
You can use that banked mana only to cast spell cards – no units or other types of cards. Every turn, up to 3 unspent mana will be banked into your ‘spell mana’ reserve, which will persist between turns until it is expended. However, LoR has introduced one important innovation that makes mana management much more intricate and skill-based than it is in Hearthstone. This way both players have access to the same amount of mana at every stage of the game. Similar to Hearthstone, in LoR both players start their turn 1 with 1 mana, which refills and grows up to 2 mana on the next turn, then up to 3 on the turn after – and so on. The game’s mana system doesn’t feature ‘land cards’ or ‘energy cards’ that games like Magic and Pokemon use. They feel like actual characters, allowing for players to bond and associate with on a more personal level. This is directly reflected in Zed’s card design as well – he spawns a shadow version of himself when going into combat, which attacks together with him, but dies immediately after striking your opponent.Ĭhampion designs are truly one of the most inspired and original parts of Legends of Runeterra as a card game. For example, Zed is known as a ‘master of shadows’ who is able to magically create the shadow clone of himself on the battlefield. It’s crucial that every champion card’s design is directly inspired by the flavor and the abilities of their respective characters in League of Legends. In addition to that, we’ll cover some other facets of the game – the variety of formats it currently offers, the evolution of the competitive scene, the direction of the development, and more. We will explain its most distinctive gameplay features we will also talk about the economy of the game – so that you could decide for yourself if the game is worth your time investment and fits your gamer habits. This article is your introduction to LoR.

It has a gameplay depth that is comparable to the mainstay of the genre that is Magic: The Gathering, but also has a customer-friendly free-to-play model. Legends of Runeterra was finally released in spring 2020, both on PC and mobile, with the ambition to become one of the best digital card games on the market. Over the last decade, Riot has been quietly working on the card game that would take inspiration from their rich IP.

First released in 2009, it evolved and created a complex and multi-faceted IP with hundreds of recognizable characters that fill up the fantasy world of ‘Runeterra’. It is one of the most popular multiplayer video games worldwide and the biggest Esports title. LoR is the digital collectible card game set in the universe of League of Legends.Īs you’re surely aware, League of Legends is a title that belongs to the MOBA genre.
