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Wizards of the Coast sues Cryptozoic over Hex TCG
After Cryptozoic stopped producing the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game -- and around the time Blizzard announced Hearthstone -- the company turned its attentions to its own digital card game, Hex: Shards of Fate. Hex wound up with $2.2 million in Kickstarter funding and is currently in alpha testing. But the game's success hasn't been missed by the biggest player in TCGs, and Wizards of the Coast has sued Cryptozoic for willfully infringing on its intellectual property -- which is to say Magic: The Gathering. Wizards accuses Cryptozoic of copying cards, plot, elements, circumstances, theme, mood, creatures, pace, play sequence, and flow from Magic. Hex is markedly similar to Magic -- though many trading card games draw their inspiration from that base -- and even the community has commented on it. In fact, the body of the lawsuit copies substantial material from a blog post on Threshold: The Hex Podcast comparing the two games as well as quoting forum posts in which commenters have noted the same. If this seems like a weak source of evidence to you, then you're in agreement with Cryptozoic, which has come out stating that the lawsuit is meritless and it intends to fight. If Wizards wins this round, we have to wonder what it means for other card games like our recent favorite Hearthstone.
Death's Bite weapon added to Hearthstone's Curse of Naxxramas
We're all looking forward to this summer's release of Hearthstone's first expansion, Curse of Naxxramas. And in the meanwhile, @PlayHearthstone is stringing us along with glimpses of what we can expect in the upcoming expansion. Today's glimpse is the warrior card Death's Bite, a 4/2 weapon with the deathrattle effect of dealing one damage to all minions. There's no release date -- or price tag -- for Curse of Naxxramas just yet, but while you wait for the expansion to arrive there's plenty of time to read up on what's coming our way.
Unleash the Hounds mana cost going up in Hearthstone
CM Zeriyah has announced that the mana cost for the hunter card Unleash the Hounds will be changing from 2 to 3 in an upcoming patch. Since Hearthstone came out of beta, Blizzard hasn't made any card balancing changes, but this card's power -- Hearthhead suggests the card is in 74% of hunter decks, and we honestly have to wonder about the 26% of decks that don't include it -- made the change necessary. Zeriyah ...when playing against Hunter decks, you may feel punished too much for playing minions. Playing minions is one of the key, fun pieces of the overall Hearthstone puzzle, and feeling like your options are limited by the opponent creates a play experience that may not be particularly enjoyable. source Still, that extra mana cost isn't so much that Unleash the Hounds is likely to go away entirely -- but hopefully it means you won't struggle with it every time you're matched up against a hunter. For more on the reasoning behind this change, be sure to read Zeriyah's full post.
