Whether it's Magic: The Gathering in the '90s,or Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the 2000s, card games have always been all the rage. The best ones are simple to get into, but hard to master, making it easy to sink hundreds of hours into them playing your friends...or total strangers.
From the moment online gaming began, it didn't take long for collectible card games to make the jump over, and the advent of smartphones has only made the genre proliferate further. For this list, we've weaned things down to only the best CCGs, and even discuss how easy they are to play "for free," the big keyword in the era of mobile games.
Updated March 22, 2022, by Jessica Filby: Collectable Card Games are still going strong, and this fantastic genre has brought a multitude of new players and fans into this wonderful world. However, CCGs are the types of games that you need to commit a lot of time into before succeeding, so the last thing you want to do is sink hours into a game, only to find out you don't really like it. This is exactly why you need to pick the best of the best and know what you're getting into.
14 Legends Of Runeterra
As one of the more recent CCG titles to grace your platform of choice, Legends of Runeterra has taken the gaming world by storm. It's made by Riot Games, the same studio that made League of Legends and Valorant.
When it comes to Legends of Runeterra, it's a love or hate kind of game. This is due to the fact that it has a few unique rules and plays a little differently from a lot of CCG games. Essentially, you're given a mana gem at the start of your turn, as well as a defense or attack token, depending on which player you are. This means you can only really take certain actions which may be a bit frustrating for some, although others may love the challenge.
13 Mythgard
This steampunk-fantasy CCG is unique, enjoyable, and has a storyline that's easy to follow and fun to play. You take on the role of the devil's girlfriend, Percy, who ends up exploring the wonderful word of Mythgard through tough battles and enjoyable gameplay.
Using some pretty powerful cards you can go up against mythological creatures, vampires, and all sorts of exciting and ferocious monsters. Despite the fact that the gameplay itself is really entertaining, it's the fact that you can practice in the normal game then head over to battle other players once you get a little more confident that really helps you get into thine swing of things. It feels like the perfect progression.
12 Cultist Simulator
As an award-winning CCG, it's hard to ignore the success and brilliance of Cultist Simulator. Don't let the name fool you, for it's definitely a card game, but still has an interesting story and a wonderful atmosphere that won it so many awards.
Essentially, you take control of a poor unsuspecting citizen and try to go about your daily life without being sucked into a cult, which might sound easy but wait until you get into the game. This is definitely a tactical title that you just have to try if you love CCGs.
11 The Elder Scrolls: Legends
If the many Elder Scrolls games aren't enough to quell your hunger for anything Bethesda, then why not try Elder Scrolls: Legends? It brings in everything you know and love from the franchise and puts it into a fantastic CCG. It's also free.
Just like in the other games, you start off with a limited amount of Health and Magicka, all you need to do is use those spells to beat your opponent. It's much harder than it sounds but is still an incredibly entertaining game for any Elder Scrolls fans or just CCG fans in general.
10 Slay The Spire
Slay The Spire is one of those games that introduced a lot of roguelike fans into the CCG genre. After all, it's easy to learn, incredibly popular, and combines two elements that work perfectly together.
All you need to do is choose your character and your deck, then try to reach the top of the spire. It's filled with tactics and skill but isn't so tough that you won't feel like you're progressing. This game is beginner-friendly but also perfect for seasoned CCG players as it requires a considerable amount of forethought and technique.
9 Shadow Era
One of the older games here, Shadow Era has been around for the better part of this decade, standing strong next to your Shadowverses. It adds cards at a reasonable pace, giving players plenty of time to experience a meta before moving on and adding anything else new.
Shadow Era also features some of the most robust single-player content on the market, with over 100 missions to play through that give out rewards that feed into online play. This means for free-to-play players, the game isn’t a grind to acquire new content and does not constantly push customers to make purchases.
