DUELYST by Counterplay Games Inc. is a free to play one-versus-one TRADING CARD TURN BASED STRATEGY GAME!
What the hell does that even mean?
The elevator pitch is this: What if Hearthstone and Final Fantasy Tactics had a baby? It's a lot more complicated than that, as the game shares MUCH more DNA with Magic; the Gathering on the TCG side, with the sort of unit stats you'd expect from that game or Heathstone deeply informing the turn-based elements.
How's that, exactly?
Despite the fact that opening packs, gaining mana, casting spells, entering the Gauntlet(koffarenakoff), gaining rank, and adopting a Leader-type unit are all influenced by/cribbed from/straight-up yanked out of Hearthstone, the actual gameplay occurs on a 9x5 arena. All minions are cast into this arena and, like your General, move at a speed of 2 vertical/horizontal, 1 diagonal--unless specified in the card's rule language.
That sounds like it has a lot of layers.
You'd be right, voice in my head. Duelyst compounds a wide variety of Rule Archetypes with strategic movement. Analogues in MtG would be Rally, Ingest, or Delve--or for Hearthstone, Divine Shield, Deathrattle, or Charge. Similar to Hearthstone, Mana is gained at a rate of one per turn, unless you move any unit onto one of the THREE! mana crystals on the map for a one-turn extra buck. There are six deck types in Duelyst, each led by a cosmetically unique General, as well as a suite of Neutral cards that can be used in any deck. Each of these types or races is wildly unique from one another while also being much more familiar to MtG players than, say, a Warrior in Hearthstone is. More on that shortly. The long and short of it is: Each turn has an IMMENSE amount of moving parts, including your units, which move! And in some cases, are made of...parts. Let's get right to the real heart of Duelyst: The deck types.
LYONAR
One of the very direct MtG analogues--this is your White deck. Emphasis on healing, creature aggro, and hail mary plays. Features the ZEAL mechanic, which benefits minions near your general. Minion removal will leave your General with little more than delaying tactics.
SONGHAI
The Red deck of Duelyst. Not many of your individual creatures will win games, but wily movement and guile will. BACKSTABBING Songhai units will deal (Bonus Damage) while avoiding counterattacks. Just don't blow your load too fast, or you'll be frowning at pitched comebacks.
Notable for being an army named after an African empire, led by a white ginger who is way, way into Asian culture.
VETRUVIAN
These desert-dwelling robots feature a lot of control cards, artifacts for your general, OBELISK units that spawn temporary minions, and BLAST minions that attack in a mapwide line. Being dispelled is bad news for almost every Vetruvian-centric unit.
ABYSSIAN
Very Black-inspired, with lots of removal, risk-reward, and deception. WRAITHLINGS are plentiful 1/1 creatures to grind, while SHADOW CREEP puts foes on a timer. Just make sure your General can survive that timer--if you get cornered, you're Donezel Washington.
MAGMAR
In addition to being a Pokemon, this is a very Green army. Use buffing spells to get strong as fuck in a world of shit. Break weaker units to clear the way. If some of those units die, they may be REBORN. Get. Huge. Just watch out for un-huging dispells and relocating tech.
VANAR
I don't have a sprite for these guys, and that kind of reflects on their popularity. This is a very strange army that focuses on Structure units to create positioning, as well as VESPYR units that get better the more VESPYRS you summon. I have no fucking idea how to play or beat this. Good luck, players.
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DUELYST features several play modes: TRAINING, which boasts several dozen one-turn trials of wit and truly showcases how insanely busy a single turn of the game can be. RANKED, which encourages the player to ascend a series of metallic ladders. The GAUNTLET, which is a twice-weekly event wherein you choose an army type to draft a 30-card deck for, choosing between 3 cards 30 times. Win until you've won 9 times or lost 3. Gauntlet rewards are currently, shall we say, underwhelming--though they are self-perpetuating as long as you win a couple games. There is also a LAB MODE where you can play your own decks against one another! Yes, finally someone did that! Naturally, you may also play PRIVATE one-versus-one matches.
Now, the dark work: Real money. There's good news, though--if you are a fan of the way Hearthstone handles the route between your credit card and your deck, this works the same way. Booster packs of 5 cards can be purchased for 100 gold, awarded for leveling an army type up to 11 through play, or as a guaranteed consolation prize for Gauntlet buy-ins, which are 150 gold on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Packs can be bought en masse with actual dollars(BEST VALUE), but there is NOT a laundered currency at work. If you put money in, packs come out, and that is the only thing that will come out.
Duelyst is free as hell. You can grab its bite-sized client at: https://duelyst.com/ . It is a frankly GORGEOUS sprite-based game, and warrants a play if only to see its units and spells in motion. My username is MISTERSHWIFTY! Add me, and face robotic justice.