Faeria

This is going to sound crazy but I believe we are experiencing peak Faeria in 2026. The CCG model is gone, thank god, and anyone can explore the game thoroughly in all its fascinating aspects for less than $10. You can always get a ladder, casual or draft game and once you have all the cards your deck-building options are incredibly vast. Getting those cards requires you to play the game a lot, but getting good enough to use those cards well also requires time, so it's an enjoyable and satisfying process! I may actually wipe my cache and reset someday just to go through the fun of building up my collection again :)

unfortunately the last update was on 2021, the game is still alive, the rank ladder is still alive but no update since then

somehow the game is not dead yet, and that's great because the game is great

Highly recommended to anyone!

Played this waaay back on day 1 of its early access release years ago. Came across this again recently on sale and am very glad I picked it up. Still an absolutely fantastic game. Tight gameplay, deep mechanics, and tons of strategy with not only your cards, but land placement, choice, and unit movement. Sequencing your turns becomes incredibly satisfying when all things come together, and is unmatched in other games of the genre like Hearthstone, Gwent, Runeterra, or Elder Scrolls Legends, when that was around.

A very generous and fun solo experience that includes a great draft mode that's fully playable against AI, and a crafting mechanic that lets you craft any cards you want for your deck (with rarer cards becoming craftable as you get into higher levels). Art is warm, bright, and full of whimsy. Music is good and can even be fantastic at times; like when the game knows you're about to win, a chorus will kick off with these nice heavy drums that you can use to time your fatal swing for that oh-so satisfying - THUD - at the end. Some even remind me of Paul Romero tunes.

Overall the game is a pure blast, and quickly sinks its teeth into you (Like coming up with deck ideas when you're trying to sleep). Sure, it's not perfect; you can't re-order the cards in your hand, and some of the art can look out of place (Looking at you Hold the Line!), and the board under your cards can't be interacted with (I'd love to make splishy splashy sounds and bother the Yaks when it's not my turn!), but nothing this game does detracts from its charm or enjoyment. Absolutely recommend to anyone, a really fun CCG from start to finish, and I always feel like playing another round or two.

One of the best digital CCGs i've ever played when it was new.
Sadly a couple of years ago they released an expansion where they added 'wild' or 'chromatic' or whatever it's called cards (cards that do require special lands but not a specific colour). Those were unhealthy for the game but what's even worse is, that they started adding cards with 'discover' abilities (cards that let you chose and create other cards in your hand) and cramped up the amount of random effects on cards.
It's not the first TCG to have fallen to these kind of effects (Hearthstone is probably the worst offender), but nonetheless that ruined this great game.
It's still decent and absolutely fair, so check it out. It can also be amazing if you only duel with a friend and you both stick to the old cards.
TL;DR - still a good card game with amazing potential that got ruined (for me) by it's expansion.

I have no idea how this game is both "dead" and "alive" at the same time.
There are no updates from the devs for several years, but the servers are still up and running without any issues. And there are still people playing it. Yes, you have to wait a minute or two to find a match, but it rarely takes more than that. And there is more than enough single-player content as well.
The game is really good and I honestly don't know how this did not catch up more. I strongly recommend you try it.

The servers are up, and the game is great!
Enjoy one of the better digital CCGs out there. Easy to build a deck, and you get a 'booster pack' of cards after basically every win. The player base is small, so finding matches takes a few minutes, but there's also TONS of PVE content with missions, puzzles, challenges, etc, to do. Definitely worth the price of admission.