Last updated on January 28th, 2026 at 10:10 am
Shadow Era – Trading Card Game – Strategy Game Review
Shadow Era – Trading Card Game is a Strategy/Card/Entertainment game from Jonathan Bjork, first launched in 14th April 2013.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 295+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Shadow Era – Trading Card Game Stand Out
Shadow Era 5.0 takes your favorite Mobile CCG to a whole new level!
Shadow Era is the full scale, cross-platform collectible trading card game that you've been looking for, with the most generous free to play system out there!
Start your campaign by choosing your Hero, and get a free starter deck. Battle with AI opponents or other players in realtime pvp to earn more cards. Your progress and cards will be saved on the server and can be accessed from any device! You must decide which strategy to use as you build your deck, in one of the most balanced card games out there!
"A fantastic representation of what freemium games should be." – Touch Arcade
"Shadow Era is a must-download for fans of CCGs." – TUAW
"Shadow Era is a deep CCG that's easy to pick up, but nearly impossible to put down." – Slide To Play (4/4)
"Shadow Era proves that digital TCG's can be just as fun as their real world counterparts." – Gamezebo
FEATURES
- 27 new cards are now added to the Rekindled Rebirth expansion, bringing the total to almost 1000 cards!
- Amazing card art that is sure to wow you, even rivals the top trading card games!
- View games in progress or replays to learn new strategies
- Free to play Meltdown game mode with great weekly prizes
- Cross-platform multiplayer pvp battles
- Game Center leaderboards
- Full support for Retina and iPad displays
- Fantastic 3d graphics and special effects
- Amazing custom soundtrack
- Completely free to play! No "pay to win" here!
- Monthly contests that allow YOU to become a card in the game!
Please visit http://www.shadowera.com for the official game rules, full card list, tutorials, and forums.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Shadow Era – Trading Card Game is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 26th April 2025
Recent improvements include:
- 24 New Cards, including several Tribute Cards honoring dominant players in the game!
- Now the Meltdown allows booster packs from all sets!
- AI Opponent kicks in for the Meltdown if you wait for a human for more than 30 seconds!
- Mulligan for non-FTA player helps balance out FTA!
- Shadow Era lobby music, with thematic lyrics (by Stumpy Pup Studios) now plays in all non-live game areas of the client!
- Multi-News Article toggle now accessible!
Download & Availability
Shadow Era – Trading Card Game is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Shadow Era – Trading Card Game on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Great app, no huge complaints here. For anyone who enjoys card games and hasn't tried shadow era out, do it! Cards are very well thought out and impress us witho originality and how classic they are as well. For any shadow era developers who are seeing this know that you're app is great but could probably use a wider variety of cards for the different heroes. Also, Aldmors cool but a little overboard at the same time.. Tone it back a bit to the basics with any new updates/expansions. Edit: still an awesome app Edit: still coming out with updates and keeping it interesting. Edit: only making edits now to get some shadow crystals. Best game on the App Store Yall should add controller support and have more tournaments more easily available to all the players, including new ones.
Idk how this game doesnt have 100k downloads. We personally would invest 10-20k USD to see this game prosper like it should. We see the dev just released an update which shows us he actually loves working on this game even though he probably doesnt make thaaaat much. Thank you for the awesome time spent in the craft. Pleaseee if you can make the campaign longer we would love that. Also maybe tweak the AI strategy and add some more random events kind of like chess AI engines. Keep up the great work. Hope to see longer campaigns soon. . . Also, please stop using AI to gen your art. Its obviously noticeable. If you DO use AI, at least mix up your prompts. The new ship characters look all the same. Same shade of lipstick and too human like and p@rnagraphic. Go back to using a real artist who can design more fantasy style art.
This game has been out for a while but is so much fun. Its easy to learn but can also be hard to become an expert. We thought they were done doing updates and expansions but just did one this year so its still going strong also some of the best music in any TCG.
Ive been playing this game since we were like 19! It still has amazing updates from the developers and new sets of affordable cards annually! Try out the game if your into TCGs. You wont regret it one bit.
A work of art. You can play competitively without purchasing anything. You can foil out your deck with cosmetics if you want to spend money. The game feels completely balanced competitively so you will not be finding the same deck over and over.
We are surprised about a few things: this game needs to update its artworkthe map is horribly blurry and why not create a better Shadow Era icon, perhaps the official logo? The art assets all look fairly blurry and old, the same art that existed when Shadow Era first came out for iOS. This also includes the UI and overall app. Things just need to look better! Any chance we could get an update on that.
We have been one of the regulars to this game and have been playing close to 10 years. A few months ago new ownership took over this game and just recently new cards were introduced which is usually a great thing. But in this case between the lion cards and dragon cards the game has become very one sided and pretty much unplayable. The new ownership does not have good card testers and the cards that were pushed through literally break the game. If you arent playing Lion cards or dragon cards then you arent winning. New management take note, get better testers. Youve made a game very one sided to only being able to play Lion and dragon cards ruining 80% of the rest of the game. Bad testers, bad cards allowed to be pushed through and horrible new management ruining a game that has always been our go to.
