Alembix TCG · published
Hello alchemists,
We have some news we have been genuinely excited to share. Over the past stretch of development we have put Alembix through its most rigorous testing yet, and today we want to pull back the curtain and show you exactly what we found. We also have an announcement about the next step on this journey, and it is one you can be part of.
Let us get into it.
Balancing a trading card game is hard. A single tweak to one tribe can quietly tip the scales across the whole game, and the only way to catch that is to play. A lot. So we built a simulation harness and let it run 6,000 full games, with every tribe pitted against every other, tracking everything from win rates to how much Quintessence players were spending each turn.
The goal was simple. We wanted no tribe to feel like the obvious best pick, no first-player coin flip deciding matches before they begin, and games that last long enough to feel meaningful without overstaying their welcome. Here is how it turned out.
We set ourselves a series of targets before running the simulations, so we could not move the goalposts afterwards. Here is the full scorecard.
Metric
Target
Actual
Status
Game length
12 to 25 turns
20.4 turns
Pass
First player win rate
45 to 55%
46.8%
Pass
Archetype spread
Under 20%
6.9%
Pass
Draw rate
Under 15%
0.1%
Pass
Balanced tribe win rate
35 to 65%
49.8%
Pass
Mercury tribe win rate
35 to 65%
53.2%
Pass
Salt tribe win rate
35 to 65%
46.3%
Pass
Sulphur tribe win rate
35 to 65%
50.4%
Pass
Every single metric landed inside its target range. We are proud of that, and we want to be open about the detail behind it rather than just the green ticks.
No tribe runs away with the game. Across 3,000 games each, here is where they settled.
Tribe
Win rate
Deviation from 50%
Balanced
49.8%
-0.2%
Mercury
53.2%
+3.2%
Salt
46.3%
-3.7%
Sulphur
50.4%
+0.4%
The total spread between the strongest and weakest tribe is 6.9%, comfortably inside our 20% ceiling. Mercury sits a touch ahead and Salt a touch behind, and we are watching both. They are well within healthy bounds, but we would rather keep an eye on a small lean now than let it grow into something that warps the meta later. This is exactly the kind of thing your playtest feedback will help us refine.
In a lot of card games, winning the opening roll is half the battle. We wanted Alembix to reward how you play, not who happened to go first. First players won 46.8% of games, which is right where we hoped, and the advantage stays even across short and long games alike. Draws, meanwhile, came in at just 0.1%, so games resolve decisively almost every time.
Numbers on balance are one thing, but we also wanted a sense of the texture of a typical match.
Average game length: 20.4 turns, with most games clustering in the 24 to 27 turn range
Average cards played: 45 per game
Average creatures destroyed: 23.7 per game
Average events played: 7.49 per game
Average fusions per game: 0.79
Average Quintessence spent: 121.1 per game
What this paints is a game with real back and forth. Creatures are trading, events are firing, and the board is shifting throughout. Fusions remain a special moment rather than an every-turn occurrence, which is exactly the weight we wanted them to carry.
One pattern we found particularly pleasing: winners tend to spend more Quintessence and play more cards than losers, but not by a runaway margin. That tells us efficient play is rewarded without the game becoming purely about who can do the most things fastest.
We will be candid with you, because this community has earned that. Passing our internal targets is a milestone, not a finish line. Simulations are excellent at catching big structural problems, but they cannot capture the creativity, the bluffs, and the unexpected combinations that real players bring. That is where you come in.
Next week (15-21 June 2026) we are opening up the Alembix Playtest, and we want you in it.
This is your chance to get hands on with the game, put our balance work to the test, and help shape Alembix before its full release. Every match you play and every piece of feedback you give feeds directly into the next round of tuning.
Wishlist Alembix and sign up now to be among the first invited in. Spots will roll out in waves, and wishlisting is the surest way to secure your place and stay in the loop as we open the doors.
Thank you for being here with us. This game is better because of the community around it, and the next chapter is one we get to write together.
See you in the Athanor,
The Alembix Team