Stone Blade Entertainment, the developer behind the Ascension collectible card game, have just announced a new game with the help of Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. SolForge: Fusion arrives later this fall as the world’s first "hybrid deckbuilding game."
If the name “SolForge” sounds familiar, that’s because Garfield and Stone Blade Entertainment already teamed up once before on a game of the same name. The first SolForge arrived in 2012 as a free-to-play digital card game. SolForge left early access in 2016, with Stone Blade Entertainment ending support for the game less than eight months later. Despite being a commercial failure, SolForge remained popular enough with fans that the game was kept alive through an unofficial community client and a server hosted by Grinding Gear Games, both of which ceased operation in 2019.
SolForge: Fusion appears to bring back the SolForge setting and combines them with one of Garfield’s recent success stories. Like KeyForge, SolForge: Fusion lets players combine two half-decks of 31 cards to create a unique deck that can be scanned into an online database for official tournament play. Thanks to an algorithmically generated card printing process, no two SolForge: Fusion decks are the same, making everyone’s deck collection unique.
This method of deck construction solves one of Garfield’s largest criticisms of Magic: The Gathering, that being a wildly expensive secondary market. Since each deck is intended to remain unchanged, players cannot trade cards from one deck to another. This also means no booster packs are sold either, only half-decks of 31 cards.
"Combining two procedurally generated half-decks gives an easy way to customize your deck, and wildly expands the possibilities of a collection." said Richard Garfield. "And creating cards by fusing two halves together gives over 15K possible cards in the first set alone, more than were created in the first 20-plus years of Magic: The Gathering!"
SolForge: Fusion can be played with physical cards or digital versions in Tabletop Simulator after scanning the decks' QR codes on the official site. Stone Blade Entertainment will be hosting tutorials and tournaments at GenCon 2022 from August 4 to 7, with SolForge: Fusion hitting retail on September 22.