It kind of is like M:TG, but also nothing like it.

Magic? No points limit. Indeed, no deck limit. Only real restrictions are 20 life, no more than 'four of a kind' in your deck, and when you can't draw (because your library is gone) you lose the game.

AoS? No points limit. Indeed, no army limit. No restrictions except a bit of common sense and mutual respect. Different scenarios may affect what can deploy, and may require some of your force to be held in reserve. When all your dudes are dead, you lose the game.

Both have synergy at their core - it ain't what you got, but what you do with it.

Magic is more simplistic than AoS. There's certain cards combos which, unless your opponent is playing Blue, has some Counters in hand and a bunch of mana to spare spell 'Goodnight Vienna'.

AoS? No such super-synergies. Buffs, debuffs all exist, but your opponent has to aggressively target them to break your synergy. Sometimes, this can be fairly easy. Other times, a canny opponent has two or three different synergies at their disposal, which don't need to interlink, but can be horrific if they do so.

Except said synergies can be spotted from the get go. This creates a very different game to M:tG, where its as much about your cunning as hoping your deck is in a good mood, and doles out the ming and mana in roughly appropriate doses (my well 'ard Dragon deck for instance is 50% mana, including many multi-coloured lands to help ensure I have the right mana at the right time, and still my deck likes to screw me every now and then). In AoS? It's pretty much on the board, so as an opponent I have to set about identifying your game plan, and how I can best scupper it once we're deployed. This in turn informs the sort of force I might pack for a game. I want to ensure I have my own synergies set, but also ways to defend it whilst cracking your own.

See my post above for some stuff the 'I was never going to like this, because reasons' group like to pretend don't exist - tactics. That's a synergy right there. It's kind of basic, but very effective as it allows me to focus the attacks of two units on your one unit, whilst only really risking one of my two. That sort of force multiplier will help to see Battleshock by my friend, and not yours.

And make no bones about it. Battleshock is a killer. It's bloody difficult to tarpit an opponent now, because the chaff units I'd merrily massacre in 8th? There's not Steadfast for them anymore. Likewise, it's much harder to lose the game from a single fluffed Ld roll. I'm pretty sure all Warhammer players have had a perfect game until a certain combat goes a bit awry, and sees a solid unit head for the hills thanks to an 11, then 12 on the re-roll Ld test. Not anymore. There are ways to mitigate this - most armies have some sort of mechanism - and one I'll be doing my damnedest to remove from the equation as soon as possible - because I don't want to get stuck in combat with a Battleshock immune unit. I'll be wanting to charge in, do my damage and then send you packing in your own turn, ta

And oddly enough...people complain about Magic in AoS. I'm not sure why. None of it, so far, is all that devastating.