Legends of Runeterra

Legends of Runeterra is played 1v1. Each player begins the match with a hand of four playing cards randomly selected from their card deck, a 20-health-point nexus, and zero mana.[5] Before the match begins, each player also has the option to trade out any of the first four cards they drew for random different ones from their deck.

After this pre-game phase concludes, both players receive a mana gem, one player receives the attack token, and the other receives the defense token. Only the player with the attack token may attack during this round.[6] With some cards the second player can get an attack token as well.[7] After each round, the tokens switch between players, and each player draws a random card from their deck. As the number of rounds increases, so too does the number of mana gems each player receives, up to a maximum of 10.[8] At the end of each round, any unused mana becomes spell mana, up to a maximum of three. This mana can only be used to cast spell cards.[9]

To play cards with an associated mana cost, players must spend a corresponding number of mana gems. Once played, priority passes to the opposite player, who may take an action. If the player has the attack token, they may place their unit cards (Champions and Followers) forward to attack. Once an attack is declared, priority is returned to the defender, who must designate blockers.[10] When attacking, if no opposing card blocks, the card will hit the enemy player's nexus, dealing damage equal to its power stat. If the attacking card is defended against a blocking card, the two cards will clash, dealing their respective damage amounts to one another.[11] When a unit's Health reaches zero, it is destroyed, and no longer exists on the board unless revived or recovered via another effect. Each card also has a health stat. If the damage received is greater than or equal to the health stat of the card, it is destroyed. The objective of the game is to bring the opponent's Nexus to zero health points. Different cards have unique Keywords to facilitate this.[12] For example, a unit with the Elusive keyword can only be blocked by other Elusive units, and an Overwhelm unit deals any excess damage to its blocker to the enemy Nexus.

The Oracle's Eye is a feature usable by hovering over a small eye indicator on the left of a board. It enables players to easily preview the outcome of complicated card interactions, such as in the middle of an attack with several spells queued up.[13]

Riot's employees were fans of collectible card games, and they saw an opportunity to develop one in the League of Legends universe that would fit in with the company's philosophy of "building a game for core gamers who really want to go deep into a genre."[14] Riot brought a group of professional Magic: The Gathering players in to help test out the game before release, at least one of whom would be retained to help design the final game.[14]

The game is an outlier in its genre because it does not require players to purchase so-called "blind decks"; this was partly to let the developers change the metagame as they saw fit without worrying about players losing interest if the deck they heavily invested in became less powerful.[15] Riot's goal was to give each set of cards at least ten viable decks.[15] At one point Riot considered not having packs for players to collect, although testers reacted negatively to this.[14]

Legends of Runeterra was announced by Riot and entered its first preview on October 15, 2019, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of League of Legends.[16][17] The release trailer for the game featured champions Darius and Zed fighting.[18] Eurogamer noted that the timing was unusual, given the position of the genre following the failure of Valve's Artifact as well as the waning audience for Blizzard's Hearthstone.[14] Designer Steve Rubin noted, "There definitely was a moment in development when we were seeing Artifact coming out and we were kind of thinking 'Oh, do we rush it out, or do we not?'"[14] Ultimately, Riot moved forward hoping their game's appeal would transcend the state of the CCG market and attract new players with its more generous business model.[14]

The initial preview lasted until October 20 and was only available to a small pool of players.[19] A second preview gave players access to the game's Expeditions mode from November 14 to 19.[20] The game entered open beta on January 24, 2020.[21]

Legends of Runeterra received positive reviews from critics. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game has a weighted average of 87/100.

Many outlets highlighted that the game was both accessible for newcomers to the genre while preserving its depth. IGN's Cam Shea awarded the game a 9/10, noting that it managed to maintain its complexity while also streamlining elements from other collectible card games, such as Magic: The Gathering.[34] Jason Coles of NME wrote that it "may well be the most accessible card game out there".[35]

Also of note was the game's generous free-to-play business model, especially in relation to other games in the same genre. Giving the game an 85/100, Steven MessnerPC Gamer noted the absence of "booster packs", bundles of cards purchasable with real currency, having been replaced with a generous battle pass system which gives out an abundance of free cards and crafting material every week. Messner also mentioned the ease of achieving the maximum level of the battle pass every week.[36]

• Official website