Ascension has a large random element, made more or less severe by which expansion packs you choose to play with. You can play an effective game with any combination of expansions provided you select at least one non-promo pack. The packs you select will help determine just how much you can blame losing on random chance.

There are certain abilities and types of card that are good in certain situations. But there are very few obvious "win the game" cards that will always be the correct move. What's important is learning what cards are useful at what times, and adapting your play style to the cards that get dealt.

This guide will attempt to give you a better chance at winning. No promises.

At the moment, the game is kind of buggy. Here's a list of things you should do to avoid misery.

Don't click a card to move it when you can drag it. If you're using constructs, or there is an event out, clicking and dragging it where it needs to go will fix the problem.

You have a giant card on your screen, unmoving. Nothing you do helps. To fix this, you have to completely close the program, open it back up, log back in, and go back to your game. Don't worry, it's still there, but if you set the time limit to 10 minutes, well...

There are some cards that for some players will crash the game and leave it in an unresumable state. I know a couple of people for whom Snake Shaman in SoS will do this. If you know a game crashes when a certain card is played, either banish it or disable the pack.

Some card abilities are better than others. Most of the four elements of cards (Mechana, Enlightened, Void, and Lifebound) each tend to have specific abilities that they sometimes do not share with other elements. And there are cards with unique or semi-unique abilities that are extremely powerful. We're not going to discuss every single card and every single ability; that would be boring for you and boring for me. Let's talk about useful card types that make decks succeed.

Drawing cards is good. You start by drawing 5 cards a turn. Unless you're really lucky, that's not enough to get "the good stuff." You can get cards that give you some benefit and then let you draw a card, and these are almost universally good to have. A nice little bonus in your hand that you weren't expecting. All elements have cards that let you draw one card.

But the real power comes in cards that let you draw two or more. Those are almost universally Enlightened type. You want those. Get those. The honor value is reasonable and the effects are very much worth it. Washers (thanks DohItAgain for the name) are Drawers that require you to discard one or more cards before or after drawing. Think Hectic Scribe, Elder Skeptic, Temple Librarian, and others. These tend to be a little less costly than multi-card drawers, but they can help you replace a bad hand with a better hand. Never stop getting drawers. There's nothing more satisfying than a 30+ card turn. And on that note, don't play games with 10 minute time limits.

Defeating some monsters also enables you to draw cards. Go for these. Sometimes they can help you to get enough runes to afford something nice.

Most of the cards that allow you to banish a card in your hand or in your discard pile will be Void type. Sometimes they will give you a bonus for doing this, sometimes not. But banishers are extremely important. Your deck begins with 8 apprentices and 2 militia. These are worth 0 honor and 1 of their respective resource. These are terrible. And each time you draw one, that's one less card you could be doing something really useful with. You will want at least one banisher card. Two is better. More than that is... interesting. It can lead to some really lean decks which cycle through very quickly and allow you to play your good cards over and over, but if you overdo it you might have some issues later on. Get a few of these.

The Enlightened counterparts to Banishers are cards that allow you to trade-in (banish) a card in your hand for a better card, sometimes immediately to your hand. Who needs to get rid of apprentices and militia when you can just upgrade them? Some of the more advanced cards of this type (of middling cost) go completely overboard and let you upgrade to things other than mystics and heavy infantry, letting you banish cards for cards of up to one or two honor value higher. That's honor value, not rune cost! Those cards are usually very good; sometimes hard to use if you have a bad deal.

RoV and DU sets only!
Energy is one of my favorite mechanics. Everyone starts with a shard in their decks. Over the course of the game, you can get cards that provide energy and additional shards. See those red and green circles on a card in the center? That's treasure, that's shards. Get those. Even a bad card may be worthwhile if it has a bunch of treasure on it.

Energy is used by certain heroes to gain additional effects or permanent transformations. Energy is used by constructs for certain effects. And if you meet the energize conditions of certain monsters, the rewards for defeating them are greater.

