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Upper Deck giving $100,000 to winner of WoW TCG World Championship
Upper Deck has announced that their final WoW TCG tournament this year, the World Championship, will offer a whopping $100,000 prize. Yes, you read that right-- the top winner will take home a hundred grand. There's already a long list of people invited to the tournament, mostly from previous Nationals and qualifying tournaments, but there is still one chance left to get into the tournament, which starts on November 29th at the San Diego Convention Center. If you can come up with an Honor Ranking of 4 by then, you could enter the Honor Grind tournament on November 29th, and the top four winners of that will be invited to compete in the World Championships. So if you really want that $100,000 prize, and have never played the TCG in your life, better get playing.But even if you don't plan on winning, the World Championship sounds like a lot of fun-- TCG artists (including Blizzard's Samwise Didier) will be there to sign cards and meet players, and there will be lots of other events and tournaments. The Crafting Redemption metagame will also be happening for the first time-- players will be able to turn in "extra" material cards to "make" special exclusive item cards for the game. And this "Thunderfury" card is an exclusive participation card for the tournament, too. Very nice.And Upper Deck also reminds us that November is release month for the upcoming March of the Legion expansion, and they're going to hold a sneak preview of all the new cards on November 17th at a store near you. Supposedly there's a list of stores hosting the events over on their site, but I don't see it yet, so hopefully it'll be up soon. And keep your eyes open-- we've already been told the new set will have three brand new loot cards, and we've got our ears to the tracks on just what they might be.
New loot cards?
A couple of different sites around the net are claiming that the recently leaked photos of the rocket chicken, paper toys and the dragon kite are attached to the latest loot cards from the WoW card game. Previous speculation had linked them to the engineering profession, which wasn't a bad guess considering the new schematics that are already being added to that profession in the next patch.Now, Dyrk at the Gutterspeak blog claims to have some new information about the rocket chicken, which will apparently be the second rarest item of the three new cards. He claims that it's a small, non-combat pet that launches itself into the air (or accidentally blows itself up) as its idle animation.
Legends of Norrath booster drops increased in promo this weekend
If you're a fan of Sony Online Entertainment's Legends of Norrath card game, you're set to have a good time this week. This coming Friday to Sunday is a promo weekend for the collectible card game, with increased drop rates of booster and combo packs. In order to snag them you're going to have to play EverQuest or EverQuest 2, the two games directly connected to Legends of Norrath's lore and gameplay. The card game's booster packs drop normally in those two titles, but this weekend SOE has decided to up the ante and ensure that you'll probably get a reward or two from your time in-game.Players will also have the opportunity to snag two brand (non-foil) new cards in the booster packs, both of which (for the moment) are only available via this promo weekend.
New cards and big tourneys at Darkmoon Faire Philly
We didn't have anyone on hand to head out to the WoW TCG Darkmoon Faire in Philly this past weekend (although I was able to make the Chicago stop earlier this year), but worry not if you didn't make it, because the web guys over at Upper Deck's official site did a bang up job of covering all the activities over the weekend. From player tournaments to all the different decks that were played with, they've got the whole thing online, top to bottom. This was apparently the first event where the Fires of Outland set was playable, so they have a good piece up about that. And they even showed off some new cards, including a Dreamstate card from the March of the Legion set due in November.Upper Deck has also posted a preview of the cards coming in the special Feast of Winter's Veil giftset, and it is kind of funny to see that the (once-)dreaded AV snowball has received a card of its own. And Mistletoe is in the game as well, taking two player heroes out of their turns for a little "let it snow" action (while giving them both a new card to play with). Fun stuff from the TCG, whether you're a diehard collector or not.
Legends of Norrath's upcoming Loot Tournament Weekend
Prepare for cardboard card battle, well digital cardboard that is. The Legends of Norrath Loot Tournament Weekend is scheduled to start at 9 am on October 27th and last the whole weekend. This is a large scale tournament where players can win in-game loot rewards. There will be an entry fee of 10 event passes and each player that participates will receive three Oathbound booster packs, a Lucan D'Lere, Ruthless Tactician promotional card (illustrated by Jim Lee) and a choice of either an EverQuest Scale of Rodcet Nife or EverQuest II Bottled Breath loot card. In order to ninja your free loots just scoot into one of the "Loot Tournament Weekend" event queues and once they fill up the foray will begin and your account is flagged to be banned at a later time. I'm kidding about the banning part, your account is flagged for the goods! You do not have to be an EverQuest or EverQuest II subscriber to play Legends of Norrath. If you can't get enough tournament details check out the Legends of Norrath website. I'm seriously considering entering the Tournament depending on how much the entry fee is. I just downloaded the stand-alone client and it doesn't look bad -- so far, so good, stability wise. I need to get a few games under my belt before I can further comment on the game itself. If it's anything like Magic: The Gathering, I'll probably get hooked and you'll never hear from me again; hey, don't cheer that!
