There are roughly as many Monsters as there are cards from each of the four factions, so you will play games where you see relatively few Monsters. The ratio of Monsters to Heroes/Constructs makes things interesting as well. That the Monsters show in the common pool makes it a bit of a race to defeat them or even use other card abilities to banish them before your opponent can defeat them. A pile of Honor and forcing opponents to discard some subset of their Constructs is a common reward for defeating a monster. Monsters are often tough to defeat but usually provide a significant reward for doing so. You don’t attack an opponent, but rather Monster cards which turn up in the common pool among the standard Hero and Construct cards available for purchase. The Power ability is one major aspect that sets Ascension apart.

There is certainly benefit to grabbing certain cards of the same faction, but you can still win without limiting yourself to one or two factions which isn’t always the case in some deckbuilders. You will often get benefits if you combine cards of the same faction, but the benefits aren’t there on every card and often aren’t super powerful. Build your engine until to earn Honor until the Honor pool depletes and the game ends.Īscension cards come in one of four factions, each faction playing to their own strengths. Both Heroes and Constructs provide additional Honor points at the end of the game. Heroes get played once when they enter your hand and provide some benefit, while Constructs remain in play and provide ongoing benefits. Cards available for purchase are either Heroes or Constructs. You use Runes to purchase cards to make it easier to acquire new cards, generate Power, or generate Honor.

Ascension has two main card abilities: Runes and Power, which provide purchase and attack abilities, respectively. Each player starts with a common set of ten cards (drawing the standard five at a time) and uses those to purchase new cards from a common board and eventually gain points towards victory (dubbed Honor). If you’ve played one of the many games in the genre, you know what you’re getting into.

Ascension game