You never saw this thread coming! I summon {CCGs] and draw 2 cards!

MNC Dover

Hello! This is a catch-all CCG thread where we can discuss gameplay, card reveals, history, or memories of our favorite CCGs from the past or the present.

This thread is more focused on CCGs that don't get enough discussion to warrant their own threads. So discussions about games like Magic: the Gathering, Marvel Snap, and Hearthstone should stay in their own threads. Feel free to talk lightly about them, but more serious talks shouldn't be here.

This is also a good place to provide links and resources for deck building and playing these games online if you don't have good local scene.

Online gaming sites:
Magic the Gathering: Magic: the Gathering Arena
Pokemon Trading Card Game: Pokemon TCG Live
Star Wars Unlimited: Focetable.net (vs AI) or Karablast.net (vs people)
Yu-Gi-Oh!: YGO Duel Links
Hearthstone: Hearthstone
Marvel Snap: Marvel Snap
Netrunner: Jinteki.net
Middle-Earth CCG: Cardnum.net
Most CCGs listed above: Tabletop Simulator (on Steam)

Let me know of other great games and sites to add! I'd also like to update the OP with breakdowns of CCGs from you! Let us know about your favorites, especially stuff that might have went under the radar. Let your inner nerd go and break down cards, gameplay, and so forth. I'll add write-ups here as we go.

Gilgaron

My cousin was a big fan of a Star Trek TNG CCG but it was a little messy. Still they made a good job making the show's main characters a lot better than regular guys without actually being a huge advantage, from what I can recall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Customizable_Card_Game

Here it is, sounds like it got bogged down by becoming overcomplicated. We have a Killer Bunnies card game and while the core set was designed with future expansions in mind, adding them in definitely ruins that game. As far as real CCGs go, I taught the kids MTG and they enjoyed it enough to learn Pokemon instead of merely collect the cards for the latter as many of their peers were doing in elementary school for whatever reason. Teaching their friends how to play led to some surprises for what cards were actually good instead of merely having larger numbers or cooler pictures.

admanb

Two weeks ago I played in an Overpower tournament, which is a game that's been dead for 20 years and is exclusively played by people who started playing 25 years ago. I had played approximately eight games over one month leading up to the tournament. Still went 4-3. Definitely a strange experience. The attendees were exactly the kind of odd older guy you'd expect to be obsessed with a 25-year-old superhero card game, but it wasn't unpleasant by any means.

I don't recommend adding this to the OP (though they are kickstarting a reboot of the game) I just wanted to share.

rahkeesh2000

I hear Flesh and Blood being the biggest new physical TCG but who wants to play in meatspace anymore?

Wasn't Disney's Lorcana also released not that long ago? Did that not catch on?

WotanAnubis

I've gone back to playing the occasional round of Gwent. Not as much as I used to, but I still fire it up from time to time.

Gwent, unfortunately, has gone into maintenance mode. No more new cards will get released for it. But what I want to talk about is the Balance Council. Every month, the (really active parts of) the player base gets to make some balance changes.

You see, Gwent cards have two numbers on them: Power and Provisions. Power is just points on the board - whoever has the most Power in two of three rounds wins. Provisions is how much a card costs to put into your deck - you usually have about 165 Provisions to work with when building a deck. Every month, by player vote, some cards get their Power and Provisions increased/decreased. It's community-driven boosts and nerfs.

It's not without its flaws. Some cards get nerfed unfairly hard simply because the player base hates playing against them, not because they're actually that bad. Some cards seem to get nerfed and then boosted and then nerfed again every month (Renfri). But sometimes the community gets together and decides to boost a lower-tier archetype and make it a bit more playable. This month it's Symbiosis, which is actually the archetype I played the most when I first started playing Gwent back in the day.

So... yeah. The Balance Council. Even though it's got its issues, I do think it's a pretty neat idea. It keeps Gwent as fresh as it can be now that active development on it has ceased.

admanb

Lorcana is massive. It's definitely the biggest new TCG. Star Wars Unlimited hit pretty well too I think, but not sure how well it's hung on.

Flesh and Blood is a far more interesting game than either of them but it's not nearly as popular, for obvious reasons. It's still around though and that's worth noting.

redx

I liked Netrunner a lot before it was killed by Fantasy Flight.

I guess the community has kept it going, releasing new expansions and running some organized play (big tournament happened in SF a couple weeks ago).

