Cards & Boards

Magic: the Gathering fans must be lapping up all the Return to Ravnica spoilers that’s pretty much being revealed one by one, by the official game producer, Wizards of the Coast,  as well as numerous fan sites.

Plenty of interesting stuff has been revealed already: from awesome-looking and very powerful planeswalkers, to the tons of useful spells and what-not. Don’t forget the whole reprinting of the original cycle of Ravnica shock lands are causing quite a stir as well.

Well Wizards seem to be milking the hype for this pretty well. When the original Ravnica set was made available, the cycle was memorable enough. Plenty of powerhouses and staples, and thematically a smashing success. Would you blame Wizards for this encore? (Though it did sound a little lame when the first announcements hit – here we go, Scars round two!)

As an MTG-neutral gamer now (thought about returning, but nah, the love for TCGs is still missing somehow), this looks like a pretty darned impressive set. If only these things would be less expensive, LOLs!

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THOSE of you familiar with trading card games (TCGs) will definitely love the fun and dynamic aspects of such games. The frequently refreshed pool of cards, in the form of new expansions, is the key unique selling proposition and main draw for fans and collectors alike.

This does necessitate repeat purchasing, and is something of a blessing as well as a “curse” of sorts for TCGs. What starts off as something fun and exciting often degenerates into an expensive past time.

Sure, you don’t need to buy every expansion that comes your way, and can certainly control the spending in packs (expansions are sold in packs that have random card assortments), but the temptation of the new stuff can be pretty strong, and in competitive play new cards are always pretty much essential.

Well, while TCGs look like they’re not slowing down anytime soon – Magic: The Gathering, for instance is still chugging along nicely almost two decades later – it was inevitable that a new breed of collectible card games is making their presence felt, and occupying gamers’ minds everywhere.

Easier, cheaper, better

Leading boardgames, role-playing games (RPG) and card games maker Fantasy Flight Games was one of the first to alter the TCG when they came out with their line of “living card games” or LCGs.

The core concept of LCGs is simple enough: Players share basic sets which have fixed assortments of factionally-aligned cards, sorted into ready-to-play decks. Expansions are also sold in fixed assortments, so there really is no need to buy packs and end up with tons of unnecessary duplicates.

Fantasy Flight’s LCGs now cover a gamut of the hottest fantasy franchises, such as A Game Of Thrones (based on the books, not the TV series), Lord Of The Rings and Warhammer Invasion (the fantasy franchise).

If anything, the cheaper-but-equally-fun proposition for LCGs is certainly compelling enough for them to have a loyal following.

“I’ve always been a big card game fan, but my wallet didn’t agree with the “collectible” nature of games like Magic: The Gathering. The LCG format shifts the focus from trying to collect all the rare, powerful cards to looking for combos within a fixed card pool,” said David Lian, digital consultant and partner of Warp Space Games. He has been playing A Game Of Thrones and Warhammer Invasion for one and a half years now.

“I love the A Game Of Thrones LCG particularly because of the theme, and its simple yet deep nature of gameplay. There are really a lot of strategic decisions to be made,” he explained.

His experience with TCGs, otherwise known as CCGs (collectible card games) back in the earlier days, was pretty much a mixed bag, due to a variety of factors. Availability and high “upkeep costs” were among the factors cited by him for eventually giving up on TCGs, and moving on to LCGs.

“I’ve actually played my other card games – Magic, Legend Of The Five Rings, and even the old BattleTech, Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings CCGs. However, the games I loved playing either got discontinued (such as Star Wars) or became an endless pursuit of never ending card cycles (such as Magic). It’s not much fun when the CCG market is driven largely by competitive play and even casual gamers insist on playing with only “legal” cards”.

“The great thing about LCGs is that old cards never phase out. The first cards produced are still legal for play today,” added Lian.

Deck-building games

Hot on the heels of LCGs are deck-building games. Companies such as Bandai have started making standalone card games based on popular franchises such as Star Trek and Resident Evil. Deck-building games are almost similar to LCGs, with the exception that it feels a lot closer to boardgames, more than anything else.

While LCGs allow and encourage the tweaking of decks in-between games, similarly to TCGs, deck-building games only allow the tweaking, and upgrading of decks during games. This concept is similar to boardgames, in which players attempt to “level up” and strengthen their hand during games.

The most successful and iconic deck-building game is Rio Grande Games’ medieval-themed Dominion card game. Recently, other companies such as Bandai have cashed in on this genre of card games by introducing a series of popular franchise-driven variants.

“The best part of deck-building games is being able to play straight out of the box, so there is no need to pre-customise decks,” said event manager Richard Chua.

“The games end up being fun and different due to the randomised nature of cards being drawn and differing player strategies, based on cards available to them. And for titles such as Star Trek, games may also be varied to the unique scenario-based play by factions,” he said.

Being a one-time TCG fan, he no longer plays them due to the high costs involved, and the random factor, which makes buying them exorbitant.

The future is bright

For now, TCGs will never get replaced wholesale, but LCGs and deck-building games will certainly continue to have a solid following as time goes on.

As Chua points out, franchised games such as Star Trek are also “accessible to non-fans who enjoy them purely for gameplay value instead of thematic fan experience.”

There is an increasing amount of effort by fans of LCGs at least, in boosting their popularity, especially via organised play and regular events. Local comic and games stores such as Comics Mart in Kuala Lumpur, run regular LCG leagues and events.

Warp Space Games is in the midst of starting up an A Game Of Thrones league, so interested players can contact Lian at david@warpspacegames.com, or browse www.warpspacegames.com for further information.

