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Super Hero Squad trading card game to feature bonus MMO content
For those of us who grew up as sports fans during the early 1990s, the name Upper Deck is synonymous with baseball cards. Nowadays, the firm has branched out into customizable trading card games, and the latest such is a tie-in to Gazillion's kid-friendly Super Hero Squad Online MMO. The Super Hero Squad TCG features a 300-card base set chock-full of the usual Marvel suspects. Alongside the Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America cards are special loot inserts with reward codes that unlock bonus items and exclusive playable characters in SHSO. Look for booster packs at your favorite gaming retailer on April 24th. [Source: Marvel press release]
Cryptozoic takes over WoW TCG license
According to this press release and Blizzard Licensing Manager Kat Hunter, the World of Warcraft TCG is now in the hands of Cryptozoic. They will be handling all the aspects of the game, from releasing new sets to scheduling tournaments and events surrounding the card game. We don't know a lot about Cryptozoic, and we were initially skeptical until Kat Hunter's tweet. Kat Hunter WoW TCG Moves to Cryptozoic Entertainment. New company started by Blizzard's Cory Jones and Wildstorm's John Nee. http://cryptozoic.com/ -- Follow the new Cryptozoic Entertainment @cryptozoic source Blizzard and UpperDeck recently split ways, which left the TCG's future full of many unanswered questions. And while there are still several today, the game at least has a home and some real potential for success. Update: Nethaera hit the forums to formally announce Cryptozoic carrying the TCG. We'll be seeing the Wrathgate booster in May, and class decks will begin their run in June.
Blizzard opens up official TCG forums
With all the news regarding the WoW Trading Card Game, avid players have been wondering exactly what's going on, where the license is going, and who's going to be producing new cards, if any. While there aren't any answers to these questions specifically, it's heartening to note that Blizzard just added a new Trading Card Game section to the official forums, solely for discussion about the TCG. The card game hasn't been forgotten, and neither have its players. The question of what the future of the TCG will bring has already been addressed on the forums by Eyonix, who restated Blizzard's earlier announcement that Blizzard and UDE would be parting ways. He also reassured players that Blizzard is committed to supporting the TCG and will be releasing new content in the near future, although there are still no new details as to who is picking up the license. While this also doesn't really answer any questions, it's good to know that Blizzard is still thinking about the TCG community -- and this gives an ideal place for Blizzard to post any updates regarding the game's production. Hopefully we'll see more news on the future of the TCG soon.
Upper Deck comments on loss of WoW TCG license
Upper Deck has issued their own news release statement regarding the dropped license of the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game. The decline in sales and economic downturn has been cited as the cause of their discontinued product. For now though, it appears that World of Warcraft products will still be up for sale until the end of March. However, their future products like the Class Starter Decks, Wrathgate Boosters, Souls of Vengeance Starters, Deluxe Starter and Boosters will not be produced. This announcement comes at the heels of the Yu-Gi-Oh! counterfeiting controversy revealed a few short weeks ago. Upper Deck has been caught printing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and managed to settle with Konami. We're not sure if the two are related but it may have had an impact on their agreements. Who knows? There is no information right now as to which company will partner with Blizzard in regards to the WoW: TCG. I tried out the game myself at BlizzCon 2009, but I had recently gone back into Magic: the Gathering, and there is no way I can afford to get into another hobby at the moment.
Blizzard: WoW TCG will come back better than ever
We recently broke the news that Upper Deck would no longer be producing the WoW TCG, and Blizzard poster Zarhym has popped by to say that they still have plans for the TCG: "As some of you may already be aware, we will not be renewing the World of Warcraft: The Trading Card Game license with Upper Deck. We want to assure you that we are committed to supporting the TCG, and players can look forward to new content and strong organized play support in the near future. We will share additional details about the game's transition to a new partner as soon as possible. For those awaiting tournament prizes, we will ensure you receive them." Of course, this isn't too surprising, really. As it turns out, sources close to the TCG say that all development and art for the game has been done inside Blizzard for a year or more -- Upper Deck has only been providing the printing. They've either been preparing for the switch for quite a while, or ... well, I can't really think of any other reasons. Why go elsewhere when you could get it done internally anyway? Licenses are big money, and contracts require that they be active for a certain amount of time. Companies can always choose not to renew their licensing agreement if they feel things aren't going well, or for any reason, really. But this is Blizzard, and this is a business move, pure and simple; you needn't worry that the game is going anywhere. It just might take a little bit to get everything back on track.
