Interview: Justin Gary Answers Questions About Balancing, Deckbuilding, and More for SOLFORGE FUSION

SolForge Fusion is an upcoming hybrid deck game from the minds of Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering) and Justin Gary (Ascension: Deckbuilding Game) through Stone Blade Entertainment. The game launches nationwide on October 27 and offers players the ability to purchase cards and play in person or scan the QR codes to build their decks in Tabletop Simulator. One of the goals for SolForge Fusion was to create unique cards that make it impossible to simply look up what the best 3 decks in the game are and build that (a practice called netdecking). The approach used for this was to use a “unique algorithmically generated card printing process” which makes it so that no two decks are the same. I’m a huge fan of trading card games, so this has really piqued my interest and I was excited when given the opportunity to email some of my questions to Gary. You can read his answers below.

Q: One of the areas that interests me the most about SolForge Fusion is the idea of combatting netdecking. However, this raises a few questions for me. Does this mean that each Forgeborn will essentially only be printed in a particular fashion once? It looks like the same character will be available with multiple prints, but their abilities and decklists will be different on each card. Is that correct?

A: This is correct. Each Forgeborn comes with 3 powers and 30 cards (10 of each level). You will never find a Forgeborn with the exact same combination of cards and powers!

Q: Second, how does this affect balancing? I’ve played my fair share of trading card games and I know it would be really rough to go to the store, purchase a deck because I think it might be really cool, and then find out that the print of the Forgeborn that I received isn’t as good as the same Forgeborn that my friend has. What’s the process being taken to help balance decks? Is there a process to balance them?

A: We take balance very seriously. My own background is a Magic Pro Tour player and US National Champion, and we have a team of talented folk and an algorithm designed to ensure that each deck is within a certain power band. Our algorithm ensures that each deck has a certain number of synergies (e.g. no deck will appear with a Zombie lord and no zombies) and our philosophy is that all cards should be good in the right circumstances, regardless of rarity level.

Q: In other TCGs, players are constantly researching cards that are out and ones that are coming out in order to try to figure out new decks and determine what decks and packs they go out to buy. SolForge looks to change this up with the emphasis on combining 2 prebuilt decks for your 20-card deck. How will players, newcomers and veterans, best determine what to buy in the store? In the same vein, how will SolForge be sold (10-card decks, multiple decks, etc.)?

A: SolForge Fusion will be sold in Starter Kits ($34.99) and Booster Kits ($29.99). Both Kits contain 4 decks (1 of each faction), any two of which can be combined to create a playable deck. The Starter Kit also comes with playmats, minion tokens, and tracking tokens. This makes every kit support up to two players out of the box with up to 6 different possible Fused decks to build out of the four faction decks. Everytime you buy another Booster Kit, you exponentially increase the number of decks you can build (e.g. if you buy just 4 kits, you will have 96 possible decks to play!). Players can hunt for their favorite cards or look for the perfect combination for their favorite deck. I look forward to seeing how players adapt to this variety and to evaluating decks in the long term.

Q: How often will fans be able to look forward to new cards?

A: We plan to release new cards every 4 months (3 x per year) to keep the game fresh and evolving.

Q: As more cards are released, will SolForge be adopting a banlist system, a set rotation system, something else, or nothing at all that would affect how decks are built?

A: We are not planning to do set rotation or banning. We do, however, have a very innovative system to help ensure that powerful decks move up to higher tier events and that the tournament scene stays fresh. In addition to player rankings, decks gain rankings, which qualifies them for higher tier events like our World Championships, but also disqualifies them from lower ranked events like store leagues. The highest ranked decks can even become immortalized as Platinum foil decks! This means that leveling up your deck can get you exciting rewards, but also ensures you can’t just get a great deck and keep beating up new players at your local store. You can find more about the program here.

Q: SolForge Fusion is using algorithms to create decks and Forgeborn. Do the algorithms also make the individual creatures and spells? If so, once a card is created, will it always be the same or will stats and effects also change? If the stats and effects are different, is this a way to customize your deck?

A: Though many of our creatures (and all of our spells presently) are traditionally designed cards, the SolForge Fusion algorithm does create individual creatures as well as decks and forgeborn. Whenever a creature is created algorithmically, it represents a combination of one "Adjective" and one "Noun" that get forged together. (E.G. A Steadfast Harvester or a Tormenting Banshee could also be a Tormenting Harvester or a Steadfast Banshee). Those Adjectives and Nouns have fixed meanings in the game, so the stats and effects of every "Steadfast Harvester" will be the same. This lets players more easily predict and understand the cards even though there are so many possible permutations.

Q: At the core, I guess I'm struggling to understand the trading aspect of this trading card game. If decks are pre-determined based on your Forgeborn, is the trading designed to be based around trading decks instead of individual cards?

A: It is correct that the smallest unit that can be traded / collected is the deck. But because you play SolForge Fusion by combining any two different faction decks together, there is a lot of additional play and customization that comes with every new deck you get. E.G. if you have only 16 decks (4 Booster Kits) you get 96 possible permutations of decks to build.

Q: I got to play a quick game with my wife and felt like only getting 2 Action Phases felt very restricting. Was this done in an effort to prevent players from doing huge combos in a turn?

A: Every turn players must make interesting strategic choices, typically playing 2 out of the 5 cards available to them. The choice of which cards to play not only impacts the current board, but also which future leveled up cards are available to you. Restricting to 2 card plays per turn helps keep the tension high and increases replayability as you won't get a chance to level all your cards in any one game. We also include a lot of card effects that allow players to play additional cards, use creature abilities, and use Forgeborn abilities to provide more options for players who are looking to get more card plays each round.

Q: The main win condition right now is lowering your opponent's Health. Are there any alternate win conditions that are planned or already being printed?

A: In Set 1, reducing your opponent's Health is the only way to win. Unfortunately, I can't comment on future set designs at this time.