Hearthstone blew the CCG genre wide open, creating space for dozens of competitors like Duelyst to fill. And while the idea of any new CCG topping the 50+ million player behemoth Hearthstone is hard to imagine, that doesn't mean it's still the best option out there. Duelyst may not have a lavish stage at BlizzCon, but it's become a better game than the CCG that helped inspire it.

The reason is simple: the board. Duelyst's blend of turn-based tactics and card game adds a level decision-making neither genre had on its own. For example, if you begin a game of Hearthstone with one playable minion in your hand, you have two options: play the minion or don't. Beginning a game of Duelyst with one playable minion gives you 66 different options; nine different areas to move to on turn one, each of which has either five or eight different spots to place the minion depending on where you went. That's not even considering whether or not you mulligan a card at the start of the turn, or the fact that going second could let you take a mana tile to open up more options. 

Both games have plays which will be clearly better or worse, and both require you to think forward about what your opponent could do or what else is in your deck, but a game of Duelyst can branch out in many more ways than a game of Hearthstone. Where you move and place minions dictates which direction the fights will move in. You can drive your opponent to a certain side by blocking off their other routes, press forward and make sure you stay on their side of the board, or hang back and make them come to you. The movement system leaves room for subtlety that regular card games often don't.

But what has really kept me playing Duelyst all year is that developer Counterplay Games fit this depth into matches that rarely go longer than ten minutes, making it quick enough to jump in and out of among other games. Counterplay has also been proactive with balance patches, and releases a steady stream of four new cards a month, keeping the meta on its toes. It also doesn't hurt that its pixel art animations are without a doubt the best of any game out today. 

But mainly it's when to move forward, where to place minions, whether or not to trade blows with the enemy general, and a million other choices that make Duelyst a game I imagine I’ll never actually master, but absolutely love to play.

Duelyst's second expansion, Rise of the Bloodborn, has snuck up on all of us. It was expected sometime this month, but it's actually just days away, going live this Thursday, December 15. A smaller set, Rise of the Bloodborn will add 39 new cards to the game, along with a new keyword: Blood Surge.

A minion with the Blood Surge ability will activate a unique effect any time you use your general's Bloodborn Spell—basically the same as Inspire keyword with Hearthstone's hero power, but Bloodborn Spells are cheaper and can't be used every turn.  As you might have guessed, the set generally revolves around using and empowering Bloodborn Spells, which Counterplay Games's Emil Anticevic told me is an attempt to make using those spells more strategic, rather than just activating them whenever they are available. 

While you'll still get Rise of the Bloodborn cards by purchasing orbs (card packs) unique to the set, these orbs function a little differently than the ones for the classic and Shim'zar sets. Instead of paying 100 gold for five random cards, a Bloodborn orb will cost 300 gold and contain three copies of three different cards, so nine cards total. None of the cards from this set are craftable or disenchantable, and once you've acquired a certain card, you won't ever see it in an orb again. 

That means, with 39 different cards and three per pack, you only need to open 13 packs to guarantee you'll have unlocked three copies of the whole set. Alternatively, you can buy the orbs for $3 each, or $20 for all 13. If you buy a few orbs individually before deciding to spend cold hard cash, the $20 option will also come with a refund on any gold you already spent on Bloodborn orbs. Anticevic told me they think this method of distributing a set is better for players when releasing a smaller set like this, but it won't necessarily become the way they always release new sets from now on. 

Now then, onto the card reveals. Counterplay has given us a sneak peak at six new cards to share with you from Rise of the Bloodborn, four of which have the new Blood Surge keyword. We'll be showing off one from each class, and you can flip through them all in the gallery below, along with my impressions. You can also find the full resolution PNGs and animated gifs of each card here. 

Duelyst is free-to-play and available through Steam.  

Duelyst just pushed live a surprise balance patch that makes a number of changes the community been calling for, and some that were less expected. Since the game's first major expansion, Denizens of Shimzar was released in August, the legendary minion Inquisitor Kron has been a hot topic among players. And unlike Blizzard's slow approach to balance changes in Hearthstone, developer Counterplay Games decided to swing the nerf hammer relatively fast.

Inquistor Kron was a 5 mana 4/6 minion that would summon a free 2/2 with a random ability every time you replaced a card a Duelyst mechanic that let's you mulligan one card from your hand per turn. According to Counterplay's patch notes, Kron provided so much value that he was simply too oppressive in comparison to other 5 mana cards: "We want players to feel like they have more options in the 5 cost slot." As a result, his health has been lowered from 6 to 4, making him significantly more fragile.

Kron wasn't the only card toned down; four others have been nerfed, along with one of the general's unique Bloodborn Spells. Kara, the Vanar general in question, has also been a much-discussed candidate for nerfs, so reworking her Bloodborn Spell has been a longer time coming than the relatively quick Kron change. Kara's +1/+1 effect for minions in her hand now only applies to minions played on the turn it's used, meaning you can no longer rely on the strategy of stacking it on Rush minions to deal burst damage from hand.

Two other nerfs targeted the game's Dispel effect, which is like Duelyst's version of Hearthstone's Silence. Ephemeral Shroud which I recommended should be in all your beginner decks way back in beta went from being a 2/2 to a 1/1, but will probably still see play thanks to being a cheap, neutral Dispel option. Meanwhile, the Vetruvian card Siphon Energy can no longer target any minion on the board, only those near your general, and many people are already saying that might be enough to severely limit its use.

When I interviewed Counterplay Games at PAX West this year, they told me the game had seen an influx of players since launching on Steam in August. Counterplay has always been more liberal with balance changes than many other CCGs, and Kron's demise is just a continuation of that trend. But the change to Kara's Bloodborn Spell means my Mei general mod could be more relevant than ever as wall decks go on the rise.

You can read the full patch notes here.