Skytear Horde: Monoliths playthrough and review (review copy provided)

About Skytear Horde: Monoliths, from BoardGameGeek:

Skytear Horde: Monoliths is stand-alone expansion to Skytear Horde, the lane-based card battler in which one or two players fight against the horde of monsters controlled by the game. Players say Skytear Horde gives them the feeling of playing a solo or cooperative version of competitive card battlers such as Keyforge, Hearthstone, or Magic: the Gathering. In the six lanes of the battlefield monsters attack your castle while beyond the enemy line smaller minions pillage your resources, forcing you to discard cards from your deck each turn. You lose the battle if your castle is destroyed or your deck runs out of cards. You win if you destroy the portal spawning the monsters and the epic monster leading the horde. There are many interesting choices on the tactical and strategic level: strike a balance between defending and counter-attacking but also fighting the minions pillaging your deck and the monsters destroying your castle. While you juggle all these decisions you also have to be careful not to run out of cards, as the principal way to draw new cards is to destroy monsters! Skytear Horde is really quick to setup, play, and store away. There are 3 difficulty levels suitable for complete beginners and veterans alike. In just a few seconds you can restart a new game giving it a strong “just one more try” aspect. Out of the retail box there are 3 ready-made alliance decks with different play styles and 3 horde decks with their own boss. All decks can be mixed and customized to provide additional combinations. Monoliths features a revised rulebook and streamlined gameplay that improves upon the original thanks to the direct interaction between the designers and thousands of players. In Monoliths there are many new themes and mechanics refreshing the game on all the fronts. For the horde, the "Charge" keyword brings the minion into the lanes for one turn threatening your castle while "Reinforce X" makes the weaker minions stronger. The 4 new hordes also features unique strategies and play-styles: for instance the Sinklings conceal themselves entering play face-down, while the Broods will fill the backline with Brood tokens that are essentially additional minions! For the alliance, not even contemplating the four new pre-made decks, one fundamental change is that you must exhaust an ally in order to move it, giving even more meaning and depth to the positioning of your allies. Cards are also designed with more potential combo's than ever, allowing for the power level to reach higher ceiling... something that you absolutely need given the brand new difficulty system that is designed around 3 variations of every single horde card, at 3 different power levels. -description from publisher