The Living Card Game, explicitly with no secondary market, random rare card chasing or multi thousand dollars decks, aspect was super attractive to me, and the setting, art and story stuff were real neat.

Fry

I've been enjoying Star Wars Unlimited at a very casual level. I'm too old to be chasing rare cards, so I'm only buying starter decks (which are surprisingly playable/interesting) and complete sets of commons and uncommons.

I've been tickled by some of the little Easter egg-like things that are hidden in the starters. Like "I Am Your Father" just so happens to line up extremely well against Luke (either regular or Jedi Knight). My favorite might be when I noticed that it's a very strong/efficient play to have Vader use Force Choke on my own Admiral Motti. Cinematic!

MNC Dover

I've definitely been diving deeper into following Star Wars Unlimited. After the PvP death of Legends of Runeterra, I moved to Marvel Snap, but it just got too much FOMO and grindy.

SWU looks really cool, but I'm not gonna buy booster packs anymore. Too old for that sort of thing, so give me digital versions instead.

PMAvers

Oh hey, some breaking news. The Earthborne Games crew (Andrew Navaro's new company, who people might remember from Earthborne Rangers ) just announced their new game, and it's a basically a competitive LCG that sounds like it may appeal a bit to fans of a specific game... The preview Gamefound page for it.

https://youtu.be/Eq7wxfdZTnA

Several familiar names on the Game Design credits, bringing in both Michael Boggs and Cory DeVore.

Pulling some info from the BGG page and other places:

Aidalon is a fast paced card game full of hidden information, bluffing, traps, and engine building that will have you and your friends firing off combos and build-crafting interesting decks with our robust deck building rules. We hope you’ll love it as much as we do.
Players take on the role of a Seeker, a character that’s on the hunt for Agents within society that they can use to their benefit. These Agents usually have some amount of sway in their given communities, or are merely Agents of chaos working outside of the system’s rules. Each Seeker is represented by a Seeker card, as well as a 36 card deck they construct. Each deck contains 6 Agents that allow them access to cards from up to 4 different factions. These cards can be Sources (valuable assets), Obstacles (tools to slow your opponents down), and Moments (one-off abilities and tricks).

To win the game, you must secure 3 Agents from your opponents, taking each Agent from a different player (if able). To do so, you’ll delve into their Grid (a 3x3 grid that makes up their sphere of influence), choosing to work you way towards their deck, hand, or discard. However, it won’t be so easy, as players will load up their grid with a hidden network of dangerous defenses, taxing distractions, or even leverage powerful Agents themselves to make your life difficult, forging these powerful cards into play at just the right time. You'll need to build out your own Grid, creating an engine that will supply you with a steady flow of shards (your main resource) or tricks you can leverage to your advantage.

MNC Dover

Sounds very Netrunner. Interested to see more.

PMAvers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOm4iHAfKcE

They had a live Q&A this morning on the podcast talking a bit about Hubworld. They did mention they wanted to get some form of Limited play in there.

MNC Dover

I've been deep diving into Star Wars Unlimited stuff. Haven't actually played the game, but watching some streamers/YT tournament videos.

If anyone is interested, SWU has a really unique play style. Basically, you have a hero and a base. Your hero has abilities and can join the fight one time (for free) as a unit. The game ends when your base runs out of hp (either 25 or 30). Players alternate actions by playing cards are attacking with your units in play. There's no counter-play ala Magic, but you can deal with threats before they become too scary.

Units can be either ground based or space based. While most units are ground, you can't ignore the space arena. If you're behind on one area, it might not be a bad idea to load up in the other for unblocked damage the base.

There's a neat mana system (called resources in the game) where your cards become resources. At the start of the game, you draw 6 cards, then choose 2 to place facedown as your available resources. You tap them to play your card costs. Each new round, you draw 2 cards and have the choice to put down a card in your hand as a resource. You don't have to do this, but generally you want to have a lot of resources available.

But why listen to me blab, when you can watch a tutorial video!

https://youtu.be/KCBH5EaW30E?feature=shared

You build your deck based on the colors your hero and base provide. There are 6 colors, although only 4 really matter all that much. Each color is an archetype, with Red being aggro, Yellow being tricky, Blue is control, and Green going ramp. The other 2 colors (white and black) represent Heroes and Villains. They limit certain cards to good or bad guys. Heroes provide 2 colors, one primary and one of either white/black. Your secondary color comes from your base. You can add cards from outside your colors, but they cost 2 extra resources to play per color missing, so add them sparingly.

