Tournament Report: Battleground at Grasshopper’s Comics

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Terence

With the World of Warcraft TCG Worlds event going on in Amsterdam, all of the players at Grasshopper’s were completely enthralled in anything and everything Wow TCG. Whether it was speculating how the new Dungeon decks would affect the metagame or checking our iPhones to see who was doing well at Worlds, everyone at the store was talking about WoW. With everyone so focused on the game, the only logical conclusion was to sit everyone down and run a Battlegrounds tournament. With everyone eager to play we got the tournament off the ground and the six of us went to battle with dreams of playing in the Worlds event floating in our minds.
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Tournament Report: Hallow’s End at Grasshopper’s Comics

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Terence

This past Saturday was the Hallow’s End Holiday event at Grasshopper’s Comics. This was the first event held at the store since the release of Throne of Tides, which also marks it as the first event under the new Core format. We had nine players turn out for the event and everyone had an absolute blast testing out their new Core builds while simultaneously competing for the Hallow’s End exclusive playmat prize.
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Throne of Tides Metagame Predictions

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Terence

With the release of Throne of Tides, World of Warcraft TCG will see a radical shift. Not only are there 263 new cards to be played with, there is also the elimination of 1,500+ cards from the Core format. As detailed in Pete’s Changes to the Core Format article, this new set has an unquestionably massive effect on the game.

As it is with the release of any new expansion, the metagame shifts to reflect the new options and new deck builds that each of the classes now has available to them. With Throne of Tides we also have the addition of Monster heroes and allies, which have been represented in WoW TCG previously.

With all of this in mind, here is my take on how the metagame will change with the release of Throne of Tides and its later expansions.
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Posted in Random Thoughts, Tournament Strategy | 1 Comment

Draw vs. Discard

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Terence

It would be hard pressed to find a card gamer that disagrees with the idea that it is always better to have more cards in your hand than your opponent. I understand that more cards in your hand doesn’t mean you are winning or that you have a good board position, but it is definitely better than having less cards in your hand, regardless of whether you are winning or losing.

But how do you get more cards than your opponent? That is usually accomplished by drawing more cards than your opponent or discarding cards from his hand. While it is certainly possible to do both, World of Warcraft tends to lend itself to players focusing on either drawing or discarding as combining the two makes for some very strange deck constructions.

So which is better?
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Posted in Deck Construction, For Beginners | 1 Comment

The Art of Playtesting

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Terence

As any avid card gamer will tell you, the key to making a strong and succesful deck is playtesting. It is very rare for a player to simply get an idea, throw together a pile of 60 (or more) cards, and go to the next major tournament and win. As much as we’d all like to think we are capable of doing this, the truth is that it is extremely unlikely. The main reason is that, barring a miracle, any deck you throw together and play out of the gate at a tournament will be lacking a playtest, and playtesting is definitely the key to success.
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Nature’s Swarm

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Peter Sanzone

This will be the first of what I hope to be many theme deck building articles. As I said in my previous article, I will only be using cards that are within the current block and are themed around one of the four elements. I’ve decided to start of this series with a theme deck that I’ve been working on for some time now based around the card [Aileen the Thunderblessed]. This deck focuses on exploiting her unique ability and the abilities of other [Nature] cards to quickly generate allies and deal damage.

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Don’t Worry About It #1 – Alana the Woebringer

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Terence

Welcome to the first entry of what will hopefully be an informative ongoing series. In Don’t Worry About It, I will feature one card or combo that has been receiving a lot of hype or attention that, in my personal opinion, is unwarranted. I will break down each card or combo by its various components and explain why these particular cards are not as scary as people are making them seem. The cards/combos I feature are likely to come from the discussions I have with fellow WoWTCG players at my local gaming store, or they could come from obscure thoughts I have while reading previews and/or cracking packs of the most recent set.

Today’s card was first previewed over on WoWTCG.com and has since received a lot of attention. Since she is the first entrant of this new series, I am proud to present to you Alana the Woebringer, the Queen of Don’t Worry About it.

Alana the Woebringer - Throne of Tides Rare
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Posted in Don't Worry About It, Random Thoughts | 1 Comment

Having Fun Creating Theme Decks

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Peter Sanzone

A theme deck is a deck based around specific cards, card types, card interactions, and/or game mechanics. Some theme decks can be pretty competitive while others are just designed to be fun. I find building theme decks enjoyable because you remove the pressure of trying to win and just try to make the game mechanics work in a unique way. By doing this you can have some surprising results and sometimes gain insight in to how cards interact on a level you didn’t anticipate. However, these decks don’t always work or behave the way to you want them to, which is why winning shouldn’t be your focus. Continue reading →

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Stay Tuned!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Peter Sanzone

Apologies for not being able to post for the past two weeks. Work has been pretty busy but I have some updates I’d like to share. For starters I’d like to welcome Terence Dorman as a contributor to the site. Terence has been playing the World of WarCraft TCG off and on since it launched back in 2006. He’s also an avid player of other TCGs out there, specifically the Spoils. What Terence will add here is a perspective on card games as a whole as he has been a tournament and casual player for fourteen years. He will also give his insights into the game mechanics behind the cards and how new players can learn to wield them. Continue reading →

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Understanding Your Metagame

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Terence

Wherever you go, regardless of what game you are playing, you will always hear players talking about the metagame. You will hear them talking about how they changed their decks to counter the metagame, or how the metagame shifted when the new set came out.

When I was younger I frequently found myself asking, “what is a metagame?,” and I received a plethora of different answers. The reason for this is that the metagame is different for every game, and although some would disagree, different for every player.
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Posted in Deck Construction, Tournament Strategy | 1 Comment