More bang for the buck on the TCG
We just received word from Upper Deck this afternoon that there's good news for TCG players. With the upcoming expansion March of the Legion booster packs (set to be released on November 21st), players will get not 15 cards in their booster packs, but a whopping 19-- for the exact same price, packs will have three extra common cards, and one extra uncommon cards in them.And even people who don't regularly play the TCG might like this other change: Loot cards are getting a booster pack boost as well, as Upper Deck is going to be putting three brand new loot cards in the set, and releasing more cards randomly into the set as well. There's no word yet on exactly what the loot cards will be (although it'll be tough to beat that Spectral Tiger), but we're keeping our ears open so wide it hurts to figure out what they are for you.The new set also has some cool stuff in terms of gameplay as well, if you're a TCG player (I like playing it, but none of my friends are quite as interested in the card game as I am). Aldor and Scryer sub-factions will make an appearance, as will new keywords (like "Ferocity" or "Protector"), and new demonic allies. And don't forget that the WoW TCG is rolling right along towards a World Championship, too-- nationals are wrapping up, and the event is set to go down the last weekend of November at the San Diego Convention Center.
Congratulations to our Upper Deck Art Card winners!
WoW Insider's Art Card contest is over, and we have to sincerely thank every one of you that sent your fan art in. There were some really incredible entries, and every piece sent in looked really good-- we had a tough time choosing the winners.But we had to, and so, as planned, we picked one Alliance piece and one Horde piece to each receive their version of Upper Deck's exclusive WoW TCG Art Card set. Each winner will get their faction's copy of the set, which includes 8x10 art cards by your favorite Warcraft artists, 1000 UDE points, redeemable online for ingame items, and a special playable foil card. If you didn't win (or just want a set), we're told they are exclusively available at Gamestop and EB Games. A huge thanks to Upper Deck for helping us with the contest!And without further ado, the winners. Our winning Alliance piece is the one you see above, put together by Bernadette V. It's her hunter, Jynxiee, in her Tier 6 armor-- just as with all this art we're posting, please do click the pic to see it big. Congrats, Bernadette! More art, including our Horde winner and a few Honorable Mentions, after the jump.
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Last day for the WoW Insider Art Card Contest!
Don't forget: today is your absolute last chance to submit your artwork for our huge Art Card contest-- we're giving away two very exclusive Upper Deck WoW TCG Art Card sets to two different artist. Just send us a JPEG of your Horde or Alliance fan art to wowinsidercontests@gmail.com, and the best Horde art wins the Horde set, and the best Alliance artist wins the Alliance set.Each set has 35 8x10 art cards (including art by all your favorite Blizzard artists), a special playable foil card, and a card redeemable for 1000 UDE points (which you can use to buy ingame items like the Ogre suit!). These sets are super exclusive, and all you have to do to win one is send us your best original WoW fan art. If your art is chosen as our Horde or Alliance winner, the Art Card set is yours.But act fast-- today is the last day. Email us a JPEG at wowinsidercontests@gmail.com to enter, and please include your name, age, mailing address, and email address-- that'll make things easier later when we mail out the winners. Official rules are right here. Good luck! Get that art in quick!
Nihilum raided Leipzig as Ogres
Last month in Leipzig, uber Euro guild Nihilum downed Archimonde in front of the crowd at the Games Convention. Ho hum, they've done this before -- the difference this time was that they raided as Ogres. Upper Deck Entertainment has a UDE Points Store where you can purchase the Ogre Disguise Trinket. Unlike the Murloc Suit obtained at BlizzCon which is a buff that disappears after entering combat, the Ogre Disguise Trinket (as you can tell by its name) takes up a trinket slot but remains on during battle. All 25 members of Nihilum's raid donned their Ogre Disguise Trinkets and killed Archimonde appearing in nothing but loincloths and armbands. It is unclear if they purchased these trinkets themselves (they are fans of the TCG and one of them has the Spectral Tiger Mount) or if UDE provided them.For the full story and more screenshots, go to the article at the UDE website. Or go take a look at how to get UDE points and what other items you can get with them.(Update: <fires unpaid proofreader> Errors fixed. Sorry for the mixup.)
Spectral Tiger Mount lottery tickets available (Fires of Outland TCG released)
The Fires of Outland booster set for the TCG is now available which means we all have a shot at getting a pack that includes the Spectral Tiger Mount. This highly sought after loot card attracted almost 6000 entries for the WoW Insider contest where we gave one away. It also garnered $2000 on eBay. So for the 5919 of you who didn't win one from us and for all of us who are not able or willing to pay thousands of dollars for one, all you have to do is buy Fires of Outland booster packs until you get your very own Spectral Tiger Mount.Of course, some of you actually play the TCG for fun and Upper Deck Entertainment provides a handy tournament search tool for you to find a tournament near you. Unfortunately, the Buy Now link on the Upper Deck Fires of Outland TCG page goes to a "not a valid item number" error page, but hopefully you'll be able to buy packs at the normal outlets soon. (Update: The Buy Now Link goes to a 24 pack.) Or you could increase your chances at getting a Spectral Tiger Mount by buying the packs 24 at a time from Amazon.Will you be trying for a Spectral Tiger Mount? If so, do you want it to use or sell?
