darkSpyro

I am getting a smart phone soon (I believe IOS, if not then Android) and was wondering if this is worth my cash?

You can get the app for free and you'll see pretty quickly if you like the game or not without having to buy any card. Haven't played it much but I like it so far. I don't think I'll play it as much as the main games, but this will be something to do while we wait for Skylanders Six.

This game is Hearthstone but Skylanders. Hearthstone is a fun card game with lots of strategy. Battlecast is a fun card game with a little bit less strategy because it's for kids. Plus, the Free to Play aspect is super minimalistic because you get new cards every single day and coins are easy as hell to earn. I'm telling you, give it at least a try. If you aren't enjoying yourself by the end of the tutorial, I don't know what to tell you!

I think swapping out three different skylanders often during a match is a whole different strategic element from Hearthstone and I've played a lot of the latter

They hired some really good people to work on this. I know one of the guys who designed it, and he's been heavily involved in trading card games for decades. This guy was one of the lead dsigners of the Warcraft card game. I'd say it's definitely worth checking out.