I stumbled upon this little game while browsing the web. Nothing new here as nearly every time I enter a site I`m met with banners containing words such as "free game" and "free MMO". This time, however, one banner in particular attracted my attention. Since I rarely see banners containing the words "Magic: The Gathering", I thought to myself: "Hmm, a free online game that resembles MTG? I have to see this!"

After a quick tour of the site, I decided to download the game and see what it was all about. At the time, the game was just a java application that you could play in your browser. So, after a quick download, I was set. As it was downloading, I checked the tutorial, so I didn`t act like a total retard upon entering the game.

After losing the first few games, I finally understood the game mechanics and began to enjoy it. Let me explain. You have eight factions to choose from. These factions are, in fact, decks of cards. Your deck contains creatures you can summon on the battlefield, which are called champions, relics (artifacts you can place on your creatures) and "spell" cards. The spell cards can either be a direct damage card, a DOT card (damage over time), AOE (area of effect) spell or special ones that can really change the course of the game if used properly.

Once you start the game, you will log in and be taken to a room where you can practice. Your victories and losses don`t matter here, so this is mainly for deciding what your deck is going to look like, and testing it. After joining a game and starting it (assuming that the game creator knows how to start it...) you will be taken to the combat map.

Don`t let the graphics deter you from the pleasure of playing. While simple, resembling Age of Wonders and other games from those times, it is exactly what you need to understand what is going on without looking at special effects. The summoned champions don`t look extraordinary, but the graphics on the cards look pretty. The combat in MTG revolved around playing the right card at the right time. Summoning lands at first, using the mana they provide to summon creatures, cast spells and so on.

Here, instead of lands that provide mana, we have mana shrines that provide "nora". Nora is the only resource you will need in this game, and it will be used for everything. To capture a shrine you have to bring a champion within 3 squares of it, and it will be yours at the end of the turn. If both you and your enemy have a champion in the proximity of the shrine, then it will not provide nora to either of you.

You will have to eliminate the champion before the shrine can be yours. Beware of leaving your shrines unprotected, as a flying unit can quickly come and capture a shrine, changing the course of the game. You can summon units at your citadel, or at your shrines which are generally closer to the enemy. Units with high speed, and especially initiative (which means they can move as soon as they are summoned) can capture a shrine on the second turn, and summon champions there before the enemy can even reach it, having an important advantage.

Capturing and holding the shrines is the key to victory. Losing your citadel means defeat. The champions that you summon have a certain number of AP (action points) which determines what they can do during a turn. Moving costs 1 AP per square, while attacking or using abilities can cost more. While attacking the first time only costs 3 AP, the next attack will cost 5 AP and most units don`t have 8 AP to use for attacking. If you don`t move a unit, it will gather AP and be able to use them on the next turn.

Moving a champion next to a unit will cause it to become engaged. While engaged, most range units will be unable to attack at such short range, so they will have to spend 2AP to disengage. You can use this to your advantage and slow attacking units down, with low nora cost units that will engage them while your range units rip them apart.