We love this game bought physical cards and play in real life with our own rules One of our favorite games beautiful art amazing cards with fun mechanics.
Is this not cross platform?cant play with android opponents.
Ive been playing this game off and on for 10 years. Its the best. Its f2p friendly. The dev team has done a bang up job. New sets arent just overly frequent power creeping cash grabs, but are really nuanced and it can take years for players to find out that there was some really amazing deck just waiting to be discovered. If you enjoy the mental aspect of tcgs.. The creativity aspect of tcgs. Theres nothing else that comes close as far as we feel. Great community thats active on telegram 24/7. If we were going to critique the game we would say the ui feels a little outdated. So if visuals and shiny things are what draws you to a game that could be a detractor. Hope you come and join us. If you read this and message us in game (or on telegram) at a1 nijjis shoot us a message, Ill see if we cant get you hooked up with some in game currency.
Set Kass and Set Oursoul are bad moderators.
If youre new to card games, you lost already.
Ive been playing this game for about 8 years and its never disappointed when it comes to competitiveness! A real strategy game that allows for many unique ways of winning. This game is a true gem (or should we say shadow crystal) among rocks in the app store. Keep coming up with new cards and strategies to learn and Ill be playing this game forever. Thanks SE for such a great game! – RS GBZ.
We actually love this game Ive been playing it since we were 21 Im actually 31 now havent deleted it ever cents download it on every phone that we get cant stop playing.
Fairly well-balanced, lots of play testing, depth of strategies is great, beautiful artwork. The speed of play is stellar, superb, and light years better than other CCG in this category. We are a daily player, and we are committed to keeping this game going. It is a true winner! Ive been playing for years.
Ive been playing Shadow Era since 2011. Its well balanced, has a fast pace of play and a lot of different play styles. Unlike a lot of games on the app store now, Shadow Era has no predatory practices, it is a truly free to play game where buying is optional.
The game is quite addicting and very fun.
Ive been playing this game for a few year now and we hope we see new content great game.
We played this game a few years ago, before it had a definitive campaign. The artwork and designs are nice as ever, and the gameplay is still enjoyably challenging. Ive played into a couple campaigns and so far havent hit a paywall. Im not usually one for trading card games, but this one has enough content to be enjoyable – even accommodating different playing styles instead of just draw-to-fight. One thing we would note is that the dialogue between characters seems to be mispaced. They start in the middle of the conversation and repeat a couple times.
This is a solid Card game, with Fast games, deep strategy, acessible and cheap. And you can play the game easily without investing any money since the game have a lot os bonuses. Th community is great too.
This game used to be fun. We've been playing it since 2012 on and off, and here's why. Despite what their website says, there are hackers who play this game and ruin it for those of us who are honest. Hacks and bugs for this game are all over YouTube. Most are in foreign languages. Also, most are designed to work with mage decks since they contain magic attack cards that can't be countered or blocked. You know when this is happening when an opponent is able to consistently draw the perfect card for any situation in the game. The laws of probability prove this to be next to impossible without cheating. There is virtually no way for an opponent to defeat or counter every card in your deck 30-40 times in a row unless they are using a cheat. This game needs way better anti-hacking protocols to keep game play honest. What we're speaking of happens every time our rating goes above 200, while we look at players with ratings of 280+ who are obvious hackers. If you guys aren't really going to fix this issue, then at least be honest and stop saying your game is unhackable. 10-23-15 3 years with this game. If it weren't so addictive, we'd have deleted it long ago. We may yet do that because despite what the website says, the game is still hacked. With every update, more hackers appear with newer tricks. The latest is when a player disconnects in the middle of a game where they are in a severe deficit, then suddenly reconnects with the ability to draw and play a string of the most powerful cards in the game. Some also seem to be able to reconnect and play cards equal to double their resources. This has happened where our hero is at full strength and our opponent is at two. The disconnect, reconnect, and in the next two turns come with a draw to defeat us within those two turns. This game would be far more awesome if these issues could be fixed. 2-20-2021 This game continues to be loaded with cheaters. Now, its the majority of players ranked above 200 who do it. What am we talking about? These are some of the tricks Ive witnessed: 1. Player able to play cards worth 4-6 times their resources. 2. Player able to play 6 or more of the same card in their deck 3. Player able to consecutively play 4 of the exact same card. 4. Player able to play perfect counter for anything played. 5. Player able to deplete full powered hero in 3 turns or less. 6. Player able to exceed play time limit Thats the short list. We left this game and returned, hoping it had been updated & fixed. Seemed we were hoping against hope. You know a player is using a cheat when in the middle of a game where theyre presented with a difficult challenge, they suddenly take an extra long time to play their next card, only to come up with the most insane perfect counter.
