TCG Design 101 on How to Make a TCG | Eric Lang | TCG R&D 

I think fragility means how easy it is for your opponent to deny your card. Imagine a very cheap card with a very strong power and it works without needing any other cards but you have to tell your opponent if you have it on your hand. It's very efficient, consistent, and not conditional, but is very fragile because your opponent can easily deny you with discard effect or the likes

When I’m designing rare cards, I like to think of them as “Cornerstones”. As in; players will put other cards in their deck, specifically because it plays well with this card. This also gives new players an anchor to help focus their deck building

With the tip: "Card balance has many axes: efficiency, consistency, conditionality, and fragility. Each card provides context for the rest" I think the point Eric was making was actually two points in one: #1: There are many different "levers" you can pull when it comes to adjusting card balance. A card that is too powerful doesn't have to just be more expensive to balance it, you might instead make it more situational, or less consistent (adds a random element so it's not always at full power), or more fragile (meaning less health or defense so it's a bit easier for the opponent to destroy). Also, if you make a card more expensive, you are also making the card more situational because there are now less situations when they can afford the card #2: "Each card provides context for the rest" I believe means that as you adjust card balance, you are also in a way adjusting all the other cards by context. If I make the most expensive monsters a little less expensive because they are underpowered, I am now making the rest of the monsters feel a bit MORE expensive by context! Card balance is always affected by each card you add or adjust!

"Try to start with as clean a board as possible." I think this means not having a ton of things already in play at the start of each game. Like, you have a deck and maybe a hero card, but then don't add six other cards and a bunch of dice in the middle of everything. Having as empty a table in front of you at the start of the game helps you get used to it as it all builds up.

0:00 Intro 0:49 Minimize Complexity 1:29 Boring Cards 2:42 Designing Cards not the Game 3:57 Factions 5:50 Clean Board 7:50 Negative Space 10:10 Rarity 12:24 Cards over Ego 13:17 Separate Victory and Resource 15:20 Cost to Deploy 16:25 Complicate with Cards, not Rules 18:18 Collecting Cards 21:39 Card Balance 23:44 Design Cards to be Loved rather than accepted

22:00 Ya you're miss reading it. He's saying EVERY card has axis/spectrum of each of those aspects; efficiency, consistency, conditionality, and fragility.

Factions isn’t really something I’ve thought much about since my card game is currently just shared among friends, meaning we all just draw from one big deck from the center of the table, though I may look into it if I ever do decide to stray away from that. I’ve even got some great lore I can see being used to make factions, that being the different knights in the world, though it could definitely use some refinement. Here’s a few ideas I’ve got; • Milocs: warriors of past. Focuses on undoing or meditating opponents actions. • Future: warriors of future. Focuses on seeing cards that will be played later on. • Montrol: well working warriors. Focuses on cards that work well in multiples. • Crolz: knights of ability. Focuses on using abilities and items. • Trapitt: self reliant knights. Focuses on sacrificing other cards for bigger output.

10:56 Hearthstone limits you to 1 copy of each Legendary in a deck (normally you can have 2 copies of any card in your deck). This means that the rarest cards are also the cards you need the least off. Gameplay-wise, this also allows Hearthstone to create cards that are problematic at 2 copies (ie. Cards that are frustrating to play against, or cards that might be too strong if consistently drawn. Though it doesn't completely erase the problem. See: Prince Keleseth), or have no reason to need to play more than 1 copy (ie. Cards that permanently give you some effect that can't be stacked. Or if they can be stacked, then they might be problematic at 2 copies), and create them as Legendaries without needing to rely on a keyword, which feels more elegant. The player already knows the 1-per-deck rule and thinks about it subconsciously rather than consciously. Legends of Runeterra also limits you to 6 Champions total per deck (3 copies of any card in your deck). Typically, you'd run 3 copies of 2 different Champions, or 3-2-1, or 2-2-2, the latter two typically for control decks who last long enough to draw their top-end Champion even if it's only a 2-of. Which Champions you bring are shown to your opponent at the start of the game. They typically define your strategy even if they aren't very complex, though they all have some innate complexity from the ability to level up, and are also more powerful than normal cards - but bringing one champion means you aren't bringing another. That's why a good portion of decks are named after the two main Champions in them.

~ 17:30 I just want to say most games have the alternative win condition of Decking out your opponent although it rarely comes up unless you build your deck around it

I'm currently designing my own card game and just found your channel, time to watch a bunch of videos!

Making a custom TCG to play with my friends rn and this video has really helped with the process so far

Played Battletech CCG. There, you have an option to attack the resource, at a cost of unable to max your damage on the Stockpile

Eric Lang is the Man!

Yes! Your back in your corner!

This is great advice awesome video as always.

I would love a video dedicated to rarity or general set design. these discussions are great

I always appreciated the approach that Sabertooth Games took to card rarity: The most widely useful cards were all common, while rare cards would be those with a cool effect that you wanted to build a deck around.