Here's a great series with solid narration and card presentation casting a game tournament.

https://youtu.be/UERyV9FIGPY?feature=shared

And here's a video showing a streamer playing using a fan-made online client:

https://youtu.be/d_-dxkptMQA?feature=shared

Forar

Oh man, I have been into so many CCGs over the years, to one degree or another.

Magic from the 4th Edition/Ice Age era, but I liked the random cards that sometimes came with Inquest/Scrye/whatever it was? I've still got a bunch of random cards from shit I never even picked up a booster pack of. Though sometimes I'd do just that, buy a pack of something random. Rage, or a booster of the Lord of the Rings CCG, etc.

Hell, during a period where I was just marathon'ing the series 24, I bought a booster box of cards for the game. Never played a single round, ended up throwing out all but a small handful of them.

I got into the Rifts CCG, but wasn't a fan of some of the mechanics. And then Palladium completely fucked the community with their Robotech RPG Tactics kickstarter, and it led to me selling off most of my books, and throwing out like 99% of the cards. Played that a handful of times, if that.

The Battletech CCG, which again, was picked up on a lark, and played maybe twice? Same with Jihad/Vampire.

Oh and a booster box of Star Wars Destiny, though that's now long dead and while there's a community trying to keep it alive, I've been tempted to either sell the majority off as bulk on ebay or just throw out most of the cards and dice, though that seems needlessly wasteful.

I got deep into Netrunner, enjoyed playing with friends and even a few tournaments, but ended up selling off the entire box when it fell out of favour, though I still have a few of the promos, and the acrylic tokens and mats we ordered.

I still play Magic now and then, and will spend a little now and then to update decks as the opportunity and whim catches me.

Two GenCons back I was happy to get the Lorcana starters and even reverse engineered the basics of how they built them, in order to build a fourth deck that should have been in at least vaguely the right ballpark of power level, but it hasn't seen much play since, and with the massive issues with distribution (that seem to have been resolved since), I just stopped worrying about it.

I've heard good things about Star Wars Unlimited, but at this point I'm like 'so many times burned, quadruple shy'. I'll give it a whirl with the decks some friends have built when I'm at Dice Fest, the annual Flying Frog Productions gathering in the Seattle area, but I'm not sure there's an IP that would truly get me deep in and buying up boxes or substantial singles at this point.

Maybe a Mass Effect game with straight up killer mechanics?

Living through the early Magic/Pokemon/etc era when suddenly there were dozens of CCGs out there. Highlander! Some football one! And even early 'we're going to use blind boxes, but will do something different, like having collectible dice' (Dragon Dice?).

I should see if I can find my little box of random one-off cards. I've got an Inquest promotional card for Doom Trooper that's, like, one of the most valuable cards in the set... which means it's like $100 twenty five or more years later.

admanb

Oh man I owned some Dragon Dice. I think I got a starter set for free from a con but that was the era when "starters" just did not come with everything you needed to play.

Witchsight

Ive resisted the draw (ehh?) of any non magic CCGs so far. The only one I bought into was Keyforge which probably doesnt count.
A few tourneys of the One Piece CCG have gone down at the FLGS, and it seems to have a fresh community interested.
Have yet to hear anyone else praise it though.

admanb

I used the app to learn One Piece and it has some interesting stuff going on, but it's very horny.

MNC Dover

I'm firmly in the camp of not buying boosters these days. Like, I'm enjoying watching content on SWU, but I won't play it unless it's digital. I'd be willing to go into a F2P model with a solid interface. The reality is I have no idea if there's a scene in my area (I'm assuming there's something being in Kirkland/Seattle area), but having two young kids means I'm never going to be able to play on a consistent basis.

Forar

I have always enjoyed cracking starters and boosters, and I recognize that it's both an awful idea while also kind of fun.

As a middle ground, these days I buy the occasional Magic Bundle or pre-release kit. 6-8 boosters, a die, etc, at a fairly reasonable price point, compared to going for a whole booster box.

It's like the whole 'don't pre-order' thing. I get it. I respect it. It's not for me, but of all the things I do that might cause some harm in the world, this one I'm pretty okay with being the villain on.

To offset it a bit, I've taken to buying 2 pre-release kits and then hosting my own little 'pre-release from home' experience with my wife and a friend now and then.