Upper Deck and WoW TCG parting ways [Updated]
We've discussed the reported death of the WoW TCG before, but its publisher Upper Deck reported that everything was good in the hood, so to speak, where the TCG was concerned. Today, however, Magic: The Gathering news site Mananation reported that Upper Deck and the WoW TCG are parting ways, citing confirmation from two sources. Mananation reports that the split was "amicable," but it seems very strange given that there are still several TCG products slated to be released in 2010, including class starter decks and the Wrathgate/Northrend sets. What this means for the future of the game is uncertain -- Blizzard might re-license the game to a different publisher or develop it internally, or pursue other means to keep the game (which was apparently doing well financially) alive. This also apparently affects the WoW Minis game, which might not have been doing as well. Upper Deck has had some legal issues lately, which may be the root cause of this split, but we won't know for sure until we get a comment from either company. We've confirmed the split independently through Potomac Distribution, and we contacted Blizzard and Upper Deck Entertainment around 6pm EST requesting their comment, and have yet to hear back from them. We'll update the post if we get a response. Update 7:56 p.m. EDT: Upper Deck replied to us letting us know that we'll hear from them on Monday concerning this matter. Update 8:10 p.m. EDT: A Upper Deck representative on their forums posted the following about an event happening in Houston: "We're going to make Houston all kinds of awesome, and I'm confident this will be a great start to a new chapter for the World of Warcraft TCG." Update 9:15 p.m. EDT: Zarhym hit the forums to confirm that the TCG is no longer in the hands of Upper Deck, but is not being discontinued entirely.
Like a mean cousin, Upper Deck steals Konami's Yu-Gi-Oh! cards
Konami announced yesterday that Upper Deck had been forced to settle with the company after allegedly printing hundreds of thousands of faked Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in China and bringing them stateside. On any other day, this news would just be kind of funny, but it's elevated by attorney for Upper Deck Richard Howell who said "At this point, Upper Deck doesn't have a lot of Life Points. We're talking about behavior that, from a defense attorney's standpoint, I can't defend and I am not going to defend. I'm here defending a counterfeiter. And now I have to deal with that issue." That's right: Life Points. Dude learned enough about Yu-Gi-Oh! to drop Yu-Gi-Oh! references. Man, that's the kind of lawyer you want to have. ... Unless, we guess, you're Upper Deck, in which case, it seems like you probably could have chosen a guy that didn't tell people how guilty you were.
TCG art contest winners announced
Some of the coolest contests happen in the EU, and unfortunately, sometimes completely under our radar. World of Warcraft in Europe recently announced the winners of a contest held between November 23 and December 6, 2009 (that's a period of two weeks, so even the folks in Europe might've missed out on it) which asked folks to design their own World of Warcraft trading card. We told you the coolest contests happen in the EU. Winners were announced last December 18, 2009, with Blizzard apparently selecting the best entries according to language. Five winners were selected, with J. Hoermandinger winning the top prize for English submissions with the Boo'Yah "Brickhead" card; D. Klenk was the German winner with Shilanya; S. Mariez won the French top prize with Perséphia Tristombe; A. Fuentes Garcia was the Spanish winner with Nairies; and A. Kirsanova won the Russian prize with a thankfully nameless but awesome-looking card (Cyrillic would be a little troublesome to jot down here). The contest awarded a veritable Upper Deck treasure trove that included a Death Knight deluxe starter kit, a World of Warcraft miniatures game starter kit and booster pack, and the ScourgeWar epic collection which has the Tiny loot card. The loot card enables Horde characters to mount a miniature raptor and Alliance characters to ride a miniature pony to move at unmounted speed. Congratulations to the all the winners! For those of you who missed out on the fun, you can always make your own TCG cards by downloading their Horde or Alliance templates. Enjoy!
