Each game starts by choosing a single Phantom to build your deck around. Each Phantom comes with a set of Gift cards completely unique to them, representing their personality and play style. You then choose a set of Skill cards - your Phantom's area of expertise or school of magic - and finally a set of Weapon cards.

Each set you choose contains 9 cards unique to that set, of which you may choose any 4. These 4 Gift, 4 Skill, and 4 Weapon cards are added to a set of 13 Basic cards to build a completely unique Phantom, tailored to you.

Below is just a taste of what Arena of Shadows has to offer.

Hidden within a facade of pale beauty lies a creature from the depths of the Void, lured to the world by a desperate people. What was supposed to be a prison is now a conduit, allowing the hate and hunger to manifest in physical form. Nothing can resist the cold majesty and dark power coming through; as strong and unyielding as the stone that surrounds it.

The Lord of Bones was once the feared enforcer to a long forgotten king, the embodiment of a cruel justice. Refusing to yield even to Death, his armor has become a living reliquary for a seething malevolence, sustained by the bones of those he defeats. A permeating dread heralds him, implacable and inevitable.

What is immortality worth when all of your toys are dead? The Lady of Gristle is the pinnacle of evolution, an apex predator who now rules over a land devoid of prey. Can Phantoms bleed? Might she find an even more delectable ichor coursing through what is left of their veins? Or perhaps she will find her own release from the unending night.

Nothing remains of the First Kingdom, any ruins long since ground to dust by wind and time. And yet its ruler refuses to pass into legend alongside it, a terrible revenant walking the edges of memory. As the world consumes itself, he has decided it is time to remind the bickering children what came before them and to reassert his dominion over all.

Control time itself, rewinding opponent’s actions or peering into the future to see what they’ll play.

Cast global effects that stifle opponents and disrupt their carefully made plans.

It’s all about the numbers. Manipulate your deck to get the ones you need or lock down your enemies from playing their favorites.

Become one with the shadows and laugh as your enemies’s attacks pass through you, or turn off the lights and make them fight blind.

Control the battlefield with your superior tactics, prepared to turn any encounter to your advantage.

Why wait to draw the perfect cards when you can simply make them? Manipulate cards to be whatever you need them to be.

Get real close to your opponents and real stabby. The Bleed ability ensures it will be extra painful.

Make sure to point out how much more sophisticated you are as you stand at a safe distance and nuke the arena. The Smite ability exchanges mobility for AOE.

A weapon for the more refined Phantom, the Precise ability allows you to wound with finesse and aim for their weak points.

Hold the pointy end towards the enemy. The Brace ability lets you punish those that charge in for the fools they are.

Stay nice and safe behind your trusty sword and board. The Defend ability makes every block do double duty, mitigating damage as well.

The subtle art of turning Phantoms to pulp inside their armor. The Crush ability destroys armor and whatever it contained.