It’s a clever inclusion that makes floating mana less of a feels bad moment, as well as opening up additional opportunities for strategic play. And speaking of mana, up to three unspent mana can be banked as “spell mana”, giving you an additional pot to respond to an action with a spell, or perhaps to play a high cost spell early.
The gameplay is designed to be a constant back and forth, and there’s a huge amount of strategy in deciding when to act and when to pass, when to play mana and when to hold it, how to attack and how to block. And even when the attacker chooses which minions will attack, and the defender tries to block, there’s still room for back and forth – the attacker may buff a unit so it doesn’t die, which the defender may respond to by countering the spell.
Each action the attacker takes – playing a unit, for example – then passes back to the defender, who can choose whether to also do something – playing his or her own unit in preparation for the attack, for instance. Of course, a round is more than just attacking and blocking. (No summoning sickness here.) Your opponent, however, can choose which of his or her units to block with. Attacking means just that – you can choose which of your units will attack the enemy Nexus: even units that you’ve just played from hand. In each round, one player attacks and the other defends. “Once you’ve picked your two regions and built a deck, there’s plenty more to distinguish Legends of Runeterra. It also makes sense for their spells to do things like summoning Ephemeral copies of an ally – these units are conjured into existence, then disappear into nothingness shortly after. Its mechanics suit these elements well, with many units that are Elusive (so they can only be blocked by other Elusive units) and able to stun and recall units. Ionia, for instance, is characterised by samurais and ninjas, as well as forest-dwelling bandits and shamanic tribesmen. (So that’s 21 potential combinations in all.) Each region has a very defined set of identities too, both in visual design and gameplay. Or, for that matter, ANY one card with ANY one other card, and that’s because Legends of Runeterra’s cards all belong to one of six regions – Demacia, Freljord, Ionia, Noxus, Piltover & Zaun and Shadow Isles – and decks can be built using cards from any two regions. Not only do champions offer some pretty interesting gameplay possibilities, but you can pair any one champion with any other champion in the same deck.