SolForge Fusion Starter Kit

Now that Solforge Fusion has officially come out I thought I would do a short review of the game so you can see if it is right for you. First off, what is it? Solforge Fusion is a hybrid deck game created by Richard Garfield (Magic the Gathering, Solforge, etc.) and Justin Gary (Ascension). It’s algorithmically-generated half-decks are uniquely printed with no two alike.No it’s not like Keyforge, minus unique decks anyway. You choose two factions and smash them together to form your deck. One of the unique aspects of this game is the cards level up as you play them. Starting from weaker to crazy powerful. Also your Forgeborn (leader) levels up as well. Each one has three different abilities that can be used during the game.SETUP:The game is simple to set up and play. You start with 50 life. You have three stacks. One for your level two cards, one for your level three cards, and your deck. You and your opponent take turns controlling the forge. It will flip control each turn to show who is going first that round. You basically get to play two cards per turn. Whoever has the forge plays a card, then passes to the opponent, who plays one and passes back. You play onto one of the five lanes on the table. You will be playing creatures and spells. Once both players are done combat happens in all lanes simultaneously. Buffs, debuffs and damage don’t fall off between phases. So you can use either dice or tokens to keep track of it. The players will play 3 turns a cycle. Once the fourth cycle is completed whoever has the lower life total loses. Unless your life hits zero before then.The game is sold in two different ways. First there is a Starter Kit. This comes with 4 random decks (one from each faction), 2 paper playmats, 12 minion cards, 26 number tracker cards, and 2 paper Forgeborn trackers. The second way you can buy it is a Booster Kit. You get 4 random decks and 4 bonus cards.Let’s break down the good and the bad and see if it’s worth picking up.THE GOOD:Game play. The game is solid and very fun. There is a ton of strategy without being so brain burning you miss triggers. The fact you only have 5 lines to work with is excellent as well. It keeps combat nice and precise. The game isn’t about how or when to attack, the strategy comes from all the card choices you have. Should you play a sub-par card this turn just to get it leveled up? The choice is up to you.Deck building. I love the fact you have some decision making when it comes to building a deck too. If in Keyforge you got a bad deck, too bad for you! (Although KF is now trying a mash up style for deck building now.) But with this game a half deck might not look promising, but then you find the perfect pair partner with it and you are off to the races!Speed of play. This game has a lot of strategy but isn’t too hard on the bandwidth. So you can knock games out with pretty decent speed.TTS mod. This game can be played for absolutely free on Tabletop Simulator! So you can easily find a game there.Support. The game is set up to have a robust tournament scene which can be played in person AND online! Prize support and rewards are included.The company. Stoneblade are awesome. They are willing to listen to feedback and they all interact with the players. Top quality company!No truly bad decks. I own a lot of SF decks. I mean a lot. And in all I have bought I have not seen one half deck that is utter garbage. Even if it is a little lower on the power curve, you can mash it with another half deck that seems to make it shine. That alone blows my mind. In Keyforge you bought a deck and good or bad, you were stuck with it. That game feels so swingy between deck power. But here all the decks seem to at least have some playability. Maybe not winning a tournament, but not garbage either.THE BAD:The Art. To clarify, I like the art. I think it perfectly fits the game. However if you are really into TCG high level art, like Magic, or Flesh and Blood, you might be disappointed. It’s not that high a level.No Rulebook. This is true. No rulebook is included in the starter. Now this is not a pet peeve of mine, but I have seen multiple complaints about it. I want to be blunt about it though, first you probably have the internet readily available so it’s easily accessible online. And secondly, these types of games don’t usually include rulebooks. I played Magic back in the early 2000s when you had no rulebook and only dial-up internet! You might argue Keyforge had a rulebook. But the rulebook was incomplete and had to be looked up online anyway.The playmats. The only bad point I will agree with. If you plan on getting into this game, I highly recommend throwing the paper ones away and buying some nice ones. They do sell premium versions. The paper ones are ok, but they aren’t 100% centered on the side and I personally don’t like using them.THE VERDICT:I love this game. It’s been a long time since I played a game that is so thoroughly engaging. This game rules. It’s thematic, fun to play, and not going to break the bank. I highly recommend this game. It is fun, thematic, and plays fast. It basically takes the Keyforge idea and fixes the issues that game had. Well worth trying out.

Really enjoy the game and mechanics, but it gets real fiddly tracking changing attack and life totals of the creatures. It seems like an app that was converted to a tabletop version (which I think is the case but it was an older edition). I recommend getting some d10s to be able to track the changing values easier.

It’s like Magic and Pokemon had a baby. If you know either, you’ll learn this game quickly. It’s fun and passes the time, but your tactics can be very limited. By that I mean is that your decks are pre constructed at random. As far as I can tell thus far, you can’t break decks apart to customize your own??? At least not while playing online. Another reviewer said some d10’s would help…fact. I feel this game has huge potential, but there are NO CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS OR RULES to be found anywhere. Not even on the website, just basic directions on how to get started. I really hope this catches on, but after two years on the market, it’s hanging on by a thread. We need more clarification!

This is not a review of the gameplay (as of now, untested)Items missing to actually play the game:- Way to track your life total (starts at 50 - so its not easy)- Rules!! (not even a QR code to scan - very inconvenient)The playmats, while nice would have been substituted for the above and I would have been MUCH happier.If the gameplay is amazing, I might bump this rating up a star but very odd that's it was missing critical components to play out of the box.

This game is super fun, strategic, and has a unique leveling system that I haven’t quite seen in other games like it. Cards are also super high quality! However, without a way you track life points and cheap playmats, it made the game a bit less worth the price.

To be honest I love the art for this game and was really interested in it when i saw Richard Garfield was part of its development.But when the rule book was not included I immediately shelved it.Solforge has zero plays within the geekedupgaming tabletop group and most likely will never see the table.The rule book is available online but I’m not going to deal with scrolling up and down the pages to reference the rules. Nor will I print them out.Stoneblade thinks this is the way things are going for card games.To be honest I went out to. It a NEW start pack for MTG to see if this was true. NO ITS NOT, MTG (Magic the gathering) another Richard Garfield game (which I don’t believe he’s involved in anymore as far as development) MTG and Pokémon both still include how to play books in all starter kits!!My suggestion is DONT BUY AN INCOMPLETE GAME

There are no instructions to play this game. So you're reliant that the website remains in tact in order to learn how to play.

The game is very fun, great for two players