Wild things are happening over here! We’ve made some major theme changes to Cards of Mocapin in the past couple of weeks. This was brought on by taking a hard look at the existing theme, and we felt that it lacked direction. It had a fantasy-esque theme that rubbed up against a typical MTG feel. After some deep thought, we’ve come up with something that we’re very excited about… horror comics!

So now we present to you, the beginnings of COM v0.4!

We are still sculpting the theme and working on transitioning the cards to the new style and theme. Some characters have dropped away and been replaced by others. This process will evolve as we continue playtesting and seeing how the cards look/work together.

You may have noticed that the card types have changed. With the new theme, we’ve adjusted some of the terms used. Creatures have become Entities, Spells have turned into Events, Reaction Spells into Reactions, and Auras into Conditions.

Based on playtesting feedback, we’ve also overhauled the cost system for playing cards. In the previous version, players needed to control a certain number of cards on the table in order to play a new card. This cost ranged from 0 to 6, represented by yellow or black gems on the bottom of the card. This was fine, but there was no incentive not to play the strongest card you had in your hand, if you were already doing well. This didn’t really give the underdog a chance to catch up as easily, because they just kept getting pounded from the leader of the pack.

The new system is similar, but has two major differences. First, the maximum number of cards needed is three (so now 0-3). This narrows the gap between leading player and underdog. Secondly, and we think the biggest advancement, is now certain cards also require a sacrifice to play. This is represented by a skull in place of the gem. This means the most powerful cards, such as Abyssal Horror, requires the player to discard three cards they control on the table to play. Now the player needs to put more thought into whether that powerful card is worth the cost.

A side benefit of this new system is that the overall game surface is smaller and more dynamic. Holes are constantly opening up between cards, where some have been discarded. This creates a more interesting dynamic and provides more placement options for cards being played.

We’re very excited with these changes, and can’t wait to see how the game evolves as a result!