Compared to its current complexity, the game was quite simple, and good players were soon able to win 80% or more of their runs. When I came to Slay the Spire, in early 2018, the only characters were Ironclad and Silent, and there were no Ascension levels. For me, the release of Slay the Spire was incredible, a chance to re-engage with my passion for card games in a way which escaped the competitive framework I had lost interest in. I stopped competing at card games, and started streaming non-competitive strategy games instead: XCOM, FTL, and so on. I didn’t like treating my peers as adversaries, and was concerned when I noticed that elements of manipulation and outmaneuvering which I had learned to implement in strategy games were creeping into the ways I resolved conflict outside of them. ![]() I later dropped out of college to play poker online, and became one of the strongest No Limit Hold ‘Em cash game players on Pokerstars between 20, easily earning enough to pay for travel and living expenses for most of my 20’s.īut, after a decade of competition in these sorts of card games, I found that I was tired of competing. Around twenty years ago, as a teenager, I was building decks for Magic: the Gathering pro tours, and proudly reached #1 in the world in constructed rank and #3 in the world in limited rank on Magic: the Gathering Online. I personally have history with both of these elements. Because there is no adversarial competition against another human player, there is no harm done in adjusting the way in which you play Slay the Spire to fit your exact competitive desires, and many competitive card gamers have been drawn to the Spire for this appeal as well. There are no judges with rulesets you have to abide by if you’d like friends to help you win that is allowed, if you’d like to reset fights when you make mistakes that is allowed. There is no opponent waiting for you to finish your turn, so you can play as quickly or slowly as you like. You don’t have to play matchups you don’t like you can pick whichever character you want. You no longer have to deal with opponents insulting you, or timing out. As such, it is my opinion that it is fairly easily the most valuable game in the world for people who are interested in complex card games but disinterested in competition.Īt the same time, though, by removing many of the challenges faced by competitive card games, the Spire itself becomes a resonant proving ground for the competitive drive which draws players to games like Magic: the Gathering. ![]() In doing so it circumvents many challenges for competitive card games: fairly pairing opponents, adjudicating fair matches (preventing cheating, outside assistance, etc.), balancing in a way which feels fair to both players of matches, etc. Competitive card games of comparable complexity have existed for decades with incredible popularity - Magic: the Gathering, Hearthstone, Poker - and Slay the Spire removes the need for those games to have an opponent for you to play against. Its non-competitive merits are superlative. There is a fascinating friction at the core of Slay the Spire: it is the best non-competitive deckbuilder ever made, but it is also in many ways the best competitive deckbuilder ever made. The Competitive Duality of Slay the Spire I wrote a 6k-word essay on competition in Slay the Spire and people liked it:
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