* Chee Yih Yang needs more time on the new Blood Bowl teams – almost there! E-mail the esoteric gaming nut at yihyang@gmail.com if you have comments, questions, hot gaming news and tips, and trading lists and deck ideas, for both Magic and World Of Warcraft. Check out his blog at http://blog.rage.com.my/category/cards-and-boards, and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/arcturus_mengsk.

Magic: the Gathering fans are definitely abuzz over the latest expansion set now, Dark Ascension.

In fact, I daresay that this weekend will be an even more anticipated one, for the new cards, compared to last weekend’s prerelease events. This is simply because the packs are now available for sale in better game stores everywhere.

This weekend will also see Dark Ascension release events, which means more fun and casual tournaments for everyone!

IMHO, the week after the prerelease of a “smaller” expansion is optimal as gamers and fans finally get the chance to buy the new set in “full.” I say this because pre-release events bundle in the preceding “larger” expansion.

Yup, this means that if you bought any of the Dark Ascension pre-release “packs”, you would have ended up with Innistrad packs as well, which may likely be a poorer choice for you, especially if you’ve already busted your budget for that older set!

So, will you be playing this weekend?

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

October is my favourite month because that’s when I try to cover as much Halloween gaming as possible. After all, Oct 31 only happens once a year, and what better way to celebrate it by playing a bunch of good horror-themed games?

This year’s Halloween-themed picks were not too hard to piece together, as a number of gaming companies seem intent to ride on the horror theme quite early.

Magic gets gothic

Wizards Of The Coast’s Magic: The Gathering (MTG) trading card game (TCG) just gets bigger and better. And it looks set to be even cooler with a direct tie-in to the hallowed season, with the horror-themed Innistrad.

It has werewolves, vampires, zombies, geists (that’s German for ghosts) and, of course, plenty of human types that would like to keep them away, or dead and buried!

We’re talking about clerics and other holy types that would serve as the typical counterfoils to the evil kind.

That’s right; every single one of the 264 cards in the set is linked to horror. Some even reference pop culture’s most famous horror icons – see if you can spot all of them!

For the first time in Magic’s 18-year history, it features double-sided cards. In order to flesh out the “day” and “night” themes better, the set designers decided to feature “transformations” once certain conditions were fulfilled.

It’s a fine way for Human cards to become Werewolves for instance. They’re simply awesome!

Seasoned MTG fans will definitely go all out to pick up 15-card booster packs, while the less experienced may want to get an Intro Pack or two.

Each Innistrad booster pack will have one double-sided card, so there is a possibility of getting two rare cards, or better yet, a rare and a mythic.

Intro Packs are 61-card decks with fixed decklists, and with a bunch of rares and uncommon cards, they’re fun to play as is.

Those with more experience with the game are probably close to completing their playsets of the new dual lands. They are functionally similar to the ones we already have from the Core Sets. Their only difference would be them pairing opposing colors (hence the term “enemy” duals), which are different from the allied duals.

There are plenty of cool Legend and creature cards that are awesome, for those intending to build Zombie decks, Vampire decks or Geist decks, or … well, you get the picture.

I love Zombies, and it’s nice to see Wizards revisiting the Blue-Black combo for this favourite race of mine. By the way, Vampires see the addition of Red to its traditional Black.

Innistrad is available at most game shops, with booster packs starting from RM11 for a 15-card booster.

Going underground

Halloween may be a Western thing, but that doesn’t mean that you have to play only Western-type games, right?

Thanks to local boardgame enthusiasts and suppliers Boardgamecafe.net, I picked up a rather curious-looking mystery-themed game called The Message. Okay, so it isn’t exactly creepy horror, and more subterfuge/espionage, but this will do for something
totally left-field.

The Chinese-themed card game is created by Qian Qi Animation, and is supposedly based on themes and elements from a movie of the same name.

In this card-based game, players randomly select one of the three identities – Underground, Army and Passerby. To spice things up, each player can choose one character out of 18 available ones. Each character has a unique special ability.

The object of the game is to collect appropriate sets of “information” cards based on the faction selected. All function cards divided into three types – Red, Blue or Black (signifying false information).

During each round, each player draws two function cards. Then, the player transmits one of his function cards to other players. Other players can collect the requested information while attempting to avoid Black information.

Certain cards can interrupt and cancel opposing information as well as removing the Black cards. Any player with three Black information cards are automatically eliminated.

It’s a simple and light game that’s more suitable to the party crowd, but experienced gamers will relish the beautiful art.

The Message retails for RM95, but Boardgamecafe.net is now having a special promo of RM75 for a limited time only.

Bowling for blood

Last one for the week is a classic game that has recently gotten the cardboard treatment, thanks to the good old eminent gaming merchants, Fantasy Flight Games.

Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game is actually a card version of the famous Games Workshop miniatures game that had its heyday back in the late 1980s.

Think of it as fantasy football/rugby played amongst Humans, Orcs, Dwarves and large
rat men known as Skaven.

The premise is simple – you win by almost any means necessary. So unsportsman-like conduct, which would be totally unacceptable in real-life, such as fouling, and worse, are actually standard behaviour in Blood Bowl.

I think this is perfect in Halloween gaming because sometimes you just want to beat your opponents using some of the most repulsive and evil races known in fantasy-dom. And keep score.

Before you go, “oh no, another card game”, the good news is that this Blood Bowl game is entirely self-contained, with no additional parts and purchases required to play.

Imagine Games is bringing this mighty fine product in this week, with each box selling for RM135.

Time to get some games going on people!

* Chee Yoh Yang can’t get enough of Innistrad, wants to play The Message again and again, and kick some Human behind in Blood Bowl using evil rat men. Special thanks to Hasbro Malaysia, Boardgamecafe.net and Imagine Games for their contributions in making this month’s Cards & Boards happen.

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