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World of Warcraft TCG: Ally Cards
These two preview articles highlight the different allies you'll have access to in-game, and what they can and can't do for you. There are different allies for players playing alliance and horde heroes, which I imagine adds some distinct flavor to playing either side in the game. Each ally has a resource cost (the number of resources you must expend to put it into play), an attack power (the amount of damage they can do to an opponent), a health rating (the amount of damage an enemy has to do to kill them), and sometimes special abilities. One ability of note is the "protector" ability - which I would describe in in-game turns as a warrior's taunt. When one player decides to attack another in the TCG, they choose an ally to attack with and an ally on their opponents' side to attack - however, if their opponent has any allies with the protector ability, they may use those cards to defend against the attack instead. The alliance preview introduces us to the dwarf paladin Maxum Ironbrew (who can heal himself) and everyone's favorite king of Ironforge, Magni Bronzebeard (who summons a dwarf warriors each turn to fight with you and also allows all dwarves in your deck to be protectors). The horde preview introduces us to the Orgrimmar grunt (which becomes more powerful the more grunts you have in play) and Warchief Thrall (who increases the attack power and health of all your horde allies).
World of Warcraft TCG: Quest Cards
The most recent TCG preview features quest cards - three of them in fact: Your Fortune Awaits You, Are We There, Yeti?, and Tooga's Quest. I find it interesting that these cards more or less mirror existing in-game quests, though fit neatly into the TCG's own structure. What's the point of quests? Well, they offer you rewards - usually extra cards, but sometimes other useful things - in exchange for resources. So what are resources? During every turn a player may play one card face down (any type of card? I'm a little unclear on this). You can use this card to pay a single resource cost. Thus, the further into the game you get, the more you can afford to pay for skills, abilities, and interesting quests.
World of Warcraft TCG: Weapon Cards
The most recent TCG preview focuses on weapons cards, highlighting the two-handed polearm Flame Wrath. In explaining how the weapon works, we get a lot of information on how the game's combat system is going to work as well. At this point, I'm curious - the highlighted card is usable by warriors, paladins, and hunters, but I don't see anything that differentiates the warriors' use of this weapon from the hunters' - so will melee hunters be a force to be reckoned with? Will bow-wielding warriors be viable without the in-game advantage that hunters receive from autoattack? There's still a lot we don't know about the dynamics of gameplay. And, again, WoW TCG news gives an excellent rundown of what these text-heavy previews tell us.
World of Warcraft TCG: Armor Cards
This TCG preview tells all there is to know about "armor" cards by showing off the Deathdealer Breastplate card. This article doesn't seem give us as much new game information as yesterday's preview - armor works much as you might expect it to work if you play World of Warcraft. The more I read about it, the more it sounds quite like the Azeroth I know and love, only without the need for an internet connection - and I'm all for that. Again, WoW TCG news has a nice summation of the information given in the preview.
Sneak Peek at the WoW Trading Card Game
This week's Sprawl's Scrawl has an interesting preview of the upcoming World of Warcraft trading card game. I've certainly been wondering how the World of Warcraft is going to be converted into card came format, and this certainly makes it sound like an interesting game - though details on gameplay are still very sparse. The game is packaged in starter decks, which contain a pre-constructed 33 card deck that's styled around one of the nine possible classes (which is random), two booster packs (with 15 additional cards each, to customize your deck), and 3 oversized "Hero" cards (of unknown use). The game will focus primarily on one on one PvP combat - as you test your cards and skills against those of another player - however, there are also rulesets for multiplayer and raiding. For raiding, there are 60-card raid decks that may be purchased and played, with one player acting akin to pen-and-paper dungeon master for the players attempting the raid.Can't wait to find out more? Well, the game is set for a Halloween release, but you can already pre-order starter decks and boxes of booster packs at Upper Deck's online store.
