Welcome to a turn based tactical “TCG” (Trading Card Game) where your hero characters have actual in-game animations! You will fight over resources for the faction you decide to represent in the form of tournaments. Much like Hearthstone, you can buy packs of cards to gain more versatility in your play style, and customize decks to your liking. It’s a fun game, and it takes queues from Hearthstone, but it’s also very much its own game, which is another reason it’s so critically acclaimed!

Duelyst, like Hearthstone, is free to play unless you purchase decks! Most people who play this game will at some point buy a deck or two, but it doesn’t really have to be played like that if you’re just looking to kill some time. Unlike Hearthstone, Duelyst is also part tactical, which leaves players free to move their characters around the board; this offers players a variety of strategies! If you liked Hearthstone, but want a bit more graphical turn-based content out of your card games, check this one out!

If you were looking for a game exactly like Hearthstone without Blizzard graphics, here it is! Like Hearthstone, you can customize decks, purchase decks, and it has heroes with hero abilities. Honestly, it’s so much like Hearthstone that it’s almost a reskin, but in space instead of Azeroth! Hearthstone has the underlying theme of a board game that you’re playing in a tavern; Star Crusade takes place in space, and doesn’t have that sort of vibe.

You can have 30+ cards in your deck depending on how you play Star Crusade, which can make for some long matches! Star Crusade does have better special effects than Hearthstone (for what it’s worth), and has a nifty Earth-like planet in the background; but no one really plays a CCG for the graphics. Leveling up in Star Crusade also means unlocking base cards, which is also very much like Hearthstone! If you were curious to maybe get away from the Blizzard characters, and a few nagging friends in the Blizzard launcher’s chat, give this game a go!

From the people that brought you “Magic the Gathering” and “Ascension”, comes “SolForge”, a free-to-play digital CCG which will pit players against other players, or the AI of the game itself; like Hearthstone! Each card has the potential of 3 different levels, level 3 usually being the more powerful card. SolForge has 4 different factions, and each one has a different deck. What players try to do is level their characters up as quickly as possible so they can get their best cards on the field to destroy their opponents; the higher the level, the better cards you’re allowed to use.

Cards in “SoulForge” are reminiscent of Pokémon in the way they evolve and work; level 1 could be an egg card, level 2 could be a baby dragon card, and level 3 could be a full-grown dragon card! The matches are fast, and like Hearthstone, they also have a mobile version, so it’s easy to pick up. Reviews for it are mixed on steam; some people praise it for the uniqueness of its evolving cards while you play opponents, while others claim it’s less of a CCG and more of a “Pay to Win” game. If you liked Hearthstone you should give it a shot!

In Eternal, you’ll be using “sigils” to be able to attack with a card; so, if a card takes power to use, you need the appropriate sigil and influence to be able to use that card, which works sort of like fuel. It’s important to think about what cards you’re going to use with your sigils to form a winning strategy, so you can continue to attack your opponent! Eternal is a very fun CCG, and the 9/10 rating on steam should reflect that as well. Like in Hearthstone, there are hero characters you’re trying to defeat, sports a very similar playing board, and the characters have banter between each other during battle.

Eternal is another CCG that allows you to build your own decks in a very similar way to Hearthstone; it’s basically another card game that’s a slightly modified version of Hearthstone, like Star Crusade! There is a weekly quest people can do, which adds a bit of uniqueness to Eternal, but the standout feature seems to be the sigils. If you liked Hearthstone but want a slightly tweaked version without Blizzard characters, here you go!

Anime is a thing here at Honey’s, in case you didn’t notice, and Shadowverse is an anime style CCG! All the characters range from cute to scary looking, and have decks that suit their character! Shadowverse is also a card game where you can evolve certain cards on the battlefield, like in “SolForge”. The boards players play on are very pretty to look at; it’s a lot more animated than Hearthstone! Like Hearthstone (and many other games on this list), it’s a game where the main objective is to drop your opponent’s hero-card health to zero. Like in Hearthstone, there are ranks for achieving victories, except in “Shadowverse” you can’t be entirely kicked out of your tier for losing; though you can still lose rank. Rank C3 is the highest rank in the C tier category, so if you do good and go past C3 you could potentially obtain a B0 rank. If you fail, you can never go below a 0 rank in your letter tier category. If you like anime or Hearthstone why not combine the two? Give it a shot!

Customize your deck and play against the AI or Players online. Your goal is to take out the other person’s “Champion” by using cards; like in Hearthstone. This is a card game where you trade cards, but gain cards mostly by playing the game. When you earn platinum, you have the option to buy certain cards, but sometimes they are overpriced. Unlike Hearthstone, there is nothing you can’t get in this game by just playing for free, you don’t have to buy a bunch of stuff; this makes the game very appealing to players that don’t want to drop tons of money on decks.

“HEX: Shards of Fate” has a high learning curve, unlike Hearthstone, which can turn a few people off. There are in-game tournament systems (“cosmic” being the highest rank), and plays very similarly to table top games like Magic. You can play in “pve” mode, explore, and become stronger; or just take it online to play others. Tournaments in this game can sometimes get you cash prize money, which is not typical of a digital TCG! Hone your skills and go win some money, in fact at the time of this writing, there is a major tournament that’s going to happen at the HEX headquarters in California starting in October; the prize is $100,000. (visit http://hextcg.com/100K-Tournament/ for more info).