I just got to play with the cards, and wanted to post a quick review as well.
Not having a card deck won't make a lick of difference in the power level of a character, especially when there is an imposed rule such as no duplicates in a deck. They are very situationally useful. If "fortune" has it, they might come into play. The tactics cards are probably the most interesting ones, as they let you do something you might not have been able to do otherwise, but as situational as they are, and adding the fact that you have no idea when they will show up in your hand, I found I almost always had something better to do than the action on the card. At higher levels, this will become even more pronounced. I don't have move actions to waste on some random card.
I'll admit, there are some interesting cards that will occasionally come in handy, but the frequency with which that happens is going to be inconsequential. It will almost never make the difference between defeating or losing an encounter.
Is it fun? Maybe. As I mentioned it lets you do something you may not have been able to do otherwise, and some will consider that to be fun. For me, everything on my character sheet is already fun enough. I don't particularly feel a need for more. In 3 encounter, I saw a card or two do something cool. And an optimized deck might do more. But this is not to say the player wouldn't have been able to do something cool anyway with a different action.
I also didn't like that it slows down the beginning of your turn as you spend a few seconds deciding whether you want to ditch the card in your hand or not, and reading the new card you draw. I think I would have been happier with a mechanic where you draw two keep one at the beginning of the encounter, and that's what you have for that encounter. You can use it if the opportunity presents itself, or hang onto it for the next encounter, at which point you decide whether to discard it and draw a new one or not. This would make it more like a new encounter power each encounter, and it just might be handy.
The whole rare/uncommon/common thing doesn't really bother me too much, rarity doesn't affect game play, it's just a matter of marketing. I'd much rather they sell a deck of 80 unique cards for $40 so I knew what I was getting. But I guess $4 for 8 random cards with differing frequency makes a lot more money for them.
Since I got some free cards, I'll probably go buy the 3 more packs to have a deck of 60, so I can provide a table deck for our LFR group. We'll play with them a bit, and I'll see if my opinion changes. But currently I'm somewhat annoyed with the draw/use mechanics, and find the cards a bit pointless.
Rereading what I wrote, it sounds more negative than I intended it to be, but just trying to keep it honest.
Not having a card deck won't make a lick of difference in the power level of a character, especially when there is an imposed rule such as no duplicates in a deck. They are very situationally useful. If "fortune" has it, they might come into play. The tactics cards are probably the most interesting ones, as they let you do something you might not have been able to do otherwise, but as situational as they are, and adding the fact that you have no idea when they will show up in your hand, I found I almost always had something better to do than the action on the card. At higher levels, this will become even more pronounced. I don't have move actions to waste on some random card.
I'll admit, there are some interesting cards that will occasionally come in handy, but the frequency with which that happens is going to be inconsequential. It will almost never make the difference between defeating or losing an encounter.
Is it fun? Maybe. As I mentioned it lets you do something you may not have been able to do otherwise, and some will consider that to be fun. For me, everything on my character sheet is already fun enough. I don't particularly feel a need for more. In 3 encounter, I saw a card or two do something cool. And an optimized deck might do more. But this is not to say the player wouldn't have been able to do something cool anyway with a different action.
I also didn't like that it slows down the beginning of your turn as you spend a few seconds deciding whether you want to ditch the card in your hand or not, and reading the new card you draw. I think I would have been happier with a mechanic where you draw two keep one at the beginning of the encounter, and that's what you have for that encounter. You can use it if the opportunity presents itself, or hang onto it for the next encounter, at which point you decide whether to discard it and draw a new one or not. This would make it more like a new encounter power each encounter, and it just might be handy.
The whole rare/uncommon/common thing doesn't really bother me too much, rarity doesn't affect game play, it's just a matter of marketing. I'd much rather they sell a deck of 80 unique cards for $40 so I knew what I was getting. But I guess $4 for 8 random cards with differing frequency makes a lot more money for them.
Since I got some free cards, I'll probably go buy the 3 more packs to have a deck of 60, so I can provide a table deck for our LFR group. We'll play with them a bit, and I'll see if my opinion changes. But currently I'm somewhat annoyed with the draw/use mechanics, and find the cards a bit pointless.
Rereading what I wrote, it sounds more negative than I intended it to be, but just trying to keep it honest.
