Deck
Each hero has specific cards that can be equipped. Consider building a balanced deck. Use Fast cards when an enemy has only a small amount of health. Always have a shield card and healing card in your deck. One of each for each of your heroes should be enough, and supplement them with high damage/effect cards and quick cards. Element cards can equipped to your heroes. Each hero has an elemental affinity. Specific elements are stronger against other elements, but also weak against another element. Consider having about half or half + 1 element cards to get a bonus effect. Also have some neutral cards when facing elements you are weak against.
Hero Traits
As you perform actions, the meter on the right side will fill. When full, you can use fills up and when completely filled, you can use the Hero Trait. Activate them as soon as possible.
Upgrades
There will be missions that will require upgraded cards. Do this only that at the beginning, since you will not know which cards are good and how to build a useful deck. Only upgrade the cards by the minimum required to complete the quests. Use your basic cards until you are forced to improve them to progress. By this time you will obtain useful cards that are worth upgrading. When upgrading, start with your best cards first. This is usually the rarest cards as determine by the number of stars. If you get a better card, you can use it to replace one that was not upgraded and have extra upgrade materials. Consider working on two cards at a time. Pay attention to elements; use the element booster on the same element cards for maximum experience points.