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Win even more loot from WoW.com
While the entries for our Guild of the Month contest for September flow in, we've decided to also hand out a little bit of instant gratification. Loot codes, anyone? This afternoon we have, once again, a few Slashdances to hand out, courtesy of Upper Deck. In case you've forgotten, each of them gives you a stack of 100 Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.s which you can use to start impromptu dance parties in your capital city of choice, or if you're that guy you can use them to drive your raid nuts and prevent them from devouring that delicious Fish Feast we all love so much.All that you need to do to win one of these is leave a comment on this post. At 11:59 pm tonight, I'll be disabling comments and picking three lucky winners at random. Please remember to use a valid email address to leave your comment, because that's how I'll be getting you your code. If I send you a mail and it bounces, you're out of luck and I'm moving on to someone else. Please only comment once. If I find you commenting multiple times to increase your chances, you will be disqualified.If you're looking to win something a little more substantial from us, don't forget to enter the Guild of the Month contest for $100 worth of gear from Swagdog, where you can get some awesome custom guild apparel.
Darkmoon Faire France cancelled
Upper Deck has posted on their site that they have canceled the upcoming Darkmoon Faire event in France for the TCG. They've been having events all over the world of this kind, featuring tournaments, exhibitions, and interaction with the game's officials and designers (I checked out one such event when it was in Chicago last year). And while they had planned to hold a Faire in Paris in 2009, apparently it's not going to happen -- they say there was "complications" with the "venue," and the event has been shut down. They are still trying to come to France, however: they're hoping to hold an event called the Tournois du Voile d'Hiver ("Tournament of Winter's Veil" in English) in Toulouse in November.And this really does just look like a schedule conflict, as they are still holding events in Amsterdam, Austin, and Vegas later on in 2009, and from what we've seen at various conventions this year, Upper Deck's WoW-related TCG and minis games are bigger than ever (in fact, given what I saw at Gen Con and have heard from various UD employees, it's possible that the WoW games are the company's biggest-selling non-sports product). They're planning to bring the Darkmoon Faire back to Paris next year, and that's probably exactly what they'll do.
Comment to win some Saturday night swag
Good evening, WoW.com! Tonight we have a surprise giveaway. Right in front of me are three Slashdance loot codes, courtesy of Upper Deck. Each code grants you 100 Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.s which you can use to get your raid burning up the dance floor! Or the auction house, or the Horde/Alliance tunnels before Alterac Valley starts, or... you know, wherever it would be most obnoxious. Do you want one of them? All you need to do is leave a comment to this post before 11:59 PM EDT this evening, which is a little less than five hours from now.When the clock strikes midnight tonight, I'll be turning off comments on this post and randomly selecting three winners. You may only enter tonight's giveaway once. We have ways of finding out if you've commented multiple times, so don't hose yourself out of a loot code. Comment with a valid email address, because we'll be using that to send you your loot code.If you don't win one tonight, don't worry! Upper Deck was kind enough to give us a whole load of loot, so we'll be giving them away pretty often until we've bled ourselves dry.Update: Congratulations to our winners InsiderFan, Jon B., and Friend. They're our winners this evening! I'll be contacting all three of you via email shortly. Again, if you didn't win tonight, don't worry. We'll be giving away many, many more of these in the near future. Just keep an eye on the site.
Breakfast Topic: Have you played those other games?
One of the things I got to do at BlizzCon 2009 that ended up being a whole lot of fun was sit down and play a few rounds of the World of Warcraft TCG at the Upper Deck Booth. I actually plan to write a bit more on that later, but for now, my main thought on it was that it was pretty fun. As a former Magic: The Gathering Player way back in the early 3rd edition days, I've always held a soft spot in my heart for a good solid card game, and I've been meaning for the longest time to check out the TCG as something more than a silly thing that refuses to give me a mount. I have to say, if anything, that I probably enjoyed it too much. Not only did I catch onto the rules pretty quickly, but I was transported back to the old magic days, and I'm halfway tempted now to perfect a good solid deck and go out to my local gaming store in a couple weekends to see if anyone else plays. On the other hand, I'm trying to avoid that temptation, because I just know it'll eat up my life like Magic did back in the day.
