Anatomy of TES cards

Magicka (cost) is the most important resource in the game. If you want to play a card, your current Magicka should not be less than the Magicka cost of the card. You start with 1 max Magicka and every single turn it increases by 1. There are also some cards which can increase your max Magicka when you play them and cards which can get the bonus effect if your max Magicka is equal or more than current value.

Unique – in ranked mode your deck should have at least 50 cards. You can put max 3 copy of one card. But there are some unique cards which you can put in your deck only for one copy. All those cards have the distinction –  indicator at the top. On Arena theoretically you can get more than 1 copy.

Name – every card has its own name . Not an important parameter.

Card type/Creature type – important parameter when you want to create a good deck. There are 4 card types  – Creature, Action, Support and Item. Support can have some uses to give your creatures buffs (standard – 3) or be “Ongoing” and have passive buffs all time before your opponent  destroys this Support. You can use Action to deal the current effect on your board. You can use Item to do your creature more stronger, to give it buffs or debuff opponent creatures. There are a lot of individual types of creatures (Wood Elves, Imperial, Skeletons etc) and they can have internal synergy.

Power – this index shows how much damage the creature deals.

Health – until this index is more than zero, the creature continues to be active on the board.

Text box – if the card have individual effects, you can see all of them there. After you play Action this effect usually works instantly (after Summon), when you play Creature, Item or Support it can have the Ongoing effect, Last Gasp effect or some synergy.

Rarity – this color icon shows the rarity of card (CommonRareEpicLegendary).

Keywords

Keywords are one of the most important things which determinate the power of the card, its purpose and playability. Some cards can have one or more keywords, they also can not have at least one keyword. There are seven basic keywords (Breakthrough, Charge, Drain, Guard,  Lethal, Regenerate and Ward), three unique keywords with different effects (Last Gasp, Summon, Pilfer), keywords that influence the board (Shackle and Silence) and the most unique keyword Prophecy.   

  1. Breakthrough – excess damage deals to your opponent when you attack your opponents creature. For example if the power of your card during the attack is more than health of opponent’s creature, difference damage deals to your opponent. Not the best keyword even for creatures with charge.
  2. Charge – the creature with charge can attack this turn. Good for trades or like a finisher because without charge your minion must stand on the board  at least for the next turn.
  3. Drain – give you as much health as your creature deals at the same turn. Good keyword for control decks because of opportunity to heal yourself when your opponent potentially has lethal damage on his board.
  4. Guard – your opponent can’t attack other creatures or give damage to your hero   before you have creatures with guard. Not the best keyword but against aggressive decks is good enough
  5. Last gasp – activate the unique ability of the card when this card dies. Good keyword but vulnerable for silence. To trade with some cards with last gasp sometimes you need more than one card.
  6. Lethal – when the creature with this keyword attacks opponents creature, the opponent’s creature will die regardless of its health. Sometimes it helps to cope with strong legendary guards.
  7. Pilfer  – every time when your creature attacks your opponent, this creature will give unique bonus effect for the full time. Good enough but hard to play more than once
  8. Prophecy – when your opponent destroys your rune and you draw a card with this keyword, you will play it at your opponent’s turn for free. Sometimes prophecy breaks the result of the game.
  9. Regenerate – the next turn the creature with this keyword will have the full health. Bad keyword because in most cases it can`t change the result of the game.
  10. Shackle – the shackled opponent’s creature cannot attack next turn. Sometimes it gives you time to change something in the game especially after mass shacke.
  11. Silence – one of the best keywords. All bonus effect of opponent’s creatures  or your card debuffs after silence are gone.
  12. Summon  – it activates after you are playing the card with this keyword. Every card has unique effects and can be good or sometimes bad. Sometimes the summon effect activates after triggering last gasp.
  13. Ward – very powerful keyword which defenses your creature from one opponent’s attack. The next attack after losing a ward can give damage to your creature.
  14. Slay – if your creature with this keyword destroy opponent’s one on your turn the bonus of keyword Slay will be activated.

Also we can determine keywords like Transform, Heal, Move and Wounded.