Just found this game 3 days ago and can not tell you guys how happy i am to finally find a great BALANCED card game online/phone.

1. Big thanks to Kyle for creating this game and all the players that have kept it running for ALMOST 10 YEARS!!!
sidenote "kyle or anybody else please read this, i have a question for you at the bottom of this thread".
2. For the new players to come I have done roughly 10 hours of researching everything on the web for Shadow Era in the last 3 days, played the game like 6 hours each day and this thread should help you with everything currently for 2020.
3. This is to help you AND to keep this game going, so please try to recruit new players as much as you can

After you pick your first starting deck and open 3 packs of cards in your mail for free "and 1 other deck", collect more freebies!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuMxrFddpr0&t=82s

^click on the description in that video, the first link is no longer valid but the other 3 links below it work as of 8/22/20
please take the 20 seconds to read up on memorial Caitlyn0 before you get free card sleeves.
you also get 6 MORE free packs of cards AND 300 CRYSTALS with the other 2 links

With all these free cards and crystals you are ready to play the game. do not spend your crystals and gold yet!
Go to campaign and grind hard for hours w the deck you chose, learn all the heroes and basic cards, gameplay, etc.
After you play for a few hours go open all your free packs of cards. You should get some heroes opening them, think i got 4-5 heroes opening all my free packs of cards. Do NOT even worry about multiplayer mode yet

Here is the fun and tedious part, you already got your first deck of cards from the beginning of the game and kyle gave you another free deck in your mail when you first logged into the game, this is where you check your heroes. theres 52 heroes in the game right now hopefully you have at least 5 heroes now, you want them all down the road. it is very critical you use your crystals for another pre-constructed deck in the merchant store, you need to see what heroes you already have and than go buy a pre-constructed deck.

before we continue, You need to know the best part of this game is there are no "best heroes" and "best cards" in the game,
many of the decks, heroes and cards are all good and well balanced. But you will find some cards and heroes are used more often. Most people say choose boris human warrior in the beginning of the game

You need a good balance of decks and heroes in the beginning, if you already have a human warrior deck, DO NOT use your free 300 crystals on another human fighter deck, buy a human mage or dark mage deck, etc. one of the reasons why you need balance is bc of the daily tasks. after you get done spending your crystals you can go use all your gold and find 99% of all the cards you want in the game and buy with gold.. i will tell you from my extensive research it is very wise to buy these pre-constructed decks w your 300 free crystals-
Praxix shadow elemental
Raikka Spellseeker shadow mage
Elementalis Exalted onslaught
Skervox shadow hunter
Eladwen frostmire tainted magic
jonmaciel on youtube has several videos in the last 5 months to help you create competitive decks that are cheap

^order does not matter, there all good decks. 50% of all those decks in the store are all very good. i see those heroes all the time in multiplayer.. guys really, there all good decks, you need to see what heroes and cards you got from all your free stuff and with a little research find the pre-constructed decks you want first so you can get ready for multiplayer. please take just 1 hour and research the cards in merchant before you spend your 300 crystals

Just know if you drop a little $ on this game, you're helping it stay around and more updates. you DO NOT need to spend money on this game, i really mean that, you will be able to compete without ever spending $1, but it will take you a few months to catch up to players who have played for up to 9 years, they still also have many years of exp on every single card, strategy, etc though.

1. You can spend $5 on a few awesome bundle offers and get 12 packs of cards!!! this will greatly help you. i chose the human warrior starter deck "boris" at the beginning of the game and had the $5 one time offer for that special and it comes with 12 packs!!! i've been told if you have a human mage deck and dark mage deck there are also $5 bundles as well that give you 12 packs, kyle or anybody please update me with what $5 bundles there are what heroes/decks need to be equipped for the offer to be available.

2. If you buy the exclusive bundle for $20 right now, you will be competing at a very high level w all the other guys who have played for years... you get 3000 crystals and all that other good stuff, I highly recommend use 1000 of those crystals on the pre-constructed deck "crystals anthology decks". those 2 legendary heroes COST ALOT OF GOLD in the store, you also get a bunch of others good cards

Alright, im ready to get back to the game, i just wanted to help any new players and decided to take an hour here to help you. lastly, guys some players have played for 9 years, they have seen every card, combo, etc 10,000x. if you play this game for a day or 2 and drop no cash, sooner or later most guys in multiplayer are going to beat you up... bad... i highly recommend you follow all of this, watch 20 guys play their battles in multiplayer and just try to see their cards and strategies. you can click on any battle in multiplayer and watch them, each game takes roughly 5 mins, i have yet to play 1 mutiplayer game bc i have a big ego and do not want to get ripped apart by players w years of EXP. so i'll drop just a little more cash, watch them and in a few days enter the arena and say hello. haha,

Go research the cards you want and how much gold they cost, it is critical you take a hour to research the pre-constructed decks and when you spend your first 300 crystals. some cards you want cost 100 gold in the store, others cost 2000. the most expensive are around 5000 gold, you can get really good cards for 100-500 gold. Watch people play a few battles in multiplayer before you go drop like 3000 gold you earned from campaign mode! Play 25-50 multiplayer battles each month! trust me, you might open your mail every 30 days and get really good packs of cards.

Also big thanks to jonmaciel and Mojorge on youtube!!! you guys and Caitlyn0 are the best "kyle and sirVato are kinda cooool as well".
I posted this bc we really need new players to keep the game around, so please get your friends to play, and bc i felt this was needed for new players for 2020 and beyond. thanks. feel free to ask/comment anything down below.
kyle or anybody please tell me how many $5 bundle offers there are and what heroes need to be equipped. thanks