A Glimpse at Mojang’s Not-so-Elder Scrolls

Minecraft is one hell of a buzzword these days. It can trigger a variety of strong reactions amongst the gaming community and even illicit relevant responses in those who hardly know what a “Minecraft” is to begin with. The bottom line is, even if you’re not a fan, it’s an immensely popular and successful title. The real question is how in Herobrine’s hallowed name do you follow up a bombshell like that? With Mojang’s newest title, Scrolls, now hitting paid entry beta, we can start formulating an answer.

Scrolls, for those who are unfamiliar, is an online card battle game. I know what you’re thinking. What?! Really, Mojang? That’s the best you could come up with? But wait! Before we all get carried away, let’s take a breath and look at what we’ve got here. Card battle games often fail to appeal to wide audiences, but it’s not a bad thing to want to please niche crowds. It’s not so surprising that Mojang would take on a riskier project when they have a strong foundation like Minecraft. Scrolls will likely never reach the monumental impact of its predecessor, but, being a card battle fan myself, it succeeds at being a solid and enjoyable experience.

I purchased my way into the beta a few days back and took Scrolls for a spin. The menu interface is simple enough, containing tabs for profile management, the card store, deck building, and the grand arena for when you’re ready to throw down. You are given a choice between three starter decks; Order, Energy, and Growth; to call your own. Being a fan of all things big, mean, and metal, I chose the vast assortment of robots and siege weaponry that is Energy. From there it’s on to the brief tutorial and then you’re cut loose to collect cards and challenge unsuspecting opponents to your heart’s content. Winning battles nets you gold which you can spend on various random card packs in the store. If you’re feeling a bit too unprepared to jump straight into PvP, you can hone your skills and earn some extra cash by conquering the challenge battles that pit you against AI controlled scroll-wielders.

Actual gameplay takes place on a hex grid split vertically down the middle with backlines of five idols on each side. The object of the game is to use your scrolls to defend your idols while attacking your opponent’s idols. The first player to destroy three idols is declared the winner. Scrolls require mana of their element in various amounts in order to be cast. In order to gain mana, you must sacrifice a scroll of the element you desire. This increases your mana cap for that element and it will refill completely every turn thereafter. You can only sacrifice one scroll per turn, but if you don’t need mana you can also sacrifice one scroll in order to draw two new scrolls. Summoned creatures and structures can be placed anywhere on your field and will automatically attack when their cool down value reaches zero. Creatures can be moved one space per turn for tactical positioning, however structures are stationary and must be placed with care.

Now with most card battle games, it’s important to remember that most “rules” can be bent or even broken with the creative use of spell scrolls. Creature stats can be altered, positions swapped, cool downs reduced, and so on and so forth. The ability to craft cunning surprise attacks is present, but perhaps not as complex in form with what you might find in Magic: The Gathering. That being said, Scrolls is still only in beta and it’s likely to only increase in complexity as time goes by and new scrolls and strategies are added.

As far as card battle games go, you can’t really go wrong with Scrolls. Everything seems fairly well balanced, there’s already a strong player-base, and the current entry fee of twenty dollars comes with the guarantee that all future updates will be free. Scrolls may not be ushering in a new age of card battling, but it’s a great addition to the genre. If that’s your scene, then jump in and start collecting.

You can check Scrolls out for yourself here: https://scrolls.com/