Bellatorus is obviously inspired by trading card games (TCGs) like Magic: The Gathering, but it isn't a -trading- card game exactly; you get all the (virtual) cards with the game (and can download more from the developer's site) and edit decks with the provided editing utility--then play out games, either against remote opponents or an AI.
In other words, all the cards are available to you at all times, and you don't have to pay for more.
Unlike Magic, Bellatorus doesn't have land cards. Instead, the three resources in the game (crosses, skulls, and lumber) are produced by three different kinds of workers (priests, liches, and workers). You can hire more worker on any turn (up to 3 of a single type), but of course lose your opportunity to play a card on that turn if you do. In addition, each type of worker requires a building for support (churches, graveyard, or lumber mills)--each supports 5 workers of the same type--and building a new building takes a turn. And you can spend a turn "working" to produce resources. One nice fillip; you can discard a card for a replacement on a turn you spending hiring, building, or working, so if you have no useful card to play right now, you can do something else helpful.
As in Magic, your ultimate objective is to defeat your opponent, in this case by reducing his Tower to zero points. Attacks first do damage to opposing "walls" and then to "towers". Many cards allow you to increase your walls and/or towers; others deliver an attack; others affect your (or your opponent's) strength in terms of workers or constructions or resources.
A nicely rendered 3D screen, depicting your tower and walls and the constructions you own, animates during play, giving visual feedback to the strength of both sides, as well as the strength of their towers and walls; UI is quite intuitive, and a nice tutorial teaches the game quickly and well.
The single-player version is engaging, but in addition, Bellatorus supports both LAN and Internet play.
As it is, we think Bellatorus is a pretty strong game--but after a few plays, there's definitely a feeling that you'd like to have more variety in cards, and possibly a few additional strategic elements to add complexity to play. It does seem like the developer is planning on updating it continuously, and what's there now is certainly a sound structure to build on -- but it isn't yet the game it might become. Worth playing the demo certainly -- and possibly worth buying, both for what it is now, and to invest in the larger game it has the potential become.
Castlewars
There's a simpler (especially graphically) game very similar to this on Kongregate, done in flash, called Castlewars. Towers, walls, three kinds of workers, act through cards.
Microprose's old Magic computer game...
This is still the only way I play Magic. The AI isn't tremendously strong, but it lets you build decks with a wide variety of (admittedly ancient edition) cards, and is a fun puzzle to play with and divert the odd few minutes here and there. It did have networking capabilities to let you play against other computer owners, but I never exercised those so I can't speak to how well that worked.
Towers
I played Magic a lot, and I also played the old Magic game with a friend using the manalink. Works great. If you wanna try, send a message. Magic it's a great game, the only problem is that you have to pay to play... Here in Brazil you have to be rich to play any game like that. But even with a few cards I won a tournament in my city. Now I don't play anymore.
There is, in fact, a lot of games like this one. I believe the first was Arcomage, a minigame in Might and Magic that later became a stand-alone game for pc. Great game. There is also another independent game like that, named OverTower. I didn't knew about Castlewars, but I know a indie game exactly like that, with the same cards, named Ants... The only difference is that Ants is not online.
I think Bellatorus should be 2D, to run in any computer, and because you don't truly need 3D to this kind of game. 2D graphics could look even better. Well, I told that to the designers already, they are from Brazil too. I also made a game like that, using tarot cards... I'm still thinking about making a good card strategy game... Maybe we need to mix more elements, making a multi-genre game. I thought about a card game that mixes tower defense with RPG and tabletop elements... Units that gain levels, for example. There is a game almost like this, named Pox Nora. Well, sorry about chatting so much....