Minecard Mod | Hearthstone-Style Card Game

Minecard turns Minecraft into a collectible card battler. Every mob you kill and every treasure chest you loot has a chance to drop a card, and those cards become the units you field in head-to-head matches played on a craftable game board. The mod is Forge-only and built around data-driven card definitions, so the behaviour of each card lives in a simple JSON file rather than hardcoded logic.

How the Minecard Mod Works

The loop is simple. You gather cards out in the world, assemble them into a deck, then sit down at a game board to play. Matches borrow familiar Hearthstone rhythms, with cost, health, and damage stats on every card and an in-board view that replaces your normal HUD while a duel is running. Cards are plain JSON files inside a minecard_cards folder, each named after the entity it represents, which means a data pack can override the vanilla cards or add entirely new ones without touching the mod itself.

Collecting Cards From Mobs and Chests

Most cards come from two sources. Killing mobs has a chance to add a card to your collection on top of the usual experience reward, and treasure chests can roll cards as loot. The drop pool is not limited to vanilla mobs, either. Mobs added by other mods can drop their own cards, so a loaded modpack keeps feeding Minecard new units to field.

Crafting the Game Board and Deck

Before you can duel you need two items. The Game Board is the table where matches happen, and the Deck holds the cards you bring into a match. Both are craftable from standard materials, and the recipes are shown in the screenshots below.

The Deck recipe is just as straightforward.

Starting a Duel

A match needs a full deck of 27 cards, with no more than three copies of any single card type. Three Iron Golem cards is fine, for example, but a fourth copy is not allowed. With a legal deck in hand, right-click the Game Board with the Deck to enter the match view.

Playing Against an AI Opponent

You do not need a second player to play. Right-click the Game Board with Redstone Dust and the board spawns an AI opponent that fields its own deck, giving you a solo way to learn the game and test builds.

Learning the Rules With the Tutorial

If you would rather learn before you risk a real match, right-click the Game Board with any plank. That opens a tutorial window that walks through the rules step by step, which is the fastest way to understand how turns, cost, and combat resolve.

Installing the Minecard Mod

Minecard is a Forge mod, so you need a Forge installation before anything else. The general steps are the same as any Forge mod, covered in our Minecraft Forge setup guide and the broader how to install Minecraft mods walkthrough.

Once Forge is running, drop the Minecard jar into your mods folder and launch the game. No extra library mods are required. If you want to tweak the card pool, a data pack with JSON files in the minecard_cards folder overrides or adds cards without editing the mod itself.

FAQ

How many cards go in a Minecard deck?

A legal deck holds 27 cards, with a maximum of three copies of any one card type.

Can I play Minecard alone?

Yes. Right-click the Game Board with Redstone Dust to spawn an AI opponent, or use a plank to open the tutorial first.

Does Minecard work with mobs from other mods?

It does. Mobs added by other mods can drop their own cards, so adding something like Critters and Companions or a combat mod such as Better Combat expands the card pool and the mobs you can hunt for drops.

Can I add or change cards?

Cards are data-driven JSON files in a minecard_cards folder. A data pack can override the defaults or define brand-new cards, and the source repo on GitHub has the file format if you want to dig in.

Is the Minecard mod still being maintained?

The last release is from February 2025. Check the project page for current status before building a world around it, since development has been quiet since then.