Beckett Exclusive: First Look at Cyberpunk TCG
I’ve been asked by the team behind Cyberpunk 2077 to take an exclusive early look at their upcoming Trading Card Game, giving me access to the Alpha Kit; a closed, early-access experience. And let me tell you, I am excited!
If you thought Night City was dangerous on a screen, wait until you’re staring down an opponent who just stole your victory with a well-timed dice roll. Here is everything you need to know before the game hits the shelves.
The Vibe
First things first: the art. As a collector, I’m always skeptical when a big video game IP makes the jump to cardboard. Is it just screenshots slapped on cardstock? Thankfully, absolutely not.
The art in this TCG is distinct, stylized, and dripping with that high tech, low life aesthetic.
Looking at the cards from my kit, like the V and Jackie Welles, the visuals lean heavily into a gritty, comic-book style with vibrant neon accents.
The foiling on cards, like the Legendary Yorinobu Arasaka, is particularly striking. It pops with a chaotic, holographic shimmer that feels like a glitch in the system.
The Mechanics
If you’re coming from Magic: The Gathering, you’ll recognize some DNA here, but the Cyberpunk TCG twists it into something fresh. The biggest difference? Dice.
The game requires a set of six polyhedral dice (d4 through d20). These aren’t just for tracking damage; they are the win condition. These dice represent Gigs; job offers your fixer has lined up for you.
You draft these dice from a Fixer Area at the start of your turn. Your goal isn’t to reduce your opponent’s life to zero. Instead, it’s to amass six Gig dice in your Gig Area and hold them for a turn.
This creates a frantic, tug-of-war dynamic. You have to steal Gigs from your rival by attacking them directly with your Units. When you land a hit, you physically take a die from their board and move it to yours.
It feels very thematic, you’re clawing your way to the top of the Merc food chain, stealing contracts right out from under your rival’s nose.
You also have to manage your Street Cred, which is the sum total of all the face-up values on your Gig dice. While you need quantity (six dice) to win, you need quality (high numbers) to activate certain powerful card effects.
It’s a clever balancing act, do you keep a low value die because it gets you closer to winning, or do you risk it all for a d20 to boost your Cred?
The Economy
The resource system is another highlight. There are no Land cards you play just for mana. Instead, the game uses Eddies.
To generate Eddies, you have to sell cards from your hand. You reveal a card with a sell tag, place it face down, and boom, you have currency.
It forces you to make tough choices every turn: Do I play this powerful Gear card, or do I sell it so I can afford to deploy Evelyn Parker?
It reminds me a bit of the resource system in Star Wars: Unlimited, but flavor-wise, selling your assets to fund your operation feels perfectly Cyberpunk.
The Legends
Deck construction is interesting because it revolves around Legends. You start with three Legend cards, like Saburo Arasaka or Viktor Vektor, face-down. These act as your leaders and determine your deck’s RAM limit.
You can’t just shove every powerful card into your deck, your Legends provide specific color RAM (like Green or Red), and your deck must stay within those limits.
For example, Goro Takemura provides 2 Green RAM, allowing you to include Green cards in your deck.
What I love is that these Legends aren’t just passive stats. You can spend Eddies to Call them (flip them face-up) to trigger powerful abilities.
Goro Takemura, for instance, can flip up to become a Blocker, jumping in front of an attack to save your gig.
It adds a hidden information element to the game. Your opponent knows you have three Legends, but they don’t know which ones are waiting to be flipped until it’s too late.
My Thoughts and How to Get In
The Cyberpunk TCG feels aggressive. It’s not a game where you sit back and build a pillow fort. The steal a Gig mechanic forces interaction immediately. If you don’t attack, you don’t win.
Is it perfect? The dice management might be a hassle for people who prefer just cards, and tracking Street Cred could get math-heavy in the late game. But as a first look? It’s stylish, fast, and captures the volatile spirit of the video game perfectly.
If you are ready to start your run in Night City, you don’t have to wait long to get involved. The team has just launched their Kickstarter Pre-Launch page, and I highly recommend you head over there to drop a follow.
The campaign officially launches on March 17th at 9 am PT.
There is a sweet incentive for early adopters, too. If you follow the pre-launch page and back the Kickstarter once the campaign goes live, you will receive a foil Nova Rare Lucy promo card.
Given how good the foils look in the Alpha kit, that is definitely a piece of chrome you’re going to want in your collection.
