I picked it up when it first came out, and have been playing in a campaign for several months now.
I absolutely love the mechanics but am more neutral about the bits.
There's no reason you need to use cards to focus all of the actions and resources, but I will say that with the recharge mechanic built into the game it does make them mighty useful.
The thing I like most about the system comes from the fact that we have an extremely descriptive and off-the-cuff GM. When you make a check (which he has been doing with full "let it ride" type mechanics) you have a story as to how and why you succeeded or failed at the check. As a result, we do fewer die rolls but they matter more.
As far as combat goes, it is tactical based on resources you have at your disposal. You can dodge or parry an attack, but doing so has a recharge mechanism (which the cards make lightning fast to resolve) so you have to decide when to use them. You also have powers (in sort of the 4E sense) but they are both combat and non-combat in nature.
I think the system runs very well, but then I can see it is definitely not something that a rules lawyer player should be let loose on. There is a fair bit of GM discretion as to how some of the powers are applied, and that is not necessarily a good thing for all groups.
For a session log (complete with pictures) take a look
here.