OK, I will try to state my opinion best I can. I really like card games though, so it might be biased.

First, I don't dislike the art style. (I tthink it's interesting -in a good way- and new, which is a good thing in my opinion. Stands out from the mass of other games visuals. Gives it a distiguishable personality -not sure, if the wording makes sense here-.) There are lots of side quests (and the main quest itself) which involve talking to people. So if you really don't like the art style, that might be something to consider.

I'm on friday of my first game, which might to be the last day (which would make sense, since school's probably closed on the weekend). So far, I had a blast. Now I'm banging my head against this fiery foe, because I haven't found the right strategy yet. The problem is, I have a bad memory, so I tend to stick to one deck or in this case to one class (the Woofians). I probably need to use a different class or just a different deck. A problem I already encountered in Card City Nights. But I digress.

I like the game a lot.
There is a friendship progression element depending on who you spend time with after school, but I don't know how that effects anything.
There are some references to pop culture, which I find nice, if I recognize them.

There are 4 classes/factions (Cats -green-, Dogs -orange-, Rodents -blue- and Reptiles (?) -purple-) who specialize in certain areas. I like, that it seems related to the animal types: E. g. cats are good at hiding and attacking fast, dogs in protecting/herding, rodents have the strength in numbers approach and reptiles are poisonous.

There are 4 basic Champions (one for each class/faction) which are unlocked from the start (or shortly after, the game is on the longish-er side, at least with doing all side quests, and I have a bad memory). But thoughout the game, you get the opportunity (through side and main quest) to get other Champions. Each one has a unique ability which changes once they get down to 15 (of 30) health. I found that to add another tactical layer of the game. To try and trigger the Megaform for myself when best for me and try to trigger my opponents Megaform, when not so optimal (or downright bad) for them and/or more benefical for my current overal situation. That depends on the abilities though.

You get new cards by doing quests. You can even choose to not complete a quest, e.g. if you want to keep a card, that you're supposed to give away to complete the quest.
You can also trade cards (against cards or candy) with other kids. Cards of the same rarity 1 to 1, others not. If you want to obtain a rare card by only giving common ones, you will need to give more common cards until the slider evens out.

You can also obtain Stickers, which let you change the name of a card (common) or cost/health/attack (rare). You seem to be able to give one of each to the same card. At least some opponents did that, so I'm assuming that's allowed for everyone. I say seem, because I haven't tried that myself yet (except for renaming), which is probably another reason, why I'm currently a little stuck. I probably should have used the stickers, but I was always thinking "But, what if I get a new card, that I would rather want to put that sticker on?"

Further into the game, each win against one of the "real bad guys" gives you three choices of which you pick one as a permanent rule change. Which is another interesting layer to the tactical side.

For an extra challenge, there are 6 kids, that are optional challenges, each with their own special rule/s, if you want to try and beat them. (Another thing I probably should have tried, once I had better cards, but I only did against one kid and only in the beginning and kept loosing.)

All in all: I'm very happy with the combat. Story is fun.