Unleash your Magic: A Comprehensive Guide to Deckbuilding in Destiny 2's Season of the Witch

Highlights

Season of the Witch in Destiny 2 introduces new activities like Savathun's Spire and Altars of Summoning, which offer trap-filled challenges and high-stakes encounters.

The Season of the Witch in Destiny 2 introduces a fresh deckbuilding method centered around Eris Morn's Lectern of Divination and tarot cards. These cards offer extra modifiers, enhancing gameplay.

Players have the opportunity to form a deck consisting of five Major Arcana cards. As they complete quests and unlock more cards, customization options expand, enabling personalized builds and playstyles.

Destiny 2's Season of the Witch faces the challenge of living up to the high standard set by Season of the Deep in terms of lore and quality. However, both expansions pose similar risks when it comes to changing the gameplay loop, and Season 22 seems poised to take it to the next level. The new activities in Season of the Witch, Savathun's Spire and the Altars of Summoning, offer players a trap-filled labyrinth and high-stakes encounters, respectively. However, the game does not provide a thorough explanation of Destiny 2's new deckbuilding approach, which utilizes Eris Morn's Lectern of Divination and tarot cards that offer additional modifiers.

As is typical with Bungie's looter-shooter, Destiny 2's Season of the Witch introduces time-gated progression. In the first week, only a few Major and Minor Arcana cards are revealed, leaving the majority of the tarot deck and its effects unknown. Nevertheless, players are able to create their own deck in the first week of the season, as the entire deck consists of only 5 Major Arcana cards, which is the exact number currently available.

How Destiny 2's Major and Minor Arcana Work

In the Season of the Witch, Destiny 2 players can earn Opaque Cards by completing various playlists and activities, including Vanguard, Crucible, and seasonal additions. These cards can be activated at the Lectern of Divination after completing the story for the first week of the season, following Eris Morn's transformation into a Hive God of vengeance. There are two types of Opaque Cards: Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. Major Arcana require players to complete a related quest to unlock their powers, often aligned with the card's theme. For example, the Blades Major Arcana requires players to defeat enemies with melee attacks, swords, or glaives in Savathun's Spire and Altars of Summoning. In contrast, Minor Arcana can be activated at the Lectern of Divination for immediate rewards, including Season of the Witch Engrams, Enhancement Cores or Prisms, and even Destiny 2's Exotic Engrams.

Destiny 2's Deckbuilding Mechanics in Season 22

A complete deck consists of five Major Arcana cards. Players can form a deck by completing all five quests in the first week, or by completing a total of five Major Arcana quests at a later time in Season 22 of Destiny 2. Once completed, the player's deck will be displayed around the summoning circle in the same location as the Lectern of Divination. Players can then choose to add or remove cards from their deck by interacting with a specific card.

As players unlock more Major Arcana cards over time, they will have the opportunity to fully customize their decks to suit their preferred builds and playstyles. The number of cards that will become available each week is currently uncertain. Additionally, the game's user interface currently only reveals the cards drawn in the activity called Season of the Witch, without providing information on what each card does. This is likely to be addressed in future updates. Overall, the deckbuilding mechanic in Destiny 2 does not heavily impact the core gameplay, but it adds enough diversity to make it more engaging.

Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.