From Mountain to Jungle - The Life, Death & Miraculous Rebirth of Keyforge [Hobby Drama Archive]

“In the early days of trading card games, they were played in many ways, and some of my favorite ways disappeared over time. I’ve often wondered if I can get back some of that really exciting play, which was characterized by tools that weren’t universal . . . While I enjoy constructing or drafting decks, I am often longing to play cards that are not powerful enough to compete within these formats. I find special pleasure in winning a game using cards that many people ignored or overlooked.

“I have always been attached to the good procedurally generated content. Game worlds generated in this way feel as if they belong to me, the player. I’m discovering them as I play; the designer didn’t even know they existed . . . When trading card games first came out, the feeling was like exploring a jungle, and as the cards became more like commodities it became more and more like an amusement park. In the amusement park there are experts telling you how to play the game, the safest strategies, what net decks to use. In the jungle, you have the tools you have. There’s every chance that you’re going to be the best in the world at playing your decks. You can’t just look up what the synergies are, or the weaknesses, you will only find out by playing. Welcome… to the jungle.”

- Richard Garfield, co-creator of Magic: The Gathering

In August 2018 Keyforge was announced at Gen Con, helmed by none other than Richard Garfield himself. Billed as the world’s first Unique Deck Game, Keyforge featured no deck building or booster packs whatsoever. Each deck in the world would be entirely unique, featuring a card list that no other deck would ever have. In addition, each deck would also see its cards printed with its own unique name and unique card-back artwork.

In the three years since the release of Keyforge, the landscape of the game has changed immensely. Community content, the competitive scene, new sets and discoveries… Things are vastly different from the game’s early days. It’s been a heck of a ride, and as someone who has been there since the beginning, I thought it’d be interesting to share the life of Keyforge as it was, is, and potentially will be.

As a slight disclaimer, I should point out that this post will be decidedly more anecdotal in nature than my previous posts. There’s less here that I can give objective evidence for, and a little more in the way of “you’ll just have to take my word for it.” This is difficult to avoid since I’ll be delving into the game’s evolution in a broader sense but should be noted in case you have any qualms concerning a lack of links. I’m simply doing my best to give what I believe to be an accurate representation, if invariably shaped by my own thoughts and experiences.

Humble Beginnings

November of 2018 saw the release of Call of the Archons (CotA), the very first set for Keyforge. There was already a veritable buzz that surrounded the game on its release, from hardcore trading card players to tabletop fans alike. This was, after all, the first of its kind. That said, there was certainly a level of apprehension amongst some. The nature of randomized deck lists irked a number of CCG veterans who saw deck building as a core aspect of CCGs and felt that removing it entirely was a mistake.

On the flipside, new fans were enamored by the game’s relative simplicity and ease of access. You could grab a couple decks, some tokens, and get a game going immediately without the need for building or drafting. In essence, the game was targeting a slightly different audience from traditional CCGs.

There was also the allure of each deck having its own unique name which was constructed via an algorithm, sometimes to hilarious result, such as The Boy Who Basically Headbutts Heaven.

These aspects of Keyforge appeared to make it a hit for casual tabletop gamers, but the real test was whether the game had any staying power beyond that. Was there more under the hood than just its apparent simplicity and cool deck names? What was to be of the game’s competitive scene? And how would the game evolve?

When the first set dropped, players were just getting to grips with how to play the game and grew to understand that it didn’t quite function in the same way as other card games. One of the biggest mistakes of early adopters was to put too much emphasis on fighting. I mean, that’s what creatures are there for, right? At least, that’s what other card games had taught us. But Keyforge’s main goal was not to defeat the player through damage – it was to forge keys. The main function of creatures wasn’t to fight, it was to ‘reap’, which would gain aember. Fighting still had its place in the game, sure, but players who made it their sole mission to fight would have to adapt.

House Shadows quickly established itself as the game’s most dominant force, its suite filled to the brim with cards that could steal aember from the opponent. This included Bait and Switch, a card so grossly overpowered that the game’s entire meta revolved around it. (More on that in this Hobby Drama article)

House Untamed made for a close second with its ability to generate bursts of aember, while Logos and Dis rounded out the top four, Logos being the king of efficiency and card draw while Dis had powerful destruction and disruption capabilities. Brobnar, Sanctum and Mars, however, weren’t quite as accomplished.

