Cards & Boards

I may love Blood Bowl: Team Manager Card Game (by Fantasy Flight Games) for now, but I’m also steadily reacquainting myself with my favorite TCG (trading card game), World of Warcraft (or WoW in short).

Bizarrely, I’m going real easy on the customization bit – that is, I’m trying to not mix around the cards between my decks too much – but, rather, am letting my decks stay consistent, with a set bunch of cards.

Well, looks like the upcoming Champion Decks product is right up your alley, if you’re looking for instantly playable decks, straight out of the box. There will be five decks, one each for Mage, Hunter, Warrior, Shaman and Druid.

Roughly divided into Heroic or Monster, the decks will feature some of the more notable WoW universe heroes and villains. The confirmed lineup are Jaina Proudmoore (Human Mage), Lady Sylvanas Windrunner (Undead Hunter), Hogger (the Gnoll), Murkdeep (the Murloc Shaman) and Elderlimb (the Treefolk Druid).

Check out the link above for some card names already hinted, per deck. Some old classics and hopefully heavy hitters there. Slated for a late March 2012 release, stay tuned on more news about its eventual local availability!

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Mano et mano trading card game (TCG) sessions can only get you so far, and the World of Warcraft TCG is no exception.

My playgroup’s recent rekindlement with WoW TCG has been amped up further with the new Dungeon Decks, featuring three awesomely cool characters: meet Lord Godfrey, Scarlet Commander Mograine, and Vanessa Van Cleef.

So the basic premise is simple: you get your regular (or your best!) 61-card decks, and start taking on a Dungeon Deck. Each Dungeon Deck can be run “automatically”, so no player needs to control it, as the resultant actions (and pain) are resolved semi-randomly.

You and your friends get to go against a common enemy that wields regular, and often, spectacularly powerful allies, equipment and abilities.

I had a chance to have a go at the Scarlet Commander Mograine Dungeon Deck over the weekend, and boy was it amazing fun. Each deck has level difficulties, with Level 1 proving to be pretty easy for our beefed up Class Starters (around half or more of the Class Starters tweaked and modded with our favorite, and stronger stuff).

Level 2 was astonishingly tough going, as the multiplication of damage was pretty insane. Imagine the Commander himself gaining Assault 10 in some turns, and you get the picture. Another masochistic attempt – this time Level 3 – proved to be disastrous as well.

Well, I have to say that things got a lot more manageable once my group fielded much stronger and beefier decks – my improvised Death Knight Ghoul rush, a full-on Horde Shaman and an uber-Priest.

We were helped by quick opening hands, and efficiently grinded out the win thanks to plenty of ally destruction (Priest) and totems (Shaman). The raid ended with an appropriately-timed Turn 7 Zarixx, Herald of Death, which added one 3/3 Ghoul token ally to the pair already on board, and attacked for 12 damage. (Overkill admittedly, since the evil Commander was down to his final point of health.)

After four to five raids in less than two hours, I have to say that these decks are excellent value for money, given that the replayability is pretty darn high. Cryptozoic’s artwork continues to be superb, while the speedy gameplay ensures that downtime remains a minimum. Conclusion: pick up these babies and give your regular WoW TCG decks a fun workout, now! Warning though, don’t underestimate these puppies!

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

After a year plus of serious Magic: the Gathering (MTG in short) casual action, the “inner MTG soul” in me instantly evaporated thanks to an awesomely simple but addictive Fantasy Flight Games’ reimagining of an old Games Workshop classic, “Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game”.

More on the latter in a November post of course!

And almost magically, I was once again drawn to dust off my trusty World of Warcraft TCG (WoW TCG) decks, and field them to epic questing and what-not, once again. Ah, long have I missed my favourite Goblin Rogue, Gnome Warrior and Blood Elf Death Knight decks!

Anyways, the reawakening of the inner “WoW TCG-er” in me leads me to Cryptozoic’s new upcoming Dungeon Decks and Dungeon Deck Treasure Packs, which hits most parts of the world by mid-November.

I quote the official Cryptozoic announcement’s web post: “You and two friends will raid Scarlet Monastery, The Deadmines, and Shadowfang Keep. Fight Scarlet Commander Mograine, “Captain” Cookie, and Lord Godfrey. First, though, your party will need to clear through their lieutenants and minions like Herod, the Scarlet Champion, Baron Ashbury, and Foe Reaper 5000.”

Wow, sounds awesome enough. I can therefore deduce the plethora of cool allies to be had in this special set. Dungeon decks look set to be one of those not-allowed-for-tournament-play sort of sets, with the exception of a very small number of allies, equipment and what-not, which players win or secure or gain during the Dungeon explorations. Yeap, just like the older Raid Deck Sets!

There seems to be differing difficulty settings for players attempting these Dungeon Decks. Info in the first posts seem scant, so more spoilers as the date of reckoning nears I guess.

Get your WoW TCG on, with the uber cool Dungeon Decks!

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So what did everyone get from their packs of Magic: the Gathering’s latest expansion set, Innistrad? Available for roughly two weekends now (counting the pre-release), this set looks like a pretty nifty one that will tide us neatly in the coming months.

The deckbuilders in ya’ll would no doubt be picking apart the various goodies in the set, to find out how the new stuff can be used. Well, that’s where web resources such as GatheringMagic.com can help you fast track, by having beginner-friendly articles such as Mike Cannon’s “Boneyard Mill”, which gives some cool tips on how to make an awesome, fun and inexpensive deck that abuses the almighty Boneyard Wurm.

The inquisitive would have no doubt also caught Wizards.com regular Jacob Van Lunen’s “Human After All”, which is a scarily-fast Human tribal deck.

There are tons of other new deck ideas popping up all thanks to the new set, but let me leave those two on you first, for starters.

My quick thoughts on the new set: Innistrad has plenty of fast and super-efficient creatures, making it an exciting expansion indeed. The new and revamped Standard, and even Modern formats, continue to be extremely fast, with the advantage going to the players who can race the quickest. Remember Tempered Steel?

That Scars staple is still the deck to beat IMHO, but my money’s on a new solid White-Green build, that’s able to give it a decent fight.

But, expect some control variants to come out of the left field. Yup, I’m looking at all the Flashback cards – it’s just a matter of time!

So what do you guys think? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below!