The hype came to a peak as early as Monday as Valve opened up pre-loads of the game and announced that they were doing stress tests of the servers. We also go a web-comic release, Prelude, that gives us a peek into the lore around Artifact specifically. Today, along with the drop of the game itself, a second comic, Call To Arms, continues the story.
If you’re not as into lore, there is still plenty to celebrate. Are you starting your journey with the tutorial and trying to slay the adorable bot imps before wading into the international pool of human opponents? Perhaps you’re skipping all that to hop into the Call To Arms pre-constructed event and trying to build a towering win-streak. Others are going right to Casual Play and spamming the free phantom drafts in order to hone their skills in this all-important limited format. I think a chunk of us who have been futilely dancing the beta key monkey dance, consuming every scrap of Artifact content up until now, and religiously watching the professionals stream the game are saying “damn the torpedoes!” and just jumping right into Expert Play. Bring it on, baby!
If economics is your game, or you love opening packs and have dropped a wad of cash on the game beyond your $20 entry-fee, then keep an eye on the marketplace. The Artifact card sales went live Tuesday for commons and uncommons, with Blink Dagger at one point clocking the top slot and going for almost four dollars a pop. At the time of this writing, the rare cards are listed as well and the rates are on the menu. Axe is topping the cost charts at $40! There’s been a lot of speculation on the real cost of playing constructed competitively, so be sure and keep an eye on what the market does as with the key auto-include deck rares. These will define what Artifact costs for the constructed player.