Deck of Ashes

* Reviewed by KudzuControl on turnbasedlovers.com *
Deck of Ashes is a deckbuilding rogue-like released on June 9, 2020 on Steam, after spending just over a year in Early Access. The first game from Russian studio AYGames, Deck of Ashes takes place in a world recently ravaged by the Ash Curse, mutating most life into aberrations and destroying the established civilization, all unleashed upon the land by four outcasts attempting to gain ultimate power from Lady Death herself. You play as one of these four outcasts attempting to return to the mountain on which Lady Death resides, so that you may defeat her and restore the world from her curse.
The main mechanical difference DoA has from other deckbuilding roguelikes is, in fact, the titular Deck of Ashes (which I’m going to refer to as the Ash Deck, or AD, in the rest of the review). The AD is your discard pile – but fret not, there’s a bunch of cards that have “Ash” effects on them, which only come into play when they’re in the AD. Furthermore, your AD doesn’t automatically re-shuffle into your Battle Deck (your draw pile, BD in the rest of the review) when you’re out of cards – instead, a card called Ash Pact creates itself, which you must pay for with health points in order to “renew” a random portion of your AD into playable cards.
Mechanics, Part 1 – The World
In the Campaign game mode for Deck of Ashes, you play as one of the four Outcasts who initially ventured into the Valley of Death to secure the Ash Box, an artifact of immense power. Each Campaign is divided into three main chapters, plus the final boss chapter at the end where you’ll fight Lady Death. Each of those main chapters takes place in a different “Realm,” a map of connected points that is overseen by a “Ruler” – the big boss for the Realm. Each Realm is themed, so in one run you may start in the Human Realms, overseen by the corrupted King Octavius, then journeying into the Forbidden Grove, ruled with a mighty jaw by the Mutated Ancestor, then on to the Dire Marsh, slick with ooze from the Primordial Miasma, before reaching the gate of the Valley to finally confront Death herself. Each Realm is bigger than the last, offering greater rewards the further you get away from your Camp, always a beacon of light in the center of the Realm....
Mechanics, Part 2 – The Battles
Battles in DoA use the cards you’ve collected and crafted over the course of the game. Each participant in battle (your player character and each distinct monster you face) has their own individual Speed stats, which determine the turn order. You have 5 mana points which you use to cast your cards, which then refill at the beginning of your next turn. At the end of your turn, you have the option of selecting up to three cards to be sent back to the bottom of your Battle Deck – you don’t discard your hand at the end of the turn. In your next turn, you’ll draw up to your full hand size of 6 cards, and if you don’t have enough cards in your BD to fill your hand, an Ash Pact card will be created. While you only draw up to 6 cards at the start of your turn, your maximum hand size is actually 10, so Draw effects played early in a turn won’t waste cards. You win battles by killing the monsters before they kill you – which can be hard, because a lot of these baddies hit like a truck. Thankfully, you can tell what a monster will do on its turn by hovering over the small card icon under its health bar. It’s not as elegant as the interface of some genre-competitors, but it allows the monsters in DoA to have much more complicated effects and interplay....
Mechanics, Part 3 – Resources and Camp
So we’ve covered the world and its resources, and we’ve talked about the characters who set out to get them. So now we have to ask – what do we do with all this junk?
The resources you gather from Resource Points – Goblets, Relics, Herbs, and Ores – each correspond to, and upgrade, one of the four NPCs who live in Camp. Goblets unlock new capabilities at the Merchant, Relics at the Ash Master, Herbs at the Herbalist, and Ores at the Blacksmith. Each upgrade in an upgrade tree requires 4, then 8, then 12 of the respective resource....
The Badlands, or, The Goodlands
The card sets for each character, the kinds of puzzle each monster creates, and the overall mechanical interplay for the card-battle component of Deck of Ashes is really solid. If you only want to engage with that part of the game, I have excellent news: that game mode exists as “The Badlands.”
In the Badlands, you start the game with your initial set of cards, and once you leave camp you must pick one of three paths to travel down. The leftmost path is the easiest, with the difficulty increasing to a middle path and a hard path on the right. There’s no backtracking in the Badlands – but if you decide you want to switch paths, there’s a portal about halfway along....
Read the Full review here:

It's a lot of fun, for a good amount of hours. But it doesn't have anything near the longevity of games like Monster Train and Slay the Spire.
There's very limited depth, with synergies all but forced on the player rather than presented as options to build around, and the final boss hard counters a good third of builds that crush the rest of the game. The act structure is fun for the first few times, and after that it becomes incredibly tedious. Once you've put together your core deck, you will steamroll everything up until the final boss, making only minor changes to your setup. The entire last act is so mindlessly easy, since you've hit critical mass long ago, that it's hard to stomach going through it more than a couple of times.
But until you get to that point, the game is GREAT. And the price is more than fair for the amount of hours you'll get. Just bear in mind that it has an expiration date.

This is a game you can tell the devs are proud of. They interact with the community and have cared about their product through the whole early access cycle. It's a deckbuilder, and there are a lot of them out there, but I think it earns it's place.
1) There are interesting character backgrounds and stories worked into the gameplay loop
2) There are unique mechanics I personally haven't seen in deckbuilders - things like spending life to cycle cards, crafting your deck off recipes you find, a mid-run changing map with individual dungeons to clear, and a few other unique features I know I'm forgetting at the moment
3) There is an alternate play mode where you can draft your starting deck instead of using the standard cards (my personal favorite)
I appreciate the dedication and desire to be "different" from the rest of the market. Every time I circle back and play a few rounds of Deck of Ashes I always end up enjoying myself.

This is a Russian game which was translated into English. The Russian version is probably more polished and localizing the game and keeping the English build up to date with the Russian one is probably too much work for them. Unfortunately this is quite apparent from spelling mistakes and some questionable card descriptions. But luckily the game's concept and Darkest Dungeon-esque theme come together to keep your interest. The actual card design doesn't hold up against the refined masterwork that is Slay the Spire, but looking forward to trying the other characters and seeing AY Games' take on the digital deckbuilding genre. They have quite a novel way of dealing with the deck and discard piles that I haven't seen in other games. Their card upgrade system is also unique and might be something that other developers will use in the future. So it's definitely worth checking out, but the fact that they're pricing themselves the same as Slay the Spire is reaching a bit. Would recommend if you have played Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon and you're in the market for something similar, but don't expect the same amount of polish as in those games.

I dont think it gave me as much pure enjoyment as Slay the Spire or Monster Train. Its more of a wonky game that has lots of odd interactions based on the way it handles the discard pile. Interesting to explore, but not something Im planning on pouring as many hours into since it doesnt inspire as much of a "one more run".
Enemies are not as varied. Although some of the bosses have some cool wrinkles. The events are definitely not as varied.
Overall worth a try if you are really into the genre. But would suggest StS or MT for anyone just dabbling in it.

Pretty good card building game with in deck and discard pile mechanics. Voice acting for the story could use some work as some of it is basic or generic. I enjoy the different play styles offered by each character's deck. Each of the 4 characters can be played well with 2-3 different main styles each (Many more for those either brave or risky enough). The map gives a good layout of objectives and choices to get treasure, battle, or explore. Timed events could use more variety. It has a good "Darkest Dungeon" feel for a deck building game. I love the flavor. Camp upgrade system is done well but easily exploitable either by design or chance, who's to say as it's not a game breaking exploit once 1 for 1 resource trading is opened.
I went looking for a card game, came across a deck building game, and left happy.

I'm glad to see the devs are watching feedback and still making improvements. Some UI improvements and minor fixes will go a long way to take this game from a C+ to an A in my book.
The game is fun, so I give it thumbs up. But IMO, the game isn't worth the sticker price in it's current state, perhaps at $10 to $15 if you're a fan of the genre.
That said, I really love the design! Overall the game is still a little unpolished, with a couple mechanics not working as intended now and then (e.g., a buff let's you play a 3-cost card with only 2 mana points, but the game still says you can't play it.)
If you're on the fence, I'd recommend adding this to your wishlist and checking back whenever a patch hits, to see if issues have been addressed.