Landro's Pet Box available for UDE points
Upper Deck recently announced a new item available in-game for players to claim using UDE points accrued from collecting the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The item, Landro's Pet Box, is a grab bag of sorts that can randomly give the character one of the following loot items: Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuit, Path of Cenarius, Sandbox Tiger, Dragon Kite, Ethereal Soul-Trader, or Bananas, the Monkey. Items previously available through UDE points were limited to a selection of epic tabards, permanent fireworks, and a Carved Ogre Idol that turns characters into ogres for 10 minutes. According to the product description, Landro's Pet Box will more commonly give out Pet Biscuits, Paths of Cenarius, or the Sandbox Tiger, but will occasionally grant the rarer vanity pets. Players will not receive duplicates of vanity pets already obtained through the Pet Box. The item can be purchased through the UDE points store for 2,000 UDE points (the same cost as tabards) and is only available on US and EU realms. Landro's Pet Box marks the first time items previously available only through loot cards would be made available through UDE points, allowing players who miss out on elusive loot cards another shot at obtaining the items.
Naxxramas Raid Deck and Treasure Packs now available
Following the success of their previous raid sets, Onyxia's Lair, Molten Core, Magtheridon's Lair, and the Black Temple, Upper Deck has released the first Wrath-themed event pack with the Naxxramas Raid Deck and Treasure Pack last December 22. Unlike their previous raid offerings, however, the Naxxramas Treasure Packs are stand-alone products which can be used separately from the raid deck. According to Dan Bojanowski, Upper Deck's World of Warcraft TCG Senior Brand Manager, the stand-alone approach "was created as a direct result of customer feedback." Aside from containing the standard content such as exclusive foil cards, the set would also include "alternate art heroes featuring heroes from the Drums of War block in Naxxramas-themed gear and settings." The Raid Deck, which is available for $29.99, contains a 110-card raid deck, 15 oversized boss cards, a 16-card Treasure Pack, and a UDE points card (or Loot card) and rulebook. Treasure Packs retail for $9.99 apiece and contain 15 random foil Treasure Pack cards out of a total of thirty collectible cards, a hero in Naxxramas-themed armor, and a UDE points card or Loot card. Hero cards are drawn from the Drums of War expansion set with variant art, with a total of ten cards with new art to collect. Each Treasure Pack also has a chance to contain a random Loot card from the Fields of Honor expansion set.
Local paper profiles TCG $50k winner
This is cool -- after local paper the Winter Park/Maitland Observer (near Orlando, Florida) heard that the winner of Upper Deck's last WoW TCG World Championships was from the same area, they went and found him, fittingly, in a game store. William Postlewaite, a.k.a. Billy P, won $50,000 just for playing the WoW Trading Card Game very, very well. While there's not a lot of info on the actual mechanics behind his win (this is a local paper, after all), it's very interesting to get a look at the player himself -- he works at the game store while going to school to learn finance, and spent about two months testing decks of cards with a friend before he found the one that he thought could go all the way. And what's he doing with all of his winnings? He's planning to buy a house. Smart play. You always hear about these wild sums being won by card game players -- good to know that this set of winnings is going to what seems like a good guy.
WoW 5th Anniversary Giveaway: Spectral Kitten loot code
In honor of World of Warcraft's 5th Anniversary today, we are kicking off three days of giveaways with one of the sweetest, shiniest, most drool-worthy prizes we could get our hands on: the ultra rare Spectral Kitten from Upper Deck's upcoming Scourgewar TCG expansion. The code from this card can be redeemed for an in-game non-combat pet called the Spectral Tiger Cub (complete with miniature armor) that follows you around playfully and meows when you click on him. How do you get your chance to win this? Put down the E-Bay bid and step away slowly, pet collectors, we have a better way for you here at WoW.com. Simply leave a comment in this post by 12pm (noon) tomorrow ET. That's it. Limit one entry per person and make sure you're registered with a valid email address. We'll be choosing one winner randomly from the entrants and contact them via email after the close of the contest. Note that we won't be emailing the code to the winner until mid-December when it is made available to us by the fine people at Upper Deck. And the best part? This contest is open to all readers regardless of where in the world you live. So leave your comment below, cross your fingers and hope for the best. And even if you don't win this one, there are plenty of contests to come here at WoW.com over the next three days. Screenshot of the Spectral Tiger Cub in-game after the jump. EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks so much for participating!
