Urban Rivals

Urban Rivals is a trading card game, or TCG, that is played right on your web browser. Both the site and card designs use a unique art style that gives the whole experience an original feel. New players are given 8 cards at random which is the minimum amount required for a deck. Game mechanics are simple and easy to pick up which makes Urban Rivals a much more casual TCG than Magic the Gathering Online. At the start of each match, both players are randomly given 4 cards from their decks and chose which of these cards will participate in each of the match’s four rounds. Players (and individual cards) gain experience after each match. Cards gain new abilities and increase in power as they rank up while players gain access to higher level channels and earn ‘clintz’ with which to purchase new cards. During account registration, players are asked what type of deck they would like to start with:

Action - Fight mean and strong. Emphasis on brute power and damage.

Danger - Unnerve your opponents with dirty tricks. Emphasis on sneaky abilities.

Cool - Keep control and protect your life points. Emphasis on ‘control’ cards that disable opponent’s abilities.



The first thing that I noticed about Urban Rivals was the comic book like art style. The main site uses bright colors and the kind of drawing you see in western super hero cartoons. The site is easy to navigate and is currently available in eight European languages. Account creation is simple, players chose a nickname which doubles as their username and the style of their first character. The three options include ‘Cool’, ‘Action’, and ‘Danger’ with each representing a different gameplay strategy. Action players prefer heavy hitting cards while Cool players rely on ‘control’ cards to lock down opponents. Your initial choice here isn’t very important since it won’t be until much later that you’ll be able to truly customize your deck in a meaningful way. After account registration, new players are given 8 random cards which make up a complete deck.



Urban Rivals is a great casual TCG that doesn’t require a giant wallet to play. With a short learning curve, stylish comic book art, and a large international playerbase, Urban Rivals is a solid game for fans of the genre.

Urban Rivals - The free online MMO Trading Card Game - free TCG