Introduction:

Did you ever play Heartstone ? A turn-based strategy card game, where two players are fighting each other with the cards in their hands. If you love Skyrim and that type of games, this is combined version of them.
If you hear about it first time, but love strategy games, keep reading, as this can become one of the most played games in your list ...

Gameplay

- So what is this game all about ?
- You open pack, get some new cards/heroes, create a deck with those heroes and go play against opponents. I will talk about cards and hero abilities later.

- What is the main objective ? How you play the game ?
- When game starts, both you and your opponent draw 3 cards (each person draws from his deck). You have an option for each of these cards, either keep it, or place it under your deck and draw another one. Each card has elixir cost, so you will probably keep those, which uses less elixir, as each player starts with only 1 elixir available. A person, who will play second, gets ring, which can be used in 3 different turns to get one extra elixir. Each player has his own "character" with 30 lives. The objective is to kill your opponent's character first. But it's not that simple, as there are runes for every 5 lives. So for example if you damage your opponent and his lives go down from 28 to 24 (passing 25, where the rune was placed), your opponent will draw a card. You must be careful and think, whether it's worth to break a rune, or you should play it safe and make your cards more powerful.

Card Types

There are 4 types of cards in this game:
1) Creatures - main cards, which you can put on the field and use until he's dead. Has both amount of lives and power (damage which he will do when attacking somebody). They are used to attack, defend and kill opponent's creatures or Main character.
2) Actions - Used to do some actions like dealing damage, spawning creatures, killing other creatures, drawing cards, etc.
3) Items - Used on any type of creature to give him some lives, power, or keywords.
4) Support - Placed on field, near your character and used once in each turn until it expires or opponent destroys it. Can't be targeted, if there is no creature or action card with an ability to destroy it.

Each card also has one (or 2-3) of available 6 attributes (multi-attributes): Strength, Willpower, Agility, Intelligence, Endurance and Neutral. Keep in mind, that while creating decks, you are allowed to use only two types of those attributes (except Neutral, it can be added in any deck) or three, if you have a multi-attribute card (card, which has 3 attributes) in your deck.

Last thing, that cards have is rarities: Common (gray), Rare (blue), Epic (purple), Legendary (gold).

Lanes

Playing Field has many variations of lines. Each line has it's own effect. Default playing mode has two lanes: left - normal, without any effects. right - shadow lane, which gives all summoned creatures cover for 1 turn. There are more than 20 lanes in this game, so will not be able to tell about every single one, but you can hold your mouse on icon in-game anytime and read what that lane's effect is.They are mostly used in Story mode and Arena Mode.

Keywords

So each creature or Item can have a keyword.
*Breakthrough - When your creature with this keyword attacks opponent's creature, and your creature had more power than opponent's creature's lives (f.e. creature with 5 power attacked another creature with 3 lives), all extra damage will go to your opponent's main character (in this example it will kill an enemy creature and will deal 2 damage to opponent's main character).
*Charge - normal cards can't be played after summoning. They have to skip 1 turn to be available. But creatures with this keyword are available right after being summoned.
*Drain - When you attack with this type of character, it gives your main character lives with the amount of power it had.
*Guard - When there is a character with this keyword on a lane, opponent can't target your main character with any creature, which is in the same line with that guard. Well unless that guard is dead, or there is a creature, which has ability to skip guards ...
*Lethal - No matter how much power creature with this keyword has. One attack is enough to take down almost any creature.
*Ward - Cards with this keyword ignore the first effect or attack, which would deal a damage, no matter how powerful that attack was. ! Hitting this type of creature with lethal will not kill him !
*Regenerate - If creature with this keyword is damaged and not killed until your next turn, he will regenerate health to the amount he originally had.
*Rally - When your creature with this keyword attacks, give another creature in your hand 1 power and 1 health.
*Mobilize - An item, which can be played to an empty lane equipped to 1/1 recruit.

Other terms

*Last Gasp - An action, which will happen after the creature with last gasp dies.
*Banish - this type of cards are being completely removed from the match, instead of appearing in discard pile or deck ...
*Pilfer - it is activated, when creature with this keyword attacks main character.
*Prophecy - this type of creatures can be played immediately, if they were drawn after rune being destroyed.
*Shackle - A shackled creature misses his next attack.
*Silence - Silencing a creature removes all effects and items, which that creature had.
...

Game Modes

In first picture you can see all available modes you can play:

Story Mode

Great way to start playing this game. Play and practice with AI, while completing objectives, playing with different and interesting effect in-game, etc. After completing each match, it will give you some great rewards, such as coins/soul gems/cards.

Puzzle Mode

Maybe one of the best modes in this game. It gives you a little task to solve. You have only 1 health and you need to take down your opponent with all cards you have in your hand in one turn or you lose. Requires some wise choices and lots of thinking. (Or if you don't like thinking, just watch solutions in YouTube :3 You know, just for the rewards).

Practice Mode

Default game mode, but you play against AI (you can choose difficulty easy/normal/hard). Rewards are too low though, so if you know how to play, it's better to spend your time playing with real players.

Solo/Versus Arena

Firstly you choose 30 cards, which will be the deck you are going to play with (the way you choose is: It gives 2 random cards, you pick one and put it in your deck and the other one is gone. You do this 30 times). There are 9 enemies to beat. You finish this mode if you win them all or lose 3 times. More games you win, better rewards you get ... Also there are 10 divisions to pass through. Each division has it's own prize amounts. Solo Arena is against AI, Versus Arena is against other players.

Ranked Mode

Main mode to play for rankings. there are 12 ranks, you start from 12 and go till 1. After 10th rank it will become tougher, as there is a chance to drop 1 rank back after losing. Higher rank you get at the end of the month (when season ends), more rewards you get. There is also special card revealed 10 days before each season end. Players, who reached the required rank, get copies of that card.

Casual Mode

Just play against other players for fun. Not affected on rank or anything ..

In-Game Currencies

Gold - mainly used to purchase Story/Puzzle mode missions, packs or used to enter Arenas. Gain with playing any kind of games or collecting from daily login bonuses.
Soul Gems - Can be obtained by playing any kind of game, destroying duplicate cards or collecting them in daily login bonuses. Are used to buy almost any card you want, From common type to even legendary ones.
Tickets - Can be obtained only from daily login bonuses or be purchased in store. Used to enter Arena.

Advantages:

Free to play
Never the same. Even if you play with same deck, it shuffles and gives cards randomly each round, so everything is on you and your strategy.
Beautiful game design and animations.
Tons of cards and tons of deck variations to play.
Easy to earn in-game currencies.

Disadvantages:

A little bit Pay To Win game, as it's sometimes very difficult to get the cards you want (Sometimes even impossible, as there are cards which can be obtained only via store or story mode, which has to be purchased too).
Probably will be bored after 1-2 years of playing, but will enjoy before that phase comes ...
Luck based, as getting cards from your deck is fully random and it can give you either the cards you want, or fully the opposite, which can cost you a game ...

Conclusion:

As I said, it can become boring after 1-2 years (I don't play it anymore and collect only daily rewards), but you enjoy playing it when just starting. It's definitely worth to have this game in inventory as it is free. Just don't get mad on Randomness and try to enjoy the game, no matter if you lose or win ...