This early era of Keyforge was by far the most centralized in terms of gameplay, and for some appeared to be at odds with Richard Garfield’s vision of “the jungle”. There are several reasons for this, including the previously discussed disparity between each of the seven houses, the meta dominance of Bait and Switch, the lack of viable formats, and the relative simplicity of the game that eschewed complex interactions and strategies with explosive cards that gained benefit right out of the gate. This isn’t to say that the game wasn’t incredibly fun at this juncture, or that it didn’t require any skill, just that it seemed to occupy a space akin to traditional TCGs, with many players clamoring over a select portion of card pools and deck archetypes.

The Age of Ascension

After an important errata tweaked two of the most powerful cards in the game – Bait and Switch & Library Access – the game saw somewhat of an increase in competitive freedom, with many non-Bait and Switch decks becoming more viable.

Sometime after, in February 2019, FFG announced a brand-new set called Age of Ascension. (Hereby referred to as AoA) Many Keyforge fans were unsurprisingly hyped, drawn in by the allure of all new cards and effects, and finally got their hands on them in May 2019. And the reception was… decidedly mixed.

In terms of the set’s strengths, the balancing between the 7 houses is arguably the best the game has ever seen. No longer were there certain houses that outright dominated others, giving rise to the potential for much greater variance in house distribution and deck archetype. Not only that, but variants of the Sealed format (In which you use sealed, unopened decks for an event) allowed for considerably more balanced play. The set also saw a slight, but noticeable bump in complexity, offering more of an incentive for skilled players to knuckle down and learn the game’s intricacies.

Though as I said, the reception was mixed. Not everybody liked the move from the fast-paced, explosive, action-heavy playstyle of CotA to the slower, more intricate, board-focused nature of AoA. Some disliked the new ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ keywords (Essentially, restrictions that on cards that only allow them to be played either at the very beginning of the turn or at the very end), either finding them just boring in general, or too restrictive.

But above all else, the most divisive aspect of AoA was its distinct lack of power when compared with CotA. There were still a number of new powerhouse cards, such as Ronnie Wristclocks, Helper Bot, Hypnobeam and Exhume, to name a few, but overall, AoA decks were, on average, significantly weaker than the current crop of CotA decks.

While your typical AoA deck was occupied with building a board state and punishing your opponent for reaping, CotA was too busy tearing through creatures and using powerful play effects. There were still instances of AoA decks that could dominate, but for the most part, CotA reigned supreme.

It also didn’t help much that as this was going on, a good chunk of the community was in uproar after the card Archimedes brought about a series of ambiguous rulings with no definitive answer.

And to add one more thing, people were also unable to play their AoA decks through the game’s unofficial online client (thecrucible.online or TCO), as the creator of the site was adamant on programming all of the new cards completely by themselves, which, with over 200 new cards, was taking them a considerable amount of time.

Even for those who were fans of AoA (myself included) these were dark times, and each of the above points arguably contributed to the game’s popularity taking a noticeable dip.

Thankfully, FFG would give the rulebook a much needed update, and the creator of TCO eventually made the site open source, allowing for other programmers to get things up to speed. This allowed people to take their AoA decks online, which bumped up the spirits of many a Keyforge fan, but it was clear that the set just wasn’t as popular as CotA, and despite the introduction of a new set, the meta hadn’t undergone as large a shift as might be expected. Many players expressed their wishes for more competitive outlets for low and mid-level decks, but there didn’t seem to be anything available to fill this desired niche. At least… not just yet.

Getting SASsy

Taking a little detour from our timeline of the game’s releases and fan reaction, I’d like to talk a little about a website by the name of decksofkeyforge.com, (Hereby referred to as DoK) which was founded by the user Coraythan. The site allowed for people to buy and sell decks with each other, allowing for people to search for available decks with attributes, from certain card combinations to certain names, and make bids on decks that they saw as desirable. It remains the most active Keyforge marketplace for second-hand decks, but the site also has another, more commonly used offering.

