Paper Mages

Paper Mages is a third-person card game with online one-on-one duels and single-player practice duels. You take cards from a flat board and cast them in a dynamic arena, where your race, the time of day and your position can affect abilities and card powers.

The origins of the duels

Mage duels take place every five years, with apprentices competing to become graduates. After his apprentice Variscitan, an orphaned Beryllian boy, and another apprentice died in a tower fall during the duels, Eltrest Grefaren created a new way to fight. He used magic to fold paper around a Heliodor stone, forming a small paper champion with a ring around its wrist.

Paper mages are linked to their creators: they think and act as their mages do, feel no pain and can be made again and again. The mages adopted this way of battling, and no lives were lost in the duel that followed. Eltrest’s creation changed life for mages around the world, though some wizards opposed the change, believing casters needed the threat of death to perform at their best.

Build your deck

Players begin with the same set of cards and unlock more by playing. Cards are added to a randomly built deck, and the collection includes base, rare and special cards. The game lists a starting collection of 30 cards and over 130 cards to collect; additional cards are to be released gradually as they are completed.

You can play as four of the ten races. Each race has its own attributes: the Faergon can breathe underwater without running out of breath, while the Falconite can double jump and fall slowly. Six races are listed as coming later. Paper Mages has four card types: Damage, Action, Preservation and Constant.

Duel in the arena

In the main online mode, you battle one opponent at a time across the map. Win by depleting your opponent’s HP or finding the five special trinkets that make you overpowered and end the match. The game also includes single-player practice duels.

The arena’s time of day and your location affect your race and the power of some cards. A Werewolf’s Moon card grants power at night, while the Medusa’s Gaze card can sway you from moonbeams and risk paralyzation. Race traits, action cards that modify abilities and how you use the map all shape each duel. For example, Borrow Flame can increase a Fireball’s damage by 1.5 times for every flame in the room that you borrow; casting a Moon-bound Action Card followed by Stone Shoes can leave your opponent floating in the air.