Everyone starts with the same hand. No one doesn't have an advantage at the beginning and everyone has access to the market row as long as they have enough gold.
Each card you can buy from the market row is a member of four factions which have their strengths and weaknesses.
Those of the Necros faction has the ability to sacrifice a card from their hand or discard pile. This is a way to get rid of the weak starting cards so your deck is more optimized. They also can give a lot of damage with their spells.
The Guild faction has cards that increase your gold so you can purchase more at the market row. It has some action cards that can do damage.
The Imperial faction is a balanced military force of powerful soldiers and wizards and cards that heal you.
The Wild faction has many powerful orcs and trolls and elves dealing massive damage. There are some wild spells that can give money or make an opponent discard a card.
You don't have to limit yourself to a faction and can mix and match to fit with your strategy.
The artwork is beautiful and the cards are well designed. There is no wasted pace on each card.
The gameplay is fast and doesn't require much downtime. You collect your gold, buy cards from the market row, use any card ability and attack the opposing player. This game can be 20 minutes long to an hour.
Also the expansions to this game bring more replayability to the game. You can switch out your starting had with one of the character packs like Thief, Wizard, Ranger, Cleric, and Fighter. But all the players will have to play with a character as they will trump the regular starting hand completely.
The Ruin of Thandar turns the game into a coop or solo campaign game with RPG elements. The Lich and Dragon Boss decks are used by one player to battle with multiple players.
I would recommend this game as it is inexpensive and a good gateway game that is easy to learn.