What is World Of Warcraft Trading Card Game?

World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
Designer	Mike Hummel, Brian Kibler, Danny Mandel
Publisher	Upper Deck Entertainment
Players	Two and up
Age range	13 and up
Setup time	< 3 minutes
Playing time	approximately 20 minutes
Random chance	Some
Skills required	Card playing Arithmetic

The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The game was announced by Upper Deck Entertainment on August 18 2005, and released on October 25 2006. Players can fight against each other one-on-one, or can join others in order to defeat raid bosses such as Onyxia and Ragnaros.

Game details

In this trading card game (TCG), each player uses a hero card and a deck consisting of allies and other supporting cards. In booster and starter packs, gamers can find cards representing weapons, abilities, armor, items and quests. Some booster packs also contain legendary cards (i.e., special versions of normal cards) which contain a scratch-off code. This code can then be redeemed in the online game for a virtual prize. The prizes include as special tabards, gimmick items and mounts.

During play, players start with a single hero, and then play additional cards to augment the hero's powers or add additional members to his or her party. As in games such as , the goal is to reduce the remaining health of the opponent to zero. Unlike in Magic, combat attacks are always directed at individual heroes or allies, rather than simply declaring an attack with a number of creatures. Furthermore, damage done to allies accumulates between turns, making combat more expensive for both the attacker and defender.

Raid decks

In addition to standard two-player game play, the game also features "Raid Decks", representing struggles involving large numbers of players against epic foes (although far fewer players are involved in the card game). These need one "Raid Master" and 3 to 5 other players. The Raid Master controls all monsters and foes, while the other players control the characters participating in the raid. Players who are victorious may be able to win certain "loot" cards from a 10-card treasure pack.

This treasure pack contains holofoils, and also contains a random insertion of the "loot" cards which trade aggressively due to their popularity with online Warcraft players. Upper Deck Entertainment also made treasure packs available from their UDE points store, although the cards in these packs are not holofoil.

The first raid deck, released in December 2006, features the dragon Onyxia (including stage 1, 2, and 3). The second, set within the Molten Core, was released May, 2007. The Molten Core game can be played in either "standard" version - where players compete against three random bossses and three set bosses, including Ragnaros - or "full" version, where players face all ten bosses.

Artwork

As with many trading card games, the card art is drawn by a variety of different artists with different styles.

Some of the card art is being done by Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik ("Gabe"). In the May 26, 2006 update of the Penny Arcade site, Krahulik revealed his artwork for a card that was based on the exploits of Leeroy Jenkins.

Other artists include Doug Alexander, Julie Bell, Mauro Cascioli, Matt Dixon, Alex Horley, Todd McFarlane, Jeremy Mohler, Ariel Olivetti, Dan Scott, Greg Staples, Mike Sutfin, and Boris Vallejo.

Card types

The following types of cards are featured in the game:

• Hero - The character which a given player is playing as. Each player starts with a hero, and it is the hero which determines what other cards can be utilized or included in the deck (e.g., Horde heroes can only have Horde allies). The hero card provides information about starting health, race, class, specializations, and professions. Lastly, each hero has a unique power which can be used once per game (after which, the hero card is turned face down).
• Ability - Cards played from the hand (often after paying a resource cost) to cause some immediate impact to the game. Abilities can either be of the standard type, able to played only during one's turn, or can be instant abilities, able to be played at virtually any time. As with a number of the cards, many abilities include a trait icon, which limits what classes can include the card in their decks.
• Armor - Defensive cards which protect the player from damage. Once played, by paying the appropriate resource cost, armor can be exhausted each turn in order to reduce damage dealt to a player's hero. Players are limited in how many different pieces of armor they may equip on any given body part, e.g., only one piece of chest armor at a time. Armor cards may also have additional effects above and beyond their defensive value.
• Weapon - Offensive cards which can augment a player's melee or ranged capabilities, as well as provide other benefits. As with armor cards, players are limited on how many weapons they may have equipped (in play) at once. In order to use a weapon card to increase attack power during combat, a player must pay a resource cost associated with the weapon (which also exhausts the weapon). Weapons can be used when either attacking or defending, but usually only one weapon can be used per combat (a new card in the Dark Portal edition - Dual Wield - enables striking with 2 melee weapons in a single combat).
• Quest - Special cards which act as resource cards, but with additional abilities. Quests can be completed by fulfilling a condition described on the card. When this is done, a reward is earned (e.g., drawing additional cards) and the quest is converted into a normal resource (by turning it face down).
• Ally - Other individuals and companions who assist and fight on behalf of the main hero. Most allies are affiliated with either the Horde or the Alliance (although neutral allies do exist), so only cards matching the hero's own affiliation are permitted in a deck. Once brought into play by paying the appropriate cost, allies remain until destroyed or removed from play. Allies can attack (or be attacked), and can also provide special powers or abilities.
• Loot - Loot cards are special versions of cards which can be used within the card game (e.g., as normal allies), but which also contain a scratch-off code. This code can be entered into the website for the online game, providing a unique in-game item, such as a pet, mount, or tabard.

