There’s certainly nothing wrong with traditional deckbuilding card games (plenty of us are patiently waiting for Slay the Spire 2 to devour our lives, after all). But some of the most exciting new games in the genre are mixing it up, adding elements of tactical RPGs and tabletop games to go beyond their deckbuilding roots. Steam Next Fest offers a great chance to demo some of those upcoming titles and get an early look at the future of card games.
Deckbuilders and tactical RPGs have a lot in common already, and Shuffle Tactics bridges the gap beautifully. At a glance, it could be mistaken for a standard Final Fantasy Tactics-style game, giving you multiple units to move along a grid and use to combat enemy forces. But rather than a set list of commands, each character has a hand of cards to buff allies and attack opponents.
