Trading cards, conventionally, are made from thick pieces of paper or cardboard. They can feature a real personality or fictional character with some attributes and supplement information. They are good for enthusiasts, and there is a growing trading game card market that will swell up to $131.1 billion by 2030. However, one huge issue which always worries trading card collectors is their general wear and tear. This reduces their value, ultimately causing a card’s demise, sometimes wasting thousands of dollars. Besides, trading card scams aren’t uncommon. Everything this and more is taken care of by…
NFT Trading Cards
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) solve these problems for good. For starters, NFTs are digital assets powered by blockchain technology which helps them to stay tamper free with a transparent ownership history. These alone solve most of the card owner’s headaches. Now they will have something that’s everlasting. In addition, they can verify upfront if a specific card is legit. Besides, the NFT trading card games mean the owners can play, upgrade and sell to a worldwide audience without any intermediary. So without any further wait, let’s tune to the best of the lot.
Sorare
Sorare is a free-to-play NFT card game for football and MLB fans. You start with a bunch of least scarcity cards to work your way up. Each card mentions a score that gets updated as per the real-life performance of the specific player in the last five games. There are different leagues based on card rarities. While there is always the option to pay to get more valuable cards, one can climb steadily by regularly participating in competitions. This allows you to continue playing or listing your non-common cards for sale. You can also transfer your cards to the Ethereum wallet of your choice with the detailed Sorare guides.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained keeps you hooked with the eye-catching animations uncommon for conventional NFT trading card games. However, the strategy is similar: start free, play/pay to upgrade, and sell in-game assets to other players. You build a deck of cards with unique powers to compete against opponents. The best thing about this card game is the Immutable X-powered trading with zero gas fees. However, the driving factor to play this appealing title remains the need to strategize and the thrill, rare for most NFT card games. Gods Unchained comes as an installation available for Windows PC and Macs.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is an NFT trading card game with a massive fan following. There is a lot to strategize and choose from a wide range of fighters with unique abilities to see what works best. However, you don’t command any control during the fight. A player is limited to creating the most powerful deck with the available resources to wait for the results. Coming to the NFT side of it, the game assets can be transferred to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), WAX blockchain, etc. Finally, this should be your pick if you’re a conventional card gamer who doesn’t mind missing out on some action.
Skyweaver
Skyweaver brings interesting visuals into the mix, putting it ahead in the race for the best NFT card games. It allows great control of the actual battles; you aren’t just limited to building a deck to wait for the outcome. In-game assets can be traded on Polygon and Ethereum blockchain. To solve the issue of high Ethereum gas fees, Skyweaver uses the ERC-1155 token standard via their homegrown Niftyswap, a Uniswap-based protocol for automated token exchange. Currently, Skyweaver is in open beta and closely resembles Gods Unchained in the overall gameplay. You can play Skyweaver on your desktop browser or via its native applications for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is much more than a regular trading card game and asks for an initial investment to begin. Launched in 2018, this NFT game proved a breadwinner for many struggling families in weaker economies like the Philippines during the COVID. You would buy three-axis (in-game creatures) to play, win, breed more axis, and ultimately sell them to the marketplace for hard cash. This is also one of the veterans in the brief history of play-to-earn crypto games. The game is developed on the Ronin network, an Ethereum-linked sidechain. Axie Infinity is available for major desktop and smartphone platforms, and there is excellent documentation to help first-timers.
Berserk-Vulcan Forged
Berserk is developed by the NFT game development studio Vulcan Forged. This is free to play to earn, like many already discussed on this list. You get a starter pack to play your deck against other players at the beginning. Besides, one can create custom rooms to play friendly duels. The gameplay is about pitching your vulcanite hero with supporting cards and spells to win over the opponent. While it’s free to play, you can get some excellent cards at its marketplace to get an edge. Winning battles gives you LAVA which you can change for PYR (official token) or USDC to earn from the gameplay ultimately., Berserk is based on a public blockchain (VeChain Thor), and you can try it on desktops, Android, and iOS.
Conclusion
Personally, Gods Unchained will be my top pick, as the animations make the gameplay a lot more exciting. However, if one thing NFT trading card games are, they are GAMES. Treating them as investment opportunities can prove horribly wrong. And while they are branded as play to earn, their assets have no real-life use case. Still, if you’re amazed by the play-to-earn movement, you might be blown off by these move-to-earn crypto tokens.