Upper Deck announces Amsterdam Darkmoon Faire
European fans of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game are in luck as the Darkmoon Faire will be visiting Amsterdam this September. Upper Deck, who host the events, are expecting 350 players to attend and are offering a host of prizes, including a goody bag for every attendee as well as raffle with some really epic loot as prizes. The goody bag contains a T-Shirt, regular and exclusive Mini figures, a Death Knight Starter pack, some battleground cards, a demo CD, a common loot card and an entry form for the raffle.The raffle is where things get interesting. Upper Deck have fifteen prizes up for grabs which have a combined worth of €5000. They are giving away: One Frostmourne sword Two Collectors Editions of Wrath of the Lich King Five exclusive Wrath of the Lich King mousepads Two complete sets of Minis Five Spectral Tiger mounts The event will be taking place at Westergasfabriek between September 12th and 13th. Tickets are free so if you're in Amsterdam that weekend, you might want to pop along.
Upper Deck awards TCG and minis North American Continental Champions
I spent my Saturday out at Gen Con in Indianapolis, and while I did hunt down some of the World of Warcraft action there, there was just too much going on to pay attention to the 2009 North American Continental Championships for the WoW minis and TCGs, which took place right there in the TCG hall. Fortunately, the official site covered it all, so if you're a fan of the trading card game and want to know who the best current players in North America are, there you go. On the TCG side, Corey Burkhart took the top spot by playing a Troll Shaman deck for the win. In the minis competition, Michael Allen picked up the big prize. The official site has lots more information, including rundowns of each match, standings for each round, and even a Facebook album full of photos.The winners picked up thousands of dollars in prizes (including a 17" MacBook Pro and a 30" Apple monitor for Corey), and all of these guys will all compete in the World Championships, to be held in Austin, Texas this October (that prize goes up to a whopping $100,000 overall, so the stakes can get big). Congratulations to all the winners -- sounds like it was a rousing event there in Indy, and Upper Deck is probably on their way as we speak off to meet with us later this week at BlizzCon.
Upper Deck finalizes Gen Con plans
Anybody else going to Gen Con this coming weekend? I'll be there on Saturday (and we might even be having a mini-meetup on Saturday night -- Twitter is probably the best place to listen for that), and I'll be sure to take pictures and/or movies of anything WoW that I see on display. Upper Deck has finalized their plans for the event, and it appears they'll be out in force. In addition to what's been announced previously, there'll be a North American Continental Championship for the WoW TCG, with the winner walking away with $10,000 in prizes, including a brand new MacBook Pro, $1000 in Amazon gift cards, and a 30" monitor. But if, like me, you're far from a pro player, you'll still be able to get in on the fun: they'll be demoing the game all weekend, and giving away special promo cards with every demo. WoW Minis will also be there, and they'll be selling a special limited edition Fleet Master Seahorn figure for $9.99, which introduces the questing mechanic to the minis game (we'll expect to see those at BlizzCon as well, I'm sure).Plus, who knows what else we'll see there -- in the past, we've seen some great displays from Blizzard partners, and even a real-life server protest a few years back. Gen Con is one of the biggest gatherings of gamers in the country, and wherever there are gamers, odds are we'll find World of Warcraft. It'll be my first time seeing the convention this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it.
Blizzard fights scammers with TCG mount changes
Blizzard has confirmed what we have speculated about: the change to make Upper Deck Trading Card Game mounts Bind-on-Use instead of BoP is specifically to combat scammers.Currently, if you have a loot code, you redeem it and then "purchase" the mount from an NPC vendor. The mount immediately becomes soulbound. This two step process allows unscrupulous people to easily scam prospective mount buyers and subsequently hack their accounts. In patch 3.2, redeeming the code will automatically place the mount in your inventory, unsoulbound and available for legitimate in-game transactions.Bornakk warns that if you have already redeemed a mount code, but have not purchased your mounts from the NPC, you will not be able to do so after 3.2. So it is important that you get your mounts before the patch is released, which could be as early as this Tuesday.Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
WoW and its partners at Gen Con 2009
Gen Con Indy 2009 is just around the corner (it's the weekend before BlizzCon), and if you're headed out for the "best four days in gaming," keep an eye out there for some of this Warcraft stuff. Blizzard won't actually be there, as far as we know (it's more of a convention for board games and roleplaying than video games), but lots of their partners will. Upper Deck will probably have the biggest presence -- both the WoW TCG and the WoW Minis games will have setups where you can sit down and play either one, and they'll be running the Continental Championships as well, where they'll crown some of the best players in the country. And there'll be other tournaments and gameplay for both games going on as well -- the guys from wowtcgscrub.com are organizing a tournament of their own, and Upper Deck will have other ways for you to compete at all levels all weekend long.Fantasy Flight Games, the makers of both World of Warcraft: The Board Game and World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game, will also be in attendance. They haven't announced anything special for the Warcraft games, but they'll likely have them out and playing in at least one demo space. And Warcraft will be there in attendance through the fans as well for sure.In fact, I'll be there for the first time this year -- my friend and I are going to be checking out the show on Saturday. I have no idea what to expect, but i've heard from a few readers that are going already, so if there's interest, we might try to schedule a WoW.com meetup that evening. So if you're headed for Gen Con this year, keep an eye out for the World of Warcraft there.