Provided a deck has been registered to the Master Vault – the main site for registering Keyforge decks, allowing for their use in official play – it will appear on DoK. With the site’s search function, it is possible to search for any range of decks with regards to name, card combinations, or various other attributes, with each deck being given a SAS (pronounced sass) value.

In short, the SAS system is a way of giving decks an approximate grade, or power level, based on every card in the deck (each of which are awarded a score based on perceived power) as well as known synergies.

It must be said that the early days of SAS were extremely rudimentary. For example, infamously giving the card Key Charge a score of 0 despite being considered extremely strong. However, the current form of SAS has evolved greatly from its beginnings, with new criteria being introduced and card scores being tweaked over time through updates.

Now you might be thinking, what was the purpose of SAS? In short, it gave an approximate strength level for each deck, but what would this mean for the wider world of Keyforge? Well… while SAS has become a commonly referenced term amongst Keyforge players, that’s not to say it doesn’t have its detractors who either believe it to lack the accuracy required to fulfill its purpose, or lead players on with the promise of doing all the deck evaluation for them, rather than discovering it for themselves. These are not my opinions on the matter, but I feel a need to represent them here rather than present present only my own feelings.

However, if you want my personal take on it, I'd say SAS certainly isn’t perfect by any means but does give a pretty decent idea as to how powerful a deck is most of the time. That said, I only say this now after the raft of changes made to the site. In the early days, things weren’t there yet, and SAS was inarguably inaccurate.

So going back to the days just after the release of the game’s first set – CotA – for the time being, SAS didn’t have much of a discernable positive impact on the game.

That… would come later.

Little Giants – When Worlds Collide

Coming hot off the heels of AoA, FFG announced the game’s third set, Worlds Collide (WC), which released in November 2019, six months after the release of AoA, setting the standard for the game’s ongoing release schedule. (We’ll get back to that later…) The biggest change was the introduction two brand-new houses into the mix – Saurian and Star Alliance – replacing Mars and Sanctum to round out the 7 house limit:

First impressions were very strong, but the big question was how much fun the new set would be and how it would fare in the grand scheme of things? Could it prove more popular than AoA while also contending with CotA at the competitive level?

The consensus for WC was very positive overall. Lots of attention was given to the new houses, which quickly became fan favorites. Whereas AoA had been a lull for some, WC appeared to be the nitro-fueled injection that the game needed. And in terms of squaring off against CotA, the previous meta dominated by aggressive stealing and aember rush quickly saw a wider variety of decks emerge, in no small part due to three influential cards which all appeared at the common level:

- E.D.A.I. "Edie" 4x4: A highly versatile card that can push your opponent’s key cost higher, and will often appear in multiples.

- Odoac The Patrician: A hard counter to Shadows-centric decks, this card can outright stop any stealing whatsoever provided it can capture an aember.

- Infurnace: Widely considered the most meta-shifting card to ever see print, Infurnace can curb the opponent’s aember rush potential, while also working as a disruptive tool that can remove your opponent’s most powerful cards from play.

Mix those in with other powerful new cards, and finally it seemed that CotA had a worthy adversary. Archon tournaments would often see an almost 50/50 split between the two sets, with AoA only holding a small percentage of spots. The same old tactics didn’t hold quite the edge that they once had, and with the new ward mechanic allowing players to gift protective barriers to their creatures, it was no longer as simple as holding on to a board wipe to prevent players from building armies and utilizing complex synergies. And while some older cards didn’t seem to hold the same weight they once had, others quickly became infinitely more useful. Most notably, Word of Returning and Guilty Hearts, which proved to be heavy counters to Saurian, the most dominant house in WC. Having big creatures used to not mean so much before, but now had greater uses.

All in all, the shake-up brought in a new wave of decks, with players doing their best to adapt to this new, much looser meta. Both CotA and WC had their passionate proponents, and both sets proved their ability to compete against each other, providing greater variety and pushing the skill ceiling higher. WC was, by all accounts, a certified hit amongst fans.

There is just one little catch to all this, and easily the most disliked aspect of WC as a whole. If any Keyforge fans out there are reading this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That little orange symbol that made you groan time and time again. I could have chosen to ignore it entirely and stick to just the positives, making WC out to be a beacon of unbridled perfection, but that would be a disservice to the story being told.