Play your energy first, THEN use or get whatever cards involve them. Not the other way around.

Energy is only present in two packs; if you are playing a game with 6 or more packs, building a deck around energy abilities is a bit more risky.

Unfortunately it looks like energy is no longer a mechanic in Realms Unraveled.

RoV and DU and RU sets only!
Transform cards are great. They often start very mediocre, but if you have enough energy you can make some extremely good cards with them. Often, they don't cost much at all, and become serious game winning cards.

IH only!
Soul gems are cool. You basically get to draw from a random pre-constructed deck, with copies of existing cards in it, which, ostensibly, are heroes who have previously died for plot reasons. Whatever. These are random, and can be a nice bonus, but can also be a colossal waste of time. It's a gamble. The standard "draw a soul gem" card costs 4 runes. That's a little steep for a random effect. There are some effects which let you draw more, which can be put to incredible use, if you're lucky.

Soul gems are a cool idea that just sort of fizzled out.

What's better than paying a bunch of runes and power for a card you want? How about getting that card for free. There's a series of cards for instantly defeating monsters (mostly Enlightened) and a series for instantly acquiring heroes and constructs (mostly Lifebound), most of which have maximums stated on the card. The higher the cost of the card, the higher the maximum, generally. The lower cost rune ones of these tend to be okay at filling your deck up with somewhat okay cards. The lower cost power ones of these tend to be less okay, as monsters of 3 and 4 power aren't always available and you find yourself killing cultists, a waste. The higher cost ones of each are super-great and you should always get them right away.

This is a cool mechanic that Realms Unraveled has actually expanded to include types other than Lifebound. But the first 6 packs only have Unite on Lifebound. Basically, when you play at least two Lifebound heroes a turn, you get all of the unite effects on them, once per turn. Realms Unraveled has Multi-Unite, which allows multiple executions of the same effect, and those are probably some dang good cards.

Unite abilities may seem cool, giving you energy or honor or additional cards, but unless you have enough Lifebound heroes in your deck they can be a bit of a waste, especially the ones with low Rune gain.

Like I said earlier, there's a heavy random element in this game. There will be times that you will want these cards. Don't blame me if you lose because you didn't use them! I'm just telling it like it usually is, but I can't teach you how to think.

Banish cards in the center row. Generally only done for spite, if you want to keep a certain card out of your opponents' hands. Cards that do this and enable you to draw other cards, sure, why not. Do they give you a decent amount of runes or power? Okay then. Essential at keeping good cards away from your opponents, and good for saving for the end of the turn. After you get all the cards you want, go ahead and destroy everything else good that your opponent might get.

I'm not going to lie, having an extra turn is cool and all, but you could draw a mediocre hand. And you spent at least 5-6 runes for the possibility of an extra hand in the future, and for what? You could draw a lousy hand. Generally not worth it, but if you get it, great, use it. Still works at the end of the game.

If you see any of these cards, drop what you're doing and grab them. Now.

Nairi: 5 honor a turn. Grab it early and your opponents cannot win.
Master Dhartha: The draw 3 cards card. Get it. Get it early.
Oziah, any version: Defeats monsters. Peerless is good, Logos is unfathomably good. Logos has a pricetag of 9 honor so getting it might be tricky.
Cetra, any version: The hero counterpart to Oziah. Extremely good.
Hedron Cannon, Muramasa: Early enough in the game, 3 power every turn is extremely good to have.

Constructs have incredibly varied abilities.Most replicate abilities you've seen on other cards. If those are good abilities, get them. Some of the effects are incredibly niche and only apply to other Mechana constructs. In fact, those get their own section.

Constructs are great because they count towards your honor total and once you play them, they usually don't cycle back into your deck, leaving room for other cards. It can be difficult to defeat or acquire cards you want if you wound up placing 2 constructs this turn, but the benefits usually offset the costs.