Make some great WoW art, win TCG Art Cards from WoW Insider
We've seen some amazing World of Warcraft fan art out there, and considering what fans we at WoW Insider are not only of WoW, but of what its community is capable of, we're holding a contest to find two amazing art pieces. Upper Deck has provided us with two Art Card sets (one Alliance and one Horde, pictured above), including 35 8x10" art cards, a special playable foil card, and a card redeemable for 1,000 points at Upper Deck's UDE rewards site (where you can get actual in-game items as well, including an Ogre Suit!).To win, just submit a digital scan of an original piece of WoW fan art to our contests email, wowinsidercontests@gmail.com, before September 20th (so two weeks from today). It can be whatever you want-- an ingame NPC, your own character, a scene from Azeroth or its history-- just as long as it's original and it's yours. Then, on September 20th, we'll post the winners, and the best Horde piece will win the Horde Art Card set, and the best Alliance piece will win the Alliance version.We're rewarding art for art's sake here at WoW Insider, so get out those pencils, crayons, paints, or whatever other medium you want to use, and send us a copy of your piece at wowinsidercontests@gmail.com, and you could be chosen as the best Horde or Alliance artist around.A few rules apply (as always), and they are found right here. The short version: must be over 17 (13 with parents' permission), and must be a US resident (sorry, EU folks, legal's decision on this one). To make things easy, please include your name, age, mailing address, and email address in your email to us, and you can attach your art as a JPG file in your email.That's it-- good luck! Get us your art by September 20th to win the rare Art Card set!
World of Warcraft's Spectral Tiger sells for $2000
A Spectral Tiger from the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game recently sold on eBay for $2000. If we'd have known that the Spectral Tiger that WoW Insider gave away last month would sell for $2000, we would have said. "Contest be damned! We're going to Vegas baby!" The reason the card is so special is because it also gives you a rare mount inside of WoW once you input a code. Another reason the card sold for so much is that the card set it comes form, Fires of Outland, won't even be out until August 22nd. Beyond that, it's still apparently a rare card. As WoW Insider points out, $2000 is 11 years of game time -- and yes, that's the way they think about these things. Of course, like all things WoW, people go nuts and spend all this money and time on something to only have to be made completely uncool and pointless by something else a month later. But, you know, you're still World of Warcraft cool for a whole month.
Spectral Tiger card sells for $2000
Yesterday afternoon, a copy of the Spectral Tiger card from the WoW TCG sold on eBay for the astonishing price of $2000 (the starting bid was $100). Why so much? Well, for one thing, it's a loot card -- it gives you access, via a scratch-off code, to an in-game mount that you can't get any other way, called (surprise) the Spectral Tiger. It's available in both normal (60%) and epic (100%) speed, and it looks pretty sweet. Furthermore, the TCG set of which it is a part, Fires of Outland, has not been released yet; it debuts on August 22nd. This card was apparently obtained at pre-release event. Still, two grand is a lot of money; that would buy you over 11 years of game time, or (in my preferred money visualization scheme) 150 pounds of really good coffee.We gave away this very same mount not long ago (don't say WoW Insider never gave you anything) -- a $2000 value, apparently! But if you're not our lucky winner, and you simply must have a translucent cat to ride on, there are still a few more going on eBay.[thanks, Jacckk of Perenolde]
Playing the WoW TCG at BlizzCon
I've never really had an opportunity to play Upper Deck's World of Warcraft-based TCG. Sure, I own some cards, I've skimmed the rulebook, and shuffled through them admiring the artwork. But my friends all play World of Warcraft -- not the TCG, which means I've never really had an opportunity to play the game. But with our BlizzCon goody bags we received a free Heroes of Azeroth starter pack and an invitation to bring our sealed pack of cards to their beginners' tournaments -- so Saturday afternoon, after getting a game demo from one of the members of the Upper Deck team, I signed up to see what gameplay was really like.So if you're curious for a beginner's look at the game and how it plays -- keep reading!
