packs’ presented to you,
whittle that pool down to a playable
deck, then play games until you
either win five or lose two. Rewards,
which come in the form of more
entry tickets and card packs, are
available depending on how well you
do. There’s also a casual draft mode,
which allows you to practice with no
entry fee—but you won’t win
anything if you do well.
Drafting in Artifact is a skilful
business. The pro players in the
game’s burgeoning competitive scene
are trying to come up with sound
logic on how best to pick, some even
putting together tier lists that rank all
the cards in each color. However,
there are so many judgement calls to
be made in a draft—which colors to
lean heavily into, whether to pass up
on a hero in order to wait for a better
one, getting a healthy curve of mana
costs —that no resource is a
substitute for experience.
Since every color has different
strengths and weaknesses, how you
construct a deck depends very much
on your own playstyle. I’m an aggro
player, so I’ve found myself
gravitating towards red and black—
both colors that excel at establishing
early dominance and rushing down
your opponent’s towers. The beauty
of the mode is that it allows you to
identify the synergies between cards
and colors, and then see them come
to fruition. Every draft
is different. I remember
one time I made the
last-minute call to
integrate blue into my
draft deck because the
powerful hero Zeus
appeared in a late pack,
and the devastating
effect of his hero-
zapping signature card turned what
would have been merely a good deck
into an excellent one. The potential
for creative thinking in draft is
massive, and there’s satisfying
progress to be found in building up
your knowledge one run at a time.
COSTLY CONSTRUCTED
After bolstering my collection from a
few drafts, I shifted my focus to
Artifact’s constructed modes, where
you build a deck with the cards you
own. Much like draft, there’s a casual
mode for stakes-free fun, and an
expert mode that offers rewards in
exchange for an entry fee. My first
attempt at deckbuilding was a
red-green midrange build cobbled
80
Building the best decks
will cost you, but Artifact
is far too intricate and
rewarding for fans of the
genre to resist.VERDICTThere are so
many
judgement calls
to be made
in a draftMARKET CRASH How card value changes over time
Artifact’s
in-game
economy lets
players buy and
sell cards on an
ever-fluctuating
market. The best
cards are quite
pricey—but they
seem to be
becoming less
so. Overpowered
heroes like Axe
and Drow Ranger
have lost their
value quicker
than non-hero
cards, possibly
because you can
only have one of
them per deck. Nov 28 Nov 30 Dec 2 Dec 4 Dec 6 Dec 8 Dec 10£30£25£20£15£10£5£0Axe Drow
RangerAnnihilationKEYtogether from cards that had done
well for me in draft. Not particularly
confident, I opted to test it out in
casual before putting my event
tickets on the line. This turned
out to be a good choice. Far
from being the meta-breaker I
hoped it would be, my deck was
actually terrible, and I got roundly
destroyed in my first game.
My opponent’s deck, however,
was not terrible. It was amazing. As
well as having both Axe and Drow
Ranger, the two most sought-after
heroes in the game, it
also contained some of
the most expensive
rares. Now, it’s possible
I could have found a
way to win if I’d
chosen the cards more
carefully from my own
deck, but it was still
hard to escape the
feeling that I’d lost because I’d spent
less on card packs.
Artifact allows you to buy and sell
your cards for real money via the
Steam Marketplace. This,
theoretically, should allow players to
get the cards they need without any
massive outlay on packs. This system
comes with upsides and downsides.
One positive is that it’s extremely
easy to get hold of playsets of all the
common cards, many of which are
quite powerful. Strong uncommon
cards tend to be more expensive, but
it’s the strong rares that get really
pricey. Axe and Drow Ranger, those
two heroes that caused me so much
distress earlier, cost a reasonable
amount to buy.This isn’t to say spending money
is mandatory if you want to enjoy
Artifact’s constructed mode. I ended
up doing pretty well with a mono
black deck made out of cards I had
already, plus a few I picked up from
the marketplace at a minor cost. Still,
I doubt I’ll be content with budget
options forever. Coming from a card
game background, I’m likely to just
spend the money required to unlock
the cards I need to be competitive.
The only reason I haven’t is that I
haven’t gotten bored of drafting yet,
and I’d rather wait to see if I get the
cards I need from my reward packs
than buy them now and risk their
value dropping. I’m aware, however,
that I’m not necessarily the typical
Artifact player. For some, that extra
cost on top of a $20 purchase price is
going to really sting.
Given the above, any conclusion I
make about Artifact is going to come
with some qualification. Value for
money, I’m well aware, is going to be
a big factor for many looking to buy
the game. But the strength of the
design will be enough to keep me
hooked. Not only is Artifact’s depth
remarkable, it also doesn’t come at
any great loss of accessibility. I’m
excited to see the metagame develop
over the coming weeks and months.
Let’s just hope Axe’s price comes
down a bit.REVIEW