It’s time to talk about house Brobnar.

Simply put, WC Brobnar is bad. Really bad. Considered by many to be the weakest house of all time, you’ll be hard pressed to find any ardent fans. The gap between it and the likes of Saurian and Star Alliance is astronomical, and it sits uncontested at the bottom of the WC barrel. But why?

In terms of theming, Brobnar has always been about big, bulky angry dudes fighting, with some aember reduction effects on the side. The most common creature trait is ‘Giant’, which, as you’d expect, provides lots of towering behemoths that can plow through enemies and tank lots of damage. But compared with the newly introduced house Saurian, Brobnar’s creature power was rather lacking.

That’s not to say creature power is the main sign of a strong card by any means, but the fact was, Saurian not only had the toughest creatures of the set, but also some of the most powerful effects and high value targets in the game bolted on top of that. Meanwhile, Brobnar had a number of lackluster action cards, with the only real standout being the undeniably great Berserker Slam. They had lost vital cards such as Anger and Gauntlet of Command, and the excellent Coward’s End had been replaced by Ballcano, one of the worst board wipes in the game.

With a few tweaks Brobnar could’ve been formidable, but as they stood they were far below the rest of the cast. And while things might have been forgiven if Brobnar, despite its flaws, just had a lot of fun, weird and wild effects that made for interesting matches, most players were far more enamored with what the other houses were offering.

This aspect was the cause of ire for some players, as when opening a sealed deck, there was always around a 43% chance of finding Brobnar. Which is… not great odds for anyone looking for a decent deck. However, I must reiterate that WC was generally very well received and remains one of the most popular sets in the game.

But from here, the Keyforge timeline gets shaky. While the game wasn’t quite as popular as the big boys in the card gaming sphere, it had a loyal following and a decent number of events, the biggest of which was yet to come. Back in September of 2019 FFG had announced the Vault Warrior tournament series, which was slated to be a much bigger deal than the current crop of mainline events, such as the Vault Tour, which lacked substantial cash prizes in favor of FFG merchandise. Vault Warrior was set for 2020, across various events in different cities across the world, all culminating in a final championship with a $100,000 prize pool. Keyforge seemed to have truly found its footing, and with the meta having been given a new lease on life, things were looking up.

But as you might’ve already guessed, things didn’t go as planned, as the events of 2020 would throw a bit of a spanner in the works.

Pandemic Legacy

Early 2020 saw the catastrophic worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Countries went into lockdown, governments scrambled to enforce new restrictions, and things that were once taken for granted were taken away from us. With live events being shut down left and right, FFG had no other option but to put organized play on hold.

Some players migrated solely towards online play through TCO, while others, who craved in-person play, or wanted an official online client, drifted away from the game. It was a heavy blow to the scene, which didn’t have the immense fanbase or backing of the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Or Magic: The Gathering.

Earlier, I mentioned a commonly held desire within the community to have valid reasons to use a wider range of decks within the competitive space. Given the game’s inherent lack of a fixed meta, the countless possibilities for matchups, with players needing to gain experience through their own means rather than being able to look up a blog post or check top 8 standings to know how they should play, there’s an incentive to use a wide array of decks to gain a better overall understanding, as opposed to picking a “main” deck and sticking with it whole-heartedly. But people craved more from the game. They wanted Richard Garfield’s tantalizing promise of the jungle to become a reality. And sometimes, you gotta do it yourself.

As time had passed since the game’s inception, many passionate fans had begun to hold online events through TCO, mostly through Discord servers. Combine this with SAS becoming more refined, and online play began to deepen in variety and activity.

Many online events incorporated what is known as a SAS-cap, in which players can only use decks that fall within certain SAS ranges. For reference, a SAS of 65 is basically the average, with sub-60 generally seen as low, 70 and above seen as relatively high, with 80+ representing the upper echelon, making for less than 1% of all decks. Iterations on this formula were made such as SAS-ladder, where the cap is raised with each round, and a whole host of other unique spins on the formula.

