This co-operative deckbuilding game has been around since 2016, and tended to have an annual release schedule for a new starter box. Whilst there are a number of core sets now, the original second edition printing with updated artwork remains a good starting point. The following releases were War Eternal, Legacy which was a customise build your own game over time idea, before moving into more set expedition style stories with New Age (the set i personally own with some expansions) and now Outcasts, where new mages and monsters are added slowly during a light campaign. Pretty much all the editions are compatible, especially the mages and monsters.
You are survivors of an invasion, taking refuge in the underground city of Gravehold, where your mages use magical energy breaches to fight back at the nemesis monsters, using gems as a currency, spells as weapons and relics as supporting items. Each turn you play a hand of five cards, spending aether to gain gems, relics or spells from a central card pool, and also preparing spells in your open breaches ready to cast on future turns. This is a major difference to other deckbuilders where attacks are more instantaneous, rather than delayed to the next round. In addition each round you will shuffle a turn order deck, so you can never be sure when you, your mages and the monsters will activate, which requires you to think ahead a little, but it can also lead to swingy situations.
The key changes are that mages come with alternative starting cards, breach set ups and a special skill they can activate with charges. Alongside this the nameless creatures you fight will come with unique board mechanics and their own deck of cards which fight against you. These creatures are the most interesting area of the game, each adding variety and changes up how you need to play against them. You can also change the available central card pool of gems, spells and relics with each game to add variety.
In the newer expedition modes, such as New Age and Outcasts, contents are introduced on a progressive story basis, making the game a little less daunting from the start and adding some development of your mages and card pools over time. Overall the game has good artwork, a really smooth card play mechanics and is an easy deckbuilder to get into, with set up and reset time shorter than many others. The swiftness of play is great too, with each nemesis creatures providing new and different challenges.
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Expansions
There are a number of expansions you can add to enhance or change the gameplay (my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Core Sets
You can start with any of the six core sets, the original 2nd edition, War Eternal, Legacy, New Age, Outcasts or Legacy of Gravehold. Personally i would simply choose the one with mages and nemesis creatures that you most like the look of, as game contents are interchangeable, and each can act as expansion content for each other. The legacy titles are a little different as you build up your own game over time, and New Age and Outcasts offer an expedition mode where you unlock content as your progress a story.
Expansions
Each core set tends to have its own wave of expansions so there are many available, but any expansion is useable with any core set, The Depths, The Nameless, The Void, Outer Dark, Buried Secrets, The Ancients, Shattered Dreams, Into the Wild, Return to Gravehold, Southern Village. The best addition here may relate to what core set you own, and whether you like new Mages or Nameless the most, but the most cost effective addition is still likely to be additional core sets.
Playmat & Accessories
For those that love the game you can get accessory boxes for each of the core sets, which have set dividers, dice and counters. A neoprene playmat is also available which given there is no board inside the core boxes is quite a nice item.