Legends of Runeterra, an upcoming free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Riot Games is currently holding an open beta for the game, so I decided to check the game out to see if this DCCG holds up!
Legends of Runeterra takes place within the League of Legends universe and features notables characters from across its expansive lore. The premise of the game is as follows: players take turns to attack and defend during Legends of Runeterra’s round-based combat. At the beginning of each round, you’ll begin to prep up strategies for each round, bolstering offenses, defenses, and magic spells.
During opening rounds, combat is fairly simple at first, with low-stakes skirmishes between low tier cards ending in deaths. However, as the game continuously progresses, you’ll start to unlock extra mana crystals that let you summon more powerful units and spell cars, the most powerful of them all being Champions, usually based on popular League of Legends characters. I’m sure fans of the MOBA will recognize them with ease.
One thing that sets this game apart when it comes to the mana consumption is the ability to save up any unused mana to up to three stocks and carry them into the next round, further adding to the depth of strategies you can come up with.
The synergy between Champions and their minions is honestly the core feature that sets Legends of Runeterra’s deckbuilding apart from other DCCG’s. Each deck consists of 40 cards and is composed of either one or two of the game’s six regions. To be frank, the best decks usually have two regions attributed to them.
On top of that, each deck can feature up to six Champions. The range of strategies that players can come up with is really deep. Oh, and before I forget, each champion has a unique condition that lets them level up, becoming an even more powerful version.
Aside, from that, I liked the overall presentation of the game, from the special animation that some cards have, to the funny and unique dialogues you’ll hear as you play the game. From my experience, getting cards seem to be rather fair but it’s too early to say for sure as this is an open beta, after all, things can change. Overall, I’ve enjoyed my time with the game so far and will continue to play the game to see how it evolves.
