Epic Card Game Guide: Tips & Tricks To Deckbuilding and Battling

Epic Card Game is a new collectible card game designed by Hall of Fame Magic the Gathering players. Everything you know and love about CCGs is here: beautiful card artwork, plenty of different cards to play with, and of course layers upon layers of strategy and tactics.

Epic Card Game has a physical version and the digital version (the one you are playing right now), and the great thing about it is that all cards are given to you right from the get-go. That means you can strategize without having to worry about chasing specific cards!

So, in our Epic Card Game tips and tricks, we will talk about the rules of the game, basic strategies, and potential tactics that you can weave into your deck. Let’s get started with our Epic Card Game tips and tricks strategy guide to deck building and battling!

The Basics of Epic Card Game’s Combat

The rules of Epic Card Game follow your typical CCG ruleset, but there are a few nuances that you need to know. The in-game tutorial does a decent job at teaching new players about these things but it can be confusing – we had to replay the tutorial a few times to really grasp what was happening.

Epic Card Game starts out like a normal card game. You take a turn, your opponent takes a turn, and then the cycle repeats. You get one gold to spend on playing cards, but not all cards cost gold. Your goal is to survive while reducing your opponent’s health to zero.

The first basic card is a champion card, and these are basically the units of your army. When a champion is played, it will in the “deploying” state. This means it cannot attack, but it can still defend. When either player decides to attack with a champion, they must move it into the attacking position.

When a champion readies its attack, the turn will then go into the “Event” Phase. You can play event cards during this phase to augment your champions, deal damage to an enemy champion, and so forth. Basically this lets you pile on more damage or defend yourself.

Whenever you expend your gold (which is not required), you may end your turn, which starts the “End” Phase. During this time, either player can respond with more event cards, but if they do so, then the opposing player will also be able to respond.

It is a bit convoluted, but with a few matches under your belt you will start to understand the flow of Epic Card Game. It is much better to experience all of this first hand than rather try to understand more of the tutorial.

The Tribute Ability

When a card has “Tribute” written on it, that means this ability will activate as soon as the champion is played. The first example of this the game shows is the Kong card – its Tribute ability is to deal 13 damage to a targeted champion. A rampaging ape bursts into the scene!

Tribute cards are a great way to pepper attacks on your opponent during the Main Phase, and you can also use them to shutdown any potential strategies that your opponent may be building up to. You can also use them to sneak direct attacks on your opponent when they least expect it.

Tributes abilities are not just limited to damage. There are some Tributes that can amplify your team, buff them, and sometimes even heal them, so it is important to check them all to see which fits with your playstyle the most.

The Ambush Ability

Champions with the “Ambush” attribute are able to be played during any phase are not just limited to deployment during the Main Phase. True to the name, ambush champions are design for quick saves and throwing a wrench into your opponent’s plan.

Ambush champions typically do not have that much health, so you need to think quick after you play them. You generally do not really need them for that long after you get a fast attack on your opponent, but it is not bad if you keep them alive for longer too.

Also, if you really want to, ambush champions can be played during the Main Phase, but they may be targeted earlier on so be careful about doing that.

The Loyalty Ability

Certain cards have a property on them called Loyalty. In order to activate a card’s Loyalty effect, you must reveal the indicated number of cards that share the same faction as the card you initially played. Loyalty abilities are extremely powerful, but you give away some knowledge to activate them.

The tutorial uses the Angel of Death as an example, so we will use that too. Angel of Death is an Evil card and has a Loyalty 2 ability, which means that in order to activate it you must reveal two other Evil cards in your hand to your opponent.

After revealing your two cards, you can finally activate the Angel of Death’s Loyalty 2 ability, which is to immediately break all of your opponent’s champions. To completely wipe out your opponent’s army in the blink of an eye… that is the power of Loyalty abilities.

Loyalty abilities can wreck havoc to your opponent, restore huge amounts of health for your champions, change the battlefield around drastically – you name it, and a Loyalty ability can probably do it.

But in order to take advantage of the Loyalty abilities, you need the accompanying cards, which means you need to stick to as few factions as possible when building your deck. If you load up your deck with cards from all sorts of different factions, you may end up not being able to trigger any Loyalty abilities at all.

Play the Campaign to Brainstorm

Those three card attributes are the most important abilities to know, so now that you have gotten some familiarity with them, it is time to experience the real deal. Head into the game’s campaign to follow individual stories.

For the tutorial campaign, you will use the same preset deck given to you by the game. This starting deck has an equal assortment of cards from all different factions, giving you a taste of what each faction can do. There is also some synergy with some of the cards, so you can start strategizing as well.

Not only that, but your opponents will be using themed decks as well. These decks are common strategies that you will more than likely go up against in a real duel against a human player, so pay attention not only to your cards but also to your opponent’s.

Play as little or as much of the campaign as you want, because the next step is the most time consuming…

Build your own Deck!

With the tutorial cleared and a few of the campaign encounters done, you may be ready to start building your own deck. To start off, a deck must consist of at least 60 cards, which means you have a lot of room for as many strategies as you want.

Unlike most mobile CCGs, Epic Card Game gives you access to every single card in the game right from the get-go. As such, it is very easy to feel overwhelmed at the beginning due to the sheer amount of options you have.

As we mentioned before, most of the factions have powerful Loyalty abilities, so try to stick with as few factions as possible to start off with to make it easier to use these abilities. Later on when you have more experience you can make your deck a little more diverse.

Do note that some cards are banned in competitive play, and the game will warn you if you have one of these cards in your deck. If your deck is not valid for any reason, there will be a flashing button at the bottom of the screen that tells you why.

And, when in doubt, just fill up your deck with cards that seem good to you. The only way to know what works and what does not with your strategy and play style is to simply use the card in a real battle and see how it works.

Test your Decks against the AI

When you have a preliminary deck to work with, it is time to test it against an AI opponent. Fighting against the AI is just like playing through the tutorial missions, except this time you get to pick your own deck and you do not know what the opponent will have.

If you want to get serious with Epic Card Game, do not jump online with a freshly made deck. Test it out against an AI opponent to see the strengths and weaknesses of the deck. Just remember that there are endless combinations of decks, so always take into consideration the fact that you just might have gone up against a deck that hard counters yours.

Practice, practice, and practice some more! Whenever you feel ready to take on the world, go ahead and play against a real opponent and see how you do. Just like every other card game, Epic Card Game is about taking your wins and losses and learning from them.

Good luck! Let us know how you do, and share your decks and strategies in the comments below!