Review: ELESTRALS is an exciting TCG that lives up to its inspirations

Estrali It’s a lot of fun. In case you missed it, Estrali is a new trading card game (TCG) that has piqued my interest. The team was kind enough to send me a couple of starter decks and a bunch of booster packs, and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying it out.

If you want to see me open all the booster packs, you can watch my pack opening video below and continue reading to hear my thoughts on the game. While all cards were provided to me for free, all thoughts below are my own.

Let’s start our discussion by talking about one of the first things you are familiar with in Estrali: the art. It looks very cartoonish. It’s playful and bright. It looks imaginative. Obviously, some people won’t like it, but I think it’s good and very inviting.

Many of the Elestrals have cute designs, like Kryoling and the spirits, but there are also many others, like Arctaurus and Emperowatt, that look awesome.

My next point of discussion is the card design. Overall, I think the cards are very well designed. The name is at the top with the image directly below. Then, in the center of the card is the cost of the card.

Then, on the Elestrals you have the attack and defense stats on either side of the cost with symbols clearly delineating which is which. Then you have the effect of the Elestrals.

The bottom of the card contains information about the set it comes from, the rarity, and the subclass. Runes are the same, but instead of having attack and defense stats on either side of the cost, the type of rune is indicated with a symbol. Overall, it’s pretty easy to figure out how to play a card and what it does.

I have two criticisms of the card design. First, the symbols for the different types of Runes are not very intuitive. I’m sure the more I play it will make more sense, but for now I have to constantly refer to the reference card that comes with the starter decks to make sure I know what type of Rune is being cast.

Secondly, the subclasses are hard to see. Actually, the Rune symbols and Elestral stat symbols could use some help too, but they are bigger and thus easier to see. The subclass icon is really small and just a lighter shade of grey. I wish the coloring was more contrasty.

If it was just flavor, that would be one thing, but there are strategies that can utilize subclasses like if you wanted an Ursa deck. I imagine more of these strategies will pop up as the game evolves. I think a nice gold would work wonders or a bright white would be nice. Just a thought.

I won’t explain how to play the game in full, but I want to talk about the gameplay. My number one TCG at the moment is Yu-Gi-Oh! Gamebut I also played Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Digimon (definitely in my top three), Harry Potter in the early 2000s, Naruto in the 2000s, Masters of the dueland probably a couple more I’m forgetting.

For me the simplest thing is that, Estrali It seems he got about 65% of his inspiration from Yu-Gi-Oh! Game10% inspiration from Pokemon/Magicand then added his 25% to make a really solid game. I want to analyze where I see each inspiration.

Honestly, if you just look at one Estrali table, it seems Yu-Gi-Oh! Game with one less column. Additionally, you draw five cards at the start of the game, you can only cast once per turn unless you use a Special Cast, combat is nearly identical, and you can set Runes face down to use on your opponent’s turn.

Meanwhile, spirits act very similarly to Energy in Pokemon and lands in Magic serving as a cost to play your cards. Another similarity with Pokemon is that you can ascend your Elestrals, which is similar to evolution.

The good thing is that Estrali He took many of these concepts and incorporated aspects of them. For example, I said that Ascending is like Evolving. However, when you ascend you do not have to go through a specific line.

You can ascend your Kryoling into any Elestral! You can use any Elestral to ascend into Emperowatt. There are lines and cards that point you towards specific ones like Penguwatt whose ability specifically ascends into Emperowatt, but most tend to be more like Snowattle which looks for a Frost/Lightning Elestral that could be used to get Penguwatt but gives you more flexibility.

Another way in which Estrali it’s just that your main resource for playing cards (spirits) also serves as your life. In PokemonYou can run out of Energy and then wait to get cards that let you recycle them.

In Magicyou can have all your Lands destroyed and the only problem is that your time is wasted. In Estraliyou’ll lose if you run out and have to spend one, just like you lose if you can’t draw any more cards from your Main Deck. It definitely makes resource management that much more crucial.

I also appreciate that the spirits don’t have to match the Elestral cast, but that means the Elestral doesn’t get its ability. This means that if you just need a body for one reason or another, you don’t have to worry about not having the right spirit type.

Coming back to the combat, I like the way it Estrali handles a lot of damage. As I said, the overall combat is identical to Yu-Gi-Oh! GameHowever, damage is based on the number of spirits each Elestral is enchanted with.

This means that there’s a reason to play with larger Elestrals, since they typically deal more damage, but it also means that something with a huge attack stat won’t simply wipe out half your Spirits in a single attack unless your opponent has invested a lot of resources into that Elestral.

Another design feature I appreciate and hope they keep is that the cards don’t have novel text on them. Some Elestrals have quite a bit of text on them, but you don’t need a magnifying glass and their abilities are usually limited to one or two things.

Like a Yu-Gi-Oh! Game player, this is awesome and should not be changed. A card should have a maximum of three effects and only in rare circumstances. Text size should be consistent across all cards in my opinion and if it has to be made smaller to fit in the box, it’s too much.

It’s things like this that do Estrali They seem unique and sometimes more fun than other games. There are still some areas I would like to see addressed or I’m just curious if there will be any changes.

In my previous article on EstraliI said that spirits all seem to provide a single resource with no abilities or anything else. I wonder if there will be special spirits that provide more than one type, have an ability, or something else.

I don’t think this would be a good way for the game to move forward, but I’m curious about it. I hope they make better Stadiums. Right now, Stadiums all seem the same, just for different types. This means that in a mirror game they serve at best as a tool for Nexusing (i.e. moving) Spirits around, which in my opinion lowers their overall value. That said, there are some cards that require a Stadium to enchant, but that doesn’t extend to all types.

I really enjoyed playing Estrali and my wife enjoyed it more than I imagined. I tried to get her to try other TCGs, but the only ones she really seems to enjoy are Pokemon (which she played as a child) and Estrali.

I’ve been trying to modify the starting decks and I think I’ve had some success with Kryoscorch (last time we played with the modified decks, my wife beat me to death), but I’ve been having trouble with Emperowatt and I think I’d like to introduce more non-Frost cards, which is difficult with frozen because it was Frost’s introductory set.

I guess I should rethink my deckbuilding or get more sets. I really hope that Sunrise This is the last set for a long time to introduce new types so that more sets can be a bit more balanced for different types.

I would definitely recommend trying it Estrali for yourself. They have a very active Discord community and a free mobile app in case you’re worried about the investment. They’re also constantly looking for game stores to partner with, so if you’re a fan, you should talk to your game store about distributing the game.

I think Estrali It’s off to an incredible start in terms of TCG fun. We hope it can continue to grow and become a much larger presence in the TCG space.