Elder Scrolls - Legends (Card Game)

The folks at Bethesda/Direwolf Digital finally started spilling the beans on their Digital Card Game offering, Elder Scrolls: Legends.

The Elder Scrolls Legends

Being designed by a couple Magic the Gathering pros, so should be interesting to see how it works out. Doesn't look particularly paradigm-shifting. Only reason it was on my radar initially was Luis Scott-Vargas on design.

-Board is divided into two lanes, with shifting "terrain" modifier to each lane that changes how cards play in that lane (and you can play cards that change/set a lane's Terrain). Creature can attack other creatures in their lane, but not in the other lane; most AOE seems restricted to one lane.
-Game has 5 colors like Magic, but no colored mana; Hearthstone-style turn-by-turn mana progression. Decks are restricted to using 2 colors.
-Game has a solo campaign that rewards cards, or purchasing Booster Packs. Common/Uncommon cards can "level up" in rarity/strength through play. Same rarity system as Hearthstone, including 1/deck Legendaries.
-In the solo campaign, you choose a race/class and that biases what reward cards you get.
-Game also has Arena as a straight rip-off of Hearthstone, choose race+class, then pick cards from sets of 3 until you have a 30 card deck.
-Game has weeaboo-fightan-CCG-style Life-break system. As you lose life and drop below certain life thresholds, your "runes" blow up and you draw cards; it's a system for getting back into a game you are losing. Various cards care about runes breaking, or the # of runes you or your opponent have left. You start at 30 life and 6 runes, with the runes breaking as you dip below their 5-life-increment thresholds. Some cards have the "Prophecy" keyword, and if you draw them off a Rune Break you get to immediately play them for free... but they mostly seem like shit outside of being cast that way, so are likely a non-factor.
-It's a creature combat game, with spells and equipment. Hearthstone style creature combat, with non-recovering creature health and the ability to directly attack your opponent's critters.
-Some cards have a cost in the lower right hand corner you can pay to transform them into stronger cards. Should be a nice mechanic for converting early game cards into mid or late game cards. The base versions of these cards seem weaker than similarly costed cards, as a cost for the flexibility.
-Potions and other Consumeables go to your "support area" and you can click them to get effects. These cards have Charges that are expended as you use them.
-Current card layout is ugly as shit and looks like something a 13-year-old drew in their notebook in 1998.
-Beta begins tonight, and they'll be taking in waves over the weekend as they do their reveal at PAX.

Playing since wave 1 of invites, it's a pretty solid game. Don't see it ever eclipsing something like hearthstone, though. It has enough cards that you feel like there's always something out there that you want, but is generous enough with cards that you don't feel like it's something you *lack*. Most effects are found at various efficiency-levels on different cards, so you can generally find a good enough bit of filler to plug the hole until you get what you want.

The AI Arena can be a bit bullshit sometimes. Like, games you just lose because your draft deck was never offered a "deal 1-2 damage to everything in a lane" card and their randomly decided starting-bonus rogered you. Then you'll have AI arenas where you win without any even remote chance of losing, because the random bonus effects are on decks you're well matched against, instead of something your draft deck was already on the bad foot against.