8 Hex: Shards Of Fate
Shards of Fate is unique in that it strongly resembles the Big Papa of CCGs, Magic: The Gathering with its resource system in particular being heavily reminiscent of Magic’s mana system. Nonetheless, Hex is technically another free-to-play game, and fortunately boasts a robust single-player mode that tells the story of the world while allowing players to get comfortable with gameplay mechanics and earn valuable rewards.
However, due to cards having actual real-world monetary value, buying packs can’t be done with the game’s free currency and instead tends to cost actual money. This, plus Hex not being available on mobile platforms, makes the game much more difficult to get into.
7 Eternal
Eternal feels like Magic: The Gathering, but it makes up for it with their unique take on the Wild West as a setting. It’s also considered among the genre's best free to play games.
Eternal offers players multiple different tournaments and alternate modes for them to experience, even having a sizable amount of single-player content to give those who prefer playing against the computer (PvE) plenty of options. It’s also one of the very few titles on here that has made it to a console, coming out for the Xbox One back in 2018.
6 Faeria
Faeria is unique for a number of reasons, chief of which being that it actually isn’t free-to-play. Players are actually expected to pay for it, but as a side effect, it’s far easier to build a proper collection of cards. Surprisingly, this has worked well for them, as the game is updated with new content quite often.
Setting its price aside, Faeria is also unique for taking place on a dynamic playing board, one in which placement of cards can affect future turns for yourself and your opponent. With this type of gameplay, inexperienced players can quickly cause disaster for themselves against skilled opponents.
5 Gwent
After realizing just how much time its players were sinking into Gwent, CDProjekt Red decided to turn the mini-game from their popular The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt game into a full-fledged CCG. Though it spent quite some time in beta, that only means the developers have spent plenty of time listening to fans and fine-tuning the game for the best experience possible.
Gwent offers another look into the captivating world of The Witcher, which is why releasing a single-player expansion in the form of Gwent: Thronebreaker was probably one of the smartest things the studio has ever done. The CCG allows players to spend even more time in an isometric version of CD Projekt Red's world.
4 Magic: The Gathering Arena
The Granddaddy of them all, longtime fans recognize Magic as the very first trading card game ever. It’s been going strong since 1993, and though an online version of the game has been around since 2002, it is 2019's Arena that earns a spot on this list.
Arena makes Magic welcoming to newcomers while maintaining all the complexity long-term players have come to love. It’s also taken the necessary step of releasing new sets in the game the same day they release physically, meaning the game is never behind the “real” game in terms of deck types and strategies.
3 Pokemon TCG Online
Pokemon TCG Online is one of the few games on this list that actually began as a traditional card game. That’s also part of the reason it’s rarely talked about, even though it is genuinely a fun game for the most part. One of the cooler things about Pokemon TCG Online is that players with massive real-life libraries can use those same cards in the digital game.
This means there’s little reason to spend money on digital items. Combine this with balanced gameplay and this is one of the most solid titles on the market.
2 Shadowverse
Currently sitting at over eighteen million downloads and one million concurrent players, Shadowverse is incredibly fun to play. The game adds the mechanic of evolving monsters to allow for momentum shifts between players.
The series has managed to ingratiate itself with fans by having cross-promotions with popular anime and constant free pack giveaways, making it easy for players to get started. Shadowverse also has a fairly lengthy story mode where players can learn how to play all eight decks of the game, featuring some of the worst, most hilarious dialogue ever. What’s not to like?
1 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links was Konami’s serious entry into the world of online CCGs, and boy did the publisher go all out. Not only did Konami make sure it was available on every relevant platform, but they created an entirely new format for the game. The number of monster and spell/trap zones have been reduced from 5 to 3, life points are cut in half, even the deck and extra deck have been greatly reduced.
However, what’s most surprising is Konami creating a separate library that allows for cards from older sets to be gradually introduced. In the beginning, Duel Links resembled the original Duel Monsters anime as much as possible. A decision that worked to great success, with the game boasting 80 million downloads just in the span of two years.