The ethos behind these events was to give players more reason to delve into the collection and play some of their favorite decks that might not be strong enough for regular old Archon, or provide good reason to revisit decks that may have been initially overlooked. Now the question of skill was being able to effectively choose decks that seemed to “punch above their weight” or perform solidly in a mid-level environment. And while it’s true that attaining truly perfect balance is never on the cards, these events gave players with average decks a chance to compete, while giving seasoned veterans a new take on how to approach things.

The online tournament scene began to reflect more of what people wanted from the game – The Jungle. It became common for organizers to play around with a variety of formats, ensuring that no two tournaments would be the same, putting unique spins on things such as the Tesla format, in which every one in two games was played with your opponent’s deck. There were still the traditional Archon faithful who wished for zero restrictions to flex their most powerful decks, but now there was more choice for those who wanted something different.

This might all sound amazing, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t had some wonderful experiences, but you should be quick to remember that in this pandemic era, the game itself wasn’t doing so hot. Most people wanted to play in person and weren’t able to do so. The hope was that store events could get back up and running as quickly as possible, and that things would quickly blow over.

Massive Creatures and Mass Mutation

Keyforge’s next set, Mass Mutation (MM), was released in July of 2020. You may have noticed that rather than the 6-month wait between each of the first 3 sets, MM arrived a full 8 months later. It’s not clear if this was simply the case of the pandemic affecting FFG work schedules and shipping, or whether FFG wanted to deliberately delay it to coincide with a resurgence in organized play, but the 8-month wait was certainly disconcerting for many.

In terms of the set itself, the biggest change was the introduction of enhancements. For a simple example of how these worked, compare the cards Dust Pixie with Gloriana’s Attendant. The two aember icons on the lefthand side of Dust Pixie indicate that upon play, you would gain two aember. Glorianna’s Attendant also provides two aember, but instead of being tied to the card itself, the two aember would be dispersed within the deck. Somewhere, out there, in amongst the rest of the cards, two extra aember pips would show up. Add in newly introduced capture pips, damage pips and draw pips being shared amongst cards randomly, not only would you have a unique deck on your hands, but it was even possible to discover completely unique cards, with the potential for never-before-seen interactions.

MM quickly became by far the most popular set thus far. Enhancements were exciting, providing something at simply couldn’t be replicated by a TCG. In terms of house balancing, MM was also quite the success, and unlike AoA, could more than hold its own against the big boys. In terms of influential cards, I personally think Rad Penny, Auto-Encoder and Reclaimed By Nature rank as some of the most important, but are far from the only ones to make an impact.

On the competitive stage, people were initially skeptical as to the viability of MM. A lot of powerful cards from WC were absent, and some of the new cards were direct downgrades from previous ones. (eg. Control The Weak vs Mark of Dis) And with no big tournaments in sight, there wasn’t much in the way of being able to prove a point either way. But with the power of hindsight, MM is generally seen as more-or-less tied with WC. (Feel free to disagree though!)

This new set was a boon for Keyforge fans, but arguably came at the worst time. Events had been cancelled, IRL play was a pipedream, and FFG appeared to be unnervingly silent with regards to the game’s future. Deck sales had declined and people were hesitant to invest more into a game that might collapse at any moment.

Up until this point I haven’t talked much about FFG themselves. If I were offer one major criticism of the company (regarding Keyforge), it would be their lack of communication. Aside from set announcements, FFG’s output in terms of blog posts or updates had been extremely lacking. And while this could just be chalked up to uncertainty given the ongoing pandemic, and not wanting to make promises that couldn’t be kept, the lack of communication extended beyond these things. Which brings us to…

Dark Tidings We Bring

The fifth set, Dark Tidings (DT) was announced in July 2020. It was slated to include a brand-new house in the form of Unfathomable, which consisted of eldritch merfolk that excelled in disruption and creature control. The big new mechanic was that of the Tide, which would affect certain card abilities depending on its changing state throughout the game.

Since MM had been released a full 8 months after WC, the Keyforge faithful were hoping that this new set would come out swiftly, hitting the 6-month target that had previously been established. Oh, how naïve we were.