Breakfast Topic: An ode to the WoW TCG
I'll be up front and admit that I don't play Upper Deck's World of Warcraft TCG. If I had oodles disposable income and the time, though, I totally would. It's just that between the MMOG and, uh, real life it seems pretty difficult to find time to collect cards, build decks, and find people to play with or compete against. That said, I think Upper Deck's card game looks awesome and I had fun in the short time that I played it back when it was launched. If I wasn't playing WoW, I think I'd be playing the card game. More than any other licensed WoW product, I think, the WoW TCG feels extremely tied in to the game world. The art, along with a lot of game references such as NPCs, locations, and spells, make it feel like an extension of Azeroth. In many ways, some of the things that are featured in the card game are canon. I thoroughly enjoy the artwork in particular. They blow me away and I use every opportunity (such as this one) to include WoW TCG card art into my posts. I can't praise Upper Deck's graphic design team enough -- everything from the cards to the website to associated merchandise feels 100% World of Warcraft. When the WoW.com office in the clouds heard the rumor that the WoW TCG was about to die a sad and miserable death, I was kind of dismayed. I mean, we knew it to be false, but it was a sad thought anyway. Aside from being a fun game (and all-consuming habit!), the TCG is also famous for its loot cards. So on this nice morning, I'd like to make a toast to the not-dead-nor-dying card game. Do you play the WoW TCG? Would you have wanted to? What're your favorite cards? Any favorite loot cards? Is there anything in particular about the TCG that you like or dislike?
Rumors of WoW TCG's demise greatly exaggerated
Rumors have been swirling around the Internet this weekend, reporting that the WoW Trading Card Game was ending this year after the release of the upcoming Scourgewar expansion set due to mishandling of marketing by the Upper Deck team. The rumor apparently started at Rawrcast, where it was attributed to a "reliable source". Apparently not that reliable! Catching wind of the rumor, Upper Deck responded through its Senior Director, Scott Gaeta, saying that not only was the TCG not "over," but that it was steaming along right on schedule. Said Gaeta: "Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago. Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs. We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support! " Good enough for me. Interneterati who heard the rumor attributed the TCG's purported demise to a myriad of culprits, including Blizzard's new microtransactional Pet Store, Activision grand poobah and laser-precise IP exploiter Bobby Kotick, or even the iron tabletop gaming fist of Magic: The Gathering. Of course, none of those ended up being the case. Me, I'm glad to see that the TCG isn't going away, but let's start seeing some of those cool vanity loot card items attainable through other means, yeah? And the rocket mount an Engineering item.
Realm Championships and a 2010 preview for the TCG
The WoW TCG has just finished up their year with the World Championships, but apparently they're not sitting back on their laurels -- they've just sent word that their Realm Championships will be going down November 14-15, 2009, in cities around the world like "San Diego, Philadelphia, Helsinki, Manchester (England), Singapore and Melbourne." These are invite-only tournaments, but they're always accompanied by events that are open to the public, including lots and lots of TCG playing, giveaways and door prizes, and sometimes even special realms of the online game set up for players to join. If you've never seen a TCG event and one is headed to your city, it's worth checking out. Additionally, the TCG folks have outlined their plans for 2010 over on their website, and it sounds like it'll be a busy year. They're kicking things off with the Scourgewar release, including the TCG loot of the mini-mounts (finally, a pony!), the Tuskarr Kite, and a Spectral Tiger Cub. And later in the year, you can look forward to a Naxxramas dungeon deck, another expansion called Wrathgate (with likely more in-game loot to go after), and finally, an Icecrown Citadel raid deck release. Should be an exciting 2010 for the trading card game -- we'll definitely be watching for that new expansion and the loot items due out with it.
Upper Deck's Hero of the Year
This rather strange announcement over on the Upper Deck page about the TCG (in which, by the way, they admit that all of those problems you contest winners have been having giving your codes to Landro are completely intentional -- they're joking, in case you're wondering) is all about one of the cooler things they're doing with the TCG tournament system, something called Hero of the Year. The world champs have already been chosen, but as I understand it, these are like points winners: they may not have won the championship, but they earn points for placing in each tournament, and at the end of the year the person with the most points gets named Hero of the Year, and wins all the prizes associated with that: a free year of Upper Deck product and play, years of GameFly and Netflix, and of course lots of loot cards and exclusive loot. 2009's Hero of the Year is a guy named Jan Palys from Germany -- congrats to him and the rest of the top 10, called the Elite Minions. There's some other fun with this as well, especially if you're planning to hit up an event next year: for the next 12 months, anyone who beats one of these winners in tournament play will get a special exclusive card called Mystic Denial that will block any card your opponent plays. It's a cool idea -- gives you something else to chase as you hit up whatever Upper Deck event happens to show up in your town.
