I was wondering if there were any series with the qualities of The King's Avatar or Classmancers, but that dealt with card games (Magic, YuGiOh, etc.) instead of MMOs. I don't mean series like YuGiOh or Pokemon or whatever where the MC builds a trash tier deck and then wins repeatedly via luck or guts and that basically only exists as a longform advertisement/tutorial for the game. I mean ones where s/he actually bothers to learn the game and the meta and builds accordingly. Even better if the cards are actual magic and result in something similar to Angelic Layer style arena battles (though, better written than AL hopefully). I'm not really looking for anything super serious like the cards being used in actual battles though. Also not interested if the MC never loses and/or always draws the key card at the critical moment. They're both as boring as they are predictable. I'd also be interested in a more serious version of something like Card Captor Sakura where cards are the foundation of the magic system. Protagonist gender doesn't matter (though, given the genre, I'd be shocked if one with a female protagonist existed). No horror or BL please. Needs to be available legally, online, in English, for free.
cards huh... iirc, that one series in wujigege's novel where the protagonist soloing the game content uses cards. but if it is novel of a card game specifically, I don't think it exists.
It looks a bit iffy, but it's short so I'll give it a go if I can find it legally. Thanks I give it a look when there are more chapters translated, thanks
Read it. Dropped it once the MC started making nonsensical decisions that were antithetical to his goals for the sake of Plot.
Why yes, a female protagonist one does exist. Selector Infected WIXOSS though its an anime nor does it go very in depth about the game mechanics
It's more on the lines of realistic MTG tournaments than magical/projection card battles. MC is a girl that plays counter/control deck.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-amber-sword/ I know this one involves a card system (essentially Magic: The Gathering) as a higher-tier magic system in the story. The protagonist uses it to produce allies and effects in the story's reality, and there are hints that others he might encounter in the future use it as well (I've been letting it stockpile for a while; he might have already met some).
Magick the gathering. Itbmay sound weird but it's totally worth it. It has quite the D&D vibes I believe you will like it
Reading it already. You mean the books based on the card game that are put out by the same publisher? Pretty sure those aren't free legally. That's fine. While the magical projections are more visually interesting, they also have a greater danger of turning into YuGiOh.
This looks super serious and dark though? I mean, it's top recommended series is Madoka Magika. It's kinda hard to get darker or more serious than that without being outright horror. The reviews seem to indicate the same, and the synopsis for that matter.
It does get pretty dark and serious, but Spoiler: Madoka spoiler there's no Madoka levels of gore like *ahem* I don't think it's trying to be darker than Madoka anyway. I guess Madoka is in the top rec since they're both about the consequences of wishes.
Watched it. It's not really what I'm after though. That's more of a summoning magic theme than a card theme, despite the name and the presence and importance of the cards. Wasn't Godly Model Creator the one where he could map stuff and everyone thought his ability was trash but it wasn't? I can't remember there being any cards in that. Though, I did drop it fairly early on. Monster Paradise doesn't really look like it'd be very good judging by the reviews.
He makes cards of the abilities of others in order to get them for himself in GMC and the mc of Monster Paradise may be a little op just a little but its good give it a try.