Skyweaver review
Our review today is dedicated to the game Skyweaver. Now, at the peak of the popularity of play-to-earn games, many projects have begun to appear that claim to be the “best collectible card game on the blockchain”. Most of these projects are launched as early as possible, without a quality product ready, and gather a lot of hype, only to be forgotten after a short time.
In terms of gameplay, only the very best of them are only remotely compared to such giants of the traditional gaming industry as Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone. But there is one project that is not only not inferior to them in many respects in terms of design and gameplay but even surpasses them in some things. Meet Skyweaver!
The visual style of Skyweaver is eye-catching at first sight. It is bright, and colorful, but not at all tasteless. Somewhat reminiscent of the comic book style applied to the techno-fantasy gaming universe, Skyweaver creates a unique first impression, which later justifies the equally unique style of play.
The core gameplay of Skyweaver can be compared to Hearthstone or Gods Unchained. They all came from a desire to bring the gameplay of Magic: the Gathering into the world of video games. They all gained something and lost something in the process.
The main loss is the call stack, i.e. the ability to play cards on the opponent's turn, without which the gameplay becomes less deep. By giving one player full control over the situation on the table for the entire course of its course, the developers make the game more predictable (and less interesting), although easier to learn.
On the other hand, games born without having to look at the limitations of the tabletop version have more freedom in creating mechanics related to manipulating the characteristics of cards in players' hands and decks. This is achieved by the computer's ability to maintain honesty while hiding information from an opponent and to support status effects that are too complex for a human to remember.
What makes Skyweaver unique is the attempt to go further in creating unique card game gameplay. In addition to the above advantages of TCG video games over their desktop versions, Skyweaver introduces a number of its own unique mechanics.
The three most interesting ones are:
⦁ the mechanics of attaching spells or effects to a creature;
⦁ the mechanics of the location of the hero on the battlefield (as well as other creatures relative to him, which affects the gameplay);
⦁ a unique collectible and deckbuilding mechanic that makes the game fairer and eliminates the infamous “purse competition” that plagues players in M: TG, Gods Unchained, and all similar games.
⦁ Let's analyze them in a little more detail.
Effects and spells on creatures
As in other TCGs, Skyweaver cards are divided into types: creatures and spells. Creatures look almost the same as in other games: they have attack and health, as well as a set of standard key abilities and unique properties.
The clear difference is what other games often refer to as “enchantments,” or permanent status effects placed on creatures. In Skyweaver, unlike Magic: the Gathering, there are no separate enchantment spells. But various creature abilities or spell effects can impose one type of status effect on a creature or hero. And only one! This is pretty deep gameplay.
Almost every status effect in Skyweaver can be removed from a creature by paying a certain amount of mana. However, if another effect is applied to the same creature or hero, the previous effect will be forcibly removed and the effect's removal triggers will go off.
Let's say your creature has an Anima effect that increases its attack and health by 2 when removed. You can pay mana to activate this ability. Or you can apply a buff like “Rage” on it, and then the “Anima” effect will be removed automatically, giving the creature its own bonus and giving way to a new effect.
If your opponent cursed your creature with a Hex effect, you have the choice to pay 6 mana (which is a lot), lose the creature at the end of the turn (unless it survives the damage from Hex), or apply any other status effect to it (does even negative!). Or, for example, you can simultaneously remove the status effect of the shield on the enemy, which prevents 1 attack on its owner, and at the same time set it on fire with the burning status effect.
Sometimes these effects come and go many times in a round in amazing and unpredictable combinations, making for a very deep game. Many creatures already come into play with certain status effects (then they are drawn on their card).
In addition, some abilities allow you to attach a status effect to your own or enemy creature card in your hand or deck. Interesting enough? Wait, that's not all. After all, status effects share the same slot with spells on creatures.
Yes, in Skyweaver you can cast a spell not only from your hand but also from a creature or a hero. And here two pitfalls lie at once (or tactical possibilities, how to look).
First, the creature must be alive when the spell is cast.
There is already a dilemma here: play the creature a couple of turns early and risk losing both it and the spell right away, or wait for the opportunity to play the creature along with your spell in one turn.
But this dilemma is not new: we see something similar in “Magic: the Gathering”, except that instead of spells there are reusable creature abilities. But in the case of Skyweaver, these are the same spells that can be in your deck.
Secondly, by placing any status effect on your creature, your opponent (and sometimes yourself) will discard the spell attached to it from the creature.
Very often you will need to use this to eliminate a spell that threatens you on an enemy creature if you do not have the opportunity to get rid of it yourself. And, yes, spells can also be attached not only to the beast itself but also to the creature card in the hand or deck. Off...
The location of creatures and the hero on the battlefield
In sky weaver, the hero simultaneously determines the type of possible deck and fights for you on the battlefield. We will talk about the type of deck later, but now we will pay attention to the battle. The hero has 32 life, and the goal of the game is to reduce his life to 0.
Pretty standard, except that the hero also knows how to attack every turn and can be affected by creature status effects or carry an attached spell. The hero is in the center of your half of the battlefield, and the placement of other creatures around him is of great importance.
