11 best card dueling games for Android

Most mobile gamers know about Hearthstone. It’s one of the most popular card dueling games of all time. It also helped kickstart the trend on mobile phones. We’ve seen a number of similar games hit the Play Store, including some from rather large names like Wizards of the Coast, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and others. People who like the fantasy card dueling style definitely have more options than ever before. Here are the best card dueling options for Android.

The best card dueling games for Android for Android

Clash Royale

Price: Free to play

Clash Royale is one of the most popular card dueling games. It’s also one of the easier ones to get into. The game lets you create a deck and then duke it out with opponents online. During combat, you play cards and it introduces creatures to the battlefield. The first one to overwhelm their opponents win. It doesn’t have the depth or variety of more complex card games like Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering Arena, but there is enough strategy to matter for players. Plus, the games are reasonably quick and Supercell does a good job of keeping the game updated.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends

Price: Free to play

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is Bethesda’s attempt at a card game. It started out a bit rough but has grown to be quite a decent title. Like most on the list, players unlock cards, build decks, and duel with other players. This one also has solo player content in case you don’t feel like sweating it out against other players all the time. It borrows a lot of its elements from Magic: The Gathering so veterans of Magic will probably fit right in. 

Eternal Card Game

Price: Free to play

Eternal Card Game is one of the diamonds in the rough on this list. It plays similarly to games like Hearthstone, where playing the game is a bit easier, but games can go long if both players are decently good (or decently bad). The game lets you build decks by freely mixing up cards from your collection. The developers also boast consistent updates with more and more cards. You can also earn every card in the game through gameplay, which makes endgame-level competition accessible for free to patient players. It’s not perfect, but it hits most of the right notes.

The Fox in the Forest

Price: $4.99

The Fox in the Forest is one of the few decent premium card dueling games. It has a single $4.99 price and you get everything. It’s actually a mobile port of a physical board game. Both players get dealt 13 cards with numbers on them. Each player plays a card and the one with the highest number wins that round. The player with the most tricks won at the end wins the match. It does let you play online and there is a solo mode as well.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game

Price: Free to play

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is a mobile port of the popular card game from The Witcher. The mechanics are similar in some ways and very different in others, but the spirit of the game is there. Players build decks as they unlock cards and face each other in card dueling combat. The game has multiple game modes depending on how much time you want to spend playing. It’s a genuinely entertaining game, even if there is an established meta that keeps deck diversity down a bit.

Hearthstone

Price: Free to play

Hearthstone is another very popular card dueling game. It was one of the first big mobile games in this genre and continues to be a driving force that other card duelers are compared to. The game has a metric ton of cards, which gives players a lot of options when it comes to deck building. The mechanics are simple enough and there are literally thousands of tutorials on YouTube if you need help. There are both PvP and PvE modes along with an eight-player battleground experience as well. The biggest issue is that it’s very not friendly for new or returning players who don’t have the latest meta.

Legends of Runeterra

Price: Free to play

Legends of Runeterra helped to freshen up the card game scene when it launched. It plays a bit like Hearthstone where you build decks, play cards each turn, and then try to overwhelm your opponent. It has a PvE as well as a PvP mode, and there are plenty of opportunities to earn the latest cards for free. We also quite enjoy the Labs where you play games that sit dramatically outside the usual Legends of Runeterra experience. As long as Riot Games keeps everything in good balance, this could easily become the next Hearthstone.

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Price: Free to play

Magic: The Gathering Arena is the latest digital version of the popular physical card game. It has a long way to go, but it’s slowly getting there. New players have 15 pre-assembled decks to play with and you can create more decks as you unlock more cards. There are also multiple game modes, a practice mode against the AI to learn or try out decks, and various unlockables to keep things interesting. The developers seem to still be figuring some things out and updates have introduced more issues than they have fixed in 2021, so until everything smooths out, be careful if you decide to start this one.

Night of the Full Moon

Price: Free / $5.99

Night of the Full Moon is a smaller, but still very fun card game. It is entirely PvE, with 92 opponents to take on in order to win the game. There is also a mechanic to change the story a bit based on your decisions. The card collecting and deck building mechanics are built right into the gameplay as a whole, so it all comes off clean and polished. We also like that it feels difficult at first, and then when you understand the game better, it gets vastly easier. This one is also free on Google Play Pass if you have it.

Pokemon TCG Online

Price: Free to play

Pokemon TCG Online is as close to a classic Pokemon trading card experience as you can get on a mobile phone. Players unlock cards, build decks, and duel with each other to see who has the best deck. The game lets you choose between a grass, fire, or water deck, and then you drop into the game and go from there. There is a non-PvP component where you can test yourself (or deck builds) against the AI until you feel confident enough to play online. This one was curiously available for my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but not my Pixel 4 XL, for some reason.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

Price: Free to play

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is similar to Pokemon TCG Online, but for Yu-Gi-Oh instead. It boasts simple controls, in-game prompts so you know what you can play, and even a quiz system to help you learn the rules. You can also have the game auto-build your decks, or auto-duel in case you want to grind AFK, and there are a few different PvP modes for you to enjoy. This one seems to hit all the right marks, even if it’s a free-to-play game. There is even an offline story mode if you want to go that route. It strikes a good mix of highly competitive and chilled out.

If we missed any great card dueling games, tell us about them in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.