DC Unlimited Premium Series 2 features Thrall and a Gnome Warlock
I would hazard a guess that the DC Unlimited series of action figures from the WoW universe is probably the least-heralded licensed product -- whenever Upper Deck releases a new set of the TCG, we get multiple press releases and it gets posted on their main site, but whenever a new set of figures comes out, we always have to find it hidden in among all the other comic news and then make sure it hasn't been released before. But these are new, or at least new to us: DC is planning to release two new Premium Series 2 action figures, including everyone's favorite tortured Horde leader, Thrall, and a Gnome Warlock with a Voidwalker pal.Technically, news of these guys leaked out to distributors in May, but apparently we didn't miss the boat by too much anyway, as they're not set to be on store shelves until next January (or February, even, depending on where you look). Does it really take that long to get these things ready and out? At any rate, there they are, and we wouldn't be surprised to see both figures on display at BlizzCon later this year. We've had a few of you in the comments mention that you'd like to see a Thrall figure before, and so here you go. Personally, I have a completely different Orc I'd like to see immortalized in action figure form.%Gallery-45214%Thanks, KND and Eric W.!
BlizzCon Sweepstakes ticking down to deadline
Just in case you aren't satisfied with one chance at winning tickets to BlizzCon, those guys from SteelSeries have teamed up with J!NX, BradyGames, Upper Deck, and Swag Dog to bring you the BlizzCon Sweepstakes. That's like an all-star crew of geek and gamer gear companies forming some sort of super team just for you. That's right, these guys want you to go to BlizzCon, too, and all you have to do is hop on over to their sweepstakes site, fill up a form, and you're in. It's that easy. First prize is a flight for two to Anaheim, 2 nights at a hotel, 2 passes to BlizzCon, and yes, even $300 in pocket money (so you can buy more of swag, I'd imagine).Here's where the all-star crew comes in -- if you don't get to win the Grand Prize, five lucky chaps will go away with a SteelSeries World of Warcraft mouse, a $50 J!NX Gift Certificate, and the World of Warcraft Atlas from BradyGames. The rest of the lucky guys will get $25 Swag Dog Gift Certificates, Fields of Honor booster packs, World of Warcraft-themed mousepads, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Not a bad deal at all for just filling out a form. Of course, as usual, it's only open to residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and Quebec). The contest runs until July 31, so feel free to dilly-dally around WoW.com before you submit your entry.Don't like that you can't enter the contest because of where you live? We don't like it either! Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it right now. But you can! In the US contact your Congressperson, in Quebec contact the Quebec government, and in the UK contact your member of Parliament. Tell them you want things changed so contests can be open for everyone.
Details of Blizzard presence at Comic Con
The schedule for the 2009 San Diego Comic Con is finally starting to emerge, and Blizzard has now confirmed details of its presence there.It looks like Blizzard is going to be running a panel on Thursday, July 23rd (the first officlal day of the con, which this year is July 23rd to 26th) with Chris Metzen and a host of people associated with Blizzard products from Upper Deck, Wildstorm, Tokyopop, and J!nx. Interestingly, Nick Carpenter, the creative director for Blizzard cinematics, is also going to be there, so it looks like this might be a particularly good opportunity to get information about Blizzard's lore and art direction, on top of the Warcraft comics, minis, and cards. I've included the full list of panel attendees behind the cut, and as of now the panel looks to be scheduled in Room 6BCF.If anyone's interested in what the Blizzard Comic Con panel was like last year and the nature of the questions answered, here's our 2008 write-up. Do we have any readers who are going to Comic Con this year?