Battle and victory at the TCG and minis World Championships
Upper Deck held the WoW TCG and Minis world championships in Austin, Texas as planned this past weekend, and they've got all the results and news up on their website now if you're interested. Billy Postlethwait, above, won the Darkmoon Faire in Columbus, Ohio to gain entry to the championships, and after going into the finals 0 and 2, won three games to win the whole shebang outright. Apparently mages were the class to play in the Trading Card Game: six of the top 8 players were playing that class.In the minis tournament, Derek Richardson emerged victorious, with a group lead by none other than Jaina Proudmoore (with two NE hunters in for backup). All told, the event sounds like a lot of fun, and you can check out Upper Deck's official site for all of the coverage, including interviews with the players, photos of the action, and wrapups of the gameplay. Stay tuned for more news from next year's TCG and minis circuits as well.
WoW.com TCG Loot Giveaway: Sandbox Tiger and the Flag of Ownership
Alright, step right up, you lucky sons of motherless ogres. The powers that be over here at WoW.com have decided to bequeath upon a fortunate pair of readers more World of Warcraft TCG loot codes drawn from our bottomless, magical repository of gold and epic items (actually, they were given to us by those folks from WoWTCGLoot.com, which is kind of like the same thing). For today's swag, we're giving away one cute little Sandbox Tiger and my favorite loot item, The Flag of Ownership.Unfortunately, I can't steal the code for the Flag of Ownership for myself, which is what I would totally do if it wasn't sealed in a super-secret, rune-encrypted, glyph-reinforced, enchanted Titansteel vault guarded by Matthew Rossi's reanimated chest fuzz. Heck, it could be in a box made out of tissue paper and I still wouldn't be able to get at it. Every one of Rossi's chest hairs is as rabid as a Tarrasque hopped on Red Bull. And those are just the ones that have been shaved off! You folks, on the other hand, simply have to leave a comment below for the chance to receive the code from the comfort and relative safety of your own home. I say relative because we've been instructed to send Rossi-hair ninjas to off anybody who leaves more than one comment.Oh, and don't forget that you only have until Wednesday, 11:59pm EDT to chime in before we lock this thread and swizzle out the winner. If those loot cards don't tickle your fancy, something's wrong with you you can submit an entry for our Guild of the Month contest or vie to snag one of Creative's fancy new wireless headsets. One or the other, you choose. Because let's face it, everybody loves free stuff.
WoW.com TCG Loot Giveaway: Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits and Slashdance
Since we're in the middle of a pretty lazy Sunday here at the Wow.com secret world headquarters, we decided it might be cool to reach into the old prize box and pull out a few goodies for all you evening browsers of WoW news and information. In particular, we're going to be handing out a few TCG loot codes courtesy of our good friends at Upper Deck.For starters, let's throw out two codes for some Slashdance grenades, which will make everyone in the blast radius break out into dance. Pretending you are the Music Meister optional. We'll also give away an old but goodie - a code for 50 Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits, which will make the targeted vanity pet grow. Use it on your Teldrassil Sproutling and pretend you have a pocket druid healer (actual healing ability not included).Leave a comment below before 2:00 am EDT, and we'll pick a few of you at random to get these codes. It'll give us something to do while we wait for more submissions for our October Guild of the Month contest.
World of Warcraft TCG and Minis World Championships this weekend in Austin, TX
Upper Deck has announced that the 2009 World Championships for both the WoW Trading Card Game and Miniatures games will be taking place in a public event this weekend, October 9-11, 2009, in Austin, Texas. They'll be at the Austin Convention Center, and of course there will be the world championship tournaments for both games, offering up to $300,000 in cash and prizes total, including $50,000 for the winner of the World Championships for the TCG, including a Spectral Tiger Loot card as well as the chance to get immortalized in a future card release.And even if you're not a championship player, you can still go see the games, and even play in some of your own -- they'll have tournaments and events for players of all levels all weekend long, some with pretty cool prizes. And you can win just by walking in the door, as they'll be giving away door prizes all weekend as well. The event is free -- it kicks off Thursday morning, and goes all the way until Sunday night (you can download schedules for both games over on the website). Should be fun -- if you go, make sure to take some pictures and let us know what you think.
