Synergy of Serra Gameplay Basics

After slowly and steadily selling out their first edition crates, Synergy of Serra brings us details about gameplay for their upcoming collectible card game. Synergy of Serra calls refers to itself as a ‘Deckbuilder’ game rather than a ‘Constructed’ game. But what exactly does this mean?

In a Constructed type card game, players build their deck before the match starts. Gods Unchained, Dark Country, and Splinterlands would all fall under this category. For the Serra crew, a Deckbuilder game involves building a deck on the fly, while the game is in session! They compare this to other games such as Dominion and Ascension.

I can’t say that I have ever played a Deckbuilder game before. I guess the closest thing would be the Sanctum from Gods Unchained. But that is a side feature that sometimes never comes into play during a match. In Synergy of Serra, deckbuilding during the game is an essential part of the game mechanics. Both players add cards to their deck from a shared pile as the game goes on. That’s right, both players share their cards! So if you bring a load of overpowered, rare cards to a match, your opponent has equal access to those cards. This dynamic deck feature ensures an even playing field and that no game will ever be exactly the same.

How Does this Shared Deck thing work?

Each player brings a ‘suitcase’ of 100 cards to the game. Since the game is designed as free to play, there will be a base set of cards that everyone can use. Both suitcases combine together into one Card Pool.

On game start, each player begins with 10 cards from the Starter Set in their Draw Pile. At the beginning of their turn, the active player draws cards until they have five in hand and then plays their turn. When their Draw pile runs out, their Discard pile is reshuffled into the Draw pile. With only 10 cards in your deck, this seems like it would get repetitive pretty quickly. So this is where the on-the-fly deckbuilding starts. During the game there is a ‘River’, composed of six cards from the Shared Card Pool. Two Unit cards, one Power, one Attachment, and two other random cards.

Each Card has a Credit cost. During their turn, players may spend Credits to remove cards from the River and add them to their deck. Also, they can spend Energy to redraw the River cards if they dont like the options available.

Players gain Credits and Energy steadily throughout the game. In addition to re-rolling the River, Energy is used to play cards during your turn. Credits also have an additional usage. Players spend Credits to ‘Trash’ cards, removing them from their Deck. This might be useful as the game progresses to keep the cards you most want to play more available.

What else do we know?

Synergy of Serra also features Factions for cards. As a player has more cards from the same Faction in play, that Faction ‘levels up’, and provides bonuses to associated cards. Sometimes units even receive new abilities from higher level Factions! But Faction level is not just one way. As a Faction’s numbers in play decreased , so does that Faction’s level. Other game mechanics include Attachments. Units have one to four Attachment slots. Also, some units have On Attach and On Detach effects, triggered as Attachments are added or removed. More information on that to come in a future blog post.

All of this is pre-alpha information. The details may change as the game is developed and tested.

What is Synergy of Serra?

Synergy of Serra is a free-to-play card game, and it allows players to play the game and earn money. Everybody can join the game and use a basic set of cards. However, the blockchain elements adds an extra layer of ownership. This gives players the possibility to really own a set of cards, trade it, sell it and so on.

At launch Synergy of Serra will offer 159 different cards, divided in four different sets: promo set, starter set, base set and the transcendent set. Scarcity is measured through the rarity and the quality of a card. A legendary golden card is the most valuable, while a painted metal common card is the least valuable.

Each season, which takes one to four months, the game will have seasonal ladders. These competitive modes have play-to-earn mechanics, allowing players to earn cryptocurrencies simply by being good at the game. Crate opening expected in 2022 with closed alpha in 2023.

Phil Hall has been a gaming enthusiast since birth and a crypto enthusiast since 2017. He enjoys new discoveries and sharing those with others via blogging and photography. You can follow him on Twitter or read his other articles on Medium.