The popular new game KeyForge has recently passed one million registered decks through its online companion app KeyForge: Master Vault. This marks a strong start for the relatively new game, which was published in 2018 by Fantasy Flight Games and created by Richard Garfield, the man credited with producing Magic: The Gathering (MTG), which released in 1993.
This is a good indicator that players are enjoying KeyForge's new style of gameplay, which does not fall under the category of Trading Card Game (TCG) or Collectable Card Game (CCG) like MTG does, nor does it fall under the Living Card Game (LCG) coined by Fantasy Flight Games to describe some of its other card-based games like Call of Cthulhu, Netrunner, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. KeyForge is something entirely unique, and that's what is bringing in so many players.
For comparison, MTG currently has approximately 15,000 legal cards that can be used, and any of these can be compiled to make a deck. Over the past twenty-six years, this has led to two characteristics that are now synonymous with the game: net-decking and the commodification of the cards into an aggressive and expensive secondary market.
Net-decking essentially means looking online for the absolute best deck based on statistics and pro players, and making that deck for yourself by accessing the secondary market where cards can cost hundreds of dollars for a single copy, of which a player often needs four in their deck of sixty cards.
KeyForge, meanwhile, shatters both of these characteristics. Its entire card pool consists of 370 cards, but decks are premade by the publisher and sold in packs of 37, and no two decks in the world are identical. Since there are 104 quadrillion combinations from that pool that can be made, and thus 32 billion unique decks, KeyForge falls into a new category of a Unique Card Game (UCG).
Each deck is then marked with a unique backing and names so that a player can only use the cards from their deck. As a direct result, there is no net-decking and there is no secondary market. Decks can still be sold once opened, but the scope of sales between the games is incomparable.
The current success of the game is likely due to Garfield’s vision. In the KeyForge rulebook, Garfield speaks of the origin of the game and states that he wishes to once again see "sealed deck and league play" formats return to popularity.
He then contrasts KeyForge to other trading card games, saying that it is "like the difference between exploring a jungle and walking in an amusement park… In the amusement park, there are experts telling you how to play the game, the safest strategies, what net decks to use,” meanwhile Keyforge is the jungle, where you use only what you have. These amusement park games would be MTG and similar TCG/CCGs like Hearthstone, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Gwent, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon Trading Card Game, and others.
Keyforge is not likely to dethrone MTG since that is neither its purpose nor likely a possibility at this point in time. However, it is an outstanding innovation for players who want to jump right into a game and only have to spend the MSRP of $10 (of course, this price is increasing with popularity, but it should come back once the dust settles).