Another factor to consider with Rares, especially rarities above Rare like "Super" or "Secret" Rares that only appear a few times per Booster box is that these kinds of cards should never be OP staples that every player will need a playset of in every deck to compete at a competitive level. Instead the "Boss Monster" of a specific archetype within a faction can be a Secret Rare, cards only a small subset of players will need 1 or 2 copies of to place as the crowning jewel of their deck. If you don't play a "Dragonsaur" deck and you pull their Secret boss monster, you'll still be pleased, because its a rare card some players will trade/pay a lot for, so the card is still very valuable. Another good idea for high rarity cards are "Alternate Art" versions of cards that exist at lower rarities, especially popular, fan favorite cards. Card game players love to "bling out" their collections and decks with cool, shiny cards whenever possible. Again, if you don't play a deck with the alt art card you pull, you'll still be pleased, because its still very valuable. Best of all, its ok if players who want them can't get full playsets for cheap: that's the point. They can always just use the low rarity, cheaper versions instead. If they want to build a competitive deck, they can acquire the needed cards on a budget without any issues. The alt arts are just a shiny collector's item for those willing to trade/pay more for them.

In my little game I am trying to design, rarity is being used as a card cap. Like if a card is common, you can have 3 copies, if it's uncommon 2, and rare 1. I'm still trying to learn some design basics but I like how it works so far in my limited (mostly solo) testing.

Chapters would be helpful to break up each of the tweets. However I appreciate the commentary. I think I recall reading this tweet thread at the time and definitely have it as a reference point.

13:19 Ah, an interesting point. This is an interesting choice for me personally, as this is kind of something that my entire game fights against. To explain the basics, Skyscape -- the game I've created and am heading -- uses your own Life Total as a Resource to play cards. You can also be dealt damage by your opponent attacking you, and you can deal your opponent damage too. It's an interesting thing, because in this example both players are chipping away at that Resource instead of trying to build it up. The exchange is board presence for that Resource. It's definitely been a balancing act to make things fit for this kind of game, and funnily enough, hearing about what negatives can happen from making victory tie in with resources only makes me want to explore it more. Here's to the challenge! I'm gonna try to make this work! Skyscape did start with this in mind, after all, and that's what the entire game is based around. So here's to making it work and having it be awesome! Oh, and great job with the video as always! Aim high, and pierce the skyscape!

Great stuff in this video, well done mate!

0:19 the man of the hour

For boring cards you mean, taking MTG, the cc1 2/1 or the vanilla version that can be a cc2 2/2 lifelink or trample ecc.. in order to give an easy context to the different abilities

I feel like stripping back over complexity and making boring cards are 2 seperate things..I agree with the stripping back complexity, but boring cards that no one will use should always be the first to go. Im not saying a know a lot, that's why I'm here, but if no one is going to play the card, whats the point of making it? To make the other cards look better? Good design should stand on its own imo & everything should be cohesively impressive.

For me rarity is more of an ecuation. It is determined by what a card does in relation to its cost or resource consumption. So most of the cards, say the commons would have an effect for x where a rarer card would have either that effect for x-1 or that effect plus another for x

2:42 Haha Nice plugging the subscribe button lol

for fragility, think he's talking the ease with which an opponent can interact with a card. a creature with 1 toughness dies to more things than a creature with 4 toughness, so 's more fragile. a card that says 'this can't be countered' or 'costs 2 to target' is harder to answer, and thus less fragile. he's pointing out that fragility is a set of knobs that can be used for balancing, either to strengthen a weak card or to dial back a strong one.

Ah. Cards melding together seamlessly doesn't need to be prevented through anything so aggressive as multiple factions and complete incompatibility. Just making enough friction between card mechanics that you wouldn't combine them

The implementation of Factions isn’t essential in and of itself, but rather, it’s the most common way of addressing a fundamental design problem in any TCG; What’s to stop a player from using a deck that has all of the best cards in the game?

The cost to deploy was early Yugioh biggest hurdle and the reason tribute summoning was never worth it. Why waste 3 resources for Blue Eyes if my opponent can just Raigeki it?

Ok so, I've been working on my TCG for a while now and I always had a problem on handling simplicity. My game is similar to Cardfight Vanguard and is mostly reliant on luck and your ability to adapt to the situation. You have to use resources wisely and be creative with what's on your hand and field. For example: "Arc of the Angels" is a Level 4 card with a cost of 7. That means it can only be played if you have at least 7 energies and a Leader with at least level 4. (But it's not that hard to do it since you're guaranteed to reach level 4 on turn 3.) It's effect is simple: search the deck for an angel card with level 3 or less, summon to the field. Shuffle your deck. "Arc of the Angels" even has low attack, defense and power because it brings out other creatures. (For balance sake) Now, you, person who read this. Do you see the problem? It SOUNDS complicated. But it's one of the simplest cards in the game (outside of vanilla of course). Does anyone have some tips on how to make stuff less complicated?

Vtes breaks the engine rule

Let's be honest, your "rarest" cards, assuming your card game becomes main stream, will be the ones with the highest price tag on the 3rd party market. So just decide which cards you want to be the most expensive.

How to create your own trading cards I think my ideas are stupid and I think I keep ripping off others.

5:30 This is terrible advice. I have seen so many card games get stubborn when a Tier-0 deck comes about and they're like "But look, these like two or three cards can counter it," and I'd, like, bro. One or two cards (which often don't work) is not enough to offset a tier-0 deck. Thinking you have plans and contingencies in place for obviously powerful cards is not a viable solution if you want a healthy meta.

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