It would be impractical for me to attempt a timeline of delays that this set saw, and even having lived through it myself, I couldn’t tell you exactly how these events transpired. But this was the one time where it didn’t seem like anybody truly knew when the set would release, with vague delivery dates and TBAs plastered on multiple websites. There were apparently issues regarding shipping ports and other logistical nightmares, which also called into question whether certain countries would get hold of their decks before others, as opposed to the worldwide releases as seen previously.

Wikipedia lists the Dark Tidings release date as March 2021, though from my records, my first DT deck registration is listed as April 2021, which I’m hereby counting as its release period for the UK. Assuming that everyone in the USA got their deliveries in March, that represents a minimum of an 8 month wait, with myself and other countries getting ours 9+ months after MM. And if you want a personal account on the matter, this wait was absolutely excruciating, especially considering the lack of information from FFG.

And speaking of lack of information… Probably the most egregious bout of silence from FFG concerned the newly introduced Tide mechanic, and the fact nobody was quite sure what the ruling on it was. To clarify, the Tide can be in one of three states: neutral, high, and low. An early article (which I regrettably can’t find) stated that the tide would remain neutral until altered by a card (for example, Cross Porpoises). But also, the tide could be raised on a player’s turn without a card if they incurred the cost of gaining 3 chains. This distinction was a massive one, as if the early articles were to be taken as gospel, it meant being completely unable to benefit from tide effects until you got the chance to play specific cards, which would make for a frustrating experience if your deck barely had any. Players theorized that you should be able to raise the tide manually, but this contradicted the most recent FFG rulebook. This was eventually rectified, but to have even had the issue in the first place was annoying, to say the least.

As for DT itself, the set’s reception was mostly positive, if a bit mixed. Coming in after the fan favorite MM was a tough act to follow, and DT’s tide mechanic wasn’t quite as exciting for some as the craziness that MM brought to the table. It added a sizeable jump in both the skill floor and skill ceiling, which was a blessing for those who appreciated being rewarded for competent strategy, but also saw the set criticized by some for being too complicated at times. (A stark contrast from the “There is no skill, only luck and deck strength” rhetoric that was occasionally thrown around during the game’s early days.)

DT also introduced Evil Twins, relatively rare decks that would be an exact copy of another existing deck, albeit with the ‘Evil Twin’ tag in its name, and several of its creatures being swapped out for warped, twisted versions of themselves. (See Witch of The Dawn and Witch of The Dawn Evil Twin) This particular addition was generally well received.

Notable new cards included Maelstrom and Grand Alliance Council (which both quickly became new contenders for best board wipe), Mollymawk, Diplomat Agung, and Think Twice among others. House balance was good, though strength-wise, DT didn’t appear to be quite as strong (on average) compared with WC and MM, but still had the potential to provide its fair share of heavy-hitters. And with five sets all seeing play at once, with a myriad of different deck archetypes and playstyles on display, what had once been a mountain looked evermore like the jungle that Richard Garfield had spoken of.

It was around this time that social distancing restrictions started to be lifted, at least to some degree depending on where you lived. Organized play could soon make a comeback, and the game could be given a new lease on life. But as you’ve probably guessed…

It All Comes Tumbling Down

It was no secret that Keyforge was having a rough time. Whether it was due to the pandemic shutting down events, FFG’s lackadaisical approach to community management, constant delays, lack of an official client, fears for the future or simply a growing disinterest over time, what once had seen impressive levels of popularity in the beginning had suffered drop after drop, and deck sales were hitting an all-time low. Keyforge was a relative unknown in the card game sphere, with almost zero advertising or exposure. The Pokemons, Magics and Yu-Gi-Ohs of the world already had massive fanbases and could spring back on their feet quickly. Then there was the surprising smash success card game Flesh and Blood, which seemed conveniently poised to grab the attention of Keyforge fans who wanted a fresh experience that had a much greater chance at longevity.

Deck displays and starter kits for the older sets were seeing fire sales across different sites, and many of the stores that had previously supported the game had backed out. With the Vault Tour and Vault Warrior series dead there were no big tournaments to get excited for and a limited number of local scenes spread across the globe.

As the moths drew on, fans were becoming increasingly wary. It had been known for FFG to unceremoniously drop games in the past, such as Star Wars Destiny and Netrunner. It seemed unlikely for FFG to pour tons of resources into marketing the game or reorganize the tournament scene. And then… came something that caught everyone by surprise.