We really enjoy playing this game. We just started but have encountered a bug that makes it difficult to progress. We cannot open up the merchant menu; the screen says connecting to server but stays on that screen.
Cant load shop every time we try to go to the merchant or buy singles it crashes. Its a fun game and we miss playing it. Ill change our rating once its playable but for the time being we cant rate something we cant play well.
Dont play this. Better card games out there.
1992 graphics can beat this B.S.
This is easily the fairest, and funnest mobile TCG Ive played. Ive played MTG off and on for about 23 years, and at one time we came to prefer Shadow Era over MTGo. The cards are well thought out to avoid overpowering strategies, while remaining devastating in their combination. Getting a competitive deck together is blissfully easy for a free player, yet building a truly competitive deck takes skill. Wulven however, could really use a better plan, and more support. There have been very few cards added to a relatively small card pool since we started about 4-5 years ago. The post-release changes to digital cards makes buying the physical cards seem like a shaky idea. There didnt seem to be much thought about tournaments when designing the UI so (the last we knew) they were setting them up using private battle function, since there were only 3 ways to play, Campaign(AI), Battle (Random opponent), or private battle (password to enter). This seemed like a very sloppy way to organize a tournament, and it would be much nicer to see it integrated into the UI, so players can enter and play tournaments through the menu. All that aside we still give it five stars, because it is a game that focuses on fairness and fun over being an overly flashy cash-grab, and thats rare but it shows integrity. Ive made several crystal purchases just to support Wulven for a job well done.
If the game wasnt the best card type battler on mobile we wouldnt bother, however even with its major problems this is leagues better than rest of what is available. This isnt major praise though. The game is frankly best described as a lock down death spiral. Going first is incredibly powerful due to how creatures deal damage to each other. There can be the occasional game of back and forth but comebacks are almost impossible without drawing a very luck combo. Lets also top it off with awful, did we say awful hero balance. Very few are viable and a few are even virtually unplayable. No, Im not kidding, you will almost never see a few and you will literally never see about two. These balance problems extend heavily into the cards that make up the battle decks of cards you draw from. Again its fine for mobile time wasting but as an actual CCG its laughably bad compared to whats out there and if you spend money on it youre going to regret it. Not awful. Not great. But a great time waster? Yup.
Surprisingly good. Gameplay is great, building is good. We would like to see some updates to have it look better like the shadow era that come up looks generic. We also love the variety of characters and game styles you can have. Very underestimated game. Good job please keep up with the updates will be looking forward to it.
The game is great, just needs more players and more support.
This game is pay to win just like most other games you will find in any other App Store. Its about the advertisements for them. Sponsors and such. The game play isnt novel enough to make it worth it. Nice try.
We used to enjoy this game and recently came back to check our update. Its far better than it used to be and Im enjoying trying to level up. Stable app with great card designs and nice card gameplay mechanics.
Fun game! Waste hours playing it.
Love this game! Incorporation of strategy and tactics into an action packed card game. So many cards to choose from, so many styles of play. Great game.
This is probably one of the few tcg games that have good card graphics and doesn't feel like it was made for a ten year old. The game has a deep combat system with a wide variety of cards that are easily attainable as a free to play player. We highly recommend.
Ive been playing Shadow Era for years. Ive tried different ones. But none come as close to this. New expansions and heroes and allies are needed though. Asap!!!! Lol.
Having fun playing with our brother. Seems fair and not too pay to win right now. But offers cool stuff to buy.
Download this CCG is gangster af.
Addictive game. Keep coming back after weeks away, just cant leave it alone. One of our favorite games, always stable and steady releases. Easy to play game that Ill never have an iOS device without it. Now to just get some more campaign foils.
Played when the game was new and left for awhile. Recently reinstalled and started playing again. We love the new updates and new cards.
Thanks for making this game and all the great updates u guys have done to improve this game.
We started playing this game at launch stop playing for bout 2yrs glad we came back.
Been playing for years! Its our go to card game! Very fun to think through the various strategies and decks.
It's a fun game for mindless playing or climbing ranks. It's neat.
Great art too. Our fave in TCG s.
Doesnt take long picking up on the mechanics of the game. A must try, and very addictive.
Amazing gameplay and good storyline.
Bigger campaign, more complex story lines for all heros we think we will be very busy playing all and beating all difficulties.
Very nice to see a quality game where you dont need to pay 2 win.
The only thing we dont like is that in campaign mode, the ai has no hero. So when we end up with a board full of creatures, we cant kill him. We have to wait till he summons a creature to do any dmg and since he usually only summons 1 creature a turn, we can only attack with one creature. It takes forever to win a game we could of won like 5 turns ago.
We have been trying the game, working through the storyline. A lot of fights seem to be designed so you win by taking advantage of the ai being an idiot in situations they have overwhelming force available rather than playing in ways that are good vs humans.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 500000 (5.00000)
- Size: 592.97 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
- Developer: Jonathan Bjork
Last updated: 26th April 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Card | Developer: Jonathan Bjork