WM Match Tracker on the iPhone tracks your WoW Minis matches
We've posted about the WoW TCG Lifecounter app for the iPhone before, and now the official WoW TCG site has spotlighted that one and another Upper Deck-related app for Apple's little handheld devices. WM Match Tracker is a free application on the App Store that will keep track of everything you need during WoW minis matches, including lifepoints for every character in play, the master clock of the entire game, and even each characters' clock (if you've played the game, you'll know that will tell you when each player can come back into play after using a certain ability). Sounds pretty useful, and the price is great, too: completely free. Of course, you don't need the app -- you can use pen and paper (and each board for the game usually has a clock on it), but if you've got an iPhone or iPod touch, it could come in handy.It's interesting -- Blizzard's been putting the kibosh on lots of Armory-based apps, but both of these apps are not only untouched, but they're actually being spotlighted on the official Upper Deck site. It could just be that Blizzard at large hasn't heard about them yet, or maybe they're specifically targeting apps that focus on the core game, not on the licensed products. Or, it could be that Blizzard is going after just Armory apps -- I can't think of any non-Armory apps that involve Warcraft in some way, but if Blizzard is planning an official Armory app, that would definitely be a reason to clear the App Store of unofficial apps first. Unfortunately, repeated queries to them from us about this have gone unanswered so far.But at any rate, WM Match Tracker seems like an excellent app, and if you spend any amount of time playing the award-winning WoW minis game, it seems helpful.
UPDATE: Fields of Honor Loot Card EU giveaway
I hinted at this the other day but Upper Deck International here in the UK has given WoW.com a set of shiny, brand spanking new loot cards from the latest Fields of Honor TCG expansion, which went on sale yesterday. We're giving them away to you, our lovely EU readers. All you need to do is leave a comment in this post before 5PM GMT (6PM CET) today, July 1st, 2009. One of the Big Giant Heads (aka our beloved editors) will then randomly choose which of our three lucky readers will win one card each. Be sure to comment with an e-mail address you check often and have easy access to, because that's how we will be contacting our chosen winners with the codes. We have three codes to give away, one for each of the cards in the set. That's the awesome chicken mount El Pollo Grande, the Ogre Pinata and the groovy Path of Cenarius.The only caveat is you must have a European WoW account or the cards won't work (sorry to our American brethren) so please make sure before you enter, okay? Also, you can only enter once and, yes, we will know if you enter more than that. Good luck to all who participate!Thanks to Tom at Upper Deck International's UK office for the codes.UPDATE: The competition is now closed! We'll be announcing the winners later on this evening.
Fields of Honor on sale tomorrow
Ahh the smell of fresh loot in the air, it must be summer. Well, fans of loot cards and the official Trading Card Game, I bet you have your calendar marked. Tomorrow sees the release of the latest - and possibly greatest - TCG expansion Fields of Honor. Yes, you too could have your very own El Pollo Grande, the greatest mount in the entire history of Azeroth. We've mentioned this thing was rarer than a spectral tiger's tooth, right? Indeed our very own Turpster has been raving about his (insert slightly rude giant chicken joke here) all week.The best part that is the cards were activated in an earlier patch so you can use them as soon as you find one. No more waiting for 3.1.x or even 3.2. Just to recap, the Fields of Honor loot consists of El Pollo Grande, the Ogre Pinata and the groovy Path of Cenarius. You can also take a peek at Upper Deck's loot card preview page for some really cool screenshots.But here's the best part. After the success of our last EU giveaway, Upper Deck International here in the UK have very kindly given us a set of shiny European loot cards. Isn't that nice of them? We certainly think so! We're going to give them away during this week's maintenance so check back then.
