Way back in the Before Times (December of 2017 to be specific) developer Rhino Games announced an ambitious new card battling game called Mythgard. It was ambitious because they directly mention two titans of the genre, Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, and aimed to be somewhere in between the two. Basically the approachability of something like Hearthstone with the depth and strategy of Magic: The Gathering. A tall order to say the least. It’s always dangerous to mention popular and beloved franchises in a genre that you’re hoping to enter, but to their credit Rhino seems to have pulled off what they were aiming for with Mythgard. The game launched in open beta about a year ago on both Steam and mobile, and it has been updated on a more than monthly basis since then.

Those who have been playing the early release of Mythgard have had tons of positive things to say about the game, and now after a year the open beta period is about to come to an end and Mythgard is gearing up to launch for realsies. Alongside this official launch will be the game’s first major expansion. While this year’s Olympic Games have been postponed due to, well, all the things in 2020, the expansion’s theme is based around “Summer Games for the Gods." The expansion is called Rings of Immortality and will bring more than 100 new cards to the game, a new path and power to bring to the battle board, and “a new unique keyword in Forge, which takes the management of mana resources to a whole new level." One of the standout features of Mythgard is your ability to burn any card in your hand at least once in exchange for some mana, meaning you pretty much always have some sort of play you can make no matter the situation. Here’s a trailer for the Rings of Immortality expansion.

The card battler genre is a tough one because there’s just so many options out there, and these types of games are typically complicated to learn for your average gamer. Mythgard has hoped to crack that nut with its approachable gameplay and its story-driven tutorial campaign to get players familiar with the workings of the game, and it boasts a huge amount of options for those who want to learn even more like the ability to spectate other players and go back to watch from up to 100 of you previous matches. We’ve had a discussion thread for Mythgard in our forums that’s a total ghost town, and it’s puzzling to me that nobody has really dove in to check this one out over the past year. It perhaps has to do with the card battler fatigue I just mentioned. However, with a big new expansion and an official release coming September 18th, now might be the perfect time to finally see what Mythgard is all about.