Manacaster is a strategic card battle game with infinite depth. Construct or Draft a deck, play PVP online, battle against our AI, or fine-tune your build in RPG mode. No mana-screw, no collectibles, no micro-transactions. Just streamlined, balanced old-school tabletop violence. Free demo available!
"I can say this already looks incredible. Very cool. Very interesting.”
> BrettMan, SPIEL Essen Livestream Host
"One of the most balanced strategy games I’ve ever played."
> Thunderstruck, Clash Royale world champion
"True to its roots as a classic battler, yet retains its own distinct style and identity."
> PowerLaws, Legend‑Ranked Hearthstone Player
Manacaster is a strategic card battle game with infinite depth. Construct or Draft a deck, play PVP online, battle against our AI, or fine-tune your build in RPG mode. No mana-screw, no collectibles, no micro-transactions. Just streamlined, balanced old-school tabletop violence.
Manacaster was designed and optimized for balanced, streamlined gameplay. Our objective as designers was to build a system that rewards intelligent strategy & and clever tactics, not good luck. There are game modes for the casual, the competitive, and the solo enthusiast, all of which benefit from being well-balanced at their core.
Balanced Gameplay = Brilliant Victories: The Power and Mana Cost of every single card and ability in Manacaster is carefully calibrated according to a strict mathematical algorithm, leading to intense battles that keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you demanding a rematch.
The Depth is in the Details: The rules and keywords in Manacaster are as simple as possible, but don't mistake simple for shallow. Once you start chaining together keywords like Rally, Focus, Twinstrike and Heavy, you'll realize that this game is anything but simple, and soon enough you'll be opening up the deck builder to try constructing your own.
To ensure player skill is always rewarded more than luck, we've made some changes to the typical card-battle rulesets. Every rule exists to minimize ( but not eliminate! ) randomness in situations where it's just more fun to give the players choice and agency!
Standalone Mana Deck: Players get to pick their mana card each turn. Single-color mana cards can be used right away. Dual-color mana enter tapped unless you pay 1 life. Triple-color mana enter tapped unless you pay 2 life. Build your mana deck before the game and enjoy deploying your Units and Actions on-curve.
Life Points as Resources: As you see above, life points are spent ( and gained ) like a resource. Paying life helps unlock special abilities and can reduce the mana cost of Action cards. Risk...reward...
Opening Hand Draft ( aka Mulligan System ): You are given 14 cards from your 50-card deck from which you must compose your opening hand of 7 cards, but here's the neat part; you don't have to keep any of them, and you can cheat by keeping 8! No more mulligan'ing to oblivion. You'll always start with at least 7 cards in hand, every game, no matter what.
Manacaster has a variety of game modes that allow players to enjoy the game in whatever format they find most comfortable. Some players love the thrill of outplaying a live human opponent, while others prefer to enjoy solo campaign modes. Here are some of the modes you can play in Manacaster, all of which have "Versus AI" and "Versus Live Human" options.
Constructed Mode: Select 50 Units and/or Actions, 13 Mana, and battle! The typical "build-then-battle" mode where each player brings the deck of their choice. Competitive players can test their skill in ranked ladder mode.
Draft Mode: Build your deck card-by-card while denying your opponent what they need to build theirs! A cleverly modified snake-draft pick sequence keeps tensions high, and you can "Burn" cards to spite your opponent and get a random reward. Supports ladder mode.
RPG Mode: If you're like some of us here at the Manacaster company HQ, you love fine-tuning a build down to the card and life-point. In RPG mode, you'll work through a series of elementally-themed dungeons, each with their own unique encounters and loot. RPG Mode introduces over 250 "Items" which are won in dungeon battles.
RPG PVP: Once you've dungeon-dived for some good equipment, go battle other players in "RPG PVP Mode", where you should prepare yourself to face the most powerful monsters in the whole Manacaster system. Demolish each other with Legendary and Unique equipment, which break fundamental rules of the game while they break your opponent. Non-ladder only for now.
Manacaster might be your next favorite game, but you'll never know until you try it. Go install the our free demo to make sure it runs on your device, step thru the tutorial, and if you like what you see, you can go ahead and buy the full game. The tutorial has no time limit nor usage limit, so you can play as much as you wish before buying.
If you already know that Manacaster is your kind of game, that big green "Buy" button is ready for you.
