At the time of writing this post in less than ten days time Epic Card Game Digital will come out of its beta phase of development, and become available to all for free.

Epic Card Game and its digital version is a MtG like card game. But instead of having that collectible element, Epic has a fixed card pool that. So everyone that buys a copy of the game has all the cards. The nice thing is that the game supports all the expected modes of play for a card game like MtG, constructed, draft, cubes, etc.

Naturally there are differences between Epic and MtG when it comes down to the actual game play. But you can look those up.

I’ve had early access to the digital version after backing its development on the Kickstarter that WWG ran well over a year ago now.

What I’ve been impressed with during this time that despite the limited resources that a company like WWG have compared to the likes of say WotC. They have still managed to develop the digital version across multiple platforms simultaneously.

My use of the app during this beta period has been sporadic at best. I’ve not played online with the game. I’ve not tried deckbuilding. So what have I been doing in the app? I’ve been playing dark draft against the games AI.

I really love dark draft.

It’s such a great tweak to drafting that works really well for two players (it is a two player format only). What I like is that you have an idea what cards the opposing player may have but not exactly. There is that bit of unknown. You don’t know which two cards were not chosen and which two were removed from the game.

Compared to other games like this that have digital versions, I’m looking at you MtG:Arena, the game is completely free to play on a casual level. You get all the cards, unlimited copies, expansions are free. It doesn’t cost to play online against your friends.

So where do WWG hope to make their money?

“The only things players pay for are cosmetics (like digital foils), extras (like extra deck slots) and competitive play (like Arena and Tournaments).”

I’m really rooting for this approach to do well. It makes a refreshing change to the nickel and dimming by the likes of WotC.

Another reason I’m rooting for it is that WWG are releasing across multiple platforms at the same time. No “it’s only available on PC, other platforms later” (much much later).

I think WWG have done a great job with the digital version of Epic. It doesn’t have all the flash animations of the likes of Hearthstone and Arena. And that’s a great plus. It’s concentrated on providing a solid, good looking card game.

I look forward to playing my friends online when they can finally get their hands on the game.

You can read the full announcement here.