Did you miss it? Artifact‘s back, and it’s not quite how you remember it. After a year of tinkering following that disastrous 2018 debut, Valve are ready to re-introduce the Dota 2 card game to the world. This week’s brief demonstration runs through some of the promising changes arriving with Artifact 2.0 – and if you’re lucky, you may be able to try the beta yourself starting next week.

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Valve have been drip-feeding us details about the return of Artifact, but now they’ve opened the flood gates. The latest blog post about their card ’em up digs into all sorts of nuances, from revamped mana curves to fiddly initiative rules. They’re also muttering about a ranked progression system similar to Dota Underlords‘, and a singleplayer campaign that will continue the story from the Call To Arms comic.

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Valve have been drip-feeding us details about the return of Artifact, but now they’ve opened the flood gates. The latest blog post about their card ’em up digs into all sorts of nuances, from revamped mana curves to fiddly initiative rules. They’re also muttering about a ranked progression system similar to Dota Underlords‘, and a singleplayer campaign that will continue the story from the Call To Arms comic.

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I’m enjoying how all the headlines around Artifact‘s upcoming comeback are about what it won’t do. It won’t sell you cards, and it won’t make you play on one lane at a time. ‘It won’t die in a fire like it did before’, promise.

We now know a lot more about how the revamped game will actually work. Random deployment is gone, with creeps spawning in predictable positions while Heroes can be plopped wherever you like. The infinite board is gone, too, as each of the three lanes can now only fit five units. This seems… promising?

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You’ve probably heard by now, but Artifact is making a comeback. Valve’s card-game flop is gearing up for a massive reboot, and no part of the deck-shuffler’s carcass is being left to waste. New monetisation, new mechanics, and a surprising new look. This week, Valve dove into some of the earliest ideas they’ve come up with to make Artifact work – even if it’s a bit too soon to commit to a full art pass.

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Artifact‘s developers have given up on selling people cards. When the closed beta for Artifact 2.0 kicks off, you’ll have to earn every single card through playing – no market, no packs. Stingy pricing was just about the only thing holding the game back for me, so, hurray!

It’s part of a big relaunch. Valve have also mentioned some changes they’re making to the game itself, including allowing “players to access all three lanes at once”. That’s pretty wild, too.

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Valve are on something of a roll right now. Half-Life: Alyx is looking absolutely stunning ahead of next week’s release. While Dota Underlords (and auto-battlers generally) might be on a bit of a downturn, it’s hard to say it hasn’t done well for itself. Now that they’re back in full swing, it might be time for Valve to bring their dustiest skeleton out of the closet. Gabe Newell reckons it might be time for another shot at Artifact.

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This is the one that stings the most. The commercially-unsuccessful game that most makes me want to stand in front of unwelcoming crowds, pound on my chest and scream about how wrong you all are. Artifact doesn’t deserve to be the butt of people’s jokes. It doesn’t deserve to be the butt of anything. It’s one of the best card games out there.

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Twitch, the livestreaming site owned by Amazon, are trying to sue the digivandals who in May broadcast videos of pornography, copyrighted movies and TV shows, and actual real-world murders. The offenders pretended to be streaming Artifact, dominating Twitch’s section for the Valve card game. Twitch don’t yet know who they are but have already filed a lawsuit with a California court to get it rolling. When they do know, they’ll look to hit the perpetrators with fines and bans for cyberoffences from trademark infringement to fraud.

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It came, we saw, it failed to conquer. Personally, I’ve looked at Artifact‘s floundering playerbase with a heavy heart, because it’s a a great game that deserves better. That’s why I was interested to see Richard Garfield (of Magic: The Gathering fame) Arti-chatting about the game’s rocky launch, and what it actually means for a game to be “pay-to-win”.

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