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Thoughts from an 11-Year Dedicated MtG Player: It's just a legitimately good game.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying my 11 years of MtG makes me any more of a qualified person speaking on the quality of a card game, just giving out my thoughts with the context of my game history.

Legends of Runeterra feels like the first card game in a long time that plays like a natural bridge between the intuitive back-and-forth nature of playing in person and all the access to mechanics that you get from a digital game. Other card games like Runescape Legends and Gwent both adopted interesting ways to approach the latter, but gave up on the former. Games like Hex, Eternal, and then finally Magic Arena tried to bring Magic over into the accessible (MODO, no one likes you) digital world but it just feels stilted and slow because of all the shorthand play that happens in real life. LoR has this interesting inbetween by adopting the IGOUGO consecutive turn system from older RPG games like L5R. It allows for interactivity but also quickly paced actions that don't seem clunky.

If you look at my post history, I love the design aspect of card games. Its how Magic has kept me so tied down for over a decade. I truly believe that no other card game has gotten close to the elegance of Magic cards, whether that be through inherent design (the MtG comprehensive rules being one of the Seven Wonders of the Board Game World) or through Wizard of the Coast's extremely talented designers, like Mark Rosewater. Most digital card games hamstrung themselves by limiting their design space with the former. Hearthstone is a perfect example of this. I played Hearthstone religiously for 2 years and then just quit because I knew that it was never going to become more interesting or complex than it was when I started playing. A lack of intra-turn interaction, limitations of targeting, and one movement philosophy (swipe to play, swipe to attack, minimize amount of clicks) makes the design space extremely limited. LoR leaps over dozens of card games and slams blitz and 'the stack' right onto us, putting itself right next to Magic in terms of the layer of possible complexity. Add on mechanics that only work well on digital like support, deck modifying effects, spell generation, and more; well that's just exciting.

So what am I trying to say beyond just glowing praise? This game isn't just a cash grab. I can tell, objectively, from the way the game was designed from the ground up that the developers saw potential in what they were creating and gave themselves plenty of room for more. I have plenty of complaints (personally don't care for the League of Legends IP, the UI being obtuse with steps, creatures being rectangles) but the core game is solid. This isn't just another post-Hearthstone card game. It's legitimately good. If the developers keep their ears to the community and make clear the reasoning behind any future choices, this could be something special.

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