Mechana constructs are usually a 1 rune for 1 honor deal. That means the card that cost you 7 runes is likely worth 7 honor. Wow. That's actually very good. Most cards will give you between a third and a half cost in honor. And there are a lot of these with some very cool effects, but they often require you to possess numerous Mechana constructs or have high costs. If you can play a whole lot of Mechana constructs, you're doing well. But if you only have one, and it only affects other Mechana constructs, it generally isn't worth it.

If you intentionally play with only one or two game packs, you're going to see a lot more Mechana constructs than in a larger deck, and you can really make this strategy work a lot better. If you see someone starting a non-base game with only two packs on, they might be very construct-minded.

Worth less honor, but some of them are extremely good. Anything that gives you free runes or power every turn is worthwhile. Even without monsters in the center, every 2 power is a free cultist kill. With these, you don't need to focus as much as amassing as many as you can get, but can just get what's useful when it's available. With Mechana constructs, you really need to focus on amassing them.

There are quite a few of these. Most of them will only give you one rune or power, so whatever ability they also come with needs to make up for that, because otherwise they aren't pulling their weight. Honor is nice, but that's generally not enough to make up for the lack in purchasing power.

If they banish, great. If they have an almost guaranteed extra rune or power, sure. But otherwise, skip it, they'll just mess up your deck.

You start the game with 8 apprentices and 2 militia. That's terrible! You need to get some runes and fast. I said runes, not power. If you have 2 runes left over after you've done everything you want to do, sure, get some heavy infantry. Don't be skittish to get some of those.

Banish these clowns as soon as you can, militia first if possible. There are going to be times where your discard pile will be empty and/or you can only banish a card in your hand. Take a deep breath, count up if you have any runes or power that count as an extra for what you want, and if so, don't hesitate, banish.

You need to pick up some mystics, or at least cards on the board that give 2 runes. You might be tempted to pick up a lot of heavy infantry or some cards with only one rune or power that don't let you draw another card. I completely understand; sometimes I am tempted to eat crayons. I know where you're coming from. But try to resist. The sooner you build up a decent amount of runes, the better off you will be.

Get a banisher or two, pick up some drawers, and if a high cost rune card comes up, consider stocking mystics for it. Or center banish it and save everyone some grief.

Some people say there is such a thing as too many mystics. Oh, woe is you, having 10 mana in your hand, buying the best cards in the game. How tragic. Well, I only tend to get mystics if it's free or if there's nothing better I want. But I'll never pass on a free mystic or heavy infantry.

For some reason Playdek decided to omit all the plot from the in-game manuals. Booo. Well, here's a brief synopsis of each pack:

Chronicle of the Godslayer
Samael is evil. You have to kill his forces. You do this by fighting everyone else and even though you might have killed Samael on turn 3 if you had an incredibly lucky hand, you still spend all your time fighting everyone else. Good for you, Aaron. (The Godslayer. He gets his own card later.)

Return of the Fallen
Apparently, coming back from the dead is as easy as telling th Gatekeeper god in charge of the dead, Kythis, to quit. Wow. Also, actual appearance of Samael card. Kill him on turn 3 to enrage all other players.

Storm of Souls
Apparently not having an active Gatekeeper of the dead type god has a negative impact on a world. Has event cards, which are too infrequent and unpredictable to be relied upon in any way.

Immortal Heroes
Alright Kythis, it was bad enough that you're a quitter, but now you're just being an evil jerk. Kill him too. Also, Soul Gems and more events!

Rise of Vigil
Good news everyone! Energy shards are raining down from the heavens! Isn't that nice?

Darkness Unleashed
Nope, that's not nice, those are the shattered remnants of the prison of Erabus, son of Samael and Nyx. Cool, great. But you get more energy items. Which is nice.

Realms Unraveled
Remember Adayu, the guy with the really powerful Enlightened cards? No? Well he's going crazy. Thanks. Enjoy your Multi-Unite and dual element cards.

And now we know why they omitted the plot.