Death Knight class arrives in the TCG
Upper Deck has announced that the Death Knight class is coming to the WoW trading card game. Just like in the MMO, the class plays differently than any other -- their website has a series of previews posted that show just how different their DKs are. The class is designed to do crazy damage with two-hand weapons, and there are options to do extra damage by sacrificing allies or equip gear that provides you with solid armor even as you're churning out DPS. There are Death Knight Horde and Alliance allies as well, and each of them has a Death Knight-specific ability -- lots of Shadow damage, exchanging protection for more damage, and even some Frost-tree cold debuffs. And there are quests to go along with the Death Knight class as well, where DKs get extra bonuses for completing and playing certain quests.Starting on June 16th, you'll be able to pick up 36-card deluxe starter decks for Death Knights at a store near you, and those decks will get inserted into the game just like any other class -- they come with a Hero to play, associated spells and quests, and three "Ghoul token cards" to play as allies. While this is the first time Death Knights will be playable as Heroes, the very first Death Knight cards were actually included in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition -- a pair of Ally cards named Lord Anton Nightbane (Alliance) and Conqueror Kagon Blackskull (Horde). If you like the TCG but have been looking for a new twist (or a way to bring your Death Knight character into the game), this definitely seems worth a look. And speaking of the TCG, they are now on Facebook, so if you're a fan, go say hi over there as well. The MMO and TCG crowd still seem to run in different circles (though you'll definitely see the game at BlizzCon), but there are quite a few intersecting points between them.
Try out Fields of Honor loot on the PTR
Reader Kongzai sent us a tip this morning that the recently revealed loot cards for the next TCG expansion Fields of Honor are available for testing on the PTR. He hotfotted it down to Booty Bay and reports that it is indeed possible to sample the latest loot using the same codes as in previous PTR tests. All you need to do is enter the following when prompted by Landro:1111 for the Path of Cenarius2222 for the Ogre Pinata3333 for the Magic Rooster Egg (aka El Pollo Grande)Kongzai was also able to shed a little more information on the loot itself. He reports that Path of Cenarius is the common item, coming in stacks of 100 and lasts for five minutes. The Ogre Pinata is, as I predicted, BoP and thirty minute cooldown. He comes with 5000 HP and, when destroyed, leaves a stack of gumballs in his wake which grant a buff that makes you blow bubbles. Awesome. He also told us that El Pollo Grande costs 100g which is not a bad amount for such a cool mount.This news comes mere hours after Upper Deck posted a loot card preview on their official site featuring screens and the first video of the must-have chicken mount El Pollo Grande.
First WoW Minis expansion: Spoils of War
Upper Deck has released the first expansion to the WoW minis game, called Spoils of War. The new set of figures introduces legendary lore figures like Jaina and Kael'thas into the mix, and they can now jump onto the gameboard with player characters and duke it out in the streamlined Arena-style turn-based battles. The new set also contains Action Bar cards, which can modify your characters and party's abilities before a battle (like casting a Wrath of Air totem to modify all of your team's die rolls). And finally, the new expansion also brings items into the mix, so there's one more medium in which you can wield Sulfuras, the Hand of Ragnaros. (And no, unfortunately, real life isn't one... yet.)The new set is available in booster packs at a hobby and collectible store near you -- the MSRP is about $14.99, but they'll probably be around for cheaper than that eventually, if they're not already. If you're a regular player of the minis game, it sounds like it'll be a must-have addition, and if you've never picked it up before, maybe the prospect of playing some of the more famous lore figures will get you interested.
Latest Upper Deck loot cards revealed, including El Pollo Grande
Boubouille over at MMO Champion has once again been ferreting around in the patch files and he's discovered the next set of loot from Upper Deck's next TCG expansion Fields of Honor which is due out on 30th June.There is a legend of El Pollo Grande, the scariest chicken in all of Azeroth, the black chicken of death. For years he has been the stuff of myth, summonable only by Niby the Almighty during a Felwood quest chain. Now, however, he has once again returned, this time as a mount. Yes, you heard me right, a giant chicken mount. This El Pollo Grande is not as dark or mean as his namesake, instead looking like a regular -- albeit giant -- chicken and will be an epic land mount. So if you've not yet reached level 60, then consider this your motivation.Also in the cards (see what I did there?) are an ogre pinata (which I'm surmising will be a BoP item with no charges, like the Goblin Weather Machine). Finally, for those of you who walked the Path of Illidan, there's the Path of Cenarius which leaves flowers in your wake. Nice.
EU Loot Card winners announced
Well goodness gracious me! We had nearly eighteen hundred comments for this morning's EU loot card giveaway! Not bad eh? Well we /rolled and came up with three lucky winners who will be receiving an email from me shortly!So, without further a do, /drumroll. The lucky winners are:Rugus, who gets the adorable Sandbox Tiger,Finezze (who from his post was dying to be the centre of attention) gets the Epic Purple Shirt and, finally,Elenac, who will be able to challenge her friends to duels with the Foam Sword Rack.Congratulations to all and thanks to everyone who entered.