On the 10th of September 2021, FFG published Down But Not Out, a blog post which came as quite a blow to ardent fans. The algorithm, by which I mean the system that had been used to print each and every one of the game’s decks since launch, needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Without it, printing more decks and publishing new sets would be impossible.

FFG made an admirable effort to put a positive slant on this news, expressing their desire to keep supporting the game and look to viable options for a full relaunch in the future. But not everyone was convinced, and even in the best-case scenario, this could only mean one thing. Waiting. And more waiting. Which, after having dealt with two sets in a row having been affected by delays, was soul-crushing.

From here, speculation ran rampant. Some theorized that a disgruntled employee – perhaps someone who had been laid off – had decided to trash the code in an act of rebellion. The truth – at least, from what I’ve been able to gather – is that this was the result of a ransomware attack.

And so, the remaining community was left adrift in a sea of uncertainty. It was unclear if the game’s relaunch would be several years away, or if it would never come at all. Online events were still being run and devoted fans were keeping the game alive, making the most of what was for many of us (myself included), the most fun we’d ever had with a card game. But it was clear that things hadn’t gone as we’d hoped. Many believed that even with a relaunch, FFG could very well “mess it all up again”. What if this relaunch would spell the end for the game’s evergreen status and give way to the dreaded set rotation, rendering older decks unplayable against the newer ones? Doubts spread like wildfire as time marched onwards. Until finally…

Rise From Your Grave

The date was June 22nd 2022, and on this day, an important announcement was made. Not from FFG. Oh, no, no, no. This was an announcement from Ghost Galaxy, a company headed by Christian Petersen, who had acquired the rights to publish Keyforge. This was a big deal, as Christian Petersen is the original founder of FFG, and had also teamed up with Richard Garfield to publish Keyforge in the first place. This was someone who not only knew Keyforge in and out, but had also gained the hands of some of the key veterans who had worked on the game over the years.

New information on the next set, Winds of Exchange (WoE), was shared with the community. The big new mechanic was token creatures. Some who were turned off by the idea of sourcing random cards to act as tokens; worries which were quickly brisked away as Ghost Galaxy (GG) detailed its elegantly designed system which required nothing but the cards in your deck.

What quickly became apparent – as those of us who have been with the game since the beginning can attest – was that the team at GG were putting a lot more effort into community interaction than FFG had. Christian Petersen had been conversing with figures within the Keyforge community, discussing his wishes for the game and how to improve on what has come before, as well as replying to community questions.

One of the key announcements detailed an upcoming crowdfunding campaign through Gamefound, whereby GG could effectively gauge the demand, with an estimated release date of February 2023. And this, my dear readers, brings us to a few days ago, when I began writing this post:

The campaign has arrived.

A starter set tier that provides players with two carefully constructed decks to act as a tutorial – something to give new players a leg up – is a nice addition. But we also have new co-op Adventures. And then there’s the ‘unchained’ decks, which ignore many of the game’s restrictions in favor of a wild, wacky deck full of mavericks and legacies, allowing for unique combos. These echo the silver-bordered cards from Magic, throwing out balance in favor of mayhem, albeit being illegal in official tournament play. And then there’s the tiers allowing you to add your own name to a deck, making it unmistakably yours. And then there’s the return of anomalies. And then…

As of typing this right now the campaign has reached the $500,000 mark, unlocking a bunch of new language options, with more stretch goals to come. And from what I’ve seen of the upcoming cards, my excitement is through the roof.

If at this point you feel yourself having been pulled hook, line and sinker into the jaws of a shameless shill, rubbing their hands together with glee in a fit of rabid fanaticism, I can only say that I wish I was being paid to write this considering the immense amount of effort it has taken me, and I wouldn’t dare wax lyrical about something that I didn’t wholeheartedly believe in and adore. This has been a labor of love, not loyalty.

This may be the end of our journey in this Hobby History – from the game’s inception up until the present day – but in many ways this is just the beginning. Because there’s no telling what will happen next, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

So if you feel inclined to hop on board and enjoy the ride, I’d say the Keyforge community will be there to welcome you with open arms. And if not, then I can only hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into Keyforge's history.