All creatures after the call are located to the left or right of the hero. On the left are ordinary creatures, and on the right are creatures with the “guardian” ability. Guardians forbid attacking the hero while they are under his control. If there is already a creature to the left or right of the hero, another creature will be placed further to the left or right of the hero. The later the creature is summoned, the farther it will be from the hero.
Many cards or abilities target the leftmost or rightmost creature, so they are especially vulnerable and can cover more valuable creatures that entered the game earlier. In total, there can be no more than 6 creatures on your side of the battlefield, in addition to the hero. So if your battlefield is full, the extra creatures can't be played. And if some effect introduced them into the game, they will simply disappear.
Creatures with the “guardian” ability can be removed from the path by disabling or removing this ability from the creature (for example, by the “chain” status effect). In this case, the creature will instantly change its position and will be already to the left of the hero, which can make it a potential target of a spell or ability, or, conversely, save the next creature from such cover. If you give a creature the “guardian” ability, then, on the contrary, it will move from the left row to the right.
Thus, although all cards are placed in 1 row, 3 speculative “lines” of defense are obtained. Creatures with "stealth" cover from attacks by the hero, "guardians" cover the hero himself, and other creatures can be attacked at any time. In general, the formation matters, but we can only influence it indirectly, which at the same time simplifies the game for beginners and complicates it for strategists.
Deck building
We have already said that the hero not only fights on the battlefield but also acts as a limitation in deck building. In terms of battles, all the heroes are currently identical. They have 32 life and an attack power of 1 unless they were given any bonuses during the game. But in terms of deck building, the differences begin.
Each hero has one or two stats (called “prisms” in Skyweaver) that determine the type of creatures and spells that can be included in his deck. There are 5 of them: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Heart. Accordingly, we get 15 possible combinations of heroes, 5 of which have only one characteristic, and the remaining 10 have some 2.
Pure Prism heroes have a more limited choice of cards, but their deck should be only 20 cards (which increases the chances of drawing the right card from the deck). The “mixed” heroes will have 30 cards in the deck, but the choice is twice as much.
Each prism has certain features, for example:
1. Strength. More powerful creatures and more spells to destroy them.
2. Wisdom. More ability to manipulate cards in hand, deck and place them there from the battlefield.
3. Agility. Cheaper and more aggressive creatures and spells.
4. Heart. Ability to interact with the cemetery.
5. Intelligence. The ability to best draw new cards.
Each card in the game refers to only one specific prism. In addition to prisms, the cards also refer to one of the 8 elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Metal, Mind, Darkness, and Light. These elements no longer impose such strict restrictions as prisms but can be used to create a themed deck or get situational bonuses.
Usually, cards of the same element interact well with each other. And sometimes, on the contrary, it is beneficial to have as many cards with different elements as possible on the table or in hand. In general, the elements bring additional variability to the game (as if we didn’t have enough of it!).
All this makes deck building quite an interesting process. But what really inspires Skyweaver is the conscious focus on fair play, without the need to “buy yourself a victory” by purchasing expensive rare cards (do you know, M: TG players and other CCGs?).
This is served by several features. First, is the rarity of the cards. All cards in the game have the same “rarity”, if we mean by it the strength of the card and its availability in one form or another for players. Yes, the cards have gold or silver rims, but they do not carry any advantages for the gameplay, and you can do just fine with basic cards.
Base cards are given to you for leveling up your account, which can be done absolutely free just by playing Skyweaver. Yes, they cannot be sold like silver-rimmed cards (because base cards are not stored on the blockchain), they will not be hunted by collectors like gold cards (which will have a very limited mint). They will not receive further alternative art or animations that the Skyweaver team may decide to give to rarer versions of cards. But for a fair and interesting game, this is quite enough.
The second element of "fair play" in Skyweaver will be familiar to players of Magic: the Gathering's Commander format. Each card can be included in the deck only in 1 copy. This removes the need to hunt for multiple instances of all moveable cards and also makes games more varied. But that's not all. The most amazing feature of Skyweaver that new players will appreciate lies in the game's formats.
In addition to the well-known constructed format, where players fight with their own decks and test their skills as a constructor, ordinary CCGs most often offer us the Limited format, in which you need to buy boosters and build a deck out of them on the spot, in the allotted time. In some cases, they give new players free starter decks, usually filled with non-competitive cards.
Skyweaver instead offers us a discovery format, where each player chooses only hero prisms, and then plays a deck randomly assembled from all the cards of this prism. Plays absolutely free, while fully functional, because. all cards are balanced to play at approximately the same level (remember the absence of cheating “rare” cards, as in other TCGs).
And this is not just some kind of rarely used version of the game for beginners, but one of the two main game formats, which are played in tournaments and ranked games, for which rewards are given. In general, you can play Skyweaver for free, and the pleasure of the game will never be overshadowed by some “donator” with a cheat deck.