Additionally, any card can be played as a resource card (with a limit of one per turn) by playing it face down to a designated area. All resources are equivalent and can be exhausted to pay any cost.

Products

The following products are available or have been announced:

• Starter deck - This UDEck box contains: A pre-constructed deck consisting of 33 fixed cards (one hero and 32 others) built around one of the nine classes; two booster packs; three oversized hero cards; and a rulebook. The oversized cards can be used in many play formats since hero cards are not shuffled into play decks. These decks contain one rare, six uncommons, and the rest are commons. Starter decks for both of the first two card sets are available, as follows:
• Heroes of Azeroth Starter Deck - Contains cards solely from the first set, Heroes of Azeroth. 9 different 33-card pre-constructed decks are available.
• Through the Dark Portal Starter Deck - Contains cards only from Through the Dark Portal.
• Booster pack - 15 random cards - 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare or epic, and 1 hero card or loot card. Booster packs also have one UDE point card redeemable online. ^[1] Boosters are available for all released card sets. Starting with March of the Legion, Booster packs will contain 19 random cards: 3 extra commons and 1 extra uncommon.^[2]
• Raid Decks - Raid Decks are specially designed decks used for a cooperative experience. They combine elements from the World of Warcraft (the team-based questing), and Dungeons and Dragons (the Deck Master).
• Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck - 3 epic raid boss cards, a 60-card ability deck, a 30-card event deck, 20 Onyxia Whelp tokens, and a 10-card treasure pack, as well as special rules for the deck. Cards in the treasure pack are not available in boosters, and any other raid deck exclusive cards are not considered part of the base set. Some of the treasure cards include the Tier Two Headpieces for all nine classes.
• Molten Core Raid Deck - 10 epic boss cards, all from Lucifron to Ragnaros the Firelord himself! This deck includes a main deck for the first nine bosses, tokens to represent different Minions and a separate deck for the Firelord. It has a different ruleset than the Onyxia's Lair Raid Deck. It comes with a ten-card treasure pack. The treasure packs include cards from the MMO like the legendary "Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros" and the Tier Two leggings.

The initial base card set is named Heroes of Azeroth, which includes 361 different cards. The color of the set number on the card indicates its rarity, using a rarity system similar to that of the online game; white for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic, and red for legendary. The only legendary cards in the base set are the three loot cards, which are variants of rare cards that have a scratch-off code. There are 22 epic cards, which are about twice as rare as the 110 rare (blue) cards. 99 uncommon, 114 common, and 16 hero cards complete the set. ^[3]

Future set expansions (not counting additional raid decks) are planned at a rate of 3 per year. The first such expansion, Through the Dark Portal, was released on April 11, 2007, and features 319 cards; 120 commons, 85 uncommons, 80 rares, 16 epics and 18 new heroes. The set also features three new loot cards redeemable for online items.^[4]

A second expansion, Fires of Outland, was released on August 22, 2007 and features 246 cards; 80 commons, 78 uncommons, 73 rares, 15 epics and 18 new heroes. This expansion contains three new loot cards, one of which is the Spectral Tiger mount. This is the first expansion that did not come with starter decks.

The next expansion, March of The Legion was announced and includes subfactions, demonic allies and new types of hero powers and will be released November 21st.

References

External links

• The official World of Warcraft Trading Card Game website
• The UK World of Warcraft Trading Card Game website
• Online TCG Games - A way to play the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game online, as well as other TCGs, via a Java client
• WoWTCGdB.com - World of Warcraft TCG database
• Warcraft the Card Game Site - A fan site
• CCGDb.com - A card search engine for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, as well as several other TCG systems..
• Battle Planner - Download a free Windows application to view a complete card list with all data