Might & Magic: Duel of Champions was a free-to-play online collectible card game by Ubisoft Québec, set in Ashan, the world of Heroes V and VI, with cross-platform play between PC and iPad[1]. It ran from 2012 until its servers were switched off on 31 October 2016[2].
History
- Ubisoft announced the game on 24 April 2012, with a closed beta already running in France[1][3].
- The open beta began on 13 September 2012 through Uplay, at first without North America[4][5].
- Sources give different dates for the full launch — Celestial Heavens and Gamepressure give 18 December 2012[6][7] — and the iPad version followed in December 2012[8].
- A Russian version with about 600 cards was published in September 2013 by Fabrika Online for Russia, Ukraine and the CIS[9].
- The game arrived on Steam on 7 November 2013[10][5].
- A separate paid edition for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Duel of Champions: Forgotten Wars, came out on 23 July 2014 for $9.99, with 650 cards, 30 single-player missions and no random packs[11].
How it played
- Each player's half of the battlefield had two rows of four slots — a front row for melee creatures and a back row for ranged ones[12][13]; moving creatures between lanes was central to play[14].
- Resources grew every turn, and a card also needed a minimum in one of the hero's three statistics — Might, Magic and Destiny[13][15].
- Card types were creatures, spells and fortunes, plus a shared deck of events both players could buy into[15][14].
- A deck held one hero, eight events and 50–200 other cards, at most four copies of a card[16][7].
- Later updates added spectator mode and unranked duels in June 2014 and a draft mode in October 2015[10].
The design aimed to be easy to enter, and producer Stephane Jankowski said players who never paid could still reach the top — it only took longer[17].
Factions
Haven, Necropolis, Inferno and Stronghold were in the base game; Sanctuary arrived with Void Rising and Academy with Forgotten Wars[8][16].
Expansions
| Expansion | Released | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| Void Rising | December 2012 | 108 |
| Herald of the Void | May 2013 | 103 |
| Forgotten Wars | September 2013 | 155 |
| The Five Towers | December 2013 | 80 |
| Heart of Nightmares | April 2014 | 100 |
| Griffin Bane | July 2014 | 100 |
| Sins of Betrayal | October 2014 | — |
| Time of Renewal | April 2015 | 170 (24 new, 146 rebalanced) |
Names and dates follow the game's Steam announcements and the French Wikipedia article[10][8].
Competitive play
Ubisoft ran a world championship called Road to Paris. The 2013 edition had qualifiers at Gamescom and online and a final with eight players at Paris Games Week in November 2013[18]; more than 1,500 players took part[19], and the title went to Avkall with a Stronghold deck[10]. A 2014 edition followed, with monthly cups and world finals in January 2015[19].
Reception
- Critics liked it: Metacritic lists 84 for PC and 82 for iOS[20], Pocket Gamer gave 4 out of 5[12] and GameWatcher 8 out of 10[15].
- Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik called it his favourite collectible card game[14].
- The common complaint was the grind: paying players had an advantage early on, and others faced a long climb[15].
The end
- Most of the core team moved to Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2014; work slowed and stopped in 2015, and a pitched sequel was cancelled the same year[21].
- On 26 August 2016 Ubisoft announced that the real-money shop was closing at once and that the game, its website and forums would shut down on 31 October 2016, without refunds[2][22].
- The console edition was delisted in August 2016[5].
- Fans have kept the game alive on a private server since 2019[16][6].
Ubisoft's next card game in the series came almost a decade later: Might and Magic The Card Game (launched as Might & Magic Fates TCG).
Discussion: the game's forum board.