BlizzCon schedule leaked
Blizzard has, inexplicably, been keeping the schedule for BlizzCon under wraps. We at WoW Insider have been frantically planning coverage here, and yet we haven't heard a peep from Blizzard about what to expect during the show. But now WorldofWar has posted what seems to be a leaked schedule for the event (no word on how they obtained it), and we'll finally have some idea of how the days are laid out. Here's what to expect if you're headed to BlizzCon: World of Warcraft and Starcraft II open gaming WoW, Warcraft III, and Starcraft tournaments An opening ceremony (where they'll announce a new game or expansion?) Panels on WoW classes, dungeons and raids, professions and items, and PvP A Starcraft II gameplay demo More panels on Warcraft Art, Blizzard Sound/Music, Careers in Gaming, Cinematics, Starcraft II Lore and Art, WoW UI mods, the TCG, and the Expanded Universe (likely the Warcraft novels) And the convention will wrap up with a big concert from L70ETC and Video Games Live hosted by Jay Mohr.Sounds like a full few days! Of course there will also be an exhibit hall open the whole time, but we haven't heard much of what will be in there (don't forget that Xfire will be there, as well as Upper Deck and all the TCG folks, and of course the WoW Insider party will be before the convention starts on Thursday night). Stay tuned for more details as we get them. Under a week left!
WoW Insider gives away a super rare Spectral Tiger Mount
See that? That's a Spectral Tiger Mount, a super-rare steed available only from a special loot card in Upper Deck's new World of Warcraft TCG expansion. Sure, the cards aren't even out yet but that hasn't stopped Upper Deck and WoW Insider (Joystiq's totally fabulous all-things-WoW blog) from teaming up to give one away to a single lucky reader. Entering is simple! If you play on a US or EU realm, just head over to WoW Insider and leave a comment before 7pm EDT tomorrow. That's it!While you're over there, check out their coverage of Blizzcon, going down next week. Already going? Stop by the first ever WoW Insider meetup while you're in town. Tell 'em Joystiq sent ya.
Upper Deck shows off the new loot cards
Upper Deck has confirmed those three loot items we mentioned the other day, coming in the Fires of Outland booster set. Goblin gumbo is a summonable pot that conjures a tradeable food (that makes you burp). There's a fishing chair as well (and Upper Deck has posted the first pictures of it-- looks like you're able to actually sit in the chair while you fish, which might make all that repetitive clicking a little more fun). And of course there's the much awaited Spectral Tiger Mount, available in both regular and Epic flavors (strangely enough, they're making you pay the regular mount price for it, even after getting the special loot card code.And if you're actually playing the game (not just using the codes for the cool in game stuff), Mike Hummel also reveals what each card does in game-- the Spectral Tiger card provides a buff to allies in your party with the Elusive and Ferocity qualities. Cool stuff. All of the cards will be foil cards, so if you're planning on grabbing some of the Fires of Outland packs (coming to stores in late August, we're told), keep an eye out.
Spectral Tiger Mount video
Of the three rewards coming to the TCG loot cards, this Spectral Tiger Mount probably got the most attention-- not only is it a sweet looking mount (ok, it's a freaking amazing looking mount), but it'll also be the first time Horde characters will get to ride cats*, and we all know cats are the best mounts in the game, right?We don't yet know, as MMO Champion notes, whether it's an epic or a normal ground mount-- Boubouille apparently ducked into a private realm for the video, and apparently there are two spells (one 60% and one 100% speed) for the mount itself. So that could mean that Blizzard is still deciding, or it could actually mean that there are two of these mounts in game-- one at 60% from the TCG loot cards, and an epic mount yet to be discovered.At any rate, looks awesome. Will this entice you to grab a few TCG packs, or does the fact that Blizzard wants you to pay real money for a mount you probably won't get just disgust you?*Update: Of course Horde can ride the rare Tiger mount from ZG. My bad.
WoW TCG Card "Lady Kath" honors mother with brain cancer
Reader Dave let us know about a moving article by Brian Kibler, one of the designers behind the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. He writes about how his mother had supported him growing up with his passion for trading card games, believing in him every step of the way while at the same time often struggling with poor health. In 2006 though, he found out she had been diagnosed with brain cancer, and he heard her say the fateful words, "Brian... I'm going to die.""It was that day that I realized I had to do something for her," Brian writes, "It was that day that I told Danny that I didn't care what it took-we were putting a card for her into set two. It was that day that Lady Kath was born."I'm told Lady Kath is one of the most powerful cards in the game, a paladin who heals all her allies at the end of each turn -- just as in real life, Brian's mother was a nurse who "strove to help others whenever and however she could," even when she herself was in poor health. On her card is written: "Her strength and warmth touch all those who cross her path."
Breakfast Topic: What should Nihilum do now?
They've done it all, raided from one end of Azeroth to the other, and now they've conquered Outland as well. So what is next for the golden boys of raiding? I imagine they themselves may be wondering the same thing. They have the gear, they've done all the encounters, so what now? What would you suggest Nihilum do as they set out into the unknown? Is it time to set their sights on The Card Game perhaps? Or maybe start ramping up to compete in the Arena season 2? What do you think?