Fry

MNC Dover wrote: »

I'm firmly in the camp of not buying boosters these days. Like, I'm enjoying watching content on SWU, but I won't play it unless it's digital. I'd be willing to go into a F2P model with a solid interface. The reality is I have no idea if there's a scene in my area (I'm assuming there's something being in Kirkland/Seattle area), but having two young kids means I'm never going to be able to play on a consistent basis.

I'd potentially be up for learning the Karabast interface with a cool and handsome PA forumer. I did a quick look, and it doesn't seem to have even the starter decks built in though, so step one I guess is building a deck on one of the database sites it supports.

MNC Dover

Fry wrote: »

MNC Dover wrote: »

I'm firmly in the camp of not buying boosters these days. Like, I'm enjoying watching content on SWU, but I won't play it unless it's digital. I'd be willing to go into a F2P model with a solid interface. The reality is I have no idea if there's a scene in my area (I'm assuming there's something being in Kirkland/Seattle area), but having two young kids means I'm never going to be able to play on a consistent basis.

I'd potentially be up for learning the Karabast interface with a cool and handsome PA forumer. I did a quick look, and it doesn't seem to have even the starter decks built in though, so step one I guess is building a deck on one of the database sites it supports.

Well...I don't know if I'm cool and handsome, but I'd be willing to give it a shot with you.

Unknown

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MNC Dover

Played some SWU with Fry tonight. Had a good time and even won a few. Still a lot to learn though, such as learning how to draw my ramp cards better.

Fry

Over here I need to learn to count to 25 instead of to 30, when applicable

PMAvers

New Hubworld interview with Andrew and the TC crew.

https://www.youtube.com/live/eKXT-ARw11E

Couple of things of note:
If you’re going to be at PAX Unplugged, they’ll be running demos with a prototype there.
The first set is not going to be a core set, it’s going to just be… well, the first set. Game’s designed around not having one and any set is a possible entry point.
Planned card pool for “standard” is four sets. They want to be a little more aggressive with rotation to try to combat SKU bloat and let things actually go out of print.
Four “factions,” think like ANR style with splashable cards to deck build with, no neutral cards in the first set but there will eventually be some.

PMAvers

Oh hey, someone was able to get pictures of the Demo Guide that they were using for the Hubworld demos at PAXU, so we now know the base rules. Spoiled for large:

Supposedly we're going to be getting a gameplay video soon using said demo decks?

Enigmedic

I wish I had time to play more ccgs. I prefer in person, but between job and kid there is just no way to make it happen. I generally like the in person game playstyles too. The online games all have random elements or weird math and bonuses to keep track of. But imo playing games over webcam or some cumbersome interface just isn't worth it. Most games also just feel increasingly cash grabby instead of doing anything net positive for gameplay. It's a frustrating time to be interested in tcg/ccgs.

nwrabe

Enigmedic wrote: »

I wish I had time to play more ccgs. I prefer in person, but between job and kid there is just no way to make it happen. I generally like the in person game playstyles too. The online games all have random elements or weird math and bonuses to keep track of. But imo playing games over webcam or some cumbersome interface just isn't worth it. Most games also just feel increasingly cash grabby instead of doing anything net positive for gameplay. It's a frustrating time to be interested in tcg/ccgs.

I was in the same boat. Lunchtime commander games were a blast but then I became a stay at home dad, and the kiddo isn’t quite up to playing yet.

So I fell hard for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. (LCGs are CCG adjacent, so hear me out.) Picking an investigator with a unique special power and deckbuilding requirements scratches that commander itch, and there’s room for hyper optimized decks or crazy thematic jank.

It’s a co-op, so you can play with just one player and to me it feels reminiscent of an RPG campaign where the scenario cards and rules replace the DM, which scratches another itch I’d forgotten.

For what you’d spend on a box of boosters you can get a complete “cycle” (scenarios & player cards for a specific storyline) so it was probably a net win for my budget, too.

MNC Dover

My 9-year old daughter spent two days at grandma’s house hand making some of her decks for her and her brother to play. Here's some of the 40 cards she made.






Here's a reddit post I made with all the cards if you want to see them.

Cantido

Ambassador from Netrunner:

In March/April, NSG will release a second original permanent set, codenamed Dawn. Upon doing so, all FFG cards will rotate out (finally.)