Less than a week after Wizards of the Coast announced that it was suing Hex Entertainment and Cryptozoic Entertainment for cloning the company's popular card game Magic: The Gathering, the two companies have come back with a statement in defense of their game Hex: Shards of Fate.

Here's the full statement written by Cryptozoic president and COO Cory Jones and posted on the game's website, emphasis mine:

To our family of HEX supporters…

I have been chasing a dream for the last three years, a dream to produce an innovative trading card game: a game that combines the strategy of a TCG with the community and progression of an MMO. Something amazing and new, something you would love. We presented that dream to you, our community, and you responded with such mind-blowing support to help us launch HEX.

Sadly, the potential of that innovation has driven WOTC to file a meritless lawsuit in an attempt to kill a competitor before it delivers on that promise. HEX has a chance to give gamers a better and completely different experience from a digital-only TCG than a paper TCG can. Sometimes being small and independent makes you seem like an easy target to the bullies, and that's not an easy place to be, but rest assured we are ready to defend the dream.

Yes, WOTC, and its even larger parent, Hasbro, are much bigger than Hex Entertainment. But the size of their bank accounts doesn't make them right, and we will fight to deliver the game that you supported throughout this journey. We will not allow this frivolous legal action to damage our ability to deliver a quality game experience to you.

I appreciate the outpouring of support on our forums and I can understand the need to speculate on the specifics of the case. Clearly, I cannot address these posts in detail, but rest assured we have retained legal counsel that is very experienced in these types of matters and I feel 100% confident in a positive outcome for HEX. I will say that it's important for the HEX community to remember we are all part of the same tribe. We are all gamers, so even if someone isn't into HEX, please treat them with kindness and respect. We must all stick together as a tribe; gamers have it hard enough as it is without tearing each other down.

I will not allow the dream we shared as a community to be crushed. You believed in me, made the Kickstarter an amazing success, and stuck by us as we slogged through the alpha client. It is unfortunate that this hurdle has been thrust upon us. But, we will prevail; we have come too far to let the dream die now.

Lastly, I must ask that you respect the obligations of the HEX team members during this time and direct all questions or comments to myself and legal at legal@hextcg.com. We will read all inquires but remember that because of the nature of this situation we may not be able to respond at this time. But, we will continue to keep all of you, our fans and support, apprised of the developments as we have strived to do so from the very beginning.

Thank you,

Cory Jones and HEX team