Talking About Primal

Primal is a game I admire for a smaller team being out there creating something. Where it may lack in polish, I like it for the pluck of it. The game's resource system is one of the unique things that made me interested in pursuing it further. Life's been in the way and stopping me from keeping up with the game, but that hasn't changed what I like about the game's systems.

To make a comparison to Magic, Characters are Creatures. Strategies are Sorceries and Enchantments (there's more nuance but it doesn't matter for this). Abilities are Instants and it's more accurate to think of them as combat tricks. There are also Field cards, but you start with those in play and they don't matter for this discussion.

This game doesn't have a once-per-turn resource like playing Lands. You may play one Character and one Strategy card each turn. The limitation isn't in their mana cost, it's in their Turn Cost (the number on the triangle) and Hand Cost (the number above the two card backs). And the Turn Cost is just a measure of how many turns you have completed. Your turn tracker starts on 0 and goes up at the end of each turn.

It's a bit of a blunt answer to dealing with ramp and resources, but I like the game for reframing the restriction on playing cards from a resource cost basis to a timing one.

Card can also have a Hand Cost, which means that to play the card you must take a card from your hand with at least one matching element and place it into your Essence area. Essence isn't like playing a Land either, because the Essence cards are temporary and discarded when used. Why do you need cards in your Essence pool?

To pay for Ability cards and to use Character's effects. Your Essence cards are spent when used and discarded, which places a lot of emphasis on timing and makes anything that attacks your opponent's Essence pretty strong.

Every card can serve as a resource, like in Lorcana and Altered, but rather than being turned into a permanent one they are transmuted between two temporary resources. Cards in hand to pay for hand costs, and then turn into Essence to pay for other things.

The experience these create is one of symmetry and breaking it. Both players are limited in what they can do, so how are you going to break that restriction?

Are you going to use Characters that can play themselves with an ability and not take your once-per-turn summoning?

Are you going to use the Characters that can be Transformed from a cheaper one, another ability that lets you use your summon on something else?

Or are you going to use your Ability cards to flip combat in your favor? If you're both summoning one Character a turn, a combat trick letting you blow theirs up becomes devastating.

From my time playing the game I remember the tension of it. With some games one player seizes and advantage early and presses on it, but most turned into a tense standoff. Both players develop their board and make attacks opportunistically. You can block, but do they have some Ability ready to go? Do you have some Ability ready to go? And then comes to the point where your opponent can't let your attack through and has to start firing cards off and that sets off the flurry of interaction until someone's left standing.