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KeyForge

unique deck card game

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ56290125
Source-derived summary

KeyForge is a card game designed by Richard Garfield and published by Ghost Galaxy. It was released in 2018 and was originally published by Fantasy Flight Games.

Gameplay

KeyForge is a two-player game, with each player using a single deck of cards to play creatures, artifacts, actions, and upgrades. The game's aim is to gather enough Æmber (pronounced "amber") to forge three keys before the opponent does the same. Creatures can collect Æmber and fight one another, while artifacts provide unique effects. Actions are used and discarded, and upgrades are attached to creatures to improve their abilities.

Each card in KeyForge is associated with a House, with each deck containing cards from three Houses. At the beginning of each player's turn, that player declares a House – they may then only play, use, or discard cards belonging to that House. Unlike similar card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Android: Netrunner, cards do not typically require a cost to be paid such as the expenditure of mana or credits. Instead, a player may play and use as many cards on their turn as they wish, provided the cards belong to the declared House.

Editorial summary

“KeyForge” enters the record as unique deck card game. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what KeyForge, unique and deck can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2018-11-15, 2019-05-30, 2019-11-08, 2020-07-10—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around KeyForge, unique and deck.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“KeyForge” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, KeyForge, unique and deck provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56290125. The Library of Congress control number is sh2020008107. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “KeyForge”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow KeyForge primary sources, KeyForge archive and KeyForge research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from KeyForge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.