From the dev, read this first: First of all thanks for playing :) sorry about the tutorial. Jam week brain, plus the trap where the person who built the thing in a week forgets nobody else has been staring at it that whole week. Two known bugs first, hair and the top of the head clip on some characters, and audio can overlap. Both get fixed after ratings close.
A clearer explanation than the one in the game:
There are 5 kinds of creature. Each kind hard counters one other kind and soft counters a second. The chart on the back wall is the whole system, each row is a kind, then two colour coded symbols, the first is what it beats hard, the second what it only edges.
You can tell a card's kind three ways, the letter top left of card, the color of the ring around it, or hover/click it to see it big.
The number is its power, 4 to 8. A hard counter beats a card up to 2 higher, so a 6 beats an 8 it hard counters. A soft counter beats a card 1 higher. Past that the bigger number wins. In most fights the ring decides, not the number, so buy the right kind before you buy the big number.
The hearts are how many fights the card has left. An 8 has 3, a 6 or 7 has 2, a 4 or 5 has 1. Winning a fight costs 1 heart, losing costs 2.
Every card on the table is visible, including everyone's hand, so the table always knows which cards you own. When you put a card in a lane you announce it, and the lane shows the card you announced, not necessarily the one you played. When that lane fights, a lie flips to show the real card for a second, then goes back to showing the lie as long as it's still standing. So watch the flip. If a "4" just beat a 7, that was never a 4, and a card that's still standing with a lie on it can be called any round it stands. The AI never watches, it keeps sending counters for whatever you announced.
The AI lies too. Depending on the seat somewhere around 1 in 6 to 1 in 4 of their plays is a lie, and they lie more as the night goes on. A lie can only name a card they actually own, so remember what they bought or were dealt. Once a night you also get one look, hold your cursor on an opponent's lane card for a second and a half and it shows what it really is. Tip, when they lie they nearly always claim something weaker than what they really played, so a seat that paid for an 8 and is now announcing a 4 is your tell.
Call a liar right and they pay you 3 chips and the card burns. Call an honest player and your whole board turns face up for the round meaning they can see the lies you have played.
Hope this helps till ratings are over and I can put the real tutorial in.