This new Vampire: The Masquerade digital card game is perfect for quick matches on my commute — here's why it's replaced Marvel Snap on my phone

Mobile card game Vampire: The Masquerade Clans of London understands the value of a funny character name.

Under the Radar Under the Radar is our way of highlighting great games that might have passed you by.

Through a regular mix of news stories and features, we'll cover great experiences that we feel haven't found the audience they deserve.

Read the full series here .

Where competitors like Marvel Snap let you unlock big hitters such as Luna Snow, Blade, and Spider-Man, Clans of London treats you to a barrage of veritable DeviantArt OCs with titles ranging from the gloriously alliterative Sid Scabies and Cathy Carmine to the positively pedestrian Helen Lloyd or Ms Harriot.

Rather than illustrations or CGI art, the Clans of London developers opted to use photographs of real-life actors in makeup and costumes to represent the vampires on cards, too.

The shots are all heavily Photoshopped, with wildly varying levels of believability, but demonstrate a level of care that you’re hard-pressed to find elsewhere in the mobile space.

It’s hard to imagine other developers would take the time to organize real-life shoots, especially given the proliferation of sloppy AI assets on the platform.

There’s just something so gloriously amusing about whipping out a card of some dude named Robert Cavendish and throwing it down like he’s some sort of established superhero, especially when it’s adorned with an image of someone who looks like an office worker you’d pass on the street.

Bloody battle (Image credit: Phoenix Games) I’ve been playing every day for a week, and each new card that I unlock is an absolute treat to behold, but the game’s appeal extends far beyond its aesthetic.

The roughly five-minute-long competitive online matches are perfect for breaking up my commute and offer a genuinely engaging tactical challenge.

Two players go head-to-head on either end of a board with 15 card slots that are split down the middle by a shared central row of three.

The first row is for your pawns: ideally, low-level cards with simple effects you place early to support your hand later on.

You might start by slapping down Abir, for example, a low-level vampire perfumer who automatically buffs the strength of the next card you deploy.