Competitiveness
Is it worth clarifying after all of the above that Skyweaver is a fairly competitive game? Even matches in the discovery format, where cards are selected at random, are full of unusual combinations of cards and require an understanding of the pace and strategy of the game, as well as a reasonable allocation of resources and anticipation of the opponent's possible actions. What can we say about the constructed format, where deck optimizations and tricky card combinations reach their peak? However, there is something to say:
Firstly, the Skyweaver team regularly performs balance patches, even though the game is already quite well balanced and is still in the beta test stage.
Secondly, any player can easily track the rating of not only other players, but also the decks they have assembled, and also automatically assemble any “top” deck for himself in a couple of clicks if he has the necessary cards.
This both makes it easier for beginners to enter the competitive part of the constructed format and heals the metagame, forcing it to change more often. After all, as soon as all the “lazy” players begin to massively play the most popular deck, the most advanced designers will put a counter against it in their decks, and the meta will immediately change. Thirdly, the Skyweaver team openly stated in the discord that they would develop the project as a competitive game, including regular tournaments with prizes.
Rigorous approach
What's also really amazing about Skyweaver is why it hasn't been released yet. Most other teams, with a product of this quality in their hands, would have released it a year ago, if not earlier. But the Skyweaver team continues to release new art to replace the already great ones, replace a good balance with an excellent one, and catch the smallest bugs when all the big ones have already been caught.
Yes, sometimes new bugs or the need to rewrite something appear during the update process. Sometimes changes from a balance patch are rolled back as being too radical. But which of these have we not seen in already released games? Apparently, the Skyweaver team is preparing something special at the time of release, since they polish their creation so carefully.
Good time to enter
So, it's time, to sum up, this sky weaver story with a cherry on the cake. And it lies in the fact that right now is the right time to start playing Skyweaver. Not a year or two ago, when the game was still far from complete, and the wait would have been very long. Not in a year, when it will be difficult to break into the top tournaments, collect a complete collection of cards, or make money on NFTs. And right now.
After all, right now the final phase of testing is coming to an end, and on November 25, the “soft launch” phase of the game with a real economy will begin. This means that all the cards you earn in the game will not be burned after the end of the next phase, but will be transferred to the full version of the game after the release, where they can be used or traded.
And since we are talking about trade, it is worth clarifying some points immediately. Many players in blockchain games criticize or ignore Skyweaver precisely because of the principles of openness of this game for beginners. They do not understand how they can earn money in this case.
This is partly true because the project team openly states that the blockchain in this game only supports the idea of collecting cards well, and is not intended to add hype to the game and start a wave of speculation.
All the efforts of the team are focused on creating a high-quality and beautiful game, and at the moment it seems they don’t think about marketing at all. But still, there are many opportunities for an experienced player to make money playing Skyweaver.
Firstly, these are rare versions of the cards that can be won in the conquest mode (up to three games of elimination). During the game in the conquest (and only within it), “golden” cards will be minted. Every 2 weeks, the set of cards issued as rewards will change. And these cards will not be repeated in principle!
This means that gold cards will be very rare. If animations or unique art are added to them in the future, this will make them a tasty morsel among collectors. Well, you and I can win them even before the hunt begins for them.
Secondly, the top 25 players in each of the game modes are rewarded weekly with silver cards. If you have enough strength and time to break to the top and stay there, you can consider this a kind of passive income. Silver cards are not as rare as gold ones (they are easier to win in conquests and are more likely to be repeated as prizes). However, this is the most popular product for those who want to enter the game with minimal investment of their own time.
It was mentioned above that you can simply earn all the cards in the game completely for free. At the moment it has 500 unique cards (100 for each prism), although there is no doubt that soon after the release of the game this number will begin to increase rapidly.
It takes about a couple of months of more or less regular play in the evenings to collect all 500 free cards. Someone, of course, will be able to afford to play more often and collect them all in the first month, or even in 2 weeks. But players with less free time and more financial resources may prefer to simply buy all the cards they need to play (in constructed mode) on the secondary market. Well, if the game gets real popularity, and there are a lot of such players, and new card releases happen regularly, this will ensure stable demand for Skyweaver silver cards.
Thirdly, it's worth mentioning that the Skyweaver team has stated on discord that they will come up with various cosmetic prizes for major tournaments (such as unique skins for heroes or battlegrounds), and all these prizes will be stored on the blockchain (i.e. their owner will also be able to sell them on the secondary market if desired). As a result, it turns out that those who play Skyweaver well will have many opportunities to receive, in addition to pleasure, some income from their hobby.
Game in the CIS
Unfortunately, news has recently come out that officially Skyweaver will not be available in many CIS countries and some other countries to which Canada has applied its sanctions. But at the moment, these “blocks” are managed by a simple VPN, and there is no reason to believe that the Skyweaver team will use any additional efforts to remove residents of these countries from the game.
This step, apparently, is just a tribute to the Canadian regulators, nothing more than a “ban for the show”, so that nothing would prevent the game from being released. In the end, the Skyweaver team are the same people, and they are well aware that countries fall under sanctions because of their governments, and punishing players for this is simply stupid and pointless.
So if you are from any other country that has fallen out of favor with Canadian regulators, turn on your VPN and go play Skyweaver now!
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