Artifact: The Dota Card Game

Artifact: The Dota Card Game is a card tabletop game set in the fantasy universe of Dota 2. The game features three lanes, characters, minions, and even neutral creatures. To win, you need to either destroy two out of three towers on a lane or destroy the Nexus, access to which will open after destroying one of the towers. It also implements completely new mechanics and an artificial intelligence system designed to help newcomers quickly grasp the gameplay.

A multiplayer collectible card game with strategic elements and an isometric view, Artifact: The Dota Card Game was released on November 28, 2018. The first new game from Valve in many years immediately gained a bad reputation due to its harsh monetization system — in addition to purchasing a licensed copy, players had to buy card packs and gain access to ranked matches. As a result, Artifact rapidly lost popularity.

Familiar mechanics for the genre are used, such as laying out cards in front of each other and ranking them by strength, as well as new mechanics, for example, simultaneous play on three tables and the ability to immediately apply a card from the deck to a card on the table with all effects.

Newcomers to card games will find it difficult to understand the gameplay of Artifact, and we have prepared a series of guides explaining the nuances of the gameplay. For example, there are three simultaneously functioning decks of cards in the game: main, items, and heroes.

Cards and heroes are divided into four types by color: red, green, blue, and black. Red cards provide direct attacks with high damage; green cards protect and control the field; blue cards are powerful spells; and black cards are abilities that manipulate death.

A red character cannot attack a green hero. It is necessary to place cards in the correct spots; if there is no suitable enemy hero on the board, you will not be able to play your card. The abilities of heroes vary widely, and their power can change, but there are no clear underdogs. Some set the enemy on fire, freeze them, or disarm them.

Heroes, items, abilities, and characters in Artifact: The Dota Card Game are taken from the universe of Dota 2, and many new characters were created for the card game, which players encountered for the first time. Other Valve franchises (Left4Dead, Half-Life, Portal) are not involved.

Artifact has a sort of storyline that tells about the universe of Dota 2. The first season covered the factions of the Bronze Legion, Red Mist, and Wolves, the war between them, and key characters. In the next season, characters may change, age, or even die.

A writer previously working on Dota 2 stories was hired for Artifact to better develop the universe of the popular tower-defense game. With the help of graphic novels, Valve plans to completely rewrite the original universe and change it forever.

On the release day, Artifact had 280 cards and 44 heroes, with 40 cards in each deck. To help players master each card, a tutorial artificial intelligence is embedded in the game.

Similar to Dota 2, matches in Artifact take place on three boards (lanes), but not simultaneously, rather sequentially — from left to right. Actions on the current lane affect the state of cards in the next gameplay area. Progressing through the three boards is considered a round.

Before the start of the round, the player is randomly dealt five cards for the three lanes, and the main deck is determined, the first five cards of which can be used immediately. After the round, cards are replenished in all three decks, and cards can also be added to any of the three boards.

The number of cards increases from round to round, with a total of up to 15 cards laid out and another 10 held in reserve. Each round also adds more heroes, but if a character dies, they will be unavailable for the next round.

The boards also feature creeps — mobs with interesting abilities that automatically appear on the players' boards. They resemble their counterparts from Dota 2 but are more useful — they can attack towers and have active and passive effects.

After the cards are laid out, the match moves to the active stage, where one player first chooses and moves cards, dealing damage, then the turn passes to the other player. After the clash of cards, destroyed ones are removed from the board, and the action moves to the next lane.

The combat stage proceeds automatically, with a hero or creep's attack on an enemy not only occurring directly but also diagonally or even randomly.

Between rounds, there is a shopping phase, during which new cards, enhancers, medkits, and items for characters are purchased. Then the player distributes the purchased items (upgraded armor, weapons, or gear) among the heroes and assigns them to lanes.

Everything repeats until victory. Each lane has a tower that needs to be destroyed, and victory is awarded if two towers or a tower and the Ancient are destroyed. This powerful character appears as the last defender and is often easier to destroy another tower. Each game lasts from 30 to 40 minutes.

Purchasing Artifact grants access only to basic gaming features. The player is given two complete decks, 12 sets of cards, and a dozen passes for ranked modes. Now pay attention — there are no free ways to obtain new heroes, creatures, spells, and passes; all content is paid.

The same principle as in MTG Online applies — you need to trade cards or buy them, and this is what sets Artifact apart from classic card games. The free market has established clear conditions — strong and expensive cards cost more than most, sometimes 10-100 times more. And although players have found great options for budget decks, real money will still need to be spent.

Battles always occur "one on one." The main mode of Artifact is "Regular Phantom Draft," which is free to enter, but it is nothing more than practice, as there are no special rewards in it. The cards are predominantly basic and common, and you won't be able to get a good deck of uncommon and rare cards here.

To build a collection of full cards, you need to win in the "Pack Draft" mode. Each entry requires two passes and five sets of cards. Before the match begins, you need to choose 60 more or less decent cards from all the cards and then build a full deck. To get more passes, you need to buy them.

The most challenging and ranked mode is the "Phantom Draft", entry to this arena costs one pass, and all the cards obtained do not remain in the player's collection. Due to randomness, each match becomes different from the previous one, but the sensations are the most intense. For three wins out of five, Artifact returns the pass, for four and five wins out of five games, it rewards one and two card sets respectively.