When I graduated from high school, I sold off my Magic: The Gathering collection to pay for college necessities (like food). I loved the game, and the other CCG/TCGs that I had played previously (The Decipher Star Wars game, Dragonball Z, Battletech), but as my interests were shifting into wargaming, and I was becoming increasingly poor thanks to college, something had to go and my cards got the axe.
Well, fast forward about a decade, and I now find myself in yet another gaming dilemma. Now that I have a real job that consumes 40-60 hours a week, plus Tang Soo Do, plus a girlfriend, plus MMO(s), plus....well, you get the idea. I haven't had much time for wargaming. I have a substantial collection of unpainted models that I need to work through. And once those are done, lets face it, I probably still won't have much time to actually play many games.
Considering all of this, I have found myself fondly remember my TCG days. You could play a game in under 15-20 minutes. You could build decks, or look up strategies, whenever it was convenient for you. It is perfect for a gamer with time constraints. I was considering getting back into Magic, and I even bought some of the 2013 core set cards. However, I stumbled into the World of Warcraft TCG, and I have been hooked every since my first game.
The game, like most good ones, is easy to learn, but difficult to master. My first play experience was at a "Core Constructed" tournament at a local shop. I lost every game and came in dead last, but had tons of fun. The rules are simple enough to understand, and gameplay mirrors Magic in many respects, but has some key differences to keep it's IP distinct from the competition. The thing that has really captured my interest (and money), is that the game is completely over the top. From what I have seen, all of the classes (which control what types of cards you can include in your deck) have crazy combos that you would initially think would insta-win the game. However, almost everything has a counter; in most cases multiple counters.
So for instance, in the current block, Mages love to run a card called "Ice Barrier". Ideally, with some acceleration cards, you could have two of these in play by turn three. With two of these, you can't take damage until six separate sources try to hurt you, and you deal 10 damage to your opponent every turn (for most heroes, they would die in three turns). That early in the game, most decks can only play 1 or two cards per turn, which isn't enough to get rid of the "Ice Barrier"s before they do some serious damage. In most situations, having two of those in play usually means that the Mage wins the game.
The quite simple counter to that, which is available to most of the magic based classes, is a card called "Miniature Voodoo Mask". Costing only one resource, you can completely screw over "Ice Barrier" before it ever even enters play! There are other effective counters as well, but it doesn't hurt to stock up on these!
Another interesting aspect of the game, is that similar to the MMO, you can build a "solo" deck, where your hero is fighting all by their lonesome, or you can make an "ally" deck where your hero is assisted by party members, pets, etc. In a solo style deck, you can stock up on equipment cards such as weapons, armor, potions, and trinkets to help you defeat your opponent. In an ally style deck, you mostly have your party members do the fighting for you. However, these two styles are not mutually exclusive. You can build your deck to have a hero that is decked out in awesome gear, but still have some party member support, or an ally heavy deck where your hero still carries some potions to help win the day. The choices are near limitless!
So, in conclusion, the WoW TCG has been added to my list of hobbies. Stay tuned for deck lists and battle reports in the future!
