Easy to learn tough to master. As a first-time player of TCG's it took me a couple hours to learn the basics. Fun game.
Avatar Cards:
You can use one avatar per deck, he/she can be customized a variety of ways, allowing you to choose thier defense and attack ratings, and choose the special powers they will start the match with. One feature I particularly enjoy is the fact that when you create and customize an Avatar you can choose to name it however you choose, and the game will only allow one Avatar in the game with that particular name (it authenticates the name as it would when you create a new character in EQ or EQ2). So I am able to create avatars with different skills and abilities, named after favorite RPG characters I've used in EQ/EQ2 and other games like Baldurs gate etc. Quest Cards: Each deck allows you to add 4 quests. Completing the quests will offer certain bonuses and penalties to each player, and can allow you to win the match if you complete enough of them. There are a few ways to win the game, completing quests is only one of these ways.
Ability cards: Most of these allow you to add points towards a quest in order to complete it during play. Many abilitty cards aren't intended for completing quests, and will instead have powerful abilities you can either apply to your own units/cards or use against your opoonent during battle. Unit Cards: These are the cards you use to create armies if you so choose. The second way to win the match is to defeat your opponents Avatar in combat, by raiding him and killing him either with your unit armies, or your own avatar. These cards also allow you to built a strong defense to protect your avatar from raids attempted by your opponent. Item Cards: These cards help add to your defense and attack, and can add to your mana and hit points as well as other things.
Each card features a small bit of lore, about the item or character featured on the card. This is especially interesting for those of us who have played EQ, as cards like Fippy Darkpaw have lore that ties in to his relentless futile attacks on the city of Qeynos. The lore adds a bit of depth and background for first timers in the world of Norrath, and nostalgia for those of us who have been hanging around the world of Norrath for almost a decade.
Some of the characters and items featured on these cards are as follows:
Firiona Vie (the cover art girl for EQ1 and focal point of much of the Lore in the EQ series), Fippy Darkpaw (relentless radiing gnoll in the city of Qeynos)
Nagafen (A big mean red dragon)
Goulbane (A nasty sword popular in EQ)
Flowing Black Silk Sash (an item that speeds up your attacks in EQ, and speeds up your questing in Legends of Norrath).
The list goes on, and thankfully you don't need to know anything at all about these items or characters to fully enjoy your LoN experience, or master the game. Beneath all the Everquest lore and paint is a strategic card game that will take a couple hours for a first time TCG player to learn, and much longer to master. Although there are only a few ways to win or lose the game (Avatar Defeat, Questing, Running out of Time in timed games etc) there are many many ways to accomplish these tasks. You can create Unit-Heavy decks intended to raid and kill, Ability-Heavy decks intended to push through quests as quickly as possible, Item Heavy decks for lots of Avatar bonuses, etc. My personal favorite is a well balanced deck that can do a little bit of everything, since I find decks that are too focussed on one particular style of play to be unpreparred if your opponent happens to have a counter strategy that nullifies your own. There are four archtypes you can play in the game. These are best related to character classes in RPG's. There are Priests (healer protector abilities), Fighters (Attack abilities), Mages (Lots of units and pets) and Scouts. Because of these different archtypes, a Unit Based priest deck is alot different than a Unit based Fighter deck, as an example, because of each Archtypes abilities and availible units.
There are also two factions you can earch in play, good or evil; each of which offer different bonuses on certain cards you play in game. This alone adds a huge layer of complexity to an already complex game, which is great for those gamers who like to work out every last detail in perfecting thier decks. For new players, most of these complexities will be ignored for the first couple dozen games, as most of the bonuses won't make much of a difference until you learn to master thier use in very specific ways.
There is a built in trading feature in the game, that allows you to trade all cards and packs in the game. If you are an existing EQ or EQ2 subscriber you are given a free starter deck as a bonus, and will only need to buy something if you want to trade. But you can buy things as cheap as $1 to enable trading with other players in game permanently, so don't let the cost deter you, there is no subscription fee, and the only costs associated with this game are buying other starter decks (if you dont want to trade for them), Booster Packs: these give you 15 cards, most of them are commons, which aren't as powerful as the harder to find rare and uncommon cards. Each booster comes with a minimum of 1 rare card and 3 uncommon or loot cards. There are also different versions of the same cards, with Foil versions you can also collect to have a spiffy looking shiney deck. the Foil cards offer no extra attributes or powers, but some of them sure look nice. I think the trading feature could be fleshed out a little more, and I have no idea if/when they plan to upgrade it, but it serves it's basic purpose right now, allowing you to put up and find cards for trade. These trades can even happen after you log off since your offered trades are stored on thier servers, if you don't cancel them before you log off. Each match lasts about 15-20 minutes for experienced players, but when I was very new they were lasting about 45 minutes, simply because I wasn't familiear with all the cards and what they did, so I was spending alot of time reading and thinking about what I wanted to do. I've purchased or traded for the starter deck for each archtype, and about 35 booster packs. I am constantly feeling to urge to buy just one more $3 booster pack to help flesh out my deck, but I ussually get a better payoff just trading the pack for a handful of cards I know I want and need to flesh out my decks. Although some players have dumped thousands of dollars into the game, buying hundreds and hundreds of packs, you won't need to do the same thing to be competitive, if you are a strategic minded player, you can do alot with even the most basic of cards if you learn the mechanics of the game. You have the ability to find and trade for rare cards that can be redeemed for Everquest loot, but for those who don't play EQ or EQ2 it would probably be in your best ineterest to trade the loot cards away forbetter LoN cards and improeve your deck. This is a stand alone detailed game, and for those who have no interest in the MMORPGs it is associated with will lose nothing by focusing on this game alone. It is rumored that Sony may put some rare cards in EQ and EQ2 and treasure, but they can always be traded for and received from those people who would rather have a loot item you got out of a booster than a special LoN card.
If you don't play EQ1 or EQ2 the absolute minimum price to play this game would be $9, if you bought a starter deck, but a better option would be to buy one booster pack for $3 and trade it to someone who has an extra starter deck of thier own for trade, as each EQ account comes with a starter deck, and theres no point in opening two of the same Archtype. I would say this is definately a $3 worth looking into if you aren't a subscriber.